Experiment
By: Kitty of Insanity
[Book 1 of the Sixth Saga…
Synopsis: A man is subjected unwillingly to illegal, genetic experiments by a criminal team, and his dearest friend is caught in the crossfires of it all. The team is trying to retrieve back their escape experiment, and they are willing to do just about anything.
People the two had never met before this adventure (including a crazy Kadabra-man) now depend solely on the actions of this man and his friend, a woman with the name of Destiny. Will the two of them succeed in saving themselves and these practical strangers? What deep secrets lie within the past of this man and Destiny?
Will this experiment succeed in what is to be accomplished?
What great things will Fate decide?
-----
Author's Note:
Don't let the synopsis fool you into thinking this story is completely cheesey. I don't like to give things away, as I like to preserve awesome twists in the story. I will give you this much:
I like to think of everything that occurs in the story as occring in an alternate universe to the pokèmon world we all know and love (you'll soon see how pokèmon play a role in the story).
Also, if the synopsis seems dull, be warned, there is comedic relief.
On a different note, I'm only setting this up because my friend thinks I need to. _
Also, I started writing it a few years ago, and I haven't done any serious revising at all, so if the first part stinks a bit, blame the ignorance of youth.
It might also help some of you to know that this story is already completed; I'm just setting it up one part at a time.
So, now begins on the great trek of deception, love, courage, and awesome fight scenes.
Do note that I don't own Pokèmon. If I did, I wouldn't waste my time writing fanfics for the general public. I'd make you pay money for my awesomeness. X3
(Rated about K+ (ages nine +) for awesome fight scenes and a little blood later on, by the way.)
Role film.]
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Experiment
Part 1
---
Wind blew through the leaves, moving them ever so slightly. An endless sea of stars illuminated the night sky, only to be broken by islands of black clouds. All was quiet, all was calm, and all was peaceful.
Except for the mind of a lone dragonite. His back was leaned against the wall of a cave as he sat on the barren floor. His arms were crossed, his eyes had a soulless stare as they blocked his mind away from everything in the outside world.
But despite his eyes' best efforts, they still reflected a sadness that only a depressed being could possess.
The dragonite closed his eyes and sighed. He stood up from the sitting position he had been in for so long. It was time to face some of the thoughts that had been tormenting his mind ever since he had been shown the problem.
He could no longer keep this a secret…
---
A girl looking to be in her late teens stood making a dinner for two in the little kitchen. He hadn't been back to the cabin since he had left nearly a month ago. Frankly, she knew he wouldn't be gone too long, and that he would probably be back today or tomorrow, though she hoped desperately that it would be today.
She suddenly realized she had left the knife on the other counter. She turned a little and narrowed her eyes in concentration. The knife handle flew into her hand; she turned back around, and began chopping the ingredients again. She smiled to herself, humming at a low volume.
Before she came here, she never could have done that.
But then, there were a whole lot of things that she could do now that she couldn't do before…
She put the ingredients into a frying pan and began to stir them.
She moved a strand of light brown hair that had fallen in front of her dark green eyes.
He had better get back from training his pokemon soon. She had made plenty of this food for the two of them.
---
The scientist in his white lab coat stood in the middle of the wrecked laboratory. The glass had been cleaned up, but a lot of the other wreckage from the blasts was still left. The broken, giant glass cylinder's middle was missing. The bottom and top of the cylinder were still there, jagged like sharp mountain peaks look in the distance.
The scientist sighed and walked over to the computer. It was the only working one left in this room and was still on from the time before the experiment had gotten away.
The scientist moved the mouse, clearing the screen of the screensaver it had had on it.
The scientist's eyes narrowed, as he looked at the picture of a young man with red hair, then the profile. It had been a costly mistake.
They should have picked another…
---
//Darkness. Cold liquid. Stale air. All this, everywhere. Was this death? No, there would be no way of knowing, thinking, if this were death. This was different. Felt all different.
Voices? Why were there voices? Different voices.
Wait… Where was this? What's going on? Something, so many things felt different. Panic. What did all this mean? So confused…So afraid…//
-
The girl awoke from the freak dream with a bit of a start. Her green eyes were wide open. She looked around to find that she was sitting in the familiar setting of the living room.
She thought back a moment, remembering what had happened last night.
She had finished her dinner, fed the pokemon theirs, and had put the leftovers in the fridge. After which, she had fallen asleep on the armchair while watching TV, along with the espeon that had curled up in her lap.
Speaking of which…
The girl waved her hand and the once noisy TV went blank and mute. She then got up and draped a blanket on her.
"Espeon," she said in a dry, tired voice, "here girl. Now where are you, you little bugger?"
"Es!" a little voice said, coming from the kitchen.
A little silver head popped out from the kitchen doorway. Soon a dainty, silver, cat-like body followed it.
"On!" the espeon nearly squealed as she trotted over to the front door and sat down, tilting her head and staring up at the knob, as if expecting it to open.
The girl smiled and walked over to the espeon's side, where she crouched down and pet the top of espeon's soft head.
"So you think he's gonna be back soon too, huh?" she asked the espeon.
The espeon looked up at the girl with its big violet colored eyes. The girl automatically got a feeling from the espeon that suggested the little creature had a similar, but quite different feeling.
"I hope you're wrong on this one girl," the girl said as she got up, "I don't want something bad to have happened…"
The espeon kept looking at the girl, this time sending her a different message.
"I know that you've never been wrong, but that doesn't mean I can't hope you are this time…"
With that, the girl walked to her room, turning around once more to look at the sunrise painted behind the windows, opened the bedroom door, and went inside to get dressed.
She wondered if her dream had anything to do with what might have happened to him…
---
The wind slashed at the dragonite's face as he flew as quick as he could to his destination. He was getting close. He could now see the pond that the cabin was near.
Excitement grew in him. He was nearly there, just a little further to go.
Something out of the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention. It was an off-road vehicle traveling down the dirt road that connected to the lake.
Well, so much for plan "A".
The vehicle was a ways behind him, so he could still get there before them, but he wouldn't have enough time to do what he wanted to. He would have to get in and out of there as fast as he could.
Boy would that be a blast.
He was nearly to the cabin now, barely off shore above the lake.
He slowed down just enough to make sure he wouldn't overshoot it, then put his breaks on, landing right in front of the porch.
He ran up to the door and knocked hard on it.
"Just a second!" came a female voice from inside.
A moment later the door flew open, revealing a girl who looked to be in her mid to late teens and an espeon that looked up at the dragonite with a small, curiosity in her eyes.
The girl, for a brief moment looked disappointed, but the expression was soon replaced by a welcoming smile.
"Sorry, it's just that I was expecting someone," the girl said apologetically, "My name is Destiny. Please, come in."
The dragonite quickly stepped inside and began looking for something. He had to find a way to get her to get out right then and there; but how?
"Excuse me, but what are you doing?" Destiny asked.
She looked down at her espeon and asked, "What is that dragonite doing?
The espeon looked up at her and just said, "Pee," before looking back at the near panicking dragonite.
"Yeah, that really helps," Destiny said sarcastically before looking back at the searching dragonite also.
The dragonite stopped, nearly knocking himself on the head for not having thought of it before. All he needed was a picture…
He turned and headed for a group of pictures on a shelf. He picked up one of them and showed it to the puzzled girl.
She looked at the picture a moment and then finally thought of what he might very well have meant by him handing her the picture.
"You know where this guy is?" she asked the dragonite desperately.
The dragonite blinked and seemed to ponder this for a brief second, then began nodding his head in an exited sort of matter.
"Could you bring me to him?"
Again the dragonite nodded.
"Right now?"
More nodding came from the dragonite.
The girl ran into her room, coming out the next moment prepared to go.
The dragonite couldn't help but gawk at how quickly the girl had gotten ready.
She grinned then asked, "Surprised huh?"
Then, turning a little to her left, she took a deep breath and shouted, "ALAKAZAM, GARDEVOIR, NINETALES! GET OVER HERE!"
Within a moment of calling them, the pokemon appeared. Alakazam and Gardevoir had used teleport and Ninetales, who had been in another room, just walked out.
"Okay you three, I'm going on a little trip and bringing you guys along, so"-Destiny produced three pokeballs- "into the pokeballs you go!" She returned the pokemon, then turned to the dragonite.
"Well then, we best- What's wrong?" Destiny asked, seeing the worried expression on the dragonite's face.
The dragonite let out a low growl as he looked out the window. They had been quick, but not quick enough. The off-road vehicle was within site of the cabin now, and it was getting closer. They had to get out of there.
"Let me guess… Those guys are bad news," Destiny said.
The dragonite nodded.
Destiny sighed and closed her eyes for a short moment. She then opened them and walked over to the dragonite.
She put her hand on the dragonite's shoulder and said, "I'm going to teleport us to the forest north of the lake. Is that okay?"
The dragonite nodded.
The dragonite felt as though he were disassembled for a brief moment, then put back together again after feeling somewhat dragged around.
The scenery was no longer that of a log cabin's interior, but that of forest, full of greenery and life.
Destiny looked seriously into the dragonite's eyes and said, "Well, now you know one of the great secrets of my life. Keep it secret, okay?"
Her gaze made him feel nervous. It was like staring into the eyes of a predator, about to pounce on its enemy, given that the foe did not surrender. The dragonite gulped and gave a nod.
The girl's face suddenly went from serious, to perfectly happy and friendly.
"Well, then what are we waiting for?" she said cheerfully.
The dragonite sweat-dropped and sighed. He was starting to wonder why he didn't just leave her right there, right now.
"Espee!" the espeon said with a serious look on its face, as it looked at the dragonite.
The dragonite looked at the espeon and sighed. He turned his back to Destiny and gestured for her and espeon to get on.
After Destiny and espeon got on the dragonite's back, it was time for take off. The dragonite spread his wings, jumped, and flapped down hard. Soon they were soaring high above the land that was so green with trees and other plant-life. Soon they were soaring far away from the small blue pond, to a place that was unknown to Destiny.
---
The two grunts rammed the door together one last time, forcing the door open.
"Search the entire house! I want that girl, or any of her pokemon, found immediately!" a man in a dark green outfit shouted to the grunts.
"Yes sir!" answered the grunts, saluting in the process.
The grunts were just about to search the house, when a man with blue hair and a sky blue overcoat on, stopped them.
"Don't bother. You'll find nothing of importance, and all you'll end up doing is wasting time. She left already and ordered her pokemon into hiding," the man said, "So let's just leave before I get too bored."
"I have to be sure of it myself first, Croy," the man in green said.
"What is it, Commander? You not trust my instincts? Or do you not trust me?" Croy asked in an almost smug kind of way.
The commander glared at Croy, then turned to his men and said, "Alright, back to the vehicle!"
Croy was the first one back to the vehicle. He hopped into the driver's seat and waited for the others to get in too.
One of the grunts stopped one of his pals.
"Why did the commander bend to Croy's will like that?" the one who'd stopped his friend asked.
"Because Croy's someone you want on your side. Trust me," the fellow grunt answered.
"Why?"
"Because, rookie, his instincts are always right on the money. Some think he's even psychic."
"Oh, I see."
"That, and he's a real good fighter."
The two grunts headed to the vehicle and got in with the rest of the party.
Soon the vehicle started up, and headed down the road, away from the cabin.
---
FLASH BACK ***
They were catching up to him.
He had no idea what they were, but they were fast, even too fast for him.
The things had come out of no where. He had just been training a little ways from a cliff wall, when they had shot out of a cave entrance high up on the cliff.
He had learned they were unfriendly the moment they had started shooting at him.
They were pod-shaped with small fins that barely came off their sides. They were man-made for sure, for they had a black tinted front window shield while everything else was white. They had fired automatic bullets at him, and had almost caught him off guard.
Luckily for him, they hadn't quite done that.
He had seen them shoot out from the cliff side, so he had recalled all but one pokemon, his dragonite. He had then jumped on the dragonite's back and the pokemon burst into flight, just as the first stream of bullets had come, narrowly missing either of them.
He had been very lucky indeed.
But right now he needed to get away from them, and bad. There was no telling what could happen if he didn't.
Suddenly, a green ray shot past his left, narrowly missing him.
Right then and there, he needed to find some cover. That could help him a whole lot.
Then he remembered something as he saw an opening in the cliff wall coming up.
"T A! Cliff, crack! Then stop!" the man shouted to his dragonite.
His dragonite was trained to know what that meant. He was to take a sharp turn away from and at the opening in the cliff wall. Afterwards he was to stop after his trainer gave the order.
The dragonite followed orders flawlessly. As soon as his head was parallel to the opening, he veered into the nearby forest so that the opening was directly behind them.
"Now!" the trainer shouted.
The dragonite's wings flared and stopped it almost as soon as the man had given the order. The man jumped off the dragonite and listened as he heard the jets pass.
The trainer took off the belt he that held his pokeballs and gave it to his dragonite.
"Keep them safe, no matter what," he told his dragonite quickly, "Start to head back. If I get out fine, I'll find another means of transportation. Wait for it to be all clear before flying. Now go!"
He watched as his dragonite nodded and began running off into the forest.
The jets began tearing up the place with a rain of bullets. The trainer frowned.
"Sorry, but I have no other choice…" the man said to himself under his breath.
He dashed out from the forest towards the opening. If he could just make it, he might be safe. If he could just make it.
Suddenly, a beam of green light headed towards him. He tried to dodge it, but wasn't fast enough. Pain shot through his body, then all went blank. Like a dream.
Or a nightmare.
End Flashback***
---
Destiny stared at the dragonite that sat across of the fire from her.
The dragonite had flown all day with her on his back, yet showed little signs of being exhausted, if any. What was even stranger was that neither she nor her espeon could pick up if the dragonite had friendly or otherwise intentions for them.
"So," she started, looking at the dragonite, "where're we headed?"
The dragonite looked up at the girl, a soulless look in his eyes. He looked back at the fire after a brief moment.
Destiny gave a small grin and said, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess you couldn't tell me anyway, huh?"
The dragonite looked back up. This time, however, his eyes held a certain sadness and desire. For what, Destiny wished partly not to know.
His eyes soon looked away as he laid down, his back turned to Destiny and her espeon.
Destiny looked sadly at the dragonite.
"Good night," she said as she got up and poured a bucket of water on the fire.
She crawled, after, into her sleeping bag, her espeon curled up by the top of her head, on the soft grass.
Sleep soon fell upon Destiny.
---
Croy leaned back in his seat. He couldn't figure out any other way to lure him out of hiding.
Croy rubbed the pencil's eraser against his temple and sighed.
"I guess this is, after all, the only way…" he said to himself. "If I can get a hold of the girl first—"
A knock was heard at the door.
"Sir?" a muffled voice said, "Sorry, but there's someone here to see you."
Croy opened a drawer and stuck the papers that were on top of his desk in it, closing it right afterwards.
"Let them in," Croy answered.
The door opened, revealing a woman in a blue and gray uniform. They were mainly gray with stripes of blue running down along the hems of her pants and shirt, which revealed her midriff. She also had knee long, blue, wavy hair that matched the blue on her outfit, as well as light gray eyes.
"Hey Croy-boy," the woman said as she shut the door behind her.
"Tell me what you want to, then get out of here Bell," Croy coldly stated.
"Oh, Croy. You know you shouldn't talk to an elite member like that," Bell remarked.
Croy stared at the beautiful woman across the room for several moments then gave a sigh.
"This better be good," he said, "I was working on something before you came in."
Bell walked over to Croy's desk. She placed one hand on her hip and smacked the other hand on Croy's desktop. She then leaned so her face was a foot away from Croy's and gave him a smirk.
"Now why else would I have come but to bring you good news?" she asked him.
Several moments passed. Croy's eyes stared into Bell's own, soulless, uncaring.
Bell lost her smirk and gave Croy a now somewhat disappointed look.
"Fine," Bell finally said, standing up straight, "I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in the information I managed to dig up on the 'experiment's' girlfriend."
"Oh. You found some new information? Interesting," Croy said, now somewhat interested in the conversation.
"You won't believe this, but the girl was really hard to find anything on," Bell said, walking over to get a chair, "Almost like someone was trying to hide her."
"Not surprised there," Croy said, as he watched Bell grab a chair and slide it in front of his desk, "I tried to get some information and came up empty."
"Well, what I found, it was very… strange, to say the least," Bell said as she sat down and leaned forward, "You remember how the reports say she looks, at the latest, nineteen?"
"Yes," Croy said, lifting an eyebrow in interest.
"Well she's not. She's actually a lot older! About a year younger than the experiment! Who was strangely older than he appeared also, I might add," Bell said with a hint of concern and worry.
"Hmm… That is very nice information," Croy said, "Thank you."
"Well," Bell started, "what do you think of it?"
"Nothing yet," Croy answered.
Bell looked at Croy for a brief moment, then got up.
"Well, you probably want to get done with whatever you were working on before," Bell said, "I'd better be off."
With that, she walked out the door, shutting it gently behind her.
"Thank you Bell. If I have it right, than the information you gave me is more valuable than you could ever realize," Croy said as he leaned back in his chair, "Much more valuable…"
---
Wind whipped through Destiny's hair as she rode on to the dragonite's back.
It was late afternoon and they had been flying since a little after dawn.
I should've eaten a bigger breakfast, Destiny thought to herself.
She was tired, hungry, and stiff from sitting on the dragonite's back for such a long amount of time. She just wasn't used to it.
She felt her espeon slink back further. Destiny had put her espeon in front of her so it wouldn't fall off easily.
"What's wrong?" Destiny asked the little pokemon.
Suddenly, a feeling hit Destiny, and it hadn't come from her espeon.
She was picking up a very negative kind of intentional energy in front of them. In other words, they were headed straight towards trouble.
There seemed to be a clearing in the forest a ways in front of them and the energy felt to be coming from there.
"Dragonite? Can we go around that clearing? I have a feeling that it's not a good idea to go-" Destiny started to say, but stopped.
The energy had disappeared. Like whatever it was had vanished.
"Never mind. I think it's fine now…" Destiny said, yet doubted.
The dragonite began to slow and lose altitude as they neared the clearing.
"Dragonite? What are you doing?" Destiny asked worriedly.
The dragonite made a gesture of raising his closed fist to its mouth, as if lifting a fork or spoon to its mouth.
"Lunch? But I don't know if eating there is a good idea…" Destiny said unsure of what was going on.
The dragonite continued its previous action of losing speed and altitude. It apparently thought the place perfectly safe to land.
Soon the dragonite landed on the ground and both Destiny and her espeon hopped off and began stretching.
"Thank God! I thought I wasn't going to be able to move!" Destiny exclaimed.
Espeon suddenly stopped in the middle of a stretch, looked into the forest, gave a slight hiss, and went into a battle stance.
A man with blue hair and a light blue overcoat stepped out of the woods. His face was blank, but still made you want to go and hide in a safe place, for nothing but terrible intent could be seen in it. The man could make anyone who wasn't familiar with him feel his or her own skin crawl with fear.
Destiny's face held only surprise, for she had seen his face before.
"Daemon?" she asked, stunned.
"Close, but no," the man said calmly. "I'm Croy, not Daemon."
"But, you—he—I—what's going on?" Destiny exclaimed.
"You'll find out soon enough," Croy said with a cold smile on his face. "Dragonite, get her for me, will you?"
The dragonite that had been accompanying them suddenly grabbed Destiny and knocked her head, so that she fell unconscious in its arm.
Her espeon lunged at the dragonite, only to be knocked to the ground unconscious as well.
The dragonite looked at the little espeon with pity. It was just about to throw Destiny onto its shoulder, when it was plowed right into by something.
The dragonite let go of Destiny as it flew onto the ground. She had almost fallen to the ground, when the thing that had plowed into the dragonite caught her.
It was a man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties, wore a black outfit, that had red running down the middle of his shirt and red on the inside of the upper part of his legs that went to about the middle of the front of his legs. He also had a cape that was red on the inside and black out the exterior part. He had red, spiked hair possibly six inches in length and a serious look on his face.
His amber eyes turned and looked at the dragonite that was attempting to get up.
"Well, it seemed you figured that bit out," Croy said to the man, sounding somewhat amused. "Dragonite, you get all three of them. I don't feel like fighting today."
The dragonite got up and looked at the man who had just tackled it, readying itself for battle. The man just looked at the dragonite and did not let Destiny go.
"I really don't feel like fighting either," the red-haired man said. "I'm tired and just want to be left alone."
"That's not an option," Croy said, raising his voice with a hint of anger. "You either come peacefully, or as a beat up piece of junk."
"Funny thing is, I don't like those options," the man with red hair replied.
He then looked at Destiny and placed her down.
"But I guess that means I have to pick the third one," he continued as he stood up. "Beat you guys and leave with my friend here."
"Not going to happen," sneered Croy. "Dragonite, pummel him."
The dragonite's claw began to glow and it then charged at the red-haired man, claws ready to bury into and tear the flesh of the man, if need be.
The red-haired man quickly touched his wrists together so that his palms faced the charging dragonite. A blast of yellow energy shot from them, hitting the now surprised dragonite and forcing it to fly backwards into a tree.
Croy's eyes widened in astonishment.
"That—that's impossible. You shouldn't have been able to figure out how to do that this quickly!" he shouted.
The red-haired man just turned his head and looked at Croy.
"Nothing's impossible, just improbable," the red-haired man said after a moment. "I learned that a long, long time ago."
By the time the man had finished saying this, the dragonite had shaken off most of the shock and pain. It resumed its battle stance and opened its mouth, charging a hyper beam.
The red-haired man looked over at the dragonite, turned around, and then quickly grabbed up Destiny and her espeon.
The yellow beam fired where the red-haired man had been standing, nearly ripping apart everything in its path.
The dragonite stopped firing the ray of energy. Nothing stood in the path that the beam had traveled, not even the man with red hair did.
The dragonite frowned. He knew that it was too easy, meaning the man had escaped the blast. He also knew his master would not be pleased at all with this.
"You idiot!" Croy shouted at the dragonite, "You let them get away! Now we have no way of getting them!"
Croy turned around and marched angrily towards the forest.
"I don't know why I even bother with you," Croy said as he entered the woods.
The dragonite gave a sigh and looked down. He felt useless and stupid, totally outcaste from any part of the world.
He felt there was nothing he could do to make the pain go away. He'd never belong anywhere, ever.
---
Destiny awoke, feeling a cold stone ground underneath her.
She sat up, then quickly grabbed her head. She had a really bad headache, and it felt as if someone was inside her head, trying to drill their way out.
"You okay?" a familiar voice asked.
"Yeah, I just have a bad—" Destiny stopped in the middle of what she was saying and looked up at the person who had spoken to her.
It was the red-haired man who had saved her from being kidnapped by Croy and the dragonite; though, she didn't know that he was the one that saved her yet. He was sitting on a rock, watching her.
Her face brightened and her eyes filled with joy. For a moment, she even forgot she had a headache.
She got up and ran over to the man, wrapping her arms around his sides and back.
"Oh, Lance!" Destiny said as she embraced her missed friend, "I thought something horrible had happened to you!"
Lance put his arms around her as he hugged her back.
"I'm afraid those feelings may not have been too misplaced," he said softly after a moment.
Destiny let go and kneeled in front of Lance, looking up at his face. It was then that she noticed how tired and worn he seemed.
"Lance, what is it?" Destiny asked, suddenly concerned.
"I… Part of me just wished to show you… But I knew that that was…" Lance said, looking down, and seemingly confused as to what to say. "But I just didn't…"
"Lance, it's okay. Just tell me," Destiny said, knowing her friend never stumbled over himself unless something really out of place had just happened.
Lance sighed, put his elbows on his lap, folded his hands together, and then put his chin against his folded hands. His eyes gave a deep look of concentration, like he was trying to find the best way he could possibly say this.
After a moment he sat up straight and took a deep breath.
"As you already know, I was out training," he started, "but then something went horribly wrong. I was attacked by some new kind of ship. They seemed pretty complicated, and they had some sort of electrical beam that knocked me out in one shot.
"I awoke later completely confused. The first thought that occurred to me was that I was dead. I soon figured out I wasn't obviously, but it just might have been better if I had been. It ends up that I had been trespassing on some property of some sort of secret organization or something. They specialized in creating new things, like the ships that had attacked me. What was worse was that they were also delving into stuff that does things to pokemon and humans.
"I found out soon enough that they had decided to use me as a little experiment. I was able to escape right away, but only because I had lost myself in panic," Lance said, seeming to end his story.
"But," Destiny said after a moment, "there's nothing different about you. At least, none that I can see of…"
"That's because I figured out how to make myself appear normal," Lance replied, "At least, temporarily."
"What do you mean by 'temporarily'?" Destiny asked, even more worried now than she'd been before.
Lance sighed.
"That's what I don't want to show you," Lance said, looking down at his hands, "and I know this is only temporary because I get weaker in this form."
"Lance, you're starting to really get me worried," Destiny said with deep concern.
Lance got up and walked over next to Destiny, where he sat down next to her, sitting so he faced the opposite direction she was facing.
"I'm going to show you what they did to me," Lance said, "When I do it, you can read the thoughts I want you to hear. It's not like you'd be forcing yourself into my mind, so you technically wouldn't be breaking your vow."
"But why am I going to need to read your mind?" Destiny asked.
"You'll see," Lance answered, "This is really going to wear me out me, so if I faint, don't go crazy on me, okay?"
Lance turned his head and looked at Destiny as she stared at him. She nodded wordlessly, concern seen easily in her eyes.
Lance looked straight ahead and gave a sigh. This was the moment he was afraid would happen. This was the moment that he also knew had to happen.
Pain shot through his body and he leaned forward. Destiny shouted his name and turned so she faced his side. She put her hand on his back and looked wide-eyed at him.
Little did she know that that was, in comparison, the minor pain that he would have to go through in this process.
Lance's skin and clothing began to gain a yellow hue, except for the front of his neck and the front of his torso and stomach area, which began to turn white. His skin also began to bulk, as his clothes seemed to melt into his skin. His face then began to change after his skin and clothing. His nose and mouth began to extend to form a snout. His hair then began to turn yellow and shorten. Yellow antennas sprouted out from the top of his head, a horn began to grow a little closer to his forehead, between them. A few moments later, Destiny noticed a thick tail begin to grow out from his lower back.
About a minute afterwards, the changes had stopped and a dragonite now sat, bent over, panting heavily in front of Destiny. He was covered in sweat and looked exhausted.
"Lance…?" Destiny asked in disbelief as she stared at the dragonite.
'I would think so,' Destiny heard Lance say inside her head, 'By the way, you can hear me, right?'
Lance turned his head and looked at the astonished Destiny. She nodded her head a little in response to Lance's question.
'Good,' Lance said, 'that makes things nicer…'
Suddenly, Lance fell forward. Destiny caught his chest with her hand then leaned him back against her other arm.
His eyes were shut and his breathing seemed to be stabilized and good. Still…
Destiny stared at Lance with pity in her eyes.
"Oh, Lance," she whispered. "What did they do to you?"
A movement in the corner of Destiny's eye quickly caught her attention.
She looked over to see that her espeon had recovered and was up and about. The espeon walked over to Destiny and sat down. She looked at the dragonite then at Destiny, sending Destiny a message using feelings.
"Yeah, this is Lance," Destiny said is response to the sent feelings.
A different vibe came from the espeon.
"Please stop telling me you told me so," Destiny said, sounding a little annoyed.
The espeon ceased giving off emotions and looked over at the cave entrance. Destiny followed the espeon's gaze. The sky was painted in the assorts of colors only a sunset could create on that canvas.
"I guess I should go and get things ready for night, huh?" Destiny said, turning to look at her espeon.
The espeon just turned her head and looked at her master's face.
Destiny sighed and gently placed Lance down. She looked at him with pity, then got up.
"I'll start with the fire wood then," Destiny said as she walked towards the cave entrance.
---
The young man hopped off the checkup table. He took a deep breath and headed towards the door.
"Hey. Where do you think you're going?" the blonde haired, female doctor asked.
The man turned and looked at the young woman. She had short, neck long blonde hair, a white lab coat on, a pair of glasses, dark green eyes, and was a nice height, not that tall, but not exactly short.
The man himself was dirty blonde, had dark brown eyes, and wore a green outfit. He was a tall and fairly handsome young man.
"I may see nothing wrong with you physically," said the doctor, "but I definitely know something is wrong with you otherwise."
The man sighed.
"I failed today," he said. "I failed miserably."
The woman smiled at the young man and tried to seem hopeful for him.
"Don't worry, things will look up Ricky, you'll see," she said.
"I just don't know," Ricky said. "The only thing Croy seemed to not be so mad about was me finding out that that girl I tried to help Croy capture is psychic."
"Well at least you got that," the doctor said.
"Trish, with the way I'm working, I won't be able to get out of here until I'm old enough to be a great grandfather!" Ricky said in frustration.
"I told you, don't worry," Trish said. "You and her will be able to leave here sooner than you think. Who knows, if you do bad enough, maybe they'll throw you out with her just to get rid of you."
Ricky smiled at Trish, slightly amused by her comment.
"If only I were that lucky, huh?" he said.
Ricky then opened the door and walked out.
"Just be careful," Trish whispered after he had shut the door.
---
As Lance started to come to, the first thing he noticed was a bright, orange and yellow light to his right. Then everything else began to slowly come to.
"Lance?" a female voice asked.
Lance closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on remembering what had happened before he'd gone to sleep.
"Lance? You awake?" the voice asked again.
Just then, everything came back to Lance. He'd shown Destiny what had happened to him, but then he'd past out from his transformation into a dragonite.
'Yeah, I'm awake,' Lance said, using his thoughts to communicate with Destiny.
"You're okay, right?"
'As okay as I can be,' Lance answered.
He went to sit up, but suddenly began to feel dizzy and stopped.
Destiny rushed to his side and helped him sit up, propping his back against one of the cave walls.
'Thanks,' he said to Destiny.
"No problem," Destiny said as she turned to look back at the fire.
She sat next to Lance and brought her knees to her chin, still staring at the fire in the process.
'You sure it's safe to have a fire going in here?' Lance asked Destiny.
"Yeah, I can make it safe. It's easy enough for me when we're this near to the entrance," Destiny answered.
A couple moments went by as they both stared at the fire.
Lance turned his head and looked at Destiny. He had been so afraid that she wouldn't accept what he'd become… Yet now she accepted it so easily…
I guess that that's just the kind of person she is, Lance thought to himself.
Destiny's eyes left the fire and looked up at Lance. He looked at her for one last moment, then turned his gaze back to the fire.
"Lance, why… Why didn't you come straight home?" Destiny asked, concern etched into her voice.
Lance looked back at Destiny. She was staring intently at him.
Lance gave a sigh and looked back at the fire.
'I suppose that there's not just one reason to why I didn't go back to the cabin,' he started off saying.'One was that I was afraid that if I was there with you, you would be in danger. Apparently you were in danger anyway, or else I wouldn't have had to rescue you.'
"Yeah, I'd guessed you were the one who'd saved my rear end from the other dragonite and Daemon, or whoever that other guy was," Destiny commented.
'Yeah, it wasn't too easy, but I managed to pull it off,' Lance said.
"Well, what were the other reasons?" Destiny asked, trying to get Lance to continue.
'At first, I didn't know how I was going to communicate to you that it was me,' Lance continued. 'After all, you wouldn't have dug through my mind to find out what it was that I wanted to tell you, so that would just have been a nightmare.
'But when I finally figured out that I could transform back to my normal self, I was ready to head back right away and tell you. Of course, all good things must come to an end, and mine came pretty quickly. I soon figured out that my human form was very much temporary. Transforming, both ways, is also exhausting, so it left me defenseless afterwards. I eventually made it so that I could last a couple hours longer than I originally could. In fact, when I transformed this last time, it was the longest I'd ever waited to transform. I knew, because it was temporary, that I wouldn't be able to hide it if I wanted to, so that made me feel I couldn't go to you yet either. After all, it'd probably have come out at the worst time too.'
"But why would you want to hide it from me?" Destiny asked, sounding somewhat sad that he would wish to conceal something like this.
'I don't really know. I guess it might have been because I was afraid that you wouldn't accept what I'd become,' Lance answered, 'or maybe I was too full of pride to want you to learn that something this embarrassing had happened to me.'
Destiny got up and walked in front of Lance. She knelt in front of him and looked into his eyes with a look of pity.
She wrapped her arms around the dragonite's neck and hugged him. He, in return, wrapped his arms around her sides and back.
"Lance," Destiny said in a low voice, "it doesn't matter how much you change on the outside, just as long as you stay you on the inside. That's all I care about. I just want you to be the Lance that I've always known."
They sat there in that embrace for several moments. Neither stirred nor hardly dared do anything but breathe.
"Just know that no matter what happens to you, I'll always be waiting for you. No matter what you think I'll say or do, I'll always be there as long as you haven't totally changed on me. That I can promise you," Destiny finally said.
They finally let go of each other.
'I just didn't want to hurt you, to disappoint you.' Lance said as he looked at Destiny.
Destiny looked down, then sat down by him again and sighed.
"It doesn't matter, just as long as you know next time, I'm there for you," Destiny said as she stared at the fire.
Lance looked over at Destiny.
'Des?' he asked to get Destiny's attention.
"Yeah?" Destiny asked, looking over at Lance.
'Thanks.'
Destiny smiled then turned her head to look back at the fire.
---
"Ah… So that's where you are…" the man said.
The man was strange looking, to say the least. He had blonde hair, small dark irises, and his eyes frowned into a serious look. He also had on a brown shirt and pants. However, the strange things about him was that his skin had a yellow hue, he had a red star on his forehead, and he had long pointed ears, not too unlike a kadabra's.
He had been in a sort of daze-like state, which he had come out of to make his comment.
He turned to a pidgeotto that sat on a nearby rock and was cleaning its feather.
"Come my minion! We must help the main characters! The author wishes it!" the strange man shouted. The pidgeotto looked up and stared at the man like he had lost his mind; which probably wasn't too far off from the truth…
"I am appalled that you would think that!" shouted the man.
The man suddenly stopped and stared at the pidgeotto.
"Sally, you look different…" the man said.
The pidgeotto sweat dropped and shook its head.
"Preparations must be made!" he shouted as he threw his hand up into the air in a fist.
Then, he and the pidgeotto disappeared, being teleported to some unknown destination.
---
Croy sat as his desk, staring at the computer screen.
Things all began to make sense now. The youthful appearance, her mistaking him for being Daemon, and her being psychic… It was all clear.
Now he had another reason to capture her.
A knock came at the door.
"What?" Croy asked gruffly.
"Someone's here to see you sir," a male voice said from the other side of the door.
"Who?" Croy asked in the same tone.
"Well it's—" the man began.
"Oh come on, Hun! It's li'l ol' me!" a female voice rang from the other side.
"I'm busy, come back later," Croy said with a tone of annoyance.
Suddenly the door burst open and Bell walked in with a panicking guard right behind her.
"Chill, Sweetie," she said to the guard, then to Croy said, "You're always busy. This is as good a time as any for me to come and chat."
"Actually, I'm usually not that busy. I just don't like talking to you," Croy said bluntly.
Bell gave a short laugh.
"Oh, Hun, I never thought you had a sense of humor!" she said in the midst of her giggle fit.
"I don't," Croy answered.
Bell stopped in mid-laugh, looked at Croy, and blinked.
"Oh," she simply said.
All the while, the guard stood in a nervous wreck-like state and stared at the two, not sure if he should go back to the door, or if he should do something else.
Croy noticed this and looked at the guard.
"Go back to your post and shut the door," Croy told him.
"Yes, sir!" the guard said before running off to do as he was told, for he knew he was getting off easy when it comes to Croy.
Bell watched as the guard shut the door, then turned to look at Croy. Surprisingly enough, her face was very serious.
"I gave you some info, now you have to tell me what you dug up," Bell said sternly.
"Unfortunately, I haven't succeeded in recovering any more useful information on the girl," Croy said, adding a little bit of a disappointed tone to what he said.
"I don't believe you," Bell said as she walked up to Croy's desk and leered at him.
Croy sighed.
"Hard to hide anything from you," he said, sounding discouraged. "Okay then, I'll tell you what I managed to find."
Bell grabbed a chair and brought it in front of Croy's desk. She sat down and looked at Croy.
"Well, spit it out!" Bell said.
"I looked through some of my 'father's' old files," he began, "and found that she could very well be someone that my father used for his youth enhancing experiments."
"So basically, she could either have an extremely prolonged life, or she could be immortal?" Bell asked.
"I think the term is more so 'eternal youth'," Croy answered in a 'matter-of-fact' sort of way.
Bell smiled and looked at Croy seemingly satisfied with the information he'd given her.
"Did you find anything else?" Bell asked, less seriously.
"Yes, that she could very well be the biggest threat that you or anyone in this facility has ever faced."
Bell's expression went from satisfied to horror filled.
She knew, when Croy said something was dangerous, it was a force to be reckoned with.
"What?" Bell exclaimed.
She quickly got up out of her seat and looked down at Croy.
"Is there anything else?" she asked in a serious tone.
"That's all I've been able to uncover for now," Croy answered.
Bell turned around.
"If you find anything else, report it to me immediately!" she ordered.
Bell marched out the door and closed it swiftly behind herself.
"Oh, I forgot almost something," Croy said in a low voice as soon as he knew she was out of hearing range. "I also found that she is of an immortal race, and was, even before my father got a hold of her. They're better than the average human, and can do things like you wouldn't believe. Fascinating, isn't it?"
He smiled to himself and chuckled.
"Yes, very fascinating indeed," he said as he leaned back in his chair, "Very fascinating."
Destiny awoke slowly to the chill that was in the air. She did her best to curl up into a little ball inside her sleeping bag to keep herself warmer.
She took a deep breath then suddenly realized something.
She sat up and looked around quickly. She hadn't put the fire out last night, and she'd fallen asleep.
She gave a sigh of relief. The fire was out, good.
Lance must have put it out last night, she thought to herself.
It wasn't until then, when Lance was nowhere to be seen, that everything seemed to catch up to her.
Lance was turned into some sort of dragonite that could morph back into human form.
Destiny laid back down, this time on her back instead of her side.
As everything began to hit her, she just laid there, in a daze.
Good Lord, she thought to herself, Lance got turned into a dragonite… Lance is a dragonite…
"Isn't it strange how much time there can be between when a fact is given and when it's realized?" a male voice asked.
"Yeah," Destiny said, absent-mindedly agreeing to the statement.
Suddenly she noticed that the voice was no familiar to her.
She sat up and turned to her right, where the voice had come from.
There squatted a man with a star on his forehead and long, thick, pointed ears. A pidgeotto rested on his forearm, which he held out in front of himself.
"Who—who the world are you?" exclaimed Destiny loudly.
"Julius. I'm the comedic relief. Well, the relief, anyway," answered the man quite simply.
"GET OUT OF HERE!!!" screamed Destiny.
"Sorry, no can do," the man said.
"And why not?" yelled Destiny.
"Because the author doesn't want me to," answered Julius.
Destiny stared at the bizarre man.
"If you keep staring at me like that, your face might end up staying that way," the man said as he pointed at Destiny.
"Are you nuts?!" exclaimed Destiny.
The pidgeotto on Julius's arm closed its eyes and nodded as if say, "Sadly, it's very true. He's absolutely insane."
"I'm not ABSOLUTELY insane," pointed out the man. "Well, okay, maybe just a little."
At that moment a dragonite flew and landed in the entrance of the cave. He stared, puzzled, at the other person inside the cave.
'Would you mind filling me in?' Lance asked as he stared at the group.
Destiny shrugged.
"The only thing more I know than you do is that his name's Julius," Destiny said.
"It is?" the strange man asked looking very surprised, "… Oh yes, it is!"
"… And that he's totally loopy, but I'm guessing you figured that out by now," Destiny said to Lance while not loosing eye contact with Julius.
'Actually, I meant why he doesn't look like a normal human,' Lance said, or rather thought, to Destiny, 'but I guess I'll settle for that.'
"Actually, that's a complicated story," Julius said, as if having heard Lance's thoughts, even though they were not meant to be heard by him, "it involves some complicated stuff that has to do with teddy bears, balloons, and a purple marshmallow. Most of which I can't remember…"
The pidgeotto rolled its eyes and hopped off the man's arm and onto the ground. The man still held his arm out as if the bird pokemon was still on it.
Lance had walked further into the cave until he stood next to Destiny. Both stood there and stared at the intruders.
But soon their attention diverted to the pidgeotto, who began to grow larger, but with no light surrounding it, meaning it wasn't evolving. Two bumps began sprouting on its sides and grew longer and longer. Its face began to morph and lose feathers just as a good part of its body was. Its body began to stretch out and its legs grow longer. All this occurred all at once, until the end result gave a loud sigh of effort.
It was a woman. She had wings on her back, large talons as feet, and her hair wasn't really hair, but instead layers of long feather like the ones on the back of a pidgeot's head. She had on a cream colored tank top and pants, feathers appeared in bunches all around her body, and her eyes were fierce like a predator's. She also seemed to have claws instead of fingernails.
"Since Julius over there has decided he'd rather not tell you our story, I guess I should," the woman said, "My name is Sally and, believe it or not, I'm the dork head's girlfriend."
Destiny stared at the woman in awe. Lance, on the other hand, was not quite so stunned.
'I see,' he said, getting Destiny's attention, 'they were probably earlier experiments of the same testing that was done on me.'
"What?" Destiny said, turning and looking at Lance with an expression of surprise.
"True, true," Julius said, nodding his head, "we were indeed used for testing. And rubber duckies."
"Is he broken?" asked Destiny.
"Not too sure," answered Sally, "though I'd venture to guess that he was… But that will be all explained in story I'm about to tell you.
"You see," Sally continued, "Julius wasn't always this bizarre. The two of us worked at Team Industry. That was where we first met. He was a goofy guy, and we fell in love. How? I suppose that's a mystery that will never be solved. But we started going out after a couple months and after about a year of dating, we decided to sign up for being used as experiments in a new project. It would alter our DNA, making us a valuable asset to Team Industry. We wanted to get a raise so that we might start a life together. The experiment would make us second stage pokemon and see if we could evolve. They told us that they'd fixed the process so that we could stay either human or pokemon as long as we wanted. They also made it so that the process of morphing wouldn't be very painful.
"But as you might guess, things went a little wrong. We were able to be pokemon,and tranforming was only uncomfortable, but we were only able to morph into these humanoid forms. What's worse is that every time Julius morphed, he would loose a little more of his sanity. The stupid scientists didn't figure that out until he was almost like this.
"They still wanted to continue testing on him though. They even made him morph a couple more times. It was then that I decided we needed to leave. So I got Julius to teleport us out of the facility. It wasn't until that long ago that I began thinking that they might have developed a cure or something by now. So I had Julius search for someone who would be able to help us get into the facility."
"And that's why you came here, right?" Destiny asked.
"I guess so," Sally answered, "But this is Julius, so…"
"I know what I do every now and again," Julius said, looking as though he was ready to pout, "They can help us, if they so choose to accept the injured pineapple."
"Uh, sure, Hun," Sally said giving Julius a strange look.
'But I don't see how we'd be able to help,' Lance said to Destiny. 'I really don't want to go back to that cursed facility.'
"Well then you won't have to," Destiny replied, "I will."
'What?' Lance exclaimed.'Destiny, I can't let you do that! I'd never be able to forgive myself if something bad happened to you!'
"They might have a cure for you too!" Destiny replied, looking up at Lance's face with a serious expression. "I don't want to pass up an opportunity to change you back!"
'There's not even really that much of a chance that they have a cure already,' Lance said.
"But I still want to see if they do…" Destiny said, still looking up at Lance.
"Okay, I'm really only seeing a one sided conversation," Sally said with a puzzled look.
"Oh, that's because Destiny is psychic," Julius said smirking.
Sally stared at Julius with a no nonsense look.
"Well thank you, Julius, but that doesn't help me much," Sally said.
Destiny looked over at Sally and gave a small smile.
"Oh, no, he's talking about
me," she said, "My name is Destiny, and I am psychic. This
is
Lance, a friend of mine I've known ever since about the time
we'd started our journeys a while back. He was recently kidnapped
and used in experiments probably by the same team you used to work
for."
"Really now?" Sally asked, tapping her chin. "Well, you two wouldn't happen to be able to break into a high security facility, now would you?"
"Yeah, I could sneak in with some help with planning by Lance here," Destiny answered.
'Destiny, are you crazy? I'm not going to let you—' Lance began to say before Sally interrupted him involuntarily.
"Well, it seems that you can do things right sometimes, Julius," Sally said, seeming surprised.
"I told you," Julius said, crossing his arms, "I do things correctly every now and again with the assistance of my talking pet frogs."
"Frogs?" Sally asked looking at Julius funny, "You know what? Never mind, I don't want to know."
Sally looked back over to Destiny and Lance.
"So, what makes you so qualified to sneak into a secure facility with a little planning from your buddy?" she asked Destiny.
Destiny grinned.
"It's a little secret that you may find out soon enough," she answered.
---
The dragonite looked across the seemingly vast forest from the top of the cliff. He ached inside. He might never be able to look at any other scenery with her ever again.
He was trapped, cursed to never belong anywhere, with anyone. He'd be a slave forever, a servant to this greedy team. All because they held her captive.
She didn't even know what had happened to him. He wouldn't let her. He didn't want her to ever see him like this.
A human, but a dragonite. Yet, at the same time, neither, nor anything.
Could she ever accept that? Could she ever see him as anything other than what he saw himself as?
Even after everything he did for her, she'd, with his luck, leave him without a second thought.
But she never seemed to love him any less whenever he would go to see her in his human form…
That was the point though, wasn't it? Whenever he saw her in his human form.
"Ricky," a voice said over his headset, "I need you to get back in here. I have something I want you to do."
The dragonite sighed.
No, nothing would change until the day that he died. They would always keep her as the string they needed to control their puppet. Or at least until he became "obsolete." But the likelihood of that…
The dragonite stood up.
No, he would never be able to free himself.
---
A beautiful redhead with a pair of thin-rimmed glasses that sat in front of here light blue eyes walked over to a part on the side of a cliff that bumped out of the cliff wall. She wore a skirt that went to her knees, a blouse, and a lab coat.
She took a quick look around and then pushed her index finger against a little ledge. It went into the cliff, revealing a sort of keypad-like thing underneath it.
She pressed a green button that made one of the other buttons pop up to reveal a cotton swab. She took the swab and swiped the inside of her mouth with it, placing it back, cotton way in first. The DNA scanner glowed then made a beeping noise. She looked down at a little black screen that read, "WELCOME BACK DR. TERESA MALT," with green letters.
The doctor chuckled to herself and then watched as the bumped out part of the cliff moved upwards to reveal a dark passageway. She stepped in, then turned around, watching as the door fell back into place. She then turned to the illuminated elevator numbers. She pressed several in a certain order and then waited for something to appear beneath the elevator buttons.
A thing popped out like a CD player. It had vertical slot with small semi-circles on each side of it. She put her index finger in one semi-circle and her thumb in the other. She then turned the slot counter-clockwise so that is was horizontal, took a keycard out of her pocket, and then ran it through the slot. She turned slot back into its vertical position. The elevator gave a jolt and began to move downwards.
Dr. Malt was headed underground.
When she arrived on her floor, she walked into the hallway and turned left. She walked past several different doors, then took a right, walking past two other doors to her right, and three to her left, until she came the door she desired to go through.
She typed a code into the keypad under the door. She took a keycard out of her pocket and ran it through the slot by the doorknob.
She turned the knob and opened the door. She closed the door behind her and looked around. The room was white and full of computers and machines. Most of the machines held test tubes of sorts.
There were only a couple other people that were in the room.
"Hey! Teresa!" a young redheaded woman in the corner shouted to Dr. Malt, "Over here!"
Dr. Malt walked over to the woman.
"Hey Emily," she said with a smile.
"Guess what? I'm almost done with that formula for an antidote the mutation serum," she said in a low voice.
"What? Really?" Teresa replied.
"Yeah, and I figured out one of the people who was going to receive the antidote," she said, nodding.
"Really? Who told you?" Dr. Malt asked.
"Dr. Underwood did. You know, Trish? It's that poor dragonite that Croy's always bossing around," Emily said. "I heard that the reason he was even apart of the experiment was because they have his fiancé under lock and key. The poor guy."
"Wow, that's kind of sad," Teresa said.
"Yeah, which makes it that much more important that I get this thing done," Emily said, turning back to her computer.
"You were always a sucker for that romantic stuff. Well, I'd better get to work, too," Teresa said.
"Okay, I'll talk to you later," Emily said.
Teresa went over to her computer, typed in a username, a few passwords here and there, then got the search engine up.
She typed in a couple names, numbers, and then a couple words. She pressed the SEARCH button, and waited a couple moments.
The screen produced a couple different files. She clicked on one of them.
This was exactly what she'd been looking for. Now, to wait around until—
The door the lab opened and a group of men and women walked in. They were dressed in green outfits and all of them looked around the room.
Teresa quickly exited out of what she'd been looking at.
They apparently found what they'd been looking for almost right away, because a few of them walked over to Teresa.
"Dr. Teresa Malt?" a woman asked.
"Yes…" Dr. Malt replied, nodding slowly.
"Come with us please," she said.
Teresa frowned and stood up.
"Croy wants to see you," the woman said, grabbing Teresa's wrist.
One of the men grabbed her other wrist and she looked around frightened. She felt deep inside she knew exactly what would happen to her.
And she didn't like the feeling.
---
Teresa looked at Croy, who was seated right in front of her. She, too, was seated. However, her wrists were tied together behind the chair.
The two of them were also all alone.
He was looking at a bottle in his hand. It was small and looked like some medicine bottles do, only it was glass and held a liquid inside of it.
"I hardly expected you to show up again so soon Natasha," Croy said.
"What?" Teresa asked, puzzled.
"Natasha, you're playing dumb. I hate it when people do that," Croy said, giving Teresa a cold look.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, baffled.
"Stop acting like you don't know what I'm talking about Natasha," Croy said, with a hint of anger in his voice.
"But I don't!" Teresa responded. "Sir, if this is a factor of my identity, the DNA test—"
"That's the thing though," Croy said. "You know as well as I do that that doesn't matter, because you can even change your DNA. Right, Natasha?"
"Sir, I'm really confused here," Teresa said. "I just got back from vacation and now you keep calling me this Natasha person. I'm starting to think I've entered a parallel universe or something."
"Fine then," Croy, said, as he got up from his chair. "If you want to play it that way, I'll let you go, but only under one condition."
Teresa looked up at Croy as he walked over to her. She began to show signs of panic. She bit her lower lip in an attempt to keep herself calm.
Croy walked in front of Teresa and leaned his back against his desk. He fiddled around with the bottle that was in his right hand.
"You see," he said, looking at the bottle, "Earthons are indestructible, and masters at hiding. They can change shape, and even their DNA structure. They are immortal and there is no way to kill them," he looked into Teresa's eyes, "except for one. My so-called 'father' figured it out. Of course, you already know all of this. In fact, you probably knew as soon as you saw this bottle what it contained; Earthin's Bane."
Teresa's head fell forward; her eyes were shut tight. She knew what was coming.
Croy smiled. His face twisted into an evil grin.
"Totally harmless to people, but death to immortals," Croy continued, "Made for the sole purpose to kill my father's greatest obstacle, but, ironically, what brought him to his own demise. I give you an injection of this; if you live, you're Teresa Malt after all. We wipe your memory of what I've just said, and you go on living your life like this never happened. However,"— Croy's eyes narrowed— "if you begin to scream in anguish and pain, and begin slowly deteriorating, then I've just rid myself of my biggest threat against my authority. Either way, I can't loose.
"But," Croy said, looking back down at the bottle, "if you show me your true face, Natasha, then I just might spare you. After all, we need you for our own purposes."
There was a moment of silence. Teresa knew that she could get out of that rope tied around her wrist, but there was no way to get out of this facility. Not unless they wanted her to get away, and she knew that that would never happen. She only had one option left if she wanted to live.
She lifted her head and looked at Croy.
"I knew you'd co-operate Natasha," Croy said, looking at the girl who sat in front of him.
"I no longer go by that name," said the girl, looking up at Croy with dark green eyes full of determination. A strand of light brown hair fell forward into her face. "My good friend Fate gave me a new one."
"Oh?" Croy said, raising his eyebrows in interest. "And what would it be now?"
---
FLASHBACK***"I love chicken!
I love liver!
I love pizza!
You deliver!" Julius sang.
"Julius, shut-up" Sally said, glaring at Julius.
Espeon picked her head up and looked at Sally as if to say, "Thank you."
"I love you, Sally," Julius said, leaning his head against her shoulder and looking up at her with a stupid grin plastered on his face.
"And sometimes I wonder why I still love you," Sally said smiling and looking at her crazy, grinning boyfriend.
Julius sat up suddenly and leaned forward, squinting his eyes so that way they looked like they were closed.
"Does this make me look like Brock?" Julius asked.
"Look like who?" Sally asked, completely confused.
"I thought so," Julius said in response, still holding his pose. "There has been a disturbance in the force. We are in a flashback!"
"Uh, sure, Hun," Sally said, rolling her eyes.
Espeon, on the other hand, looked at Julius like he was crazy.
And while those two were having their interesting conversation inside the cave, Lance and Destiny were outside the cave entrance. Lance was in his human form, leaning against the mountainside, while Destiny was sitting down cross-legged and fiddling with some grass. Both were waiting for sunrise, when Destiny would leave to go through with the plan they'd been working on for two whole weeks.
"You remember all the codes and stuff, right?" Lance asked, looking at Destiny.
"Yeah, I remember," Destiny said, continuing to fiddle around with the grass. "We psychics are pretty good at remembering stuff."
"Well, I was just making sure," Lance said.
There was a moment of silence. Both of them stared at the ground in front of themselves.
"You don't have to go," Lance said, looking up at the stars.
"It's too late to turn around now," Destiny replied, still staring at the grass in front of her.
"No, you can still turn back," Lance said, "but once you're in that facility, if you get caught somehow, then it will be too late. But you can always turn back before then."
"We kidnapped that woman, I ran through her mind and grabbed the needed information," Destiny said, looking at a blade of grass that was sitting in her hand, "but most importantly, I promised those two I'd do my best to find their cure."
"But I know that those aren't the only reasons," Lance said, still looking up at the night sky. "You're also doing this because you think they may have my cure ready."
"There's nothing wrong with that," Destiny said, tearing up a couple new blades of grass.
Lance turned his head and looked over at her.
"Yes, there is," he said. "I know that you would put yourself in deliberate danger if it meant getting my cure. I don't want you doing that. If they get you, they'll have both of us. I already know that they'd use you to control me."
"They won't get me," Destiny replied stubbornly.
"How do you know?" Lance asked. "Did you use your powers to find out?"
"No, you know that I hardly ever get visions of the future," Destiny answered.
"Then why are you pretending to know a future that you know no better than I do?" Lance asked in a caring tone.
"Because, if I look at it any other way, if I'm not confident enough, I'm more likely to mess up," Destiny answered. "The reason for that being, I'd be less relaxed, more like I didn't know what I was doing. And in order to accomplish this, I have to look like I do this everyday."
Destiny looked at the clump of grass in her hand. She then gave a sigh and closed her eyes, clutching onto the clump of grass.
"Des, if anything happens to you, you know that I'll feel that I'm the one to blame," Lance said, looking at Destiny. "Please be careful. You mean too much to me."
Destiny looked up at Lance for the first time during their conversation.
"Lance…" Destiny started, but left off, not too sure about what to say.
For a moment the two of them spoke nothing. The only sounds were that of night's and some senseless jabbering between Julius and Sally from inside the cave.
"Lance, I'll be okay," Destiny said, before looking at the ground in front of her. "You don't have to worry about me. After all, I may look young, but you know as well as I do, that I'm no average 16 year-old girl."
Destiny stood up, brushed herself off, and then walked over to face Lance. She leaned against his chest and let him hold her close with his arms around her.
"I may not know what'll happen, but I can promise you that everything will all work out fine on the end," she said.
Lance said nothing, but looked ahead to western horizon. Fate had thrown another conflict at them. Did she find it funny to do this to them?
Or did she have another reason for all their turmoil?
Lance and Destiny both closed their eyes, just letting this moment last.
Then, after a little while, Lance opened his eyes and looked ahead. The sky ahead was lit up with the morning light. Even the part of the sky that was always the last to see the light coming or going, was touched by the golden morning sunlight.
"It's time for you to go," Lance said in a low voice.
Destiny opened her eyes and looked up at the sky.
"I guess that time won't wait for even me," Destiny said, listening to Lance's heartbeat for a couple more seconds.
She then gave a sigh and then pushed away from Lance, so that she stood in front of him. She took off her pokeballs and handed them to Lance.
"Take care of them," she said as he took it from her.
"You have the keycard, right?" Lance asked.
Destiny took it out of her coat pocket.
"Yep, right here," she said, smiling.
Lance smiled back, but it was more so a smile of satisfaction, than that of happiness.
Destiny stuck the keycard back in her pocket, turned around, and stepped a few feet away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A flash of a silver line, which ran horizontally, trickled down her body.
Dr. Teresa Malt now stood in a white lab coat a few feet away from Lance.
"Be careful Destiny," Lance said.
"Lance, you worry too much," the redheaded woman said in Dr. Malt's voice.
The woman looked at Lance and smiled. She then stooped down and picked up a belt that had a few pokeballs on it.
"I'll be fine, you'll see," she said.
With that she clipped the belt around her waist, took off one of the pokeballs.
"Besides, Dr. Malt's pokemon will protect me," the woman said with a grin.
With that, she threw the pokeball into the air. A red light shot out of the pokeball, revealing the form of a Kirlia.
"All right Kirlia, teleport us to just outside the anti-teleportation barrier," the woman said.
"Kirlia!" the Kirlia shouted with a nod.
With that, the two were gone in a flash, leaving Lance leaning his back against the mountainside.
He crossed his arms and then closed his eyes.
If anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself. Especially since the biggest reason she was doing this was for him.
Lance opened his eyes and looked up. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.
Lance stood up straight and sighed. He'd been in his human form for an hour, which was long enough for now.
END FLASHBACK***---
It was around one O'clock in the afternoon. Not long enough to worry quite yet. But he still wished she would get back quickly.
"You seem tense," Sally said as she sat down by Lance.
He turned and looked at her, then turned his head back to the entrance.
"You know, I can understand pokemon language," Sally said. "Kinda comes with the pokemon part of the brain."
The dragonite stayed quiet.
"Fine, be that way," Sally responded. "It's not like I wanted to have a sane conversation anyway."
Sally got up and turned around.
"[Wait]," Lance said in pokemon.
"Well, well," Sally said, sitting back down by Lance, "you can speak after all."
"[Please don't mock me]," Lance said, glaring at Sally.
"Sorry, but I'm a natural smart alek," Sally replied. "Sometimes words just fly out of my mouth and I hardly even notice."
Lance gave her a disbelieving look.
"Hey, it was worth a shot," Sally said with a grin. "So, whatcha thinking about?"
"[I'm just worried about Destiny, that's all]," Lance answered. "[She could've used the sudden illness excuse and been well out of there by now.]"
"And I'm still more concerned about if she even got in," Sally said. "I mean, how on earth could you have possibly gotten past the DNA swabbing? They have a camera that watches the entrance 24/7, so it's not like you could've used anything pre-done."
"[I told you before, it's a trade secret]," Lance replied.
"Sure," Sally said, raising an eyebrow. "How did you two meet anyway?"
"[I'd been training for about a year and had just won my eighth gym badge]," Lance said. "[when I just sort of found her. She was knocked out cold and her buddy was kind of panicking. Poor guy had no idea what to do.]"
"Really now?" Sally said. "Well that's an interesting story. And you guys were friends after that?"
"[Well, it was kind of weird, because she was always kind of staring at me funny]," Lance said. "[And then, when I finally asked her why she was always staring at me like that, she bugged out and wouldn't tell me. And I have still yet to figure it out.]"
"She probably had a crush on you," Sally said.
"[I don't know]," Lance said. "[If I didn't know her that well, I might agree with you. But Destiny's a kind of unique character. She doesn't even believe in love at first sight. She'd never fall for a guy unless she knew their personality first.]"
"Speaking of that sort of thing, has she had any other boyfriends besides you?" Sally asked.
"[What]?" Lance responded, looking at Sally wide-eyed. "[No, you have it all wrong, I'm not her boyfriend! Well, not officially, but it's… Do you take pride in putting people in awkward positions like this]?"
"Maybe," Sally said, grinning. "So you guys have been together since you were about eleven? And then what about her little buddy? What happened to him?"
"[Well, there was a time when we were separated for a long while]," Lance said, "[but as you can tell, we managed to find each other again. And as for Destiny's friend, he had to leave. I haven't seen him since then.]"
"Hmm… Hey, out of curiosity, how old are you?" Sally asked.
"[You sure do have a lot of questions]," Lance commented, "[but of all the questions you could've asked, that's one that I can't answer]."
"Um, okay then," Sally replied.
"I may now interrupt because they are done talking about things that the audience may have wanted to know!" Julius shouted from behind them.
"And if you're wondering why I haven't killed him yet, not even I know that," Sally said, grinding her teeth and fluffing up the feathers on her wings.
"You see, before the flashback, Destiny got caught. At least, I think it is Destiny, especially after seeing the flashback. Anyway, I'm thinking that she's probably in big trouble right now, though I'd have to wait to see," Julius said.
"[What]?" Lance responded, turning to look at Sally with a puzzled expression.
"Probably another one of his mindless rants," Sally answered, "but from the sound of what he said, it kinda sounds like Destiny's in trouble."
"[What]?" Lance exclaimed this time, standing up. "[We have to get in there and save her! Who knows what they've done to her by now]?"
"Calm down, I'm sure that she's not too bad off," Sally said raising her hands in a calming gesture, "You aren't thinking clearly, so I'll say this to get you on a more rational thought process. There are several doors to the facility, each are well-hidden, and under 24/7 surveillance. In order to get into one of those doors, you need to be one of the people assigned to that door. After that you have to put your index finger in the correct area. You're fingerprint has to match your face. After that, a keypad of a sort is revealed, there can be a different range of buttons. You have to press the right button or buttons to get one of the other buttons to pop up. This reveals a one-sided cotton swab. You have to get some of your spit on it, preferably by swiping the inside of your mouth. You must then stick that swab in cotton headfirst so that way it can read the DNA from your mucus. After a DNA match is confirmed, an elevator door will open.
"And all of that up until now is just to get inside the elevator. After that, you have to type in an eight-digit identification number then a six-digit password in the elevator numbers. You then have to turn a slot that appears under the numbers horizontally, turning it counter-clockwise for some and clockwise for others. Then, you have to have a key card that matches your entire identity up to that point that you slip through the slot. You then turn it vertical again, either going counter-clockwise for some and clockwise for others.
"After that, you go to whatever floor your workplace is assigned to, from a range of ten stories underground to forty-five," Sally said, finishing up, "Now how do you expect to rescue her? Knock and ask nicely?"
"[Well I can't just wait here]!" Lance shouted.
"There will be no need, for you see, there is a Smurf on the horizon," Julius said, pointing to outside the cave entrance.
Lance and Sally looked to see what Julius was talking about, if he was even talking about anything at all.
Amazingly enough, Julius was indeed pointing out something that was there.
"[What is it]?" Lance asked.
"It's a dragonite," Sally answered.
"[What? How could you tell]?" Lance asked her.
"My eyes are as sharp as a pidgeotto's," Sally answered looking at Lance and smirking. "Comes with the job."
She looked up back at the flying dragonite.
"It's coming pretty fast too," Sally continued saying. "Should be here soon."
Lance glared at the dragonite on the horizon.
"What do you suppose it's doing way out—?" Sally began to ask. However, she was unable to finishing inquiring.
Lance had leapt into the air and began to jet towards the other dragonite's direction, leaving behind a gust of wind.
He knew who it was. He knew why that dragonite was here.
And he wasn't going to wait around for that news either.
Within a minute and a half the two dragonites were staring each other down in midair.
"[What do you think you're doing here]?" Lance asked angrily.
"[I'm just delivering a message]," the other dragonite said, "[But I have an idea you already know what it is]."
"[You let her go]!" Lance demanded.
"[You must show up by this time tomorrow at the west side of the mountain facility, or else your friend is going to get her taste of Earthin's Bane]," the other dragonite said. "[Negotiations will take place there.]"
With that, the dragonite turned and began to fly off in the opposite direction.
"[Not so fast]," Lance said, giving a quick beat to his wings and springing forward.
With that he disappeared in a flash and came crashing down on the opposing dragonite. As the two began to fall to the earth the other dragonite's hand began to glow. He thrust it on Lance, knocking him off and both straightened back up.
"[I already told you, I'm just a messenger]," the other dragonite said. "[If you want to take it out on anyone, take it out on Croy!]
"[Croy]?" Lance asked.
"[You'll meet him again soon enough]," the other dragonite said turning and flying off for the last time.
Lance just hovered there in midair, fists clenched tight, as he watched the other dragonite fly away.
"[Destiny]…" Lance said softly, bowing his head down.
"What did he want?" Sally's voice asked from behind Lance.
Lance looked over his shoulder.
Sally hovered behind him, her face full of pity, for she had a feeling she knew already.
"[They have her]," he said weakly. "[They have Destiny.]"
---