Pokémon BW: Rise of Clarity (book 3 of the HBoD series)

Chapter 53: Heroic Resolve

I slowly came back to the wakening world, my eyes fluttering. The light stung, but I beared the pain as I tried to take in my surroundings. I was suspended in the air by a blue light that kept me constrained, two projectors, one below me and one above, that emitted it. The room was fairly large and resembled a high tech lab. On one of the tables, a machine sat with tons of wires coming out of it. Sitting atop it were two pokeballs. One was a regular red while the other was black with blue lines zigzagging across it.

I cracked a weak grin. They had yet to break into them then. But that also meant I was due for a 'visit' once they realized I was awake.

Closing my eyes again, I slowed down my breathing and attempted to reach out with my mind. I called for his voice, his aura, his very essence. There, some distance away, I felt him. Pushing forward across the vast space between our consciousnesses, I searched for a connection. It was like I was swimming in the abyssal depths of the ocean, blindly reaching out, hoping to catch onto a lifeline that stayed out of reach. As the gap between us seemed to largen, I finally managed to grasped onto it and tugged!

"Welcome aboard my frigate, Zeno."

I slowly opened my eyes and was instantly greeted with a splitting migraine. I hadn't realized the toll it took to reach out, but with my already weakened state, it wasn't surprising. And now another headache had just arrived.

"Colress," I said through gritted teeth.

"You might want to save your strength y'know," he said smugly as he took a seat in his chair, spinning it to face me with one leg crossed over the other. "Why, it won't take much now to make you stay down. It's quite amazing how you decided to just forgo your own safety in order to come and stop us. Quite the hero complex you have."

"I've decided to stop trying to fight the curse of being some sort of protagonist," I smirked at him.

Colress tutted. "Now now, don't act so cocky. After all, we have all your Pokemon in our custody. It would be a shame if something were to happen to them, wouldn't it?"

"You can't open them." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Or else you would have taken Zekrom and Reshiram out by now."

A dark shadow flitted across the scientist's expression for but a moment. "It's as you say. I've had quite the time trying to break into them. Deadlock seals are quite nasty even without whatever modifications were added onto them. But the casing itself is quite fragile compared to the seal."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "What do you-"

"Oh it's quite simple." Colress sat forwards and pressed his fingertips to one another. "If you refuse to hand over access of Zekrom's and Reshiram's pokeballs to me, then I'm afraid we'll have to start crushing the balls your Pokemon reside in. And that would be a fate worse than death."

"I thought Ghetsis was the monster," I spat. "But apparently you are as well!"

"Oh believe me, he was all for crushing a few just for the heck of it," Colress laughed. "Yet I convinced him to wait. I had no need to, but I did. So now it comes to your decision. Will you open up the pokeballs, or will I have to issue the order to crush the first pokeball."

"You know what would happen if you did that!" I shouted, pulling against my restraints to no avail.

"I do," he said simply. "And I admit, I have some conflicting feelings about ending the lives of such strong Pokemon. I would love to see how they've come this far. But alas, if you aren't going to cooperate, then I'm afraid I have no choice." He pressed his finger to his ear, which I now noticed contained an earpiece. "Destroy the-"