Darkness of Orre

-.-.-

Chapter 6: Reflections

-.-.-

Nascour was ultimately pleased he had been stationed in Phenac, of all places. Cipher, whilst skilful and overall competent in most areas, was a hectic organisation to be part of. Thus, awaiting the infrequent reports of his lesser members as they performed their various duties was much more bearable in the Colosseum, graced with the calming ambiance of trickling water rather than the gravelly dragging of conveyer belts in the laboratory. The water surrounding him was clear, almost so even in the waterfalls which fell every few metres from the roof at the border of the battlefield, through which he could see his vague reflection—a blurry mass of purple clothing and silver hair which splayed out delicately from his scalp in the non-existent wind.

Most all other members of Cipher, those who required their minds be constantly stimulated by the various tasks available to them, would have been bored out of their minds in the situation of constant waiting. Nothing offered itself to occupy his time, but he did not mind that. It made the job of ordering field members and researchers around far easier, after all, having no other tasks available at present. Of course, he could have easily done any job far more competently than most of the members, but Nascour found that rather… tedious. Being the genius that he was, he far preferred to allow his thoughts to stimulate his own brain than have some lowly occupation do it for him.

His thoughts, however deep, were soon disturbed by the projector screen on the far side of the battlefield. Releasing a dramatic sigh, Nascour pulled a remote out of his pocket and turned the screen on, almost reluctantly. Having such a nice thought process spoiled (by Miror B., of all people) was not at all appealing to him, regardless of how important or significant the news was. But the higher-ups of Cipher knew not to disturb Nascour unless entirely necessary, so he supposed he would listen for the time being, offering Miror B. the benefit of the doubt when it came to interest.

"Yes?" he addressed, voice drawling out from the back of his throat. It echoed around the empty room, rolling endlessly off the stone walls around him. Such a serene environment—he hoped he would not be forced out of it to assist in Pyrite. Miror B. did not speak immediately. Instead, he shot Nascour a grin from the other side of the screen, gesturing to the two girls standing beside him.

"Master Nascour," Miror B. said, the smile not leaving his face, "these two just brought me a lovely update on their tasks at the Colosseum."

Nascour waved a dismissive hand in the air, encouraging his cohort to get to the point sooner. He did not have time for lengthy exchanges of conversation. "Good," he said. "I trust things are going according to plan, then?"

Miror B. nodded, afro wobbling dangerously on his head as he did so, appearing as if it was going to fall off at any moment. How the man managed to tame the thing on a daily basis, no one could quite pinpoint. "Oh, yes indeed, Master Nascour. Our plan is coming along in a peachy-keen way!"

Nascour remained silent for a few moments. "And Duking…?"

"We have already broken his spirit," Miror B. announced triumphantly. "We can do as we please at the Colosseum without his meddling." He flicked a stray ringlet of hair out of his face, grin widening. "We've been giving Shadow Pokémon on the sly to challenge winners for gathering data."

"Good." From his pocket, Nascour retrieved a small touch-screen device. As he spoke, he began tapping the screen delicately with his long, bony fingers, talon-like nails audibly scraping against the glass. "Presumably, you have been sending me this data…? Ah, never mind, I see Ferma is doing her job, since I have it right here."

Sheepishly, the purple-haired girl to the left of Miror B. smiled, almost nervously. Such anxiety was forgiven by Nascour; ultimately, the vibe he fought to keep was intimidating, even to his own colleagues. Even when offering up compliments or words of approval, his presence was menacing at best.

"On that note, the others appear to be doing their parts to implement our plan." He crossed his arms, turning away from the screen through which Miror B. and the others stared, and gazed at his reflection in the waterfall. In his momentary mental absence, his mouth straightened, eyeing the image blankly. The reddish-purple of his clothing flickered in the running water, quivering back and forth as the water fell. It almost resembled the auras of the Shadow Pokémon; his pride and joy.

Turning back to face his conversation partner, the grin from earlier crept back onto his face. "Our Shadow Pokémon plan is falling into place quicker than I expected, so I am glad to say that the final phase is not far off. Perhaps even a few weeks away."

Miror B.'s eyes sparkled, eyebrows raising quickly. Excitement coursing through his veins, he laughed. "This is perking up my spirit and body! Oh, I feel like dancing."

Nascour scoffed. "Save the dancing for another time."

Surprised by the sudden outburst, Miror B.'s body lurched, the jump nearly forcing him off the ground. "Y-yes, of course."

"There is work to be done still," Nascour continued. "When our plan succeeds, then you can dance. I'm off."

"Then I will make my way back to the cave where my darling Pokémon await my return." Miror B. gestured beside him, and the two girls nodded. "You two, stay here and make sure no one gets through. I would hate to have to deal with any intruders myself."

With that, the screen fizzled out, and Nascour was alone once more, smiling at himself through the waterfall.

-.-.-

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Where do you think I'm going?"

"If you're thinking of going to that hotel then I'm going to have to stop you because the Colosseum is this way."

"Wes, it's eight o'clock."

"Exactly! It's not even that- Ouch! What the hell was that for?"

Wes turned sharply as Rui, in her haste to grab his sleeve to prevent him from going any further, gripped the skin of his arm between two fingers and squeezed. Such an action could not be claimed to be entirely involuntary or accidental, and Wes' eye twitched as a small smile of satisfaction crept up onto her face.

Huffing, Rui let go of his sleeve after dragging him back abruptly. In the sudden change of direction, Wes scarcely avoided falling face-first into the dirt, and managed to steady himself on two feet. He had imagined his glare would be stronger than hers, since he was clearly the more infuriated of the two. However, when he turned to face her, her brows were dangerously downturned, eyes appearing sharp as she glared daggers at him.

"We're going to get dinner," she said, almost dangerously sweetly, "then we're going to get some sleep so we can be successful in the Colosseum Challenge tomorrow." Frowning, she dusted off her skirt, which had accumulated quite a layer of grime and dust that had been kicked up in their haste, ultimately happy with the defeated look on Wes' face.

Dropping his shoulders, Wes gritted his teeth. "Fine."

Now grinning, Rui giggled. "Oh, come on, you're acting like a little boy." She shrugged, turning and starting back to the run-down hotel on the outskirts of town. "Besides," she said, not caring to look behind her to check that Wes was following (she could already hear the reluctance in his footsteps), "the last Colosseum challenge ended two hours ago, silly."

Ultimately defeated, Wes trudged behind her, barely daring to walk within a meter of her. Somehow, when he had adopted her presence back in Phenac City, he had not expected her to be so… bossy. Her personality seemed much more watered down the previous day, but since then bravery had crept into her system and she seemed far more determined (and, admittedly, rational) than he would have expected. This was both good and bad—at least she wasn't slowing him down, but then again, he wasn't sure how much he could deal with having such an outgoing companion.

Although, he thought, it helped that she was, apparently, outwardly adventurous. The attitude had been concealed up until her initial idea to begin stealing Shadow Pokémon, although he supposed being kidnapped and hunted down by an advanced scientific and ultimately criminal organisation had that effect on people.

Still, she didn't really belong here. He would have to dump her soon; regardless of whether or not he enjoyed her company (reluctantly, he could not say he wasn't beginning to do so), Rui was not built for Orre. Clearly, she came from another region, one which was far calmer and less physically threatening. Without a Pokémon of her own, she would easily get hurt again. So, even if she wasn't a hindrance now, she would surely eventually be.

One indication was that she fell asleep quickly that night, an ability that was rare in Orre. Paranoia typically ravaged the minds of people at night, whether inside a locked room or not. Rui was apparently under the illusion that she was safe. Wes was not. He sat up for a long time that night, despite knowing they were ultimately secure. If it were his choice, he would be long gone by now, ideally in another region. Borders were less than secure in Orre, so it would be easy to leave without a trace and conceal his eventual whereabouts. Kanto seemed nice, he mused, or Almia, although he shuddered as he thought of the extensive security binding those regions to their own area. He bit his lip; he wasn't in another region. He was here, involuntarily fighting against an evil organisation. Annoyingly enough, he was beginning to enjoy it.

He sighed, sitting up and looking out the window, knees tucked into his chest. Smiling down at Nova, who was wide awake beside a softly dozing Sina, he stroked him on the ear and shook his head.

"What am I doing, Nova?"

Nova sighed through his nose and pushed his head into his palm, and Wes laughed, a light-heartedness he only expressed when interacting with his Pokémon. As he did so, Rui stirred in her bed on the far end of the room. Perhaps he had been too loud. Frowning, he tucked himself under the covers, pulling them just barely over his shoulders. If they were both going to get through tomorrow, she needed more sleep than him, so it was probably best not to risk waking her.

-.-.-

They woke the next morning at dawn, Rui rising far more reluctantly than Wes, who was forced to shake her until she groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes and scanning her surroundings in a state of confusion before she processed her location. Following last night, Wes was heavily impatient, and would not accept anything other than the earliest possible Colosseum challenge, commencing at eight o'clock sharp.

"Come on," he said bluntly, a nagging tone underlying his otherwise bored voice, "let's get out of here."

Rui rolled her eyes as she stood in front of the mirror, fixing her pigtails to ensure her hair would not irritate her. "Give me one second, would you?" she said playfully, sticking her tongue out at him over her shoulder. "The more you nag, the longer it's going to take me." Once her hair was fastened in place, she smiled triumphantly, turning on her heel to face Wes, who was impatiently tapping his foot at the room's threshold, a hardened look on his face. Scowling, although slightly amused, she rolled her eyes as the two set out the door, Wes ensuring he remained a few strides ahead of her to showcase his impatience.

The Colosseum was packed with trainers who appeared to come from all around the region, indicated by various different attires and attitudes toward the current environment. Regardless of the reputation of Pyrite Town, the Colosseum itself was highly esteemed nation-wide by trainers of a variety of skill levels, although the typical challengers were lower-tier trainers who, at best, could hope for a fluke victory, as more skilful competitors tended to target victory at Phenac. Here, the victory of unskilled trainers not entirely impossible, as the challenge was only made up of four knockout rounds, through which sixteen trainers would be broken down to a final two. If one got lucky and was pit against weaker trainers on the way, it was entirely possible that a challenger of any skill level could reach the final round.

Forbidden from entering the challengers' area and therefore unable to efficiently communicate verbally with Wes, Rui had coordinated a subtle signal to be used between the pair whenever a Shadow Pokémon was released into the arena, if at all. If one were to appear, Wes wasn't sure how he would retrieve it without being noticed by the thousands of individual audience members, although he supposed he would figure that out when he got to it. If there was one thing he had learnt in all his years at Team Snagem, it was that there was never a 'correct' way to steal a Pokémon.

However, the prospect emerged as more simplistic than he had initially anticipated. Throughout the battles, not a single Shadow Pokémon appeared. Unless, of course, Rui was completely blind-sighted from her position and was rendered unable to fully identify auras surrounding Shadow Pokémon, but even when he did make eye contact with her she simply shrugged and shook her head. It was beginning to frustrate him; considering he was going out of his way to challenge the place, he had expected to at least find something of interest before the hopefully inevitable confrontation with Cipher following the challenge.

The odds were in favour of Wes for all three battle rounds leading up to the final, and he almost felt sorry for the pummelling his opponents had to endure up until how. As it stood, as Wes approached a burly-looking man in a grimy orange muscle shirt as the announcer commented that this was the grand final over the loudspeaker, he had failed to detect anything that would even suggest slight affiliation with Cipher. This man was no different, clearly an ordinary Pyrite resident whose mouth was bigger than his ability.

The initial view of his choice of Pokémon clearly reflected his strength—slightly better than the rest of the battlers due to his interesting and uncommon choices, but ultimately weak. Over the past hour or so, it had become apparent to Wes how Cail had remained the dominant figure of the city for so long, since he appeared to be the only person with even an ounce of strategy to his battling style.

Bayleef, having proved her reliability in earlier areas, had played an active role in the previous battles. However, the continual use of Shadow Rush, which Wes had since discovered caused eventually lethal inflictions of recoil damage every time it was used, promoted her hastened exhaustion. Now, Wes faced off against a Bagon and a Magnemite with Nova and Sina in their respective positions. Nova crouched with his front legs bent and his chin to the ground, awaiting Wes' command far more anxiously than Sina, who was statue-like as she sat beside her partner.

The Bagon was an easy task, Wes thought, in the few seconds before the loudspeaker announced the beginning of the battle. Magnemite… not so much. As far as he knew, he did not possess a single move in his current pair that could do considerable damage to a steel-type. If the Magnemite was weak, he could easily take it out with a few Confusions despite its hindered effectiveness, but…

"Begin."

The booming of the commentator's voice knocked the thoughts out of him, and he quickly turned his eyes up towards the battle. The first command had gone unheard of from his perspective, but he could see that Bagon was clearly charging Sina with a wildly-commenced Rage attack, eyes glowing a dangerous red. His momentary disorientation was not fatal, and he quickly waved a hand in the air, calling for Sina to dodge. The psychic-type did so, gracefully leaping out of the way as the Bagon skidded to a halt, baffled for a fraction of a second at the sudden lack of target until his rage subsided.

"Nova, Secret Power on Bagon!" Wes called the command almost as soon as Sina's paws lifted off the ground, quickly enough for Nova to identify an adequate environmental weapon to use against Bagon before the dragon-type regained its composure. Wes staggered, only lightly, as the air shifted around him, the atmosphere of the battlefield dragging into a horizontal tornado forming in-between Nova's lit-up eyes. Its force worked like a vacuum, ignoring the surrounding Pokémon as Bagon was pulled into the eye of the attack.

The tornado, thickness making it appear as a solid entity, separated Magnemite from Sina, providing Wes with a few vital seconds for him to think up a plan. Confusion probably would have been the best bet, although it would be risky—psychic moves often had a difficult time gripping to solid steel and, even when it did, its force struggled to compress the surfaces of these Pokémon enough to cause acceptable damage.

"Thunder Shock, Magnemite!" The burly man at the other end of the field nearly threw himself off balance as he called the command, a poisonous smirk creeping onto his face.

Wes' eyes widened and he recoiled, an action that was uncharacteristic of him. Shit.

The magnets hanging from Magnemite's body twitched, forming needles of electricity which stabbed the blue and red tips. Progressively, the pinpoints grew thicker and longer, the electric-type shuddering as it generated the attack. After a few short seconds, it threw the magnets forward so they connected at the front of its spherical body, sending a series of scattered thunderbolts straight towards the air which Nova was still controlling.

"Nova, look out!"

As soon as the first electric needle made contact with the tornado, the swirling air turned yellow, lighting up the battlefield with golden light and causing a series of gasps to progress around the audience. The smirk on Wes' opponent's face widened into a toothy grin, showcasing a line of yellowing teeth which were made even more so by the aura now projecting around the room.

The jolts progressed towards Nova through the air, connecting with his nose and forcing a shrieking yelp to fall out of the Umbreon's mouth, sending him tumbling backwards. As he skidded towards the near wall, rolling right past Wes, a thousand tiny thunderbolts nagged at the surface of his skin, throwing themselves at his tiny strands of fur. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself into a standing position. As soon as he did so, the dark-type's knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground once more, shaking violently.

Paralysis, Wes noted, unable to speak through his tightly gritted teeth. Instinctively, he glanced up at Rui, who appeared completely sick with worry. Freckled wounds now littered Nova's body, tiny patches of fur singed off as a result of the burning attack.

Bagon, too, had been injured in the attack, due to its location in the eye of the tornado as the move hit. However, Wes suspected that the damage it now visibly sustained had been more Nova's doing, due to the shape of the slash marks which now curled across its skin and the fact that dragon-types had a convenient resistance to electric-type moves.

Angrily, Wes forcibly tore his attention away from Nova, knowing that he had to act upon the two opposition Pokémon before he was even offered the valuable opportunity to withdraw him. Sina was clearly concerned, but her face hardened as soon as she made eye-contact with her trainer. Wes smiled—Sina's attacks, for the pure sake of revenge, would be far more powerful now.

"Confusion!"

She knew what the command was going to be before it was called. Stealthily bounding out of the way of another carelessly-executed Rage attack, she somersaulted in mid-air and plastered her attention onto Magnemite and Bagon, who were conveniently standing within a close-enough range to be simultaneous targets. Squinting, she focused her mind and gripped at her opponents with her telekinetic powers, crying out as she pulled them towards each other and slammed them together, causing both of them to release a cry of shock and collapse towards the ground.

Magnemite sprung up more easily than Bagon, who appeared to be struggling, limbs now violently shaking from the impact. Magnemite, swiftly, threw itself back into the air almost as soon as it had impacted the ground. Resultantly, a small indent had formed in the earth beneath it, likely the only evidence of the attack having landed.

This was useless, he thought—Confusion wasn't going to do a damn thing. Even now, after Sina had probably thrown the strongest move she could muster at it, Magnemite did not even seem phased by the tiny amount of damage it had taken. Wes pondered for a moment. He did not possess anything in his party that could do considerable damage to a Magnemite. He would need something with brute force, enough to crack a line through the tough steel body.

Except…

He shook his head. Using Makuhita would be risky at best, since he had never fought with him and did not yet understand the temperament of the Pokémon. Wes was still not sure how reliable the assumptions regarding the unquestioning obedience of Shadow Pokémon were, and the thought of Makuhita disobeying triggered uneasiness within him. But then he flicked his eyes to Nova, seeing the helplessness of his partner, and his fists clenched.

"Fuck it," he spat, pulling out Nova's pokéball and ignoring the irritated look the Umbreon shot him as he retrieved it. Nova was a fighting spirit—being recalled due to the inability to battle was not something he would often willingly accept.

He glanced up at Rui once more, noticing the disapproving look on her face despite the blurriness of her features due to distance. She knew what he was going to do. She also knew that, if she was correct, he was being, quite frankly, incredibly stupid. Still, Wes was not careless despite his determination, and if this was what he deemed appropriate, then she sure as hell would have to accept it as appropriate.

A shudder tiptoed down Wes' spine as he sent out the emotionless figure, mustard-coloured body completely stiff as he stared coldly ahead of him, perfectly stationary. Sina appeared immediately uneasy, as did the remainder of the Pokémon on the field as well as the entire audience. Wes shook his head—he could have used Bayleef, but in her current state she would not have been forceful enough to take down a steel-type even with the neutrally-typed Shadow Rush. No, he was sure Makuhita was the best bet, despite the clear aggression the fighting-type withheld. At least, in its lack of emotion, he hung onto his type-induced fighting spirit.

"Makuhita, Shadow Rush." He said the words coldly, trying to hide his insecurity. Just like it had when it tried to attack Rui back in the mayor's office, the Shadow Pokémon struck.

The battle was over in seconds, and the sickening crack that echoed around the cold, silent room when Makuhita contacted the Magnemite would not soon leave Wes' mind in peace.

The arena remained silent as the man withdrew his Pokémon, pocketing the pair of pokéballs before his widened eyes met Wes' own. The former criminal's hands shook, his mouth agape, as he stared ahead at Makuhita—his Makuhita—and suddenly became aware of the damage capabilities it held within it.

But the fighting did not stop there.

A single sound broke through the room—Rui's gasp—as Makuhita once again kicked off the ground and began to charge toward Wes' opponent, who let out a yell of surprise but was ultimately unable to move. Wes hesitated in hearing the footsteps of his Pokémon run through the room. He had to act fast.

"Sina, Confusion!" he barked. His throat felt like it was laced with gravel.

Swiftly, Sina hissed and dragged the Shadow Pokémon into the air, fastening its outstretched arm, pointed directly towards the trainer, to its side, disallowing any sort of struggle. Quickly, Wes ripped Makuhita's pokéball from his pocket, rapidly retrieving the Shadow Pokémon and tucking the now occupied pokéball away, wishing he could conceal it so deeply it would be forgotten about entirely.

The arena remained still, not a single murmur coming from any source. Wes swallowed hard, compressing his usual confidence. He was really failing at keeping out of the spotlight. What was worse, he didn't even need to steal a Pokémon from any other trainer to draw attention.

To his surprise, the previous events were soon brushed off by the commentator, who appeared to be trying, and failing to hide the shakiness in his voice.

"And we have a winner!" the voice announced triumphantly, and Wes released the breath he didn't know he had been holding, allowing his shoulders to drop. In front of him, Sina shot him a concerned look. He smiled back. It was clearly forced.

-.-.-

Wes could not escape the harsh whispers and finger-pointing upon entering the lobby. The words of spectators and challengers alike nibbled at his skin, sending shivers down his spine. It was the kind of situation he hated; thousands of tiny voices merging into a single, continual sound, only the occasional distinguishable word breaking through the otherwise hazy noise. He hated being talked about, although rumours of him specifically did not usually spread through the ears of society. He looked around, making eye contact with a stern-looking woman for a split second, before she forcibly broke the contact and tore her vision towards the ground. He sighed; when he was talked about, it was usually in relation to Team Snagem in general. Now, the talk of Pyrite Town, albeit momentarily, was of Wes and his inability to control his aggressive team of untrained Pokémon.

He found this quite ironic; after all, he must have been at least decent in taming his team in order to reach such a point in the battle challenge.

Ending his thoughts, Rui nudged him with her elbow and he turned to her, raising a brow. Silently, before he could ask what was up, she pointed towards the front desk, where two girls in strange jumpsuits were conversing with the receptionist. After a few moments, during which the receptionist pointed towards Wes and Rui, the two approached the pair with a confident stride.

"Hey, you," said one of the girls, looking him up and down before nodding approvingly, "you just won, right?" Wes nodded, denying the encouraged alteration of his facial features as he realised that the jumpsuits were those of the Cipher uniform, minus the helmet and scarf.

"Yeah," he said, forcing surprise into his voice.

"Good." The girl smiled, one that had an undertone of malice. "Come with me. We've got your prize."

Rui glanced at Wes, seeking reassurance, but Wes only shrugged and began following after the girl, feigning confusion. Rui did not have to fake it—she was clearly baffled despite possessing knowledge of what Cipher planned. Either that, or she was highly insecure. Either way, her following was reluctant, and she stuck close by Wes as they were led out of the Colosseum and into a shady-looking building back across the canyon.

Their entrance was clearly welcome, to Wes' astonishment—he was, by this point, pleasantly surprised that no one had caught onto his identity yet, since both he and Rui had been centralised targets only the previous day. He found himself wincing involuntarily every time someone laid their eyes on him, although this was a rarity, with only a few of the members bothering to address the pair.

"So," the first girl started, leaning casually against the front counter as her companion ducked behind it, "you may have heard, but we've been giving winners better prizes than just money lately." She grinned as the other Cipher member revealed herself from behind the counter, holding a well-cleaned pokéball between her fingers. "Probably explains the sudden surge in popularity for the competition."

The girl holding the pokéball held it out to Wes, who took it, concealing his triumphant expressions beneath a cool smile. "Because of that, this makes your victory even more of an achievement, don't you think?" She pulled a clipboard from behind her, holding it out to him. "Now, we'll just need to take your name, since we can't just hand out these things to anyone. I think you'll find that these Pokémon are quite… special."

As Wes began to record his name, wondering amusedly if it would really take him revealing himself for them to catch onto his identity, with Rui tugging at his sleeve in protest, the girls clicked their tongues simultaneously. Nodding, Wes handed the form back, and the girl scanned over the information. Slowly, her eyes rose to meet his smug ones.

"Y-you're…" Wes waved a hand to encourage her to continue. "N-no way, you've gotta give that back right now!" She suddenly sounded terrified. Glancing down at the sheet, the first girl's eyes widened and her teeth gritted together. In response, she ripped a pokéball off her belt and tossed it into the air. Wes did the same, quickly pocketing his new team member and sending out Sina, who was suddenly forced against the hastily-executed Sonic Boom from a Yanma.

Not needing a command, Sina rolled out of the way, ducking under the disturbed air and bounding off the wall, tackling Yanma with a full-body Return.

Just as Wes was beginning to get into the mindset of battling, Rui's hesitant call broke him out of his spell. "Wes, Shadow Pokémon!"

Her voice was a terrified shriek, and he instantly redirected his attention to catching the bug-type. It shouldn't have been too difficult, he thought—Yanma were not inherently difficult to catch.

He was correct in his assumption. After a few Confusions from Sina, along with another sturdy Return, Yanma was safely in his possession, and the Cipher peons were now staring at him, mouths agape, in awe over the sudden confiscation of two Shadow Pokémon.

"You really want to mess with me," Wes said casually, pocketing Yanma's pokéball. Smirking, Sina leapt back to his side, welcoming the scratch behind the ear courtesy of Wes.

"It's useless," the first girl said, clenching her fists. "He can't be beat."

The two glanced at each other, then around the room at the half-dozen or so members also occupying the room. Wordlessly, the individual members anxiously identified their nearest exit and promptly left.

Wes laughed. "What losers. I'm pretty sure if every single one of them took me on at the same time, I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Shush!" Rui hissed. "They might come back!" Clearly, she was paranoid.

"Nah, they won't." He shook his head. "They're not that ambitious. Now, let's have a look around here…"

Ignoring Rui's flustered protests, he swiftly leapt over the desk and crouched down on the other side. He now found himself standing before a collection of filing cabinets. Although most of the space was empty, a clump of plastic folders was pushed together in the corner, with one file in particular sticking out from the rest due to its noticeable thickness. Shrugging, Wes pulled it out and set it on the table, Rui peering over it curiously.

"It's something about Shadow Pokémon," he said, although noting that was probably pointless as such a topic was to be assumed. His eyes trailed to a tiny scrawl of handwriting up the top, labelling the file "Ein File H."

Rui looked puzzled. "What does it say?"

"I don't know," Wes said, rolling his eyes. "I haven't read that far. Give me a moment." Flicking through the pages, his eyes darted over the more prominent words to get a vague idea of the information. "Okay," he said, "I think this paragraph sums it up."

Ein File H

Hyper Mode

Shadow Pokémon, perhaps because of their own overwhelming power, may behave abnormally at times. They may engage in such behaviour such as ignoring orders, or even turning on their own trainers in battle. This, I have named Hyper Mode. On the plus side, Hyper Mode raises the fatality of Shadow Rush. However, Hyper Mode also causes the Pokémon to refuse items offered by its trainer. Hyper Mode is easily dispelled; simply call the Pokémon by name. However, this method has a major drawback. Calling the Shadow Pokémon's name causes the closed door of its heart to loosen and even open. Further research is urgently needed.

-Shadow Pokémon Lab, Chief Ein.

"Hang on, there's something else on the other page," Wes said. He turned the page to reveal two diagrams, which, without needing a caption, appeared to depict a side-by-side comparison of the auras of Pokémon in Hyper Mode and those not in a regular state.

Rui's eyes lit up. "That's it!" she exclaimed.

Wes eyed her for a moment, her shocked silence beckoning an answer. "What's it?" he pressed.

"That aura… It's a dark red." She jabbed a finger at the Pokémon on the right side, tracing around the aura surrounding it. "That's the same as the Misdreavus we saw earlier. I knew I wasn't just seeing things."

"That's why…" Wes trailed off for a moment, pondering. "It was acting so lively and weird. It was just disobeying its trainer because…"

"It's in Hyper Mode." Wes could not resist the urge to laugh at her triumphant grin. "I suppose that takes away the unquestioning following of commands thing, then. It's like they take a complete turn and just focus on themselves."

"Like they're fighting against it…" Wes frowned. Then, his mouth slowly formed into a grin. "I think Cipher are really underestimating these things."

"Well," Rui said, "they've still got hearts. They're just shut."

A nervous jolt pummelled through the pair's bodies as footsteps tapped in from the entrance. Ready to fight, Wes turned on his heels alongside Sina, who released a rumbling growl from the back of her throat, hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Rui, startled, ducked behind Wes, gripping onto his sleeve as if his arm would offer even the slightest bit of protection.

The group relaxed when they saw the true identity of the suspected attacker—not a Cipher member, but…

"Duking?" Wes was truly baffled, although apparently not as much as the massive man himself, who shot him a quizzical look.

"How do you know… Wait." Duking paused for a moment, scanning his eyes up and down Wes and Rui to fully take in the boy in his presence. "Hey, Arnold told me about you. You're Wes, right? Oh, and Rui, too." Now beaming, he held out a hand for Wes to shake. "I have a lot to thank you guys for, bringing that gear back and all."

Staring at it suspiciously, Wes refused the hand, earning a soft scowl from Rui and causing Duking to awkwardly withdraw, acting as if such a gesture had never been offered. "It's fine," Wes said, his face blank. "It's the least we could have done." He could feel Rui's eyeroll—they both knew that, if it were up to him, the gear would have likely never been retrieved. At least now, after partaking in the Colosseum challenge only available due to their reluctant heroics, he could admit she was right about something.

"Well, I'm glad you're both safe." Duking sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We heard from Arnold that you entered this building. It had us all worried."

"Well, there was really no need to-"

"Duking!" Rui threw a hand out, almost knocking Wes off his feet as she cut off his words. Her enthusiasm forced a curse out of his mouth. "This place is run by Cipher. This is where they were giving Shadow Pokémon to the winners of the Colosseum challenge."

"Shadow Pokémon? Those ferocious-looking Pokémon that attack people?"

Rui attempted, and ultimately failed, to conceal her grimace. If only someone had noticed that a few days ago, then she wouldn't have been thrown into this mess. "Those are the ones." She laughed awkwardly, earning a snicker from Wes. Presumably, he could practically read her thoughts by now.

Duking's fists clenched. "You mean they were using the Colosseum to do that?"

The tension spread around the room became no less apparent when more footsteps, albeit light—clearly those of a child—were heard once again. The owner of the footsteps—a rather tiny girl with short red hair, appearing strikingly innocent with a baby-blue bow clasped to the back of her head—skidded to a halt once she was standing beside a wide-eyed Duking, panting desperately.

"Marcia?" Duking exclaimed.

Marcia ignored him, turning instead to Rui. "Big lady! My papa… Papa's Plusle was taken away by Miror B. as a prisoner."

Rui gasped. Wes was less shocked. It wasn't like having Pokémon ripped from one's possession was a new thing, after all. Admittedly, he'd thought his companion would have been immune to reacting to such news now.

"Miror B. used a dirty move like that?" Rui murmured, a surprising amount of detestation leaching through her gritted teeth.

Marcia nodded. "It's Papa's Plusle. I'm so worried they might be mean to it." She looked down, eyes following her fidgeting hands as her fingers wound in-between each other in her lap.

Duking tensed. "It's humiliating," he said, defeated. "But with Plusle in their filthy hands, my own hands are tied."

After hearing however many statements that could make him tick, Wes finally felt a hint of resentment crawl into his gut as he realised Miror B.'s ploy. In all the years he had played the game of a criminal, he had never once resorted to blackmail. Even he knew that was a dirty move. For once, he had the unexplainable desire to act upon the situation.

He would have fallen into the trap of his overthinking mind had Rui not spoken. "He's not getting away with this." Her words were spat out bitterly. Wes was almost impressed at her attitude. It was refreshing, considering only a few moments ago she was clinging to his arm to hide from a person who didn't even turn out to be a threat.

To his surprise, after ingraining her eyesight on her clenched fists for a few moments, her body loosened, and she dropped her shoulders and smiled. It was a confident smile, one that encouraged Wes to adopt a similar expression, although perhaps toned down a little, or so he hoped.

"We're here now," she said. "We're going to get Plusle back for you. Right, Wes?" Her mouth fell open when she saw his expression. Not once, in the few days she had known him, had she been blessed with a genuine smile from the boy. Seeing such a sight almost made her uncomfortable, and it certainly made her skin crawl.

"Yes," he said, borderline blankly. Duking beamed, as did Rui; regardless of the sincerity of his perceived emotion, Rui had to admit she was surprised he'd agreed to the matter so quickly.

-.-.-

…To be honest the most difficult thing about writing this was the fact that it's like 30 degrees (Celsius) here so I have to have all my windows open otherwise I will low key die.

BUT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW THERE'S A GUY WHO'S BEEN CONTINUALLY USING A LEAF BLOWER FOR THE PAST HOUR AND HE'S ONLY TURNED IT OFF LIKE TWICE IT'S SO DISTRACTING.

*Sigh*

Anyway, happy new year! (Even though I'm half a week late). I hope 2017 turns out to be everything you all wanted. I sure hope it's alright to me, considering how tough the last year has been. I, for one, am praying for motivation to actually do what I enjoy on top of attending my first year of uni. Here's hoping!

In regards to the type matchups in this story, I'm going by the generation three matchups, where dark is still resisted by steel. That's why Wes didn't really have an answer to the Magnemite.

Normally I have a lot to say, but I don't think I've ever uploaded two chapters of this so close to each other, so I'm just going to shut up here. So, thanks for reading, favouriting, following and/or reviewing—I'm still ecstatic over the attention this is getting, to be honest. So, until next time, leave a review if you have time/can be bothered, and stay tuned for the next chapter!

-Natasha