Painted Paradise
Guilt
Silver couldn’t believe what he was watching. It had been unclear what had really happened, but Silver presumed in the effort to destroy him once and for all, the Charizard had made a stupid leap at it and pushed them both into the water mistakenly. There wasn’t much time to think about it or grieve for the loss as he realized that oxygen was begging him to come drink it back into his lungs at the surface. Peddling weakly, he managed to pop his head from the grasp of the bone-chilling water and took a few deep breathes before dragging himself onto a sunny patch of land to rest.
A few moments later the same gate he had come through before opened drearily. At first Silver felt a trill of dread sing in his ears at the prospect of another coming in to finish him off, but the interior of the cave was empty. Silver got up and limped for the gate, he didn’t care what waited for him on the other side, but he wasn’t going to stand around in the battle field and wait for a Rayquaza to jump in.
The gate as expected, clamped shut behind him and the massive door on the opposite side opened stubbornly. Nala popped out first, her enthusiasm already trickling back into her clearly obvious with the skip of her paws into the cave. Max followed slower but surely into the cave, a general smile covering his face followed by two workers and two houndooms, this time a different two from before.
“You did perfect!” Nala chirped happily, “you’re the first that didn’t even use any attacks AND killed that Charizard! That Charizard was actually one of our good ones; I’m surprised you took it down.” Silver starred horrified at her; did she really look at the death of that Charizard as nothing but a toy? Silver looked away, hollowed with anxiety. Or had that Charizard been trapped in here like a slave for so long that there was nothing left to feel sorry for, just a shell of what it used to be or could have been, nothing but the fighting machine that they were talking about now?
Nala looked a little hurt and confused, as if she expected him to throw a party over his near death experience, but he didn’t have the energy to feel anger anymore. After Max was done yapping something to two of the workers, Silver only went limp when the two houndooms strolled forward and took his neck fur in their mouths. The group emerged the same way they had come, and continued down the hallway toward the back of the building.
“That was an amazing performance; most get the general idea to go for the neck but you really pinpointed his weaknesses fast. That was the first time I’ve seen someone use the lake like that. Breaking his wings so he couldn’t get out of the water too? That was brilliant, nice use of the terrain.” Nala’s praise rung in Silver’s ears, but he ignored it all. Was he destined to live here forever now that he had passed their test apparently so effectively?
Was Nala suggesting that he was just a toy, another fighting machine in their jail of half-mad Pokémon? To live here forever in a cage filled with several others, never to feel the grass under his paws again? Never to smell the new budding of flowers or to taste the freshness of a forest grown Oran berry? Would he never see Nisa again?
“Fine!” Nala’s snarl awakened with from his troubled thoughts, “ignore me, you know no one gets my praise easily. In the future you would have wished you practically basked in that praise and got on my good side.” Whipping his head around, Silver threw his whole body toward Nala and snapped his teeth only a whisker away from her neck, finally having enough. If he was going to be locked up like a zoo Pokémon for the rest of his life, he might as well try to petrify what did this to him. Nala starred in disgusted horror, clearly only hardly able to hold back an angry hiss of a scornful comment. Instead she lashed her tail indignantly and pushed on ahead.
The houndooms where clearly caught by surprise, but pressed their teeth harder around his skin as a warning. A grey color, the most plain of all the rooms, marked “normal” on it. As Silver had assumed, the door was unlocked and opened. The room was pretty much the same as the fire type room; accept instead of a fire orange on the walls, there was a watery gray instead. On either side where the same massive cages, but bigger this time and with more Pokémon in them. Silver was brought to the back again, and down another flight of stairs. Down below the oxygen seemed to be tainted with a sickly depression, humid and choking. A worker with a tight suit made with dark deep cherry fabric and a volcano symbol on the front came forward with a snapping tool and a key. The houndoom strolled forward again, accompanying the worker.
The worker jammed the key into the socket and a click sounded. Instantly an ear-splitting ghostly scream sounded from inside the cage. The sounds where so mixed and clouded that Silver couldn’t tell if they where screams of horror or screams of joy. The door opened and instantly a Rattata streamed quickly for the door with a hiss. The worker screamed a loud “NO!” and hit the Rattata across the cage with the tool he was carrying. After the Rattata, several more came pouring out, hissing with robotic personalities desperate to get out of the cage. The worker hissed as anger pulsed off of him something along a threat and threw the metal tool from side to side so if anything tried to make a dash, it would come in direct line with the metal to the face. Suddenly the houndoom who was carrying Silver jerked its head from one side to gather momentum and threw Silver over the metal tool into the depths of the cage. Before Silver had even landed, the metal door behind him was slammed so nothing else could escape. The cage smelled of dead things, the floor stained in reeking pee stains and moldy scraps of red meat and squashed berries that had been trampled so often into the ground that they had nearly become part of the cement.
The sides of the cage where scarred and bruised from multiple generations of attempted escapes, each one of the Pokémon inhabiting it showing long scars. The normal type Pokémon pushed themselves against the corners, starring wide-eyed at Silver as if he was a ghost type legendary Pokémon. Although the space was limited, each gathered into their own species as if it was the only comfort they could afford to have. There were few Rattatas in the prison, cowering in the corner shaking, but baring their teeth at Silver nonetheless. Silver was surprised to see how many Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable huddled in the corner. They were all rare Pokémon, and not until now had Silver seen any, not even in Giovanni’s base.
A small lot of Sentrets and Furrets huddled blank-eyed in another corner. Although the cage was huge, there was hardly enough space to allow enough oxygen for everyone in the cage. Kangaskhan, Granbulls and Snorlax took up most of the space, even the mighty Snorlax all looking sad and defeated. A spark of hope lit briefly in Silver’s heart as he spotted the pitiful group of Meowth and Persian in another corner, only for the spark to be drenched with icy black water and drop numbly down to his toes as he got a closer look at them all.
They all looked feeble and hardly conscious, slouching over as if either about to collapse or jump up and go mad, killing anything it saw. Their fur had long since lost its cream color and had turned into a dark dusty pelt of black, gray and brown. The gloss and cleanliness was replaced with dry and brittle fur, matted and impossible to ever fix unless they were to be shaved entirely. Their teeth and claws where as healthy as ever, but their fangs where yellow and didn’t hold the shiny strength from real healthy food.
Their eyes where blank, as if unconscious standing up, dark and hollow as if the life had been sucked into the ground and never returned. Silver flinched and shook violently, how could anyone do this to him? He was about to turn into them, lifeless zombies with nothing to do but fear each other as if any of them had the energy to fight at all.
Silver thought back to Max, and then to Nala barking about how great the suffering looked to her. A pang of utter hatred ran through him, he wanted to kill both of them, to throw them in this cage and watch them wither away like this. Then a pang of utter horror and guilt stung through him. He had done the exact same thing as Nala, the faithful Meowth behind Giovanni as he patrolled the lifeless Pokémon in the cages. They had never looked so pitiful and weak when he was patrolling, sharing the luxury life with Giovanni, but now that he looked back he realized he couldn’t be more wrong.
The Pokémon weren’t just so well behaved that they never moved. They were scared too, the Snorlax dark blue fur turning almost a bluish gray with exhaustion and the bright purple of the Rattata’s fur dimming into a pale ghost of its former self. He was once just like Nala, patrolling down the aisles of Pokémon and smiling at these life forms. He had now wondered how many of them hated him, envied his pampered life while they rotted away. Other Pokémon back then had always been nothing but tools, the things that made the boss happy and therefore made him happy. He used to love finding rare Pokémon them in forest, just as Nala had done with him, and bringing them to the boss and getting praise for the job well done afterwards.
After moving into the forest, he had learned that Pokémon had the same feelings as he did and even made a connection with Nisa, having kits after spring finally shined down on them. Now he realized this was all Karma, showing him what he had done and what he loved so much as a sort of sport. Now that he was on the inside of the cage, and not the outside, he truly saw what was happening in the cage. Everything suddenly seemed so dark and hopeless that it made Silver back into the scratched walls and shiver from whisker to tail tip.
He remembered at first the newly caught Pokémon where defiant, snarling and cursing at their enemies. Then they slowly lost energy, accepted it, stopped trying to escape, then soon became obedient like the others. Silver now knew the obedience was actually caused from loss of soul at all. Would he become a ghostly form of himself too? Was he truly just as bad as Max and Nala is, and now getting his Karma back?
A few moments later the same gate he had come through before opened drearily. At first Silver felt a trill of dread sing in his ears at the prospect of another coming in to finish him off, but the interior of the cave was empty. Silver got up and limped for the gate, he didn’t care what waited for him on the other side, but he wasn’t going to stand around in the battle field and wait for a Rayquaza to jump in.
The gate as expected, clamped shut behind him and the massive door on the opposite side opened stubbornly. Nala popped out first, her enthusiasm already trickling back into her clearly obvious with the skip of her paws into the cave. Max followed slower but surely into the cave, a general smile covering his face followed by two workers and two houndooms, this time a different two from before.
“You did perfect!” Nala chirped happily, “you’re the first that didn’t even use any attacks AND killed that Charizard! That Charizard was actually one of our good ones; I’m surprised you took it down.” Silver starred horrified at her; did she really look at the death of that Charizard as nothing but a toy? Silver looked away, hollowed with anxiety. Or had that Charizard been trapped in here like a slave for so long that there was nothing left to feel sorry for, just a shell of what it used to be or could have been, nothing but the fighting machine that they were talking about now?
Nala looked a little hurt and confused, as if she expected him to throw a party over his near death experience, but he didn’t have the energy to feel anger anymore. After Max was done yapping something to two of the workers, Silver only went limp when the two houndooms strolled forward and took his neck fur in their mouths. The group emerged the same way they had come, and continued down the hallway toward the back of the building.
“That was an amazing performance; most get the general idea to go for the neck but you really pinpointed his weaknesses fast. That was the first time I’ve seen someone use the lake like that. Breaking his wings so he couldn’t get out of the water too? That was brilliant, nice use of the terrain.” Nala’s praise rung in Silver’s ears, but he ignored it all. Was he destined to live here forever now that he had passed their test apparently so effectively?
Was Nala suggesting that he was just a toy, another fighting machine in their jail of half-mad Pokémon? To live here forever in a cage filled with several others, never to feel the grass under his paws again? Never to smell the new budding of flowers or to taste the freshness of a forest grown Oran berry? Would he never see Nisa again?
“Fine!” Nala’s snarl awakened with from his troubled thoughts, “ignore me, you know no one gets my praise easily. In the future you would have wished you practically basked in that praise and got on my good side.” Whipping his head around, Silver threw his whole body toward Nala and snapped his teeth only a whisker away from her neck, finally having enough. If he was going to be locked up like a zoo Pokémon for the rest of his life, he might as well try to petrify what did this to him. Nala starred in disgusted horror, clearly only hardly able to hold back an angry hiss of a scornful comment. Instead she lashed her tail indignantly and pushed on ahead.
The houndooms where clearly caught by surprise, but pressed their teeth harder around his skin as a warning. A grey color, the most plain of all the rooms, marked “normal” on it. As Silver had assumed, the door was unlocked and opened. The room was pretty much the same as the fire type room; accept instead of a fire orange on the walls, there was a watery gray instead. On either side where the same massive cages, but bigger this time and with more Pokémon in them. Silver was brought to the back again, and down another flight of stairs. Down below the oxygen seemed to be tainted with a sickly depression, humid and choking. A worker with a tight suit made with dark deep cherry fabric and a volcano symbol on the front came forward with a snapping tool and a key. The houndoom strolled forward again, accompanying the worker.
The worker jammed the key into the socket and a click sounded. Instantly an ear-splitting ghostly scream sounded from inside the cage. The sounds where so mixed and clouded that Silver couldn’t tell if they where screams of horror or screams of joy. The door opened and instantly a Rattata streamed quickly for the door with a hiss. The worker screamed a loud “NO!” and hit the Rattata across the cage with the tool he was carrying. After the Rattata, several more came pouring out, hissing with robotic personalities desperate to get out of the cage. The worker hissed as anger pulsed off of him something along a threat and threw the metal tool from side to side so if anything tried to make a dash, it would come in direct line with the metal to the face. Suddenly the houndoom who was carrying Silver jerked its head from one side to gather momentum and threw Silver over the metal tool into the depths of the cage. Before Silver had even landed, the metal door behind him was slammed so nothing else could escape. The cage smelled of dead things, the floor stained in reeking pee stains and moldy scraps of red meat and squashed berries that had been trampled so often into the ground that they had nearly become part of the cement.
The sides of the cage where scarred and bruised from multiple generations of attempted escapes, each one of the Pokémon inhabiting it showing long scars. The normal type Pokémon pushed themselves against the corners, starring wide-eyed at Silver as if he was a ghost type legendary Pokémon. Although the space was limited, each gathered into their own species as if it was the only comfort they could afford to have. There were few Rattatas in the prison, cowering in the corner shaking, but baring their teeth at Silver nonetheless. Silver was surprised to see how many Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable huddled in the corner. They were all rare Pokémon, and not until now had Silver seen any, not even in Giovanni’s base.
A small lot of Sentrets and Furrets huddled blank-eyed in another corner. Although the cage was huge, there was hardly enough space to allow enough oxygen for everyone in the cage. Kangaskhan, Granbulls and Snorlax took up most of the space, even the mighty Snorlax all looking sad and defeated. A spark of hope lit briefly in Silver’s heart as he spotted the pitiful group of Meowth and Persian in another corner, only for the spark to be drenched with icy black water and drop numbly down to his toes as he got a closer look at them all.
They all looked feeble and hardly conscious, slouching over as if either about to collapse or jump up and go mad, killing anything it saw. Their fur had long since lost its cream color and had turned into a dark dusty pelt of black, gray and brown. The gloss and cleanliness was replaced with dry and brittle fur, matted and impossible to ever fix unless they were to be shaved entirely. Their teeth and claws where as healthy as ever, but their fangs where yellow and didn’t hold the shiny strength from real healthy food.
Their eyes where blank, as if unconscious standing up, dark and hollow as if the life had been sucked into the ground and never returned. Silver flinched and shook violently, how could anyone do this to him? He was about to turn into them, lifeless zombies with nothing to do but fear each other as if any of them had the energy to fight at all.
Silver thought back to Max, and then to Nala barking about how great the suffering looked to her. A pang of utter hatred ran through him, he wanted to kill both of them, to throw them in this cage and watch them wither away like this. Then a pang of utter horror and guilt stung through him. He had done the exact same thing as Nala, the faithful Meowth behind Giovanni as he patrolled the lifeless Pokémon in the cages. They had never looked so pitiful and weak when he was patrolling, sharing the luxury life with Giovanni, but now that he looked back he realized he couldn’t be more wrong.
The Pokémon weren’t just so well behaved that they never moved. They were scared too, the Snorlax dark blue fur turning almost a bluish gray with exhaustion and the bright purple of the Rattata’s fur dimming into a pale ghost of its former self. He was once just like Nala, patrolling down the aisles of Pokémon and smiling at these life forms. He had now wondered how many of them hated him, envied his pampered life while they rotted away. Other Pokémon back then had always been nothing but tools, the things that made the boss happy and therefore made him happy. He used to love finding rare Pokémon them in forest, just as Nala had done with him, and bringing them to the boss and getting praise for the job well done afterwards.
After moving into the forest, he had learned that Pokémon had the same feelings as he did and even made a connection with Nisa, having kits after spring finally shined down on them. Now he realized this was all Karma, showing him what he had done and what he loved so much as a sort of sport. Now that he was on the inside of the cage, and not the outside, he truly saw what was happening in the cage. Everything suddenly seemed so dark and hopeless that it made Silver back into the scratched walls and shiver from whisker to tail tip.
He remembered at first the newly caught Pokémon where defiant, snarling and cursing at their enemies. Then they slowly lost energy, accepted it, stopped trying to escape, then soon became obedient like the others. Silver now knew the obedience was actually caused from loss of soul at all. Would he become a ghostly form of himself too? Was he truly just as bad as Max and Nala is, and now getting his Karma back?