Arena
3rd November
9:30 AM
Rina's footsteps echoed through the warehouse as she made her way through the arena basement.
"Hello?" Rina called out. Wading through the darkness, the sounds of rattled cages came from one corridor. "Why on earth did he tell me to come here?" Rina muttered, placing her laptop on a table. Suddenly, a realisation dawned upon her. 'What if he's-' Se thought abruptly, making a search on the database. Her eyes widened the second she got the results. A figure lurched from the darkness behind her, wielding a bat. "No... No way!" Rina screamed, turning around to be met with a bat in the face, knocking her unconscious. The figure, still remaining in the darkness smirked, staring at the laptop.
"Heh... so you finally figured it out, huh? Thanks for the laptop, but you're not much use to me any more..."
10:00 AM
Chris slumped himself out of bed, weakly staring at the digital clock display.
"Christ, how late did I get to sleep?" He mumbled, putting on his work suit, and taking a small SMG and his trusty Desert Eagle from the cupboard. Spinning it around his fingers slightly, he placed the guns in their holsters. Walking through the living room, Kristy looked up at him and nodded.
"Stay safe Chris." Kristy said, as Chris shut the door behind him. Making his way through the early morning streets of Fairview, he decided he should pay Alice a visit.
'This could be my last chance today to find the true bad guy here, and maybe learn who's been pulling the strings for Ryuji behind the scenes.' Chris thought to himself, the population of Fairview concentrating too much on their own lives to notice him. Pushing the door open, he made his way through the office block, and to the floor where Alice is usually situated. "Alice?" He called out, but to no avail. There was nobody in the block, except the remainders of Alice's holdout. "That's weird... she never goes out!" Chris decided to shrug it off and make sure he was at the arena.
11:15
Chris met up with Will in the parking lot.
"Where's Alice?" Chris asked Will.
"Beats me. We can't waste any more time though, let's go already." Will said, opening the access to the underground. It was surprisingly empty in the basement, with a few echoes of rattled cages in the distance.
"Guess there's no grand designs going on here then." Chris chuckled, making their way through the large warehouse. Hundreds of crates, stocked with unknown materials adorned each shelf, as they made their way to a 'restricted access' area.
"Piece of cake." Will boasted, unlocking access to the door. A small corridor was on the other side, with two scientists in one of the rooms. One of them was talking on the phone.
"Yes sir. I'll let them know. Anyway, the mutation has worked perfectly sir. Tests have shown that only a well placed head shot will bring infected individuals down now, effectively rendering any kind of strategy Chris has useless."
"So they were mutating the zombies?" Chris whispered, and finally took a cue to walk around the corner, his gun drawn. "Hey, Einsteins!" Immediately snapping his phone shut, the two men rose their guns.
"Who the hell are you?!?" The other yelled out, as Chris confidently shot both of them before they could react.
"That caught them off guard." Chris chuckled placing his Desert Eagle back in the holster.
"You could have at least interrogated ONE of them." Will muttered, before noticing another laptop on the table. "Hey, over there." Walking up to the machine, Chris turned the screen on, his eyes widening at what he saw. "Derrick, you bastard..."
"What's wrong?"
"Secronom's a government company Will. This is all under government supervision. They're behind all of this!" Chris mumbled in rage, before walking out the room again. Turning around a corner, he bumped into Alice. "Jesus H. Christ!" He yelled out, quickly aiming his gun.
"WOAH WOAH WOAH! Calm down Chris!" Will panicked, before Chris realised his mistake.
"Christ, does every damn person in the world have to sneak up on me the whole frickin' time? Also, where were you Alice?" Chris said, quickly hiding his gun again, scratching the back of his head.
"I was only a few minutes late. You could have waited."
"Alice, we only have about twenty more minutes before the entire population of Fairview gets infected. There's no time for waiting around!" Chris pointed out, before walking off.
"Well, the super zombies aren't bothering us any more. It's just Ryuji we need to take care of." Alice said, passing Chris her pokéball.
"Wait, you knew about that already?"
"It's kind of obvious when they're spraying them with radioactive gas the whole time, isn't it?"
"Whatever." Continuing to make their way through the maze of a warehouse. Coming across another sealed door, labelled 'meeting room'. Chris nodded to Will, who set to work on the notepad. As the door threw itself open, the sound of a gunshot boomed through the arena, Will collapsing on the floor.
"Will!" Chris exclaimed, Will's lifeless body lying on the floor. Turning to face the attackers, he saw the shocked expression of a middle-aged man with a cigar.
"C-Chris? B-but how did you-" The man said, before Chris interrupted.
"DERRICK! You'll pay for this!" Chris yelled out, the other individuals raising their weapons. A panicked Ryuji quickly surveyed the room, and faced Derrick.
"This was NOT part of the plan!" He desperately called out, running through another room. Alice backed a bit, nervously turning to Chris.
"Well, er... run, or shoot?" She asked him.
"Both!" Chris said, as the two ran off in separate directions. Firing blind shots at the men who chased after them, Chris looked around, trying to find a way to stall his pursuers. Kicking a row of boxes, he temporarily obstructed a path behind him, as bullets ringing around him. Noticing a group of barrels stacked together Chris thought quickly. 'Evil villain rule #12: Always leave explosive barrels in important locations'. Waiting for a group of the agents to run around the corner, one of them watched in horror as Chris placed a bullet right in the middle of the explosive material, setting off a massive detonation, sending chunks of the pursuers everywhere. Blood covering the entire area, Chris covered his eyes slightly. "Groovy." Meanwhile, Alice had managed to reduce her group of attackers down to 2, and had managed to lose them by climbing on top of the crate racks. As the two searched for her, she kept a close eye on their movements from above. Jumping across a row, it grabbed their attention, as they started firing random shots into the sky. Climbing down the crates on the other side, she ran around, wielding her Katana, and thrusting it into one of them, then pulling out her rifle, placing it right against the other's head, and pulling down the trigger. Chris ran around the corner just to see this in time.
"Come on, let's get Derrick." Alice signalled, as the two walked back to the conference room. Derrick was unarmed, cowering in the corner as they walked in.
"Start talking. Why are you doing this?" Chris said, pulling Derrick off the floor by his suit.
"It all started with your father Chris. He was working with Secronom, formally known as Greybaum. This isn't the first time we've tried to start an outbreak in Fairview... he sabotaged it. We found out just as he discovered our involvement with Greybaum. We hired you so we could pin the death of your father on rogue workers. The people you killed Chris... some of them were against Secronom. They knew too much. We thought you were going to be a push over, one we can manipulate with ease, and we would finally be able to rid the world of opposers, and claim what was rightfully ours."
"So you used me as a pawn, just so you could earn a little bit more cash. But what you didn't expect to happen was me discovering the work at Encephalon Isle."
"As soon as those idiots in charge hired you Chris, I knew it was a big mistake. I hired you for suicidal jobs, ones that would surely get you killed... guess we under estimated you Chris. Hell, you discovered our plan and killed me before you would die yourself..."
"But who is my father's killer then? What's his name, who is he?"
"I... I can never tell you Chris. You made me proud out there, hell, even surprised. But I leave you with one final word Chris..." Derrick said, taking out a revolver and aiming it to his head.
"Derrick, wait!"
"...Nile..." Derrick muttered, pulling down the trigger. Chris pondered in astonishment what he meant.
"Nile? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Chris said, walking over to Will's body. Closing Will's eyes in respect, he turned towards the door Ryuji fled through. Opening the door, a long, dark corridor met his eyes. Taking out a flash light, they walked through the light-less part of the facility. Eventually surfacing into the arena battle area, the crowd roared with excitement, as Ryuji greeted them on his microphone.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, have we got you lucky people one hell of a show! It's payback time against Chris Hargreaves!" Ryuji laughed into the microphone, taking out a pokéball. "So Chris, why don't you humour the crowd here with our own little Encephalon Isle tournament. Yeah, how'd you like that?"
Alice nodded to Chris, reminding him he had her Arcanine.
"He's well trained Chris, just leave him to do what he wants." Alice told Chris.
"Alright then. I guess I'll embarrass you in front of your adoring fans again Ryuji." Chris boasted to Ryuji, sending out Alice's Arcanine.
"You will LOSE this one, Chris!" Ryuji yelled out, sending out a Nidoking.
"You think you can take him on?" Chris asked Alice's Arcanine, who nodded, running into the fight by himself. "So I just sit back and watch, huh?" Chris asked Alice, who smiled. The Arcanine easily outpaced Ryuji's Nidoking, making nearly every attack miss completely. To his horror, Ryuji's nidoking was getting hammered by Alice's pet, forcing him to draw out a double barraled revolver and aim It at Chris.
"No! I refuse to lose to you again, Chris!" He yelled out, firing shots at Chris. While Chris crawled from the floor after ducking, Ryuji pulled out a PDA and hit a button, but absolutely nothing happened as he stared around the audience. "What the hell? Where are they?"
"I think you need to replace 'they' with 'the zombies', Ryuji." Alice said, the audience talking amongst themselves at what had just happened.
"Yeah! That's right everyone! Ryuji was trying to start an outbreak amongst you guys!" Chris yelled out, pointing at Ryuji.
"You... You ruined EVERYTHING!" Ryuji screamed out. "The plan was perfect Chris. It was unstoppable! Let's fight ourselves Chris, and you're gonna cry for mercy! AND THEN I WONT GIVE YOU ANY!" Ryuji laughed from sheer insanity, pulling out a metal pole. With the press of a button, the pole transformed into a four beamed laser katana. By now the two pokémon had ceased fighting, instead watching what was happening. With another press of his PDA, a wall of fire encircled the fighting area, and he began to charge at Chris. With a quick draw of his gun, Chris shot the beam katana from Ryuji's hands, causing him to simply grapple at him with his fists, trying to throw Chris into the fire. "LISTEN HERE, CHRIS! I'M THE NUMBER ONE HERE! I HAVE, I AM, AND I ALWAYS WILL BE!" Ryuji yelled, before Chris overthrew him onto the fire emitters, causing him to call out a deafening scream.
"Yeah, you're on fire." Chris mocked, as he passed Rina her pokéball back. Returning Arcanine, she picked out an empty pokéball and captured the Nidoking in it as well. Unknown to them, a canister of propane was placed behind them via the arena lift, Chris only facing it as a bullet flew through the sky, hitting the canister, it's spark setting it off. Thrown onto the floor, Alice remained unconscious, as Chris stumbled to his feet, the wall of fire having turned off. The audience had already fled the scene, as Chris looked up to see the attacker.
"...I thought it was you." Chris sneered.
9:30 AM
Rina's footsteps echoed through the warehouse as she made her way through the arena basement.
"Hello?" Rina called out. Wading through the darkness, the sounds of rattled cages came from one corridor. "Why on earth did he tell me to come here?" Rina muttered, placing her laptop on a table. Suddenly, a realisation dawned upon her. 'What if he's-' Se thought abruptly, making a search on the database. Her eyes widened the second she got the results. A figure lurched from the darkness behind her, wielding a bat. "No... No way!" Rina screamed, turning around to be met with a bat in the face, knocking her unconscious. The figure, still remaining in the darkness smirked, staring at the laptop.
"Heh... so you finally figured it out, huh? Thanks for the laptop, but you're not much use to me any more..."
10:00 AM
Chris slumped himself out of bed, weakly staring at the digital clock display.
"Christ, how late did I get to sleep?" He mumbled, putting on his work suit, and taking a small SMG and his trusty Desert Eagle from the cupboard. Spinning it around his fingers slightly, he placed the guns in their holsters. Walking through the living room, Kristy looked up at him and nodded.
"Stay safe Chris." Kristy said, as Chris shut the door behind him. Making his way through the early morning streets of Fairview, he decided he should pay Alice a visit.
'This could be my last chance today to find the true bad guy here, and maybe learn who's been pulling the strings for Ryuji behind the scenes.' Chris thought to himself, the population of Fairview concentrating too much on their own lives to notice him. Pushing the door open, he made his way through the office block, and to the floor where Alice is usually situated. "Alice?" He called out, but to no avail. There was nobody in the block, except the remainders of Alice's holdout. "That's weird... she never goes out!" Chris decided to shrug it off and make sure he was at the arena.
11:15
Chris met up with Will in the parking lot.
"Where's Alice?" Chris asked Will.
"Beats me. We can't waste any more time though, let's go already." Will said, opening the access to the underground. It was surprisingly empty in the basement, with a few echoes of rattled cages in the distance.
"Guess there's no grand designs going on here then." Chris chuckled, making their way through the large warehouse. Hundreds of crates, stocked with unknown materials adorned each shelf, as they made their way to a 'restricted access' area.
"Piece of cake." Will boasted, unlocking access to the door. A small corridor was on the other side, with two scientists in one of the rooms. One of them was talking on the phone.
"Yes sir. I'll let them know. Anyway, the mutation has worked perfectly sir. Tests have shown that only a well placed head shot will bring infected individuals down now, effectively rendering any kind of strategy Chris has useless."
"So they were mutating the zombies?" Chris whispered, and finally took a cue to walk around the corner, his gun drawn. "Hey, Einsteins!" Immediately snapping his phone shut, the two men rose their guns.
"Who the hell are you?!?" The other yelled out, as Chris confidently shot both of them before they could react.
"That caught them off guard." Chris chuckled placing his Desert Eagle back in the holster.
"You could have at least interrogated ONE of them." Will muttered, before noticing another laptop on the table. "Hey, over there." Walking up to the machine, Chris turned the screen on, his eyes widening at what he saw. "Derrick, you bastard..."
"What's wrong?"
"Secronom's a government company Will. This is all under government supervision. They're behind all of this!" Chris mumbled in rage, before walking out the room again. Turning around a corner, he bumped into Alice. "Jesus H. Christ!" He yelled out, quickly aiming his gun.
"WOAH WOAH WOAH! Calm down Chris!" Will panicked, before Chris realised his mistake.
"Christ, does every damn person in the world have to sneak up on me the whole frickin' time? Also, where were you Alice?" Chris said, quickly hiding his gun again, scratching the back of his head.
"I was only a few minutes late. You could have waited."
"Alice, we only have about twenty more minutes before the entire population of Fairview gets infected. There's no time for waiting around!" Chris pointed out, before walking off.
"Well, the super zombies aren't bothering us any more. It's just Ryuji we need to take care of." Alice said, passing Chris her pokéball.
"Wait, you knew about that already?"
"It's kind of obvious when they're spraying them with radioactive gas the whole time, isn't it?"
"Whatever." Continuing to make their way through the maze of a warehouse. Coming across another sealed door, labelled 'meeting room'. Chris nodded to Will, who set to work on the notepad. As the door threw itself open, the sound of a gunshot boomed through the arena, Will collapsing on the floor.
"Will!" Chris exclaimed, Will's lifeless body lying on the floor. Turning to face the attackers, he saw the shocked expression of a middle-aged man with a cigar.
"C-Chris? B-but how did you-" The man said, before Chris interrupted.
"DERRICK! You'll pay for this!" Chris yelled out, the other individuals raising their weapons. A panicked Ryuji quickly surveyed the room, and faced Derrick.
"This was NOT part of the plan!" He desperately called out, running through another room. Alice backed a bit, nervously turning to Chris.
"Well, er... run, or shoot?" She asked him.
"Both!" Chris said, as the two ran off in separate directions. Firing blind shots at the men who chased after them, Chris looked around, trying to find a way to stall his pursuers. Kicking a row of boxes, he temporarily obstructed a path behind him, as bullets ringing around him. Noticing a group of barrels stacked together Chris thought quickly. 'Evil villain rule #12: Always leave explosive barrels in important locations'. Waiting for a group of the agents to run around the corner, one of them watched in horror as Chris placed a bullet right in the middle of the explosive material, setting off a massive detonation, sending chunks of the pursuers everywhere. Blood covering the entire area, Chris covered his eyes slightly. "Groovy." Meanwhile, Alice had managed to reduce her group of attackers down to 2, and had managed to lose them by climbing on top of the crate racks. As the two searched for her, she kept a close eye on their movements from above. Jumping across a row, it grabbed their attention, as they started firing random shots into the sky. Climbing down the crates on the other side, she ran around, wielding her Katana, and thrusting it into one of them, then pulling out her rifle, placing it right against the other's head, and pulling down the trigger. Chris ran around the corner just to see this in time.
"Come on, let's get Derrick." Alice signalled, as the two walked back to the conference room. Derrick was unarmed, cowering in the corner as they walked in.
"Start talking. Why are you doing this?" Chris said, pulling Derrick off the floor by his suit.
"It all started with your father Chris. He was working with Secronom, formally known as Greybaum. This isn't the first time we've tried to start an outbreak in Fairview... he sabotaged it. We found out just as he discovered our involvement with Greybaum. We hired you so we could pin the death of your father on rogue workers. The people you killed Chris... some of them were against Secronom. They knew too much. We thought you were going to be a push over, one we can manipulate with ease, and we would finally be able to rid the world of opposers, and claim what was rightfully ours."
"So you used me as a pawn, just so you could earn a little bit more cash. But what you didn't expect to happen was me discovering the work at Encephalon Isle."
"As soon as those idiots in charge hired you Chris, I knew it was a big mistake. I hired you for suicidal jobs, ones that would surely get you killed... guess we under estimated you Chris. Hell, you discovered our plan and killed me before you would die yourself..."
"But who is my father's killer then? What's his name, who is he?"
"I... I can never tell you Chris. You made me proud out there, hell, even surprised. But I leave you with one final word Chris..." Derrick said, taking out a revolver and aiming it to his head.
"Derrick, wait!"
"...Nile..." Derrick muttered, pulling down the trigger. Chris pondered in astonishment what he meant.
"Nile? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Chris said, walking over to Will's body. Closing Will's eyes in respect, he turned towards the door Ryuji fled through. Opening the door, a long, dark corridor met his eyes. Taking out a flash light, they walked through the light-less part of the facility. Eventually surfacing into the arena battle area, the crowd roared with excitement, as Ryuji greeted them on his microphone.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, have we got you lucky people one hell of a show! It's payback time against Chris Hargreaves!" Ryuji laughed into the microphone, taking out a pokéball. "So Chris, why don't you humour the crowd here with our own little Encephalon Isle tournament. Yeah, how'd you like that?"
Alice nodded to Chris, reminding him he had her Arcanine.
"He's well trained Chris, just leave him to do what he wants." Alice told Chris.
"Alright then. I guess I'll embarrass you in front of your adoring fans again Ryuji." Chris boasted to Ryuji, sending out Alice's Arcanine.
"You will LOSE this one, Chris!" Ryuji yelled out, sending out a Nidoking.
"You think you can take him on?" Chris asked Alice's Arcanine, who nodded, running into the fight by himself. "So I just sit back and watch, huh?" Chris asked Alice, who smiled. The Arcanine easily outpaced Ryuji's Nidoking, making nearly every attack miss completely. To his horror, Ryuji's nidoking was getting hammered by Alice's pet, forcing him to draw out a double barraled revolver and aim It at Chris.
"No! I refuse to lose to you again, Chris!" He yelled out, firing shots at Chris. While Chris crawled from the floor after ducking, Ryuji pulled out a PDA and hit a button, but absolutely nothing happened as he stared around the audience. "What the hell? Where are they?"
"I think you need to replace 'they' with 'the zombies', Ryuji." Alice said, the audience talking amongst themselves at what had just happened.
"Yeah! That's right everyone! Ryuji was trying to start an outbreak amongst you guys!" Chris yelled out, pointing at Ryuji.
"You... You ruined EVERYTHING!" Ryuji screamed out. "The plan was perfect Chris. It was unstoppable! Let's fight ourselves Chris, and you're gonna cry for mercy! AND THEN I WONT GIVE YOU ANY!" Ryuji laughed from sheer insanity, pulling out a metal pole. With the press of a button, the pole transformed into a four beamed laser katana. By now the two pokémon had ceased fighting, instead watching what was happening. With another press of his PDA, a wall of fire encircled the fighting area, and he began to charge at Chris. With a quick draw of his gun, Chris shot the beam katana from Ryuji's hands, causing him to simply grapple at him with his fists, trying to throw Chris into the fire. "LISTEN HERE, CHRIS! I'M THE NUMBER ONE HERE! I HAVE, I AM, AND I ALWAYS WILL BE!" Ryuji yelled, before Chris overthrew him onto the fire emitters, causing him to call out a deafening scream.
"Yeah, you're on fire." Chris mocked, as he passed Rina her pokéball back. Returning Arcanine, she picked out an empty pokéball and captured the Nidoking in it as well. Unknown to them, a canister of propane was placed behind them via the arena lift, Chris only facing it as a bullet flew through the sky, hitting the canister, it's spark setting it off. Thrown onto the floor, Alice remained unconscious, as Chris stumbled to his feet, the wall of fire having turned off. The audience had already fled the scene, as Chris looked up to see the attacker.
"...I thought it was you." Chris sneered.