Breaking the Chains Chapter 1: Broken Hope, a pokémon fanfic

Breaking the Chains

(Pokémon)

(Note: This story is recommended for teenagers 13 and up due to blood, mild language, violence, and scenes of torture. This is a spiritual drama and features Lucario's belief of God. The text is also specifically designed to lean towards either 'God'; the actual God or Arceus. This story is told in the 1st person and the Point of Views will change throughout the story. The story also takes place BEFORE the Diamond/Pearl or Platinum games. I gave Lucario the ability of speech so he can show deeper emotions.)

Chapter 1: Broken Hope

Pain. Hurt. Torture. Misery. That was all I knew. That was all I was ever used for. I wondered why they had to do this and asked them once. I was met with a whip to the back. So I never asked that again.

I lay on the stone-cold cement floor, shivering, with my paws chained to the wall. I moved my head to look out the small window of my cell. Dawn was just beginning to break through. That meant, soon one of two things would happen.

The first possibility was that a Team Galactic grunt would come in and unlock my cell. They would force me to go to a training ground for the day. It wouldn't have been that bad except for one thing: if I performed worse than average on a task, such as not destroying a certain number of targets or finishing an obstacle course under a satisfactory time, they would hurt me. They would either whip me multiple times, which was extremely painful and burned like hell. Or, they would use an electric shock made possible by a metal device attached to my ankle that's been there for as long as I can remember. It wasn't a much better option. In fact, it was significantly worse. They could sent anywhere between 50 to 50,000 volts of electricity throughout my body. But it never killed me because Lucarios have a higher tolerance for pain than humans.

The other possibility… I don't like to talk about. It's always terrifies me.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as I heard footsteps approaching the cell I was kept in. I heard the rattling of keys as the door opened and light shined through. I clearly saw the figure that stood in the doorway.

It was an adult; 40 to 45 years old, I guessed. He wore a white lab coat and had long black hair that ended in a mullet. His figure was husky. But perhaps his most distinguishing feature was his blue scanner goggles. They were the absolute defining feature on him that screamed 'evil'. His name was one I learned to despise.

"Dr. Anderson." I addressed him. The words tasted like vinegar.

"Get up, Test Subject L-25167." he commanded.

I hated being called a 'test subject' but I did as he said.

"My name is Aaron." I told him.

He looked at me in confusion. "What?"

"That is my name; Aaron. What my parents named me. It means 'strength'. Is there a problem, doctor?" I questioned him.

"In fact, yes. You're an animal."

'Animal' felt like a degrading term, in the way he used it. But technically, I am one. A Lucario, to be exact. Lucarios look like blue and black bipedal jackals with a furry yellow torso. We possess aura, which is our power as well as our life force. We also bear resemblance to the ancient Egyptian god, Anubis.

"You're not even deserving of a name." he laughed.

Dr. Anderson took out his whip. I dreaded the sight of that object. The whip was a cat of nine tails, probably the most painful type of whip in existence. Unlike a normal whip, it had 9 ends so it can hit you in 9 different locations. He whipped it 1…2…3…4…a total of 5 times. I felt the stings on my back as blood seeped out of the wounds.

I used my aura powers to heal some of the wounds, but I was too exhausted to heal them completely.

"Test Subject L-25167, come with me to the Examination Lab, and don't dawdle!" Dr. Anderson demanded.

Had I a choice, I would have refused him but I had none. I had to comply; otherwise, he would whip me again. He unlocked my cuffs and I followed him out of my cell and into the hall.

The hall was sterile and eerily quiet. We didn't pass by many people, but the ones we did gave me malicious looks. I learned to ignore these gazes overtime, but there was something about them I couldn't shake off. As if I was a pawn in some sort of plan…

"Here we are." the doctor announced in front of a mechanical gray door. To the side of the door was a metal plate that read 'Examination Lab'.

"That plate should read, 'the Torture Chamber.'" I said to myself.

The door opened with one swipe of a keycard that Dr. Anderson possessed. He stepped in, and I followed.

The Examination Lab… couldn't exactly be called a cheery place. It actually gave off a kind of…creepy vibe. It was a small room, but slightly larger than my own cell. The ceiling and walls were a ghostly white, and the floor was linoleum. Various pieces of machinery lined the walls of the room, with many wires, cables, and needles sticking out. The other ends of them all let to the center of the room, on top of a stainless steel table.

"Get on." he ordered.

"Like I really have an option…" I thought to myself. I leaped onto the table and laid down. He confined me to the table with restraints. He took the various wires, cables, and needles and attached them to EVERY PLACE IMAGINABLE, I kid you not. No part of my body was left untouched. My head, pointed ears, paws, torso, tail, etc. It was extremely painful. And unfortunately, the pain would never completely subside, just soften a little.

After he was done, he began to mumble a few incoherent words to himself. I managed to make out some of it.

"Looked there…there…There must…need to extract…aura..."

I sighed. "Doc says the same gibberish every time." But I have figured out a few things by listening to the guy. The last few visits I made to this room, he's said some similar things. He needs my aura for something, but for what; I'm not sure.

My questions would be answered that day, as someone walked in; probably to check on the doctor.

He was tall; taller than the doctor and I. He had spiky blue hair and wore a black shirt and jeans. He also sported a gray vest with the Team Galactic symbol. His face showed absolutely no emotion. This guy spooked me. Big-time. I've never seen him before, but one look at him and I knew he was of importance.

"M-M-Master Cyrus!" stuttered Dr. Anderson. "It's rare for you to m-m-make a visit down here. C-C-Can I get you anything?"

"No, I am fine." was his response. He sat down on a nearby chair and began to talk with the doctor.

"So, have you figured out a way to extract the aura, yet?" Cyrus asked, sounding bored.

"W-W-Well, I kn-know he has a location t-t-to e-ex-extract the aura, but I c-c-can't determine the l-l-location." Dr. Anderson stammered.

It was easy to tell the doc was very nervous of this man.

"Well then," began Cyrus. He stood up and approached the doctor. "You had BETTER determine that location. Finding a way to extract that aura without KILLING him DURING the process is key to our plans to create the Ultimate Pokémon. And taking it directly from his aura center is the ONLY way to do it."

I heard only a few of the key words but I could perform the math. "Aura center…extraction…create the Ultimate Pokémon…It all fits together now. But…is it really true?"

Cyrus was just about to leave when I called out to him.

"Wait."

He walked over to the table I was confined to and stared me straight in the eyes.

"Yes?" he asked cruelly.

Before I could get a word out, Dr. Anderson approached Cyrus.

"I'm so sorry, sir. He shouldn't even be speaking to you. I'll make sure he…"

"Calm yourself, Doctor. I am interested in what he has to say."

Cyrus again stared at me directly in my eyes, sending shivers down my spine.

"Continue." he spoke coolly.

I gathered up my courage and began to speak.

"You said that you need my aura to create the Ultimate Pokémon, right?"

"That is correct." he confirmed.

"Then…if you extract my aura…what happens to me?" I asked anxiously.

"Oh, that's easy to answer…You die."

I became panic-stricken upon hearing I would die.

"I d-d-d-die?" I stuttered. "THAT part I didn't hear!"

He patted me on the head. "Don't worry." he said. "You'll be doing us a big favor and Project Alpha will finally be complete." Then he left the room without another word.

I felt a watery substance forming in my eyes. They were tears, but I had to fight to keep them back.

When I could see again, I saw Dr. Anderson pick up a surgical knife off a nearby tray. I gulped. This was going to be painful.

He approached me. And then slowly and carefully but extremely painfully, cut open my chest with it, just to the right of the large spike on my chest. And I wasn't under anesthesia, mind you. It felt like…have you ever accidently cut your finger with a knife? Maybe almost cut through it entirely? It was about a billion times worse.

My heart seared with heat, and every 'thu-thump' was now the equivalent of a Magnitude 6 earthquake. I resisted all urge to scream in pain. If I did, Dr. Anderson would likely shock me with that stupid little remote he keeps in his pocket. So, I kept my mouth shut.

My heart was now exposed to the air. I could actually see it thumping now as the doc began to examine the four-chambered organ. I tried to keep my mind off of it by counting the ceiling tiles. However, I quickly reached the number of 32. I looked around, seeing if there was anything else that could keep me from focusing on the intense pain.

I saw two monitors to my right of my head. From what I could tell, they kept track of my heart and aura rate.

I should probably explain. Just as a human has blood pressure, Lucarios have an aura rate. They work similar as if a human had too low or too high blood pressure; we could also die of a too low or high aura rate. Aura pulses through our bodies, just as blood goes through a human.

Something I've noticed though… Both my heart and aura were displayed on two separate monitors, yet the two had the exact same rate, represented graphs, and bpm (Beats per minute). The wires measuring my heart rate were along my upper torso, but the ones measuring my aura rate were all over my body, because the doctor didn't know where my aura center was, but could still get a reading.

After some thinking, I figured it out and unfortunately, the doctor did too.

"Wait a sec…if the heart rate and aura rate are synchronized, then…THAT'S IT!" he exclaimed joyfully. Dr. Anderson took all the wires that calculated my aura rate. The screen that showed my aura rate turned black. Then, he attached all the aura rate wires DIRECTLY into my heart. The sharp ends of the wires pierced the delicate tissues. I howled out in horrifying pain. My body thumped up and down on the table uncontrollably. I tried to, but I couldn't stop screaming, even when the doctor had used electric shocks. The pain of the wires was too much. My vision began to blur, but I could see him taking out a syringe with a green liquid in it. Then…everything went black.

I woke up, back in my cell.

"What happened?" I thought to myself. "Oh yeah…knockout drugs."

I sat up and looked around. The tyrannical doctor was standing right in the doorway.

"I must admit, Lucario…"

"At least he didn't call me a test subject this time." I noticed.

"…You have been very beneficial to our ultimate goal." he calmly stated.

"You mean to create the Ultimate Pokémon?"

The doctor laughed. "I see you've caught on. Bah, no matter. You'll be dead tomorrow morning anyway. Get a good night's sleep, because it will be your last one…"

He then locked the cell and the doctor's footsteps faded away in the distance. He didn't even bother to lock the cuffs today.

I broke down right then and there. The tears I held in the lab came pouring out and even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop.

"Why?" I shouted. "Why does every single day of my life have to be filled with pain and misery?"

It seemed like an eternity had passed before I could regain myself. By that time, I had run out of water to make tears.

I slowly crawled over to a corner of the cell. In this corner was a tile that was very loose. I pulled it up and set it to the side to reveal a small opening. In here, I kept a treasured book. One I've had for as long as I can remember. I took it out and dusted off the cover. The book was a sacred one, an important piece of its religion, but also an important part of me.

I flipped to a page that had my bookmark sticking out, which was actually a photo of me and my parents that was taken shortly before…they died. But I don't want to go into that.

I placed the picture in my side pouch that was really part of my skin.

I got to my knees and began to pray, "My God. I can't take it here any longer. I have been abused, experimented on, and tortured. And they plan to kill me tomorrow, so please; help me escape. I want the chance to see life outside these walls again. And maybe meet…someone who won't hurt me. Someone I can trust. Please, watch over me tonight. And, somehow, help me survive tomorrow. In your name I pray, Amen."

I laid down on the stone-cold floor again; thinking today would be my last day alive. Little did I know He would answer my prayers…

Story and all other characters (in this chapter) belong to me.

Please R&R. I'd appreciate it.