FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A single, flickering lightbulb was all that illuminated the raggedy, starving, old man dangling a few feet above the cold cement floor of whatever building he was chained up in. *DRIP*...*DRIP* Blood and sweat slid down the prisoner's face, rolled past his dirty beard, and dropped into a small puddle formed below. Suddenly, the man heard the high-pitched sound of a metal door being pushed open, scraping the cement. Six men, two of them holding flashlights, entered the room. The man flinched as the flashlights centered on his wounded face.

"Dr. Satoshi, you look terrible," said one of the men, standing before the light. The man spoke with a deep British accent. His silhouette revealed very little, save for gelled-back hair and a dark suit.

"Well, can't say you look any better, David," Jon retorted weakly. He coughed and David sighed.

"You know it didn't have to end up this way."

"Are you referring to six months ago, when you kidnapped me?" Satoshi rhetorically asked. "Or back when I fired you, and you burned down half my lab?"

"We were partners in your Pokemon project. For three years, I funded the creation of those Legendaries, and yet you refused to even tell me where you sent them to live," David said, taking a .9mm from his inner coat pocket. For a moment, he centered the gun on Satoshi, but he soon raised it and shot the chain holding up the prisoner. *THUD* Satoshi fell to the ground. The other men just watched silently as he lie there, coughing and groaning. "That fire was the only way I could get your attention." Slowly, Jon regained his strength and began pushing himself up from the ground.

"Bring him to the showers, clean him up, and...and then give him a proper meal," David ordered his men. Two of them stooped down and picked Satoshi up by his boney arms. "And Jon, when I get back later, I implore you to finally give me what I want." David smiled and turned to walk back out the door, followed by two of the men. The other three escorted Satoshi out of the room by a door on the opposite wall. As the door closed behind him, Jon wondered if, after all these months, he would ever be rescued.

-2 miles outside Marshall, Arizona-

"Are you sure this is the place?" Jason asked the taxi driver.

"Hey, you point to map and tell me to go, I go," the Mexican man replied. "You wanna go to creepy shack in middle of the desert, I don't judge." Jason, Rose, and Toby split the bill and then left the cab. The noon sun covered the Sonoran Desert in an intense wave of dry heat. Toby carried several plastic water bottles, and a bottle of sunscreen, in his backpack. The cab drove away, kicking up a cloud of dust that covered Jason and Rose.

A few weeks before, the group had gotten a phone call from Lieut. Jefferson that the Cryad gang members had finally given up Satoshi's location: an abandoned oil refinery in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately, when state troopers and federal agents searched the compound, they didn't find anyone. Jason, however, believed that Satoshi was in there somewhere. It took a bit of coaxing, but he managed to get Toby and Rose to accompany him on his own search of the refinery.

The three made their way to an entrance gate, overgrown with wild flowers and dandelions.

"Can we just go in?" Rose asked quietly. "I don't see any guards."

"It's abandoned," Toby replied. "There wouldn't be..."

"Sshh," Jason silenced his friend. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Listen." The three held their breath and strained their ears. *CAAW* Jason scanned the sky for the source. "It's probably just a bird."

"Not just a bird. Look," Rose pointed to the top of a smoke stack, where a Pokemon was perched. "It's a...Talonflame. See the red spots on its breast?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Talonflame don't live in the desert," she continued. "I mean, wild ones don't. That one must belong to someone in the refinery."

"But it's abandoned."

"Unless it's not." Jason walked closer to the gate. He grabbed a rusted handle and pushed, but the gate wouldn't open. After two more failed attempts, he took out a Pokeball. "Come on out, Flare."

"Ferno," his Monferno cried out as it appeared. It stared at Jason, awaiting it's command. *CLCK* Jason clicked his tongue as he pointed a finger at the gate. "Ferno!" Flare sent out a quick, but powerful, Flamethrower and melted the gate's hinges. *THUD* The gate fell backwards to the ground.

"Thanks bud," Jason nodded at his Pokemon. Monferno smiled, and both of them went into the compound. Toby and Rose followed, confused at what just happened.

"What was that?" Rose asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I've been training my Pokemon to do certain moves based on how I click my tongue," Jason answered. "Eventually, I want them to be able to look at a situation and think about how to solve it themselves."

The three stayed on the main road, which led up to a big, brick building with a massive solar panel on top. All around them were broken semis, rusted oil drums, and empty metal shipping containers, also rusted. Enough time had passed that almost everything they saw was swallowed up in deep sand mounds. Surprisingly, the only things not abused by the elements were two black SUVs in the brick building's parking lot. *CAAW* *CAAW* Toby looked up at the smoke stack and saw the Talonflame circle around and then straight down the shaft.

"Um, Jason? Rose?"

"Yeah, Toby, I know," Rose answered, instinctively reaching for her Pokeballs. "We're not alo..." *BANG*...*BANG*

"Have you done as I instructed?" David asked his men. They stood before his desk in a dark room, and the only light came from the gaps in the closed curtains.

"We got him cleaned up," one of them replied, "But he's refusing to eat."

"Rejecting my hospitality? Well then, perhaps it's time I continued my conversation with him," David said, standing. His guards escorted him down to the refinery's cafeteria. A spacious white room with long silver tables. Its only occupants were Jon Satoshi and seven guards, five were eating lunch and the other two were watching their prisoner. Satoshi was writing something on a piece of paper instead of eating the cheeseburger on his plate, which he had pushed aside. He didn't look up when David sat down next to him.

"So...Instead of eating the delicious meal my men made for you, you're writing a letter to those kids you claim will rescue you."

"What's the point of eating when I'm going to die anyways?" Satoshi weakly remarked.

"The only person you have to blame for your situation is you," David said. "Had you given me the Legendaries' location months ago, you would not be here. And then, you constantly tried to escape, forcing me to constantly worsen your living conditions. Why? What makes the protection of these Pokemon worth all your suffering?" Now, Satoshi turned to his former partner.

"Those Legendaries, that you want so much, aren't just strong Pokemon. They help maintain the balance between our species. Pokemon rely on humans as much as we rely on them. They are our friends. If you capture even one Legendary, the natural order of things would be destroyed. Pokemon would ravage our cities, and we'd respond with violence. There would be much bloodshed...on both sides. You see, David, that is why I must protect them: To prevent war." David didn't say anything, at first. Instead, he stood up and, when it looked like he was going to walk away, turned around, grabbed Satoshi's shoulder, and threw him backwards to the cement floor. "Augh!"

"No...I see an opportunity to get whatever I want," David said, pulling out his gun and cocking it. "The Legendaries control the Pokemon, right? I'll find them, capture them, and use them to take over the world." Satoshi tried to sit up, but David got to one knee and pressed the gun against his head. "And I'll do it without your help." Satoshi closed his eyes, as David prepared to fire.

"Boss, some kids broke open the gate and are comin this way!" yelled a guard, running into the cafeteria. Everyone else stood up and waited for David's command.

"Get my Talonflame. We're moving out," he ordered, taking his focus off Satoshi. In a split second reaction, Satoshi pushed the gun away from his head. *BANG* David fired it into the floor just an inch away from his head. Satoshi managed to wrestle the gun out of his opponent's hand. He kicked David in the chest with his leg, which sent him stumbling backwards. *BANG* Jon Satoshi shot his old partner in the head, killing him instantly.

When Jason and the others finally came to the refinery's cafeteria, they saw no one in there. All of the Cryad thugs had left the building via drainage pipes underground.

"Where is everyone?" Jason asked. ""I thought the gunshots would've come..."

"Jason...come here," Rose said with a sad sound in her voice. Jason came to where she and Toby were and nearly feel over at the sight of Dr. Satoshi lying on the ground dead. The gun he used was on the table, holding down the letter Jon had written. Jason gently pulled it from under the gun and read it aloud, sniffing back tears. It read:

Jason Granger, a wise man once said, "You either live with the choices you make, or you die because of them." If you are reading this, than I guess I couldn't live with mine. For many months, my old friend and partner David Lamierez has tried to get, from me, the location of the Legendary Pokemon. If you are reading this, then he has failed. Their location is still a secret. But it is a secret that should not die with me. There are others like David who would use the power of the Legendaries for evil. If unchecked, they will find the location of these Pokemon on their own. And so, Jason, I ask you, and your friends of course, to please find the Legendaries and save them. Your friend Rose should be of great help in this journey. Little does she know that her family has been the protectors of the Legendaries for some time now. Jason, you are brave and your heart is pure. Good luck.