Taylor Hebert: Pokémon Master

- -Chapter Fourteen: Interlude 2B Amelia Lavere- -

November 16th - 2010

United States, East Coast, Brockton Bay

I looked up to see a brown haired girl with crutches that matched the files provided picture and a large Dog Pokémon. The girl raised her hand in greeting, and as if she was at school said, "Present."

Nodding, I absently waved my free hand at the Pokemon. "I'm ready whenever you are however I am afraid your Pokémon will have to go into its ball or remain here for security and sanitary purposes."

The girl, Taylor, bit at her lip for a moment before nodding. "Be a good boy and stay here for a bit, ok Fluffy?"

Watching them I raised an eyebrow at the name of the Pokemon, but then again I'd named Tweety Tweety. The giant dog simply gave his master a lick before flopping down in a boneless heap on the floor, shifting only a little to get comfortable.

Taking one last look at the Pokemon the girl hobbled toward me and I stepped back to pull the door open for her.

"Thank you."

Simply nodding, I followed after her and stepped up alongside her once through. Looking down I consulted her file one more time, just to be sure and less than a minute later I stopped in front of the doors to my normal treatment rooms.

"There is one thing I would like to ask you before we begin Miss Hebert. Ok?"

Despite the crutches the girl approximated a shrug, "Ask away, and you can call me Taylor."

I smiled thinly, "Alright, Taylor. I can either heal you now, if you wish. Or, if you are willing, you can try a new healing treatment we are currently testing."

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion she rocked back a little. "You want me to volunteer to be a guinea pig?"

"Yes, but not quite. The technology behind the treatment is complete and has been proven safe for human use. However right now we are working on finishing up the clinical trials, that is what you would be volunteering for. And as it is I will still be healing once enough data has been gathered as the treatment usually takes a while."

Still looking uncertain the girl grimaced, "I'm still not sure, I'd rather just get the healing that I payed for."

I nodded and consulted my tablet again, "If that is what you want to do, however; I should also let you know that if you agree to test it the price of the healing for your leg with be refunded and you will get one future freebie healing, no questions asked."

"Wow, all that for just testing this stuff. You guys must be pretty desperate to get it tested aren't you," the girl asked after staring at me for a long moment and I just shrugged.

"Not particularly, it's just an easy way to get a wide variety of injured people to test it on," I admitted. "So what do you want? Do you want to go ahead with me just healing you, or do you want to keep your money and go home with a ticket for another free healing." I was a bit blunt, but I didn't particularly wanting to try and have to sell her on testing out the current formula.

It wasn't as if it was necessary, just convenient, Uber was usually able to take care of half my quota by himself most days after all; what with his 'patients' usually wanting their surgical scars healed as soon as possible. However, ticking off one more person would help finish this sooner rather than later.

"...Sure, I guess I'll be your guinea pig."

Glad she'd made her decision I nodded and once more we began walking down the hall. Apparently not entirely comfortable with being led around, however; Taylor increased her speed in order to hobble along beside me, although the grimace I saw her suppress from the corner of my eye told me it wasn't without cost. "Is your injury acting up?"

Grumbling from the other girl was her only response. Stubborn, but that was rather a common trait among most of the trainers I'd met before; and as if that was all it took my mind began drifting back to The Alley, but I shook my head and focused on my tablet.

"The information you filled out in your appointment form is still accurate, yes? The primary injury area is your ankle?"

"...Yeah, although I've been on it a lot so I think I've aggravated it. Went around the Market and took Fluffy for a run in The Forest."

I made a note for the file made I'd quickly made for her, "That's not a problem."

That said, we walked for a little while longer until we reached the end of the hall. At which point I turned to Taylor, realizing I'd forgotten something. "There is one last thing I need you to do before we proceed," I swiped at my tablet before handing it over to the Trainer. "I am going to need you to sign off on a medical release and non-disclosure agreement form."

Taylor just frowned and looked down at the tablet, "You're making me want to just go with the original option of you just healing me."

Despite her incredulous tone though, the other girl looked down at the tablet and slowly read her way through the forms; her eyes tracking back and forth across the screen. Despite having to wait a few minutes for her to get through it all it was actually a pleasant surprise, considering how few people actually bothered to read it and instead treated it like a simple EULA.

Finally accepting the tablet back once she'd signed her name, I reached out and stuck my hand into the bio-sensor reader; a micro bead filled tube set into the wall that took my fingerprints, DNA and checked my bio-metrics to make sure my hand and or arm was actually still alive and hadn't been cut off or anything or even if I was under duress.

After a moment, the scanner beeped clear and the door swung inward on its own to reveal a short hallway lined with three eight foot sections of opaque glass on either side that were intersected by one foot sections of wall. The containment cells of my workshop. Fortunately, I'd yet to find an actual use for them. Nevertheless need them.

Taylor however, was warily eyeing them as we passed them by. "Um…"

"Don't worry about it," I said, cutting her off. "They were already here when I moved in." And they were, albeit only just barely, they'd been installed the week before.

My reassurance didn't seem to mollify her though and she kept taking glances at them until we reached the main room of my workshop; at which point she actually stopped and fell behind. Stopping, I looked back to see her staring across the lab; and following her gaze I saw her attention had been grabbed by the sixteen two foot by one foot incubators installed on a counter running along the wall.

Within them, were sixteen Pokémon Eggs. Each with a different coloration or pattern... I should have expected that those would catch her eye.

"Hey," I snapped my fingers to get the Trainer's attention, "c'mon, this way."

Reluctantly, she followed along; hobbling behind me while continuing to look all about the room- which I fortunately kept tidy -as I headed toward another short stretch of glass wall set into the far wall.

It was identical to the six containment cells in the hall, only this time the material was set on clear instead of opaque with the addition of having a door handle set into it. And, because the material was clear, through it several large containers of different shapes, sizes and configurations could be seen stacked up behind a re-configurable doctors chair

Coming to within arms reach of the glass wall, I grabbed onto the handle; and as I did a seam appeared in the glass. I waited a beat, then I pulled on the handle and a rectangular section of the material opened outward like it was a door.

Looking back, I saw that Taylor had once again stopped, and was frowning as she just stared blankly at me. I sighed, "What now?"

After a few more moments of staring she shook her head, "Should I be concerned that this place is giving me evil secret laboratory vibes?"

...Of course, "I didn't design the damn place, I just work here. Now please..." I indicated toward the chair

Looking around one final time she hobbled past me on her crutches and into the room. Entering behind her, I let the door swing shut behind me and reseal; immediately, a hum started up in the ceiling- the air sanitizer - as Taylor eased herself into the chair.

Walking to the stacks of tubs, I selected what was essentially a simple bucket and turned back around to set it in front of the chair; into which Taylor was easing herself into, it was at that point her booted foot hit the floor and the younger girl let out a hiss of pain. I stopped setting up to stare at her, "Just how long were you walking around today?"

"...A few hours?" The girl tentatively answered.

Shaking my head in exasperation, I stepped back over to the wall of tubs and grabbed two hoses hanging hanging from a rubber grommeted hole in the wall. Locking them into their respective ports on the tub, I gestured to the boot and and told her to lose it while flipping one of the valve handles on the hose I'd hooked into the top port.

The distinctive sound of ripping Velcro drew my attention back to Taylor as she tossed the boot aside… then I looked down to her bare calf and saw it was already beginning to swell a bit. Only a few hours... yeah, right. Stubborn trainers.

Below me, in the tub, there was a quiet gurgle followed by a wet splattering sound; and glancing down I saw the tub begin to quickly fill with the clear, viscous fluid that was the formula. It was effective, that was without a doubt by this point, but the resemblance it had to mucus was admittedly a little off putting to most people.

Thankful user feedback had been taken into consideration and the green tinge that had been in the early iterations of the formula had been worked out.

Fortunately it only took a little convincing to get the other girl to put her foot into it despite what it looked like. Which garnered me the deadpan, but somewhat surprised sounding, comment of 'It's warm' and 'It feels slimy.'

Ignoring the double entendre, I used the rest of the time it took for the tub to fill to take a quick trip back into the main room to grab a chair and the bio-sensor cuff that would take readings from the formula doing its work before getting back in time to turn off the hose.

Sadly the chair I'd grabbed wasn't of the batch Dragon had given me, but I settled into it anyway before looking down to the bio-sensor- a simple cuff of segmented links reminiscent of a stretchy watch band -and turning it on after finding the on button. "This is going to sting for just a second." Then before Taylor could question me I separated a pair of links and wrapped it around her upper calf, right below the knee.

Taylor had just enough time to say the typical 'well that wasn't that bad' before the sensor contracted and she jerked her leg. "Ow! That was more than a sting!"

Shrugging, I just rolled back and slouched back in the chair before looking to her. "Says the person that was walking around on a twisted ankle for several hours?" She tried to argue back but I just gave her a neutral look and she went quiet. "I thought so," gestured to her arm, "If you would roll up your sleeve, I need skin contact so I can monitor what is going on."

Nodding, Taylor rolled her sleeve up to the elbow and I shifted my arm so it would be comfortable before touching my fingers to her wrist; immediately I got a sense of what kind of condition she actually was in and snorted.

"What?"

I looked up to meet Taylor's gaze, noticing that she'd pulled out a phone; which was good since this would take a while. "You did a bit more than walk on your foot for a few hours… How did you hurt yourself anyway?"

Shrugging nonchalantly she set her phone on her stomach, "A Tauros got loose in my house and tried goring me."

I could only assume that a Tauros was Pokemon; and it rang a bell, but I couldn't quite place the name to anything I'd seen before. "And a Tauros is… what?"

"Its pretty much a Bull analogue but with three tails and the toughness of a Pokemon," She elaborated. "It…" Trailing off she absently waved her hand in a circle as she thought, "well think Bull in a China Shop. There were some extenuating circumstances but that pretty much sums up what happened well enough."

I looked at the broader picture of her body, what it told me, what it had been through and… that certainly sounded like it would fit, as unlikely as it sounded. Trying to evade a rampaging Pokemon would make sense. At any rate though, she'd been through a short but intense ordeal that had left her battered.

"I see. Well settle in, I'll let you know when we're done."

At her nod I pulled my book out of my pocket with one hand and flipping it open to my marked page before settling it into my lap to start reading; and this time, I was actually able to read about what had happened to the Stable Boy and the Duchess.

+X+X+X+X+X+

Stopping mid sentence, I blinked as I re-checked what I was sensing from Taylor before looking up from my book. Yeah, she was definitely asleep.

Marking my place, I dropped my book into a pocket then dug out my phone to check the time. Then I rechecked the progress the formula had made on Taylor's ankle.

"…Well that should be good enough," I muttered. And breaking skin contact with her forearm I rolled back, hooked the toe of my shoe on the tubs drainage valve and flipped it; allowing the viscous gel like fluid within to drain away.

"That wasn't , the sedative iteration of it… was it?" I wondered aloud as I rose from my chair and swapped my book from my tablet to access the information on the current iteration of the formula.

It wasn't , the sedative iteration. Which mean she'd just gone to sleep… "Huh."

Everything had pretty much gone just as it had the last half dozen times, but I noted down my observations anyway before dropping the tablet into an outer pocket of my lab coat and touching at Taylor's arm once more.

First I zeroed in on her ankle, re-healing the damage to the ligament that the formula hadn't gotten to repairing yet before purging the formula from the inside and outside of her leg. Then I proceeded up her body; correcting small dings, scratches, miscellaneous injuries and smoothing out an old fuse along her left Femur before healing the cracks in her ribs.

She'd had a… surprising, amount of old injuries. More so, than one would have suspected from a girl her age. But then again like Capes Trainers tended to live more dangerous lives; if only to a lesser degree.

Taking my fingers away I reached toward her shoulder to shake her awake when her head rolled to the side, her curly brown hair falling over her face as she let out a slow breath. Looking down on her peaceful, resting face I sighed; and reaching out I brushed back the hair hanging over her face.

I felt my face warm a bit as my power unhelpfully helped me visualize what she would look like when she was older. She was a bit like the ugly ducking right now... but in a few years, based how she was developing so far, she'd probably be able to find work as a model no problem.

Taking a long step back I vigorously shook my head and slapped at my cheeks. No, I was better off now than being purely Victoria Sexual- as Leet had crudely put it -but no matter what she said I would get better.

I would get over this… this phase .

In the meantime, however; I could let her sleep for a bit longer while I cooled down. And turning around, I pushed at the door handle and stepped out into my lab; the door swinging shut and resealing behind me.

Fortunately it, like half the other nonpublic areas in Travers', had a discrete fingerprint scanner. So as I stalked over a length of counter top set against the wall to grab up an egg timer from among a sea of petri dishes I knew I had nothing to worry about.

Taking only a moment to consult the time, I twisted the top half of the egg and dropped the thing in my pocket before crossing back to the other side of the lab. Passing by the Pokémon Eggs', I came to a stop in front of a bookshelf dominated by a combination of old paperbacks and scientific documentation about biology and chemistry.

It still felt rather silly, but reaching up to pull on a copy of Charles Darwins' The Theory of Evolution and having the bookshelf pull in and slide out of the way to reveal a hidden staircase was admittedly kinda cool.

Stepping through the portal and jogging up a single flight of metal stairs, I pushed through the security door above- as soon as I had cleared the scanner -and into my loft style apartment; the lights coming on as I stalked through to banish the shadows of the late afternoon. It was still rather empty, with only basic pieces of furniture occupying the spaces with unpacked boxes spread haphazardly about.

But it was my own.

I owned the place outright, and that was something that usually helped lift my mood.

But right now was not one of those times. Instead of letting the warm colored lights and old brick walls do their thing, I stalked into the kitchen; yanking open a mostly empty junk drawer and grabbed up an Altoid Tin sitting atop the thin layer of detritus within.

The contents of the tin rattled within the container as I slammed the drawer shut. And standing there, I idly turned the tin back and forth, back and forth; listening to the little objects within bounce back and forth like a little rain maker when I felt a soft pressure press against my calf which was followed by an inquisitive chirp.

Looking down, I stared into Fawkes' big red eyes as he leaned away and sat up on his haunches; his ears tucked back as she reached up with his black taloned foreclaws. Flexing them, he opened his crimson beak to let out another chirp.

A tired smile soon grew on my lips as I stared down at him and he clenched his foreclaws a few more times. I sighed, and feeling the tension begin to drain away a little I dropped the tin into one of my lab coats pockets as I reached down and scooped the little guy up.

The comfort and the security that the loft provided was not insignificant. But Fawkes wasn't something so easily brushed off. And besides, he was adorable.

Settling him against my shoulder, he shuffled his back paws into the crook of my elbow to get comfortable before nuzzling his beak against my neck and nibbling at my hair. Cradling him closer as he preened me, I reached up and gently ran my fingers first up his beak, then over his purple and white head feathers, down between his little wings and finally through the little tuft of purple feathers at his rear.

Then I repeated the process, occasionally adding deep scratches to the base of his wings, or around his neck.

Soon enough, the rest of the tension drained away and I made my way back through the apartment until I came to the stairs that led up to the roof access. Ascending them, I had to momentarily divert my attention- which earned a reproachful croon and nibble from Fawkes -long enough to put my hand into a biometrics reader.

Once it had let out an affirmative beep though, it released the locks on the thick security door to let me out onto the landscaped roof of the factory that Moreau had converted into apartments for residents.

Right now, it was only Sabah and I staying in them. But thus far, neither of us had really done much with the sprawling space aside from setting up a simple patio area between the two doors that led into our respective apartments; along with some colorful sheets to act as shades and privacy curtains.

That wasn't to say we didn't use the expansive space, it was nice to just hang out on the grass, but it was just that neither of us had really had the time to.

I personally tried to keep myself as busy as I could, and combined with school, clinic work, experimenting with my power, therapy and other things that came up it wasn't too hard. She on the other hand simply couldn't due to the backlog of commissions she had taken on and was only catching up with; months after she'd first opened her store. Combined with her college classes and her plans for the future she was strapped for time. Despite her power.

She'd even she had admitted she'd made a mistake in taking on so many, flush with embarrassment as she'd been when she'd come to get a sliced open palm taken care of.

She hadn't burned out though as one would have thought, she'd simply gotten better at her craft with the experience. I'd felt a little jealousy at that knowledge, but I was at least comforted by the fact that I was getting better myself. Now that I wasn't driving myself into exhaustion every other day at the hospital. Now I had a vetting system for those that came to me for healing, it was… alleviating, to still be able to help people without the inane demands of those that didn't need it.

Just another thing to thank Sarah for.

Combing my fingers through the feathers on Fawkes's head once more, I gently picked him up off my shoulder. Chirping and making other sounds of protest he wiggled around until I set him down on a large rock.

Shuffling for a second to get a better footing he looked back up at me, his mama. Then he turned once in a circle before jumping off; his little wings spread out fruitlessly as he dropped to the grass like a rock.

Fortunately he landed gracefully enough in a somewhat controlled forward roll, which was in contrast to the full on nosedive- or rather beak dive -he'd done when he was first starting to try and fly. His wings hadn't been nearly as developed then, and they still simply weren't developed enough now.

However, whenever I picked him up I could see how quickly that would be changing; and in a few months, at minimum, he'd be grown enough and his wings developed enough that they could give his body lift. Although that didn't stop his feline determination from trying early, it was simply in his nature.

Walking to the edge of the roof while Fawkes played about in the scrub, grass and rocks; I leaned my forearms up against the wood railing, but it wasn't dead wood. No. Instead, like a surprisingly large number of things in Travers it was simply an altered version of Moreau's treant genome.

It had been... disconcerting and distracting, the first few times. But now it was familiar and the natural curiosity I'd felt had faded, and it had also helped that Sabah had been kind enough to braid few lengths of thin cord over a section of it when she'd noticed the distraction it had caused.

It was that section I went to to look out over Travers.

I slumped against the railing a little as I stared at the dome, knowing what the glow meant. It meant, that they'd made something that had required them to turn on the purging system. Which meant fire, among other more exotic things. But mostly lots and lots of fire.

That was just… I sighed, now I'd probably be getting a call in the morning to help them figure out where they went wrong with whatever monstrosity they had managed to cook up. I'd probably enjoy the experience, but still.

Feeling a bump against my leg, I absently reached down to pick up Fawkes and cradle him against my shoulder as I stepped away from the railing. Scratching around the little red, purple, gold and white Gryphons' ears I nearly jumped when the kitchen timer went off in my pocket and almost startled me.

Unfortunately, it only almost startled me but it certainly startled Fawkes . Who upon, hearing the shrill noise, promptly scrambled from my arms and onto my shoulders; his ears perking up while his head turned about as he searched for the source of the noise.

Fortunately turning off the alarm stopped his searching, but reaching up to try and pull him off my shoulders was rather another thing altogether. Stubbornly, he clung to clawfulls of my lab coat as I tried to remove him.

But my efforts were to no avail as he simply clung all the more tightly, his way of telling me that he was there to stay. I sighed and reaching back up I gave him a little scratch on his chin, which earned me a knowing look of satisfied victory from him. But that didn't mean he let go of by coat. He was smarter than that.

Oh well, he may have been the size of a small house cat but at least he wasn't anywhere close to as heavy as one. Point for the avian part of his physiology and genes on that front, and there was certainly that credit to Moreau; he definitely knew how to create something. And better than I did, and I could do it with just a touch.

So with Fawkes there to stay I headed back inside, though not without stopping to top off his food bowl in the hopes it would entice him to climb down.

It didn't, he just stayed stubbornly attached to my shoulder. However, what it did do was attract the attention of Tweety; Fawkes's 'sister' for all that amounted to.

Technically , the two were intended to be a breeding pair. Except Moreau hadn't been very clear on that front when he'd sprung them on; and had subsequently 'accidentally' left them despite my initial refusal. Sure there genetics showed them as not being related but still; they'd been born with each other so that, as Sabah had stubbornly put it, made them brother and sister.

Whether they liked it or not.

Needless to say it was a point of contention between her and Moreau that could quickly set her off.

Letting out a somewhat higher pitched chirp than what Fawkes was capable of, I looked to the top of the perch in the corner of the living room that the monochrome colored Tweety had claimed as her throne. The two of them technically had the same proportions of mixed up genetics but no which way about it there was definitely a bit more cat in her than there was in Fawkes. Only time would tell how that fully expressed itself though as not even I was sure.

Leaping down from the perch in a much more graceful manor that Fawkes could, she quickly crossed the room to her bowl and began chowing down. And all the while Fawkes remained stubbornly uninterested.

Frowning, I looked at the juvenile gryphon from the corner of my eye and he just looked right back; innocent as could be as he cocked his head and let out a little chirp. Grumbling in resignation I left my apartment and headed back down to the lab, re-entering the testing chamber to find Taylor.

She was still asleep, thankfully, and had actually started drooling a bit onto her shoulder. Enough so to form a small wet spot.

Suddenly curious of this new person before him, Fawkes chirped and unlatched himself from my labcoat and leaned out to investigate. Seeing my chance, I reached for him but before I could grab him he had jumped; landing on Taylor's lap and making to climb up her chest.

Fortunately though I was able to thwart his insatiable curiosity by scooping him up and depositing him on the ground floor before he could go any higher than her abdomen.

He warbled up at me in complaint, but I just gave him a stern look and he quieted.

I may have doted on him and his sister a bit too much, but I was still firm when I needed to be with them and he was smart enough to know when he'd done something wrong. And turning back to my patient I reached out to touch a finger to her neck and initiated her body's natural waking process.

Note: Not sure on how I got amys tone on this.

Note: I have a bunch of responses for what you guys said for last chap but need to go to be so 2marrow theyll be up.

Note: and with next we go back to taylor

Arcanine: Fluffy

Pokemon Egg (may want to check this and see if you recognise anything)

Fawkes

art/Uppies-175889465

Tweety

art/all-used-up-78168652 (basis)