Experiment 105

Chapter 7

Hey guys, what's up? It's me again, with the next chapter. Well, after dishing out thanks. So let's get to it! Thanks to Parthena C, Green Rune, Anonymous Ghost, jayfeather12345, and trent richins for reviewing, trent richins for following me, and trent richins for favoriting me.

Reply to Reviews-

Parthena C: Yep, the experiment did go wrong. Thanks for your words of praise, though I'm afraid I can't take all the credit for the idea of a shape-shifting human. I was actually inspired by my friend Anonymous Ghost, also known as Spectre.

trent richins: Proton will play a major part in this story, so I'm glad you like what I am doing with him and are staring to like him yourself. It makes me feel so happy because I know I'm doing something right! Anyway, I do plan on doing stuff (sorry for being so vague, but I don't like to give out spoilers) with 105's, or Shiya's (whatever you want to call her now that you know her real name) Pokemon team.

Green Rune: Ah, yeah I figured, but a number decline always worries me. Unless it's something like the price of gas. :) Anyway, I'm so glad that your enjoying the characters. I've gotten rather attached to them actually. AS for how I heard of the Executives, well I have the Soul Silver game, and I currently read the manga. Unfortunately, if I want to meet any of them again in the game, I have to restart. And for the manga, I have to reread. Anyone else wish they'd appear in the show?

Anonymous Ghost: Aww, you're making me blush. Honestly, Proton's personality has always kinda confused me. We don't see much of him in the game, or the manga. In my opinion anyway. So I've tried to take those two personalities, mix them together, then add my own little bits. I'm glad it's working out! As for his words to Shiya (you can call her 105 or Shiya, depending on what you prefer) that was both Proton being Proton and him masking his feelings. I had fun writing the Slowpoke tail scene. And actually, Slowpoke tail is actually a much-liked delicacy. I'm glad you liked that kiss. As I've already told you, I did go back and change my wording at the end of the last chapter. As for what's in store, you'll just have to read! ;)

jayfeather12345: There's a reason that she broke free so soon after the first time, and why she hasn't fallen under its control again. I believe this chapter should explain that.

It had been about three days since I nearly died and then kissed Proton. I say about because there was no clock in my damn bedroom and I couldn't leave the room. Every time he left, Proton locked the door behind him. Apparently it was to protect me, since I was supposed to be dead. It drove me crazy. Whenever he could, he'd bring me food or keep me company in whatever way he felt like at that time. But what I really wanted was a change in clothes (seriously, I'd been wearing the same thing since that stupid Persian ripped me to shreds) and a way out. Out, out, out. That one word was constantly beating at my thoughts.

When Proton wasn't around, there was nothing for me to do but practice shifting or lay on my bed and remember. I remembered more of who I had been before every minute I laid around remembering. I had been a Pokemon Trainer, with only those six. The Weavile, Beedrill, oddly colored Roserade, Blastoise, Gallade, and Salamance. I had never actually received a starter Pokemon. Which confused me, because Blastoise was the final evolution of Squirtle, the Water Type starter for Kanto. I didn't yet know where I'd gotten any of my Pokemon, but I was very certain that none of them had been given to me by a Professor. I didn't know anything yet about a family, or a childhood, but I did have a vague recollection of being from somewhere in Kalos.

I couldn't always remember though, when I was laying on the bed trying to do just that. Those were the most boring times. The times I found myself wishing for Proton to come back, or thinking about our kiss, or about what he'd told me, about how I wasn't really human anymore or that I was just a piece of property. That always left me in a foul mood, even thinking about the kiss or wanting him to come back. Because I didn't understand why, yet at the same time I did, and I didn't know what to think of it.

At least my boring, boring time wasn't all bad. The more time I spent without the serum controlling me, the more hidden I though my nasty streak was. Which I didn't mind too much. Something told me I was definitely not so vicious before I'd been taken. Oh, that's another thing. I wanted to know how I'd ended up in the lab. But that was always the most elusive memory. Probably because that was the one I wanted to find the most. That sounded about right. Though while I was rather content with how I was changing for the better, in my opinion anyways, whenever Proton showed up, he would make some annoying, mocking comment about how he didn't like what I was becoming. Well that made me want to rip his face off, and whenever I informed him so, he'd laugh and reply that it was nice to know I was still nasty and vicious.

My life lately has been an endless, repetitive cycle. You heard about days one to three. But what about the others?

Day Four: practice Transforming, eat whatever Proton brought, talk to Proton, get annoyed by Proton, scowl at the locked door after Proton left, lay on the bed and try to remember, take a nap, try to remember more, practice Transforming, fall asleep.

Day Five: repeat.

Day Six: repeat.

Day Seven: repeat.

Day Eight: no food, no talking, no Proton. Practices, naps, remembering. Wonder why the serum hasn't taken control of me again yet.

Day Nine: repeat, and wonder where the hell Proton is because I am getting very hungry.

Day Ten: If I don't get food soon, I might have to take drastic measures. Where was that damned Executive?

And so now I find myself on day eleven. Starving. Lonely. More bored than ever. Laying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Then...click! I sat bolt upright as I heard the door unlock. Silently watching it open, until the one person I'd been both hoping and dreading to see stepped into the room. Getting off the bed, I stalked over to him, scowling. "Where the hell have you been, Proton?" I demanded. "I don't care how ungrateful this might sound, but I've been starving and lonely and bored!" Waiting for an answer that, hopefully, would not make me attack him, I frowned slightly. Something seemed off. And why did he have a different belt? Were those paintbrushes? No, not paintbrushes. Makeup brushes. My nostrils flared slightly as I found myself sniffing the air, like a Pokemon. Okay, so maybe I wasn't entirely human anymore. "You're not Proton."

Whoever that was looked surprised for a moment before managing to hide the emotion. He opened his mouth to speak.

I cut him off with a growl. "Don't deny it. Your scent is different, and did you really think I'd be stupid enough to not notice that you have a freaking makeup kit?" I Transformed into a Persian, that one having been the first to come to mind, and jumped forward, barely managing to slip out the door before it was slammed shut. In the blink of an eye, I was human again and had turned the lock, trapping whoever was in there. I heard a string of curses as I walked away. Did these people really think I was stupid? Apparently.

I moved through my rooms, pausing in the kitchen to stuff my face (hey, I hadn't eaten in days!) before moving towards the laundry room and changing into a clean leotard. Feeling better, I moved to the door that led out of my rooms, opened it a crack, then Transformed into a Houndoom, nosing the door open further and padding out into the hallway. The empty hallway. That was both good and bad. No one was around to see me, but something must be up, because the hallway had never been empty when I'd been able to actually leave my rooms. But who cared? I was free!

The first image that came to my mind was the first memory I'd had about who I was before: the photo of who I assumed to be me surrounded by those six Pokemon. I had to find them. They were my team.

Slinking through the hallways, sticking close to the walls, I would stop the sniff the base of every door I encountered, trying to find a room that smelled like Pokemon. After about twenty doors, I was beginning to get frustrated. Not a single room that smelled of Pokemon! I was also beginning to worry. Sure, this base was probably really big, but that was too long to go without bumping into anyone. But I kept going. At about door number twenty-five, I paused. There was a Pokemon in there! Wait...no, it was Houndoom. But I knew that Houndoom scent. It was the Houndoom I had taken the form of, though I suppose my scent was still my own. About to move on, I stopped. There were two other scents. Human ones. And one was Proton's.

I crept as close to the door as I dared, trying to listen to what was going on inside.

"-too attached to the experiment." I vaguely knew that voice. It was one of the other Executives, the blue-haired one that owned the Houndoom.

"Well she's dead now. You know Giovanni sent his Persian after her." That was Proton.

"Is it really?"

"She's been dead for over a week. If she were alive, Giovanni would have taken her with him t-" I started slightly as his voice broke off into a strangled noise. My shoulder bumped the door, which hadn't been entirely closed. It opened wider and I caught a glimpse of the blue-haired man's Houndoom with its tail wrapped around Proton's neck before I bolted, knowing I'd been seen.

As I ran, my form changed to that of a Persian - better for stealth - and my ears flicked, listening for any sounds of pursuit. Claws clicking against the floor, running paws, panting. Great, the Houndoom was after me. I began to mentally run through a list of forms I had, in case I couldn't outrun it and had to fight. Settling one a decision, I focused now on running. On finding a way out. As I did, an unexpected thought popped up into my head. At least if it's after me, it's not choking Proton. Well, okay then. The one bright side of this. There! Up ahead, the scent of outside! I put on a burst of speed. Almost at the door that the scent was coming from, I changed to human, reaching for the door handle...then was bowled over by a blur of black and orange fur, gray claws, and flashing teeth.

Struggling, I pushed against the Houndoom, only to stop as I felt its jaws loosely close around my throat. No! I was so close! I think something inside me died a little bit. A second longer and I would have been free.

"So, it's been dead for over a week?" I didn't dare turn my head to look, not with Houndoom close to ripping out my throat. But I heard the blue-haired man's voice, and two sets of approaching footsteps.

"Well apparently not," came Proton's sarcastic reply.

Some sixth sense warned me of danger. Well no duh. Here I was, laying on the floor, a Houndoom ready to kill me. But For some reason, I felt that this danger feeling was not about me. Careful to move only my eyes, I glanced over at Proton. That danger feeling grew a little stronger. Did that mean that Proton was a danger, or Proton was in danger? Any logical person would assume the first, right? Well I wasn't the most logical person in the world. With a growl, I spoke up, "Dammit, you lock me in a room after I was nearly killed by a stupid cat, then leave me there, starving, for over a week?"

I fell quiet as Houndoom growled, putting a little more pressure on my throat. So maybe speaking hadn't been a great idea. As I said, I'm not the most logical person in the world.

"You were supposed to be dead."

"Sorry to disappoint." I stiffened as Houndoom growled again, closing his jaws a little more. It was about to break skin. Time to stop talking? Probably. I heard more footsteps coming up before, on the blue-haired man's command, the Houndoom stepped off of me. Someone grabbed me, hauling me roughly to my feet. I bit my lower lip a little as one of my arms was twisted cruelly behind me. Then something hit me in the back of the head, and I was overtaken by darkness.

Waking up, I immediately groaned. Why was I always waking up to pain? My head was pounding like a drum, and I was pretty sure there was a lump where I'd been hit. My shoulders and wrists ached, for some reason. The second thing I noticed was that it was dark and cold. I couldn't see very well, but from what I could tell, I was in a very small room.

Sighing, I reached back to see if there really was a lump on the back of my head, only to freeze as I heard metal clinking. "Oh...oh no. No, no no!" Well that explained why my shoulders and wrists hurt. Who knew Team Rocket had a tiny, dark room with shackles, like some kind of medieval dungeon? I fell to my knees. Kinda. I got about halfway there before the shackles keeping my arms up jerked me to a stop. I'd almost made it out. My hand had been on the handle of a door leading out. But how could I get free from this? Hanging there limply, I tried not to think about the freedom that had been dangled in my face then snatched away. It made me feel more than a little broken.

Broken? A rebellious growl rose up from my throat and I surged to my feet, straining against the chains. I wasn't broken. I was still free of the serum's control. I'd find a way out of this! Maybe I could change forms? Something small. I Transformed into a Zubat, only to feel the cuffs around my wrists shrink to restrict my wings. Reverting to human, the cuffs expanded with my wrists. Growling again, I tried an Arbok. Well of course the cuffs changed and somehow managed to hold my serpentine body too tightly for me to slither out. Once again returning to my human form, I hung my head. Stupid cuffs. I needed something with a body that wasn't so solid.

Hold on...I had Ditto DNA in me. Shouldn't I be able to take the form of a stupid pink blob? Closing my eyes, I concentrated. Then I hit the floor with an audible plop! Opening my eyes, I glanced at myself to see, sure enough, a stupid pink blob. Before I had a chance to realize it had worked, I was human again, and exhausted. Too much Transforming too soon after waking up from being knocked out. Trying to stay awake, I found myself miserably failing. Then, there was darkness again.

"...get...e cuf...?"

"It...ourceful. Must ha...orm o...tto."

I slowly blinked my eyes open, looking around. The last thing I remembered was Giovanni's Persian attacking me, and my refusal to fight back. But where was I now? I was in a small room. It was cold, and probably would have been dark if the door hadn't been open. Thanks to the light spilling into the room, I could see shackles on the wall behind me. My gaze finally came to rest on the two, no three, figures standing over me. Two people and a feline.

"W-Where...?" Dear Mew, my voice sounded terrible. All raspy and dry. I licked my lips and tried again. "Where am I? How did I get here?" Pushing myself up, so I wasn't laying on the floor I found myself face to face with the feline figure I'd noticed. A Persian. Then one of the humans was . . . "Did I do something wrong? Did I disappoint you?" My gaze lowered to the floor as I shifted uncomfortably, working my way to a kneeling position.

"You should be dead."

"I'm sorry." My reply sounded slightly frightened and very sincere. Something deep inside me reared up with protest at how I was behaving, but it was quickly crushed.

"As imperfect as the serum is, sir, it will work flawlessly so long as it remains near you. I'd say the experiment will remain under the serum's effect about four or five hours out of range as well before the person it was before regains control." The second human was a scientist. "It is under control again. Only, I think, because you are here. Just as certain things trigger the desired emotions because of the serum, your presence triggers the serum's effects. Which means, as long as it remains within a certain radius of you, it will be under control and there will need to be no second assassination attempt."

"It is still flawed."

"W-Well, y-yes, but that f-flaw can be overcome. I-It takes a lot of work t-to create another serum a-and find a suitable t-test subject. There's a high chance of death at the p-point of injection, a-as was demonstrated w-with many other experiments. N-None of the ones that s-survived could successfully complete a T-Transformation, except this one."

"I will keep this one, until you manage to create a better one."

"S-Sir, that might n-not be possible. W-We got very l-lucky, producing this one. I-I'm not sure we c-can replicate the s-serum used with 105, l-let alone create an e-even better one. E-Even if we s-somehow manage to s-succeed, it's very, very unlikely that the r-result will be as vicious as this o-one, and I know y-you p-prefer such a feature."

"Are you incompetent?"

"N-No, sir!" I fought back a sudden surge of amusement at how the scientist's voice rose a few pitches while he shuffled away.

"I disagree."

A snap of fingers sent Persian stalking towards the scientist. A strange scent rolled off him, and my nostrils flared slightly as I took it in. Some instinct told me it was fear. It seemed that the heightened senses I acquired whilst in many of my different Pokemon forms were beginning to carry over to my human form.

"P-Please, n-no!"

My gaze lowered again as I heard Persian move closer and attack. The sound of tearing claws, ripping flesh, and pained noises made me glad I wasn't in that scientist's position.

"105."

"Yes?"

"You are not to leave my side without my permission. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. Get up."

I did. And I waited. It didn't take Persian long to finish, and when the feline returned to Giovanni's side, he turned and left the room. I hurried to follow. In the hallway, I waited again, watching silently as Giovanni directed two Grunts to clean up the mess that had been left in the room before he continued down the hallway. Following once again, I glanced back and made a silent promise to myself: I'd never betray the Rocket Boss with such uselessness like that scientist had.

Okay, be honest...how many of you hate me right now? I bet a lot. I'm sorry, but there is a purpose for her escape attempt failing and her becoming Giovanni's little slave (Geez, I wonder how many times that phrase has been used in this story so far) again. Don't worry, she'll escape eventually! Or maybe not. I can't say because I don't want to spoil anything. Anyway, I know I said I'd be alternating between this story and my other one with posts, but I honestly am feeling the creative flow more for this one right now, so this one will be updated more often. I don't know how long it's going to get, but there is still a while to go. So R&R, and anyone who correctly guesses the name of the "blue-haired man" will get a cookie. Correctly giving me his English name and his Japanese name will earn you the honor of having the next chapter dedicated to you! LDR out!