"I don't like this," I said, looking at the entrance to the lab, which was located in the side of a hill on the north side of the city. The metal walls and floor brought back horrible memories.
"I don't either," Lilly said, "but we aren't turning back now. KY, is everyone in position?"
"Yes. We are about to test the Polar Magnet's connection with everyone."
We all nodded, our headsets on. We waited a second. "Okay, does everyone hear me?" Dendy asked.
We all nodded to Lilly. "My group can."
"My groups do as well," Kan said.
"We hear," Korado said.
"Affirmative," Doromizu, a swampert and War's second in command, said. We had found him outside our base. Apparently he had followed us for War and Kasuai's safety. He had a group of Geoaxes with Kan's groups to fend off anyone coming to attack us. He was pretty cool.
"Good," Dendy said. "Did everyone hear each other?" We all said yes.
"Okay, we're going in," Lilly said. We all walked into the building, going down the long metal hallway. The place was a labyrinth of metal. There were so many twists and turns that we probably would have a bit of trouble finding the exit.
I was getting a really bad vibe from this place. I was having even worse memories. I didn't like being here. Plus there was some other feeling, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
"War, do you know where we are?" Kedo asked.
"Enough to lead us out if we have to," he said.
We entered a room that was full of lab equipment. There were test tubes full of chemicals everywhere, and multiple tables with restraints on them. There was a lot of test tubes that looked like they had blood in them.
In another room, we found a large pool of water. KY examined it and then a control panel next to it. "It appears that they are able to electrify the water."
"Lovely," Lilly said, "since everyone loves a high voltage bathtub. This is starting to look less like a research facility than a mad scientist's laboratory."
"Who knows if that wasn't what it was?" Kasuai asked.
After a while Lilly spoke into her headset. "Dendy, can you hear us?" There was no answer. Lilly scowled. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
"It must be since we're underground," War said. "We didn't think about that."
"Great," she said. "Let's just keep moving.
We continued through the hallways, and finally came to a large open room, dimly lit like the rest of the building. "This is getting us nowhere," Lilly said.
"Oh really?"
We all whirled around. The hallway we had just come from was sealed off. The rest were sealed off as well. Lilly scowled. "Who are you? Show yourself!"
"Gladly." A gardevoir walked into view, an evil smile on her face. Her eyes were more crimson than normal. She was what was giving me the unexplainable feeling. "I suppose I shouldn't be rude. My name is Bell. It's a pleasure to officially meet all of you."
"KY, what's the situation with the exits?" Lilly asked.
"Attack proof electronic locking doors," Bell said. "You are welcome to try and break them down, but without recognition you won't be able to destroy them."
"Can we just beat her up?" War asked.
She scowled, and he was thrown back into the wall, knocked unconscious. "Mind your manners. You all came looking for answers, and I plan on giving them."
Kasuai ran over to War. Lilly's eyes hadn't left Bell yet. "Then start talking."
"Where do you want me to begin?"
"Begin with who you are, what this place really is, how it affects Hydra, and, since you seem to already know about us, why you chose now to approach us."
"A very reasonable list and order. To begin, I am Bell, the final researcher of the Facility. This place was meant for research of unnatural pokemon anomalies. It was founded by my trainer. Well, former trainer, but you don't need the details on that."
"Where is everyone else?" I interrupted. "This is a lab, isn't it? Where are the scientists?"
She glared at me. "I will get there eventually. You have to let me finish." She thought a moment before continuing, remembering where she was in the story. "Ah yes, your next question is how does it affect Hydra. This is only a part of the whole answer, but you didn't ask for all of it. Hydra, you might not remember, since you were pretty little, but you were raised here."
I started to shake. The memories I had were becoming more vivid. "It was here," I said. "Then it was you!"
"What?" Ore asked.
"She isthe one who was causing my psyche scream!"
"Well I thought that would be obvious, but I might as well explain it anyway. Hydra was raised here, because she was thought to be an anomaly. There were extensive tests preformed, over and over, but we just couldn't figure out what it was that was strange about you. We were sure there was something, we just couldn't find it. So they wanted me to follow you. I did, but you were so weak. I had to make sure you stayed alive, so I came up with the idea of psyche scream, as you call it. I use my psychic powers to freeze the pokemon around you when the situation got too much for you, and then when you command them to do something, I make them do it.
"But there would come moments when you would gain confidence. Well that wasn't something I wanted you to have. I only had to keep them frozen for a while and you would become devastated. It worked like a charm." She looked at Eriff. "I see a question on your face, and I will answer it in due time.
"Anyway, your next question was why I chose to approach you now. Well it's quite simple. Do you know what is happening in a few days?"
"The anniversary of the Apocalypse," Auroc said.
"Correct. This is a very important day. None you know anything really about it, and I will explain eventually. Sorry, but order is crucial in this conversation. Let's just say there is something very big happening on that day, and I need all of you for it. Well, most of you. I do not need the nidoking, breloom, lilligant, or mawile. It can lead to the revival of the city."
"Why them?" Hana asked.
"Forget that, we aren't helping anyway," Elric said. "Kasuai's doing a pretty good job on planning to rebuild the city, and I trust her more than this creep."
"I agree," Lilly said. "Now let us out."
Bell scowled, then sighed. "Fine, we will do this the difficult way, which you might like better. There is much more information involved. It will do wonders to distract you." She smiled evilly. "Though even if I stay silent, it won't be hard to beat all of you. I was trained to fight anomalies, which all of you are. As a matter of fact, all of you came from this very building."
We all stared at her. Ore started looking scared too. He had said his rock abilities had been a curse. We might be finding out why. She laughed. "I can't believe you all don't remember! Actually I do believe it. We tend to blur in one's mind, making it seem like it was just a bad dream after it happened. You want to know why I know so much about you?"
"I created all of you."
She started pacing. "While we do research anomalies, we really try to create them. Lilly, the limit breaker. You aren't restricted to limits placed on a pokemon, and for some odd reason have extremely good jumping abilities. Elric, the blur. You have the ability to move at the speed of light, though never make a sound. Eriff, the fire flower. You were specifically designed to be able to perfectly counter your weaknesses with a grass type move, and not just solar beam. KY, the switcher. Able to switch abilities at will, and for unknown factors can control the statuses given by tri attack. Kykis, the teleport gun. You were designed to be able to teleport on a much higher level than any other pokemon, with the main intent of teleporting someone you weren't touching. Mark, the fire bomb. You are able to spontaneously combust, which isn't a super ability, but it comes in handy, since you can heat an area with a five foot radius. You should also be able to create light, but we never confirmed if this. Absolum, the disaster. You are able to create dark energy, which is a rare form of energy that can only destroy, or so we believe. Ore, the geomancer. You are able to control rocks at will, even break them down and merge them at a molecular level. Auroc, the ice prince. You are able to create and manipulate ice. You either use water from your own body or use water in the air around you, most commonly the latter. Kedo, the water artillery. You are able to manipulate your water shiruken attack into anything you wish, as long as it is not living. You were all successful mutations of my design."
She then looked at me. "Then there was Hydra. We never figured out what you could do. We know it should be an extremely strong ability, but you've never been able to harness it. And it appears all of our tests on you have caused you to go through fatolution. What a shame."
Lilly looked furious. "This is all a lie."
"Oh really? Then tell me, dear, do you remember how you became far sighted?"
"What?" I said. "Lilly, you're far sighted?"
"Yes, though she used to have perfect vision," Bell said before Lilly could respond. "Though there was an unfortunate eye test that led to her cornea being deformed that led to her loss in close up vision. You probably remember a red laser."
Lilly looked surprised that she knew that. Bell continued. "And I bet none of you know how Mark got his scar? We set him in a cage with a sneasel, wanting him to spontaneously combust to defend himself. You can see the result." Mark looked surprised, then furious.
She looked at Ore. He stepped back. "You were one of the most fun. We would set you in the water, full of stones beneath you. All you had to do was form them together and pull it up to get yourself out, but you never did. So the electricity just shocked you, over and over and over again. Not to mention how we would set you in a burning room with stones, wanting you to move it all onto the fire. You've kept that burn on your back hidden very well." He looked terrified of her.
She also turned to Auroc. "You we were extra evil to. We would strap you down, performing the Chinese water torture. You never were able to freeze the drops of water. It was even more fun when we made the water hot." He was extremely tense.
Then she looked at me. "I bet you remember most of it. We tried everything on you. Electric water. Cage battles. Keeping you locked in a tight space. You just wouldn't ever crack."
"So, to answer why I need you, it's because I'm going to finally finish what the Apocalypse started. The Apocalypse happened because of a machine of ours. It was using the same things we used to give Hydra her unknown ability, and was going to project it all over the city, so all pokemon would be stronger than others. We would then deploy our pokemon control devices, and voila, you have the perfect army for world domination. But the machine ended up destroying the city, and all the scientists fled with everyone else. But I will succeed. A few tests will give me all the information I need to make it work right. I had hoped I could spin some lie to convince you it was a good cause, but it doesn't appear that will happen anymore. X, dear, are you ready?"
We all stared in shock as the fake War walked into view, then transformed into X, the zoroark who had led us to Kannin. She didn't want to meet our eyes. "X?" Eriff said. "What are you doing? Is she controlling you?"
"Oh no," Bell said. "She is doing this all on her own. Right?" X nodded.
I wanted to cry. She caught my eye. "Why?"
"Because of all of you," she said. "I was meant to be special too, but I never got an ability. They didn't even find a trace of one. It just wasn't fair. They tortured me day in and day out, all for nothing. I didn't endure all of that to not get what I should already have."
"Then it's time for the battle," Bell said cheerfully. "Who wishes to be defeated first?"
Kasuai attacked before we even knew what had happened. You couldn't even follow her as he flew in, using sucker punch. But Bell had grabbed her fist. Kasuai looked shocked. Bell smiled evilly. "Too slow." She threw her, making her move faster with her psychic. Kasuai hit the wall, and was out in one hit.
She turned to the rest of us. "You all stand too close. Spread out!" She opened her arms wide, and we were all thrown away from each other.
Before we saw what had happened, she was on top of Auroc. "You can go first, ice prince." Pink cuffs of psychic energy pinned him down. "Shall we repeat your old torture? But this time, let's use something different than water." We didn't see how she did it, but he cried out in pain, to long cuts on his arms. She wiped the blood onto her hand and started dripping it on his forehead. He was screaming in pain and fear.
"Get off him!" Mark yelled, flying forward, using flame charge. She stood up and held her hand out to him, and he stopped in his tracks. Then the fire around him went out. She was still smiling evilly. "You know you can't have a fire without oxygen." He started shaking slightly. He couldn't breathe.
She didn't even see the huge piece of metal flooring before it hit her in the head. Mark fell to the floor. She whirled on Ore, who looked horrified. "You want to play, geomancer? Do you need a repeat from your water torture?" Electricity flew from her in a single beam. Charge beam. It hit him square in the chest, and he flew back. She was over on top of him almost faster than I could follow. She pinned him face down. "How about we attack that burn of yours?" She put her hand on his back underneath his hood, electricity arcing around them.
"Enough!" Lilly said, drenching Bell with a hydro pump. She also soaked X, who hadn't moved. X fell down from the attack.
Lilly didn't realize what a big mistake that was.
Ore screamed in agony, the electricity arcing more violently. A shadow flew across the floor and ripped Bell off of him. He materialized and started attacking her with his sword-like arms, which were glowing purple. Night slash.
She was dodging perfectly, her hands up and protecting her face. "How cute. You think you can beat me in hand to hand combat." With amazing speed, she jabbed him hard in the stomach, then started punching and kicking away, not giving Kykis a single chance to retaliate. It wasn't even a move. She just knew how to fight. With one strong final kick in the stomach, he went down.
Hana jumped on Bell's back, the petals and leaves from petal dance and leaf storm flying violently around her. Bell grabbed her and threw her aside. She landed on top of War, who had just been getting back up, but went down now.
Elric started running around at an amazing speed around her. In only moments she was in a vortex, which should have taken oxygen away from her. But she didn't look fazed. She stuck her foot out to the edge, and he flew forward, hitting his head hard on the wall. "Nice try, but I was able to make an oxygen bubble with my psychic powers before your vortex was created."
The ground fractured in the direction of Bell. She jumped out of the way. Absolum's eyes were glowing purple. She growled, shooting him with a charge beam, which was stronger now thanks to the boost it had given her. He fell over. She flew over and started kicking him repeatedly in the stomach, around the same area X had stabbed him.
Gani started to glow white, and that glow formed a ball of energy in front of her, which she fired at Bell. Ancient power. Bell grabbed it with both hands and threw it at Eriff, who went down. She then thrust her hand out in the direction of Gani, who fell over, and didn't look like she was getting back up any time soon. She also did the same thing to Fort, but made him hit the wall really hard.
Two guns of water appeared in Kedo's hands, but before he could even use them, he was shot with a charge beam, which did a lot of damage to him. She strolled over, stepping on his stomach. Again, like when she attacked Auroc, we didn't see it, but there were two long gashes across his face, and his tongue had a huge cut as well. He screamed in pain.
KY shot his tri attack at her, but she moved quickly out of the way, grabbing him and throwing him hard against the wall as well. I and Lilly were the only ones still standing.
She smiled. "It kind of sad. I thought you all would put up more of a fight." She laughed. "I wonder what tortures I can devise for all of you. I want to see if I can break your wills before I use a machine to control you."
"It won't happen."
We all turned to see Kykis shakily back on his feet. "We aren't staying. You said the doors were attack proof. How well do the walls seal in us?" He held his hands close to each other, and a glowing ball of energy appeared.
"What is this?" Bell said.
"Teleport wave!" He held his hands up, and the light spread throughout the entire room, washing over all of us until we couldn't see. I felt an odd pulling sensation, and I blacked out.