Pokemon: TF-X Chronicles

by SassyZoroark

With a new gene altering super-virus that can turn people into Pokemon, it appears that Team Rocket has even more reason to be feared than ever. Two siblings, the result of the organization's first experiment, have escaped, and in the hands of a new trainer, must help to fulfill her dreams of conquering the Pokemon Gyms and League. Team Rocket, however, won't let them go quietly...

1. Chapter I - The Initiation

"Hurry up! What are you, a Slowpoke?"

Greg's words cut through the otherwise quiet and quaint Santalune Forest located in the Kalos region. It was quite late that night, with the sun slowly setting over the horizon, but with all of these tall trees surrounding the 17 year old boy, the brightest star in the sky was nowhere to be seen. It was then that a girl of 15 would be seen in the distance careening towards Greg, stopping with her shoes skidding across the dirt, leaving a noticeable trail. "Y-you're just trying to lose me, aren't you…?" Britney was bent over and panting, her glasses almost falling off of her ears and nose, but luckily she pushed them back into position with a swift movement of her fingers.

Standing straight once again, she gave Greg a simple look of bewilderment, causing him to let out a chuckle. "Mom and Dad said we should get out and exercise more, so we're doing just that." Greg and Britney lived with their parents, just like many other teens would, but unlike many other teens, they lived in a life of seclusion, having a house in the middle of a forest, far away from any town, city or anywhere else that would be of significance. Sometimes, they would all go for strolls through the massive forest they had called home, but tonight, with their parents both being too tired from their shifts at a nearby lumber mill, it was Greg who suggested to Britney that they should go alone for once, though she was hesitant as it was getting late, plus she knew just how much he liked to run and sprint.

Greg was quite athletic, but Britney was a bit on the chubby side. "Don't you think… huff… we should go back now?" Britney was also quite scared of the dark, especially after reading so much creepypasta concerning the Slender Man, and her forest environment only made things worse. "You don't have to worry about a thing with me around, I'll protect you from anything! Including the Slender Man." His chuckling at the end of his sentence clearly showed he wasn't taking her seriously. "H-hey! Could you please not say that…" Greg rolled his eyes, and turned his head up to the sky. Night was quickly approaching, but he was still in the mood to explore, and just up ahead was an area he had never been in before.

Seeing that smirk of his, Britney knew exactly what he was gonna do. "Oh no, no way, we are NOT going further in…" Greg turned back to her, that smirk still painted across his face. "Why not? It's not like all those creepypasta things really exist. And besides, I got this with me…" Greg lifted his jacket slightly to reveal the belt on his denim jeans, with a whole lineup of six Pokeballs on it. He was quite a seasoned trainer, even managing to win a badge from the Santalune City Gym a few weeks back during one of their family's few trips to the outside world. Greg was feeling confident, perhaps a bit too much so, but Britney realized he was going to go no matter what, and frankly, she would be more terrified walking back all by herself then having to go into the deeper part of the woods with her brother. "Okay, okay, fine… but let's not wait until midnight or something to head back, yes?" Greg just gave her a nod before he stormed off. His curiosity was his drive, and fear of being alone was Britney's. They both set their sights, and walked, and occasionally ran, into the depths of the forest.

Unfortunately for Greg, he would soon never have a chance to use his Pokemon ever again.

Almost an hour past, and it was now almost pitch black in Santalune Forest. Had it not been for the radiant moonlight in the night sky, Greg and Britney would be completely blind. The shrubbery was getting quite thick, to the point where the older brother would have to dig through bushes in order to move forward, with Britney standing right behind him. "Um… hey, don't you think we're going too far? What if we get lost?" Greg was fortunate to have a Chandelure with him as one of his six Pokemon, though as he was still able to see fine, and didn't have any intention of going back anytime soon, he still kept it in his Pokeball. He remained silent at her question, which really bothered her. Britney at this point cut in front of him and grinded him to a halt. "What's with you? You've been so quiet all of a sudden, and you're really creeping me the hell out. Could we please just go back now?" Greg just stared at her with puffed out cheeks and looking pouty in general. "Oh come now, where's your sense of adventure, sis? To be honest, I came this far out to help you break out of your shell."

Britney was a bit taken aback by the truth that broke out, and looked down nervously, feeling anxious and miserable for making her brother come out so far. "I… don't really wanna come out here, can we-" Greg interrupted his sister with a quick palm to her mouth, quieting her down as he could've sworn he heard something out of the ordinary. Just as she was about to speak up out of frustration, Britney noticed he was carefully scanning their surroundings, and guessed he heard a strange noise. As they stood in the supposed silence, Greg could've sworn he heard an alarm blaring. His first thought was that it was a car, but to think that a car would be driven inside this place, with no roads and too many trees, just seemed insane to him. At this point, he had no idea what else it could be, but he managed to somehow pinpoint the direction it was coming from, turning in that direction as Britney was now starting to hear it, as well. "Sounds like an alarm… I think we should check it out, maybe it's a car, and someone crashed, but I don't know why someone would try driving through here…" Britney hesitantly nodded, knowing full well he wouldn't take no for an answer. With that, they both started walking once more, in the direction of the odd noise.

10 minutes had passed since they began to trail towards the noise. Greg was definitely hearing it more clearly in the direction they were taking, and his pace, and in turn, Britney's, would speed up with each passing second, until they were both running. Another minute passed once they both broke off into a sprint, and Greg wasn't only hearing the alarm very clearly, he could see a light past the trees and through the bushes. And as he passed through the forest, he saw more and more bright lights cutting through the darkness and illuminating his surroundings. However, soon enough, he came to a grinding halt, which allowed Britney a chance to catch up, for she had fallen a couple seconds behind. Just as she stopped beside Greg, she gazed up at him and took note of his shocked face. "Wh-what…?" It didn't take long for her to get the idea, and she too looked out in the distance to a sight neither of them ever expected.

A military base, with an alarm blaring that seemed to signal aircraft making an entrance and an exit, and with enough lighting to blanket the whole place in enough light to simulate the sun. And on several of the buildings and other tall structures, was a big, red R symbol. It was a Team Rocket base.

Greg and Britney both immediately got the hunch that they shouldn't be there. Their lips both quivered, their legs had shook, and they both turned to each other while nodding, as if they both had the same idea, and they knew it. Greg and Britney did a full 180, and would've started running right away, had it not been for a pair of large, disembodied eyes gazing at them both in the pitch blackness of whence they came. What would've been white had it been a human eye was a deep shade of yellow, and the irises were a soul piercing blood red. The more Greg looked into the vision of whatever was there, the more dreadful he felt. Britney, however, was far from keeping her cool. With shaking limbs, twitching eyes and lips, and fingers spasming out of control, she started to let out a scream, but was quickly silenced as the eyes in the darkness had began to glow blue. That same blue glow would appear around Britney, and she was soon lifted into the air, now too terrified to even let anything escape her breath.

"BRITNEY!" Greg yelled at the top of his lungs as he watched his dear sister be flung into a nearby tree, with enough force that it knocked her unconscious and left a mark in the wood where she had hit it. As Greg stared at his sister in utter horror, covered in bruises, but still somehow breathing, he stared at the eyes in the black of the night with gritted teeth. In a blind rage, he charged at it, with a raised fist. He didn't care what it was that did this, he just wanted it dead. But out of the shadows came a Mismagius, grinning delightfully at the sight of the angry boy. Just as his punch was going to land, Mismagius fired a Shadow Ball right at his head, causing him to fall backwards onto the back of his skull, quickly losing consciousness as well. The Mismagius grinned even more, happy to have served its master well, as a Team Rocket scout had jumped down from the tree that Britney was crashed into. She observed the two teenagers lying almost lifelessly on the forest floor, covered in bruises and in Greg's case, blood from the back of his head.

"Hmm… you'll both make a fine addition to the experiment…"

Greg, despite his major head wound, was still alive, but barely. His vision, however, was pitch black. For a split second, he was scared that he was now blind, but amidst the darkness, he could make out the texture of what appeared to be a sack over his head. It was thin enough that once he got to a brightly lit room, he could make out some figures of people and machinery strewn about. As much as he wanted to break free of the grip of whoever or whatever was carrying him, he knew for certain in his near death state that that would be nothing more than a suicide mission. So, he merely did nothing. His sense of sight may have been impaired, but he could certainly still hear things fine. And with that, he heard many different sounds, all of differing distances, some sounding like they were incredibly loud from several rooms away. The nearest sound, however, was something that had sounded like a surgical instrument cutting viciously into flesh. He didn't hear a single scream or any other sound of pain, so either he was mistaken, or whoever was there was already dead.

He started to panic at that thought of it being Britney, but a quick glance to his right, as faint as it was, revealed what appeared to be a Machoke judging by the shape, carrying a woman on his arms that too had a sack over her head. That was a massive relief for him, but still, he was generally panicking quite a bit at the situation they now found themselves in. He felt like it was all his fault, as he was the one that wanted to venture deeper into the woods. It was him that wanted to follow the sound. It was him that wanted to even go for a walk in the forest all by themselves in the dead of night. Tears had ran down his face, and he wanted to shout out how sorry he was for getting them both in this situation. However, those thoughts were interrupted as both Machoke came to a halt. Greg gazed up and managed to spot two Team Rocket grunts standing in front of them with their hands outstretched, a clear sign they were halted by their handlers. Turning back to face away from them, the grunts stood in line and saluted what appeared to be scientists, and one of them was speaking out loud as they got closer to Greg.

"...is going along nicely! In fact, we believe we've just perfected the formula. Test runs we've ran throughout the morning and afternoon have all been a rousing success, with a zero chance of failure rate! All Pokemon we've infected with-" The scientist was cut off, from what Greg made of it, someone had raised their hand up at them. For someone to merely raise a limb to get him to stop talking must've meant he was a pretty high ranking or feared individual. He soon started to speak, with a voice that was low, but refined. "Doctor… I did not hire you, nor have I paid you, to waste your effort on trying to make a creature something it already is. I want human test subjects. Enough stalling, I want real, proper results with the TF Virus." The scientist took a few seconds to start speaking, as he was making sure the intimidating man wasn't just pausing in the middle of a speech. "Y-yes, but… you know how hard it is to collect humans! And besides, it arouses too much suspicion! Using wild Pokemon as test subjects guarantees no one will find out about our operation! And another thing, the name of the virus is now-" He had once again cut in, this time, with a loud voice that turned several heads and caused nearby scientists to jump. "I DO NOT CARE!"

Silence filled the room once more, apart from the running of automated machinery. He took a small breath through his nose and stared at the lead scientist in the eyes intently. "We are Team Rocket. We control everything. The moment the police know we are involved in a crime, they will close the case and leave it unsolved. We are feared throughout Kanto, Kalos and beyond. If you doubt my organization, and think for even a second that we are vulnerable, I will have you silenced." The scare tactics seemed to work as the lead scientist seemed to be quaking in his boots. Just then, the two Team Rocket grunts cut in once the intimidating man stopped talking, saluting as they spoke. "Sir! We bring good news. Agent Echo caught two intruders that were on the outskirts of our base. They're being carried by the Machoke right behind us, sir!"

The intimidating man walked over to the two grunts and went between them as they stepped away. His gaze was set firmly on Greg's eyes. It was as if he knew he was wide awake, and his paranoia only grew once he let a smirk paint his twisted face. "Hmph… tell Echo she's getting a raise. These two will be fine." The lead scientist was ecstatic, having his ass saved and pleasing the higher ranked official at the same time. He cheerfully chimed in. "Th-thank you for bringing these lively test subjects to us, you two! I promise, sir, we will put them to good use. In fact, while you're still visiting, sir, why don't we hold the experiment as soon as possible? It would be an honor to have you witness our first successful human subjects undergo the experimentation!" The man hadn't turned away from Greg, still staring into his very soul as he spoke softly once more. "...That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say in years… go and prep the lab immediately." With that, the lead scientist nodded and started to walk in the direction of the lab with the Machokes and the two hostages in toe. He looked back at the intimidating man and spoke once more before automated doors could close behind him.

"We shouldn't be more than an hour. I'll keep you in touch… Mr. Giovanni."

As the doors closed behind them all, the crazed scientist was writing down many notes on a clipboard he had been holding in his arm. As to what those notes were, Greg couldn't notice, not that that was the main focus on his mind right now. Giovanni's staring almost made him have a panic attack, and just the slightest twitch probably would've caused the Machoke to snap him in half if Giovanni was the kind of man that was paranoid of injury. From how intense his gaze was, Greg could've sworn he knew the badly beaten boy was wide awake, and overheard everything they were speaking about. His smirk, as well as his unwillingness to act on his eavesdropping, felt like a taunt, as if this experiment would be his punishment.

Whatever it was, he started getting the feeling that it was a fate even worse than death, and his anxiety was going through the roof. He managed to not do any sudden movements however, because the last thing he wanted was to be body slammed by a Machoke until he was killed. The lead scientist was also mumbling to himself, and he seemed to sound angry. Greg tried to focus on him, as hard as it was with that splitting headache. "That smug little shit… he thinks so low of me, he doesn't even think I'll do this experiment right! Oh, I'll show 'em, I'll show him the next generation of loyal super soldiers for Team Rocket!" He snapped his pencil in half, or at least Greg heard something snap. Judging from the lack of the sound of scribbling, it was definitely his pencil. The scientist stood still to process his thoughts, and took a deep breath before continuing his walk along with the Machokes.

"Heh heh heh heh heh… no need to be so angry, Jackson, he'll see just how amazing you are soon enough…" Dr. Jackson stopped by a large, reinforced steel door with a retinal scanner, leaning down to place his eye over it to get clearance. The panel blurted "Access Granted" in a robotic tone as the doors slid open, and the Machoke went inside along with him, as they closed behind Greg with a loud thud. Once again, his vision was pitch black as the room they entered had much dimmer lighting compared to outside the rooms they had traveled through. However, the room wasn't just dimmer than usual; Greg was starting to lose conscious once again, having another mental breakdown in the process as he feared the worst. Soon enough, he completely blacked out, leaving his fate up to Dr. Jackson.

In his sleep, Greg had distorted visions and dreams of everything he had saw up until this point today. His sister, his parents, the Mismagius and the Team Rocket base, everything was a confusing and muddled mess. The images of seeing Britney smacked against the tree seemed to play over and over, and with each repeat, grew more gruesome. It wasn't long before what he saw in reality, his sibling being smashed and bruised upon being thrown, became a nightmarish alternate universe where Britney's body was disfigured, cut open and dismembered from the sheer force of crashing into the wood, which caused the tree itself to shatter into a thousand pieces, along with the bones inside her body. Mismagius became something far more terrifying, not a Pokemon, but rather, a void darker than pitch black that when Greg in his nightmare was gazing into, he sensed the greatest feeling of dread he had ever felt in his life.

It was as if he was staring into the eyes of the devil itself, and in the real world, it caused the real Greg to shiver and twist uncontrollably. It looked like he was in an intense pain, one that wasn't even purely mental, and in his dream world, eyes as white and bright as the Team Rocket base's lights had cut through the infinitely black void. Suddenly, a large maw developed just below the eyes, with teeth as long as broadswords protruding outwards. It was then that the void leapt towards Greg and swallowed him whole. Just as everything went black, a loud crunch was heard, the sound of bones breaking and flesh being cut into, for sure. That spine tingling noise was what caused Greg to awaken with a bone chilling scream… or at least, it seemed that way until his vision completely came back to him.

In truth, the Mismagius from before was having a little fun with him again before the experiment began. As Agent Echo and Giovanni were watching down from a balcony high above, sealed off with a thick plate of glass, Mismagius was inside the room and using Dream Eater against Greg as a sadistic wake up call. His vision incredibly blurred and his ears producing nothing but an intense ringing noise, all he could do was stare and gaze around the room in his dazed state, but it wasn't long until he looked to the right and saw a familiar face. It was Britney, and like Greg, she was tied up to a rotted looking wooden chair. Britney looked like she was crying uncontrollably, and was pulling herself as far to the edge of the seat as she could towards Greg and Mismagius. She seemed to be shouting at the two of them, constantly switching her view towards either the sadistic Ghost type and her brother. Soon enough, the ringing sound was fading from his ears and he was able to hear her somewhat clearly.

"...it! Stop it, you sick fuck! Leave my brother alone! Greg, wake up! Wake up, Arceus dammit!" As his eyes were opening wider and his head was tilting upwards, Britney was able to tell Greg was awake as the lighting was shining on his eyes, which made it incredibly hard for him to see, but he was willing to do anything to make her realize he was still alive, despite that massive head wound he still possessed, which was crudely patched up by a mere bandage. Britney became silent at the sight of Greg being alive, but certainly not well, as the Mismagius let out a cackle that seemed to give both of them a headache. And with that, she drifted up towards the balcony the two high ranking Team Rocket officials were waiting in, phasing right through the glass wall that separated the two rooms. Mismagius received a pat on the cheek from the ever so mysterious Agent Echo, smiling delightfully at her Pokemon. "You did a wonderful job, my dear. I'm sure they will remember those dreams for years to come…" Giovanni too had let that familiar smirk paint his mouth, as he was also quite the sadist when it came to experimentation and torture. "Good to see you've put all that training to good use… you'll make a fine vice-president, you know."

Echo's smile seemed to fade as her eyes made a quick beeline towards Giovanni, with her body shifting towards him too. With her hands on her hips, she slowly walked closer to Giovanni. "Hmph… how many times have I told you? I am not interested in a higher rank. With that, comes a boring desk job, and you know I can't stand staying out of the action… sir." Giovanni closed his eyes while his gaze went south, and he started to snicker in a low tone. "You haven't changed a bit… good. Stay that way." Echo stared at him with an unamused gaze for a second or two before she too let a laugh escape her breath. They both overlooked the first human subjects of the experiment for awhile, until Dr. Jackson had made his way into the small balcony with them, carrying two small vials with him and his trademark clipboard. "So glad you could make it, your leadership. And oh, what a pleasant surprise, Ms. Echo…" Just as his gaze turned to her, Agent Echo quickly spoke up. "Just get to the point and stop your dawdling." Jackson was of course furious to be cut off, but had to keep his composure, or else Giovanni would make sure he wouldn't get another chance to complain. "...Very well. As you can see, I have two vials here, and they are precisely what we have been working so hard for years to perfect…"

While the nerdy and crazed professor explained to the two about the experiment they were about to perform, two terrified siblings sat down in the room below, trembling and silent as they were now deep into their own thoughts of what was about to happen to them. Amidst the floor was the occasional stain of blood, and Greg's awkward, very muddled gaze of the room's walls revealed shackles and chains that hanged from the walls. Combined with the blood, it would be easy to see that this room was once used as a torture chamber, but the smell in some aspects was still fresh. Scratch that; looks like the room was used for a multitude of purposes, but all of which were clearly of the sadistic and vile nature. Slowly, Greg's hearing was now good enough to pick up the sound of his sister quietly whimpering and shaking her bound feet against the floor, with each tap being strong enough that he could feel it in his own right foot. He tried to lean over as far as he could towards Britney, and started to speak in a somber tone. "...Sis?" Britney initially didn't react until Greg had once again said his words but at a higher volume. "Sis!" Britney jumped in her seat and started to breath even faster as she turned to face Greg. She still did not say a thing as her breathing was taking over her voice, but gave him a nod to show that she was paying attention. Greg spoke in the soft tone again, not wanting to alarm Britney any further.

"...I'm sorry. this is… all my fault. I… I'm the one that wanted to go further into Santalune Forest… I'm the one that chased after the alarms and the lights and all the shit that caused us to… end up here, it's my fault, don't you even think for a fucking second this was because of you. I… I'm so sorry… I'm sorry... I'm sorry…" Greg had never before felt so miserable in his life. He and his sister were about to suffer a terrible fate that neither of them knew was, and it was this terrible feeling of the unknown that ate away at both of them the most. He, like a broken record, simply kept whimpering his words about being sorry, gradually saying them slower as he was losing faith in Britney. She wasn't responding at all, at least for the moment. About a minute after he began saying sorry nonstop, she simply whispered his name to grab his attention, as Greg was looking down at the blood stained steel floor below him. Looking back to his right to glance at his sister, they were both breathing heavily as their injuries were taking their toll on their bodies. Just as Britney was about to speak up, an alarm had suddenly blared, and more lights had illuminated the room until looking up merely made them find a sea of white. At that moment, a familiar voice erupted from a loudspeaker that was inside the room and connected to many other speakers throughout the facility.

"Commence virus experiment TF-X! Live human test subjects are in use!"

A massive glass wall, as thick as the one that shielded Jackson and co., came crashing down to the center of the room, separating the two siblings as their anxiety skyrocketed. Greg was on the left side of the room, and Britney was on the right. Had Greg still been leaning to the right like he was, his skull would've likely been crushed by the glass wall that landed between the two. The jump scare caused both of them to topple over in opposite directions, landing headfirst on the ground. At this point, the old and rotten chairs they were tied down on had splintered and fell apart, literally wearing out their usefulness as the room was in lockdown and virtually inescapable. Nothing, except a Ghost Pokemon, could get in or out, and that also included not just living things like Greg and Britney, but also gas.

As the two teens laid on the floor in pain and agony, much more so with Greg due to landing on his already severely injured head, distinctly colored gas had started to seep into both sections of the room. On Greg's side was a light blue mist, thin and not too painful to breath, but still managed to make him choke on occasion. Britney, however, was subjected to a thick, charcoal colored fog. By the time both gases had seeped their way into each section of the makeshift torture chamber, Greg's thinner gas was able to still be seen into by the scientists lurking above, while Britney's section was impossible to see into without infrared vision, something Dr. Jackson had taken into account as many of the scientist there, among their clipboards, notepads and pens they used to jot down the results, had infrared goggles, allowing them to see Britney's heat signature. For the moment though, all eyes were on Greg, as the effects of the strange mist, despite what was visually a smaller dose, seemed to kick in first. And upon looking down at his hands, Greg would find out just what the TF-X viral experiment was all about.

Greg started to gasp loudly and shiver in fear at the sight of his hands as they slowly became white. Starting at his fingertips, his skin was painfully bleaching itself and losing its original color, becoming a pure white pigment. As the color loss finally stopped at his wrists, all seemed well as he wasn't experiencing any ounce of pain at that moment. However, just like that Mismagius, the TF-X virus seemed sick and twisted, as the pain came roaring back in an instant. Greg's fingernails were all starting to pop off of each fingertip, and while that was going on, his pinky and ring finger of each hand started to merge into each other, bones and all. Almost immediately after the first merging process began, Greg's middle and index fingers followed suit and became one with each other. The only finger spared of any drastic changes wasn't even a finger at all; it was his thumbs, as they simply changed shape to match the other two fingers. Wallowing in pain at the restructuring of his bones, Greg's woes only continued as light blue skin was now forming along his arms, which brought with it a massive shrinking of his upper limbs. His arms were now quite slender looking and quite flexible, from the look of things. At least, they would be if he wasn't in so much agonizing pain.

The morphing continued along him as they reached his shoulders, or as of today, his lack thereof. Greg's much smaller arms were now pressed against his body without any shoulders to support them, but with the way his body was changing, he wouldn't need them. As the blue skin was taking him over, it was quite rapid on the way down to change his lower body, while the painful change in skin tone was only creeping up to his neck at a snail's pace. Greg felt his torso compress and contort into a smaller and slimmer, almost egg shaped body, and while he looked down, he realized he was also getting smaller in general, as evidenced by his clothes becoming baggier and looser until he was completely covered, now obscured by the shirt he once wore on his back. His legs were next on the list as they shrunk down in length by a considerable amount, but he could feel, amongst the pain, that they were somehow getting stronger, strong enough to allow him to leap to great heights. From his thighs down to his toes, Greg's legs were now completely blue, not having an ounce of white to highlight him down there like his hands. His toes also painstakingly followed the fate of his fingers, all of them rearranging, morphing and pressing against each other to form two large toes. His leg joints also moved up his torso a fair amount, which was of course accompanied by some of Greg's deathly screams.

Finally, as if it was waiting for all other parts of his body to be completed, the blue skin rushed up Greg's head until he was now cyan colored from head to toe. While his head was being morphed, a large amount of a foam-like substance was now growing from his neck, and it mostly bunched up towards the back of the now clearly no longer human male. Of all the parts of his being, Greg's head was the thing that changed the most. He felt and saw his cheeks and chin both widen and expand considerably until they were all part of the same seamless slope. His cheeks ended in a rounded point as the top of his head followed the same fate as the lower half. Once the adjustments were done, his head seemed to resemble a football in shape, and that's where all the repositioning began. His mouth moved lower until it was now on the underside of his face, joining the chin as it too enlarged as well as the tongue inside, becoming much wider and longer in length. Of the most painful of these mouth adjustments was Greg losing all of his teeth as they fell down onto the floor, each clatter of bone hitting the steel at his feet causing a ripple to strike his body, as he was panicking so hard once his head first started to change that he ran out of the top of his shirt.

Two small bubble pieces formed over his nose as it shrank down into nonexistence, only his nostrils remaining. A dark blue stripe had also formed along the center of his cranium, ending at his new nose. His ears and hair had all but disappeared at this point, as well. Finally, the scariest change of them all occurred; Greg's eyes shifted position which temporarily cut off his vision completely. He saw nothing but black for a few seconds as his eyes since grew to a massive size and were now on the very top of his head, along with his eye sockets which became just as blue as the rest of him and just as tall as the eyes they were hosting. They were changing color considerably as well, the familiar white and blue becoming a rather alien yellow and black. Now slowly becoming free of the pain, Greg found the strength to stand up, but had trouble keeping balance unless he kept his white hands firmly planted on the ground. It was then that he instantly knew what he had become, not even needing a reflection to show him his form.

Greg, after inhaling the mysterious cyan gas, became a Froakie.

Shortly after Greg had began his transformation, Britney, in the much heavier charcoal fog, was following in the footsteps of her brother. Half of the scientists in the observing chambers above the blood coated room had infrared goggles on as they stared intently at Britney's changes to come. Britney inhaled a lot of the thick gas, causing her to choke and gag quite a lot as her insides and outside began their painful shift. As Britney started to shrink, she could feel many of her bones shift into a very strange shape, one that was certainly unnatural to a human. Her knee joints had snapped backwards, each at two different times, both causing the girl to let out a shriek of combined terror and agony. Combined with her arms shifting closer towards her chest, and her hands and feet losing all of their toes and becoming of similar shape to feet rather than hands, was what made Britney go from a normal looking bipedal, to a twisted quadrupedal shape in a matter of seconds.

While shrinking enough to now pass through her clothes and lay between her shirt and pants, massive amounts of yellow fur started to grow along her body as well as some red and white highlights. Her body temperature was also rising dramatically, a fact that was easy to see from her heat signatures through the goggles becoming white hot. From here, Britney's changes occurred from the bottom to the top, with a red patch of fur that grew above her bottom now suddenly sprouting out into a large tail. It was much thicker and fluffier the closer it got to the base, and at the tip was that same red highlight that would predict her new tail's appearance. On her thighs sprouted two large, wing-like protrusions on each thigh, with the top one, closer to her torso, being the larger of the two on each leg. Britney's now completely yellow with fur torso was beginning to slim down considerably, as was her legs that had already changed quite a bit in their shape around the feet and ankle area. Britney was losing a massive amount of weight in no time at all, and she probably would've reacted to it had she not been lying on her side, unable to move due to the combined pain of her shifting body and her insanely high anxiety, causing her to breath very hard and fast with closed eyes and gritted teeth. Her neck also got elongated a slight amount, as the final changes were moving up to her already fur covered head.

Britney's head didn't go through a shape change as drastic and as painful as Greg's, but to call it painless would be cutting her too much slack. Her skull morphed into a slightly rounder shape, and her nose and mouth were both pushed outwards to form a muzzle. Britney's old nose had stretched out into a pointed shape, a perfect black triangle that was easy to distinguish from its color. Her cheeks also grew a pair of two wing-like fur patches, very similar in appearance to the extensions of fur that were grown on the her rear thighs. And luckily for Britney, her eyes did not go through a radical shift in movement like Greg had gone through. She simply had her eyes mutate to a much larger size. Going from white and brown to white and red, Britney's much simpler eye morphing left her with a lot less pain and blindness, but she couldn't tell the latter side effect due to having her eyes shut the whole time. For the final change, Britney's ears had shifted to the top of her head and enlarged by a massive amount into a triangle shape. Each ear was as large as her own head and felt quite heavy, and only felt heavier still as large amounts of red fur started to poof from the inside to form big tufts. It was at this point that her body temperature seemed to drop, as her ears seemed to act as a vent that let excess amounts of heat escape her body, and each discharge caused her ear tufts to flare up and unleash crackling embers as hot as 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Britney, sprawled out on the ground and barely conscious, had become a Fennekin.

As Greg was smashing his hands against the thick glass that blocked him from his sister, all he could see was the charcoal colored gas that was coating the whole room. "Britney?! Britney! Say something! Just show me you're alive!" With the black background and the shining glass, Greg was clearly able to see his reflection, and was painfully reminded of the situation he was in as all he could see stare back at him was a toad. With a few more meaningless punches thrown at the glass, he pressed his head against the glass and started to whimper and cry. Greg slumped down to the ground shortly afterwards, falling on his knees as the tear drops ran down his small frame and collected themselves in a small patch of stained blood on the steel floor. His eyes were barely open at this point as his hope was waning, but the gas was suddenly starting to slowly dissipate.

With a blink and a quick shift to being wide eyed, he gazed past the glass blocking them from each other, and in a dozen or so seconds the gas was faded enough for him to set his large eyes on his sibling. As his gaze was set upon her, Greg's mouth and eyes opened all the way in horror, his fingers clenching tightly at the glass, leaving visible marks. Britney's eyes at this point were now open, just barely, allowing them both to stare into each other's eyes and be equally horrified at the other's changes. Greg's transformation caused her to shriek, but upon trying to stand up like a normal person, she tripped over right away and was forced to gaze at her new front legs. Britney let out a blood curdling scream that clearly showed to Greg that his sister was the most afraid she's ever been in her life.

And as the fog had cleared and he set his sights on the two transformed people with a wickedly cheerful grin on his face, Jackson started to laugh menacingly, true to his mad scientist persona. "IT WOOOORKED! Did you see that, Giovanni?! I told you, you were in for a treat!" The loudspeaker was on, which allowed every scientist, and even the two siblings, to hear his prideful declaration. "With this new genetically engineered virus, we can make anyone, no matter if they are animal or human, into whatever Pokemon we wish! This is the power of the TF virus, reborn as the TF-X thanks to our secret ingredient!" Britney was looking up at the glassed off balcony with folded down ears and tears streaming down her neck, eyes and mouth wide open as she was completely consumed by despair.

Greg, however, was consumed with hatred and a lust for vengeance. He was snarling in a very animalistic way at the crazed scientist, but up there in his sealed off room, he believed he was completely safe, and made an effort to taunt the angry Froakie. "Get used to your new form, little boy! Because you shall be like this forever!" Jackson's words had gotten to Greg, as he was now seething with rage. All of his muscles tensed, his fists were clenched very tightly, and he was looking down at his own stomach and legs, which only furthered the hatred in his heart he had for that cruel man. Suddenly, without thinking, his belly bulged a slight amount, and the bulge moved up to his neck. He let loose a high pressure torrent of water that managed to get all the way towards the glass protecting Dr. Jackson, making him recoil as it had caused a small crack to appear. Greg was surprised and ended up blinking quite a few times as he stared at the crack that showed up. 'I… did that…?' Greg was certainly small, but as a Froakie, he was more powerful than any one man. He slowly realized this as his vision shifted to Britney, and let loose many barrages of Water Gun that splattered against and cracked the inches thick glass separating the two Pokemon, this time getting through even faster through the material thanks to being in much closer range, where the pressure of the water is highest.

"That little runt! Grrrr… tranqs! Fire the tranqs!" At his command, Jackson summoned several turrets that came from slots in the walls. All of them were pointed straight at Greg in the blink of an eye, and the Froakie managed to turn around in time to get a good look at the one on the opposite side of the room. He stared at it for a second before it let loose a single shot aimed right for his head. The Froakie gasped and initially shielded his eyes, however, he looked back at the dart trailing towards him, and noticed it seemed to be moving in slow motion. Blinking a few times in confusion, Greg remembered one important thing; Froakie and its evolutions are ninja-like in appearance and fighting style, not to mention reflexes. Smirking with confidence, he dodged the dart at the last second by side stepping, land smack dab in the middle of the Water Gun's focus point on the glass. Jackson's rage grew, so did his impatience, and he began to make all five guns fire at Greg, with each and every dart missing him and either clashing with the glass or shattering against the steel floor, all while he found time to let loose more Water Gun attacks.

Giovanni was now quite unamused at the sight of the his lead researcher failing to get his test subjects under control. While Dr. Jackson was distracted trying to shoot Froakie with both automated and manually controlled firearms, the Team Rocket CEO made a quiet exit with Agent Echo already by the door with her Mismagius. Standing by the door as it opened, Giovanni didn't even turn his head or shift his eyes as he spoke quietly to her. "With that idiot at the helm, I doubt he will get those runts under control, and I have no use for a Pokemon that refuses to bow down to a master. If necessary, kill them both, do not let them leave this place alive. Destroy this facility if you have to, I was going to get rid of it the moment TF-X was completed anyway." Echo nodded at the boss' request, her crimson shaded visor and helmet obscuring all but her mouth. "Your wish is my command, Giovanni. Do you have the TF-X samples?" Giovanni simply held up a suitcase, which obviously contained the blueprints and some test samples of the TF-X virus. "Mmm… you can leave the rest up to me, then." Giovanni smirked as he finally turned his head to the mysterious woman, sharing a glance and a small nod as he exited the room and made his way to the heliport. He and the few high ranking officials stationed at the facility were the few to be evacuated, as the rest were mere fodder he did not care for.

Back at the lab, Greg was making short work of all the darts being thrown his way, which only increased Dr. Jackson's frustration. Between all the high speed metal darts and Greg's continued Water Guns, the glass wall was becoming increasingly cracked, but it was holding steady even after the whole thing was covered top to bottom and left to right in ripples of broken crystal. Britney, still lying helplessly on the cold, metal floor, saw her brother try so hard to defend himself. The little fox saw the many cracks in the glass wall that separated the two from each other, but did not act at first, for her half closed eyes and current posture seemed to be giving her a low profile in comparison to Greg who had all eyes on him. As much as she was panicking and having incredibly large feelings of confusion and sadness, Britney knew she had to do something in order to help Greg and her escape. Perhaps that is what Greg was doing all along? Being a distraction would allow Britney to think of a plan of action, and her brother would always encourage her about her intellect when he was being nice to her.

Whatever it was that was happening, Britney started thinking fast. She looked carefully at the thick glass and saw among the cracks that it seemed to be getting foggy. It was honestly a bit hard to see the cracks with how much mist was on the thing. Britney was able to notice however, that the cracks did not pierce through to the other side of the glass, and was merely causing dents on Greg's side. Tackling the glass would probably not do a thing since her side of the glass was still wholly intact. Considering more options for another minute or so, and Britney was now completely out of ideas… until she remembered one important thing; she wasn't human anymore, she was a Fennekin, a fire type Pokemon. As much as it pained her to try and come to terms with her new body, she had to accept it and started to get a new idea, perhaps the only hope she had left.

Calling back to her human days at school, she remembered a certain time she was at science class as they were doing a practical activity. As explained by her teacher, extreme cold can cause brittleness in many materials, but trying to reverse this brittleness forcefully with extreme heat doesn't reverse it, in fact, it only makes things worse. Britney seemed to have a light bulb appear over her head, cause she gasped at this realization and gazed at the mist covered glass wall. If this was Greg's plan all along, it was certainly a good one. Still, Britney was frightened beyond anything she's experienced and didn't want to risk injury, but she had to complete her end of the plan or else they would never be reunited. She breathed slowly in her panic to try and calm herself, but as she breathed in, she could feel her body get hotter. Another moment of realization came to her as she started to breath in a lot without trying to breath out, filling her body up with oxygen to let her internal flame build up inside her stomach. Once she felt like the fires of Hell had engulfed herself, she quickly sprang up and prepared to launch a high powered Ember attack.

A scientist with Dr. Jackson had saw Britney sprang into action and attempted to grab the crazed, distracted lead scientist's attention. "S-sir!" Jackson turned to him and snarled out an angry retort. "NOT NOW! I'm busy!" The low ranking scientist was continually trying to steer his attention to Britney, until he had to literally grab his head and pull it in the direction that she was in. "The Fennekin's trying something, sir!" Jackson went eyed and let out a shriek of shock and defeat, even throwing his arms up into the air only for them to come crashing down on to the top of his head. "Oh nooooooo!" He tried desperately to direct turrets towards the fox, but alas, they were too slow in their duty to be summoned, and Britney let loose an Ember straight for the core of the glass wall. Upon letting the fireball escape her mouth, Britney recoiled backwards a bit, shocked that she was now able to perform such a feat, and gazed at the wall as ripples and tears started to appear all throughout the inside and out of it.

Greg turned back towards the glass in the midst of dodging all of the darts, and smirked with a cheeky grin on his face. With the glass in its current state of disrepair, he started to charge up a powerful Water Gun attack. It took him a couple seconds, and a dozen or so more dodged darts, before he unleashed his high powered Water Gun attack, striking the center of the class with the power of a critical hit. This massive application of force was enough to almost shatter the glass, but Greg's quick reflexes allowed him to hop his way towards it in a split second as he tackled the pinpoint of where both siblings aimed their attacks. He shielded himself by turning around in mid air, so his bubbles would absorb most of the damage of the broken glass, as contact with it at the speed he was traveling was enough to shatter it into hundreds of pieces, landing hands first on Britney's side as the trajectory he jumped at caused him to perform a back flip. He swiftly flipped back again to land on his feet, and gazed at Britney with a big smile on his face. She was so overcome with emotion at this point, for without her help, they would both be toast. Britney started to make a run towards him, and leaped into his arms while tearing up, causing Greg to almost fall over onto his backside.

"G-Greg, get us out of here! P-please…!" He simply nodded in response and wiped away her tears, with the smile returning to both of their faces. Greg felt very relieved to finally see his little sister smile again, even if it was a completely different face. Jackson and the scientist beside him were both slack jawed, in obvious awe as it took awhile for the lead scientist to react to a thing. "H-how did they think to do that?!" His voice over the loudspeaker caused them both to look up at the room he was in, their smiles replaced with snarls as they prepared themselves for another attack at any moment. Jackson pressed two buttons, one which raised the now destroyed glass wall up into the air once more, and opened the exit on Greg's side of the room, as many Team Rocket grunts now started to pour in, throwing Pokeballs up into the air to unleash their Pokemon. "Seize them! Don't let them escape!" Greg and Britney got into battle ready poses and faced off against a Scizor, a Mightyena and a Vigoroth, quite the unfair fight given they were outnumbered, outpowered and have only been Pokemon for a few minutes or so. "Greg… what should we do…?"

Greg had already hatched a plan by the time she asked, smirking once more as he turned to her and snatched her in his grip, holding her over his back bubbles as he sped towards the Scizor in front of the others. "You'll never escape, you little pests!" The Scizor was incredibly aggressive and agitated, most likely due to the cruel training Team Rocket Pokemon experience. He set his sights on them with a Slash attack via a horizontal swing, which would prove to be its downfall as Greg leapt up quickly and dodged it, as they both shared a glance before the Froakie bounced on top of his head with enough force to make it fall over and hit its head on the floor. Greg managed to then jump over all the other grunts and their Pokemon with Britney in hand, and Jackson was watching them carefully as they started to make a mad dash for the exit door. "Shit… I won't let you leave here alive!" The not so good doctor slammed his clenched fist down on a button that caused the door to close, but Greg's quick thinking allowed him to slide on his slippery knees to get low enough and maintain enough speed to get underneath, with Britney's soft ears just grazing the door. Jackson was furious at the sight as the grunts were banging on the door, and tried to open it with the same button, only to realize he had destroyed the control panel with his anger-filled fist. "...I need a bloody vacation…"

Greg slowly set Britney down on the floor as they were now in a hallway that lead to some rather wide open areas beyond, presumably the place he saw before with the machinery operating in the background. "You okay, Sis?" Britney was in quite a shock, but nonetheless gave him a nod as she was doing okay physically. Greg smiled to reassure her, looking back down the hallway to check for any incoming grunts, which lead Britney to glance at the back of his head, which revealed that his head wound was completely gone. She gasped at the sight and thought it was odd, but not worth mentioning, until Greg turned back around and asked what the gasp was for. "Huh? Something the matter?" Greg knew plenty of things were wrong, but he didn't hesitate to ask. "Y-your head wound… it's gone, I didn't see it." Greg blinked a few times at the realization that he didn't feel any head pain, touching the back of his head to feel for a wound, only to come up with nothing. "Worry about that later, we have to get out of here. Can you walk?"

Britney gazed down at her toeless feet, and slowly got up onto all fours before trying to walk, and much to her surprise, she was instantly able to fluently sprint. Their bodies certainly gave them new skills and knowledge about their bodies which they seemed to know the instant they transformed, but how that was possible, they didn't seem to care about now. Greg was happy to see her up and about as he started to hop quickly alongside her as both Kalos starters made their way to the end of the hallway to be greeted with blaring alarms. "ALERT. ALERT. TEST SUBJECTS HAVE ESCAPED EXPERIMENTATION ROOM #29. LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED." An automated, robotic voice shouted these words over the loudspeaker many times, and while Greg was snarling at the nearby one on the wall, Britney launched another Ember attack, destroying the loudspeaker there as Greg went wide eyed and slack jawed at her forwardness. "That thing was annoying me…" Greg simply nodded slightly as he looked around the halls they now found themselves in. "I think the only way we'll get out of here is through stealth, we can't take anything as we are now." Britney nodded at him as they both made haste to escape.

Several minutes and several rooms later, they were now at what Greg assumed was the room leading to the exit. To get there, they had to sneak past grunts, escape from fights with Pokemon and destroy several cameras, all of which was no problem to them. They were both getting confidant amidst the hardships and sorrows of how the situation originally started. "I think… this could be the way out. Shouldn't be too much further now, Sis…" Britney nodded at her brother as she slowly walked with him to the door, looking at both of them with long glances, studying their new forms for a bit before she slumped her head downwards along with her ears. Greg took notice of this supposed sadness and hopped in front of her. "Brit… what's the matter?" Britney still wasn't over how much they had changed, and wanted a swift return to her old self. "Greg… what are we gonna do? We can't go home looking like this, and how are we gonna change back…?" Greg blinked, and looked down somberly too, for he hadn't thought about any of that before now. As Britney was starting to tear up again, he suddenly gave her head a hug, trying so hard to cheer his sister up. "I promise we'll figure out how to make this work, I don't know if we can change back, but I can promise you, if we can't, we'll make the best of this, okay?"

Britney nodded, although it was a small one. The hug went on as she pressed her head against Greg's stomach, but out of nowhere, a strange force was pushing Britney upwards. The Froakie looked down at the Fennekin's feet and realized that it was Mismagius, who was lying in wait for the two. She phased out of the ground with glowing cyan eyes, picking up Fennekin with her Psychic attack as the ghastly Ghost Pokemon ascended to the far side wall of the room. Just as Greg came back to his senses, he was about to hop right at Mismagius to unleash a close range Water Gun, but a familiar voice stopped him from proceeding. "Halt!" Agent Echo jumped down from the ceiling she was sticking to, right in front of Greg to cut his only aim at Mismagius. With a grin being her only facial feature exposed, she stood proudly over him with her hands on her hips, as if she was mocking him. "Get out of my way, you bitch!" Greg snarled in an animalistic fashion and swiped his fist at her, but this only caused her to giggle with a gloved hand now raising to her lips. "You still don't know, do you? You're a Pokemon in every sense of the word, and so, all I can hear you say is your own name." Greg hadn't thought about it until now for he could still understand people, but the realization made him go quiet, festering his anger for her inside him.

"Mmm… good boy, don't move a muscle or your sister gets it. And just to prove to you I'm serious…" She snapped her fingers as they moved away from her mouth, causing Mismagius to tighten her grip on Britney to the point where she let a scream escape her breath. "Britney!" Greg was about to leap forward, but he remembered Echo's words and reluctantly had to sit still. Soon enough, Mismagius loosened her grip on the fox, giggling delightfully to cause so much pain and misery. "Hehe… why don't you stop resisting and come join Team Rocket? You've made quite a mess of our facility as it is, and I bet we could use some strong recruits like you." Greg simply stared at her as she continued her speech, and during this, would occasionally glance at Britney, who was now much closer to Mismagius. Among her pain filled breaths, she managed to get a glance back at him as well, and noticed he was breathing rather hard. Britney didn't think anything of it until she realized Greg was staring right at her, and was breathing in far more than he was breathing out. It took her a second, but she knew what he wanted her to do.

While they were hatching a plan, Agent Echo grew annoyed by how he wasn't looking at her while she was speaking of the glory of Team Rocket, and delivered a swift kick to his stomach which made him fall backwards, clearly hurt quite a lot as he tightly pressed his hand to his gut. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, you urchin!" Britney took it as a signal and while Echo was distracted with Greg, she inhaled a large amount of air quickly, which made her body burn up. Mismagius not only got irritated by this, but also dropped her down to the ground as she was now suffering from a severe burn. The scream from her Mismagius caught the attention of Echo, who quickly spun her head around to see what was going on, giving Greg enough time to run between her legs and spit out a Water Gun attack at Mismagius, causing her to hit the wall hard and slump down to the floor. Before Echo could turn around completely, Britney unleashed a mighty Ember from her maw that hit her right in her exposed mouth as she was gasping. The swallowed flame scorched her mouth as well as setting her inside alight, causing her to spontaneously combust. She fell over onto her back as she was now covered head to toe in flame that was destroying her from the inside out, with ear piercing screams of agonizing pain filling the room, and possibly the whole facility as it was that loud.

Britney was initially snarling angrily at the incinerated woman, but it slowly faded to a terrified look, as it slowly sunk in to her that she managed to seriously injure another person, something she would have never done in her past life. However, she only grew more distraught when Agent Echo was now charred and motionless. Britney had killed her, and the thought clouded her mind with so much despair and dread that she broke down into tears. Greg looked between the body and his sister, and looked back at the exit door, as he rushed over to Britney and tried to get her to move. "Sis, come on, we gotta go!" Britney's psych was completely shattered as she didn't respond to his pleas in the slightest, which forced the Froakie to start dragging her towards the door until she pushed him away and started to run in front, pushing the already slightly open door aside with ease as she stormed out of the base and towards the forest where they came from, with a worried-sick Greg right behind her. "Wait! Don't go on without me!"

Meanwhile, up in the sky, a large transport helicopter was flying northeast in the now pitch black skies, with only the lights in the cities below and the starlight as the pilot's only illumination. Giovanni and several other high ranking scientists and personnel were among the armored chopper, with a large R embezzled on the side. All of them except the CEO himself were practically having a party, breaking out champagne and praising each other for their accomplishments that will help grow Team Rocket to the top of the status quo. While everyone was having a good time, Giovanni was somberly staring out one of the windows, curiously in the direction of the base they were escaping. One grunt took note of his reluctance to party, and he approached him cautiously with a salute. "S-sir, is everything alright?" Giovanni's quick glance caused the grunt to recoil slightly, though he of course tried to recover from it. Giovanni simply shook his head, and so the soldier didn't question him further, going back to the festivities. The Team Rocket CEO gazed back out of the window, until a beep came from his highly advanced wrist watch, giving him an update on Agent Echo. Her heart had stopped beating, which could only mean one thing; she was now dead. Giovanni's top agents each had a heart sensor implanted in them, which allowed him to track their condition. With a blink, his gaze went back to the window. 'It seems they've dispatched my top agent… it appears we have underestimated them…' With a few taps of his watch, he brought up a screen with quite a disturbing question.

"Arm Base #087 to self destruct?"

'I have no use for that base or anyone in it. I have the TF-X, and that was the sole reason that place exists. Good riddance.' Giovanni clicked "Yes", sending the self destruct signal all the way back to the main power generator of the Team Rocket base he had just escaped. There, Jackson and the grunts were still trapped inside the torture chamber, as the control panel he accidentally destroyed controlled every single door in that room, even the ones in the small safety chamber he was in above the main room. As all the grunts were working furiously with their Pokemon to destroy the doors, Jackson was absorbed into his own little world, his elbows resting on the panel while his hands were scrunching up his hair and facial skin. "M-my research… all of those years of painstaking calibrations and trial and error… a waste…" Jackson was convinced that if all humans had been just as rebellious as the two siblings he just witnessed, then the TF-X virus was a complete and utter failure. He wallowed in self-pity, pulling his hair out in blind rage at how he spent so many years of his life on such a complicated, but meaningless organic weapon.

TF-X was meant to to further his career in Team Rocket into new heights, and it appeared it would do nothing but prove to be a time waster. Amidst these thoughts was another blaring of alarms, with the robotic voice returning to deliver a haunting message. "ALERT. ALERT. THIS FACILITY HAS BEEN RIGGED TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONNEL ARE ADVISED TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY." The grunts all started to panic and ordered their Pokemon to attack the door faster and harder in order to escape, but it was no use, as there was going to be no time limit, as only Giovanni would do something so sick and twisted. Slowly, he gazed up at the ceiling while letting a final, twisted smirk paint his face. "Heh… well played… boss." Doing this meant Giovanni would theoretically destroy all evidence of TF-X research, something that only made him more somber. He of course did not know Giovanni had taken the samples and blueprints, but as he looked back down, he closed his eyes and was fully prepared to embrace death. "See you in Hell, Giovanni…"

As he let loose his parting words, Jackson was engulfed in flame from the explosion now being unleashed, as the blast originated from inside the underground section of the base, where he and the rest of the men were. While Britney ran into the forest first, with Greg in toe, the explosion carried up to the top of the base, causing him to stop and turn back in horror of the sight he had witnessed. The blast was a large one that created a large crater, with many buildings towards the center of the base collapsing into it or outright being caught in the explosion causing them to shatter and fall over. The outer buildings, such as the room leading up to the exit they just left, were among some of the few buildings that were relatively unscathed. This caused Greg to cringe quite hard, as this was a firm reminder as to how Team Rocket was such a cruel and malevolent organization. But he had no time to stand around and gawk, for he had a mentally disturbed sister he needed to calm, breaking back into his sprinting hops. Back at the chopper, the explosion was barely visible from where they were, and was certainly not audible. It didn't grab the attention of anyone else on board, except for Giovanni, who was intently staring at it while deep in thought as usual. '...I will return for you some day… please, be patient, Ms. Echo.' The CEO returned his gaze to the party, and put on a facade as he started to act just as cheerful as the rest of the participants.

Back in Santalune Forest, Britney was sprinting for dear life, as if she was trying to run away from the guilt she experienced at outright murdering a human being, even if they were cruel. She ran deep into the woods until she started to grow tired, slowing down to an eventual crawl and finally stopping, breathing heavily and erratically while she was slumping her head and ears down. In her despair, she raised her head up let out a frustrated scream with tears running down her cheeks, which in turn caused her to blurt out some fire. These flames emerging from her body caused her even greater distress as they seemed to give her PTSD-like flashbacks of using her flames to kill Agent Echo, and she ended up pressing her snout into the dirt and covering her own head with her front legs, whimpering and crying uncontrollably.

It was then that Greg managed to catch up with her, stopping a good distance behind Britney as he heard the whimpering. Walking over slowly to her, he started to hold his hand out which lightly rubbed at her back. "Hey…" Greg's comforting was interrupted by none other than Britney herself, who went wide eyed with dilated pupils, quickly turning around and biting down hard on the Froakie's hand. She had chomped him so hard, her two prominent fangs began to draw blood from Greg's white hand, causing him to yell out a yelp, but he didn't move an inch. Britney was gazing down at the hand for awhile before her snarling gaze went up to meet Greg's tear drenched eyes. The sight of her brother in pain caused her eyes and senses to return back to normal slowly, as she had a panicked glance back down at his hand and quickly pried her sharp teeth loose, with Greg being quick to place his other hand on the wound to stop the blood from leaking out. They both shared a moment of silence, as Britney looked away from him. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" As she cried and sniffled, Greg came closer and started to crouch down to give her a much needed hug. He wrapped his arms quickly around her neck and hugged her face against his stomach, being sure to place his uninjured hand on the wound in the process. "I told you we could make this all work out, didn't I? I vow to keep that promise." Greg's words calmed Britney's words a fair amount, as she slowly nodded in his grip. They hugged for close to half a minute until the Froakie broke the hug with the Fennekin, and he started to whisper to her now in case it was more calming.

"It's really late now, and we've gotten quite far away from that base… not to mention, it blew up. I think we need to get some rest, what do you say?" Britney looked down at Greg's injury that she had inflicted. "But… your hand…" Greg shook his hand and hit it behind his back. "I'll be fine, please, don't worry about me. Let's just get some sleep." Britney was speechless at her brother's courage, and gave him a small nod while she looked around for a good spot to sleep, and eventually settled in a nearby berry bush. She was also quite hungry, and wanted to use this opportunity to eat. As they both went inside it, Greg could tell she was hungry as she hadn't actually eaten anything all day, even while they were at their house, she skipped on breakfast, lunch and dinner today. He picked off some fruit for them both to eat, eating one berry for himself and then holding up several berries for Britney to eat in his hands, since she certainly couldn't hold them up herself now. After eating five berries and with one final gulp, she looked down somberly and tiredly at the dirt ground just below them, sighing loudly as she was already missing her bed. "Sorry, but it's the best we got." Greg laid down first on his side, facing Britney who got down second, lying surprisingly close to the Froakie. "Hey… um… Greg?" Her gaze turned up to meet his eyes as he too shared a gaze with her. "Yeah, sis?" It was at this point that Britney started to look a bit more calm, though all was certainly not right with her yet. Her breathing was still a bit hard and uneasy, but she tried to slow it down. "P-please, keep your promise…" Greg simply nodded at her words, which caused a faint smile to show on her face, as they both closed their eyes and dozed off into a heavy slumber.

In several hours, the sun was now shining radiantly through the sky, cutting through the thick trees and getting to the ground down below, illuminating the forest in such a way that Greg and Britney had never seen before. Too bad, they were both sleeping in and couldn't see the gorgeous sight beyond the berry bush they were hiding in. However, they weren't asleep for very long, as the sound of a foot snapping a twig woke up the highly alert and protective toad. Greg even got into a fighter's stance inside the bush, blinking a few times before realizing no one was attacking him. He sighed as he peered out of a small opening that gave him great vision of his surroundings while keeping him nice and hidden. After peeking to the right of the nearby footpath that just so happened to be beside the bush, which they of course didn't notice yesterday night, Froakie spotted a man who seemed to be wearing scientist scrubs. His first thought was obviously that it was a surviving Team Rocket researcher, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to have the Team Rocket crest stitched into the fabric. And from the way he was dressed and how he looked, he certainly didn't look like any of the scientists he remembered.

The mysterious man had a stylish black haircut, a blue shirt with a flashy collar, designer jeans and shoes and a rather fancy belt. Greg no longer thought he was from Team Rocket, but still quite couldn't pinpoint who he was until a few seconds later, he was now much closer. Greg finally recognized the man; Professor Sycamore, the Kalos region's top name in Pokemon research. As he got closer, Greg disappeared completely into the bush, and Sycamore walked past and didn't assume a thing. However, Britney soon woke up from a sneeze, which the Professor managed to hear, stopping dead in his tracks. Greg eeped and tried to stay as quiet as possible, while Britney looked at him in a confused manner. "What are you-" Greg cut her off by placing his hand on her mouth, while frantically signing to her that someone was close by. She nodded and stayed quiet, but that didn't stop Sycamore from looking around his surroundings while letting loose a declaration. "Alright, whoever is it out there, if you're following me, come out now!" Greg initially tried to hide from him, but then got an idea. Without saying a word, he hopped out of the bush, causing Britney to go into a bit of a panic. "What are you doing?! Get back in here!" She uttered in whispers as Sycamore took notice of the Froakie, and the first thing that got his attention was his injuries, noticing the bite marks on his hand.

"Oh… dear me, are you hurt, my friend?" Greg had known about Sycamore from the local newspapers his father would occasionally bring home from work, and he took a great interest in his research findings. He knew that he was a person he could trust, as he had very benign views of Pokemon. He turned to the bush and gestured with his fingers for Britney to come out. "Come on, I know this person, we can trust them." Staring through an opening in the bush at her older brother, she didn't have much of a choice but listen to him, as she slowly came out of the bush with slumped down ears to clearly express her reluctance. Sycamore had taken a step closer once the Fennekin appeared, clearly showing some interest in the two. "I have never seen a Froakie and a Fennekin so close in the wild before…" Slowly, he started to approach them both, which made Britney back away fearfully at first, but Greg managed to stop her from going too far, standing fast as he approached them and crouched down to get a better look at them. "You don't have to be scared of me, I'm your friend." This was mostly aimed at Britney, still showing signs of fear from her shaking legs. She was never used to being face to face with older people except her parents, and the overwhelming sense of being very small was getting to her. Greg simply gave him a croak along with a smile to show that they meant no harm, which caused the Professor to smile back.

"I wouldn't expect Pokemon like you to be in a forest like this, are you lost?" Greg nodded, then turned to face Britney, who also then nodded. "That's a shame, you're both so far away from your homes, but, I have a better idea. Would you two like to come with me? I see that Froakie is quite injured, and I promise I'll get him fixed up at a Pokemon Center in Santalune City. After that, if you want, you can either come back to this forest, or I can take you back to your natural homes. Or, perhaps you would like to come stay with me at my lab in Lumiose City? It always gets quite lonely there, what with my wife being so busy and usually out and about." He chuckled a bit to himself, and watched the two decide. Greg was certainly intent on going with him, but one glance at Britney showed she was very unsure. Turning to face her, the two Pokemon had a discussion about what to do. "Sis, I promise we can trust him. He can get us far away from this place, away from any trace of Team Rocket, and if we stay at his lab, at least we'll have a roof over our heads." Britney breathed rather erratically again, as all she wanted to do was go back to her real home. But she slowly began to accept that that simply wasn't an option. Sighing, she finally nodded as well.

"Ahh! So, you would like to come with me?" Greg nodded as well, holding up his hand and extending all three of his fingers. "Three? Hmm… ah! Option three? So, you would like to come to my lab?" Greg nodded once again, and Sycamore was happy to hear their decision. "Please, come this way. My car is at the edge of the forest, and I came here after hearing a rather… unpleasant rumor that I just had to investigate. But, that isn't important. Let's get you healed up, Froakie." He scooped up Froakie into his arms along with Fennekin, leaned back up into a straight posture, and continued on his way. Greg wouldn't know for sure if this would help or hinder their quest to gain their original bodies in the long run, but at least it gave him and Britney something they could have which he assumed would be quite rare in the time to come; moments of peace. Greg was just about to speak to his sister again, until he realized she had already fallen back asleep, clearly quite exhausted still from last night. He shrugged, looked up at Sycamore, and decided to doze off as well, finally feeling like he was safe enough to do so. Professor Sycamore's timing felt too good to be true, but if this part was a dream, it was certainly one he didn't want to be pinched in.

"Sleep well, friends. Let's go home."