Yes, I'm naming of of these chapters now! And I'm making them longer, too!
Chapter 1 - Awakening and Escape
"A mere Trainer has already started to cause Cyrus' plans to collapse in on themselves," Charon muttered angrily as he unlocked the door to his lab. "I can tell she and her friends aren't going to stop at just the Valley Windworks." With a frustrated growl, he finally got the door to fully unlock and he kicked the door open with a low-resounding clang.
"What are you going to do about the Trainer?" Catherine asked as they walked into Charon's personal lab. "I've heard that she has caused trouble to others before."
"I'll leave it up to my fellow Commanders to decide," the old scientist replied grumpily as he looked around, making sure that nothing was out of place. "That child is none of my concern at the present, especially considering my rank among the others in training..." He trailed off when his gaze moved to the glass cylinder in the corner, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "Well, well. This is certainly...unexpected."
Catherine frowned, then moved her gaze to the cylinder, as well. Her own eyes widened in surprise. "Impossible..."
During the last few months that the lab had been left nearly untouched, the cylinder had gone from opaque to transparent, and the figure within - the girl Charon had procured - had transformed. No longer was she even remotely human except in that it appeared as though she could have stood on her own two feet - and that she was wearing clothes.
Charon walked around the cylinder in amazement, looking at the about three foot tall, furry red and peach-colored creature. He lingered on the twin tails with white tips, and the sharp, saw blade-like bits of fur that stuck out from the back of the creature's head and nearly over the orange jacket she was wearing.
"My my," Charon breathed as he looked over the dreadlocks that came down the sides of the creature's face and started up at the red triangular ears. "I never expected the transformation to be this drastic. In either bodily form..." He noticed the yellow running shoes with a red thunderbolt pattern, and yellow fingerless gloves with white rings on the wrist.
"...or in her clothing," Charon added.
"Or so sudden," Catherine added, looking over the child. "I would have expected six months or a couple of years at least, not just...three."
"It certainly is strange," Charon agreed. He moved over to the computer and started to look through the log. After a moment, he remarked, "Well, she seems stable." He looked back at the creature again. "All we have to do is wait for her to wake up."
He looked back at the computer and started to open up files, double checking what Saturn had done in the adjoining room. "The other project is going smoothly, as well. It won't be long until the hunt for the rest of the components begins."
Catherine nodded and started going through another one of the computers' logs, then stated to stiffen as she felt someone's eyes on start to burn into the back of her head. She turned slowly, glancing around. Charon hadn't been the one to look in her direction; he was still looking into the computer he had started on.
It was the girl - no, the PokeMorph - that was staring at her.
"Charon..." Catherine called out nervously.
Charon let out an annoyed sigh and looked up, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "What is it?" Then he noticed what his assistant was staring at.
The PokeMorph was awake, and staring at both of them with dark brown eyes that looked like they had seen many things and weren't necessarily fazed by being trapped in a lab.
Charon's eyes widened in surprise and excitement. "This is incredible," he breathed. "It worked." He looked at Catherine. "We need to go back to Mt. Coronet and gather more hairs. I must recreate this with more subjects and with different combinations."
The brown eyes, which had been moving around the lab, stopped on Charon, who had been moving emphatically as he had been speaking. It didn't seem like the PokeMorph attached to the eyes could hear what was being said, there was a look on her face that clearly said that she did not like what she saw. The PokeMorph's attention was quickly moved to her own form, and the brown eyes widened in surprise upon seeing the form that she was now entrapped in.
CRASH!
Charon and Catherine looked up sharply at the sound of the crashing glass, their eyes widening when they saw the PokeMorph on one knee at the bottom of the shattered cylinder, liquid and glass shards pooling out over the floor of the lab.
Charon's watery blue eyes widened as the brown eyes of the PokeMorph looked up at him with a determined frown as two pairs of large spikes retracted into the figure's knuckles without breaking the gloves.
"Who are you?" the PokeMorph growled. "And where am I?"
Charon blinked at the question, but then adapted a wry smile and took a step forward. "I am Charon." He motioned to the room around them. "And this is my lab, where I enhanced you."
"Is that what you call this?" the girl demanded. "Enhancements?! More like a mutation! Change me back!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, miss..."
"Scarlet."
"Yes, well, I'm afraid I can't do that, Miss Scarlet," Charon stated calmly.
"Why not?" Scarlet growled as she rose to her feet.
"The Mobian DNA was accepted into your system, as unbelievable as that may sound. The process is irreversible, and, to be honest, I don't think that I would want to reverse it if I could." Charon's smile turned a bit twisted as he looked over Scarlet's new form.
Scarlet gritted her teeth and started towards Charon. Catherine moved between the two, reaching for the PokeBall on her belt.
"What in Arceus' name is a 'Mobian'?" Scarlet asked darkly as she continued to approach.
"A PokeMorph," Charon replied calmly. "One of the creatures of legend."
Scarlet's eyes widened, and she took a step back. "Wh-what?" She shook her head and gained a determined expression. "You have got to be kidding me."
"He isn't," Catherine replied, still standing defensively. "He injected the DNA into your system a few months ago. You've been in a coma for longer."
Scarlet blinked in surprise at this, taking a step back. Then she looked around the lab and down at herself. "Where is my Ranger uniform? And my Styler?"
"You didn't have those things when you were placed into our custody," Catherine stated. "They have been removed from you and replaced."
Oddly enough, Scarlet looked relieved to hear this, but a concerned look came across her face, before quickly turning into an expression of anger as she snarled at the two of them. "You shouldn't have gotten custody of me in the first place if you were going to do this to me!'
Charon didn't notice Scarlet's plight, and instead was imagining her doing exactly what the Legendary Mobians once did...now under his command.
"This is incredible!" he muttered to himself as Catherine and Scarlet continued to glare at each other. "I finally have what I need to find the others!"
He thought that no one would have been able to hear him, but Scarlet's ears twitched as Charon continued to mutter about his own plans. Her eyes narrowed, and she turned her eyes towards the door and lunged for it, planning on making her escape now.
A second before Scarlet could have slipped out, Catherine's Purugly was standing in the doorway, puffing herself up and hissing.
"You are not leaving," Catherine said in a determined tone.
"Says you!" Scarlet spat back as she brought back her left arm. The spikes hiding in her knuckles suddenly revealed themselves as Scarlet slammed the fist into the gray and white cat Pokemon in front of her, sending it flying back into a wall outside of the lab. Mere moments later, Scarlet had left the lab, leaving behind the knocked-out Purugly, a shocked Catherine, and a rather surprised-looking Charon.
The head scientist gained a wide grin that almost made him appear devilish. "It seems that we are about to have a test run for my new project." He turned to look at Catherine and barked, "Get me a connection! I need to warn the grunts that my experiment is loose. Perhaps they will be enough of a block to slow her down so that I will be able to stop her from leaving."
Catherine gave a nod. "Right." She quickly moved to one of the computers and came back with a microphone, giving it to Charon.
The scientist gave a curt nod in response, grinning. That changed to a serious frown as he cleared his throat, then barked into the microphone, "Attention all grunts!"
Scarlet's POV
::One of my experiments has escaped from the lab. Whoever captures it and brings it to me alive will receive a promotion! If it comes back to be dead, your Pokemon will be taken from you and you will be demoted to permanent sanitation duty!::
Scarlet winced at the loudspeaker. "I don't remember those things being so loud before..." She shook her head. "I can't get distracted; I've got to find a way out of here so that I can get back to Ranger HQ and warn the others about what's going on!"
Scarlet came to the end of the hall and up a set of stairs; as soon as she reached the top, she started looking around and mentally scrambled for a way that she could possibly go next.
"There it is!"
Scarlet turned sharply when she heard the barking voice, catching sight of a man standing behind her. She blinked a bit in confusion as she looked up in order to see the man's face. Is this guy a giant? Or did I shrink?
As she looked up, she noticed the weird, white and black uniform that the man was wearing, as well as the green wig that happened to be on top of his head.
Scarlet smirked. "And I thought Team Dim Sun looked weird."
The man bristled. "Hey! Don't make fun of the Team Galactic uniform!" When Scarlet's smirk didn't vanish, the man grabbed a PokeBall and threw it. "Go, Zubat! Don't let this thing out of the building!"
As soon as the bat Pokemon exploded out of the PokeBall, Scarlet reacted on instinct, reaching for her left wrist. She paused a moment later, blinking when she remembered that she didn't have her Styler on her anymore, and simply opted for slamming a fist down on the Zubat instead, remembering that she'd managed to knock the Purugly out in one hit. The Pokemon instantly lost altitude and slammed to the floor, knocked out.
The Team Galactic member - one of the grunts - looked shocked when he saw Scarlet take his Pokemon out in one hit. Scarlet glared up at him and raised a fist, sending the man running off in the direction he had come from. Then Scarlet turned and ran off in the other direction, turning corners and running up and down stairs as she continued to knock out Pokemon and send grunts scattering left and right.
By the time that she had managed to reach the lobby after giving Galatic grunts - and herself - the run-around, there were three grunts waiting for her in front of the front doors.
"Is that the experiment?" one of the grunts asked the others.
"Looks like it," a second replied. "I wonder what got into Charon's head to make such a thing?"
Scarlet gritted her teeth as she glared at the three grunts. "Let me by!" She swung a punch at the grunt standing in the middle, only for a PokeBall to explode open, causing her fist to come into contact with a levitating, blue metal disk.
"Yow!" Scarlet stumbled back, rubbing her knuckles and glaring at the Bronzor. "Why you little-"
The third Galactic grunt laughed. "Serves you right! Bronzor, use Confusion on that freak!"
Scarlet flinched as the mental attack grated against her mind, causing her vision to blur. She shook her head, trying to clear her vision, then started moving, lashing out at anything that tried to move towards her with what she guessed was evil intent. By the time that her vision cleared, the lobby was clearly a mess, and the three grunts who had been coming at her were lying curled up on the floor, gripping their stomachs, legs, or heads.
Scarlet blinked in confusion for a moment at the sight, then shook her head and ran out of the building, becoming nearly blinded by the sunlight.
Scarlet shook her head. "Okay, at least I know it's day, but where -" She looked out over the city below, blinking when she saw all the stone that the buildings were sitting on, elevated. "...am I?"
"We are in the Sinnoh region. Veilstone City, to be more precise."
Scarlet turned sharply when she heard the familiar voice, a snarl appearing on her face when she saw Charon coming out of the building behind her, followed by Catherine.
"Now, why don't you come back inside?" Charon asked, a twisted smile on his face despite the warm tone of his voice. Scarlet was quick to notice the farce.
"Why should I?" she demanded harshly.
"You are the only one of your kind. Why wander about the world and die a lonely death when you can stay here while I make more, so you won't be lonely?"
"Definitely not tempted," Scarlet growled in reply. She clenched her right fist and pointed it at him, instinctively summoning the spikes hiding in her knuckles. She looked at them with surprise for a moment before returning her glare to Charon; she'd figure out what exactly they were and how they worked later. "I am not an animal that you can just order around, and I'm not about to ask you to do this to more people. I'm leaving."
With that said, Scarlet turned and started running down the stairs and into the town before quickly leaving it. The stares she got from some of the locals definitely didn't go unnoticed.
This made Charon's words hit her in the face.
"I've got to figure out what I am," Scarlet muttered as she ran into the trees. "I'm not human, and I'm not Pokemon. I'm not in Almia, either...now, where did Hastings say the Professor lived in Sinnoh?"
Scarlet thought back to when she had been Top Ranger Scarlet Igel, taking quests from Rangers and others while learning things about the other regions on the sly.
She wished this hadn't happened - that she hadn't been caught with her guard down like this.
And that she'd been taken so far from home.
