Chapter 1-The Incident

The outskirts of Saffron City; Team Rocket Research Facility.

A pair of professional looking people walked down a long, pristine white hallway, their boots clicking with every step. Both were dressed in standard researcher uniforms; white lab coats, with a red R stitched on the pocket, black undershirt, black trousers and thick soled boots. The male, with dull, grey hair and blue eyes, looked disinterested as the female, who had green eyes and blonde hair, struggled to start a conversation.

"So…um…you," the woman started after a few more steps, "what d'you think we're doing today?"

"I don't know. Same thing we do every day. Monitor tests, get the scientist's coffee and lunch, same old, same old," the man replied, speeding up slightly as the duo neared the end of the hallway. "And call me Smokey," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Smokey?" the woman said questioningly, one eyebrow raised, as they reached a large security door at the end of the hallway. "Well, call me Clara then."

The duo paused next to a large security door. "Anyway, nah, I got a feeling that something's gonna happen today. Something…just something. I mean why else would we be given these neat new clothes?" the woman questioned as she swiped her security clearance card. The lock flashed for a couple of seconds, before turning green, and opening the door.

"Yeah…something'll happen today. The same thing which happens every day," Smokey commented, raising his voice so it would be heard through the door. He shook his head and swiped his card to gain access to the facility. "Honestly, that's all we junior scientists ever do."

When Smokey and Clara had entered the facility's foyer, they paused to recover after the long trek down the hallway. The room they had entered was just as clinically white as the hallway outside, there were no windows in the room, leaving only a harshly bright light to illuminate the room. Many doors were around which lead to a variety of different areas. A map of all the rooms was posted on the wall to the right of the door, and a crowd of scientists had gathered on the left, talking over their findings and any other topics which came to mind.

"Ah, there you two are, I was getting worried about you," a voice announced. Suddenly a rotund, balding, red-cheeked, white-haired old man broke off from the crowd and came rushing towards them, grinning and carrying large bundles of paper in his arms.

"Hello, Doctor Daruma," Clara said, while her male counterpart waved slightly. "So, what are we doing today, doc?" the woman continued, ignoring Smokey's lame attempt of a greeting. The doctor's smile grew even wider at this question.

"Oh, it's something special, Sunshine; just you wait and see, just you wait and see!" Daruma replied, bouncing up and down on his heels in poorly concealed glee. He gave the papers to a passing intern, and gestured at the duo to follow him into another section of the facility, which was labelled as 'Restricted'.

"See, told you something different would happen today," Clara whispered to Smokey, a slight smirk on her face. The grey-haired man just sighed, shook his head and followed Daruma to the restricted area.

After Daruma entered a long series of codes into a keypad, the group entered a room with what looked like a sprinkler system sticking out of the walls. "What is that?" Clara asked, approaching the room cautiously.

Daruma walked through without a moment's hesitation, not even flinching at the sudden hissing noise and large clouds of smoke coming from the walls. "Nothing to be scared of," he said, once the hissing had stopped, "it's just an air shower, it gets rid of outside contamination. Something we don't want where we're going."

"Oh," Clara said, feeling rather silly and following Daruma's lead, although the blonde flinched at the sudden, sharp hiss as air suddenly battered her from all angles. Smokey smiled at her actions and entered the room as Clara left. As the group came together again they reached a set of stairs, which led to a room with no locks. Printed on the door was 'LABORATORY 1: BOTAINCAL RESEARCH FACILITY'. Opposite the staircase was an elevator.

"Okay, now it's down to the fifth floor and to the left when we reach the bottom," Daruma said, as they all piled into the elevator together.

"Thank Arceus someone built this elevator," Smokey commented.

"Well we're here!" Daruma exclaimed, spreading his arms wide and grinning once again, as they approached a door. The door seemed rather cold and imposing; it was composed of dark, dull grey metal. Printed on the door in bold red was "LABORATORY 16; ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK".

"Uh…why does the door say that?" Clara paused and studied the lab through the small window on the door.

"It's just a joke, someone thought it'd be funny," Daruma said, closing his eyes and shaking his head gently in amusement. "Shall we progress now, or do you have any more questions?" Daruma's tone had suddenly become short and clipped.

"No, no let's go," Clara replied, a nervous tinge was in the tone of her voice, Smokey nodded in affirmation. Daruma, who seemed more relaxed now, opened the door and held it open so all three of them could enter the lab.

Inside the lab, it felt very cramped and gloomy; next to the door were three dull silver operating tables, two of which were covered in a dark unidentifiable substance. Two of the walls were lined with strange glass tubes; there were twelve tubes on each side and something was floating in a greenish fluid in each tube. Wires ran from the bottom of the tubes over to the back wall. Smokey could barely make out a group of six scientists huddled together near the point where all the wires connected to a large computer terminal. "Hello, my fellow researchers!" Daruma shouted suddenly, causing the scientists to look up briefly, "how are the subjects faring today?"

"Better than yesterday," one scientist replied, before turning back to the screen. Daruma's excitement had returned again, a grin forming on his face again.

"Ahem," Smokey cleared his throat to get Daruma's attention, "would you mind explaining what's going on, and why we're down here?" Still grinning, Daruma turned around and pointed at the glass tube closest to his right. It was then that Smokey realised the thing in the tube was vaguely humanoid and moving.

"That's what we're doing down here, we're making the next step in evolution!" Daruma exclaimed, the grin on his face seemed more deranged and demented after every word. "Have you ever read the ancient Pokémon myths? You know those myths were the Pokémon are half one creature and half another creature?"

"Yeah," Clara answered, "the myth of the chimera, right?

"That's the one; well what you're looking at is the actualisation of that myth," Daruma finished, panting for breath slightly. "Half-human, half-Pokémon." Smokey and Clara's expressions had slowly morphed from excitement to curiosity tinged with horror. "As for what you're doing here, well you got promoted to day duty for observing these…hmm, what did we call this group of experiments?" The head scientist stood up and walked towards the door, the others followed closely behind.

"We didn't name them; no point getting sentimental after all," the head scientist's dreary voice seemed to echo briefly as he left the room, the door clicked shut after the last member of the group had left. Daruma huffed at the door when the scientists had left.

"You know what we will call them something, but what?" Daruma questioned his earlier enthusiasm dying down after the rebuttal from the scientist.

"I know, we could call them the Hybrids," Smokey said, looking at one of the holding tubes closely.

"…well, it'll do for now," Daruma replied, and then walked over to the vacant computer terminal to check the figures on the screen. "Hmm, that's odd. That's not right,"Daruma said, his brow furrowing slightly. Suddenly a high pitched, monotone beep echoed around the room, causing everyone to flinch.

"What's not right," Clara asked, walking over to the computer.

"The vitals for this one just dropped to zero," Daruma replied, pointing at a point on the screen for the blonde to see.

"Well I'm sorry to break it to you, but I think it just died," Clara commented.

"But it was the strongest one of the lot, the vitals didn't even flicker once, and now it's dead?"

"Well, these things just happen sometimes."

"But-"

"Which one died?" Smokey interrupted, as he inspected each tube carefully. In his opinion they all looked dead.

"Number twenty, the one left of the one you're standing next to." Smokey approached the glass, knocked a few times, and then stepped back to get a better look at the recently deceased chimera. It was long, humanoid and suspended by a series of thick cables stuck in its arms. It had thick arms, three fingers and a thumb on each hand, three toes on each foot and it had a large ruff of fur covering its neck. The oddest part of the chimera was its head; a pair of pointed ears stuck straight up either side of its head, its forehead was domed, and its nose stuck a good inch out from the rest of its face.

"Pretty ugly…alright so what do we do now?" asked Smokey after a few moments.

"We take it out of the containment unit and prepare it for removal or extra experiments," Daruma said hollowly, "still can't believe it's dead." He lowered his head in a show of respect, before typing a command into the computer. Suddenly the fluid drained into the bottom of the tube, and the glass panel slid upwards leaving the chimera dangling by the cables it was attached to.

"Take those cables out of its arms and lay it on that table there," Daruma said, gesturing vaguely to the area nearest to the door. Smokey struggled briefly under the chimera's weight, but he half-carried, half-dragged the chimera to the clean operating table, and let it drop down with a wet splat. "Alright, back to work." Daruma clapped his hands and focused on the screen again. "Clara, send a report to Namba, there should be a computer in the room next door," Daruma ordered, "Smokey, look at the remaining nineteen experiments, and tell me if you see them doing something odd".

As everyone preformed their specific duties, no one looked back at the operating tables, no one noticed the slight twitch of a hand, and no one noticed the parting of lips, revealing a pair of eerily sharp, white teeth.

"Lunchtime everyone," Daruma announced, causing Clara and Smokey to look up from their activities. Daruma then stood up and walked towards the entrance of Laboratory 16.

"What are we schoolchildren," Smokey whispered to Clara, who giggled quietly, before getting up and following Daruma towards the exit of the lab, but the young man paused when he reached the door. "Hey Daruma, you sure it's okay to leave the lab alone like this?" Smokey asked.

"Sure, we do it all the time," Daruma replied dismissively, "we'll be back in fifteen minutes." The old scientist pressed the elevator button and waited.

"But what if something happens while we're gone?" Smokey queried

"Well they can't go anywhere, if something happens," Clara said. Both men turned slowly and looked at the blonde. "What? It's true," she commented, and they all entered the elevator together. An awkward silence had descended on the group, as the elevator hummed and rose up to the top floor.

One of the interns came running towards the group as they left the restricted area, waving a piece of paper at them. "Urgent message for a Miss Clara," she said, barely coming to a halt before colliding with the group. Clara accepted the note with a confused look on her face; the confusion slowly changed to disappointment. "Sorry guys, but I got summoned to give the boss himself a report when he gets back from Unova." The blonde seemed unnerved by the news.

"Wait, why do you have to give the report? I thought only head scientists gave the boss reports," Smokey wondered aloud, turning slightly towards Daruma for an answer. The white-haired man shrugged and waved goodbye to the blonde woman as she headed towards the exit of the research facility.

The two men continued on towards the cafeteria after Clara had left the building. When they reached the room, which was still as sterile and windowless as all the other rooms, Daruma joined a group of scientists and began an animated conversation with them about the developments of the day. Smokey grabbed some food, went off to a small table and started a conversation with an intern who was sitting there.

After about ten minutes, the power suddenly cut in the facility, submerging the entire room into pitch black. A chorus of worried murmurs rose in the room before the backup lights activated, lighting the room in a dull yellow glow.

Smokey had been going back to the labs when the power cut occurred. He then turned around and started to go back to the foyer. As he turned around, he noticed the floor seemed to be vibrating gently, and a distant thumping sound could be heard.

Suddenly the emergency warning signs lit up and all the doors had automatically unlocked themselves. The floor was definitely vibrating now and a group of scientists were running towards him and away from the labs. Following their lead, Smokey ran towards the foyer. In the lowlight, he swore that one of the scientists was covered in blood, but it could have been his imagination.

Eventually they had reached the foyer, where everyone paused to catch their breath. "So what's everyone running away from?" asked Smokey, noticing there were only three scientists, two men and a woman, and they were all visibly shaking. He also noticed the thumping noise he had heard earlier had returned, only louder this time, so it resembled a charging herd of Rhyhorn. A slight whispering hiss was now echoing in the hallway between the labs and the foyer. As one of the scientists opened his mouth to speak, a message came out over the intercom:

"Warning, warning; all biological containment units have failed in all laboratories. All personnel must evacuate the facility immediately. Decontamination initiated; thirty minutes until extreme cleansing commences. Warning, warning; all biological contain-"the voice suddenly spluttered out in a burst of static. The whispering had increased to a cacophony of screaming howls which rattled the hallways and his ears, as the stampede of heavy, thunderous footsteps grew louder and closer. Smokey's eyes widened, and his heart rate increased.

"Oh my Mew! What the hell's going on?" his head whipped around looking at anyone in the room who could provide an answer, a manic note to his voice, a frantic panic rising in his chest. 'Why is it so hard to breathe suddenly,' he wondered.

"Th-there's been a power cut, s-so we had t-to go and s-see if it affected a-anyone else, b-but then, oh Arceus, something st-started chasing us, I-I think it's stopped but we don't know." The scientist barely got his story out before he started to shake again, this time curling up and muttering the final rights to himself. It was then that Smokey confirmed the scientist was covered in blood and, judging by the shell-shocked look on his colleague's faces, figured that it was not his own blood. The howling noises were louder than ever, and they had the screams of humans mixed in with them. The footsteps were closer and Smokey could see the flicker of dark shadows in the hallway

Lowering and softening his voice, Smokey asked, "What's chasing you?" while trying to move the other scientists towards the hallway between the foyer and the exit of the facility.

"I don't know, I don't kno-ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGH." A large, multi-limbed creature burst through the ceiling, landed on the scientist, and snapped the bones in his right leg with its massive jaws. The creature had three pairs of arm-like appendages growing out of each side of its body, each tipped with at least two claw-like fingers, and another two arms had sprouted from its back. Its eyes were dark and beady, but held a certain amount of intelligence as it surveyed its downed prey. A large off-white spike stuck out from the middle of its forehead, and the saliva dripping from its mouth and onto the scientist's leg was a shade of dark purple.

"H-holy shit, what the fuck, what the…" he scrabbled along the floor, picked himself up and broke into a run. 'Not far...freedom...so…close…gotta…keep…moving.' He panted, bile raising as the scientist's dying screams echoed and faded, only to be replaced by a series of cracking bones permeated by a wet, meaty splatter as the creature did something to the scientist's corpse. The remaining two scientists had frozen, and seemed unable to move from their current position. Smokey ignored them, his self-preservation instincts taking over as he sprinted towards the exit.

He reached the final door, slammed his security clearance card against the door's lock and pushed hard against it, again and again, before coming to a sudden realisation. "Oh fucking hell, it's sealed, they sealed the door," he screamed, before noticing he had not pulled the door. By this point an entire horde of the creatures had entered the hallway. The largest one, a canine-like humanoid, had its gaze fixed on him, as it charged as fast as it could manage. He barely found the opening bar and pulled as hard as his frail, shaking body allowed, opening the door enough so he could squeeze out of the gap. The hybrid came close to him as only his legs remained in the hallway, it reached out and bit down hard on the foot it had found, causing Smokey to let out a blood curdling scream. The chimera responded by biting harder. Smokey jerked his legs forward, smashing the hybrid's head against the door, causing it to let go of his foot with a whine and allowing him to get out of the door frame. Smokey slammed the thick iron door shut, revelling in the appearance of the red light for locked. The chimeras all started to ram against the door, but caused no damage to it and gave up after a while, a muffled growl signalling the end of the assault on the door.

Smokey laughed hysterically, before pulling out a phone from his pocket and dialling a number. "Send…help…Saffron…research…facility…quickly…"he slurred into the phone deliriously before dropping it. A few minutes later he saw flashing lights, and he mustered the courage to look down at his mangled foot. It was bleeding profusely, the bones had definitely broken and it was losing feeling, but he didn't care.

He was alive.

He had survived.

He had no idea what had just happened.