[Silvyre]

Chapter Two

As the scarlet sun rises to the east of Cipher's headquarters, the birds do not sing with joy for the newcoming day, for there are no birds to sing. Instead, the distant star rises silently, so as not to abruptly disrupt the Kishiro family from their slumber. Or, that was at least the conclusion Caiden came to on that dawn; it was the one morning he'd woken up before the universal alarm sounded in the subordinate sector.

Though he had been promoted to executive, Caiden had not yet received his uniform, nor his hat and badge (two symbols that clearly asserted his authority to others), nor his new room. Lord Kishiro was notorious for being slightly late to make the changes he claimed to make, especially with the his slew of peons he governed. Even the lord's top administrator - known to all subordinates as Neccer - refused to bestow new privileges immediately, loudly retorting to any who asked twice: "Important people like Lord Kishiro and myself are far too busy to cater your requests. Your needy behavior will not be tolerated here."

Caiden, though he would have preferred a bigger and better bedroom, did not request anything of Neccer after his meeting with Lord Kishiro.

He waited impatiently at the side of his bed, tapping his foot furiously against the cement ground. He feared that going out of his room before the wake-up call would result in the loss of his executive status, so he'd stayed awake in his room all night and all of dawn. Bright, white-yellow light from the room's small window struck the side of his eye. Caiden knew that the alarm would sound any second... three... two... one... one-half...

Caiden was on his feet and out the door before the noisy ringing had ended. He strode briskly down the hall, through the dining hall and another corridor, leaped down the entire staircase in the main hall, and landed with an adept somersault. While some glared and sneered at him, Caiden easily pushed open the doors and headed for the Pokemon cells nearby. His excited run fell into a steady trot as he gazed thoughtfully at the distant structure. The Pokemon were constantly kept three, a large and unsightly gray building, unless used for battle conditioning. As far as Caiden knew, that was the use of Pokemon in general.
Taking the card key - that Lord Kishiro had so generously given him the night before - from his pocket, Caiden entered a password in the door's advanced keypad and slid the card down. They opened automatically. Caiden's ears were rushed by piercing cries, growls, and moans of, presumably, the Pokemon. An entirely new scene met him as the lights flicked on, the machine sensing a human presence in the building.

Caged Pokemon were everywhere; cages that bound the creatures to a restricted area with a high-tech plastic-like material. Cages were piled evenly on cages, as if they were crates of processed food, but built into each other. On the wall next to him, a wide master switch with a covered keypad displayed the names of each Pokemon's cell: A2, C8, E6, all the way up to the letter J.
Caiden could see a large elevator in the distance, leading to probably four other floors, not including the basement. Heaven knows what's down there, he thought, swallowing. But the sight that was truly terrifying was the sight of the mistreated, the poor and unkept Pokemon, crying from the pits of their abused souls to this newcomer. They were gaunt and some were miscolored. Some were shaking and others had fallen into an enternal slumber, choosing to hide from this world rather than fight it. Maybe, he would be their savior today. Maybe, he would take that strange contraption and release them from this prison. Maybe, he would let them run free again.

None of this was what Caiden had in mind. Though the scene was shocking, he was taught not to fear anything. I am their leader. They follow my orders. Though he ran this over and over in his mind, he could not stop the Pokemon from shocking, flaming, and tackling their cells. The way they looked at Caiden, as if they were pleading but at the same time wanting to kill him, stuck in his mind for some time. He tried to push the images of their eyes out of his brain and overpower it with the image of him as an executive, controlling these Pokemon. Caiden successfully made it down the first hallway and into the elevator, again sliding the key and pressing the number "4" for the fourth floor.

Up here, Caiden found larger, evolved, powerful and possibly dangerous Pokemon. Gyarados, Salamence, Metagross, Golem, Charizard, Dragonite. These cells were much larger - the Gyarados' cell accomodated their Water-type with an amount of water that was barely sufficient for their health - and far more heavily guarded. Caiden could easily see what power the beasts had in store for him, if he were to dare let them out. A Metagross let loose a nasty Hyper Beam as he walked by its cage, but the transparent cell walls didn't budge. Though he felt a little unsettled, Caiden seemed to be perfectly protected and safe.

His task was to bring the Pokemon in the cells 4K7 and 4D2 safely out of their confinement and into pokeballs, which were to be given immediately to Lord Kishiro; from that point on Caiden had no interest in what would become of the two Pokemon. Ignoring the bellows and cries of the Pokemon around him - which somehow escaped from the soundproof cells - Caiden searched for row D and immediately spotted his first target. A Steelix, just as fearsome and intimidating as the others he'd seen. Its black eyes were lined with streaks of red, and its massive metal head bobbed and trembled from side to side, like the creature had no control of it.

As Caiden stared up at the beast, the Steelix let its gargantuan jaw fall a little, and closed its mouth again. Open, close, open, close. It must be sick, Caiden thought, frowning. What a pity. Such a huge Pokemon... to waste. He thought nothing more of it. Caiden turned to the universal key slot and keypad and entered the passcode, which suddenly transformed the colossal Pokemon into mysterious energy that was placed inside its assigned pokeball. The ball was uniformly colored silver and crimson red. And that's it. The immense power of the thing is all in this puny ball. He chuckled darkly to himself and moved on.

The next Pokemon was, nearly at the end of the row, a beautiful Blaziken. Unlike the rest of the prisoned Pokemon, it seemed healthy and strong. It awaited Caiden calmly, standing with its bird-like arms crossed across its flaming chest.
The Pokemon's eyes almost appeared to be glaring, or squinting, at Caiden.
With one glance at its composure, Caiden searched the Blaziken's cage. It hardly met the requirements for a Pokemon's needs, yet the fire on the ends of its arms blazed and rippled strongly. It did not attempt to assault Caiden when he passed by, but merely stared at him; the glare, Caiden thought, seemed to be scornful and condescending. As if it's better than me. Again, Caiden chuckled. What an ignorant creature.

The Blaziken kept its gaze eerily focused on Caiden until it was situated in its pokeball.

***

"For a simple job, you have done well, sure," Lord Kishiro sighed. "Don't think this is the hardest of your tasks. But I am tired, and so I expect to see you again tomorrow morning to receive your next objective." The man nodded and waved his hand boorishly. "Dismissed, executive."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Caiden nodded his head and promptly exited the room, grinning boldly. He didn't think, let alone dare to ask about his room change.
In the hall, he passed several peons he'd seen before. Probably battled against them in training. They were whispering and grunting amongst themselves, but as Caiden walked by, they stopped and averted their eyes to the ground, walking feverishly.
"'Evening," Caiden tried, smiling faintly for a moment. "Dinner's s-- "
Before he could finish, the subordinates passed him and left him alone. His mouth hung open stupidly. Caiden watched them leave, his face flushing with anger, and turned away to get to his room.

CAIDEN HESTER, ROOM 210
MOVED TO EXECUTIVE SECTOR, ROOM 347

Caiden slammed his fist against the door. That's what they saw. Why... why do they care? I don't even know them. Dismissing the self-absorbed peons, he shook his head and broke into a run toward the elevator and his new sector.

The elevator in the main building - the building that contained the subordinate rooms, the exectuve and adminstrator rooms, and the dining hall - was enormous. It easily took up the entire center of the structure at about 30 square feet. And despite its size, the elevator moved swiftly and silently. A rumor had spread that the Kishiro family made Electric-types power the cables to lift and lower the elevator, and they had the Pokemon working like slaves, day and night. Caiden wasn't sure if he believed it or not; it seemed somewhat plausible for the elevator's condition.

As Caiden stepped in through the doors, he noticed two older men wearing conventional laboratory robes, talking to each other in quiet, secretive voices. They dismissed his arrival completely, or they hadn't seen him altogether. Though he didn't mean to eavesdrop, he could hear most of what they were saying. The metal, echoing interior of the elevator betrayed their hushed voices.

"...a number of them."
"It's gone too far... you can't be telling me this now."
"With all honesty, it's fact. He plans to have us experiment on more..."
"But... potentially life-threatening."
"Isn't everything?"
"But the first one..."
"I'm just telling you what... told us."
"You know what I'm saying. It could have killed us all, destroyed the lab."
"...doesn't matter anymore."
"So he wants to keep this up? Make more of them?"
"Mhm."

The first scientist shook his bowed head and folded his arm across his chest in contemplation. That ended the conversation, and the men stayed still until the elevator dinged noisily for their floor.
Caiden tried to make sense of what he had heard, but he couldn't think of anything. One of what? Make more of what? And he had only rarely ever seen those scientists wandering around, especially in the main building. In fact, he didn't know where they lived. Do they come out of nowhere? Nearly missing the doors' opening at his floor, Caiden was consumed with thoughts about the possibilities of the scientists' conversation.

He got off and quickly found his room. It was much bigger and nicer than his room in the subordinate sector, but it was still nothing much. He would live with it. It was only when Caiden fell onto his bed did he feel the exhaustion of his lack of sleep the other night; it had finally caught up to him. He was asleep in seconds, with all his clothes and shoes still on.

That night, Caiden's face twitched as he dreamed. He dreamed of a godly and monstrous Pokemon opening its grinning, malevolent jaws, head swinging back and forth ominously. In front of the terrifying face of the creature were his mother and his sister. As the Pokemon leaned in to tear apart and devour the two humans, a pair of fierce, fiery eyes that seemed oddly familiar flashed, ending the dream abruptly. Caiden was left alone to lay in the darkness of his new room with an unusual longing for his family. Another sleepless night, but for different reasons entirely.