#One Week Later#

It definitely had not been easy for the doppel. It had been run ragged by the scientists over the course of its first week of life. They wanted to know what it could do and thus put it through all sorts of tests. So far what they had learned (and consequently, what the doppel learned about itself) was that in its base form it looked like a slightly oversized ditto, which is sort of what it was. However, much to the scientists' satisfaction there were some key differences. Unlike a ditto, Doppel was unable to transform without a DNA sample of the subject it wanted to copy the form of. So, instead of the "transform" move that your standard ditto carried, Doppel had been programmed with a move the scientists had invented, which they called "assimilate". While at first glance, the move appeared inferior to transform, it did have its own benefits. With this method, doppel could become a given thing from memory instead of always having to see the thing to copy its form.

To perform the move, Doppel would engulf the target in its blobby mass and scan the DNA signature before letting it go free. In the scientists' eyes, this was perfect because now trainers could travel the world with a doppel, find the pokemon they wanted, and have the doppel assimilate it. They reasoned this was a better alternative to capturing and kidnapping the poor pokemon. It would simulate the trainer experience without actually ruining lives. Everyone would be happy.

'Everyone except me.' the doppel thought to itself. The scientists had not taken into account what Doppel wanted, of course. They were too busy with the concerns of the other pokemon out there. And even though Doppel didn't know what it wanted, it knew this fate wasn't it. To be a pawn of these humans for the rest of its life did not seem like a good thing. To become a slave so that others could be free sounded noble, but Doppel figured it would probably be a miserable experience.

Light poured into the room that the doppel was occupying as the door opened and one of the humans appeared. "Dinner time!" said the human as it put a plate covered in what could best be described as slop onto the floor. 'Now's my chance!' Doppel raced for the door, barreling over the human in the process, and found itself in a barren hallway. While it wasn't sure which way to go, the doppel figured that now was not the time to hesitate and decided to go left. It quickly transformed into a nine-year-old-looking human girl with waist length purple hair and green eyes, a form that no one, not even Doppel, knew the source of.

Doppel had never assimilated a human in its brief existence, and could only speculate how it could become this form and even how it knew it could become this form. But that wasn't a top priority at the moment. Right now it needed to escape and could move faster as a human than it could in its normal ditto-like form. "Stop right there!" came a voice as it finished morphing. Doppel looked back and saw several humans, most likely scientists, behind it (or her, considering the current form). She would have to pick up the pace.

Fortunately the scientists were badly out of shape and could not keep up. As the distance between them increased she heard one of them shout "Call in Halitosis! We can't get it back like this." Then she rounded a corner and could not tell if they were still following. She didn't want to take any chances and kept moving, feeling a bit tired from the pursuit, but not allowing herself a break. Finally the hallway came to an end and she could see another door. Hopefully this would lead to freedom. She opened the door and ran through it.

Doppel had not, however, counted on the figure on the other side of the door. She only realized it was there after she ran into it and found herself sprawled on the ground. It was a human in a dark brown jumpsuit with beady eyes and dirty, messy, brown hair. He wore a gas mask over his mouth, which he removed as he picked Doppel up by the scruff of her neck. The man grinned, revealing sickly, sharp teeth as he breathed on her. The breath was rancid and Doppel felt like she wanted to throw up. Quickly she found herself becoming disoriented as the man continued to breathe on her. The last thing she saw as she lapsed into unconsciousness was the man laughing evilly as he put the mask back on and began walking back the way she came, carrying her with him.

*0O0*

Doppel awoke with a gasp and noticed first of all that she was still in her human form. Second of all, she was back in the room she had just escaped from earlier. 'Wonderful.' Before she had time to curse her bad luck though, the door opened for the second time that day, but she did not have the strength for another escape attempt. In walked a ten-year-old boy with shoulder length light blue hair and aquamarine colored eyes. He was wearing red pajamas covered all over in what looked like the letter "Z" (which was a very weird thing for humans to wear during the day, but Doppel didn't know this yet).

"There you are!" he said. "I've been looking all over for my new friend. So this is where they're keeping y- OH MY! You're naked!" Quickly he turned his head, shielding his eyes with one hand and with the other reached behind him into a backpack she hadn't noticed he was wearing. This series of events confused Doppel. Testing out her voice, she let him know what was on her mind. "Ok, who are you? What are you doing here? You're not going to run any tests on me are you? And what does 'naked' mean?" The boy didn't miss a beat as he finished pulling out a set of clothes from the backpack.

"Hi, my name is Kio, I came here to say 'hello', no I'm not going to run any tests, and 'naked' means you aren't wearing any clothes. Most humans do not like to be seen without clothes. Luckily, I have some on hand you can wear that I was going to take on my journey." He said while grinning from ear to ear. Doppel gave Kio a cautious look as she tried on the clothes. They did not quite fit her, but that was ok as he had also produced a belt that she could use to keep her pants up. Now that she was dressed in a blue t-shirt and some black shorts, Kio let his hand drop and looked her over. "Not bad, though we'll have to go shopping later. If you want to travel with me, that is."

The doppel stared at Kio for a good minute and a half, mouth agape, before finally managing to get out "What gall, you have! Expecting me to be your slave!"

Kio seemed slightly surprised by this outburst, but recovered quickly. "I never said anything about slavery, I just want to travel the world with my soon-to-be good friend… I'm sorry what's your name?"

"I don't have one. You could call be Doppel, I suppose. But-"

"Oh, that won't do for a name. That's your species name. I don't know about you but I would hate to be referred to as 'Human' or 'Person' or even 'Homo-Sapiens'. No, let's pick a new name for you."

Before the doppel could interject, Kio snapped his fingers and said "I know! You remind me of an old friend of mine. Your new name is Shiori! What do you think?"

"Fine, whatever. But you don't seem to get the idea that I don't want to travel with you. I don't even know if I can trust you. The human track record for that so far has been utterly abysmal."

"Of course you can't trust me, yet. I'm going to earn your trust! But wouldn't it be nice to get out of here? That's what you were attempting to do earlier, right?"

'So he heard about that, huh? Lovely. He knows what I want, so now he can bribe me. And it's working so far…' "Tell me the details of this journey."

"Well, I'm ten years old, so it's about time for me to go traveling the world. As my dad is one of the head honchos of this place, I convinced him that you should come with me as a test run to fully understand what you can do. Officially, I'm going to use you to try out the neo-trainer idea these people here are pushing." After saying this Kio got closer than Shiori was comfortable with and whispered the rest in her ear. "Unofficially, I figure we can travel the world, do what we want, and if in the middle of it, you feel like ditching me…" He left it at that.

"One more question, Kio. Why are you doing this?"

"I don't feel like discussing that here." He said in an affable tone of voice while revealing his pearly whites in a broad smile. Shiori grimaced. 'Ooooooookay. Well, freakshow aside, this does appear to be my best opportunity to get out of here.' "Fine, I'll go with you, but try anything funny and I'll murder you in your sleep!"

Kio chuckled. "Noted."