Below Zero

Original Source: SuperSonic6299 on DeviantArt
The Victini’s eyes struggled to open at first, but light had soon flooded his vision. He stared at the ceiling, once again being greeted by its dull gray texture. Except, he realized that the texture didn’t seem right. It looked less like the stone of his lighthouse and much more metallic; almost sterile. Finally provoked into movement, Victini slowly sat up and saw that the bed he was sleeping in was just as cold as the ceiling with its ghostly white sheets. In fact, the entire room seemed positively uncaring and devoid of anything that could invoke feeling. The walls were the same metallic texture as the ceiling, the lone table and chair in the room were unremarkable, and the floor tiles were eerily shiny. Victini compared the feeling to visiting a Pokemon Center during the middle of a Pokerus breakout. No one wants to talk, and everyone is scared out of their minds or feeling numb from the experience. Just looking around the room actually made the Victory Pokemon shiver slightly, which was unusual for him. Normally, he never found himself cold in anyway. But the sheer sight of the room he was in awoke a nameless fear in his flaming heart.

The slight opening of the door jolted Victini back to his senses. A female’s head poked through the gap. Dark, almost black hair and bright orange eyes greeted the Pokemon along with a small smile. Victini tilted his head slightly and had a concerned expression on his face, which didn’t go unnoticed by the woman. She opened the door slightly more and stepped into the room, giving the Pokemon time to look over her outfit. She seemed to be a scientist of some sort with her flowing white lab coat. Taking a seat on the chair, the woman’s smile didn’t leave her face as she spoke.

“Hi, there. Do you know where you are?”

Was she crazy? Of course, he didn’t know where he was. Obviously, she was making sure that he understood her, but something about her optimistic outlook was off-putting. Still, he nodded. The woman’s smile seemed to deepen slightly.

“That’s great! Now I believe introductions are in order. I’m Dr. Anna, researcher of renewable energy sources. Is there any other way that you can communicate with me? Telepathy, perhaps?”

Victini hesitated before going ahead with Anna’s question. Anna then heard a light, slightly rasped voice in her mind.

“Yeah. If it helps to make things easier for you”.

“Excellent!” Anna had spoken excitedly before stepping up from the chair and walking over to the door. She looked back at the Pokemon before beckoning him over and out the door. Victini hovered off the bed and flew out of the pale room to find that they were in some kind of laboratory. Several other scientists appeared to be hard at work on things that he couldn’t even begin to understand. For the first time since his arrival, Victini smiled with amazement as he saw how advanced everything was, a fact that pleased Anna even more. She stepped over to his side before speaking once more.

“I take it you’re enjoying the sight of our work?”

“This place is amazing!” Victini had said, doing a small twirl in the process.

“What exactly do you people do here, anyway?”

“Well,” Anna pinched the bridge of her nose as she went on. “This is the Plasma Energy Labs. Here, we work night and day to find alternate energy sources that can be used to help sustain society and possibly make life easier for Pokemon as well. You see, we found you because you have a special talent that interests us, Victini”.

Victini looked over to Anna, head tilted and a look of confusion on his face. Anna slightly chuckled before explaining her theory. Supposedly, Victini’s body was a source of near limitless energy and the Plasma Labs hoped that they could find a way to safely harness it. For this, they would need his full cooperation. The very thought that he would be able to help so many people and Pokemon at once was one that raced through the Legendary’s mind ad nauseum. Plus, it would be a nice way to pay back the people who had seemingly freed him from a life of eternal solitude. Victini happily agreed to the prospect and would do anything he could to help Anna and her team with their research.

The next few weeks found Victini being put through various tests of varying difficulty. They ranged from simply being hooked up to various sensors and monitoring his vitals to something more strenuous like a few battles to judge his energy output. It was quite exhausting at points and Victini did have physical limits to worry about; something that the scientists, save Anna, didn’t seem to understand. They always tried to push the Victory Pokemon as hard as they could, trying desperately to find results as quickly as possible. Anna, however, found this rather worrying and forced her colleagues to allow him to rest as long as he needed, much to their chagrin. This behavior was becoming somewhat concerning to her fellow scientists, with many claiming that Anna was becoming too attached to the subject. Such talk was kept to a minimum and obviously out of her earshot, but the concerns soon turned to frustration with a lack of tangible results. However, this would soon change thanks to the inhumane actions of a single scientist named Nathan. He had suggested a new plan to a small group of associates and found that they also were fed up with Anna’s “slow and steady” tactics on the project. They knew that it was time to act and act fast. Thus, did they slip into Victini’s resting quarters and quietly snatch the Pokemon under the cover of night, leaving no trace of their interference. What happened next would have grave consequences for all involved.

Anna shifted slightly in her sleep before her eyes opened slightly. She didn’t know why she was awake this early in the morning, but couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her head that something was wrong. She slipped out of bed and into her lab coat, walking out into the living quarters of the lab. Looking around, she found that everyone else was sleeping like babies. She then headed down into the lab to check on her precious little cinnamon roll, Victini. Anna wasn’t deaf to the complaints she was getting. Various colleagues telling her to be careful about getting too attached to the subject or telling her that if Victini’s energy is limitless, it shouldn’t need to rest. With each and everyone of them, she shut them down in spectacular fashion. Out of every jaded scientist there, she was the only one who seemed to understand that limitless energy or not, Victini was still just a Pokemon. And much like all living things, he still had limits and could be exhausted. Shaking these thoughts from her mind, Anna peeked into Victini’s room and smiled slightly, seeing the fox-like Pokemon’s V-shaped ears peeking out from the sheets. She quietly closed the door, not wanting to go in and rouse the poor thing.

That was until she heard a shrill scream ring out from deeper in. Immediately, Anna turned and ran towards the source of the noise, finding that it came from the main testing chamber. When she peered through the window, the sight she found was soul-rending. Four scientists were in the test chamber, with Victini hooked up to some kind of transfer device. Said device was attached to what seemed to be a Life Orb that was glowing an eerily pale purple. Victini’s face was contorted into a sculpture of agony, his eyes no more than white voids. Anna rushed into the chamber before she was quickly seized by two guards. Nathan walked over to her and kneeled down, giving off a slight smirk. Anna screamed at him.

“What are you doing to Victini!? He’ll die if you keep this up!”

“And?” Nathan coldly responded. Getting up from his squat, he explained his reasoning.

“Your attachment to the subject was an active hindrance to any kind of true progress. This “slow and steady” tactic of yours is nothing more than you spending what little time you have with your “precious cinnamon roll”. A shame then that we were at odds with our tactics. But don’t worry. We’ll leave something of Victini behind for you”.

Tears streamed down Anna’s face as she watched Victini’s life slowly fade from his body. Soon the screams had died down, as did the energy output. Nathan’s smile widened as he looked over the Life Orb’s contained energy and found that it had exceeded his expectations. The was filled to the brim with harvested energy to be used in several projects. Anna’s tears soon turned into screams of anguish upon looking at the poor Victini’s corpse. The light had completely faded from the Pokemon’s eyes and fur, leaving behind a grey and black carcass. Nathan noticed this and took the opportunity to vent his frustrations further.

“Hmm…That’s interesting. I think we can still pull more energy from him. What do you think, Anna?”

Anna soon started screaming various profanities at the madman, all of which made him smile wider.

“Is that a yes I hear? If you say so!”

Anna watched as the energy transfer device was turned back on and the last drops of energy were extracted from Victini, his ears fading from their normal orange to a pale, icy blue. However, while all person’s present were focused on Victini’s body, they didn’t notice that the orb was also changing. The bright purple color had faded to a dark, dull blue. It was only when the first crack was heard that Nathan realized he let his ego get the best of him. As soon as they turned around, the Life Orb began to crack even more, leaking some unknown black fluid. Soon, all went absolutely silent…before the orb shattered, releasing several shadowy, screaming entities. Anna seemingly didn’t know what to think at this point, having endured too much to process what was happening. Nathan however was absolutely petrified at the sight of the creatures. They soon ceased all movement, gazing at the figures below them. Suddenly, one of the guards and another of the scientists found themselves being lifted off of the ground, struggling and screaming. At once, they found their bodies being assaulted by several shadows and their flesh being ripped clean. The other guard and two other scientists were pinned to a wall by the other entities, feeling a deep, freezing pain in their bodies as if something were tearing their very soul from them. Soon, the bodies were dropped to the floor, all in various states of mortification. Nathan quickly made a retreat from the test chamber, fleeing for his sanity if not his life.

Anna was still unsure of what to do. Her body still wouldn’t take commands and was practically bolted to the ground. The entities realized this and lifted her up, setting her on her feet. The screaming began to die down as the shadows flew with great speed into Victini’s corpse, vanishing upon impact. Anna had nothing to do, nothing to say. After all she had been through, what could even compare to what she just experienced? Her question was answered when she heard a shrill, pleading moan come from above her. Looking up, she saw Victini’s body twitching and moving forward, seemingly pulling on its own wings to get out of the device. The flesh soon tore off, leaving the body to fall to the ground with its wings detached. Anna felt the room grow deathly cold as she stared at the twitching carcass of her beloved cinnamon roll. Then, the body floated into the air stopping at eye level with Anna. It stared at Anna with pale blue pupils, seeing nothing familiar about the woman. Anna was finally granted control of her body at this point and looked at the thing that used to be Victini. A single word left her lips.

“Victini?”

The being slightly tilted its head upon hearing this. Why did this not provoke it in any way? What did it feel for this woman? What is it feeling right now? Can it even feel anything? It suddenly did feel something. An excruciating pain in the back of its mind and a single word that was endlessly repeated:

FEED.

Anna’s apprehensive joy quickly turned to ice cold fear as the entity that took on Victini’s form latched onto her face in a vice grip. She tried desperately to scream for help and tear the thing off, but it was no use as she felt her body quickly growing weaker. Her insides went cold as the thing stuck to her face, driving her head back into the glass and causing her to collapse on the floor, ceasing all signs of resistance. Victini soon released Anna’s head and flew back, looking upon what it had done. Anna’s face was stuck in a ghastly wail of pain and her body mass was severely low, her skin pale and her eyes pure black and leaking fluid. This fluid soon condensed into some kind of floating, pitch black orb. This orb quickly flew out of the testing chamber and into another area of the lab. Where and why was unimportant to Victini. The only thing on his mind was still that one word:

FEED.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was a chilled night in the Alola Region. The kind of night that was just right for a walk with relative safety. A young man walked along a path, enjoying the cool night air as it was a change of pace from the constant heat that Alola always dealt with. He looked up into the sky, gazing upon the ever-bright moon and stars, wondering just much energy those balls of flame were outputting. Looking back upon the path, he noticed something odd. There was a floating silhouette that seemed to be staring away from him. Looking closer at the figure, the young man was surprised to find that it was a Victini, an extremely rare Pokemon around this region. Even if he couldn’t catch it, he would try to get as close a look as he could. Quietly and carefully sneaking through the tall grass, the young man was able to make out more of the Victini’s features. This one seemed quite different than the ones he heard about. Instead of a cream and orange color scheme, its fur was a sickly shade of gray and the ears were a pale, icy blue. He was met with another surprise when the Pokemon turned around and revealed its horrific facial features. It seemingly had no eyes and instead had blue, pinprick pupils hovering in its empty sockets. Its mouth was frozen in a rictus of absolute agony and both it and the eye sockets seemed to be leaking a black liquid. However, the most unnerving thing about the creature was the V-shaped cavity it had on its chest, pitch black and containing what looked like a dark blue Life Orb. The young man was about to make a run for it, but it was too late. The Victini quickly lunged towards him and latched onto his face sucking the very essence of his life from his body. Feeling his limbs go limp and his body slump to the ground, the last thing he felt before fading from existence was the deathly cold breath of the entity.

The Victini had removed itself from its latest energy source and watched as the black orb it always leaves behind flew off further into the region. All those people. All those Pokemon. All of this energy and it still didn’t feel like it even had anything inside of it. This didn’t even provoke a response from the entity as it only had one thing on its mind. That it had to feed. And if that’s what it had to do to be rid of the emptiness, that’s what it would do. No matter how long it took and how many beings it killed, it would fill the Void in its life…one way or another.