Chapter 77:
The Man Behind The Slaughter
Go into the woods, she said.
It will be fun, she said.
Just investigating a suspicious orphanage in the middle of nowhere, it will be fun, she said.
Okay, Hylla never said it would be fun but she implied it by making it my business and misrepresenting it as something fun and exciting, like uncovering a mystery. No one told me it was going to end up like this…
Of course, it wasn't really Hylla's fault but I have to blame someone and I felt like mixing up my scapegoat for the day.
It sounded quite easy but of course, I should know when something involves a name like "The Red Orphanage" it would be a mess. It all sounded very simple and straightforward.
"You're in Floaroma Town right?" Hylla inquired. She said it like she already knew the answer.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked automatically, then realized how stupid that question was.
"Don't insult me," Hylla scoffed arrogantly. I noticed that she had not actually answered the question. Not that I needed an answer, after all, I came from a universe where every big tech company knows what you had for breakfast, it wouldn't be too hard for someone like Hylla to figure out my location, but it still irked me but for personal reasons.
"Anyway, the Red Orphanage, I need you to visit it in my stead," The purple-haired sociopath gestured at the hotel-like room around her.
"I am also busy," I lied and gestured at my two Pokémon who sat beside me on the bench.
A Pidgey settled down on the fountain in the park. It accidentally slipped on the wet stone and fell in the water. It got up and with a shocked face, it flew away. Pretty funny if you ask me.
"No, you're not," Hylla replied.
"Pssttt," Fay whispered, "What is this about?"
"Dunno," I shrugged, "That's what Hylla's about to explain right now…" I subtly invited Hylla to start stating her business.
As if she had prepared herself she began to explain in her own usual way of speaking, meaning that she spoke fast and fired words from her mouth like a machine gun. I idly wondered if she would be good at rapping before focusing my attention on the stuff that mattered right now.
"Remember the connection I found between Crimson and the Snatchers? Crimson stole TMs and sold them to an unknown party while the Snatchers snatched random Pokémon that held no value on their own."
I tried to think back to what she had said, "Yeah, you suspect an unknown party was conducting illegal experiments on Pokémon, right?"
Hylla nodded eagerly. "Well between assignments, I studied all the available data regarding this matter and surprise surprise, I found a lead."
{I bet it's the Red Orphanage.} Luna stared intensely at the screen like it was a matter of life or death.
"The Red Orphanage?" I tried, "Something named that morbid can't be good."
"Hmm," Hylla paused and her purple eyes seemed to dim, as if she was deep in thought. "Now that you mention it, the name is quite conspicuous."
She mused over that new discovery for a couple more seconds. Had she really not considered the strangeness of that name before?
"Anyway," the purple-haired girl finally continued, "I did more research. This time I tried to find more about the Snatchers because they were the only real lead I had, sadly there's next to nothing available on them except for the trail of disappearances they leave behind."
I briefly considered if I should share my own theory with her. The theory that they had a Pokémon with amnestic abilities that could cover a large area. Ultimately I didn't, it was based on too much guesswork and I did not feel like presenting some half-assed conspiracy theory to Hylla, even if she was doing the same thing but she was a bit more legitimate because of her affiliation with the Sinnoh League.
"So I tracked the disappearances, put them into a datasheet and checked the presumed dates of arrivals at various locations. A lot of Pokémon disappeared when they were near."
A dark look crossed Hylla's face for a short moment, a feeling of sadness and resignation coloured her eyes before she returned to her explanation. "I managed to make a map."
She tapped a key on her keyboard and an image opened up on the left side of the screen. A miniaturized map of Sinnoh appeared. It was pretty basic in design, only featuring the bigger cities and geological landmarks.
"The Snatchers work outside Sinnoh too but I could not get any hard numbers from the other regions so this will have to do."
Another keypress and the map of Sinnoh on my screen disappeared, the image was now buried underneath a sea of red lines that were drawn across the map like someone's son got his hands on the red crayons and tried to scribble something.
"The red line is the presumed travel pattern," she explained.
"Well, they love backtracking," I said while trying to follow the red line with my eyes but it was incredibly hard because it didn't just travel from point A to B but visited every other letter in the alphabet as well. The red line even left the map at some points, only to reappear somewhere else on the map border. That must have been their visits to the other regions.
"They do indeed cross some places more than once but do you notice something?" Hylla challenged me.
I didn't see anything outstanding due to the fact that I couldn't see anything in this mess of lines and dead ends. I assumed however that Hylla must have found something either close to or in Eterna Forest otherwise she would not have brought it up.
"Many lines converge in Eterna Forest," I eventually realized..
Hylla triumphantly snapped her fingers, I noticed she had even purple nail polish. Probably because it is her favorite color. With a cheshire grin, she spoke, "Exactly, it's their most visited place, yet there have been no reports of wild Pokémon disappearing in the area. Almost as if they don't want to draw attention to this place."
"That is suspicious," I admitted. Desperately I tried to wrack my brain to find what other reasons they would have to not abduct Pokémon in Eterna Forest. I could find none. "They must have either a base or a drop point there."
"That's what I thought, but there aren't a lot of structures in Eterna Forest that can house captured Pokémon, the only reasonable place I found was an abandoned mansion in the Northern parts but since it's an infamous and well monitored D level threat I can't imagine it being used for such nefarious purposes. So I looked into the other buildings and I found—)"
"The Red Orphanage," I finished the sentence.
Hylla leaned closer to the screen. "There is no information available on that place, no photos or names. Only the names of the owners are registered with the League and they have been dead for more than a decade so unless ghosts pay the electricity bills..."
"Okay, I get it!" I quickly said, raising my hands.
A woman who strolled through the park gave me a weird look as if she pitied me, although to be honest, I pitied myself as well.
"So, the final question, Why me?" I stared at Hylla dead in the eyes. I get it that I owe her a favor but aren't there any more qualified people to do this?
Hylla must have prepared for this question because she didn't hesitate a second. She stuck out one finger, "One, you owe me. Second, I requested that place to be investigated but someone in the chain is tampering and withholding my requests. You know what this means right?"
Hylla tapped her finger on her left wrist. "If I don't act fast, that place might be gone before I can bring it up to the higher-ups."
"Someone is sabotaging you?"
Hylla shrugged, "I asked the higher-ups personally but they say they never got my request."
"That's fucked up."
"That's why I need you to investigate it," She smiled warmly, yet it felt as if this smile was not as genuine as Hylla made me want to think it was. "If there's someone I trust to figure out what's going on it's you." She idly rolled her eyes, "It's not even that hard."
Of course, Hylla could not have known what would happen, as I said it doesn't seem too troublesome.
See what the heck the Red Orphanage is and either unveil the mysteries surrounding it or find enough evidence for the league to take official action.
It would be fun, she said.
She lied, it was not fun at all.
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The beam of my flashlight danced over the sand path, the circle of light that came from the black heavy device crawled around on the ground, swinging from left to right and back. Not out of necessity but out of boredom.
I could still see pretty decently without a flashlight, courtesy to the full moon in the sky above me and the long Spring evenings. The sun had just disappeared underneath the horizon and the color of the night sky was stuck somewhere between blue and dark gray. A few stars were already visible in the sky but they barely stood out as anything more than a white spot on an infinite canvas. The air felt heavy and warm but in a sweaty and moist way, the not-so-nice way. There was no wind blowing through the leaves, instead, there was dead silence, the only sounds came from my own footsteps and Fay's. Luna barely made a sound as she walked, probably something with her body being so ballerina-like.
I stifled a yawn and quickly checked the time on my Pokédex. To my surprise, it was only 11:14 in the evening. I had thought that it was way later but you easily lose track of such things when trying to find a creepy spot in the middle of the forest around midnight.
Damn, if I only had a camera I could become one of those weird vloggers from my universe, now I only had to find a corpse.
"You're thinking of something weird," Fay said accusingly.
"Nhaaa," I tried to defend myself.
"Yes you do," Fay insisted, "You always have that look on your face when you think about weird stuff."
{You kind of do.} Luna looked back with a cute grin.
I shrugged, "Well, I have to do something to stay awake."
It wasn't like I had never stayed up this late before but I had never wandered around in the woods in this unholy hour. Only cozy inside in my bed, reading a book or playing games on my handheld DS and Gameboy.
"It's quite peaceful here," Fay sniffed the air, "and I like the scent the trees give off here.'
I sniffed the air myself but didn't quite catch the same feeling as Fay did, in fact I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary wood smell you find in every forest.
{I don't like it here, it's too silent.} Luna said without looking at us. Instead she continued marching forward through the forest, her slender legs allowed her to avoid most of the rubbish lying on the ground. Her eyes and the two horns on the side of her head were also glowing in a faint red color, very demon-like.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Her head turned from left to right, checking for unseen danger that might be ahead of us.
{Clear.} Luna said, indicating that nothing threatening was close to us, or at least what she perceived to be dangerous.
Fay and I kept trailing behind Luna, me still playing with the beam of my flashlight and Fay seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
We were not really close to the orphanage yet so I deemed it safe to light our path, after all, I am a squishy human and if I tripped over a tree root I could still snap my neck. Not likely but I kept my eyes on the ground anyway.
"This silence," Fay suddenly said, breaking the silence ironically at the same time. "It reminds me of that time I was running away with my mom fro-"
{Danger!} Luna screamed in our heads.
Like I had practiced I gripped the frame of the gun in my backpack and drew it with one swift motion, pointing it straight ahead of me and into the darkness.
Suspecting I might need to draw it quickly this evening, I had put it in one of the side pockets of my backpack that was meant for bidons and other drinks but practice taught me it also functions decently as a good gun holster. The only drawback was the fact that everyone could see I was carrying a gun around but I was alone in the forest so it didn't matter that much.
Or rather, I was alone.
Something shot out of the darkness just as I had drawn the silver fire arm.
A blue glowing bubble flashed into existence around us and not a second too late. I heard the metallic click of something hitting the sphere of Aura that surrounded us.
I shone the flashlight at the ground and saw three long silver blades lying on the forest soil.
Fay was calmly pressing more of her aura into the shield. Her paws formed a ghostly blue chain that connected with the bubble surrounding us, feeding a constant source of Aura into it.
{There!} Luna pointed at my left. Her eyes practically shining with power.
The beam of the flashlight followed Luna's direction and I aimed it at a couple of tree barks that were made visible by the light, a flash of yellow caught my sight and I adjusted the beam to have a wider range, sacrificing a bit of brightness in return.
The circle of light landed on a grotesque creature that was flying amongst the trees.
It was big, the size of an expensive car and had big translucent wings flapping behind it that made an eerie low zooming noise. The creature had a yellow body that was covered with black stripes and split into three parts with six limbs protruding from its middle. Two of its arms were monstrous blades that gleamed in the beam of my flashlight and reflected it towards the trees around it. A big stinger protruded from its lower body like some wicked needle. Two big beady eyes stared back at me and the noise that came from its wings increased in volume.
The monster looked like a big wasp but a monstrous version, something you would expect from a Lovecraft story. When the beam of the flashlight landed on the big blades I saw it was stained red and leaking the liquid down onto the ground..
I recognized it as a Beedril but this one was much larger than any I had seen before, at least twice the size of a normal one.
"What a surprise." The Beedril spoke with a male voice, or so I thought until someone else stepped into the beam.
Luckily it looked to be just a normal human, although normal was a stretch. He wore a black tactical suit that had extra padding around the joints and shoulders. His suit was entirely black except for the red 'R' that was painted on his chest. A belt was vertically swung across his chest on which I saw a lot of different sized knives strapped to it like some morbid necklace.
His face was something that a girl would probably describe as really pretty. He had almond-shaped black eyes and a well-chiseled chin and mouth that were perfectly symmetrical. He had dirty blond hair that was long and spiked, a bit like one of those rock stars from the '80s. Makeup was added across his face, it had to be because his left eye was surrounded by a red streak that crossed his face.
Immediately, I decided that this figure was up to no good.
I cautiously studied the guy as he strolled towards the blue Aura shield, flanked by the creepily oversized Beedrill. As he came closer and I got a good look at him I saw his dirty blond hair had red highlights, a second look revealed that he was coated in a red liquid, dripping it as he walked.
The guy walked casually and wore a tired smile on his face while his black eyes reflected emotions that no person should feel while being caked in blood. He took notice of the gun in my hand but it did not make him stop.
My heart was beating in my ears like a set of drums but somehow I found myself able to think rationally despite the fear I felt lingering in my heart.
{This guy is wrong!} Luna warned me telepathically, {Do not trust him!}
Ooh Luna, when did you become this smart?
"You are not one of them, are you?" His voice was smooth, like butter or syrup but it had a poisonous edge to it.
He stopped in front of the glowing shield, his face was distorted by the Aura flowing over the surface of the bubble but somehow I could make out his smile.
The guy was in range to be shot, the only thing I had to do was to have Fay drop the shield.
"Who are you?" I asked him, making myself sound more certain than I actually felt.
A twisted smile curled up even farther on his cheeks. "My name is none of your concern, now what is your name?"
"Funny, same as yours," I said after a thoughtful second, "now don't take a step closer or I will shoot you."
He couldn't get any closer, but my mind was still fearing he would shatter Fay's shield or step through it. Something that logically, shouldn’t happen.
The newcomer stared at the Aura shield with a curious gaze. "Mmm, no, you are indeed not one of them," the guy concluded, giving me a good look of his own.
"Who are they?" I asked with fear.
The mysterious person chuckled lightly but his eyes did not laugh. He continued to walk past the shield while I kept the gun trained on him. Eventually, he turned his back on me but the Beedril placed itself in my line of fire.
Slowly but surely, the pair strolled away from us and were consumed by the darkness of the trees until they were out of sight.
I waited a full minute, holding my breath and kept my finger on the trigger before I finally asked. "I-is he gone?"
{Yes, he is out of my range.} Luna sighed and I saw her body relax. I choked out a sigh of relief.
My throat felt dry, my arms felt limb and my legs felt shaky. Yet I managed to suppress it all and forced it out of my mind.
I steeled my nerves and forced out a laugh, "Well, isn't that something?"
"Fuck!" Fay dropped through her knees and the blue shield disappeared.
She gasped for air. "I thought we were so gone!"
Luna walked over towards Fay and patted her on the head. {He's gone now, nothing to fear.}
"Indeed," I said grimly, my throat still feeling sore. "He was heading towards Floaroma Town, I think it's unlikely he'll try again now that the element of surprise is gone."
"Who was that?" Fay turned to me with an expecting look.
"No clue here," I admitted.
Fay gave me a weird look, as if she had expected me to know that guy.
I coughed uncomfortably. "Come on, we should continue." I patted Fay on the head.
"I think we should go back," Fay inhaled sharply, "I just have a bad feeling about this."
I was inclined to say the same thing and just call it a day. The meeting I just had was not fun at all and had quite shaken me. Yet something pressed me to move forward.
Something was wrong with the Red Orphanage, the guy I just met only reinforced my suspicions. Saying I had to know what it was would be an exaggeration, I just knew that if I did not go now I would allow something even worse to happen.
I gritted my teeth as I realized I had once again entered one of Fate's twisted games.
"Look, the guy we just met was heading that way," I pointed my flashlight East, "If we want to stay away from those two freaks we should head west, which happens to be the same direction as our destination."
{You really think we should?} Luna asked me, giving me a calculating look.
"Yes."
{If you say so,} Luna spoke with a stern look. {Then I'll follow you.}
Fay gazed into the darkness and took a long and deep breath. "Guess I'll follow too."
"If you don't want to, I can put you in your Pokéball." I offered. I could do it without Fay, I preferred to have her on my side but if she really didn't want to.
"No, I'll stay out as well," Fay committed.
I swallowed and managed to crack a smile. This time it was a genuine smile.
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It didn't take long to find our destination. We kept marching forward, battle-ready and listening to every creek and sound that came from the forest.
Despite our focused attention, it was awfully quiet but this time the silence was accompanied by the sound of my own heart beating.
The first sign that we had found the Red Orphanage were the lights we saw in the distance. They were faint but definitely stood out in the darkness of the night. I shut down my flashlight and gestured to my two Pokémon to stay silent.
I held my breath as we approached the lights that I could now make out as window light coming from a building. A few more steps and I felt the terrain underneath my feet change. I was now standing on a sandy road that carved a path through the treeline.
I knelt down and studied the road. The full moon helped me to make out the deep trails that were left in the ground. They were big, dug deep and broad, like they were left behind by a truck.
Between the two trails in the grass, there were patches of grass and other weeds growing, suggesting this road was used often enough to weed out all the plant life on the road except for the middle lane.
The road was narrow and had multiple twists through it, to me it looked like someone had just picked a route and traversed it instead of following an official path.
Idly I noticed that the road led towards the house that coincidentally shared the same coordinates as the Red Orphanage.
I followed the trail and walked into a big open space that was exceptionally well hidden from sight by the trees.
I was met with a small building that was not bigger than a small barn. I couldn't make out the exact details but I had the idea that it was made of wood and built like a cabin with a slanted roof.
Light shone through one of the boarded windows but it was dim and didn't help my vision in any useful way. I could not even see where the light came from.
An old sign with faded markings was nailed to a fence that surrounded the perimeter. The words were barely readable but I was very certain it read: Red Orphanage.
Surrounding the cabin were big and wide open fields and other smaller barn-like structures, reminding me somewhat of a low budget summer camp. As I crossed the path that led towards the house, I could still not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
There were no signs of life coming from this place, no sound. The only thing that indicated life was the faint light coming from inside the cabin.
{No one seems to be near} Luna said, {No Pokémon or humans.}
That's odd, I noted, most of the time there would be at least wild Pokémon roaming inside Luna's range. It was almost as if the forest was holding her breath with me.
However, the fact that we were alone did grant me the privilege to use the flashlight. I pressed the metallic switch and with a smooth click, the flashlight sprung to life. The ghostly white beam swayed as I started to walk towards the cabin where the light came from, my eyes drawn to the tiny building.
{Eeew, my leg is wet.} Luna suddenly complained.
"Huh," I aimed the flashlight at Luna. The small Kirlia instinctively shielded her eyes from the bright light. I lowered the beam.
Luna's left leg was colored red.
She stared down at her leg with a mild interest, {Ew}
I scanned the ground and noticed a big pool of red liquid was spilled out over the grass like paint on a canvas.
"Oh no," I muttered as my beam swept the area and crossed a human face lying on the ground. "Eek!" Fay jumped a little as she saw a pale human face staring back at us.
She grabbed my left leg and I felt her shaking my body, I then realized that I was the one shaking. My breathing went haywire and I had trouble standing up.
10 meters away from us was a person lying on his stomach, his body partly swallowed by the overgrown grass. A huge slash was visible on his back, running from his shoulder to his left side, his clothes had been torn open and a red liquid seeped from the open red wound into the grass.
Luna walked over to him with a few steps. I noticed the man was dressed in something resembling a security guard uniform. Luna knelt down next to him and quickly jabbed him in the side.
{It's safe, he's dead.}
"Dust!" Fay pointed at something I earlier thought to be a normal rock. Hesitantly I drew the flashlight towards it.
"Oh fucking gods..."
A woman wearing a white lab coat was lying on the ground, curled up like a ball in the grass. A big red gaping hole was visible in her stomach, allowing the light to pass through the body.
{Hmm,} Luna mused. {Something happened here.}
No shit.
The beam shook widely as I found more corpses lying around the perimeter. It looked like a massive sleepover except all the participants weren't waking up. The smell of something very sickening crept in my nose and made me want to puke. All the bodies shared similar wounds, either wide slashes and cuts or gaping holes where their flesh should be.
My stomach turned upside down. I felt an acid substance work itself up my throat and I threw up right in front of me. I emptied my stomach while desperately trying to find a way to deal with this horror I stumbled upon. My head was spinning and I felt a sense of numbness creep in.
"This isn't real, it's just like a movie or a game," I tried to tell myself.
A warm and gentle voice spoke in my mind all of the sudden. {Don't worry, I am here with you.}
I focused my attention on the white humanoid Pokémon in front of me.
She smiled warmly at me and pointed at the cabin. {Look, we even found what you were looking for.}
Luna walked towards the door of the cabin, stepping through the red liquid as the corpses did not seem to faze her at all. She swung the heavy wooden door open and the entire field bathed in the light coming from... from what exactly?
Having found something new to focus on I slowly struggled towards the door, determined to figure out what the fuck was going on.
In the back of the cabin, amidst all of the rush and broken furniture, there was a closet. The door was already open but instead of showing a wardrobe being behind it, there was a small cubical room with metal walls. Light came from a luminescent plate stuck in the ceiling of the small room. That must have been the source of the light I had seen.
The same dreadful silence continued to stay present as my mind figured out what I was looking at.
It's an elevator.
{See,} Luna smiled triumphantly, {You found it!}
Dumbfounded, I stared at the random elevator in pure confusion. Was this truly the thing I was looking for, the source of Hylla's mysteries? There was not even a second storey in this building.
My mind was still dazed because I only saw the silver plate stuck to the wall after a minute.
Slowly I read the words written on the sign.
Welcome to:
Galactic
Test Facility A-2