Curse of the Lucario chap 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. And I don't claim to own Pokemon, only the characters that I have invented. Short and sweet.

This chapter is dedicated to Shade Mutatin. It's purpose is to give you an insight into his character and explain how he got his, "condition." It is written in a sort of summarized form of his life, so it will be lacking in details in a lot of places. While this chapter is very useful in figuring out the "why" in Shade's actions, it is not super important. But either way, enjoy.

Chapter 11

I was at the age of six when the possibility for Pokemon gene implants in human beings was discovered. Much research was put into the topic until the WPO discovered the experiments that had been planned, but not yet put into affect. The WPO was not pleased and made all forms of the research illegal.

My father, a wealthy businessman at the time, had to go into hiding because he funded the highly illegal research. He took me, his only living family, with him into hiding for two years. We were constantly moving, never staying in one place for more than a week. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father held it against me every day of my life.

We were in a hotel in some region that we had come to a day earlier when my father received a call on his untraceable phone. He spoke with someone for about five minutes, and hung up.

He then turned to me and said, "Shade. We are leaving soon. Pack up your things."

Even at the age of eight, I knew better than to argue or ask why. I just did it. In less than an hour, we had boarded a plane to some unknown destination.

Once we arrived, my father took me to this large building that was completely smooth. It had no windows or doors that I could see and was pure grey.

My father put his hand on my head and messed up my pure black hair in a affectionate fatherly display with a smile on his face. This confused and scared me because he had never, not once, done this before.

We stood there, in front of the faceless building, until a man came out of it. I'm not sure how he exited the building, or even how we got in, but the man took me and my father to a room with a desk and three chairs in it and left us there.

We sat in the chairs and waited. The chair was uncomfortable, but I knew better than to complain. Sometime later, a man came in and greeted my father with a smile and a handshake.

"Devan Mutatin, it has been too long since I've seen you. Almost two full years as I recall, how time flies."

He turned his attention to me and I had the urge to cringe and hide. "And you must be Shade. We are going to be seeing each other a lot for the next few years."

The way he said that gave me the urge to run, to run away from this man with that evil greedy gleam in his eye and never look back.

But it was too late. I was in the devils domain. And you can't escape hell.

At first, they examined me. Forced me to do different exercises while they recorded the results. Forced me to stretch in ways that made me wish that my bones were made of rubber so it wouldn't be so painful. They stuck nettles into me that were filled with different things.

They took blood. A lot of blood. Sometimes enough to make me very, very sleepy. The place where I slept was a glorified cage. It was a pale white room with a bed, a door, and a chair. Not a spot of color aside from white. Not a window. Not a fan.

Nothing.

All throughout this, my father only saw me when I passed by him in the hallways or when he gave me orders.

For four years I was treated like that. In four years, the sun only touched my skin seventeen times. Each time, I remember it fondly. Like a kiss from a lover. I remember each time like it was imprinted on my brain. Fifteen of those times was when we were switching facilities when the WPO was close to finding us. The other two were times when I attempted to escape. They hurt me for that. They hurt me bad enough that I formed a shell against the world. I cared for no one. Because no one cared for me.

I was twelve when they finally cracked the code. Something about figuring out how to input the Pokemon bio-information into human DNA. Whatever it was, they decided it was finally time to test it out.

They put me to sleep for the procedure, so I didn't feel anything.

When I woke up, I discovered I was in a room that I hadn't seen before. It was actually interesting. There were books on the walls and my bed was an aqua-blue color. I saw that there was a window in the room and I froze in utter shock.

I seriously contemplated the possibility of me having died and gone on to a better place. After almost an hour of nothing happening, I decided to break one of the rules I had created for myself.

To hope.

I got off the bed and went over to the window. The sunlight that glowed through the glass gleamed off my pale pasty white skin. I saw the sun coming up and I basked in its glory. I saw that I was only about fifty years away from a white sand shoreline that was gently buffeted by waves of different sizes.

I saw palm trees waving around in the wind, so I assumed I was on some sort of island.

I don't know how long I stood there, not thinking, not doing anything, before I realized something.

Where my life had been dictated by rules and confinement for the entirety of the twelve years, now, I had some choice.

I grabbed onto that choice eagerly, and sat down on a nice little chair that was there and picked out a book that was on a shelf. I sat and read that book for so long. I never had been alone that long before.

Sometime later, I heard a knock on the door to my room and I frantically put the book back onto the shelf and got back into the bed.

Someone knocked on the door again and I wondered why they did not come in. I had never had that kind of pleasantry offered to me before in any of the facilities.

The door opened and my father walked in. "Hey sport," (sport?), "how are you feeling?"

I didn't respond, I didn't know the correct way to respond. He had never asked me this before, so I didn't know the correct way to speak without angering him.

My father messed with my hair and said, "well anyways. It's over. The procedure is done and we can see what happens."

I had to speak then. "What happens? What does that mean?"

I cringed, expecting an angry response, but my father answered in an even tone with a small smile.

"We can see how the procedure progresses. And what traits develop. But let's not discuss that now, let's go to the beach."

At the time, I didn't know what he meant and I didn't want to ask and possibly lose the chance to actually go outside. But a month later, it became obvious.

I was changing. The changes were small, but for someone who has lived a life of no change unless dictated by others, the changes were blatantly obvious.

At first, I hid the small scales that grew on my legs and arms. But because we lived on an island and I went swimming often, my father noticed. Especially when they began to grow on my face.

He began recording the places my scales appeared in, and for a full year, I continued to change.

I searched often for a boat, or something to get off the island with. But it quickly became apparent that whenever supplies was delivered, it was through some method that I never discovered.

My father had a laptop that he used to communicate with his superiors. One day, he got a message and came to my room with the biggest smile he had ever shown me.

"We are leaving tomorrow, the experiment has been declared a success and they are sending someone for us."

He left to go do something, probably go to bed so the next day would come sooner. I went to bed, but instead of sleeping, I laid there for the entire time, unable to sleep.

At one point in the night, I had gotten up and stared outside, admiring the moonlight as it reflected off the water.

I looked at my arm, at the multitude of orange scales that covered my skin, and for the first time, hated someone. While I had hated the scientists who forced this upon me, and the guards who constantly watched me at the facilities, they were forced to do their jobs. The one who I really blamed everything on was my father. He forced everything on me.

At some point, as I let that feeling fester deep within me, I realized that I had fewer scales on my arm than a moment before.

At the realization, I stared at my arm and saw perfectly smooth skin that was only slightly dotted with the hated orange scales.

But, as I watched, the scales reappeared on my skin like before. I checked on my legs, where the scales were most thick, and saw that they were popping back up after apparently disappearing.

Once they all appeared again, I noticed I did not feel the same way I had a minute or two before. I wasn't full of hatred for my father.

But even as I realized it, the feeling came back and I saw my scales begin to disappear again.

I held onto that feeling as long as possible and saw all the scales completely vanish from my body. I was normal.

For the rest of the night, I experimented with controlling my newfound ability to make the scales vanish. I figured out a way to make all scales vanish into my skin by triggering an odd feeling in my head that I had associated the trigger with.

By morning, I was a combination of completely exhausted and utterly hyperactive. I decided to hide my skill from my father. He would have just recorded it and made me do it again and again.

No. For the first time in my life, at the age of thirteen, I held a secret from my father.

When my father woke, he led me outside to a particular palm tree that I had passed by a hundred times before.

That morning, a man stood under it. He was accompanied by a Pokemon that I recognized as an Abra.

My father went to the man and shook his hand. "Hello. I assume you are our ride to headquarters?"

Headquarters? I expected some other facility where I would have been studied again.

The man nodded and said, "yes. Abra, use Teleport." The Abra raised its arms and we were surrounded by a white light for a few seconds before it faded and I saw we were in front of some giant building with an odd symbol on its front. It looked like a river filled with strange debris in the shape of an S.

"What's that, dad?", I asked him while pointing at the symbol on the front of the building.

He glanced at the symbol and only said two words, "Team Styx."

I wanted to ask what that was, but he hurried me along and I couldn't ask anything. The few people we passed by always stared at me, at my scales. It made me very self conscience and I kept my eyes to the ground.

My father led me through the building to a door that he shoved me through after saying, "you will behave. And do whatever they ask." It was not a request.

I stumbled as I crossed the threshold, but a strong pair of hands caught me and held me steady.

"Sorry, please don't get angry." I cringed and kept my eyes on the ground as I waited for the inevitable punishment.

A soft female voice responded, "it's no problem. Just try not to trip again."

I froze and wasn't sure what to say. I hadn't spoken to a girl in, well, ever. Literally, the last time I had spoken to the other gender was when I was six. There were some women in the facilities, but I never had to speak to any of them.

I lowered my head some more and said, "I'll try."

She laughed softly and I wasn't sure how to react. Thankfully, she said, "here, come with me. You're bound to be hungry."

Just as she said that, my stomach rumbled loudly and I remembered we hadn't bothered to eat breakfast before leaving the island. And from a nearby clock, it was around lunchtime here.

She laughed and grabbed my hand. "Guess I was right. Come on," she tugged on my hand and I walked so as to not be dragged along.

As she led the way, I glanced up and saw that she was wearing a shirt with that odd symbol on it. She had long brown hair that was straight and extended beyond her shoulders. She was kind of pretty in my opinion, but considering I had little experience with women, my opinion was of little value in that area.

She led me through a few different hallways, and even though this area looked like it was traveled often, we met no one.

After traversing the hallways for five more minutes, she brought me into a room that she unlocked with a key card that hung from around her neck.

The first room contained a couch that faced a large tv and a window that faced outside towards a large expanse of woodland. It also had two separate bookshelves with more books than I had ever read. It was quite beautiful in my eyes. I saw two doors in the room that led to other rooms.

"Just relax on the couch while I grab us something to eat, I didn't have any breakfast so I'm hungry as well. And the name is Linda." She slipped the tv remote into my hand and left the room.

I just stared at the remote. While I understood the basic principle in using remotes to change channels and turn on the tv, I never really needed the knowledge. I never had a tv in the facilities and there wasn't one on the island. I vaguely remember watching cartoons when I was eight, but no specifics.

So instead of turning it on and surfing around, I set the remote down and sat back on the couch.

A few minutes later, Linda came back with two bowls of something steaming.

"Here, these aught to fill you up." She handed me my bowl and a spoon.

She started to eat, so I ate and was surprised at the pleasant taste of the simple meal that she had prepared in such a short time.

We ate in relative silence, the only sound being the tapping of the metal spoons against the glass bowls.

Once we finished, she came back into the room and waved for me to follow her, "come on. I've been told to bring you to some hot shot scientist a few floors above us."

I felt a spear of fear jab through me and only barely stopped myself from showing it. Instead, I got up and followed her as she led me to an elevator.

Linda hit the button, and as we waited, I realized something.

"You've acted as though you haven't even noticed my scales. Why?"

She flinched at the question and responded, "because I knew they must be a very big burden. And I didn't wish to make it any heavier."

Her words and her consideration confused me, and again, I didn't know what to say. So I stayed silent throughout the elevator ride.

When the doors opened, she gently nudged me forward and led me down a hallway.

As we passed several doors, I heard a small sound from one of them that sparked my curiosity. But before I could act on it, the door that the sound originated from burst open and a guy that was about sixteen stepped out of it while moaning and covering his face with his hands.

Linda grabbed my shoulder to stop me and I stared at the guy as some man in a labcoat came out of the room and grabbed his arm. My nervousness has evaporated at this point, replaced by intense curiosity.

"Kinny. Let's get you back in there. Yes, this way." He led the poor guy gently back into the room, and when he started to close the door, I saw the guy lower his hands and I gasped in shock.

He had purple scales and two huge canines that extended almost to his chin. It looked like he was part Arbok, the snake Pokemon.

I was not alone. There was another. And he was only a few yards away from me!

"Hey wait!" I moved forward to go into the room, to see if I was right. To see if that guy had suffered the life I had suffered.

To share my pain with another. Something that had never been within my reach before.

But when I tried, Linda clenched my shoulder firmly and led me down the hallway.

"How many are there? Like me?" I was slightly in shock, but had enough sense to question her.

"I don't know. I've never been this far into the facility. I've just been ordered to take care of you for today and bring you wherever they tell me to bring you. Here we are," she indicated a door and I knocked on it.

"Come on in," a man's voice comes from the other side and I flinch from the nervousness that had risen again.

Linda opened the door and gently nudged me in while staying in the hallway. The room was pretty small, only big enough for a table, a desk, and a chair.

"I suppose you are Mutatin's kid, right?" I saw that there was a man with his back turned to me who was looking out of a window. He was the source of the question.

"Yes sir." I barely kept the fear from showing in my tone.

He turned around and I saw that he was pretty young, only in his twenties at least. He had a light brown goatee going on and he sported a pair of glasses. Frankly, the guy seemed pretty nice, when you looked at him. He looked like someone who would enjoy a long physiological conversation about the universe over playing any sort of sport.

"Well I've heard about you. You're kind of a celebrity around here. Please, take a seat." He indicated a doctor's table that had the usual paper on it that would crackle at every twitch.

I went to the table and sat myself onto the paper while trying to make as little noise as possible. Meanwhile, the man had turned to read something on a clipboard that he had in one hand.

"Do you know how you got to be like that? How they were able to change your DNA so that you began showing Pokemon-like traits?" He took his eyes off the clipboard to ask this and he locked them onto me.

"No sir. I tried asking once, but they didn't tell me." I had tried, once. But all it got me was a glare and I didn't try again. I knew it would accomplish nothing.

"Well it's actually very simple for something so complicated," he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, as though he was about to give a speech. "When they put the traits into your DNA, they made it so that your DNA would accept the new code pretty easily. The hard part was making it so that it kept doing it, over and over again. So they manipulated it into spreading, like a virus. Once enough of your replicating cells had been changed to produce the Pokemon traits, they began replicating at a extremely fast rate. Much faster than normal cells."

He took a moment to pause and glance out the window before continuing. "Once all that fun stuff was over, all that was left was to watch and see what happened. So that's what we did. After awhile, signs finally started to show. They became more rapid for a short while, but then it slows down and the cells begin to replicate at a slower rate. Not stopping, but not increasing either. So there is no more noticeable change."

He paused for a breath, and I asked, "excuse me, but why are you telling me any of this?"

He stopped and seemed to think for a moment. "I really don't know. I guess I thought I might as well tell you. Just so you would know," he seemed to shake his head sadly and said, "they decided that the time it took for the cells to replicate took too long. We developed a kind of catalyst that increases cells production exponentially. I've been ordered to administer it to you."

My stomach dropped as he grabbed a nettle out of a briefcase and gently grabbed my arm.

"Hold still. This is going to sting," he says as he injected me with whatever was in the nettle. Once he injected me with that, "catalyst", he had Linda take me back to the room that she had brought be to before.

Whatever was in that injection, it made me very sleepy. I only just made it to the bed before I collapsed.

When I woke up, it was instantly apparent that the catalyst had been a resounding success. My arms and legs had fully succumbed to the orange scales, leaving no space for my old skin to inhabit. My chest was covered as well. My face, thankfully, only had a few extra scales. But my hands... they were pale white and very sharp. They were also very hard, like bone. My feet had been spared and had no new scales.

All of this I discovered within seconds of regaining consciousness. Once I rolled over onto my back, I discovered a sharp pain that originated from the center of my back.

I immediately sat up on the bed and discovered that my shirt was being pulled from behind by something that was connected to my back. In a surge of revelation, I began muttering, "no no no no. Please don't be that!"

I ripped off my shirt, literally. (My claw-like hands ripped through my shirt easily.) And I positioned myself in front of a mirror that was just a little taller than me.

I stared into the mirror, wishing the sight I saw was false. I now had two large appendages that were attached in between my shoulder blades. They were blue wings with orange bones holding the flesh in place. As I stared at them, I felt a new feeling in my mind. Without conscious effort, I made one wing twitch a little.

It felt a little like using your brain to control strings that you couldn't see. Over the thirty minutes that I stood in front of the mirror, I figured out how to make the wings fold seamlessly against my back, and how to make them extend to their full length.

I tried using my trigger to make the wings disappear. While almost all of my scales vanished from my legs and arms, and all of them disappeared from my face, the wings did not become even slightly less noticeable. They were there to stay, and I had no control over that. Though my fingers became normal when I tried the trigger, thankfully.

I let the trigger go and allowed all the scales to return along with my bony fingers. I noticed that my eyes had changed as well. They were a red color when I wasn't using the trigger.

As all my scales, all the hated scales, reappeared, I heard a knock from the door.

"Come in," I said in a monotone as I sat on the bed, letting my hands hang between my legs.

The door opened to reveal Linda, not who I was expecting.

She flinched at my appearance and sat on the bed next to me. She didn't say anything, she just sat there. A silent companion.

Surprisingly, her very presence seemed to help. After awhile, I stood up and said, "What now?"

She stood up and walked over to the door. "I was told to bring you to the director the moment you woke up."

I glanced at a clock and saw that she had taken up at least twenty minutes comforting me.

She noticed my look and shrugged. "He doesn't know when you woke up. Let's get going."

I walked out of the room, not bothering to grab my shirt. Nothing would hide the wings efficiently and my shirt really wasn't up to the task of covering up the old me.

Linda took me to the elevator and used a shiny key card on a slot in the elevator. The elevator rose and Linda said, "I've never actually met the man, but I've heard he's none too pleasant. Please be careful not to make him angry, he's an especially cruel man. From what I've heard, at least."

"Thanks," I say gratefully. "I just hope this is the end of it."

I could tell she wanted to say something comforting, but she probably didn't know what to say.

A minute later, the elevator door opened and I stepped out into a lavish room that had a woman behind a desk who was typing away on a computer. The room was full of artwork and very expensive looking furniture. I made sure "accidentally" leave a scratch along a chairs armrest that I passed by.

We went to the secretaries desk and she glanced up from her computer. To her credit, her only reaction to me was a slight widening of the eyes. She pressed a button on a little speaker and said, "sir, the guests you were expecting are here."

She removed her finger and a man's voice came through a second later. "Send him in."

Linda started to come through the door with me, but the secretary said, "you can't go in there with him. Rules. Sorry."

Linda looked ready to protest, but I put my hand on her arm and said, "it's fine. Just wait out here for me."

She nodded and took a seat on a nearby chair, looking strangely worried.

I went through the door and saw a man in a room darkened to almost pitch black. The only sources of light was a small lamp on his desk and the light from the room I had come from.

"Come in. I've been waiting," the man orders and I close the door behind me, cutting off all the light that the door supplied and plunging myself into almost complete darkness.

Whew! Longest chapter yet and it wasn't even in Jason's POV. I think I did pretty good on this, but please review and tell me your opinion. I'm sorry for taking so long to write this up and post it. I had to put myself in a different state of mind when I was thinking up Shades past. My friends actually thought something was wrong for almost two days straight when I tried to put myself in Shade's state of mind. :P

Much thanks to Alienschnitzelblast for this epic OC. From his suggestion, this entire chapter was spawned.

Please PM me or put in a review the kind of Pokemon you want to see (up to gen 4 please). Or send in suggestions for an OC via PM. They are very welcome.