Wrath pushed the door open, leading Muffin, Bolt, and Kiki. The inner walls of the Pokémon Lab were a royal blue, and decorated with what looked like artwork of Pokémon or old maps. There were several cushioned benches with glass tables for lounging. The Pokémon at the wooden counter was what appeared to be a gardevoir fused with a serperior; his skirt was pulled back behind him and was shaped into a leafy tail, and a leafy collar rose behind his head.
Muffin noticed another fusion walking up to them; this one was a charmander fused with a gible. He looked mostly like a charmander, except he had a fin on his back, and his lower jaw connected with his stomach, which was a bright yellow. Muffin could tell he was shiny because of his more brightly colored skin and the light blue sparkles that floated around him.
"Wrath, where have you been?" he asked. "It's been four days since you left. Mom has been worried."
"I know, Fang, I'm really sorry," Wrath replied. "I would have made it back sooner, but there was this barbaracle, and he wouldn't let me into the city. He said that there was a blackout. I could tell he was lying, but I still don't understand why he didn't want me going in there."
"If that was the case, then why did no one else fight back?"
While Wrath explained his absence to Fang, Muffin decided to check out the artwork on the wall. There was a painting of an audino, as well as various anatomical sketches of other Pokémon, most of which were of ancient Pokémon. There were some he recognized, such as a lileep and omanyte. There were various lines pointing to different body parts with notes written next to them.
What he was really interested in, however, was a sketch of a slugma which had a photograph of the Pokémon next to it. He read some of the notes written next to the image.
~ APPARENTLY CALLED SLUGMA
~ MOST LIKELY FIRE-TYPE
Muffin twitched his ears. 'Apparently'? 'Most likely'? It wasn't like slugma were uncommon; they could be found in most regions. Why did this drawing treat it as though it were some new discovery of a Pokémon?
He noticed part of a note on the bottom corner of the drawing, which was mostly covered by the photograph.
FC
Curious to see what the note said, he stood upon the arm of one of the benches and leaned against the wall. Stretching as far as possible to try and support himself, he carefully reached one paw over to try and move the photograph out of the way.
He gently bent one corner of the photograph and began to read. He managed to read most of the note; however, before he could read the full thing, his paw slipped on the wall and the eevee fell forward onto the tiled floor. He got up and swiftly looked around to make sure no one noticed. He continued to look up at the drawing. Before he could think about the note, he heard Bolt calling to him.
"Are you coming?"
Muffin looked over to her. "O-Oh. Yeah." He gave one last glance at the drawing, starting to feel concerned, and joined the other three Pokémon by the elevator's entrance. Wrath pressed the elevator button and the elevator began to ascend.
The elevator reached the second floor, and Wrath, Bolt, Kiki, and Muffin left the elevator. The second floor was filled to the brim with monitors and various types of machines that reminded Muffin too much of the lab he had been born in. There was a small battle between two fusions going on in a small corner of the room.
If one thing was becoming more clear with each passing second, it was that nearly all of the Pokémon in this lab were fusions. Fang was a fusion, the Pokémon at the counter had been a fusion, all of the scientists that could be seen were fusions, Wrath was a fusion.
Muffin decided to stay behind near the elevator; he was uncomfortable with being around such complex machinery. He used the time by himself to think about some things. Based on the lack of questions from Bolt, he assumed she didn't see him staying behind.
He wondered why so many Pokémon had been fused in the first place. The article he had read in Santalune City gave no insight on the root cause of this. Was it simply a result of a dumb idea suddenly becoming a trend? Or were they forced into becoming a fusion by Humans, just like he had been forced into learning TMs that he was incompatible with?
Muffin believed the latter option more. Sure, he thought that many other Pokémon were dumb, but he didn't believe they were so dumb as to willingly do something that had potentially permanent consequences.
He was starting to feel bad for them all. He knew more or less what it was like to go through gene-splicing experiments. After all, it was the only way his old Human owner could make him compatible with the various TMs; without the fire sac from a torracat inside of him, there was no way for a plain eevee like him to learn Fire-type moves like Flamethrower.
His mind began racing. Fire types…
Muffin again thought about slugma. In particular, his mind went to the note that was covered up by the photograph.
FOSSIL: UNDISCOV
Why would slugma have a fossil? Muffin wondered. He had seen slugma and magcargo a little over four years ago. Or, at least, it felt like four years ago to him. Then again, a lot of things seemed to change from four years ago in what seemed like an infinitely small fraction of a second.
Okay, let's assume it wasn't just a dumb conspiracy theory, and slugma and magcargo did go extinct, he thought. Wouldn't it take longer than a year for a species to go extinct, though? Either my perception of time is off or they aren't actually extinct like the drawing implied.
But then again, this was a professor's lab. It was highly unlikely that something as big as this would be displayed in a laboratory if it was inaccurate or incorrect.
Muffin was starting to become confused. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that they were extinct. Yet, things didn't seem to add up. Wouldn't there have been major efforts to protect them if they had even come close to being endangered?
Before he could think further on the topic, Bolt, Kiki, and Wrath came back with a fourth Pokémon by their side.
"Oh, hey, Muffin," Bolt greeted. "What were you doing over here by the elevator?"
Muffin turned toward her and swiftly pushed his bangs to the side. "Wh-what? Nothing, I just…" The eevee hesitated, not wanting to explain his discomfort around machinery to Bolt. If anything, it would just make her ask more questions. He shook his head. "I'm just not interested in this sort of stuff, so I-I… figured I'd wait until you guys were done looking around."
Bolt tilted her head. "Is there someth-"
"No, I'm fine, let's just move on," he interrupted. "Now then, I don't see the professor with you, so I assume she's somewhere else in the building."
Uh…" Bolt paused, as though considering to ask another question. "Yeah. She's up on the third floor. Oh, this is Jewel, by the way."
The unfamiliar Pokémon nodded to Muffin, and he nodded back. She appeared to be a fusion between a bulbasaur and milotic; she was mostly like a bulbasaur except she had a slimmer build, and she had the long red bangs and intricately designed tail of a milotic. Additionally, a red and green scarf was wrapped around her neck, and she had blue markings around her eyes that were akin to eyeshadow.
The five Pokémon entered the elevator and went to the third floor. The room they entered had two bookshelves lined with large books with titles like "The Balance of Unova", "Necrozma: The Prism of Alola", and "The Ancestor of Infinity: The Elusive Mew". There were two small desks with a computer on each desk; one computer was being used by four members of exeggcute while the remaining two worked together to skim through a book.
In the corner sat a fusion between a squirtle and larvitar. Like larvitar, he had the holes in his shell, a red striped bottom shell, tail, head crest, and eye markings. Otherwise, he was just like a regular squirtle.
"Hey, Larry," Wrath greeted the fellow fusion. "Is Professor Hakea up here?"
The fusion looked over. "Oh, hey, Wrath. Good to see you back. Also, Hakea is in her cubicle if you're looking for her."
"Great, thanks."
Kiki turned her head. Next to Larry was a weavile with a notebook and pen in his claws, and light blue glasses on his face (which, Muffin noticed upon closer inspection, had no lenses). "Who's that?"
Wrath looked over. "Uh, I don't know him either."
The weavile shook his head. "Don't mind me. I'm just doing an interview. Fusion is a big topic of interest for the group I'm in, so getting as much knowledge about it as I can is a necessity. I probably won't be here much longer, so you don't need to worry about me."
Muffin opened his mouth to comment, but was interrupted by Bolt.
"So anyway," she said, "can we meet Professor Hakea now? That's the main reason we came here, right? I can't wait to meet her!"
Wrath nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you're. She should be right behind here," he said, walking across the room and through the opening in the blue room divider, followed by Bolt, Jewel, and Muffin. Kiki gave one last glance at the weavile before catching up with them.
In this half of the room, several framed pictures of various Pokémon were hung up on the wall- some were paintings or pencil drawings, some were pages torn from old books, and some were photographs. There was a nicely carved wooden desk at the end of a room with several computers resting atop it. A garchomp, which sat behind the desk, looked up from the computer screens.
"Oh, welcome back, Wrath." The garchomp got up from her desk and walked up to the five Pokémon. "I see you've brought some guests!"
"Yes, they've been excited to meet you. Bolt, Kiki, Muffin…" Wrath grinned. "I'd like you all to meet Professor Hakea."
In the first part of this multi-part chapter, I said that this would only be two parts. I was wrong. Because of how long things got, I decided to split it into three parts. Like I said before, just pretend it's just one chapter.
I suppose it makes sense, with this being such an important chapter in the story. It's after this three-part chapter where things really kick off, so please bear with me.
