Take me home

“You useless piece of shit!”

A loud smack echoed around the small dark room as a fragile bundle of white was knocked to the ground in a crumpled heap, bleeding from its mouth after receiving an agonising strike to the jaw. Terrified, the small creature brought its delicate hand to its face and scurried backwards towards the closest corner, trying to escape the thrashing being delivered to it by the large dark man.

“I’m not going to tell you again!” the man said, taking several steps towards her, causing her to cower even further into the corner. With her back up against the wall and nowhere to go, she pulled her legs to her chest and began to sob quietly. She was certainly no stranger to the pain that was dealt out to her on an almost daily basis, but her weak frame was simply not designed to take damage such as this.

The young girl cringed as the dark man reached his hand out, but was quickly forced to her feet as he yanked her roughly to a standing position by her shoulder length green hair.
“Listen to me you little bitch” the man spat in her face. “The boss wants you to establish a bond with him, and that’s exactly what you’re going to do!”

“Kir – Kirrrr...” It stammered between heaving breaths

“Oh no, none of this poketongue bullshit” The dark man lifted her higher this time, so that she was suspended in the air by only the vice like grip He had on her hair, her scalp burning. “We didn’t spend two months teaching you how to speak our language only for you not to use it!”

“Plea- pleeease...” squeaked the small girl “It’s hurt, stop ple... ase... s-stop“

“Oh, so you feel like talking now, eh?” snorted the dark man, throwing her against the wall on the other side of the room. She hit it with a small thud, and landed on her stomach with the wind knocked out of her.

She hated this place and all the cruel things they did to her. She missed her parents and her brothers, probably back in the den, warm, cosy, and safe. She closed her eyes tightly as she struggled to breathe, only managing to suck in small mouthfuls at a time after the jarring her tiny diaphragm had taken from the strike with the wall.

“I will give you a choice” The dark man said, leaning over her, his shadow covering her entire, trembling form. “Either you do as I tell you, or I invite Brek in to have a bit of fun” The last few words causing a twisted grin to spread over his lips.

Despite her pain, this caused her eyes to shoot wide open in fear. Brek was a Houndoom owned by the dark man, and he loved to threaten her with it. Her breath finally returning to her, she curled into a ball on her side, the cold concrete floor making her shiver Involuntarily.

“B-bond... not... work... n-not.. not able” she spoke, stammering more from the fear of the Dark type being invited in to do terrible things to her. She remembered one of her first days after being captured by Team Galactic, watching as Brek was sent to ‘motivate’ one of the less cooperative ralt’s. She could still hear its gurgled screams as she drifted off to sleep every night, see each psychic attack bouncing off the Dark Pokémon with effortless ease, as it was slowly chased backwards. It turned out Breks favourite things to play with were the faces and throats of small psychic types.

“Don’t lie to me” He said, grabbing her by the hair a second time and forcing her to her feet. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut short by the red Corded phone on the wall. Grudgingly, he picked up the receiver.

“Hello...? Yes, sir. No sir....No reaction and her English is actually decreasing at a rapid rate. At this point, she will be lucky enough to speak without using her bond by the end of the month”

“God damnit Trent!” Came the angry voice on the other line “I pay you to get results, and I expect fucking results, mate”

“Well she obviously isn’t taking to the procedure, so before we waste any further time, I suggest we trade her for an abra with one of the locals. It would save the manpower and time to simply go and hunt for one” He glared at the Kirlia whose legs had betrayed it, and was struggling to get back up off the floor. “This one obviously is unable to cooperate.”

“Hmm...” came the voice at the other end of the line”...very well, But do it quickly. I want that THING out of my building, you got that Trent?”

“Of course sir” The dark man said, but was stopped short before he could replace the receiver on the wall.

“Oh and Trent... Feel free to have a little fun with your friend there. You sound as though you could use some release”
The dark man smiled at the young creature slowly lifting itself to its knees. “I Suppose I have been a little stressed lately, Thank you sir”

The Dark man placed the receiver back on the wall, and bent down so that he was face to face with the frightened Pokémon. She had heard everything, and even if she hadn’t, she could read what was going through the man’s mind.

He moved a hand to her slender green thigh, her stomach coercing her into wanting to bring up last night’s small, undernourishing meal by the dark mans touch. They were 3 stories underground, and the training room they were currently in had been security locked from the inside. The only people getting in or out were the dark man himself and his superiors.

“That’s right, once we are finished here, I will let you go home” The dark man’s voice stammered slightly. She felt his hand slowly start to travel the length of her thin, green legs, getting closer to its intended target. The young Pokémon simply held its hands on front of its face, tears beginning to form in the corner of her deep ruby eyes. She didn’t know what this dark man was about to do to her, but she knew it would be far from pleasant. She had begun to expect nothing but pain when the dark man was around.

Trent, lost in his twisted game, placed the other hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer to him, chuckling as she gave off a whimper. These were his favourites, the ones that don’t even know what they were about to experience. He began to sweat with anticipation, preparing to take exactly what he wanted. He had spent months breaking her down into a submissive mess, and it excited him to see his hard work pay off. In front of him was a small subservient creature, with which he could do whatever he wanted.

Unfortunately for Trent however, the young Kirlia had other ideas. She had heard stories from the other Pokémon that occupied the cages alongside her own chattering away at night. Mostly incessant bickering, but she had heard several times exactly what ‘Going home’ meant once the dark man had found a Pokémon to be of no more use. Maybe it was her primal urge for self preservation, maybe something else entirely, but as Trent was slowly about to brush up against the one thing he wanted more than anything in the world at that moment, He failed to notice the security key card slowly being pulled from the front jacket of his white coat by some unseen force.

“Ah yes” He whispered, his eyes closing in preparation for the prize he wanted so badly “...here ...we ...go”

As if using his own words as a countdown, the Kirlia extended the claws on its right hand, and as quick as a flash, struck the dark man hard in the right eye.

Tret screamed in absolute agony as he felt small sharp claws dig into the soft mass of gelatinous tissue that used to be his right eye. Even with the sliding door locked shut, his screams seemed to bounce around the dimly lit room, and down the entire hallway of the level they were on. People in the other rooms were use to the cries of Pokémon, but never of the scream of one of their own. Everyone scrambled to the source of the sound, several raising the alarm on the way.

With Trent now lying on his back with his hands covering his right eye, the Kirlia stood there listening to the horrible noises the man made, scaring her with every passing second. Her hands were stained with the blood of this dark man, and not a single part of her felt good about what she had done. The man’s screaming had broken her concentration, and the key card had fallen to the floor where it was kicked under a file unit that took up one whole side of the small dimly lit room. All she could do was shuffle backwards, tripping over her own feet watching as the whole scene unfolded around her, tears falling from her eyes, her body falling backwards, paralysing her, locking her to the ground.

The door slid open with a swoosh as 5 people in white coats came rushing in side by side, two of which were holding medical kits. They didn’t know what to expect, but felt that they would be better off bringing them.

Kirlia, finding her feet, quickly attempted to teleport away from the advancing mass of white cloaks, strange scents that smelled of an irony copper and the dying screams of the man who she had just robbed an eye when she was caught by the leg, cancelling her teleport instantly. Without even looking at who grabbed her, she began shrieking as high as possible, swing wild scratches at every white object her eyes could focus on. She was quickly stunned into submission however, as her body was lifted in an arc and slammed back into the floor below. She couldn’t even scream as all the air left her body for a second time, several ribs cracking and splintering under the force of the swing. She had landed on her left arm to try and steady herself with a quick telekinesis, but the speed of the arc proved too much, and it had hit the ground first, and broken in several places. Her nerves screamed at her, letting her know how badly hurt she was, and letting her know that any attempt to get back up would be futile.

“YOU LITTLE SLUT!!!” Screamed Trent, his eye swollen shut, blood running freely down the right side of his face and leaving a crimson train down the chest of his white coat.

The Kirlia barely had enough time to register what was happening, when she felt her head slam into the ground again. She wasn’t even fighting anymore, as Trent, overcome with adrenaline threw himself on top of her. She felt punches connect with almost every part of her young fragile body, pain registering as dull blunt stabs all over, almost instantaneous to one another. The pain was immense, she couldn’t even think straight. All she could concentrate on was the weight on her chest, forcing the life out of her with every punch. She reached out with her mind, calling to a pack that were too far away to even know the pain she was feeling, her screams for help going unanswered, and becoming muffled by the sound of her broken jaw filling with blood from her ruptured organs.

Trent composed himself temporarily, taking a small knife from the inside of his jacket, springing it out to its full length. Standard issue Team Galactic switchblade, mandatory to all members. He heard the screams of the poor dying Pokémon underneath him as he plunged it again and again into its right arm, rendering both limbs useless.

“let’s see how you feel...” he said, is breathing laboured and heavy “When I take something of yours!!”

Trent grabbed the young Pokémon under the chin, and forced her head up, almost breaking her neck in the process. Looking at her swollen face, feeling her weakening pulse, ignoring the cries and shouts of his colleagues around him, he grabbed a handful of green hair. He pulled her hair as hard and tight as he could, allowing him access to one of her sensory fins, and in as slow and cruel a jagged series of cuts possible, he sawed it off the right side of her head.

This was the point where the young Kirlia lost it completely. Her screams no longer making noise, he body broken seemingly beyond repair, she felt the knife against her right sensory fin. Billions of Highly sensitive nerve endings burst into white hot blinding light. The pain so unbearable, she began vomiting blood and bile from her ruptured stomach. She felt any sort of psychic connection severed immediately, her consciousness collapsing into a dark and empty void.

Trent got off of her, bleeding from the face though it had now slowed to the point where it was no longer running out of the socket. He shakily rose to his feet, using a colleague to stop from falling over. Quickly remembering his conversation whit his superior, he returned the terminal Pokémon to its ball, throwing it to one of the men in white coats.

“Trade that for an Abra immediately” He ordered, his voice shaking from the shock. With that, he collapsed into the colleague he was using to support his weight, another man quickly stepping in to support his weight.

*****

It was late afternoon on the outskirts of Jubilife city, the setting sun casting dancing shadows from the large buildings across the surrounding environment, bathing the city itself in a golden glow. Having finished work for the day, its many inhabitants preparing themselves for the afterhour’s entertainment the city provided along its main road, being a Friday night and wanting to distance themselves as far away from their respective jobs and enjoy themselves for a few hours.

“There it is Gems” the trainer whispered under his breath. He and his large electric companion were hidden in the long grass observing a small yellow pokemon floating several inches from the ground, a faint purple hue swirling around it.

“Ok, now remember, this needs to be done quickly” the trainer said, turning to his teammate, yet not removing the creature in the clearing from his vision “I don’t want to spend another 7 hours chasing this thing”

“Chu - Rai.... Rai...” Came the reply. The larger pokemon sizing up the smaller one, sniffing the air softly to gather its scent in the event it teleported a 5th time.

Silently, they both crawled back away from the ledge and went over the new plan. Directly attacking this thing didn’t work the first few times, and neither did trying to catch it without engaging it in battle. The trainer had used all but his last pokeball on the damned thing only to have it break out or dodge an attack each and every time, then to simply teleport away.

Once He knew his teammate understood, completely, he crawled back up to the ledge. The yellow Pokémon was still there, and still meditating a foot or so off the ground. This was it. He refused to go back to town empty handed. After seeing that trainer looking to trade an Abra for his Kirlia, Simon ran as fast as he could to the towns outskirts. He looked questioningly at the small Abra, wondering why the author of the bulletin would want to trade a Kirlia for it.
Must be after an Alakazam the trainer thought to himself quietly. Gardevoir weren’t native to these parts of Sinnoh, and once trained, made very loyal and powerful additions to a team. Perhaps this trainer preferred Alakazam’s faster reaction time, or higher intelligence to that of his Kirlia. Simon dismissed the thought.

Whatever the reason, it won’t matter, because soon I will be one of the only trainers in this part of Sinnoh with a psychic type as strong as that. The post on the bulletin board didn’t delve into too much detail, and he secretly hoped it was a male so that he could evolve him into a Gallade, opening up a much larger move pool.

He glanced back down the incline at his Raichu, who was on all fours with a small charge building in her cheeks. Silently giving her a nod, the electric Pokémon pounced high into the air and towards the silent Pokémon in the clearing.
“NOW GEMMA!” he cried as she was several meters above the Abra, descending rapidly. “THUNDER WAVE THEN DOUBLE TEAM!”
Gemma released a weak charge directly above the Surprised Abra before landing behind it and surrounding it with 4 more copies of itself. Simon hoped that this would work, otherwise he would miss his chance and have to try again tomorrow, risking someone else making the trade before him.
The Abra looked around unable to discern which one of the powerful electric type was really there. Realising it had nowhere to run as it was covered on all sides; it closed its eyes and initiated a teleport straight up as to avoid the advancing group of copies.

Forming directly in the middle of Raichu’s thunder wave attack.
Paralysed, it fell back to the ground only to be met with a lightning quick volt tackle from the copy behind him. Had he paid more attention rather than losing himself in his own thoughts, he would have easily been able to detect which of the copies were fake and teleported away from them. Too late did it realise its error as a small ball collided with its body, enveloping it in a red haze, then drawing it into the sphere.

This is it Simon thought watching the ball he had just thrown from his overhead position fall to the ground, rattling and vibrating as though there were a swarm of Beedrill inside desperately trying to free themselves.

Second seemed like hours. “Come on you little bastard” Simon said under his breath. With one final violent rattle, the pokeball settled into the grass, a computerised voice from his pokenav letting him know that the Abra had in fact, been successfully caught.

“YES! FUCK YES!!” Simon cried, jumping off the ledge of the small drop, running over to his new Pokémon. Gemma was as equally excited, proud that she could sustain the paralysing field for as long as she did. Simon laughed as he scooped her up in a big victory hug “You did it girl! I knew you could do it!”

“Raichu, rai!” she squeaked happily. Praise from her trainer always made her feel good about her abilities, and he knew it too.

Putting her back on the ground, he placed the new ball on his belt next to hers. He would have to remember to buy her a chocolate bar later as a reward. She loved them ever since she got into Simons backpack as a Pikachu and ate one, causing a lot of panic and a rush to the Pokémon centre to see if it was safe to ingest something that could fatally poison so other Pokémon.

“Ok girl, let’s head back to the Pokémon centre and get our new team mate” he said to her excitedly. They both took off down the road as fast as their legs could carry them. It was only a short walk to the centre, but Simon wanted to get back as soon as possible to make sure no one else had claimed the trade before he did.

*****

A few minutes later, Simon arrived at the Pokémon centre, Gemma waiting patiently for him at the door.

“It’s not fair that you used quick attack to get here faster than I did Gems” He said to her, playfully ruffling the fur on top of her head as they walked into the Pokémon centre.

As the large sliding double doors opened, they were met with a small crowd all gathered around one trainer. Simon had to pass this group to get to the PC’s to initiate the trade and glanced in to see what was causing all the fuss.

What he saw made his heart sink. On the trainers shoulder was a male Kirlia, chirping happily at all the attention it was getting. So many trainers had never even seen one up close before, and were taking the opportunity to scan the new Pokémon’s data into their pokedex’s. Simon just stood there silently, staring at the trainer.

“Yeah I was pretty lucky. Once I saw the post go up, I called my dad and had him transfer some money to me so I could convert them into game tokens at the casino, and they gave me the last Abra! I can’t believe how lucky I was to get the very last one!” The trainer was ecstatic at having acquired his new team member.

Simon stood there staring daggers at the young trainer. He had simply gone and purchased an Abra at the game corner with his daddy’s money? He was sitting there with a powerfully rare and exotic Pokémon on his shoulder through no effort of his own. His blood boiling, taking every piece of willpower not to punch the young trainer in his smug daddy’s boy mouth.

“Hey guys!!!” called a trainer from one of the PC’s “The same bloke has updated with a link to his friends trade account, saying that he too wants to trade a Kirlia for an Abra!”

The crowd stopped and turned to the trainer in the corner. A few hands went to their belts. While no one there had an Abra, a few subconsciously moved their hands to the balls on their hip as if to find one sitting there.

No one, except Simon that is.

“Move, get out of the way!” we yelled as he pushed his way through the small crowd. The nurse at the desk shook her head and gave a giggle. If these trainers knew how temperamental a Kirlia could be, they would surely rethink their haste. She didn’t treat them or their evolutions often, but when she did, she found them to be incredibly attached to their trainers, to the point of having to be set into an artificial coma while on the operating table.

“Pull up that link now!” Simon ordered, quickly placing Abra’s pokeball on the transfer plate connected to the PC. A female Kirlia. Damn He thought. There goes the Gallade route.
He could hear the trainers talking behind him, some jealous, some excited. He heard a few call out where he bought it from, and turned around to give them a glare. “I spent 10 hours on the outskirts chasing the damn thing, like a real trainer. I didn’t need to run to my mummy to buy me one” The last few words making the other first trainer wince.

After syncing his pokenav up to the PC, he horridly used his finger to slide the image of a pokeball with an image of Abra above it into the trade icon on the top right of the touch screen.

Initial transfer takes several seconds, where ID records and Pokémon ID numbers are checked against the database to cease the transfer of stolen Pokémon. Simon held his breath as the pokeball on the plate was scanned; only releasing it after a chime was emitted from the PC, letting him know the transfer was a success.

As soon as he had picked up the new pokeball, he was inundated with requests for a trade. People were practically pushing their Pokémon at him, begging for a trade. A little disturbed by their actions, he refused them all. He worked hard to receive this Pokémon, and it was his to train. They would have to go find their own.

“Let us see her!” called one trainer, his request followed by many more, they all wanted to see this new Kirlia, and scan it for the female section of their pokedex’s.

‘Later on tonight!” Simon called out above the crowd. “They can be a bit dazed after a trade, and a new environment might frighten it, so I’m going to have to get her acquainted with my team first.” His decision was met with groans and pleads from the over a dozen trainers huddled around him.
He moved his way through the crowd and up towards the front counter to speak with the nurse about a room for the night, when the Kirlia on the other trainer’s shoulder perked up and jumped for Simons new Pokémon’s ball. He could sense one of his own kind inside it, and wanted to play with her.
Having squirmed its way out of his new trainers grip and bound up to Simon in under a second, he wasn’t fast enough in stopping the small white Pokémon from hitting the release activator on the ball in his hand.
“What are you doing?!” Simon yelled at the small Pokémon as a red haze was discharged onto the floor in the center of the group, several pulling their pokedex’s back out to scan the new Pokémon in front of them. The nurse couldn’t see over the crowed of people gathering around the small Pokémon as it formed on the ground, quickly the red phase leaving its body.

Simon was pushing them back and off of him one at a time to get to his Pokémon. “God, I hope none of these idiots scared her. If she freaks out, then we-”

“Come on now, please step back and give it some room trainers! The Ralts family are very skittish, and have a tend- ” The nurse’s calling over the rabble of trainers in front of her was cut short by a horrible blood curdling scream from one of the female trainers.

The nurse ran out from behind the counter and into the small group, which had begun drawing away from where the Kirlia had phased out of its ball. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw on the floor at that moment. Confused cries and swearing were coming from every direction, making her force her way through the group faster.

There in the centre with its new trainer on the floor in front of it, cradling it in his arms was a Kirlia. It took the nurse a few moments to realise what it was however, as it was almost beyond recognition. Its entire face was swelled, forcing both eyes shut, with a series of cuts all around its delicate face, its left arm hung limply at its side, bent in an awkward position, indicating a serious break.
Simon pulled the small creature into his chest, its laboured shallow breathing letting him know it’s life almost entirely gone from its body. He failed to notice the nurse bursting through the crowd, and was screaming for her to help despite her being directly next to him. The kirlia’s blood from the deep slashes on it’s barely attached right arm seeping into his dark shirt, making him want to gag. The nurse covering her mouth at this point scrambled through the dispersing crowd of trainers, some falling over, some vomiting and slammed her hand down on the code blue button on the counter.

Simon sat there with the limp creature in his arms, wrought with shock and shaking uncontrollably. Never had any of them seen a Pokémon in such a bad condition before, almost to the point of death. The fact that it was still struggling to breath made Simon lean towards the floor while cradling it, hugging its comatose body to his, not knowing what else to do. It was at this point that he saw past most of the surface injuries, his face stopping mere inches where her right sensory fin used to be.
All of the sound of almost 20 people panicking around him, staggering over themselves to get out and find help drifted away, and he was left in dead silence, staring directly at what remained of her right fin. Jagged ripped flesh from a not yet blunt yet nowhere near sharp blade had sawed through the delicate organ, pulsing as blood flowed freely out of it, not able to cauterize itself in the air around it.
Simon heard the blood pumping through his ears, and the sound of someone far away screaming out for the nurse. It wasn’t until two Chansey’s and 5 other nurses rushed up with a stretcher, taking his hands off her limp body and loading her onto it did he realise that the screams were his own.

They rushed her into the emergency room directly opposite the entrance of the Pokémon centre, leaving one nurse desperately trying to pull Simon out of his shock induced daze, both of them covered in completely in the young Kirlia’s fresh blood, the howl of a Growlith and sirens of the police growing louder in the distance.

END OF CHAPTER 1