"Hey! You there, are you a trainer?" a slightly panicked voice cried out from a nearby building. Serperior's head rose from its resting place on Shawn's shoulder as the massive serpent slithered alongside him to look to the glass doors at the front of the office building. The structure had a stylized 'DSS' on the front above a sign declaring it to be the "Digital Storage Solutions" facility.
"Yes, is there a problem?" he asked quickly, already moving to assist with his starter right beside him.
"Just hurry, we need help restraining some pokemon in trouble," the red haired woman replied letting the two of them through the door and leading them further inside. "A-0 get over here, you're the best we have for this," she said to someone else as they entered a large room full of electronics.
"I am ready Janice," a mechanical voice said, soon revealed to the trainer and serpent as a bird-like polygonal entity floating in the room. Shawn was sure this talking pokemon was worried itself.
"Right, get on this pad and be ready when the light dies down. We should have six normal types present on the far end along with Beta 16. A-0 will take care of him, you just need to make sure the pokemon don't hurt each other or themselves," Janice rapidly told them, directing it more at Serperior than his trainer.
The trainer and two pokemon were quickly led to a large pad between two pronged devices. "This is going to be weird, isn't it?" Shawn asked with a smile that was shared by his pokemon.
"Just get in there and save them," the woman said with a sigh as she activated the machine. There was a massive flash of light and the three were gone. "Trainers," she said shaking her head and rushing over to a set of monitors.
"Vines!" the trainer shouted as soon as he felt solid ground again, which was a few seconds before he could see again. Serperior moved more by touch than anything in those moments, and managed to grab three Normal types that neither of them could recognize.
"Brother, what is happening? Send a status report, something!" the blue and pink pokemon that came with him called to a monster. It might have once been the same species, but now it was twisted and wrong. The plates were pulled apart revealing nothing inside, with some broken into fragmented shapes, and the pink color was replaced with a horrible black that seemed to almost suck the light out of the room. The area around it was in was coated in broken black shards that were too numerous to be simply fallen parts of the creature.
"Err/ 56$#% 5$^$6 $# buy now !$124g4334saw," it hissed out in a broken scrambled sound. Brief flashes of color coating the blackened areas as it made the attempt. A-0 shot forward and gave a buzzing series of beeps in reply, then caused two panes of blue material covered in text to appear in between them.
Shawn only paid the exchange enough attention to react if it threatened his partner or their own targets. Serperior had easily bound a fourth pokemon, and a fifth that seemed saner than the rest was aiding them by holding down the final one. The trainer did not take that as success yet, instead moving closer to inspect one of the Normal types. With some time to look over their bodies he could tell they had also been altered by the same strange substance affecting the machine-like pokemon. Seeing the tiny fragments of black corruption on them as well he made a decision. "Serp, get rid of it," he told his partner pointing at one of the pieces. Glowing green leaves flew at the flat structure, shattering it and causing some of the slightly twisted features of the victim to revert to a more natural appearance. The snake pokemon quickly targeted the others and let attacks fly.
Porygon A-0 was doing considerable worse. All its words had managed to be so far was useless pleading, and the data it was reading regarding its brother only changed its tone to a desperate one. Beta 16 was not reacting coherently, and what little of his speech was clear was a mix of fragmented advertisements and what A-0 could not help but interpret as pleading as well. As Serperior shattered the first of the smaller fragments the gender-less Porygon gained a spark of hope, forming blasts of light and hitting the ground around them to shatter more corruption.
The hope died when it finished another scan of its brother in light of the new information the Grass type's actions had provided. "Trainer, do you possess a pokemon with a powerful attack that will not physically touch its target?" A-0 asked dully staring at Beta 16.
"Solar Beam, where do you need it?" Shawn replied quickly, the six pokemon now back to normal and huddling behind the trainer and serpent.
"Full strength, center of body," the pink and blue pokemon buzzed, pausing for a moment in pain. "Do not stop for anything," it said with a finality that froze the trainer in place. Serperior hissed a question, red eyes wide and horrified. "There is no time. It is already preparing to spread again, and I cannot be sure it won't reach other Boxes. Now!" The final word caught as it was said, breaking into a pained beep.
"Serperior, do it," Shawn replied seriously, watching the shattered blackened form seem to fight against something. There was a moment of tension as the attack built up before it fired, the green beam shooting from the Grass type's chest. The trainer and pokemon kept their eyes open as it hit, black planes shattering like brittle ice one by one until suddenly the whole creature disintegrated with a sharp sound. The room around them seemed to dull at this, the air immediately becoming stale and lifeless.
"Initiating retrieval process," A-0 said tonelessly, and soon after another flash has transported all nine survivors back out to the pad. They arrived in a rough pile that the snake pokemon quickly began to sort out.
"A-0, I'm sorry," were the first words out of Janice's mouth when they could see again, her tone sad as she worked rapidly on the machine turned away form them. "Were you able to figure anything out?"
"The virus was altered by the unusual structure of a Beta series box," the pokemon began mechanically, this time obviously out of pain more than nature. "Beta 16 was able to perform initial containment, but was damaged in the process. The next replication phase resulted in further mutation as the virus infested Beta 16. Two more such phases had occurred by the time of our arrival, and I estimate that box containment was already at the breach point. Have the nearby boxes been scanned for the virus?"
"I've handled that," she replied more calmly. "Was there no other way?"
The pink and blue pokemon wavered in its hovering for a moment. "Beta 16's main thought process was already damaged beyond repair by the end of the initial replication phase. At best he was in the process of dying when we arrived. At worst he was partially aware while his body betrayed his own purpose." A-0 turned to Serperior. "I am sorry for asking you to-" The snake cut him off with a hiss and wave of an arm.
"As long as we saved the ones we could we'll be fine," Shawn contributed from in front of the still frightened Normal types. "Which is why I hope you can check to make sure these guys are okay. We did our best in there, but we don't really know what's going on here, so I can't be sure I didn't just make it worse."
"Natural pokemon are less vulnerable to this kind of illness. We should check them, but removing the fragments was needed," A-0 replied much more strongly. "Janice, this cannot happen again."
"The development team is already scrambling, and they don't even know-" she took a breath "know that Beta 16 is gone yet." She looked over at Shawn. "I don't suppose you want a job do you?" she asked tired and worried. "We might have gotten to him faster if we already had a trainer on hand for this."