He wanted to move, but his body wouldn’t listen.
He couldn’t move
Not again
He screamed, but no sound came through
He couldn’t speak
Please
The Abyss reached out to him, and he sank.
Deeper and deeper, until it was just him, alone in a cold void, endlessly falling.
NO!
With a shout, Pranav tore himself away from bed, surging to his feet before tripping over the blankets, crashing onto the floor.
He groaned, stifling the urge to sob as drowsiness and muscle soreness from the previous day crept into his body. He relished in it however, it was pain that came from moving, not…stuck to a fucking chair.
An unfamiliar room greeted him, and the events of the previous day came flooding back. Right, he was in the Galactic barracks now. Not as cozy as the Center ones, being akin to a small studio apartment with a bathroom, but hey, it was technically his, and not a rental, so they were already moving up. Oh, and icing on the cake, it was mostly soundproof, so nobody could hear him have his little night terrors.
"Grown ass man," he thought as he wiped away the tears forming around his eyes, "Still having nightmares."
He checked the clock, 6:23 am. So almost 2 and a half hours of sleep. Sighing, he picked himself up off the floor, swaying slightly as vertigo hit him. He’d need to find something to put him to bed proper soon, the less sleep he got the more irrational he’d be, and Arun didn’t need that right now.
“Well,” He said to nobody, “Looks like sleep is off the table.”
Leaning against the table, Pranav remembered the injured Pokémon he and his brother had kept captured. He opened the desk’s small drawer, seeing a number of the tiny devices roll about, clattering against each other softly. Thank God they had the belts, it was easy enough to stash a number of marble sized balls in them, and the two didn’t have to give up their uniform until after they were locked in their rooms with spare clothes on the way.
Pranav didn’t know if the Pokémon inside were ok, but he was certain if he took them out they definitely wouldn't be. Between the 70+ they had rescued, they split the numbers evenly, half and half. Though whoever got to go outside first would be given the other half for Joy to look over, he hoped that wouldn’t stress her out too much.
He carefully closed the drawer, before stumbling into the bathroom, quickly undressing himself and hopping into the shower. He gripped the nozzle tightly, taking in a few deep breaths, before blasting himself with cold water. Despite Pranav’s best efforts, he couldn’t help but let out an embarrassing yelp as the cold hit his body, but it jolted him awake. Satisfied, he decided to spend the next 30 minutes under hot water, relishing the feeling of warmth and comfort around his body. The conditioner and body wash smelled really good, so he used that too, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like…him. The before him, Pranav the clean and goofy one, whose biggest problem at the time was avoiding texting his exes and finding a job that paid more than 15 dollars an hour. Not the grim-faced, survivalist Pranav, who used his skills to take advantage of others, to lie and hurt and was so fucking dirty all the time.
Drying himself off after the water began to grow cold, Pranav turned to his reflection in the mirror. His stubble was growing back nicely, not enough to shape it the way he liked, but enough to remove some of the gauntness away. When he saw his eyes though…it wasn’t just the bags that brought him back. He knew that look, it was still the same him, the same liar, the same piece of shit that said what he said to take advantage of others, just smelled better.
A knock at his door caused him to turn away from the mirror. He swiped a razor from the sink and went over, it was probably Arun at the door…but old habits died hard.
He opened it, by just a crack, seeing Arun standing there with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall.
“Morning.” Was all he said.
“Morning.” Pranav smiled, opening the door fully.
“You fall out of bed?” His brother asked, walking into the room.
“Ok first of all, these rooms are semi-soundproof, how the fuck did you hear that. Second…maybe, I’m not talking about it though because it’s embarrassing.”
Arun arched an eyebrow, staring at Pranav.
He broke into a grin, “Alright fine, I had a nightmare. You remember the one about the rabbits?”
“You tell the story about once a month, yes.”
“Of course I do, because it’s scary.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Anyways, had that one again, woke up and rolled outta bed so fast I crashed onto the floor.”
Arun let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head slowly. "Fucking liar." Pranav thought to himself as his brother sat himself down on his bed.
“So.” He called, heading back to the bathroom and putting on his clothes, “What’s up?”
“What’s up is that we’re Team fucking Galactic.” Arun replied.
“Hey it was that or they killed us man, I dunno what else to tell you.”
“No, I’m not blaming you, if I was allowed to talk the conversation would have probably ended the same.”
“So? What do you want to talk about then?”
“What’s our plan here? I know we’re not staying for good.”
“Fuck no, they want to destroy the world and all that, and guess what, we live here.”
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“Ok good. Then we just get close with them? Build trust.”
“Mhm.” Pranav said, stepping out of the bathroom in his donated clothes. “That’s the important part. We can’t give them an excuse to get rid of us. Make friends, brown nose, do everything we can and survive."
Arun nodded slowly, then said, “Great, so who the fuck is Team Chronos?”
“Bro, I don’t know!” He exclaimed “They came out of nowhere!”
“Are they another criminal organization? They weren’t in the game before.”
“Is this going to be a mafia thing? Oh my god dude if it’s a mafia thing.”
“Like Godfather?”
“Like Godfather.”
Arun whistled, before continuing, “Whoever they are, the fact that they aren’t in the game means Galactic deals with them before the main story. So we just have to survive and let them handle it.”
“Ok…ok we do that and in the background we gotta get stronger, train up secretly and build our money. Probably mostly from trainer battles.”
“We have $2000 on us right now between the two of us, we can’t blow it away unless we’re absolutely certain we come out on top.”
“Deal.”
“Ok.” Arun said standing up, “I’m gonna catch a few extra hours of sleep, you gonna do the same?”
Pranav’s smile faltered a little, “Na, I uh…I think I’m good, can’t really sleep after I wake up like this, you know?”
“Alright, I’ll see you soon then, ok?”
“Yea.”
Arun walked to the door, Pranav trailing after him. As he stepped out however, he paused, before turning around and giving his brother a hug.
“You did good last night, we’re alive.” He said
Pranav fought back the urge to break down as he hugged him back, “Thanks.”
“We’re gonna be okay, you hear me?”
“Ok.”
Arun released the hug, patting Pranav on the shoulder and heading back to his room.
“Night.” He said, as the door clicked shut.
Pranav stood alone in the dark hallway, silently watching the door, before heading back into his room, and into the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror once more.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Ok. Hi. I’m supposed to do your orientation for today.” The man said, stifling a yawn. “Name’s Winton, I do everything between writing reports on our research, as well as other science bullshit like reading energy output levels and type interactions, and yada yada all that.”
“Do they uh…do they usually make you do orientations?” Arun asked, eyeing him nervously.
“Nope. But apparently if you let thieves access confidential information, like say, oh I don’t know, secret floor plans, not only do they give you a pay cut, but they give you extra responsibilities! Hooray.”
“Oh...yea sorry about that.” Arun winced. Beside him, Pranav snickered, though stifling it quickly as the two glared at him.
A bit taller than Arun, Winton was a thin man probably a few years older than them. He wore khakis accompanied with a dress shirt and a lab coat, both of which were stained heavily with coffee marks and spilled ink.
“Well.” Winton said, his voice a heavy monotone, “You’re my coworkers now so come on, let’s take a quick tour of places you’re allowed to go.”
“Wait, allowed?” His brother asked.
“Yes, allowed. What, you think we’re just going to let a couple of unknown thieves full access to this facility?”
“When you put it like tha-”
“Oh yea that’s a great idea, let’s give these guys who released a bunch of Pokémon full access, sure that’s going to go just great.”
“Woah, hey!” Pranav protested, “What’s with the negativity?”
Winton gave his brother a deadpan look, and Pranav shifted uncomfortably as the scientist’s gaze continued to bore into him.
“Right.” He mumbled sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Apology accepted, now, this way please.”
Walking through the halls the trio got more than their fair share of looks, some curious, most bitter, and a few slightly amused. As it turned out the facility Galactic called home held a large number of amenities, a strange hybrid between a Lab, Barracks, Office, and Resort, all mashed into one super building. The only places they were allowed so far however, were the Barracks, the floor with the lounge and kitchen, and the gym. Anywhere else they’d need an escort and have to fill out a full 2 page form, which much to Arun’s annoyance, meant they were locked as the two were way too lazy to fill out paperwork.
“First things first.” Winton said, leading them past rows of cubicles towards an office in the back “Your IDs, you guys are refugees right?”
“Mhm.” Arun nodded, before looking curiously at the scientist, “Is this your office? I don’t see anyone else.”
The office in question wasn’t actually that bad, it was a small room, enough for a desk and some chairs, but Winton had added small plants that did liven up the scenery just a tad.
“Hm? Yeah.” He replied, taking a seat by his desk on the opposite side of them.
“So why were you using a public terminal?”
“Oh, that’s because I just got this space. They finally approved my request of having my own private space to work in.” Winton scoffed, before muttering under his breath. “Only took them six months and a fucking robbery. Hey I’m working with classified intel, maybe I shouldn’t be using public terminals! ‘Oh no, it’s fine, nobody is stupid enough to steal from Galactic.”
“So what you’re saying.” Pranav said, as he slid into the chair beside Arun, “Is that we got you your desk, right?”
“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.”
“Anything you have to say to us?” He grinned
Winton leaned forward on his desk, propping his chin up with his hands, “If you keep talking like a smartass.” He said, smiling flatly “I’m going to spell your name wrong so you’ll be inconvenienced for the rest. Of. Your. Life. Clear?”
Pranav’s smile instantly evaporated. “Yes sir, sorry about that.” He said, before scowling at Arun’s feeble attempt to hide his snickering.
“Great. Ok.” The scientist said, repeatedly tapping his keyboard to wake up the system, “So. You’re here getting ID’s and Trainer cards. Trainer Cards show you’re licensed to carry Pokémon at a battler level, ID is your citizenship card, pretty simple. We just need first and last names, a headshot, and we can get them printed right now. Any questions?”
“Yea, hold on.” Arun began, “Person we spoke to before said the IDs had to be League issued, are these ones legit?”
“Part of the Galactic Protector Act.” Winton replied, sighing when the two gave him blank looks, “I’m not explaining our entire history to you guys, alright? It’s just we’ve been here for a long time, before the league even stepped foot on Sinnoh soil, so we get extra…privileges. And that involves granting citizenship to people we deem fit.”
“Hm.” Arun grunted. Well that did check out with Legends Arceus at least. But that brought up the question of the Diamond and Pearl Clans, were they also given those privileges? Or did they fizzle out as the population began to grow? He sighed in frustration, more questions, not a lot of answers. They were still in the dark about a lot of things, they’d need a library or a wiki sometime soon, the more they knew about the world the better off they’d be.
“Alright.” Winton said, snapping Arun out of his thoughts, “So Arun is pretty simple to spell, ‘A-r-u-n’, correct?”
“Actually.” Arun interrupted, earning an annoyed look from the scientist “If it’s all the same to you, could we change our names? At least while we’re on the clock.”
“Any particular reason why?”
“Privacy reasons, mostly. I just don’t want people from before to recognize us.”
Winton scoffed, “Doubt they’d mess with us, you guys were the first in decades to pull this kind of stunt.”
“Please.” Arun pleaded softly, “There are scary people out there, any extra safety for us would mean the world.”
In truth, it was safety against Galactic that Arun really wanted. Having an extra name would make it easier to disappear if things went south, and in his experience, that tended to happen a lot.
Arun watched as Winton’s gaze softened just a tad, the scientist sighting and standing up from his chair. “Wait here. I’m gonna go make a call.”
Arun smiled in gratitude, eyeing him as he exited the office, the door clicking shut softly as he did so. He glanced at his brother, who appeared lost in thought.
“So.” He said, causing Pranav’s eyes to snap up in his direction. “Any thoughts on names?”
“We could do Felis and Sirius, that’d be cool.” His brother replied, lounging back in his chair.
“Huh.” Arun said, suddenly remembering the names Pranav had given to Cyrus. “Why did you go with those as our names?”
“They’re the names of stars. Thought it fit with the theme, y’know? Though Felis is both a constellation and a star, Sirius is part of…part of one of the dog constellations, I don’t remember.”
“So how come I’m Sirius?”
“Steadfast, loyal to his core.” Pranav said dramatically, before shooting a sly grin at him, “And you also pulled the sled I was strapped to, like those dog teams.”
“Asshole.” Arun laughed, ruffling his brother’s hair, who protested with feigned annoyance.
It was then Winton stepped in, nodding at Arun, “Saturn gave the ok, but only for your Trainer Cards, ID will hold your birth names.”
“That’s more than enough, thank you.”
“So. You guys know what you want for names?”
“Yep, Sirius for me, Felis for my brother. You can type in Khan for our last names, spelled K-h-a-n.”
“Sirius…Felis…Arun…Pranav.” Winton muttered, typing away at his keyboard, the loud clacking sound filling the space around them. “Ok, check the spelling for me real quick.” He said, spinning the monitor around.
“All good.” Arun nodded, leaning back in his chair.
“Great. Now we just need headshots and we can move on.”
“Oh! Perfect!” Pranav exclaimed, instantly lighting up, “Make sure you get my good side, if it’s less than perfect we’re retaking it!”
“Arceus…you’re one of them.” Winton whispered in horror as Pranav combed his fingers through his hair. “I hate my life.”
“Less hating more pictures, come on man we don’t have all day!”
Winton groaned.