Chapter Text
Day 1 - A geode in the rocks
Blacksteeple Castle. An uninviting place at the best of times, the chill in the air spread quickly through the spines of the unfortunate prisoners who had been captured by the malicious Team Xen. Roaming the grounds of the castle, the false sense of freedom only seemed to enhance the feeling of entrapment. Any sense of comradery was quickly overtaken by distrust and suspicion. People kept their trust in the few they could be sure weren’t enemy spies. Even among the prisoners, the hostility was palpable. Selling others out wasn’t unheard of.
Despite only being trapped for the best part of a day so far, Gabriel could already feel the air eroding his spirit. It was hard to keep up appearances and smiles when all he was surrounded by were frowns. Aelita, his travelling companion, was trapped away in some unknown place. All he could think about was trying to rescue her. He couldn’t let himself fail to protect another person. He couldn’t let himself just give up. He had to keep going, if only for that purpose. Unfortunately, his movements were limited as is. He couldn’t risk becoming even more of a stand-out than he likely already was.
Still. He kept smiling. He wouldn’t let that damn Neved see his will disappear. He would keep fighting. He just had to be sneaky, smart and subtle about it. Sadly for Gabriel, these three words were nowhere in his personal dictionary, and despite his initial reluctance to get others involved, he was going to need some help.
Thankfully, it seemed that he had already been scouted. A young girl named Saki immediately took interest in him when he woke up from his cell the morning after he was first shipped in. Despite the circumstances, she seemed energetic and bright. She asked about his situation and they had a good laugh about the whole thing, trying to fight off their inevitable shared fear of the situation with some good-natured conversation.
Quickly after, their cells were opened and they both left to meet whatever hellish set of tasks awaited them next. Saki took a brief look over Gabriel - “Wow, you’re a big guy, aren’t ya? Hm, well,
you
definitely won’t struggle in the mines! Maybe Adam will have less extra work to do!”
“Mines…? Adam?” Gabriel asked, laughing as he tilted his head to the side slightly. There was already a lot of information to process, and Saki was throwing even more out for him to absorb.
“You’ll see! Less talking, more walking!” Saki said as she scurried out of the hall of cells, insisting Gabriel follow her.
She immediately took Gabriel to see her friends in the Quarry.
Immediately, Gabriel could see it. It was like it was some kind of dystopian movie. They had people working in the mines - many of them too. None of them looked like they were happy to be here, of course. Some kind of encampment. There were teens, adults, and even some elderly people. Everything felt surreal, and the sense of oppression only grew stronger. It was as if people had somehow resigned and accepted their new fate. It was honestly hard to believe it was really happening - even when considering everything that had already happened to him. He just couldn’t let that happen to him. Aelita was still somewhere out there.
“Hey, Earth to Gabriel, we’re here!” sang a voice, snapping him back into reality.
Gabriel’s eyes widened briefly, turning to face Saki again. “Huh? Sorry, just… kinda insane they’ve got so many people here…”
“I know! Talk about a personal space violation!” Saki moaned, kicking some pebbles out of the way.
Gabriel raised a slight eyebrow - that isn’t quite what he meant, but he didn’t bother reading too much into that comment. “So, what did you want to show me?” Gabriel asked, looking around the mines.
“YO. ADAM. I made a friend! For real this time!” Saki yelled, waving at someone busily mining rock in a small opening in the cave wall.
The man in question, presumably Adam, had his back turned to the other two, seemingly focused on his work, mining away at the rock. Gabriel couldn’t quite see him yet, still needing to shuffle over a bit to get a good look.
“Hup… Hup… Hragh…!” With a final blow of the pickaxe, the rock came crumbling down, and the man turned around.
As the dust cleared, Gabriel got his first good look at Adam. The first thing about him was his rather striking blue hair - it definitely stood out. He wondered if it was dyed, or just naturally that colour. Oh, wait, he had purple tips, yeah - it was a dye job. Gabriel had always considered dyeing his hair, actually. Maybe red. Though, he had no clue how.
The next thing was, well… everything else. The guy seemed pretty built - pretty strong, too. Gabriel could tell, even if it might have not been immediately obvious. Of course, now Gabriel was looking at his face - and he was, in a word, smitten. Okay, perhaps that was a bit much but still. While not perhaps the universal definition of handsome, he had this slightly indifferent, stoic look to him, but he seemed cool. He seemed kinda quiet, but also chill. He also looked strong, Gabriel could tell that from a single glance. To be honest, trying to decipher Gabriel’s exact thoughts was difficult, but they all pointed to one conclusion - Gabriel’s heart did skip a beat.
And… Now he was staring. What was he doing? He quickly shook himself out of his brief trance. Now wasn’t the time for that. Besides, the guy didn’t seem interested in talking much anyway.
“Yo. I’m Adam.”
“...”
“That’s it.”
Saki rolled her eyes, sighing with exasperation - “Yeah, don’t mind him, Gabriel. He’s what the cool kids like to call an introvert.”
“Haha, that’s fine. I can do enough talking for ten people.” Gabriel joked.
“Oh my god! I can talk all day too!” Saki chimed, laughing. “Except when I’m building. Or working.”
“...Great. Another loudmouth?” Adam sighed- “Just don’t hype Saki up, believe me, she doesn’t need it.” Adam grunted, turning back to work on the rocks.
“Excuse YOU, I could
always
use another hype man. No one appreciates me around here.” Saki groaned, pouting.
Adam rolled his eyes and Saki waited for a “better” reaction, to no avail. “Fine, ignore me at your peril – one day I’ll have my revenge– okay, I’m over this bit. Where’s Val?” she announced grandly, before immediately changing to a more standard speaking tone.
“Arena. As always.”
The next thing on the list was apparently to find someone named Valarie. Who was at the “arena.” Why have an arena in what’s supposed to be a prison? Gabriel’s mind leapt to some dark conclusions, but the truth was, apparently the winner of the challenges that occurred in the Arena got to stay in some kind of luxury room. Gabriel wasn’t exactly sure why they’d have such a system, but he expected it was probably for something nefarious, Like to perhaps sow more discord and competitiveness among the prisoners, and reduce the risk of cooperation. Still - the place was so well guarded that even if everyone cooperated, getting out would be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.
No, what truly made it impossible is something he would learn about later, about the truth of the strange sigil-like structures he had seen around the place. These devices made it so that upon certain forms of disobedience, such as attacking guards or attempting escape, Pokemon could be remotely controlled to stop responding or even attack their trainers. It was a harrowing thought. Gabriel shuddered when he considered it. He imagined his own Pokemon turning against him.
Gabriel eventually did meet up with Val. She seemed nice and pretty sensible and measured - all things considered. She was the gym leader of the now desolate Akuwa Town, with the exception of one particularly handsome visiting truck driver. That, and two Magikarp left in the aquarium for some reason. It seemed Val was taken, along with Saki and Adam at the same time. Gabriel assumed it all happened when they were all hanging out at Val’s gym or something.
Actually, it seemed all of them were gym leaders. Adam and Saki were the rock and steel leaders respectively, which were two types Gabriel definitely had an affinity for. In particular, many people have told him he seemed like a rock-type trainer at some point or another. He wasn’t exactly sure if they meant it in a good way or a bad way, so he just took it as a compliment. Rock types were cool, after all.
“So, Gabriel, how many badges do you have, anyway?” Saki inquired, chewing on the back of her pen with her mouth.
“Uhh, I have four…” Gabriel admitted sheepishly.
Saki laughed, and Val shook her head - “Hey, everyone starts somewhere. You weren’t born a gym leader.”
“Uh, actually, I’m like 99% sure I got the qualification straight out of the hospital.” Saki rebutted, wagging her finger.
“You were born? I assumed you just spawned and crawled out from the depths of the distortion world or something. Like some dark entity conjured you into being.” Adam asked, raising an eyebrow and chuckling softly at his own joke.
“Um. Excuse you.” Saki replied, acting offended - “I did not
crawl
out from the depths of hell, I busted down the doors and kicked Giratina’s ass! Then, he let me inhibit the mortal world as thanks.”
“Don’t you mean inhabit?” Gabriel asked
“No, she means inhibit,” Val responded
“Everyone is so mean to me! I’m gonna kill all of you one day. Except for Gabriel, he can be my Adam 2.0.” Saki yelled, scratching something down in her notebook.
“Oh please.” Adam scoffed - briefly looking at Gabriel before turning back to Saki.
“I could take him in a fight,”
he muttered under his breath.
“Haha, uh, well - yeah, I only have four badges. So I’m probably not ready to face most of you.” Gabriel laughed, scratching the back of his head.
“Uh, yeah, you’re way below my level,” said Saki, tearing out something in her notebook.
“Eh. You gotta work a lot more for us, but Val might be a good match soon.” Adam said, shrugging.
“Hmph… Well, I am ranked to be around Gabriel’s level, yes. I suppose I can’t deny that.” Val admitted, though reluctantly. “But I’m no pushover you know, Adam.”
“Yeah, I know that Val. I still think you’re probably stronger than him, but…”
Gabriel just kinda sat there trying not to overly consider what they were all doing. It didn’t exactly feel nice to feel a little bothered by how weak he apparently was, but he knew it wasn’t their intention.
"I'm bored. When's dinner?" Saki interrupted.
"You didn't fill your quota…" Val commented, sighing wearily.
"Yeah but we all know Adam did," Saki replied, dismissively waving her hand in the air.
"Yup. As always. Did yours too Val, just in case." Adam nodded.
"Oh, well, that's very sweet of you, but I won the arena today - so I'm good."
"Then… I dunno. I guess it's Gabriel's quota." said Adam, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Oh, no, it's okay, uh, I can do whatever it is I need, I don't wanna, like, take advantage of you guys…" said Gabriel, waving his hands in front of him "Just tell me what I need to do!"
"K, Gabriel, I'm gonna teach you something," Saki interjected before anyone else could talk. "When someone offers you free labour you say "thanks" and let them do your work for you. You don't say you'll do the work anyway," she continued as if she was giving a lecture.
"When do you ever thank me?" Adam asked
"I thank you in my head I just forget to actually say it, you know?" Saki cheerily replied.
The three seemed close. Gabriel didn't feel like he had much to add. He just gently smiled at their banter. It was nice to see people that were obviously so close. They obviously had been friends for a long time. It was probably a really nice feeling, to have that sort of bond. Was he intruding? Should he go?
No, wait, it'd be rude to leave after Saki introduced him. Maybe they had a need for him. He should be on standby until that happens.
"Uh, don't worry about it, for now, Gabriel. I don't think you get a quota on day one anyway." Val assured, noting Gabriel's slight look of concern.
"Besides, it's not like you have a mining kit anyway," Adam added.
"I have Pokémon? Maybe they could help?" Gabriel asked
"Help cave in the entire quarry when you strike the rock all wrong, maybe," Adam replied, somewhat sternly, as if this sort of thing had maybe happened before. "You gotta be precise, you can't just hit rocks."
Gabriel laughed awkwardly. "Right, duh! Shame I can't mine all the rocks someone stuffed in my skull."
Saki snorted, and Adam seemed unamused.
"Oh, lighten up, Adam. Gabriel's just trying to be helpful." Val sighed.
"Hey, Adam, Gabriel ALSO has rocks where his brain should be!" Saki jeered.
"Tch. I'm a lot smarter than you give me credit for." Adam muttered.
Yeesh. This was embarrassing. Saki was holding back her laughter, and Val seemed almost to pity him a little. Adam didn't seem very amused - and was probably, no - definitely thinking he’s some kind of reckless idiot. Gabriel almost wanted to apologise. But hey, at least Saki was smiling…?
“So, what’s the deal with all the people here? How long has this place been active?” Gabriel asked, trying to switch topics. “How good is their security?” “
Quick, sound smart! Maybe that’ll help your crumbling reputation. Just kidding. You’re so transparent! They can see right through you, Gabriel!”
“We’re not sure, but it has to be fairly recent,” Val said, pondering the question in her head. “After all, you can’t kidnap this many people and not have it make national news. Since there aren’t many people aware of the situation yet, it can’t have been for too long. Maybe we can use that somehow.”
“Yet there’s so. Many. Stupid. Guards.” Saki moaned.
After a while, the group decided to check out one of the sigils in the mines. Saki apparently wanted to mess with it. Maybe she could disable it somehow? They decided to at least see what was up with the whole thing.
Unfortunately, there was an alarm system… and as soon as they tried messing with it, it went off, blaring noise throughout the whole quarry.
“SCATTER!” Saki yelled.
Gabriel panicked, and attempted to look for a way out as the others dashed in different directions… did… did Adam turn into a rock?!
Unfortunately, he ended up freezing rather than fleeing, and he was immediately apprehended. He was then taken to Neved.
…
But all things considered, the meeting with Neved could have gone worse. Apparently, though, all of the people captured here were as a result of… him? He didn’t quite understand it, but apparently, this “Madame X” character was not a fan of Gabriel’s interference in her plans. Well, she can keep not being a fan. Gabriel was not going to let her ruin the world with her terrorism and chaos. He wasn’t going to sit idly by and let her go through with her plans. Though, he wasn’t idiotic enough to assume he had the strength to face her yet. Best avoid her, and try and get everyone out of here. Better that everyone was safe, after all.
He was released without much incident, and Gabriel went to go and find Saki and the others again. Hopefully, with the attention all focused on him, they got off scot-free. That’d be something, at least. He decided to start with the throne room.
There, he found the crew once again. Val was just chilling on the throne, and Saki was drawing… something. Gabriel heard Val call him over, and headed towards them.
“Okay, so, generally, when someone says scatter, you need to run.” Saki japed, “But thanks for taking the heat for us!”
“Are you alright, Gabriel? Care to tell us what happened?” Val asked.
Adam was busy snoring away in the corner.
The four ended up considering their plans for a while, and Gabriel informed the crew of Aelita’s plight, and everything that occurred to him with Neved.
“That’s a problem. If Aeilita’s not on the grounds with the rest of us…” said Val, seemingly a little worried.
“There’s nothing we can do for now.” Adam said - “The best thing is to work on getting out. Then we can rescue that girl he’s after.”
“Well. I suppose you have a point,” Val noted, “It’s not as if we exactly have the luxury of stepping out of line more than we already are, by planning an escape..”
Gabriel opened his mouth to object, but they had a point. They had been here longer than him, and if they created a plan to escape, he could rescue Aelita while they all got out. Besides, The way Neved looked at and talked about Aelita made Gabriel extremely uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure, but he felt a sense of longstanding
hatred
. Pure vitriol. Nothing like the ire he had for Gabriel, that felt a lot less… personal.
“Oh, though, actually, this place has to have been going for a few months,” Val commented, seemingly correcting her previous statement, seemingly realising something.
“What makes you say that, Val?” Adam asked.
“There was the whole S.S. Oceana thing. The people who were caught up in that came here and now they’re captured, too.”
“They… they were?!” Gabriel asked, immediately turning towards her,
“Yeah, did you know someone…?”
Gabriel’s expression shifted, as he turned towards the cells - “My… my mom was on that ship with me… she was the reason I could escape, well, her and Tesla…” he said, recalling the incident, the chaos, the regrets…
“Tesla…? Do you mean… the Tesla? The one who owns that resort in Telia…?” Val asked, eyes widening.
It was clear that Gabriel had a bit of explaining to do. Despite all of the pain it brought, he thought it best to bring the others up to speed on the situation about the S.S. Oceana.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through something like that Gabriel,” Val said, gently trying to console him.
“...I really want to save her, but…” Gabriel said, sighing - “I guess I should wait for the plan, right?” It killed him inside, not being able to just go out and save her. But he had
seen
what happened when people stepped out of line here. He also had people he would risk the safety of if he did anything stupid, like Aelita, and his friends here. If it was just his safety on the line, it’d be a much easier decision to make.
“...I think that’s wise.” Val agreed. “But don’t worry, we all wanna kick their ass.”
The mood seemed to lighten a bit, with the resolve between the four strengthened.
So, where do we eat around here, or do they just let us starve?” Gabriel asked.
“Oh, the dining room? We could go there but I don’t think dinner time is for a while yet.” Val explained.
“Oh, guys! Come with me to the library, yeah? I wanna check some things and it’s so boring by myself.” Saki interrupted - immediately charging forward.
Adam and Val followed behind, as Gabriel trailed behind them, turning once more to the cells. “Mom… Aelita…” he mumbled, fighting back his urge to go looking for them himself.
“Gabriel, she means you too,” called Adam, noticing Gabriel’s slight hesitance.
“Right! On my way!” Gabriel laughed, catching up to the three of them as they headed towards the castle library.
Evening 1 - Study session!
Saki led the group to the library, looking and poking around many of the books. “Maybe the password for the stupid thing is in here.”
“I doubt they’d leave it out in the open like this, Saki…” Val pointed out, not very optimistic.
“I leave my passwords strewn across my room, it’s possible!”
“...Saki, that’s…”
“Anyway! I don’t see anything here. Lame. Dumb. Bad.”
“What a shock, can we leave?” Adam groaned - “I’m bored.”
“I know you’re afraid of books Adam, but seriously work with us here!” Saki chimed, leafing through some more of the books. “Gah. Still nothing.”
Gabriel waited idly by, looking around for anything that might help.
“Anyway, while she’s busy, where are you from, Gabriel? If you don’t mind me saying, that accent sounds Unova.” Val asked, turning around towards him.
“Oh me? Yeah. I’m from Unova.” Gabriel affirmed, nodding - “Lived there my whole life.”
“How interesting, I’m from Hoenn, originally, myself. Where about in Unova are you from?”
“Err… Castellia City. I grew up in the orphanage there.” Gabriel replied, almost as if he was slightly hesitant. “My mom adopted me soon after my 16th birthday - but before then I was always in Castellia.” He seemed a little cagey, eyes darting around the room a little.
Gabriel tried to find a natural way to continue the conversation, but his thoughts started to drift into territories of memories he didn’t exactly think would be all that interesting to share. He tried searching for something about himself worth talking about but came up with very few answers. He thought about maybe asking Val about something regarding Hoenn, but before he could get a word in…
“AWW YEAH, MAKE WAY FOR SAKI BLAKEROY,” Saki shouted, violently disrupting the peace.
The three turned to Saki, and Adam clutched his head - “You tryin’ to give me a headache here?”
“Oh, always, but not specifically this time,” said Saki, finishing sketching something in her notebook. “I just finished the plans for my best invention yet! Nothing to do with our situation right now, though. Sorry. That’s a dud. No info here that’ll help us.”
“Great. So we’re no closer now than we were before.” Val lamented, rubbing her temples in an attempt to recover from Saki’s boomburst of a yell.
“Oh come on, Val! We didn’t come all the way from Axis U to give up now!” Saki chanted, almost jumping from the bookshelf she was examining - only to end up falling over a table and then leaping back up onto it.
“Axis U?” Gabriel asked, head tilted slightly.
“It’s like, a big high school. But it’s also a university!” Saki explained, poorly.
“...You can explain it far better than that, Saki,” Val replied, her expression rather deadpan.
“Yeah but it’s boring and I don’t wanna. The point is, only the best go there!”
“Oh. So you’re all pretty smart, then? I’m impressed. I barely graduated at the bottom of my classes in high school.” said Gabriel, laughing as he remembered how much red ink was on all his report cards.
“Pfft–” Saki began to laugh, but Val shot her a quick glare.
“It’s not about being smart.” Val corrected, her tone slightly warmer than before - “It’s not like Adam or I are super smart scholars or anything.”
“Especially Adam-” Saki added
“...Big talk for someone who needs me to do all her manual labour.” Adam sneered.
“Look. You have muscles, I have brains, and Val has like, a combination of the two! And also like, the most common sense, for whatever that’s worth.” Saki giggled, seemingly proud of herself for some reason. “She’s the one that’s least likely to end up in prison at least. And I mean real prison. Not this weird terrorist prison.”
“I’m flattered,” Val replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
“I think Adam’s pretty smart… smarter than me anyway!” said Gabriel, giving the group a smile - “You all seem pretty cool. So…”
Ugh. Gabriel was much better at encouragement when the targets were younger than him. Saki technically was, but she had so much enthusiasm and eccentricity that he felt she didn’t need the ego boost, though he’d still happily encourage anyone he could…
“Gabriel can be like, our backup muscle. For when Adam can’t be bothered.” Saki said, smiling. “He’s also a pretty good distraction! He’s loud and talks a lot, like me!”
The four shared a bit of information, gathering what they knew so far. Eventually, the topic diverted back to the subject of gyms and Pokemon battling, where Gabriel admitted it was tough for him to learn some battling techniques.
“You didn’t know that paralysis lowered speed until you were 16?!” Saki cried, holding back a storm of laughter. “Or that Fairy type Pokemon resist Bug type attacks?!” she ended up caving, letting out all the jeers she was holding back. Gabriel didn’t mind much though, it was kinda nice to lighten the mood with these jokes.
“Nope. Refused to use status moves until I was 16, as well.” Gabriel added, piling on the mistakes of his past.
“HAH! You just went in with four attack moves and said fuck it?! I’m almost impressed! You really are giving old rock head here a run for his money with your hard-headedness. I can respect the hustle! Side note: hustle is a shit ability sucks to be you if your Pokemon have it.”
Saki continued to press Gabriel for more details, while Val seemed impressed that he’s managed to survive this long.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough, Saki,” Adam interjected, opening his eyes after kinda tuning out of the conversation. “We’re used to you being like this. Gabriel isn’t. So what if he isn’t book smart? Some people learn by experience anyway,” Adam added, shrugging at her.
“That’s very wise of you, Adam. Speaking from personal experience?” Val asked - her tone actually rather genuine, with a hint of teasing.
“Yeah. Better to just get out there and try, right Gabriel?”
Gabriel felt a little thump in his chest as Adam turned to look at him, a small feeling of relief spreading through him. Oh thank god, he didn’t look completely idiotic! At least not to the point of being a complete joke.
“Yeah! That’s how I do it!” Gabriel agreed, his spirit renewed. “Though I really do like books, fictional ones, though. Could never stomach strategy guides and non-fiction.”
“That shits boring and we have the internet anyway,” said Adam, nodding in agreement.
The four continued to talk until the time came for the first lights-out Gabriel would experience at the facility.