Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman


Chapter 16

Ten minutes after the explanation, Rarity and I are walking up to a nice looking villa. There’s a nice patio we step onto, which is attached to the porch, and knock on the door. Rarity is holding Feebas, trying to control her nerves. The moment the door opens, though, all traces of her nerves vanish, and she slips a plastic smile on.

A nice, calm-looking gentleman in gray uniform with another of the black jackets with an “A” on the shoulder lets us in. He grins in a way that makes me uncomfortable, and waves us towards a small living room cramped with all sort of notes. As we step in, we see a guy in a similar suit as the rest, except the uniform is blue, and so is the “A” on his shoulder.

“Ah, you’ve arrived.” He makes a head motion, and Rarity squeaks as sets of hands roughly grab the both of us from behind, restraining us quickly. “What do we have here? Did one of the techs get a message out? No, you’re not young and spry, nor faded and scarred enough to be a Ranger. You’re definitely not police, they won’t hear about this for a week.” The man begins to pace as he thinks. “Maybe you’re actually pokémon trainers, and you just happened across here on the wrong day. Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Search them.” he gestures offhandedly, and picks up a glass as the thugs holding Rarity and I begin to roughly search our pockets and take away our bags.

“Either way, you have a fairly valuable pokémon. With enough training, that is. whatever else you’ve got, we’ll take that too.”

“Hey, boss! They’ve got a gold coin!” one of the thugs raises the coin, and the boss looks back.

“Now that is impressive. How did you come by this, I wonder?” He steps back towards us and grabs Rarity roughly by the chin. Where is Twilight? She should be here by now. Time to improvise.

“Hey, buddy, hands off! You wanna know where I got it, fine, I’ll tell you. There’s tons more where it came from.”

Bas!” the fish says, looking happy at the attention.

“I, uh, was talking about the coin.” Feebas doesn’t seem to care, squirming happily back and forth in the grasp of the thug that had seized her. “Seriously, where I got that, the locals use it to pay for fruit. Let us go and I’ll tell you exactly where I got it from, we got a deal?”

“Hmm... or, I can hold on to you, and torture her until you tell me. I think that works better in our favor, because then you can’t tell anyone. Very neat, yes?” Shit, it’s a serious organization.

“Let us go asshole, now! You have no idea what I’m capable of!” I try to Spark up again, just to show off. Powers or no, I should get some result, right?

I strain to bring forth the power, and the boss begins to laugh. “What? Are you going to puke at me? While you might find it funny, I will have to cut off fingers if you ruin my coat.” The boss smiles condescendingly at me, and he opens his mouth to speak.

Then, a pink haze covers the entire room, and broken glass begins to fly like hail from an Abomasnow. My elation is cut short when I see a thug looking terrified... and holding an unconscious Twilight Sparkle. Wait, if she’s not doing it, then who’s... ?

A burst of light appears and there is suddenly a Gardevoir among us, who turns to the goons nearest to her and flings them into a wall, then she turns and delivers a backflip-kick to the guy holding Rarity. I’m a little surprised at how nimble this Gardevoir is, given their normal lack of any physical ability.

A few more members of the criminal organization enter the room, and I have to avoid flinching as a stream of glass chunks shred them. A reddish haze paints the walls behind them, and the gardevoir turns around to survey the room, pausing only to lift a single hand a flick it, sending the goons holding Rarity and I, and shoves them head-first through a wooden support beam. a sickening crack echoes through the tinkling of glass, and the bodies fall, limp.

The gardevoir looks at us with eyes aflame with psychic fire. After a moment, the fire dies off, and I feel a sense of calm pervade the room. I also realize that the pokémon’s typical ‘dress’ looks more like a tunic. The crunch of boots on glass signals someone else arriving, and a human in a long brown coat steps in through the broken window. He’s tall, has long brown hair, and a bandana on his head with a charging Arcanine on the front. He’s also wearing a silver glove on his left hand for some reason.

I grab my bag from the ground, hand Rarity hers, and stand in front of her. “Who are you, and what’s going on?”

<<Greetings, human. My name is Lya, and this is my human.>> a voice echoes in my head. It’s sweetly feminine, and almost definitely coming from the Gardevoir.

“As she said, her name is Lya. My name is Xavius, and she’s my Gardevoir. We’re here because one of the lab techs here at the reserve sent off a distress signal. I was close enough to respond, so I did.” He stops for a moment, then reaches out his right hand, for a shake.

I take his hand in mine and take it. “So you’re a Ranger?”

“Pfft, nah. I’m a trainer. You really don’t know me?” I shake my head. “That’s cool. Hey, can you help me look for the leader of this group? I heard one of the goons mention a ‘boss’, so I’m guessing a pit-boss was involved here. Your pokémon alright?”

“Uh, well aside from the Feebas, she has them.” I say, gesturing towards Twilight, who is getting to her hooves. “We had our own plan for getting out of it, but it... well, we didn’t account for a few things. But yeah, there’s a boss-guy around here. I owe him a few punches to the face.”

“Yeah, the Chainers are a bunch of bastards. C’mon, let’s get moving. I need to make sure they aren’t executing hostages. Not this time.” With that, Xavius turns around and gets moving out the window, dead serious. Rarity and I exchange glances, and stop only to check on Twilight before following the guy. The Gardevoir, Lya, floats about a half-inch above the broken glass, and Twilight takes the time to sweep the glass from in front of herself. Rarity and I bless our nice hiking shoes.

Chainers, huh? That’s their name? Well these guys aren’t Team Rocket, but not far off. Lya certainly didn’t bother going easy. I take another glance back and confirm that the walls are still gratuitously splattered with red. Eesh. Glad that the strong, lethal Psychic type is on our side. I run after Xavius, pulling Rarity along with me before she starts running as well. Twilight is running at a full gallop about a meter ahead of us.

“So what happened to our plan, Twi? We could have ended up tortured and killed!”

“I’m so sorry, but that thug came up behind me and hit me on the head. He got me right on the base of the horn, too.” I see Rarity wince, full-body, at Twilight’s comment. Must be painful. Also odd how they knew where to hit... eh, he probably just got a lucky guess.

“So the plan now is...” I think for a bit. “Get help from this Xavius guy, find that boss, punch him in the face a few times, then rescue whatever hostages or stolen pokémon they have.”

Rarity nods, and Twilight gives an affirmative as we continue to jog to catch up, Rarity’s ‘jiggling’ becoming painful for her from the sheer amount of flop to them. I do suppose I never explained bras or their function to her and Twilight... oh well, it can wait.

Finally, we catch up with Xavius in time to see him punch a goon in the face hard enough to simply flatten the guy to the ground, some pokémon are out and fighting other pokémon. A blistering hailstorm was pelting a Jolteon with a stylized “A” branded into its side, and the Gardevoir, Lya, was throwing small trees at a bunch of goons... all armed with guns. That’s pretty serious, even if the psychic-type is easily deflecting the projectiles off a Light Screen or Barrier.

In the distance, I can see a darkly-colored chopper speeding off, probably the boss guy getting away. Damnit!

I turn around to ask Xavius what to do, in time to see a grunt point a gun at Xavius’ back. I’m about to shout a warning when a three-meter-tall red tyrannosaur-like pokémon bursts out of the treeline and simply grabs the grunt in its jaws. A magnificent frill of feathers fluff outward from its jaw and shoulders, and it roars at the grunts, jaw blood-slicked. Pretty much all of them run, the only ones not doing so being either unconscious or with broken legs. Tree trunks can easily snap puny human legs when thrown.

“So Twilight, now do you understand why I did this kind of thing in Equestria?” I ask, and Twilight backs up into me. She’s staring at the carnage as Xavius shouts and expostulates at the retreating ‘copter.

The pony looks deeply affected by the scene, and even Rarity is clinging to my arm. While it’s kinda nice, it’s really not good enough for me to actually enjoy. Xavius takes a moment to pull out a hat, put it on, then rip it from his head to throw at the ground.

“What the heck was that for?” I ask. I mean, what purpose could that serve?

“Because I needed to throw my hat, but I wasn’t wearing one! Damnit, the fuckers got away.” He turns back to me, a look of anger on his face, though it’s fading fast. “Damnit. Listen, I need to get to their lab. A couple of the techs and a Breeder or two are in their, and they need medical attention, along with the pokémon they were breeding. So many of the little guys...” He shakes his head. “It’s awful. They couldn’t carry them out, so...” Xavius looks hazily off into the distance before shaking his head again and moving towards one of the buildings of the compound.

“Wait, I’m not going anywhere without answers. Who are these Chainer guys? I mean, I guess that’s kind of obvious, but what’s their ultimate goal? What’s with the ‘A’ thing?”

Xavius waves for me to follow, and I hurry up to him as his Gardevoir steps on a grunt’s neck, eliciting a short scream and a dull ‘snap’ to end it. Jeez.

“In order, they’re a bunch of thugs with a really smart leader who’s keeping him- or herself in the shadows. The Chainers of Dementia used to be a religious sect of some kind, devoted to a mythical pokémon they called Astrothoth. Bunch of loonies, in my opinion, they’re trying to bring about anarchy in the region by destabilizing the League foundations. And that’s not an ‘A’, it’s the symbol for Anarchy. They put something on their brands when they use ‘em on the pokémon they steal. Forces obedience, but makes them go crazy without regular doses of some kind of antidote. We don’t have a cure of any kind yet.” He steps up to a building, and pulls open a dented slide-door, going downwards to a basement area. I follow.

“So these guys are crazy cultists who want the world to go crazy too. What’s with the stealing pokémon thing then? Most organizations only do that for profit.”

“Idunno, there’s been a pretty much zero-percent success rate with infiltrating them; and the few we get in have always turned out to be being fed bad info. Fuckers are well-organized for anarchists, that’s for sure.”

“Well, aside from working on becoming League Champion, I guess I can help out here and there. Want there to be a League to be champ of after all, right?”

“Heh, something like that. You a trainer then? Can’t remember if I asked already.” He ducks under a filing cabinet that fell diagonally in the hallway.

“Yeah I’m a trainer, so’s Rarity and Twi. Speaking of, can I have my Pokémon back?” I turn to Twilight, still trotting a bit behind me, but close enough to be able to follow Xavius.

“Oh, right.” Twilight levitates our pokémon, still in their shrunken balls, to me and Rarity.

“Pokémon pokémon trainer? That’s a first, I’ll admit.” Xavius says offhandedly.

“She’s not a pokémon. Explanations later, rescuing now.” We step into another room, this one paneled in smooth white and filled with nests, lamps over them, a few on and quite obviously heating lamps. A single large egg is in the nearer nest, the other nests have shattered shells and bloody yolks all over. A man in a scientist coat is being tended to by a woman in a labcoat, the man’s arm at an unnatural angle midway up the forearm.

“They smashed pokémon eggs!?” I just stare at the scene. “What kind of sick purpose does that serve? To prove how evil they are? That’s just... sick!

The researcher pair looks up at me, and I get a good look of their tear-streaked and puffy faces in the glare of the heat lamps. They must’ve been crying about this. they... these were probably the children of their pokémon. Who must have been... taken... by those Chainer guys.

“Yeah, just like at the other two Breeding centers and the Ranch they went after previously.” Xavius explains, holding out a pokéball and calling out a Blaziken, who immediately began rifling through a medical kit and pulled out the materials for a splint. “The Chainers have been amping up their operations for nearly four months, now. They basically own Treasure City, though you can walk around it fine if you aren’t too attached to your wallet. Shit, this is decades of care and work, gone in an afternoon. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I go to see if I can help as he starts pulling filing cabinets into an upright position. There’s a few eggs that were missed, though a couple are cold by the time I pick them up; not a good sign for the pokémon inside.

I look at my companions. “This is the point of violence. If it’s not committed, someone else will do it. You either take out the bad guys for good, or they keep killing and stealing.” I keep looking around for any eggs that might be salvageable, but it’s a fruitless effort it seems.

Turning back to the girls, I see Twilight reach out to tearfully stroke the lone egg, its girth massive compared to the others. Suddenly, the egg twitches, and every head in the room swivels to watch it. Twilight’s hoof has retracted, and I barely register Lya entering the room as the egg rocks again, a fissure splitting the top of it with an earsplitting CRACK!

Everyone watched with rapt attention, the researcher duo whispering excitedly to each other and ignoring the man’s broken arm. With a final wobble and a collective gasp from the people assembled in the room, the egg topples off the table, the shell shattering into thousands of shards and leaving behind a short, reddish-brown pokémon, and it slowly opens it eyes... looking straight at Twilight.

With a pitiable cry, it stands shakily, and steps towards Twilight on two powerful, stocky legs. Its huge, solid-looking head shakes a little as it stumbles towards the purple pony on the scattered papers covering the floor. she, however, is backed as far away from the visibly predatory pokémon as she can get, her eyes wide but with tiny pupils.

“Huh, a Tyrunt. Guess Primal Reserve did mean prehistoric pokémon. Not bad. It’s... a completely normal baby pokémon, right?” I turn to the scientists for confirmation.

“Should be; neither of its parents carried the Delta gene, though this little guy might be a little stronger than most, given who the father is.”

Xavius sighs. “Oh god, this is one of Tyrant’s?” The researchers nod at him. “Great.”

“So...” I ask. “Who’s the non-biological mother of this guy?” I look over at him and he seems to be advancing towards Twilight, who is backed into a wall.

Oh man. “Twilight! Is that any way to treat something that thinks you’re it’s mommy?”

“Wha- wait, I’m it’s what?” She looks scared for a moment, but then her face starts to relax.

“Well, when pokémon hatch from eggs, the natural instinct is to assume that whoever it first sees, must be their parent. It thinks you’re it’s mom because you technically hatched it. Think of it like Spike. Only, able to crush a skull in it’s jaws.” I think that over, then realize Spike probably could too, given what he does to gemstones.

Twilight looks at the fifty-pound rock- and dragon-type. She tentatively reaches out a hoof, and rubs its muzzle, earning a happy, throaty purr. The Tyrunt slams its head into the contact, trying to get the most out of the scritchings, and instead simply pancakes poor Twilight. I have to struggle not to bust a gut from laughing so hard.

“Even young pokémon are strong and tough. You’re gonna have to take care of him though. Congratulations, you’re a mom, and you didn’t even have to get laid first.” Twilight shoots me a glare, and hugs the Tyrunt, who is starting to look upset at the scritchings stopping. After a moment, it calms down, apparently pleased with the hug.

“So, you gonna name it? Your pokémon, you can name it.”

“Uhm... Well, I suppose I could-” she starts, but I jump in to get a rise out of her.

“Well, how about Twirunt?” I grin, expecting her to get upset. Instead, she just snuggles with the baby tyrannosaur and shrugs.

“Sure, that works.” She sounds sleepy... I hope she doesn’t have a concussion from that hit earlier.

“Anyway, these guys, if I’m correct, went extinct about a million years ago, so that guy’s pretty special.” It then occurs to me that as it stands, Twilight has more Pokémon than me, and in a wider range of Type coverage. No matter, I’m just waiting for the right candidates.