Diary of a Lab Rat

And now for something completely different. Just a little something I've been working on... I had the idea in my head for a good while and was heavily inspired by an old fic called "Lab Dairies."

I hope the beginning isn't too confusing.

Entry 00

Cheers filled the streets of Cerulean City as the Armed Rocket Corp retreated from its borders with members of the victorious Red Faction movement nipping at their heels. The city, like most large cities of Kanto, had been under martial law since the Rockets took control of the government four years ago. Now, after years of hardships and abuse, the people of Cerulean City ran into the streets and celebrated their freedom.

"Where the hell is Gunner?!" A relatively short, blonde woman dressed in body armor shouted as she pushed through the cheering crowd. "Gunner? GUNNER! Hey Dumbass!" She sounded as she searched for her companion. "Dammit! That idiot must have gotten himself killed during the final into the city. I knew I should've kept a better eye on him." She sighed.

"Hey Scorcher! What's wrong?" Another Red Faction member said as he wrapped his arm around her skinny neck. "Sit back, grab a beer and celebrate! We kicked ARC's collective asses!"

"I'm looking for Gunner!" Scorcher responded. "I lost sight of him during the battle and you know how useless that guy is without me." She sighed.

"Oh… right! I guess you didn't hear, Gunny was found somewhere on Route 9 near the power plant."

"What?!" Scorcher exclaimed. "What was he doing there?"

"Maybe it's best if you ask him yourself. I hear he's talk with the Commander in the Pokémon Gym-" Scorcher swiftly dashed off towards the gym, pushing and shoving anyone who got in her way.

(Meanwhile)

A Red Faction member sat down near the Cerulean Gym pool with his Partner Pokémon, Voltage the Raichu sitting right next to him nibbling on a poffin. In his hands he held a small, pink notebook that was lightly stained with blood. He glanced over to his Raichu who glanced back and happily cried "Rai!" before it proceeded to take another bite out of the poffin. "Must be nice not to have a care in the world… eh Volt?" He chuckled.

He once more looked at the book in his hands and struggled to make sense of what he had witnessed. The more the thought about, the less sense it made and angrier he got trying to figure it out. He kept mumbling the same word over and over again in almost a hypnotic fashion. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… The hell was she sorry for?" He muttered to himself.

The door behind him opened as Scorcher rushed into the room, her face red with both exhaustion and anger. "GUNNER!" She screamed.

Gunner turned around and greeted the woman with a smile. "Oh hey Scorcher. Where have you been?"

"Where have I been? Where the hell have you been?" Scorcher shouted. "You disappeared during the final push and I thought those freaks of nature killed you!"

Gunner looked back at the book he held in his hands as he remembered how they got separated. In a last ditch effort to hold on to the city, the ARC soldiers suddenly unleashed a small horde of half-human, half-Pokémon hybrids onto the Red Faction fighters. Not soon after being deployed into battle, some of the Poké-humans turned on their own team and started attacking and killing ARC soldiers while others went on a mindless rampage, killing all that stood in their way, even their own kind. During the confusion, Gunner was separated from the rest of his team.

"You were worried about me?" Gunner asked with a smile.

"No changing the subject!" Scorcher shouted clenching her hands into a pair of fists. "What happened during the fight? Where did you disappear to? And where did you get that book from?"

Gunner was about to answer when the sound of a door creaking open suddenly filled the room as Nurse Joy slowly entered from the other side of the gym. "Gunner!" She called. "The patient is in stable condition… but we don't know for how long. Would you to see her?"

Gunner quickly got to his feet and ran towards to door the nurse was standing in front of with his partner, Voltage quickly following behind him. "Gunner! Wait up!" Scorcher shouted as she too chased after him. "I'm not done talking with you yet! The hell is going on? Get back here, you bastard!" She screamed.

"Is she okay, Nurse Joy?" Gunner asked as he approached the pink haired nurse.

"Given the condition she's in? She's lucky to be breathing." Joy sighed as she motioned for the two to follow her. "As I said before, however, she is stable for the moment and we're doing everything we can to bring to back to full health per your request."

"What patient? Who are you talking about?" Scorcher asked. "Someone got hurt during the fight?"

"…Something like that." Gunner responded.

Nurse Joy took the two to a small infirmary filled with war tanks and medical equipment. This room was used by the former gym leader and her gym's trainers to restore their Pokémon to full health after a Pokémon battle. However, instead of an injured water-Pokémon, a small team of doctors were working to keep a strange looking girl alive. This girl was covered from head to tail in yellow fur and had a small muzzle with a black, button nose and red furred cheeks. Two pointy, black tipped ears poked threw her long dark hair and her tail looked a lot like the lightning bolt shaped tail of a Pikachu, only a lot bigger.

"G-Gunner! What the hell is that thing doing here?!" Scorcher asked as she drew a pistol from her leg holster.

Gunner quickly grab the weapon and forced it out of her hands. "Easy, Scorch. I rescued this girl from-"

"You what?!" Scorcher shrieked as she grabbed a second handgun from the holster on her hip.

"Please keep your voice down." Nurse Joy sighed as she watched Voltage suddenly climb on Scorchers back and cover her mouth with his paws while Gunner once again disarmed her. "This is delegate work we're doing here and we don't need any more distractions."

"Okay, then we'll continue this conversation outside then!" Scorcher said as she tossed the annoying rodent of her back and grabbed Gunner's arm. "Come on, Gunny.

"Wait, there's something I need to ask Nurse Joy!" Gunner cried as he was forced out of the room.

"Too bad!" Scorcher exclaimed.

Once they were out of the infirmary, Scorcher turned to Gunner and glared at him before she took the pink notebook from his hands. "Okay Gunny, now answer! What the hell is going on here? What is that girl? Why did you save her? And what is with this book? You've been holding onto it like it was some previous treasure!"

Gunner looked at the book then looked back at the door of the infirmary. "I…I only wish I knew." Gunner sighed. "I found that girl surrounded by ARC grunts protecting an Absol looking boy. She told the boy to run as she unleashed Discharge. She was able to kill a few however she was attacked and severely wounded by a Sandslash guy wearing an ARC grunt uniform." Gunner rubbed his temple before looking back his friend.

"So you decided to step in and kill Sandslash, saving their and brought her back here?" Scorcher asked.

"Pretty much. Though it was a lot harder than that." Gunner sighed.

"I can imagine." Scorcher laughed as she pictured Gunner struggling to carry the half-dead Pikachu girl while Voltage play with her tail. "I heard you were speaking with the Commander and now I know why. So what did say about this?"

"Not much… he wants her dead. Plain and simple." Gunner explained.

"Then why is she here?" Scorcher asked placing a hand her hip.

"Uh…" Gunner asked as he looked at Voltage as if the little chu was going to him. "…Did you know that Raichu are capable of finding electricity in the ground? They use their tails to dig deep an-"

"The Commander doesn't know about this, does he?"

"No he doesn't." Gunner blurted out as his friend buried her head in her hands.

"You're an idiot!" She exclaimed jabbing Gunner's face. "Are you forgetting that we were attacked and almost killed by those monsters? What if she recovers and goes on a killing spree?"

"Well anything better than letting our only lead on the ARC's plans die." Gunner said as he covered his face. "When I found that girl, she almost died protecting a young mon and I found this sticking out of her pocket." He pointed to the pink notebook Scorcher had in her hands.

Feeling curious, Scorcher decided to see what the big deal was and opened it up, reading only the inside of cover. The cover's inside only had one small passage written inside it. The passage read "Margaret Oranroot, Age: 14."

"So this is some kid's diary?" Scorcher groaned rubbing her forehead. "Great! This is exactly what we needed to win to the war! A teenage girl rambling on about boys, high school and cheerleading." She said as she tossed the book aside.

Voltage quickly jumped up and grabbed the book in his mouth before dropping down on all fours and wagging his long tail like a dog. Gunner sighed as he forced the Raichu's mouth open and retried the diary. "If only you were a normal Raichu." He sighed as he turned to face his comrade. "This might be exactly what we need, Scorch. I'm positive that this diary belongs to that Pika-girl! She used to be human however the Rockets robbed her of her humanity."

"Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?" The blonde woman responded. "Why would Rockets pluck people from off the streets, transform them and force them to fight in a war they probably don't any part of? That's not how you build an army."

"I-I don't know…" Gunner groaned "That's something that's been bugging me since the attack, among other questions…" He once more looked at the book before he opened it and sat down. "but I'm almost certain that this little book holds clues to what their planning."

Scorcher sighed in defeat as she sat next to Gunner. "I hope you're wrong about this Gunner… because something tells me I don't have the stomach to handle what they've been up too."

Before anyone asks, here's how the story will be. It'll start out with Margaret giving us a short summary and than it'll dive into a flashback with Margaret as the main character.

I hope this chapter was okay and it isn't too confusing. If it is, please let me know now.

Oh and Scorcher and Gunner are kind of background characters. They're trying to make sense of everthing Margaret writes about and figure out exactly what the ARC is planning. Along the way, we'll see the formation of the Armed Rocket Corp, the coup the overthrew the Kanto government and the birth of the Red Faction resistance movement among other events.

And if you didn't already know, I'm a fan of the Red Faction video games. ;)

As Always: Love it, Hate it, Just Review it

Gunner out.