A man strode in, flanked by the two guards from the docks. He was tall and gaunt, with a face that looked like it had been carved from old wood and left out in the rain. His eyes, a cold, pale yellow, fixed on Eliana.
"So," he said, his voice a dry rustle. "This is the little lost lamb."
He ignored the other prisoners, walking directly to her cage. He looked her up and down, a scientist examining a specimen.
"Who are you?" he asked, his tone flat, devoid of curiosity. It was a command, not a question.
"I was looking for the S.S. Anne," Eliana said with a trembling voice, there's no way I'm telling these dudes my name, her performance flawless. "But, I got lost."
The man let out a short, sharp bark of a laugh. "The S.S. Anne, a likely story. A little girl, wandering around a restricted military dock, just happens to stumble upon our most sensitive operation."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered, shrinking back against the bars.
"Of course you don't," he said, his lip curling into a sneer. "Let's see if we can jog your memory."
He turned to one of the guards, who snatched open the lock and dragged her out. The other stepped forward with a bat in hand. Eliana gasped and let out a cry of genuine pain as he struck her across the back, sending her to her knees. He hit her again, this time in the stomach, forcing the air from her lungs in a whoosh.
She could feel Ralts's fury boiling in her mind, a desperate desire to intervene. She sent back a wave of pure calm.
"Now," the gaunt man said, crouching down so he was eye-level with her. "Who sent you? Are you with the League? The International Police? Answer me, or the next one breaks your arm."
"I'm just a kid," she sobbed, tears streaming down her face, a mixture of genuine pain and perfect acting. "Please, let me go."
The man sighed, a sound of profound disappointment. He stood up and nodded to the guard. The guard raised the bat again.
An angry snarl stopped the hit as a bolt of lightning struck the man in the hand. He let out a shout of pain as he dropped the bat. Everyone turned in the direction the attack came from to see the Alolan Raichu growing angrily, fur bristling with electricity.
"I'm sick of your disobedience," The boss furiously stalked up to the cage with a pistol held in his hand, "This is the last time you attack one of my men."
Ralts's horn glowed as a Psyshock shot out from it, blasting the man's hand and throwing the pistol to the ground. The pistol clattered to the ground as the boss yelped in pain, clutching the empty space where his hand used to be. "You... you have a Pokémon!"
A cruel smile stretched across Eliana's face, her tears instantly gone, replaced by an expression of chilling, predatory delight. The transformation was so swift, so absolute, that the men took a step back, their bravado evaporating in the face of something they couldn't comprehend.
"You made a mistake," she said, her voice no longer a child's whimper, but a low, melodic purr that promised violence. She rose to her feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in her back and stomach. "You should have just killed me when you had the chance."
The gaunt man stared, his yellow eyes wide with a mixture of shock and dawning horror. "What... what are you?"
"I'm the girl who's going to turn your brains into soup," Eliana replied, and with a flick of her wrist, she unleashed her power. It wasn't a targeted strike; it was a wave, a psychic shockwave that slammed into the minds of everyone in the room.
The three men clutched their heads, screaming as their own worst memories—failures, betrayals, moments of pure terror—played on a loop behind their eyes.
The captured women and Pokémon looked at her with a mixture of confusion, fear, and hope. The Alolan Raichu in particular held an expression of amazement.
While the men were writhing on the floor, Ralts teleported beside Eliana waiting for her next order.
Ralts gave a small nod. He teleported from one cage to another, using a precise application of psychic force to snap the cheap padlocks. Women stumbled out, dazed and disbelieving. Pokémon of all shapes and sizes emerged, blinking in the dim light. As everyone else fled, the Raichu stayed behind watching the girl deal with the three men that had been torturing it.
Eliana kept her attention on the leader. She walked over to him, her steps slow and deliberate, and kicked away the pistol he had been reaching for. She crouched down, her face inches from his.
"Let's have a little chat," she whispered, and she dove into his mind.
It was a filthy place, a swamp of greed, cruelty, and ambition. She didn't bother sifting through the muck. She went straight for the core, the information she craved. She found it easily: a deep-seated loyalty to an idiotic cause, becoming the richest man alive. Honestly crooks nowadays never had any real ambitions. Eliana pulled back, leaving him a drooling, catatonic mess. She stood up and was about to finish them all off when the Alolan Raichu came in front of her.
Eliana blinked, confused at what it was doing when it sent a message to her.
The Raichu nodded enthusiastically, looking up at her with pleading eyes.
Eliana shrugged,
As she stepped away she let out a small,
The Raichu didn't need a second invitation. It let out a furious cry, its body crackling with psychic energy. The three men, already broken, were lifted into the air, their limbs flailing uselessly. The Raichu's tail began to glow, a brilliant, blinding pink.
It slammed its tail into the floor, and a wave of raw psychic energy erupted, throwing the men against the walls with bone-shattering force. They crumpled to the ground, their bodies twisted at unnatural angles, their eyes wide and vacant. They didn't move again.
The Raichu stood over them, panting, its chest heaving. It turned to Eliana, its blue eyes no longer filled with hatred, but with a newfound respect. It gave a small, respectful nod.
She looked at the chaos that had been wrought: the dead men, the empty cages, the lingering psychic energy that made the air crackle.
Ralts hopped onto Eliana's shoulder, wondering what they'd be doing now.
"Now we get out of here before the cops show up," Eliana said, her gaze falling on the exhausted Pokémon beside her. And get a new member of the team while I'm at it.
"I'm going to be honest with you," Eliana bent down and looked at the Alolan Raichu, "You can either get captured by the authorities, and probably end up in another situation like this soon."
The Raichu hissed at that, looking pissed, its tail lashing.
"Or," Eliana continued, taking out a PokéBall, "You can come with me and kill anyone who threatens you."
The simplicity of the offer hung in the air, a stark contract of violence and protection. She didn't promise friendship or care. She promised power, the one language the Raichu seemed to understand.
The Raichu stared at the PokéBall, then at Eliana. It looked at the bodies on the floor, then at the empty cages. It let out a soft, determined squeak, and tapped its nose against the PokéBall. The device clicked shut with a satisfying finality.
"Good choice," Eliana murmured, attaching the ball to her belt. "Now, let's go."
She and Ralts slipped out of the room, the wail of sirens growing louder in the distance. They moved through the empty corridors, their footsteps echoing in the silence. They emerged back into the bright, chaotic energy of the docks, just another pair of figures melting into the crowd that had surrounded the escaped women.
The real police force, the ones from the city, not the Gym, had already arrived. They swarmed the area, their faces grim and determined. They were evaluating the health of those who had recently escaped and questioning the dockworkers, who were now eager to talk, their fear finally overridden by anger.
Eliana watched from a safe distance, a small, satisfied smile playing on her lips.