Hydrange

[Jo]

<sup>Content, and full of pancakes, a silver-haired Joe began to journey through the complex in an attempt to find his room. He strode in blissfull unawareness, as a dull, roaring thunder hung low through-out the steel passage. Unbeknowst to him, a major riot was spilling from the vault compound towards freedom. And there was little he could do against it, even if he knew.

So, for now, Joe was strolling towards his quarters, sighing and wishing things could be less sleepy. He went over room arrangements in his head, as he had little else to do. He remembered that he was paired with a small brunette, Renee, and he also knew that he neighboured with the scruffy lad from the brawl on the sub (who, for some reason, insisted that people called him JT). There was a mechanic called Poppy, who had whispered a solemn 'Hello' before scuttling off to her own room, and a quiet lass called Sarah. Poking a wad of syrup out from between the gap in his wisdom teeth, Joe had arrived at the living quarters before he knew it. He visualised his way to the particular door from this direction, which was a good thing, he guessed, as he remembered where to go. But the door to the room he thought he should be going in was open.

Now, Joe specifically remembered closing this door as his sleeve got trapped in there this morning and he took a couple of seconds fiddling about with the door lock. Renee seemed hardly the type of person without manners, and so by process of elimination, Joe presumed somebody had entered the wrong room. Opening the gap between the door and it's frame, Joe noticed that the room was also dark. He flicked on a switch casually.

"Hello, can I help--?"</sup>

[Jimmy]

JT decided to skip breakfast the next morning. He wanted to walk around the facility for a while, memorize where everything was. He also looked around to see if there were any secret doors. He found only two, but he was sure that there were much more than that. At 10 in the morning, it was time for JT to go on duty. His first rounds was at the prison cells, guarding the prisoners. " You must be the famous little boy that beat up our big man, Dave," a voice said as a figure walked toward him. As the figure grew nearer, JT recognized the man as the famous Julius Hanes. " You're hear on time, I like that. Your partner is a little late, he better not keep this up. Well, goodbye and good luck." Julius then left before JT could talk to him. Just as he walked away, another figure came up to him. It was.......his partner.

" So we meet again," JT said to his partner. Of all people, it was funny how his partner turned out to be Dave Miller. Dave didn't seemed so thrilled about his partner either. Without looking at JT a second time, he went to his post.

" Listen, that little win you had was a fluke. So you do your job, and I'll handle my business, and the next time we fight you won't be so lucky. Believe me, there will be a next time."

JT just looked at Dave with a surprised expression at first, but then grinned. He didn't expect Dave to be the serious type. " Fine with-"

" Hey look, freshmeat," Turning around to see who this was, JT saw two prisoners loss and out of their cell. One was holding a leadpipe. Looking beyond them, JT saw that all the other cells were opened and empty as well. " You have two choices. You can either come with us into your new cell peacefully, or die. Shouldn't be a very hard decision," the prisoner said laughing.

" I pick neither!" Dave said, and he ran full force at the one that was talking. With one swift motion, the guard struck Dave at a spot on his collarbone and Dave fell to the ground unconscious.

" Dave!" JT said, checking his partner. That was a rule amongst the guards, always protect your partner. Thoughts swam through JT's head. How'd everyone escape? Who helped them? It must of been someone from the in- Before he could finish, he was struck in the head with the pipe. Blood rolled down his forehead. Him and Dave were then placed and locked in the nearest cell.

(My next post will be my escape, so no need to worry or anything)

[Aura]

(HORROR!)

The light flicked on, illuminating the scene. Joe looked upon it in horror. The rooms were mainly white, but this one had been splashed with red. It covered the far wall and the carpet around the body slumped in the corner. It was like something out of a horror film, except this was so very very real. The person who was quite clearly dead was Julius Hanes, and beside him on the floor was a slain Swampert, it too painted red. Both of them were terribly mutilated, possibly the work of a Gallade or some other armbladed Pokemon.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

***

When Renee's brain started functioning again, she found herself to be completely in the dark. At first she thought it was because she had her eyes shut, but after a moment she saw a thin line of light filtering from under a door. She was lying on her stomach, her hands bound behind her back. She kicked something with her leg, and heard it fall with a thump to the ground. When her eyes adjusted to the light a bit more, she could vaguely make out that she appeared to be in a broom closet.

She shifted, uncomfortable in the small space and on the hard floor. She tried to think about what had happened just a moment before… but her head hurt. She wanted to go back to sleep. But reason screamed no.

… It seemed impossible, but it must be the truth. The woman she’d though was Beatrice was another woman entirely. She’d released the prisoners and now she, Renee, was in a broom closet, with her arms bound. As strange as it seemed, she came to the conclusion that Hydrange had been overrun, taken over. If that was the truth, then any help that came would…

She bit her lip. She didn’t even want to think about it. Panic threatened to overwhelm her for a moment, before logic kicked in. She couldn’t just stay here. Well she could, but the results could be rather violent and unwanted, and her pride wouldn’t allow it. She needed to escape from here. But how?

The answer was so simple: Rune. She started to wriggle around, trying to reach the Great Ball she had in a cavity in the back of her belt. Her father had made it there, just in case. She’d never really understood why, but now she was very very glad for it.

As he hand grasped the Great Ball, she froze as some kind of commotion came from outside. If it was the prisoners, she didn’t want Rune to be found, or he’d be taken away from her. So, she lay there, silent and waiting.

(... Curse my limited computer time!)

[Jo]

<sup>Joe blinked. He blinked twice. He blinked again, and then once more. He was seeing what he thought he was seeing. And he still couldn't believe it. His room used to be a cream colour. Used to be. Now it was hardly mistakable as a muddy red, and as blood dripped down the wall and the paper peeled, Joe's fair eyes fell upon a site of the mutilted corpse of Julius Hanes. And what looked to be a swampert. He felt it hard to contain a gasp of sheer astonishment as he eyes widened, adjusting to the darkness.

He wanted to get out. No, he couldn't if he wanted. He still had to find Renee. Feeling depressed, and rather shaken, Joe left the room and closed the door tightly. He hoped nobody would encounter what he had uncovered. And who could he tell? They would believe him, he was sure, they trusted him... but he didn't want to resort to exploiting the bodies and have others see the sight themselves as 'proof'. Well, Renee was missing, JT was on patrol, Sarah was probably still eating brekfast.

He did the only thing he could do. He knocked on Poppy's door.</sup>

[Jimmy]

" Ahhhhh, me head...." JT said, as he finally awoke from the previous event. The pain in his head was equavilent to that of a hangover, but 100 times worse. Rubbing his forehea, he felt where the escaped prisoner had struck him in the head. The cut had healed into a scab, so JT figured he must have been unconscious for a day maybe....or more. Now paying attention to his surroundings, JT saw that the prisoners had locked him into one of the cells. On the bottom bunk of the bunk beds that were supplied for the prisoners to sleep on, there was a large shape under the covers......Dave, JT figured. Getting up, JT stumbled back and forth before being able to hold himself up. He then walked over to Dave and whispered in his ear. " Dave," JT whispered, pushing him a little bit, " Come on man get up!"

Turning over, Dave looked at JT digusted that he woke him up from his sleep. " Ohhh, so your finally awake. Both of us didn't get to have a four day straight sleep like you so let me go back to sleep," Dave said, putting the covers over his head and turning back over.

" Four days?! Really?!...wait....that doesn't matter right now. We're getting out of here!" JT said, holding on to a circular object in his hand.

" How? I already tried," Dave said, pointing to a Poliwrath sitting in the corner. " No physical damage at all can break these bars," Dave said, already with the mindset that the escapees were going to completely over run Hydrange and there was nothing they could do about it.

" No physical damage, huh? How about mental? Or maybe......psychic. Gallade, Psychic! Then Psycho Cut!" JT threw the Pokeball which he was holding on the ground and out appeared the bladed Pokemon Gallade. The Gallade first weakened and bent the bars to the cell up with a Psychic attack. He then turned this Psychic energy into a blade, and sliced the bars clean in half, making an opening for JT and Dave. " Impressive, wasn't it? Let's go," JT said, a grin on his face. Dave, not really trying to show how impresed he was, followed JT as they made their escape with Poliwrath right by his side. As soon as they left the cell, they were attack by a barrage of Flamethrowers, Leaf Storms, Confuse Rays, everything. " Gallade, quick Protect!" A green aura gathered around JT, Dave and their Pokemon and the attacks were blocked, not harming any of them. " Now Gallade...."

" Hypnosis and Dynamic Punch!" Poliwrath first sent out little psychic waves all around the area where the cells are, hitting all the Pokemon and Trainers he could. These waves put them to sleep. All the Pokemon and Trainers Poliwrath couldn't put to sleep, he hit with a Dynamic Punch. Now everyone was either asleep, knocked out, unconscious, or confused by the punch. Dave looked at JT and said, " Couldn't let you be the big hero all the time."

JT grinned. " Looks like we're on the same page right now. We have to be anyway. Let's go save Hydrange. Ohh and Gallade, use Psychic to clear the path and put them back in cells. Lock them too," As they went through the path, Gallade slid every one of the escapees into a cell with Psychic one by one and closed the cells, locking them and fixing the one he broke. JT and Dave continued precariously through Hydrange, looking out more anymore prisoners. Even though they just defeatd about 20 to 30 people, there were still much, much more than that to capture. This battle wasn't near over.

[Jo]

^{(Psst, post Nicola~!)}

[Aura]

(@Jimmy: Isn't 30 people down a bit of an overkill?
@Josh: After all this time and she still hasn't posted, I don't think she's going to post really... I've given her long enough, and she can still jump in.)

From outside, came a shout, sounding something vaguely like “Hypnosis and Dynamic Punch!” which was followed by the sound of things hitting the floor, and bones being crushed. Renee flinched, then wriggled around a bit more, trying to grab Rune’s Pokeball, but to no avail. She frozen when the sounds from outside stopped suddenly.

"Looks like we're on the same page right now. We have to be anyway. Let's go save Hydrange. Ohh and Gallade, use Psychic to clear the path and put them back in cells. Lock them too.” A male voice said. Judging by what he’d just said, Renee figured he wasn’t a criminal. She hoped. It was gambling time.

“Hey!” She cried on the top of her lungs. The receding footsteps stopped, then came towards her. Oh please don’t be a criminal, she prayed, before calling out again. “Little help please?”

(Short post is short... I will be coming to find you Josh, next post. Promise."

[Jo]

<sup>(Oh... mkay.)

Visions of slippery organs swam through Joe's brain - he clutched his mouth for he was violently quaking. Poppy... Poppy still wasn't answering her door. Of course, she'd probably gone for brekfast like the others, and she hadn't returned. Joe was running out of options. Murder! his mind was screaming. Murder! He just wanted to scream those exact words. He just wanted to... run...

Without thinking, his legs picked up on the command. He was now running through the steel corridors and junctions of the prison. He heard other people shouting, now... more murders... why?!</sup>