Pokeumans: All of Me - Chapter 5

Neil awoke in darkness. Sad and alone, he cried out, but couldn't find his voice. Where was he? Where was his caretaker? He needed to go serve them. They would need him and he needed them. Neil tried to move, but found himself unable to do so. He was just surrounded in darkness.

Surrounded.

...Surrounded.

---

Roland woke with a start when he was lightly poked by something soft and furry. The poking on his arm stopped for a moment, then suddenly he felt the fuzzy sensation brushing against his face, tickling him and causing him to sneeze.

"Sorry about that, Roland. Just came to tell you we couldn't find any steak at the moment, but we have some breakfast if you want it." It was claw, the rattata from last night that had taken him to this room. Roland couldn't help but wonder if he'd been sitting outside the door waiting to be called upon. He certainly seemed eager enough.

Roland pinched his nose, closing his eyes and collecting his thoughts. "Mmph. Right. Cool. What time is it?" Roland was briefly aware that he was incredibly hungry.

"It's a little before 4:00," Claw answered thoughtfully.

Roland groaned. "You guys get up at 4:00 am?"

Claw blinked in disbelief. "Roland, it's 4:00 PM. You've been asleep for 16 hours."

That caught Roland's attention and he looked down at the little Pokeuman. He was at a loss for words. He really must have been exhausted. He knew he felt sore all over; his muscles stiff and unresponsive. He hated waking up like this.

Nothing to be done about it, though. Roland sat up, yawning and stretching. "Alright. Where do I get breakfast?"

Then he saw a small silver cart with various food items on it. The little rattata beamed at him with pride. "Right here! Tanner thought that after all you'd been through, you'd enjoy breakfast in bed!"

Roland was surprised, but more than a little touched by this gesture. He didn't really think people actually DID the breakfast-in-bed cliche, but it reminded him that Tanner was a well-meaning guy with a big heart. He smiled back at the rattata which in turn made the rattata's smile brighter. "Okay. What's on the menu?"

The meal was nothing special. Cold cereal, a Belgian waffle, two links of sausage, some toast, and a glass of orange juice. But Roland was happy to have it. He and Neil had subsisted on flavorless paste and disgusting vitamin supplements. At least, he could only HOPE they were vitamin supplements. Whatever the case may be, they were highly unpleasant. Compared to those so-called meals, this was ambrosia. 

Meal finished, he looked down at the rattata, who looked back at him expectantly. "Okay, so now what?"

"Tanner wanted to see you when you're feeling able for more permanent arrangements."

"I see," he slid out of bed and stretched his stiff muscles. All things considered, he was a lot less sore than he had expected he would be. Then again, he was two or three beatings short of what he'd probably have gotten back under the fat Pokextinctionist's control. Honestly, Roland barely remembered what it felt like to NOT have bruises, cuts, and tense, overexerted muscles anymore. 

The rattata seemed surprised by Roland's readiness. "You don't have to head there right this second. He knows that you've been put through the ringer. Take your time and feel better."

Roland waved dismissively. "No time like the present. Besides, I'm feeling just fine. I'm not as badly hurt as I might look." Then something clicked in his head and he looked over at the dressing board connected to the bed. On it sat the small flask he'd been given from the doctor. He picked it up and examined it. The bottle itself gave no hint as to its contents and he hadn't thought to ask last night.

Roland pulled the cap off and sniffed. A very sweet smell almost overcame him. Sort of a mixture between corn syrup and lollipops. The liquid inside was thick and sloshed slowly as he tilted it from side to side. He'd not seen anything like this, so far as he could recall.

He caught the eye of the rattata, who was watching him intently. "So, what is this stuff, anyway? The doc gave me this last night and said it was for my injuries. Is it some kind of painkiller or something?"

The rattata looked it over, then grinned. "Wow, you really got the GOOD stuff, didn't you? Dr. Crawford doesn't give that stuff out for just anything. Usually we just get the spray whenever we get hurt. Blegh! Then again, you're awfully beat-up, so I suppose it stands to reason that-"

"Whoa, whoa... Back it up. Neil and I always had a very clear understanding. I'm not interested in getting high on whatever this garbage is, especially when I'm really not that beat up to begin with."

The rattata looked surprised. "...High?"

"Or drunk. Or... whatever. Neil would never forgive me."

The rattata chuckled. "It's nothing like THAT. It's just a super potion, for crying out loud."

Roland put the cap on the bottle. "Very funny."

Claw looked at him with a slightly surprised look. "I wasn't kidding, Roland. I mean..." Then he gasped. "Oh, you really, genuinely don't know! I'm such a dummy! Roland, that medicine helps Pokeumans recover from injuries. I promise it doesn't have any mental or physical side-effects; it's just a healing aid. Like... even if a full human drinks some, they might get something similar to a caffeine rush, but that's about it."

Roland glared at the tiny Pokeuman, and in spite of his best intentions, he could not hide his suspicion. 

Claw gave a little sigh and shrugged with his forelimbs, sitting upright. "It's up to you, but it's gonna be hard trying to get by in life if you're going to be constantly paranoid of everything."

Roland sighed and uncapped the bottle again. Claw was right... being suspicious of these guys when they have done nothing short of rescue him and give him a home would do no one any good, especially Neil. If nothing else, it would be a good way of determining what they intended to do with him. 

The gardevoir paused for a slight moment as the scent once again hit his nose... incredibly sweet, but not unpleasant. Strong, but not overpowering. Taking the dosing container, he poured a single dose of the golden liquid. Finally, he gave Claw one last look and downed the dose in a single shot. It tasted like a melted sucker. Sticky and weird, but not sickeningly so.

Roland didn't feel much of anything, apart from his heart skipping a beat or two and then moving a little faster to make up the difference, before finally settling into its standard rate again. Well, that was a good sign at least.

"Well, whatever it is, I guess the matter is settled, so let's go meet Tanner."

Claw looked at Roland, clearly impressed and more than a little awed at the gardevoir's approach to things. "Right on! I'll take you to him! This way!"

And the two of them left down the hallway, heading to the headmaster's quarters.

The halls were a bit unkempt in spite of the janitorial staff who appeared to be cleaning things here and there. Nevertheless, things seemed homely rather than shabby; with the colorful half carpets and decorations serving to add a sense of closeness and life to the place and the Pokeumans working there did so seemingly with contentment and satisfaction.

When Roland opened the door to Tanner's quarters, Claw stood on his hind legs and ticked a polite salute and ran off before Roland could say anything. He might have followed anyway, but Tanner tapped his shoulder and smiled as the gardevoir turned to mark him.

"Sleep okay?" Tanner asked, gesturing with his right arm for the gardevoir to follow him into his office. Tucked under his left arm was a massive box filled to the brim with papers. Unsurprisingly to Roland, Tanner seemed to carry the container with ease.

As they entered into the room, Tanner flicked on the light and set the box down on the floor. The room appeared to be almost like a private workout room with filing cabinets and desks mixed in. Bodybuilding equipment and training mats were prevalent and created a very confusing mixture with the office motif the remainder of the room had.

"Yeah, newcomers give this place that look a lot," Tanner said. "Honestly, there's not that much to it - I just think better when I'm working out is all. Helps me focus on difficult decisions and other challenges I have to face here." He half-sat on his desk, leaning against the thick, sturdy piece of furniture with a sigh. "Decisions like what to do with a grey-eyed runaway."

"If you're wanting me to spot you, I don't think I'll be much help," Roland said, trying in vain to count the number of massive weights added to each side of a barbell.

Tanner chuckled, folding his arms in front of his chest. "No, that won't be necessary. What I need from you is a bit more of a backstory. You and... Neil, was it?"

Roland nodded as Tanner gestured to a chair. "Neil, right. Neil Gardner."

"You said that you and your friend Neil grew up together?"

Roland sat down across from Tanner, hands on his lap. Backstory was really not what he wanted to discuss at the moment, but he felt he had to give Tanner SOMETHING. "Yeah, that's right. Like I said before, Neil was abused as a kid by his folks. I lived in the neighborhood, and sometimes when it would get really bad, he'd come over for awhile."

"His parents didn't stop him from leaving the house?" Tanner asked thoughtfully.

"His parents didn't KNOW about it. He'd get sent up into his room for one reason or another and unbeknownst to his parents, he'd sneak away and find me." Roland sighed. He didn't look up at Tanner's face because he knew what the man's expression would be. "No, Headmaster Tanner. It WASN'T a particularly well-adjusted situation. In fact, it was horrifying. But that's just how it was and there's no sense in trying to make it seem any prettier."

Tanner whistled slightly, taking it all in. "That's rough."

"That's not the half of it," Roland said. "But suffice it to say, we helped get one another out of a bad place. Eventually things got a little better. Neil's grandparents took over custody of Neil and by his last year of middle school, he looked like he was finally beginning to come out of his shell a bit."

"Wait, wait... his parents lost custody?" Tanner asked, stunned at Roland's flippancy.

"Are you really surprised? THE KID WAS IN A BAD SPOT. Everyone knew it. Eventually something had to give. Neil was incredibly lucky that he wasn't fostered out or put up for adoption." Roland grimaced. "Anyway, the point is, we didn't see each other AS much, but we still communicated and hung out from time to time. The rest is history."

Tanner looked at Roland for awhile. "Fair enough. But what about you?"

Roland looked up, surprised. "What ABOUT me?"

"You gave me a pretty thorough backstory of your friend, but it's YOUR story I'm interested in."

Roland sighed. "There's really not much to tell. We lived near each other, hung out together, went to the same school... His story is pretty much my own story."

Tanner digested this for a long while. The two sat in silence, regarding each other.

Finally, Roland took the reins of the conversation. "Look, this isn't just some misguided sense of loyalty and friendship, here. You weren't there to see what I saw. I'm not going to sugar-coat this. I intend to not only get Neil back, but get vengeance on those criminals who would do this to him."

"And to you," Tanner said.

Roland waved that off irritably. "I was the one who got away. Neil is the one still suffering from all of this."

"You're a very loyal friend," Tanner said, though the tone made it sound almost like a skeptical criticism than a compliment.

"I'm going to get Neil back," Roland said, "and to do that I need you to tell me EVERYTHING you know about the brainwashing. How is it removed? CAN it be removed? How strong is it? Can it be resisted? What are the measures taken when we-"

"Whoa, whoa! hold on there!" Tanner said, holding his hands up. "Let's take this a step at a time, here! I can't answer a million questions at once!"

Roland clenched his fist, looking at the floor. "Headmaster Tanner, every second I waste without getting Neil back is a huge danger to him. He's a ticking time bomb right now and if I don't bring him back, I have no IDEA what will happen.

"I thought you said Neil was somewhere safe," Tanner said, raising an eye ridge. "At any rate, if he wakes up, he'll more than likely revert to his baseline programming and find his way back to the Pokextinction lab to get back to work."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Roland said, slamming his fist down on his leg for emphasis. "Look, you don't know these guys like I do. If Neil goes back to that place, he WILL become a lab rat. They won't let him work in the relative safety of the docks. You've got to understand this clearly, Tanner. ...HEADMASTER Tanner. I CAN'T give Neil the chance to return to them. I need to stop him. But to do that I need to know how to HELP him."

"And what do you intend to do to rescue him?" Tanner asked. "You can't even use special moves."

Roland sneered. "I'm reasonably certain I CAN use a gun if I need to. Tanner, those men deserve DEATH. Have I not made that clear? They should be-"

"Roland. Do you honestly think that I don't know about all of this?" Tanner asked, and for the first time, Roland could see the weary face of a man that was far more intelligent and dedicated than he let on. "You're not the first rescue. We know ALL about what they're capable of. But we don't have the ability to simply charge in there. We can barely protect our own base from the outside."

"And that's another thing... Why all the secrecy? I understand why THEY keep things secret, but why don't we reveal ourselves and teach the public what is going on?"

Tanner shook his head. "For the same reason we can't declare open warfare. Because most of the public are sleeper agents as well. They get one glance of us and they become zombies, following the programming to detain and remove our presence. Even if they see recordings or other such evidence of us, their minds have been trained to not see it. We declare war on Pokextinction, we declare war on all of humanity."

Roland stood up. "So, what!? Are you telling me it's HOPELESS!? Are you telling me that I can't get my friend back!?"

"I'm TELLING you to be patient!" Tanner snapped back, more loudly than Roland expected from the man. "There's a lot to take in here and until we have a better understanding of what's going on, we need to take our time and gather the information we have. If you want to help, tell us what you know!"

Roland clenched his fists in frustration, then looked up and was surprised to see Tanner doing the same thing. He took a deep breath. "You're right, Headmaster Tanner. I'm sorry. It's just... I'm not sure what else to tell you."

"Start with your eyes, then work your way to your mind," Tanner suggested. "Why are your eyes grey when you're clearly not under any effects? For that matter, how did you avoid the effects and how did you avoid everyone knowing you had your wits about you?"

"The short answer is, I was patient about it," Roland said. "I knew that if I tried to run away or fight my way out, I'd get caught and dragged back in no time flat. It had to be just the right time. It had to be the PERFECT moment. It was frustrating, but believe me when I tell you I had plenty of time to be patient and plot my escape."

"And the mind control?" Tanner asked. "If you were caught, how did you avoid the mind control?"

"Malfunctioning equipment, I guess," Roland said dismissively. Maybe TOO dismissively, because Tanner's gaze hardened and his scrutiny of Roland redoubled.

"Did you go into one of their mind control tubes, then?" Tanner asked. And there it was, the question they'd been dancing around.

Roland looked at the floor for a long, long time. Finally he shook his head. "No. I didn't go in the tube. But I was with Neil when he did and ever after. I had to sit idly by and watch it happen to him. If I tried to rescue him, I'd have been caught and the jig would be up."

"And yet, they thought you were under control," Tanner said. "You just... hid in plain sight?"

"That's the long and the short of it. Tanner, you don't understand how their minds work. They were ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that I was 'got.' The possibility that their device could have been flawed didn't even cross their minds. And their hubris was what allowed me to escape. Not immediately, no. It took nearly a whole year before any real chance presented itself. And even then, I'm still surprised that the gambit worked."

"If their machinery is flawed," Tanner began, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "then maybe YOU would be able to help US with the mind control. Maybe there is some way we can exploit this weakness. For that matter, maybe there are others like you who were able to avoid being controlled in there."

"I seriously doubt it," Roland said, feeling bad about dashing the Headmaster's hopes. "If there are others like me, they must be incredible actors to not show it. No, I am CERTAIN that I'm the result of a fluke. A glitch in the system, perhaps. But no, I don't see any evidence that there was anyone else like me."

Tanner did look disappointed, but nodded and quickly moved on. Roland was impressed by the man's resolve. "So, what is it that you want to know?" he finally asked.

"How quickly and easily can this effect be broken?" Roland asked without skipping a beat.

"The truth of the matter is, there's no easy answer to that. Sometimes a huge, emotional shock is able to bring a person back to their senses. Sometimes it takes a careful rehabilitation treatment with special equipment in order to slowly break someone free of the control. And sometimes..." Tanner trailed off. He didn't need to go on; the message was clear. Sometimes they never got better.

"Well, the first step would be to put me in one of those rehab treatment things," Roland said.

This surprised Tanner all over again. "You'd be willing to volunteer for that?"

"If it will get people to stop staring at my eyes, it's worth a shot," Roland said. "Can we get that scheduled?"

"Easily," Tanner said. He looked incredibly relieved. Obviously the Headmaster had been searching for a delicate way to broach the subject to Roland and was saved the trouble of doing so.

"Then let's do that," Roland said. "Maybe it'll restore my ability to use special moves, too. Who knows. Either way, I need to learn how to fight. Something tells me if I don't, I'll be a sitting duck. I assume you have battle training classes of some kind, Headmaster?"

"How did you...?" Tanner began, shocked.

"Come on. All of those Pokeumans practicing special moves in a huge battle gymnasium? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together there. I'm at a huge disadvantage anywhere I go until I learn how to use my gardevoir abilities to defend myself. Can we make that happen?" Roland asked.

Tanner seemed a little unsettled that Roland had taken over control of the conversation. he nodded, but looked sideways at the gardevoir.

"Tanner, I'm 20 years old now. I'm not one of the little kids that need a caretaker. Let me find a way to help you guys and help myself. I'm putting a LOT of trust in all of you. The least you can do is do the same for me until you have reason not to."

Tanner had to concede the point. "How was the bed last night? Comfortable?"

Roland blinked. He was quite surprised at the shift of conversation. "Comfortable? I suppose it had to be because I was out like a light the moment my head hit the pillow."

Tanner smiled. "Good. Then you'll be bunking there on a more permanent basis. At least until something else can be arranged. Meanwhile we'll get you set up here and maybe find some tasks for you to do while we're at it. You don't have any special job skills do you?"

Roland gave a dark chuckle at this. "Well, I've moved a lot of boxes. Does that count?"

"We'll figure something out. Head back to your room for the time being. I'll send Melvin and Paul to check in with you in an hour or so, after they've eaten their dinner. I know they seem like a bit much, but-"

"-They're the best members of your team. I got it," Roland said with a smile. "I haven't forgotten, Headmaster. And that is fine. Truth be told, they're really growing on me. I'd have wanted it no other way."

Tanner stood and Roland did the same. Tanner held out his massive hand and after only a moment's hesitation, Roland allowed his own hand to be engulfed by it in a thankfully gentle handshake. "Thank you, Headmaster. I promise your trust isn't misplaced."

"And you too, Roland," Tanner said, returning the warm smile.

With that, the gardevoir left the room. Tanner followed him with his eyes until he was out of sight on the way back to the barracks. Even then he stood for a long while, digesting what had happened. 

"Trust," he said quietly under the breath of a long sigh. "Well, Roland. We'll take this a step at a time. I will try to trust you, but I know you're still hiding something. And I suppose the next move is mine in order to find out what."

He clicked on his smartphone and after a small moment, an abra's face appeared on the screen. "Cara, do me a favor and see what you can find out about Roland Gregory and Neil Gardner. Both approximately age 20; disappeared around a year ago."

"Aye aye, sir," the abra replied, and Tanner clicked off.

Tanner never called Cara for something that was easy enough to find on a Google search. This kind of in-depth snooping could take days for Cara. And to find all of the information Tanner wanted, she would need to be VERY thorough. So for now he had to bide his time.

Pokextinction might also have left human clones to replace the two of them. If they were able to find the replacements, the investigation could REALLY get underway.

"Your move, Roland," Tanner said. But deep inside he hated himself. This was not a game he wanted to play. Especially because he had a deep, sinking suspicion that the rules were going to be changed.