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Divided I Stand: Chapter 3 - Fireside

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Chapter 3 - Fireside

“Now that everyone is safe, will you answer our questions?” Shawn asked me.

“Go ahead,” I replied.

The road that we had abandoned the useless van on was far behind us. We had covered our tracks as we silently hiked out into the desert; the two prisoners walking tied and gagged behind us. We were trying hard not to draw any unwanted attention. While hiking, we had split the workload between us. Shawn and his buddies had carried the supplies that they had recovered from the mobile prison, I was carrying my backpack, and one of the transforming teenagers, a guy named Jared, was walking my bike. He was transforming into an electabuzz, according to Shawn. The other teenager, Sarah, walked behind our prisoners, prodding them with a stick to keep them moving; she was transforming into a kirlia. The two kids, Lee and Rachel, walked up in the front of the group with Shawn, who was obviously the leader of the rescuers turned rescuees. Lee was becoming a tyrogue, and Rachel an eevee. We had left nothing behind to show my scuffle with the goons, and had meticulously removed the caltrops from the van’s tires. After making it a few of miles away from the road and as the sun was nearing the horizon, we had set up camp, and were now sitting in a circle around a small fire.

The lucario leaned forward, “Okay, first question. How long have you known about the existence of pokéumans?”

“I didn’t know, at least until I opened the van’s doors and saw you all. All that I had to go on was a strange series of extremely realistic dreams. I saw several events happen in places that I recognized as the Superstition Mountains and the Grand Canyon, so I started to head towards the Superstitions because they were closest. They started the night before I woke up with these,” I pointed at my clawed feet. “I had similar dreams these past two nights as well.”

“You just followed these dreams blindly without any proof that they had any real meaning?” Rick, the scizor from before, said. After we had started hiking, the other members of Shawn’s group had introduced themselves. The metang’s name was Max, and he was extremely excitable and hyper; something that I had picked up on immediately during our first conversation. The last member of Shawn’s group besides Rick and Max, the prinplup, had remained silent and stony-faced the entire hike. When I asked what his name was, he had simply ignored me and kept walking, or waddling I guess, considering he was a penguin. Shawn noticed the one-sided exchange and dropped back to talk to me, the rest of the group hesitating when they noticed his retreat. 

He had waved them on with a paw, turned to me, and murmured under his breath. “The prinplup’s name is Jay; he doesn’t like to talk to people. I’ve only ever heard him talk one or two times, and we’ve worked together for years. Don’t worry about the way he treated you; he acts that way towards everyone he meets. He’ll warm up to you eventually.”

“Thanks, Shawn.” I replied.

“No problem.” He had then jogged back to the front of the group, and we had resumed our quiet trek across the desert.

“Well, the visions weren’t the only thing that happened while I was asleep,” I answered Rick’s question. “Someone has been visiting my dreams the past three nights.”

“And you talked to this person?” Shawn inquired. Judging by the faces of everyone in the group, I had their rapt attention.

“Yes. She hasn’t told me her real name, but she assured me that she is a real person communicating with me psychically while I’m asleep.” I responded, “After I hassled her a bit, she told me to call her Carol.”

“What did she look like?” Rick asked.

“I couldn’t see her well enough to tell. She seems to be shrouded in light every time I talk to her. All I ever see is her silhouette. From what I could make out, she looked like a normal human.” I explained.

Shawn turned and looked into the fire, “Well, if I’ve learned anything over my years of service, appearances can be deceiving. It’s most likely that this Carol person is a psychic type. They have the ability to enter dreams.”

I contemplated my conversations with the mysterious personage, “She told me about my transformation before it even started. She informed me about the Pokéxtinction organization and the danger that I was in, information that probably saved my life, or at least my free will. It was strange; she seemed exasperated with me, almost as if she thought that I knew everything she was telling me already.”

“That is strange.” Max commented from his position hovering next to Shawn. He seemed to have calmed down since he was freed from the van.

“She also told me about an organization that could help me, but refused to say anything more. She kept telling me that I would ‘find out eventually’,” I used my fingers to make some air quotes. 

“She was probably talking about the Pokéumans organization,” Shawn 

“Also, when I was asleep this morning, she directed me to find a backpack that was well hidden underneath a rock. Inside that backpack I found only the things that I needed, nothing more, nothing less. It was almost like the person who planted it there knew exactly what I already had on me, and put things in the backpack that they knew I would need.” I held up the gold ring for everyone to see, “I found this ring in there too, along with the caltrops that I used to stop the van.”

Everyone paused to consider my statement for a moment, then Shawn leaned towards me with a paw outstretched, “Can I see that ring for a second?”

I dropped it in his paw and he fiddled with it for a second. I wasn’t too used to reading the facial expressions of pokèmon, but the look on his face could only be classified as alarm. It only lasted for a second before being replaced with what appeared to be a look of concentration or contemplation. He handed the ring back to me, “Whatever you do, do not lose this. Do you understand?” He seemed troubled.

“What’s wrong, Shawn? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Rick asked with concern in his voice.

“It’s nothing. I just need something to drink. This dry air is making me thirsty.” Shawn dispelled his worried comment. Rick remained perturbed.

After putting the ring back in my pocket, I reached into my backpack and threw him a water bottle. He opened it and drank the water gratefully. He tossed the empty bottle in his backpack. The next few minutes passed by in an awkward silence, until Max, who had seemed to struggle with sitting still, shot away from the fire towards our pile of supplies. While he searched through the disorganized pile of backpacks, I broke the silence, “So, tell me about yourselves. I don’t know much more about you other than your names, and Max’s hyperactive tendencies.”

Rick nodded, “I’ll go first. This stuff is hard for me to talk about, so I might as well get it over with.”

Everyone turned to look at him, and he began to tell his story, “My life wasn’t worth mentioning before I changed. I was a normal eighteen-year-old, up in Flagstaff, going to a public school with average grades. My parents were hardly ever home due to their busy work schedules, so my twin brother, Paul, and I had the house all to ourselves most of the time. One day, about five years ago, after being at home for a few hours, Paul came into my room where I was reading on my bed and showed me the blade that had started to grow from his hand. At first I had thought it was a knife, but his look of alarm had told me otherwise.”

I made a quick glance around; everyone seemed to be mesmerized by Rick’s reminiscence; all except for Jay, who was wearing quite an apathetic expression. Rick continued, “When I asked him about it, he told me that it had started growing rapidly in the middle of a heated online gaming session. Apparently, the newly formed blade had sliced right through the controller like a hot knife through butter. When I stood up to investigate, he looked at me and began to back away with alarm. I was confused for a second until he pulled me to the bathroom with his non-lethal hand. When I looked in the mirror, I saw that I had grown a pair of insect-like wings that had torn through my shirt without my noticing. After we discussed our strange transformation for a couple minutes, we heard a knock on the door. We then covered up our new appendages with whatever we could find and answered the door. The unwelcomed visitor then proceeded to spray both of us in the face with purple knock-out gas. When we both woke up, we were in a dark room that seemed to be moving. We were both chained to the wall along with several other transforming pokéumans, one of whom was Max.” He paused and looked over at the metang, who was still furiously rummaging through the pile of gear.

“What happened next?” Sarah asked

He turned back towards the fire, “The van was stopped by a squad of PRT members, who freed us. That was when tragedy struck.” Ricks tone changed to that of remorse. “When our rescuers began to free us from our shackles, they went to free me first. I refused to be rescued before my brother however, and had them free him. Paul was claustrophobic, unlike me, and was anxious to get out of that van as fast as he could. Before the PRT agents could stop him, he was outside. No one was able to get to him in time. I found out later that the PRT agents were only able to subdue the driver, but the passenger was able to make it past the tree line by the side of the road before they could catch him. Instead of running like the agents thought he did, he had stayed behind and waited for an opportunity to take a shot at something.” Rick’s voice faltered, “My brother never saw it coming. When the agents saw Paul crumple to the ground, they dropped what they were doing to check on him and chase after the shooter, but I knew, the moment that I saw him begin to fall, that he wasn’t going to survive.”

Rick obviously was having a difficult time telling this part.

“That’s terrible!” Sarah voiced what was going through my mind.

“After my brother’s death, the agents took me and Max to the closest base, I finished my transformation into a scyther, and I spent the next few months in a grieving stupor. I couldn’t stop blaming myself for his death. I had thought that Paul had died because I had insisted on him being released first. I was constantly beating myself up with guilt. The teachers noticed my depression and suggested that I see the nurse, but nothing they did helped me,” the scizor seemed to have regained control of his emotions, “The thing that brought me out of my grief was the advice of the base leader. He told me that I should join the Pokéuman Rescue Troop, so I did. I went into the PRT with revenge as my first priority, and my commander saw that. He convinced me that revenge was not the purpose of the PRT. Their purpose is to help people, first and foremost. I realized that I was a member of the PRT for a reason; to prevent what happened to my brother from happening to anyone else.”

Everyone sat in a shocked silence for the next minute, processing Rick’s story. Shawn got up to throw some sticks in the fire. Jared had seemed to be the shy, intelligent type, so I was surprised when he spoke up for the first time in a while, “What’s your story, Shawn?”

“I pretty much have the usual backstory. I was kidnapped by Pokéxtinction when I began to transform, saved by some PRT members, and taken to a base. I was an orphan before I transformed, so I had nothing to lose. I trained for two years then took the PRT entrance exams. After passing, I have been serving for seven years. My life has been pretty great since then. I think that I’m getting tired of the PRT life though. I’m going to retire soon and see if I can start a family.” Shawn recapped curtly.

Shawn’s demeanor remained placid through the description of his life, but I sensed that he wasn’t telling the whole truth. His story had seemed rushed, almost like he was leaving important pieces of information out. I decided that I would ask him about it in private later.

“What about Jay?” I asked openly.

Jay leered at me threateningly and Shawn began making cut-throat motions with his paw over his neck. I took the hint and dropped the subject.

Suddenly, Max zoomed back to the fire with a bunch of white rectangular objects in his metallic claws. “Hey everyone!” he announced excitedly, “I found some freeze dried ice cream sandwiches!” He began to toss them, at high velocity, to us one by one. About half of us were able to catch them, but poor Jared was hit right in the face, hard. “Ah!” he fell over backwards into the dirt.

Max, concerned, dashed over to help him up. Jared thanked him and brushed himself off. He sighed, “Next time, I would appreciate it if you would throw a little slower. My reflexes aren’t that good.”

“I’m so sorry, Jared! I didn’t mean to knock you over!” Max blubbered, seemingly about to cry, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine Max. It wasn’t that big of a deal! I’ve had to deal with getting beat up practically every day by bullies my entire life. I think that I can handle falling in the dirt.”

Max began babbling incoherently. He looked so worked up that I was afraid that he might explode. Jared pretty much just sat there and stared at him, uncomprehending his reaction to the small accident. The whole scene was extremely confusing. “What’s gotten into Max?” I asked Shawn.

“Max is extremely emotionally unstable, especially when he might have injured a friend. Even minor incidents, like this one, set him off,” he replied, then went into further detail; “Max doesn’t remember anything before he was rescued. The van that he and Rick were being transported was something of an experiment. Pokéxtinction’s usual methods involve taking a sample of DNA from their captives, and sending it to their nearest headquarters for the manufacture of replacement clones. The captives, if they haven’t been rescued by the PRT, are then put into machines and brainwashed the moment they reach their destination. The van that Max and Rick were being transported in held a prototype brainwashing machine that was designed for use on the road. Max, poor guy, was the one that their captors picked to go first on the machine. Rick was present during the entire process.” 

Shawn looked at Rick, who chimed in, “Max was calm and collected the entire time that the machine was being prepped; more calm and collected than I have seen him since. Because of his silence, he wasn’t gagged like those who had protested. When the machine was finally ready to be activated, he looked straight ahead and yelled at the top of his lungs, ‘Maxwell!’ The machine’s operator, in response to his outburst gagged him and then threw the switch on the side of the machine. A timer on the top of the machine began to count down from sixty minutes. For the next half-hour, I got to watch him as he stared blankly into the distance with his eyes clouded over.” He looked at Max who had stopped spewing apologies and was now holding an inaudible conversation with Jared. Rick continued, “Our van was stopped before the timer had reached twenty, but when we got Max out of the machine, it was clear that damage had already been done. Max’s amnesia is probably due to the fact that the portable brainwasher likely didn’t have all the kinks worked out when it was tested on him. His personality likely was affected by the machine as well; he is a difficult person to calm down. When we were transported back to a base, Max was put on probation; the base leaders didn’t know whether it was safe for him to be there. They were suspicious that the brainwashing might have begun to take effect, but in the many years that I’ve known him, he has never once turned on us; he is one of my closest friends. His cheerful attitude helped me come out of my depression over my brother’s death.”

I looked at Max, “So Max might not even be his real name?”

Rick turned back to me, “That’s right. He shouted out the name Maxwell with almost no context. For all we know, Maxwell could be the name of a friend or brother of his. His amnesia kept him from knowing his name, so I started calling him Max for lack of something better,” Rick expression looked pained, “Max has had no idea who he is and where he comes from for ten years. Every attempt to discover his identity has ended in failure. Even pooling together our best resources yielded next to nothing.” Rick lowered his voice, “Max doesn’t seem to care about it; he tells me all the time that he loves his new life, but I worry about him. Sometimes I hear him crying in the middle of the night. I have tried to console him, but every time I try, he puts up an emotional façade of pretend composure.”

“I feel bad for him. It must be terrible to not know who your parents or siblings are,” Sarah was beginning to cry.

“We’ve all come to terms with our problems, Sarah. We established new lives; all thanks to the Pokéumans organization,” Shawn comforted her. “We have the best job in the world!  We get to rescue wonderful kids like you from fates worse than ours. Don’t worry about our pasts, worry about your future.”

She sniffled and nodded. I raised my eyes towards the sky; the sun had begun to set. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I had ever seen. I could see every color of the rainbow in the clouds. The others followed my gaze and made sounds of awe. I relaxed and began to think about what my future held. It was uncertain to say the least, and my weird dream-visions certainly didn’t help. Hopefully I would still be able to see the sun set where I was going.

Yay! Here's the third chapter. Took me a little longer than I expected due to an impromptu mini-vacation to Tuscon, but I got it done. Thanks for the support everyone!

all art associated with this story was created by me unless stated otherwise


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Pokémon and its characters are © Nintendo and Gamefreak

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© 2014 - 2024 gamer-dragon
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Carter1215's avatar
Addicting story... its almost 4 AM...Must Keep Reading!!!!!