Pokémon Bloodstone | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 79: Cipher Admin Theta's First Victim

Skrub parked in the middle of the desert. He hauled Chalcedony out of the car. Her bound hands brushed a grate. She caught a glimpse of the distant resort before a sack was pulled over her head and down to her feet. Skrub yanked the grate open and kicked her in. She landed with a splash. Water filled her nostrils with the fetid smell of stagnant faeces and vomit.

Bizarrely, she wasn't panicking. All she felt was disgust and a distant feeling of resignation. She waited for her bag to join her. It did not. Then she panicked. Skrub's uniform – and Ruby Jane's helmet – were clearly Cipher kits. What would they do with her Pokémon? The friends who stuck by her no matter what? Would they be turned into Shadow Pokémon? She wriggled, but she had to stay calm, or she would sink to the bottom of the foul water. Where was this? A sewer? She didn't recognise the resort. All she knew was that she was somewhere in the desert.

Voices echoed. They came from a crackling radio. Feet splashed in. Hands seized the mouth of the sack. A man grumbled that he wasn't used to pulling bodies from a sewer. He fumbled to grasp her limbs for balance. Another man cackled. An unfamiliar Pokémon cry resounded. It was the Pokémon who slung her, upside-down, over its back. Feet tapped metal. They were climbing a ladder.

'Least she's quiet.'

'Dude, shut up. I'm trying to breathe through my mouth.'

'This is the shittiest arrivals hall ever. Literally! Ahaha! I can't wait 'til we can expand that elevator shaft.'

His colleague didn't reply. A key card swished. Locks clicked. Curtains were brushed aside. The blast of air conditioning made sodden Chalcedony shiver. She tried to take in her surroundings, in case there was any chance she could escape and rescue her Pokémon. An elevator pinged. Then they seemed to be on a platform that lurched forward. She was dumped from the sack onto the floor of a dark cell. The rope binding her legs was removed. The gag and rope around her wrists were not.

The door slammed and locked. Voices faded. The only lingering sound was the whirring of the distant air conditioning unit. The stench of the water that clung to her overpowered the fading smell of a new building. There were no windows. The only furniture was a silver toilet with no seat. Chalcedony suspected, from the utter silence, that she was the only prisoner.

Ruminating over Ruby Jane was no use. It didn't matter why she was crying or if she ever truly cared about Chalcedony. That wouldn't help her Pokémon. Freeing her arms wouldn't be any use in a locked and windowless room, either, but she rubbed the rope against the hard soles of her boots regardless. Nothing happened. The rope was too thick.

***

The man who breathed through his nose wasn't the only Cipher Peon complaining about sewage. Battalions stationed in Phenac City had been down there for almost 24 hours. They tried to pass the time with the internet and P★DA games, but their batteries and power banks were beginning to die. At first they dreaded a sewage worker showing up. Now, they almost wished one would, so they could entertain themselves by capturing and torturing them. The wild Pokémon were already gone. They were on the Shadow Pokémon production line in the new underground lab.

A distant relative of Nascour, Nore, was tasked with speeding up his demise. He was allowed into the hospital as a relative. Nascour's breathing was shallow. He already looked like a corpse. Nore left him there. He was about to die anyway. As soon as his back was turned, one of Nascour's eyes opened. He weakly sat up. The nurses knew he was awake. They hadn't, however, told Nore that, because they assumed that was why he showed up. Nascour knew Nore wasn't visiting out of kindness. He didn't need to know his far-removed cousin was making a full recovery. Now Cipher had forgotten him, he pulled his emergency cord. A weary nurse approached.