Second chapter away! Here we introduce another one of our main characters along for the ride.

Disclaimer: I do not own any content related to the original Pokémon series, species, anime or anything along those lines, this is written by the fans for the fans.

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Chapter two:
Playing god

An adjustment of a tie made the image perfect, nimble fingers clawing at it and forcing it to yield to tidiness as he did every morning. Pressed shirt, shined shoes, neatly combed back dirty blonde hair and ironed lab coat made the look complete, the notoriously picky Dr. Strothe finally pleased with the man looking back at himself from the mirror.
A tidy image was the first step to a productive lifestyle and thus success, naturally. Grabbing his keys from a ridiculously clean office that barely looked touched, much less practically lived in daily, Steven Strothe shut and locked his door behind him and quickly pocketed the keys in order to make a swift but orderly walk down the corridor.

Upon entering the labs, his young assistant Marie was there waiting for him eagerly, though a smile only graced his slate grey eyes upon noticing the waiting cup of coffee on a countertop, the aroma steaming invitingly into the air.
"Evening, Dr. Strothe!" Marie chirped a little too perkily, her twin bunches bouncing slightly with her steps across the lab. Steven had to hide a large grimace that would of graced his features, if only for the sake of being polite upon the young woman's actions. He was growing immensely tired of her constantly syrupy attitude and doubted he could continue to be civil with her much longer. It was eleven at night for gods sake, who could be so damn happy at the start of a seven hour shift that would take them to six in the morning?
Coughing heartily, his slightly aged features of forties creasing into a mild frown he mumbled a somewhat restrained greeting to the trainee.
"Yes, Evening... Anything significant while I was on my arrival?" He asked, whisking over to a computer interface nearly instantly in order to check the records. No matter what answer the girl gave him, he was still going to check for himself regardless.

Marie seemed somewhat caught off guard by Dr. Strothe's sudden question, nearly clear dropping her clip-board right out of her arms in the process of whirling her head around to face him.
"Oh! Um, not that I was aware of sir! Brain activities are normal and all subjects are in heavy REM sleep." She informed, holding back the urge to suddenly give the Doctor a salute if only because she caught herself at the last moment. He was truly an intimidating man however, especially with those piercing grey eyes. It was only natural to her that she act as if she were skittering round a sergeant or something on that level.

Steven simply 'hmphed' as he confirmed her analysis for himself and found it to be correct, moving away from the computer to sit on a small computer chair in order to continue monitoring the specimens. Not that there was much work to it, given they near always remained in REM sleep, occasionally slipping into NREM sleep only to slip into the former shortly after once again.
Such work didn't become of him and he was growing ever more tired with his 'job' with every passing day. To say he was bitter was an understatement, given his circumstances. He was souly responsible for one of the biggest breakthroughs in biological warfare, medicinal advancements AND genetic research in history, and he was stuck guarding the' after effects' of his breakthrough like some glorified babysitter.
It was safe to say Steven Strothe was a spited man, being left to clean up the mess that he'd been ordered to create, not to mention all those damn rumours going around of how he'd exactly clawed his way to semi-fame.

Marie glanced over at her tutor as she heard him snort rather loudly from his terminal, raising her eyebrows for a few seconds before going back to her research... which really didn't consist of much to be perfectly honest. Then again, she felt lucky to even be a small part of this project knowing just how big it was, given she was only a trainee who had jumped at the chance of studying under Dr. Strothe himself..! Not that the past year or so had been what she had expected upon first receiving the offer, but she still cherished it none the less. He was an idol..! Well. Her idol, maybe, but she'd never tell him that.

Despite his bitter attitude at times, she still found him simply amazing. She'd already admired him, but after discovering his latest breakthrough, she'd devoted herself to always supporting him and his work if he ever needed it. The man was a genius. A legend. She was lucky to be working with him, lucky to be in the same organisation with him.. Lucky to be in the same room, the same-
"Marie! Snap out of it, dammed girl."
A sharp voice grumbling towards her caused her current train of thought to rather spectacularly derail, her mouth hanging open in a rather gormless manor due to her abrupt halt of thinking. Her 'idol' eyed her questioningly before sighing exasperatedly.
"There's some readings on Seven that are a little odd. Nothing we haven't seen before, but I want you to go do a visual check. Take the sedative, though I'll doubt you'll need it."

She was waved off without so much more as a titbit of information, though was oddly excited. The Doctor had never asked her to personally foresee to an anomaly before, not that they ever yielded anything exciting or different from the usual pattern. But it meant that he was handing her more responsibility, testing her skills...
"He's starting to notice me!" She beamed, hastily a vial of sedative liquid in a small container from a nearby storage freezer.
It sloshed in her hands pocketed it in her lab coat, quickly swiping her cardkey in order to access the room adjacent to the lab she and the doctor were in, doors opening swiftly to a rather dark and metallic room.

It was, at first glance, empty bar the many long metal rows of locker like objects, though Marie knew better. It took her a few moments of wandering though the dimly lit and defiantly chilly room before locating No. Fifty Seven, brushing at the metal locker door in order to confirm the engraved number on the front. She tapped impatiently at a small interface located on the front, a miniature computer giving her all kinds of readings before pressing a large rectangular one.
Instantly, the chill in the room began to increase as the metallic door began to slide upwards and into the uppermost of the container leaving her glancing through a ridiculously thick piece of glass at a very distorted figure suspended in liquid and hooked up to many lines and function supports either to keep the specimen alive or in a state of permanent sleep. Marie glanced at her idols wondrous creature, one of nearly a hundred living specimens.

A human frame with clearly distorted arms, a face with scales protruding through skin, enormous tail erupting from the spine and coiling around the obviously male specimen. It was amazing that the doctor had created these things out of mere stem cells, creating the way for the future. These sleeping creatures were, combined, basically the factories of cures for nearly any potential dieses in the world and had the ground footing to save the entire human race one day if the need came.
Pokémon, one of the native species to the world had proven to be extremely resilient and surprisingly advanced in terms of biology with their unique DNA patterns enabling them to withstand far more than the average human while often sacrificing the intelligence of a dominant species. They had been around on the planet far longer than human beings had however as discoveries from carbon dating and remains uncovered had proven a few years ago, not to mention more importantly, lived through epidemics that had wiped out entire other species.
If only there was a way to harness the pokemon's hardyness for the benefit of the human race...
And now there was. A living specimen that carried enhanced cells of Pokémon DNA that, in the wide range of specimens they had, were compatible with near any human for immunisation.

Or at least, one day they would be. As for now, all these wonderful lifesavers were still under rocket property and therefore under lock and key, or in this case, indefinite neuro-hibernation until tests could be made, contracts signed and the I's dotted as it were. Still, it was truly amazing what Dr. Strothe had managed to create, Marie sighing dreamily just thinking about it... at least, until she remembered what she was supposed to be doing.
She checked the neurological outputs for the individual specimen once more, trying to detect anything unusual, but nothing striking her as odd other than a slight difference in the usual cycles of REM's and accelerated heart rate.

She felt like an idiot upon figuring it out, a light bulb popping on in her cheery head as she bunched in the Doctors number on her portable phone. He answered instantly, as expected of him and mumbled gruffly down the phone just what exactly she wanted.
"The fluctuations on No. Fifty Seven, Sir. Another nightmare." She informed an oddly happy tone to her voice. Steven merely grumbled momentarily to himself at this information, unsure what quite to make of it.
"The seventh one this month..." He noted to himself, though brushed it aside as he once again came up with no answers for the odd occurrence.
"Marie. Administer some relaxant into Fifty seven's internal pump then get back here, there's some paperwork with your name on."
"Ah uh... Yes sir..." Marie mumbled, knowing full well that her name may of just changed to Steven Strothe in terms of paperwork.