Pokemon : An Unexpected Journey

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[ Jessie's POV ]

I stared at the silver elevator like it was a ghost.

It definitely gave off that uncanny feeling with its reflective walls and annoyingly bright ceiling light being in stark contrast to the murky underground surroundings.

The interior of the underground mine was a scene of utter devastation. Where there might once have been an operations station, now only remnants remained, as though a fiery dragon had breathed its destructive breath upon it. Every piece of mining equipment was displaced, strewn about haphazardly, echoing a sense of chaos as if a subterranean quake had shaken the very foundations of the place. A couple of tunnel entrances suggested the existence of smaller cavities, but given the mine's constrained dimensions from the exterior, they couldn't have extended far.

I felt my throat sink as I thought about the carnage that waited for me outside. Mutilated bodies and pools of red liquid, left like trash.

Somehow I felt safer inside this freaky elevator, maybe because of the corpses outside, yeah probably that. Just a few corpses, nothing too out of the ordinary.

"There are only 3 buttons." Meowth questioned.

3 square panels filled the wall with 2 additional buttons that were added for closing and opening the doors.

The lift doors were like a gaping mouth, inviting their prey to step inside and get swallowed into the monstrous pit. The pale moonlight outside glared down like it was the monster's eye. The silent atmosphere did not make me feel any better.

"So what are we going to do?" James asked, demanding I made a decision.

"We go in." 

James and Meowth nodded.

They were scared but they were going to see this through.

With surprising ease, I navigated through the rubbish lying on the floor and stepped into the elevator. My two friends followed and a brief silence dawned on us when I pressed the -3 button.

A red glow surrounded the button and the elevator started to move down.

"Follow the white lopunny down the hole..." I spoke.

As the elevator kept going down, a faint screeching came from below the elevator, like something metal was scraping against some machinery.

The Elevator kept going down for quite some time, eventually it stopped moving.

The doors stayed close but the button for opening the doors was glowing, indicating it had to be pressed. I was grateful for this design choice, it allowed me a few extra seconds to think.

I heaved a dry cough, "Okay, we will assume everyone is dead but stay cautious anyway. Meowth, you're on support duty, James release Weezing, you check the corpses with Weezing's sludge bomb to make sure they don't start walking. Get it?"

2 nods followed, no further words were spoken. I pressed the button and the doors slowly slid open.

A narrow hallway with gray concrete walls was revealed. Fluorescent ceiling tiles flickered on and off without a clear pattern. Lying a meter away from the elevator door was a guy lying on the ground. His arms were stretched out and bloody, his hands reaching for the elevator but not quite making it there. Broken glass surrounded his body and cuts were visible all over his body. The ceiling light above him was raining electricity sparks on his body but that could not have been the cause of death as a pool of blood flew out of his body like a small lake.

I swallowed and knelt down, trying to see anything that might be helpful in my quest for answers. I didn't find anything, he wore a lab coat but since all his possessions were stained red I did not dare to touch him.

Not wanting to stay with mister dead person any longer I shoved past his body and into the hallway, the doors stayed open behind us meaning that if we had to make a quick retreat we would not have to wait for the doors.

The hallway was not wide by any means, nor was it well decorated. Bare concrete walls stretched out on either side like the interior of a nuclear bunker. A black sign with white letters was put against the wall above the corpse.

I gave it a quick look, trying to ignore everything surrounding it.

Floor -3: Advanced Research:

Block A: Dinner Hall, Living cells.

Block B: Lab 1, Lab 2.

Block C: Lab 3, Lab 4, Lab 5,

Block D: Communication

Block E: Doctor Redburn's Office.

All the arrows pointed in the same direction, telling me to follow the path directly in front of us.

"Okay, let's try to find Redburn's office, the guy sounds important so he might have something useful for us." I knelt down and put the flashlight and pokeball away. I retrieved the knife and got up to my feet.

I did a few experimental swings. The familiar weight of the knife felt good in my hands, like a distant old friend. I would normally use my Pokemon but being in a small enclosed space like this I didn't want to risk of being defenseless.

"Guys, this place gives me the hebb gebbe."

"No, shit." I said as we were in a nightmare at this point.

"Can we please move?" James interrupted and pointed at the dead guy in front of the elevator. "Or have this conversation anywhere else?"

I nodded and gestured James to take the lead. With cautious steps, James moved in front of our little group and we proceeded to march down the hallway. Luckily, we did not have to wait very long before finding something useful.

The hallway ended in a big room with automatic sliding doors half-opened. They slid open when we came close enough with a soft hiss. In front of us was something that looked close to a diner area.

Smooth white walls formed a big octagon with big automatic doors on 4 sides of the room, excluding the one we came through.

The stench hit me first.

A disgusting smell I had never sensed before this day and never had wished to smell again was lingering in the room like a thick invisible blanket.

James' face contorted in disgust, his features narrowed but she managed to maintain a relatively level-headed composure, "The good news is that they are definitely dead."

"Hurray,"I sarcastically chirped.

Square benches were placed in 4 rows parallel to each other like a highschool cafeteria. They were all white and in a pristine condition except for the fresh new splashes of blood that decorated the place.

I slowly made my way through the rows of seats and tables, careful not to step on anything resembling a human body. Meanwhile, Meowth strode over the tables like they were a catwalk, jumping with grace over the occasional red smear or body.

In the brief look I shot, I noticed that a lot of them were dressed in either traditional lab coats, casual-ish clothes or straight up wearing something awfully similar to military-looking gear.

There was a distinctive lack of Pokéballs. Instead, the people wearing the defensive combat gear seemed to be using sci-fi looking firearms and other offensive equipment like collapsible batons and tasers. Not normal firearms or knives or even Pokéballs, something that really stood out to me.

Meowth briefly paused when one of the, what I assumed to be, guards laid sprawled on the table with big slashes running across her body.

I immediately looked away and focused on the fluorescent ceiling tiles as if they were on fire. With great effort, I managed to get my breathing back in control.

James and Meowth wiggled one of the sci-fi weapons free from the woman's hand and held it in her hands. It looked kind of silly to be honest. More like a water gun or a cheap off-brand Clefairy Wars blaster with neon yellow capsules fitting into the back compartment.

James aimed the gun at the nearest target and closed one eye as if to steady jzi aim.

"No James don-"

He pulled the trigger with his other hand.

A bolt of yellow shot out of the device and impacted the corpse, only to disappear into the body. It didn't phase through it, instead, it looked like it broke into smaller arcs of yellow flashes before being completely absorbed, making a fizzling sound in the process. The smell of ozone followed soon after.

"Electricity," James said, sounding quite proud of herself, "This thing does not shoot normal bullets."

"I think I recognize it," Meowth paled, more than before, "Those kinds of weapons were used by some of team rocket teams used to capture powerful pokemon. They are used to stun Pokémon instead of killing them."

Meowth inhaled deeply.

"Now can you please drop the gun, it's still covered in blood and it's frankly disgusting."

James dropped the weapon with comical ease. "Just had to see what it does, right Jessie?"

I shivered, "Yeah, let's continue please? Right now."

At the back of this spacious room, there was a big counter with all kinds of plates on them and some grill pits in the back. This was most likely where the food would be served.

Whatever had happened here, it had not been during dinner time, seeing how I couldn't find any food outside of the vending machine despite this place clearly being a dinner hall.

We walked past all the red paint and reached a pair of automatic doors. Another black sign with white letters instructed us to follow the hallway to reach lab 3, lab 4 and Doctor Redburn's office. A white sheet of paper had been pinned next to the sign with some rules regarding the dinner area. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary written on it, almost as if this was just a normal workplace and not some secret hideout.

I stepped forward and the doors slid open, revealing a long white hallway with bright fluorescent ceiling lights. Leaving the horrible dinner area behind me, I strode into the hallway, hoping that we could find some more clues regarding this entire place.

A dreadful silence hung in the air as we walked.

We came across one more body on our way. Again it looked like a guard with his weird equipment. He lied against the wall, a small pool of blood was growing underneath him.

We didn't say a word as we walked In front of us, the hallway extended into a crossroad.

"Can you hear that?" Meowth's voice was a low, cautious growl as his keen eyes peered into the darkness of the hallway. His whiskers twitched, as if catching the subtle scent or the soft vibrations of the approaching entity.

"What is it?" I strained my eyes to see beyond the murky shadows, but my vision proved inadequate compared to Meowth's feline instincts. There was something about the way Meowth was reacting that sent chills of anticipation through my veins, my pulse echoing loudly in my ears.

"There, at the end of the corridor," Meowth directed again, his gaze locked onto a specific point. He was indicating towards the right-hand path, which veered off at a sharp angle, disappearing into a blanket of darkness. "Something is coming."

The strange, unnerving wailing had intensified by now, a haunting siren in the otherwise silent space, creeping closer with every passing second. The sound was almost human, like a soul lost and tormented, a chilling banshee cry that made my blood run cold. The wail echoed around the stone walls of the labyrinth, bouncing back and distorting until it felt as if it was surrounding us, passing through us, resonating in our very bones.

Suddenly, the oppressive noise halted, the abrupt silence even more jarring. I was panting now, the air seeming heavier, harder to draw into my lungs. Then came a new sound, something disturbingly organic. It was like the slapping of wet feet against the cold, stone floor, a rhythmic squelching that sent ripples of dread coursing through me.

Meowth tensed, his body coiled like a spring, ready to pounce or flee at a moment's notice. I followed his lead, stepping back slightly and allowing him to take the frontline, his claws gleaming ominously in the dim light. Weezing, ever loyal, floated to Meowth's side, tendrils of poisonous gas slowly seeping out in anticipation of a fight.

"There it is," Meowth hissed, his gaze now fixed on a slowly forming silhouette emerging from the shadows. As the figure continued to approach, its form became more defined, the scant light revealing a bizarre amalgamation of pixels and distortions, shrouded in a low, menacing growl.

The creature that stepped forth from the shadows was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Its form seemed to flicker and distort, as if it existed in some state between reality and illusion. 

This was MissingNo. ... the Glitch Pokémon. 

My heart pounded as I realised the severity of our situation. Despite its strange and fragmented appearance, the ominous growl emanating from the creature left no room for doubt – we were about to face a monster.

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[ Omake Paragraph ] 

The horns on a Ralts' head allow them to sense emotions in sentient life; they share happiness and sorrow with their trainers, are frightened by anger, and sway gently when they sense nervousness, all of these reactions growing in intensity with those of the feelings they detect. Needless to say, this ability to sense the nature and strength of human emotions have made Ralts a remarkably useful diagnostic tool since the development of psychiatry. In more recent years, and in some ancient and forgotten ones, Ralts were used in a different science, for detecting the existence of emotions can be as valuable as detecting their power.

Whether as attempts to build a true AI, to create godless killing machines, or as accidental byproducts of technology, humans have at times created new species of pokemon. Whenever they did, it was a Ralts which detected the moment these new creatures gained sentience. For some, like Porygon's creator Bill, this was a joyous occasion, or at least it was one until his Ralts began to share the intense stress that shortened the first Porygon's life. For others, such as Giovanni of Team Rocket, Ralts' reaction was a disturbing sign, for Mewtwo was never intended to be a thinking creature, merely a living weapon. And in ancient Unova, Ralts' reaction was an incredible surprise, for the people who had designed Golurk as mobile suits had never even imagined they would take on a spirit of their own, and only realized the sounds they made were the language of pokemon when their Ralts reacted to their heroic dreams with a powerful aura of their own.

A Ralts' expressions are simply the reflection of the emotions of others; what they truly feel is forever unseen. Perhaps they are the loneliest pokemon of all.