Speech" human speech

"Speech" Pokemon speech

"Speech" Pokemon speech to humans.

"SPEECH" Pokedex speech.

'Speech' telepathic speech

This manner of speech to signify a thought-process.

~0~

Lucy AKA Gardevoir lvl 31 - significant moves: teleport, confusion, magical leaf and reflect. Light screen, Psychic

Fenrir AKA Nidorino, lvl 29- significant moves: peck, poison sting, double kick and horn attack.

Cinder AKA Vulpix, lvl 30- significant moves: ember, confuse ray, quick attack and will-o-wisp. Flamethrower.

~0~

"The point of arrival has been determined and will be dealt with."

- Unknown

"Chansey Chans!"

"Go away."

'Be nice to the Chansey.'

"Be quiet."

"Chans chan?"

"You too."

´Didn't Lucy tell you to play nice?'

"Shut up."

"Chansey CHANSEY!"

"No."

Why was this happening? What was going on? Why was Cinder of all Pokemon chastising his behaviour towards unknowns and why was he being harassed by a large egg-carrying pink monster which only possible designation might be Chansey?

And why was said creature trying to tear his arm out of socket? Seriously; had the laser fried his brains, causing him to hallucinate violently? The medical Pokemon was pulling at his right arm in a desperate attempt to pull him into a nearby room, but he wasn't budging an inch and that frustrated the creature a bit.

A dozen of those Chansey's couldn't have possibly moved him, but it was pulling at his wounded arm and if it didn't watch out, the wound would tear open even further. If that happened, he would murder-

Suddenly the creature stopped its strange behaviour and let go of him. Why was that?

'I told her that we would escort you to an operation room ourselves master. If you would please proceed to enter the next room on your right?'

Again she called him 'master.' That couldn't be humorous anymore, so what was the underlying intention…what operation room?

"Room?" He said, but Lucy stopped moving and both Cinder and Fenrir turned to face the door on his right. Was he supposed to enter it?

'Go ahead! Open the door!' The vixen cheerily said. Well, so much for simply picking up medical supplies; he would have to go and retrieve it himself.

Pulling at the handle, the Spartan opened the door and entered the 'operation room.' It was white and clean, with a single light illuminating the space. There were multiple chairs and one white bed, with multiple pieces of equipment scattered all over the place.

The last time he had been operated on, it had been during his augmentation procedure, sometime eight years ago. This place didn't remotely resemble the holding cell where the procedure had taken place, so this couldn't possibly be a real operation room.

So what was it?

The pink blob returned and yelped at him some more, before disappearing down the hall. What was he supposed to do here? Play with the scalpels? Swallow some pills? He had better things to do.

'She said that a nurse will be with you shortly.' Cinder translated the pink Chansey and then jumped on top of a chair.

"Nurse?" He repeated and remembered what Lucy had told him. She wanted him to receive medical attention –and he had agreed with her request.

This was just great: stuck in a pokemon Center where nobody listened to him, in a town where nobody listened to him, in a room where he could only await treatment.

And his arm throbbed. He was still leaking blood everywhere he went even the tight under-suit couldn't stop the bleeding enough for it to actually stop.

"What happened?" He said and sat down on the bed. He half expected it to break under his weight; but when it didn't he remembered that he wasn't wearing his armour anymore

'After those creatures attacked and hurt you, I realized that I needed to protect you. In order for me to do that, I needed to evolve. Thus I did.'

Just to straighten it out: psychic on pyramid nearly killed Lucy, he jumped off of pyramid to safe her, and then the hunter-killer units arrived. After that the back-then Kirlia teleported him to his dropship, where the two psychic females on his team had told him that his suit would effectively hemorrhage him if he kept wearing it.

"And the machines?"

After which Lucy had teleported him AGAIN only to accidentally disintegrate a part of him, causing to him leave a trail of blood-droplets for anyone to follow. That was immediately followed by an encounter with yet another pack of the Forerunner-machines.

And now he was here.

'I did not feel a consciousness behind them: they are neither man nor Pokemon.'

"I got that much."

'Will you allow me to expose your wounds, master?'

"Which ones?"

'The most urgent one; the wound which I caused myself…'

"How will you expose them?"

The majestic creature smiled ever so slightly and a chill ran down his spine. Something was wrong…but what? 'I could teleport a part of your clothing away and replace it later…or I could slice a patch away and then reform the edges.'

"Or I can do it myself."

'That too is possible.'

Was it now? He had to admit that his clothes weren't exactly designed to be removed randomly at will. The skin-tight under-suit was easier to take off than his MJOLNIR was, but it would still take some time. Even so he could not trust Lucy with another teleportation trick until she had a complete control over her powers. He would do it himself.

He turned around and started the removal of his upper clothing. There were multiple connective threads which could be dislodged, resulting in a more loose fit. Not all Secret-Spartans had the same shape; some tended to be larger or more muscled than others were. That meant a line of underclothing which could change its shape and form at the Spartan's will.

'Where did you get those scars?!' Cinder asked loudly.

"In the war." He replied and continued stripping. He had effectively loosened the sleeves and now he could move on to the central part around his waist. Why were they interested in his scars? He had so many of them; most Spartans had. Plasma burns, closed bullet holes, remnants of some explosive material and even multiple scars caused by bladed edges were among the most common ones. What was special about them?

'Fenrir wants to know how such a young leader could get so many battle marks.' The vixen then said. Leader? What leader? Wait…that was him; he was the 'leader' of the group in the poison-type's eyes.

He remained silent and continued with the removal of his suit. He had no intention of sticking around longer than he needed to, but if his team were to survive the coming encounters they would need to train harder and potentially, evolve. There was no way that they could beat the floating machines that were hunting them and even though he was perfectly capable of protecting the Pokemon, the risk would be too great.

And then there was the fact that he was injured and actually required medical attention. This meant exposing his wounds to the air and taking care of them.

"Good afternoon sir!" A feminine voice said. He had just finished taking the upper part of his under-suit off and his shoulders, arms and a part of his chest were revealed. Had he not received word that a nurse would be with him soon, he would most likely have disposed of the potential hostile with one of the scalpels. "How may I assist…you…?"

The rest of her sentence stalled in her throat as he turned to face her. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see people gawking at him like that, but he was always wearing his armour when they did. Being a white seven-feet tall armoured soldier covered in blood and entrails was one thing, but he wasn't even wearing MJOLNIR right now.

The nurse shook her head and managed to pull herself out of her stupor. She had short, blue hair and wore the standard Pokemon Center nurse outfit. Weren´t these people eligible only with Pokemon? And what would he tell her? There wasn't anything he needed except for some rest. And perhaps a bandage. Yes, a bandage would be good.

"Bandages." He said. The nurse was still staring at him, but at least now she was capable of talking. "B-but of c-course…I w-will bring them m-momentarily!"

And then she turned around nearly ran out of the room, leaving the super-soldier alone with his Pokemon.

He shrugged and grabbed the nearest mirror to survey himself. He instantly spotted the burn-wound on his left shoulder and realized that the laser must have cut through his under-suit, before cauterizing the wound. It would hurt him, but not impair his movement or body to any significant degree. His other wound, on the other hand…

Lucy had messed up indeed; there was a large, gaping wound at least seven inches long which reached from his shoulder down his arm. Blood was pouring out of the raw injury and the Spartan could see how that would have compromised him if left unchecked: his armour could have injected biofoam and stop the bleeding within a few seconds, but without the MJOLNIR the blood-loss would eventually get to him.

He sighed and took a closer look at Lucy's new form. She was looking at his bleeding shoulder with an expression which could only be identified as guilt. She was sounding responsible and a bit pleading at the same time…but things happened. She had transported him multiple kilometers in a flash, without killing him and they had arrived at their destination –sort of.

Even though reading facial expression was probably one of his worst abilities, he could still see how the psychic was suffering from the sight of what she had done to him. It would prevent her from thinking clearly, possibly costing them future engagements –no. It hurt her and that should be the sole reason for him to want it to be gone.

"It's not your fault." He said. Did that count as lessening somebody's guilt?

'But it is. Had I taken more time to prepare…or figure out that there would be consequences for changing conditions, you would not be hurt right now.'

This wouldn't work. Humans needed time to get over traumatic experiences and…well, considering Lucy's very humanlike appearance and figure of speech; the same would apply to her.

He was just about to say something else when the nurse returned, carrying several rolls of bandage. "Here you go sir," She said and deposited the items in the room, "might I inquire as to how you got hurt like that?"

It occurred to Math that the woman had somehow managed to form complete sentences without stuttering once; something that could only be attributed to practice. She had been honing her tongue ever since she left –that was the most probable reason.

He nodded politely at her and grabbed the first roll of bandages.

"Anything else s-sir?"

There it was. "Who is in charge of this town?"

That seemed to take her aback. "Uhm…well…we d-don't really have a l-leader as much as a gym leader…y-you can talk to E-Erica if you want…b-but she is rather busy at t-the moment."

Nobody was busy when a Spartan wanted to talk. "Where can I find her?"

"The g-gym. But you don't want to go there- e-especially not you."

What was that supposed to mean? Was this Erica some sort of soldier-hater? Or was she referring to the fact that he looked wounded to her. That might be possible.

"Thanks." He said and started to unwrap the roll of bandages. But before he applied them to his bleeding shoulder, he noticed that the woman was still standing in the door-opening. "You can go now." He stated and snapped the nurse out of her stupor.

"Yes…right…leave…good luck sir."

And with that she turned around and left him to his troubles. Silly woman… He shook his head and started cleaning the wound with the bottle of alcohol that he had found. It stung, but seeing as he was effectively clearing the injury from potential injuries, the pain wasn't negative. It served to keep him sharp and attentive.

Cinder and Fenrir were amusing themselves by investigating all kinds of instruments and other sort of items. The Spartan merely hoped that he didn't have to remove a scalpel that had somehow gotten latched into a bone and proceeded to bandage his gored shoulder with precision unmatched in any hospital.

´Lucy is keeping awfully quiet…´ he thought and glanced at her direction again. She was still just standing –or floating, whatever worked best- there with her head bowed low and her hands folded in front of her chest. Was she praying or something?

He tried to think of something else to say; something to break the awkward flow in the air. If she were still a Kirlia then this wouldn't have happened; she would somehow find the words to break the silence and allow him to keep being silent. But the normally so peaceful quiet atmosphere was turning for the worse; it started to bug him a bit that the ever so cheerful Lucy was now being so…down.

He finished applying the bandages to his wounds and flexed his shoulders. Content that the medication would stay in place, he started to don his suit again. Stripping naked in a foreign hospital had to be the least pleasant thing he had done in Kanto –not including taking his armour off, of course.

"Move out." He told his team and watched them springing to attention. Lucy rose her head and looked him in his eyes, but he ignored her and stepped out of the room. He still had his weapons with him; for some reason nobody had commented on that. Either because they believed him and they thought that they would need every armed man in the city, or they simply thought that he was a wounded soldier returning from a dangerous mission –which he actually was.

Whatever they thought, it would enable him to move freely through the city. The fact that he had encountered the hunter-killer machines so close to this city…Celadon city, meant that they knew where he was. That meant he and everyone in the city were in danger.

'What is our next plan?' Cinder asked him as he snatched several items from the cabinet saying 'Health restoration items'.

"Erica the gym-leader." He said and maneuvered past the two nurses he encountered. He had taken several items called 'super potions' with him, designed to heal Pokemon with a spraying bottle. He hid them in his duffel bag and would use them when the situation grew dire.

'But the lady said that she was busy?'

"Her agenda can wait."

He exited the Center and immediately spotted a sign saying 'Celadon Gym' pointing to his right…towards the exit of the city. Good: that meant less interaction on his way out of there.

"Any reason why you are so silent?" He asked his psychic partner; having practiced that one sentence over and over he knew exactly just how to say those seven words.

'You are unhappy.' She simply said. Why should his unhappiness make her silent?

Wait –what did she mean that he was 'unhappy'? Where did she get that thought?

Well…considering that he had landed on an unknown planet, facing unknown hostiles and being stuck until his people could pick him up might count towards unhappiness. But his feelings were completely unimportant to the mission and he had even demonstrated that by taking his armour off. So why should she worry about his unhappiness? "Elaborate." He replied.

'I wounded you severely; something like that is unacceptable.'

"For who, Lucy?"

'For me, master.'

Mental backslash? She had told him that she knew when he was in pain and that was back when she was still a Kirlia. Her powers had increased dramatically since then –judging by how she completely destroyed a Forerunner combat machine by merely waving her arm around- and for all he knew, she could now sense what was causing him pain or even the sensation itself.

Or she could sense his thoughts...no, that was unlikely. It was more likely that she could sense his feelings and –considering the fact that Kirlia were linked to their trainers- felt disturbed by the negative sensation which she had caused.

Even though it was only an accident.

"It wasn't your fault. Stop-" Stop what? Stop having emotions? Stop feeling like a human being? "- stop blaming yourself."

'I am sorry master…I don´t want to be the reason for your unhappiness.´

"There isn't a reason. There is NO unhappiness."

He was glad that he knew how to speak softly; otherwise his situation might get even worse. Considering that the civilians couldn't hear Lucy's voice and that he was basically talking to himself, people would be even less likey to trust him. Was this the sole reason that she was behaving so down? Was she feeling so guilty that it actually cost her her cheery behaviour?

'You never were a good liar…' Cinder said and he remembered that he had tried to hide his feelings from Lucy once before…it didn't end well. But that was physical pain and the 'feelings' that he were feeling weren't even real to him; how could they be real to her?

Lucy looked around and then gestured at a small patch of grass, surrounded by bushes. The Spartan got the message and ordered his team to move there. It was rather convenient, seeing as the gym would also be there. She would most likey want to speak to him about something she felt to be very private…or very awkward. So private that nobody was allowed to hear him reply.

"What is it?" He said as he scanned the bushed with his assault rifle. It was a small sector in the city that wasn't covered by concrete or large buildings and it was completely surrounded by trees, bushed and thorny plants. Those were no problem for him and he simply marched through their ranks until he reached the open spot. Small puffs of fire and smoke indicated that the fire-type was trying her own way of getting past the thick plants, while Fenrir simply charged through the thorny foliage without difficulty.

He had people to warn and plans to make. What did she want from him?

~0~

There was so much that she could feel now. The flow of the world around her no longer presented her with mysteries; they solved them. She knew how the creatures that lived in her world felt, why they did and even what they would do. Her mind had unfolded infinitely and there was no longer any need to concentrate on a living being to use her powers; she could feel the psychic powers rippling in her mind and she was able to unleash it immediately and at will. Though she longed to put her newfound intelligence and powers at the test, she understood that she had received an incredible responsibility as well. Not only could she feel the minds of every living being around her; she could see through their defenses like they meant nothing. Consciousnesses which were too fortified to even consider breaching back when she was a Kirlia, were now nothing compared to her vast powers.

And yet her trainer, her…master…confused her. His emotions felt hollow and –for a lack of a better word- corrupted. She could glare past his significant defenses and feel what really lay in his heart…and it scared her.

"What is it?" Math asked her.

And she had hurt him. She had made a terrible mistake and spilled his blood. It was a terrible thing for creature like herself to hurt another being like that…but the person whom she cared the most for? It was consuming her heart. And even though he told her that it wasn't her fault…that she couldn't help it…she still felt responsible. It didn't help that her feelings were in turmoil like they were, too.

'I know what you feel…' she started. A person like him –a soldier who believed in sacrificing everything for peace and war- would not fear the state of his own mind. But she knew that he was more than just a soldier fighting –he was a soldier made to fight. It wasn't a feeling that made sense in her head, but she knew that it had to be so. His behaviour was too unnatural, too forced and awkward to truly exist in nature. He couldn't be…normal.

He didn't know himself: he had taken everything that made him who he was and stuffed it away to the deepest corners of his mind. His character, his traits, his emotions and his very soul had been locked away to slowly corrupt in darkness. The only thing that existed in his mind was the unnatural desire to fight, to win and kill. It was so extreme that he truly believed it to be the sole reason for his existence…did he even realize what he had done?

And she pitied him for it. She pitied him so much that the pain was greater than the pain she felt when thinking about how she had hurt him.

'You try so hard to tear your soul and heart out of your own body…but you can't hide them. Not from me.'

It had to be pure agony for him to hear her talk like that; to hear her tell him what he truly was and what his real desires were. Because that was what his mind currently occupied: base instincts and sensations, action and consequences. It was the mind of a wild animal in a cage; waiting to unleash its inner demons and snap and tear at the world.

The soldier was a ticking bomb and he didn't know it; he didn't understand a thing about the world, let alone about himself. He truly believed that he had no emotions and that his life revolved around fighting.

"What are you saying?"

Countless memories and images could flash through her head like a great wave coming down on a helpless village. But it would take time to organize them: she didn't know which memories were true or false. Some of them couldn't possibly be her own –she needed to control them before they could confuse her.

'You might think that you possess no emotions, but I know better master. I can feel the darkness in your heart…the pain and anger…the confusion that suffocates every sensation you have.'

The human looked around him and she could feel his mind trying to seek a distraction in his environment. Would Cinder - the psychic Vulpix- provide it? Or would it be Fenrir –the aggressive Pokemon which was just as confused as his trainer was?

"I don't understand."

Oh course he wouldn't. His mind was in denial and after everything that he had been through, it made only sense. She couldn't see what his memories were so his childhood was still a secret to her. But she knew what he felt and had to have been, in order to make it so. His entire life had been bordering on confusion and the lines of madness and the human would lose himself to the darkness if he didn't accept help.

'You had to give up the one thing that gave you stability in your existence; after that, someone tried to murder you. It has been one fight after another and your mind is buckling under the stress: no creature is made to fight like you have.'

"I feel fine."

'In time that will change. But worry not, my master. You are not alone in your voyage –we are here to help you. I can help you.'

She reached for his hand, hoping that the close contact with someone he cared for would make him realize what was going through his own mind. But he merely turned away and –with his hands still firmly clasped around his weapon- he started marching towards the gym.

"My mind is my own. Keep out."

That shocked her. Knowing that he would refuse what she was saying was one thing, but this?

Had she crossed a boundary? Had she been too straightforward with it and caused him to feel awkward? Or was it the fact that he could no longer hide his feelings and emotions from her as well as he could back when she was still a Kirlia? Either way, he was mad at her and she could understand why.

'He never wanted us out of his mind before?' Cinder carefully asked as she walked up to her.

'I do not know for certain…'

Cinder gulped and Fenrir growled as a sudden gale of wind shook leaves out of the trees and the temperature dropped.

~0~

If he had a list of things that were important at the moment, Lucy's statements would probably be sitting at the middle…or completely at the bottom. He had virtually no idea what she was talking about and quite frankly, it didn't really matter to him. He knew that he was pushing his emotions away; he had been doing that for a very long time. He was a Spartan; it was kind of his thing.

Walking up to the door of the gym, he thought about kicking it in instead of simply knocking. He quickly discarded that idea, however, when he realized that it wouldn't inspire people to help him. So instead of doing what he usually did, he merely placed his rifle back where had taken it from and knocked on the door, before waiting exactly two seconds and entering the gym. The first thing he noticed was the many, many forms of plants and flowers spread all over the place. There were at least four walls created out of bushes and he could even spot some bonsai trees.

The second thing he noticed was the gym's inhabitants. At least a dozen Pokemon closely resembling flowers and other forms of plans were moving all over the place, carrying things or simply sitting happily with their trainers. Of which there were also a dozen.

And they were all female. Couldn't he catch a break?

The pungent stench of perfume assaulted his face and he considered firing one of his weapons merely to create a different odour for a few seconds. But that too would alienate the people inside of the gym and he needed them to listen to him and all earnest. Civilians were so easy to tick off…

His own Pokemon followed him inside and he took a few steps forward, racking his mind for something to say. Anything to say.

The three closest females were happily messing around with their bottles of perfume and sharing their opinions on how they thought the smells were supposed to be.

Didn't they have something better to do?

Another girl briefly looked up from her Pokemon and spotted him standing there. She gazed back at her Pokemon and took a few seconds to process what she had seen. Then she looked up again and gave a mild shriek.

"Eeeeh!"

He raised one of his eyebrows and mentally facepalmed when all of the women suddenly jumped up and started yelling things. It was completely incoherent and he could feel Cinder brushing up to his leg in a nervous gesture. Discharging his weapon suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea now and he was seriously considering doing just that.

It was distressing for his senses to be pelted like they were right now; seeing as he wasn't wearing his armour and that he couldn't shake the sense of imminent danger, as nonsensical as it was. The multiple combinations of perfumes, shrieking women and moving Pokemon were just too much for his mind to properly take. Back in the UNSC he could simply block the incidental impulses out without difficulty, seeing as social interaction was kept to the bare minimum for him. Every sensory overload could be compensated for with a reliable firearm –meaning that he could shoot whatever was causing chaos.

But he couldn't use violence to get what he wanted and he knew that. This situation required patience and diplomacy; something he was ill suited for.

Eventually the women calmed down and someone stepped forwards, with the confident stride of someone in charge. "What are you doing here?" She said. The woman had short, black hair and was wearing a pink kimono –the Japanese styled dress. "We don't take challenges today and this is a special occasion for women only!"

If he didn't knew better, he'd think that this female was angry. Of course the frowning of her eyebrows and set of her lips could indicate distress, but there wasn't enough there for him to actually determine what she felt like. If she was angry with him, his objective would become harder to reach. He needed her to listen to him and that wouldn't happen when he threatened her, or if she was angry with him in the first place.

But what to say? How could he possibly respond to her in the presence of eleven other women who were all staring at him with more different facial expressions than he could ever deal with? "Celadon city is in trouble. I was told that you were in charge."

That was a starter.

"I am the gym leader; which makes me eligible for being 'in charge', yes. Can't you see that we are in the middle of a very important event?"

He looked around him and tried to spot something with any significance at all. "No."

Not his smartest answer ever, judging by the raging torrent of responses.

"How dare you!"

"Like a guy would understand!"

The rest of the comments were lost as everyone started screaming over each other, trying to be heard more loudly than the other. He could hear one of the younger girls saying: "He is kind of cute!" and decided that enough was enough.

"Quiet!" He barked and all the women suddenly stopped yapping. Good; headaches would only serve to frustrate him. "There are multiple hostiles moving towards this city as we are speaking."

It was technically true; the machines had been there when he had appeared and immediately engaged him. If they belonged to a psychic pokemon that hated humans and sought to destroy him in particular, every town where he would go would be in trouble.

"What?" The gym leader said, obviously confused. From the corner of his eye he could see Fenrir growling at several Pokemon and Cinder happily darting around, smelling the air and jumping over flowers. The creatures inhabiting the gym were obviously grass-type, seeing as they cowered in fear whenever the Vulpix approached them. "What are hostiles? What are you talking about?"

She didn't know what hostiles were? This lady obviously didn't have any military experience whatsoever; did that meant that Celadon city had yet to encounter problems? But it lay so close to Saffron city; which was said to be the central hub of Rocket operations and all other problems that Kanto faced.

"Creatures are coming to attack the city." He said, hoping that his statement would make more sense to her now.

"Do you mean Pokemon?"

At least she was taking him seriously this time… "No. Flying machines, not Pokemon."

"What?" The woman answered him. "What are you talking about? Are you crazy?"

So much for the 'taking seriously' part. The women started shouting again and the Spartan was seriously starting to doubt whether he would get Celadon city to take defensive maneuvers. It didn't really matter much to him, but the fact that the area was swarming with hunter-killer robots was sort of his fault and if it was up to him, the civilian population wouldn't suffer under the decisions of a crazy psychic Pokemon.

"Ma'am?" One of the younger girls said. "It might be useful to listen to him…we haven't had contact with any other city for a long while now and there are these…these Magneton-resembling creatures floating around."

What? Magneton-resembling creatures?

"We know that they are there, it's just…just…they have never ventured into the city before…" Another female replied.

"Don't be ridiculous!" The kimono-wearing lady replied. "Those things aren't hurting anyone!"

Just to get it straight: he had come to the gym to warn the city about the Forerunner hunter-killers and now they already knew about them? What had happened to situations simply making sense!

"You are just being paranoid, soldier." A blonde told him. 'Tell me something new…'

'Perhaps I can share some light on this situation?' Lucy said. The super-soldier had no idea how she could possibly help the people of Celadon understand what was going on, but she was welcome to try.

"Go ahead." He replied and waited to see what would happen. Lucy closed her eyes and he could have sworn that a small flash of green light appeared in the Gym. What was she doing?

'I have showed them my memories of the encounter.' The psychic said with a smile. 'They will have to believe us now.'

He chose to ignore her blatant invasion of mental privacy concerning the minds of the women and faced the leader again. "Believe me now?"

"I…" The woman said and swallowed. "I don't think you are from around here…those mechanical creatures never harmed anybody before…what did you do?"

"I visited." He replied and walked back to the door. It was made out of glass, enabling him to see everything that was going on behind it. And what he saw wasn't very positive: multiple signatures were flying through the air and with his enhanced vision he could spot the metal booms that so closely resembled the Forerunner devices. 'They are already scouting the city!' He realized.

Something had prompted them to start moving inwards…that would most likely be him. But how? Without his armour they couldn't have recognized him!

"Do you have any strange artefacts here? Any pieces of technology?"

"Well…" She said and walked up to him, joining him in glaring at the doors. "That depends on what you are looking for…what do you see?"

"Trouble." He replied. "Tell me. Now."

"Okay…if you will join me?"

He nodded and followed the gym-leader deeper inside the building. The perfume-enjoying women weren't so snarky now, as their leader had officially accepted him to join them deeper into their little lady-sanctum.

"What do you know about these things?" He asked her.

"They appeared several days ago…float around the forests and keep an eye on everyone who moves through the area. They don't interfere and don't interact with anything…until you appeared, that is."

"Where are we going?"

"You asked me if we had any strange forms of technology and I think that this-" She opened a door and revealed a small room in the back of the gym- "Counts as strange."

That…was an understatement. What lay before him looked like a miniature version of the giant spire he had so catastrophically scouted…but this one seemed less lifelike. It almost looked…dormant. "What is it?" He asked her and grabbed his assault rifle.

"I do not know. It supplies power to our city…but that is everything I know about it. Team rocket-"

"Rocket?"

"Yes? Team Rocket integrated it somewhere below our city. Sometimes they divert power from this generator to do…something in their hideout."

"You haven't taken steps against them?"

"We don't know where their hideout is!" The leader replied. "We tried following the cables, but they simply disappeared somewhere in the game corner!"

So these people had installed a Forerunner item in their gym, only to let a terrorist organization like team Rocket take control over it? Why was he even bothering with trying to save them; Celadon city had to be more self-destructive than a Grunt without a leading Elite was. "You plugged an unknown piece of tech in on the entire city and then lost control over it?"

"It was already here when we founded this city…we simply built the gym around it. It started behaving…odd…around the same time the metal machines appeared. We thought nothing of it."

The entire situation had spiraled out of control the moment he had set foot there. A city with a Forerunner Artefact as the primary generator with an underground faction of team rocket in control over it? All the while flying laser-robots were flying over said city trying to hunt them down? Not acceptable. There were just so many different loose events…and they were all connected; not separate at all!

'The machine is giving of strange forms of energy,' Lucy said. 'It intertwines with the entire city…'

"Intertwines?" He replied, ignoring the strange look that the woman gave him as he seemingly started to talk to the air. "How?"

'I do not understand it…but it is behaving much like a beacon; shining its light through the mist. Or the sky.'

A beacon? Was that why the machines were there? Because this structure was giving off strange energy-readings? If that was true, then that would explain why the hostile elements were advancing towards Celadon: they were attracted by the Forerunner device.

He was just about to ask the female another question when one of the younger girls ran into the room. "Erica! The flying constructions have entered the city! There are dozens of them!"

"What!" The gym leader replied, obviously shocked by that statement. "When!"

"Just now; they are simply floating around, like they are looking for something!"

Big Forerunner spire releases machines, machines are looking for miniature spine held in Celadon…that much made sense. But why now? Why not months ago? What had changed a few days back?

"Where is the game corner?" He asked and turned to face the girl.

"Why? What are you going to do?" Erica asked in turn.

"Turn off the generator and save the city." That caused the necessary ruckus; all the women suddenly started yapping and whispering about his him.

'How are you going to do that?' Cinder asked him.

"Guns." If the generator was controlled by team Rocket and at the same time the one thing these machines were looking for, he should be able to turn it off and prevent them from hurting anyone. His entire encounter with the hunter-killer units might have been a mere coincidence; if they had been looking for the artefact then they would be scouting the area.

And seeing as Lucy had randomly teleported him in the immediate vicinity of the city, it would only make sense for them to attack him like that.

So things did make sense after all. That was mildly reassuring for him. "Wait!" The gym leader yelled when he was about to leave. It was slowly getting dark and he had no desire to keep chatting with these humans. "Even if you can turn it off in their hideout –taking into account that you can find it- you will still need a key to manually control it. At least, that was what Brock told me."

"Brock?" He repeated. He knew that name from somewhere…had he encountered a Brock before?

"Yes. The Pewter city gym leader. I gave the key to his wife for safeguarding but…that was a week ago."

"Why did you give it away?"

"I was beginning to suspect that team Rocket would do something extreme and harm the citizens of Celadon. You see; when we found it, the generator had a small hole in which we could insert certain items. The only sort of items that had any effect on it, were fossils."

A two-way lock? A fossil to turn it off in the gym and then manual labor to deactivate it in Rocket's hideout? But why! It didn't make sense for a Forerunner machine to be controlled by human cables and old fossils…unless something had messed with it. Perhaps that was why these laser robots were after it? To turn it right?

'Brock's wife entrusted you with a trinket, did she not?' Lucy gently asked him. When she was not talking about things like emotions and feelings, she was pretty useful when it came to providing Intel. He reached for the same place he held the Poké balls and grabbed the small piece of amber that she had given to him. "This?" He asked and held the orange item in the air.

"Yes!" Erica replied happily. "That is the key! Please hand it over so that we might start on his end!"

He complied and briefly thought about the initial skepticism that he had run into in this gym. The women didn't believe him until Lucy showed them his memory and suddenly they were all trying to help him? Something fishy was going in here and he didn't like it. But still; if his theory was correct –and he'd like to think it was- then the deactivation of the Forerunner artefact would confuse the machines, allowing Celadon city to mount an effective defense.

"Get to it." He said and proceeded to move out of the gym. He felt the glares of many people burning in his back and one of the younger girls even wished him "Good luck".

What luck? All he needed to do was move through a dark city while avoiding patrolling Forerunner hunter-killer units, find a hidden terrorist hideout that nobody had ever managed to find and then fight through multiple rooms of enemies in said hideout before finally turning off a device that nobody understood.

He was a Spartan. He didn't need luck.

He had weapons.

~0~

All these grass Pokemon were scared of her, it was actually kind of funny. Every time she got even near them they all just hopped out of the way and acted all intimidated. But why? She had not once growled or lashed out at them.

Or was it simply because she was a fire-type?

Even as she was walking after her trainer to exit the room, she still felt the many grass-types staring at her. Silly creatures! She wouldn't hurt them unless her trainer ordered her to.

"So what now?" She asked her friends.

"Alpha wants to beat those flying enemies." Fenrir responded. "We follow his orders."

The fact that the Nidorino still saw life as a large fight or challenge was one of the things Cinder liked about him. No difficult moral dilemmas or complicated emotions holding him back; he acted like his instincts told him to and he wasn't burdened by his own mind. Fighting and obeying and generally enjoying life as it was…if only she could do the same.

"The situation is more complicated than that, I fear." Lucy softly replied. Ever since she had evolved into her new form, the psychic-type had been acting strange. Her behaviour had changed dramatically…but whether that was for the better or for the worse had yet to be determined. It was true that she had grown more mature and serious, but she was still gentle and caring when it came to her friends. "These metal creatures are not alive, but still they behave as if they are living beings. Math believes that they came to this place because they are looking for something."

"And that is why we are going to turn that weird construction off, right?" She replied.

"Correct."

"From this point on, you move like I move." The human ordered them. It only made sense for him to try and be stealthy, seeing as every single living being in this Celadon city was currently hiding from the monsters.

And then the circumstances demanded absolute concentration and silence from their team, allowing only minor telepathic forms of communication to go through without getting detected. It was very enjoyable for a Vulpix to dodge, jump and move through the darkness without getting detected, but it wasn't that funny for Fenrir to do so. He had a hard time to move with the gracious elegance that Math and soon, the bulky Pokemon was unable to keep up with the rest of the team. By the time Cinder and her human had reached the residence known as the 'Game corner', Lucy had felt compelled to take Fenrir with her and she had quickly teleported the male ahead of them.

"Clear!" The trainer said while aiming his weapon at the sky. "Move up."

The poison-type immediately followed his orders and proceeded through the door, not even taking the time to communicate with his team.

'He is cute when he is enthusiastic like that!' The vixen told her teammate.

The white psychic didn't reply, but instead turned to face the sky. Her large, red eyes narrowed as she beheld the silver machines floating through the air and Cinder could feel a sudden shift in the air. It wasn't something that she could describe…it just was…and it felt bad. A chill ran down her spine and for a split-second she could feel a dark aura manifesting itself from her surroundings.

But before she could even think about what could have caused it, the cold change in her surroundings faded away and her body could relax again.

Lucy sighed and followed Fenrir inside the building. That was strange…

It probably meant nothing. Cinder shrugged and walked after the rest of the Pokemon, trying to make sense of what had happened.

"What are you doing here!" A dark-clothed man yelled. He was standing in front of a poster in the back of the room. "You should be seeking shelter from these…these things!"

He was acting rather suspicious…why did his clothes so closely resemble the clothes of the bad people they had been fighting?

"Move." Her trainer said. His voice sounded hard as ever and only a foolish creature would ignore him when he spoke.

"Screw you!" The man said and threw two Poké balls in the air. So that was why he looked like the bad people! He was one of them!

The capturing devices hit the ground and two mean-looking Pokemon appeared. One of them was a large Golbat, while the other one was one of those large, venomous snakes. An Arbok, right?

Lucy instantly moved to engage the two hostile Pokemon, but the soldier held out his hand in their appointed stop-signal and the Psychic froze in midstride. She gave him a questioning look, but he ignored her. "Fenrir, Cinder, take them out."

It was too bad that Lucy wouldn't be a part of this fight, but Math probably had his reasons. His tactical prowess was immense and he had yet to disappoint them. "Remember your training and work together."

This would be another battle where they would be forced to operate without clear orders. As interesting as it was to mix things up in a fight where there would be no help from above, it might still prove to be too much.

She looked at Fenrir and he gave a vicious snarl at the enemies –who seemed taken aback with his ferocious attitude. Good; his intimidating factor might give them the upper hand if used correctly. She jumped over her teammate and opened her mouth to unleash a torrent of flames at the enemy, but the Golbat shrieked and dodged her attack. At the same time, Arbok dove behind one of the metal caskets with the blinking lights and the flames missed it by mere inches.

"Watch out!" She yelled as the Golbat swept down to attack them.

"Got it!" Fenrir replied and turned towards the flying Pokemon. He waited until the last moment and then jumped in the air –jamming his spiked head into the Golbat's mouth. It yelled with pain and retreated, blood dripping from its wounded body. That had to hurt…

The large snake appeared out of nowhere and its powerful tail swept out to grab her. Utilizing her quick attack, she dove to the side and narrowly avoided the purple appendage. In that brief moment of confusion, the Arbok presented her with an opening. One that she took.

As soon as the attack missed her, she retaliated with a searing flamethrower and was rewarded by a scream of pain from the reptile. She didn't have time to celebrate though, as it sought cover once again and the Golbat attacked her with a wing attack.

It seemed that she had made the same mistake as the Arbok had; in her haste to attack she had left herself vulnerable to a counterattack. She barely had time to widen her eyes before a purple missile slammed into the enemy Pokemon and knocked it to the ground.

Apparently, the bulky Nidorino had been keeping an eye on her. Or on the opponent, that might be possible too.

"T-thank you!" She hastily said.

"No problem." The male replied and took up a position next to her.

"Arbok! Attack with poison sting!" The bad human yelled and the Snake once again appeared to pelt them; this time with a hail of venomous darts from its maw.

Without thinking she blasted the projectiles out of the air with another fire-attack- her flames burned bright and strong, turning the human poster on the wall into ashes…

…and leaving the opening for Fenrir to take.

Which he did. He jumped in the air and smacked the purple snake with its hind-legs; sending its head crashing into one of the human machines. It appeared that humans could build with strong materials; as a heavy 'dong!' echoed through the room when the Arbok hit the thing, not much as denting it.

"Damnit!" The human cried and was about to run away when her trainer crossed the remaining distance and smashed the man with his weapon. She knew from experience just how incredibly strong her human was, but the bad man didn't faint from his attack!

Was this bad man very strong too, or had her trainer simply held back in his attack?

"What do you want from me?" He yelled, fear practically oozing out of him.

"Where is the hideout?"

"I can't tell you! I only know that I was appointed to guard this building that's it! I swear!"

It looked like Math believed him; seeing as he hit the man again, causing him to faint properly. But how would they proceed now?

"Fenrir, can you hear anything?"

The Nidorino moved his ears around a few times and then nodded. "Under the floor are many humans walking around."

She relayed his message telepathically to their trainer and he looked around the room, probably looking for a way into the hideout. Then his gaze turned towards the piece of scorched wall where the piece of paper had hung before she had destroyed it.

There was a button.

He carefully reached out and hit the red object –which' results became apparent immediately. A piece of wall shifted and fell away, revealing a staircase leading down the floor and into the darkness.

"I did not expect that." She muttered and took a step backwards, moving away from the dark hole. She bumped into the Nidorino and realized that she had just avoided one of his highly-poisonous spikes. Whoops.

"You alright?" He asked her.

"Just a bit nervous…" She tentatively responded and looked at Lucy. She didn't seem fazed in the slightest by the appearance of the staircase.

"Move out!" The human said and stepped towards the hole in the ground. He aimed his rifle at the darkness and probably determined that it was clear; seeing as he waved his hand at her and told her to take point.

Seriously? Her? Of all Pokemon to choose from, he picked her to lead the team into the dark hole of doom? Fenrir was armoured, spiked, highly venomous and itching to fight anything in his path and Lucy could kill with her mind!

'Don't worry little one. The darkness is not your enemy.' Lucy mentally told her, slightly easing her fears.

'Yes…that's true…thanks.' She said in turn and then carefully moved down the stairs. Even though they appeared dark when they first appeared, it soon became apparent that the hideout itself was brightly lit. Of course humans would be completely blind in the darkness, causing them to place lights everywhere.

She rounded the corner and nearly bumped into another black-garbed human. He turned around –sensing her in his close vicinity- and was about to shout when Math appeared and hit him in his face with a lightning-quick jab. Or at least that was what she thought had happened, seeing as it happened too fast for her to follow. He simply appeared and the grunt fell to the floor.

'Did you kill him?' She asked her trainer. Even though these people were bad, it didn't neccesarily have to mean that they deserved to die!

"Unknown. Keep moving." He told her and scanned the hallway with his weapon. Fenrir merely looked at her for a few seconds before he averted his gaze, instead facing the empty corridor. She got the message and led her team through the narrow hallway, taking great care to ensure that the rooms were empty when she passed them.

One such room contained two scientists discussing some sort of project, when they noticed her appearing in the doorway. They both threw their Poké balls and unleashed a total of four floating Magnemites.

Damnit! These Pokemon might be weak to her, but she had no desire to fight four of them in close quarters.

She instinctively pelted the metal-types with an ember attack and three out of the four creatures turned to seek cover from her attack –but seeing as they were fighting in a small office nearly three by three meters big, that didn't work so well. Two of the Magnemites were hit by her small shards of fire and fell to the ground, while Fenrir used his double kick to dispose of the remaining two.

As soon as the four Pokemon clattered to the ground, burned and beaten into submission, the trainer moved towards the scientists and aimed his weapon at them.

"Talk. Now." he ordered them and as if they were good little Pokemon, they started talking.

"W-what do you want to know!" The first one said, while the other one simply begged for the soldier to 'not shoot him'.

"Celadon city is powered by an alien device." Math replied.

"Alien? What are you-"

Her trainer nodded at Fenrir and the large Nidorino viciously growled at the two humans, shutting them up without difficulty. "It was here before the city was built. How did you tap power from it?" He continued.

"W-we didn't! When team Rocket found out that it was here in Celadon, it was already rigged for human use!"

It occurred to Cinder that the scientist had first denied that the device would be anything but human, but now he simply assumed it like it was common knowledge. Did all humans lie so easily?

"What are you using it for?"

"Power! It possesses infinite power, but we don't know how to unlock it! It has built-in limits preventing us from accessing its full potential. Consider what we could do with unlimited power!"

"I do." The soldier replied and aimed his weapon at them. Lucy turned her head towards him and Cinder knew that the psychic was communicating with her trainer at telepathic level.

"Do it." He said out of nowhere and Lucy nodded. Then her eyes turned green and the two scientists fell to the ground, their eyes closed and their bodies limp.

'That was a Hypnosis attack!' She realized. Since when could the psychic-type use that attack?

"Keep moving." Math said and she understood that he was talking to her. Nodding like a good little Pokemon, she started moving. Clearing several rooms after each other, they eventually found another staircase leading downwards. She headed won without hesitation and leapt forwards –hoping that she could find what they were looking for and win her trainer's very rare positive attention.

"Hold!" He yelled, but before her brain could finish processing why he would tell her to stop moving and actually stop her body, her remaining momentum carried her another three meters. She passed a strange looking statue and as soon as her last tail had passed its line, a red light started flaring at the roof and a loud, blaring noise started playing through several speakers.

So that was why she had to stop: otherwise she would trip an alarm hidden in an innocent-looking statue and bring the entire hideout to alert.

Whoops.

"We're compromised!" The soldier yelled and moved past her. "Go loud!"

"What does that mean? What is happening!" She nervously yelled.

"Time for action!" Fenrir replied and charged past her.

"It means that we can work together with our trainer to defeat these people!" Lucy happily said. Wasn't she supposed to feel the same thing as her trainer did? But she was happy! Did that mean that Math was happy that they were busted and had to fight past the remaining Rocket humans without the element of surprise? That was completely insane.

The soldier moved through the halls with a speed that was hard to keep up with, but not impossible. Many bad humans appeared to stop him, but he disabled half of them before they could even utter a word or make a single move. The remaining ones released their Pokemon, but the combined effort of Fenrir, Lucy and her was more than enough to beat their large quantities. It was just like their training session in the Rock tunnel, where they had been forced to face large amounts of enemies to learn how to work together. And that was back when Lucy was still a Kirlia, Fenrir didn't know how to control his body and Cinder was less competent with her powers. Combined with their fatigue at that point, made this fight more than favorable to their side.

One particular moment made her realize just how quickly their teamwork had integrated in their actions. Math had pushed ahead after incapacitating two of the black-clothed humans and disarming a third, but one remaining Koffing suddenly appeared in front of her before she could follow him. In split-second between it exploding in her face and Lucy turning around to see where she was, the psychic-type managed to create a reflective barrier around her to protect her from harm. Immediately after that she was nearly jumped by a hostile Raticate –which in turn got mauled into submission by Fenrir.

It was just like their trainer had wanted them to do: fight side-by-side while keeping an eye on each other, never presenting an opening for the enemy to take advantage off without retaliating to ensure a decisive victory.

After that near-death moment, things went even faster. The soldier delivered a smashing kick to a Machoke blocking his way, punched several Koffing and Zubat out of the air and then finished the fighting-pokemon off by smashing his face into the floor before it could even start to process the aforementioned kick. Meanwhile, she had been busy setting fire to multiple Magnemite that had been sent into the fray. Those actions allowed Fenrir to push on and tackle one of the higher-ranking humans into the ground before it could send its own reinforcements.

The fast-paced action worked wonders on her hormone system and she actually found herself reveling in the glorious experience that her team underwent. Fighting for survival and winning was one thing, for sure. But fighting a majority of enemies in tight-quarters with your friends while racing against the clock to save an entire city? Nothing could possibly live up to that!

Was this what her trainer did for a living?

"Breaching!" He suddenly yelled and kicked a heavy door in. The moment he stepped inside, he fired his weapon three times and she could hear three bodies hitting the floor. She gave a signal to Fenrir and followed him inside of the room –just in time to see Math picking up one of the scientists for 'questioning'.

Had he killed the remaining two? Or had he simply disabled them? They were unarmed and their legs were bleeding profoundly. Wait a minute…yes, they were screaming in agony. Still alive!

"Tell me where to find-"The soldier started, but before he could finish his sentence the lights went out. All of them. Throughout the entire hideout. What could have possibly caused the power to disappear from the den when they had yet to disable the artefact's cables?

Math ignored the sudden disappearance of the lights, however and continued interrogating the poor scientist. "How do I disable the artefact?" He barked.

"I-if you turn it off the c-city will be w-without p-power!" The man stuttered.

"If it stays on the city will die." He replied, increasing his crushing grip on the man's neck. Just when Cinder was starting to feel scared in the dark, the lights went back on. It was an unfortunate timing, but still…why had the power suddenly disappeared?

"P-please! Don't k-kill me! It is that c-console over there!"

"Lucy, find out if he's lying." The male said and threw his victim to the ground. While the psychic Pokemon put the bad man to sleep, Math moved to the computer and started mashing buttons. Carefully of course; otherwise he would break them and he did not want that.

'His statements are sincere.' Lucy told them and the trainer nodded before pressing a final button. As soon as he hit the red object, the lights flickered off and stayed off.

"Did it work?" the Pokemon whom she assumed was Fenrir asked.

"No idea!" Cinder sarcastically replied. "I can't see if it worked!"

"Stop chatting and move out. Fenrir, take point."

"Yes! Take point in the total darkness!"

"You can light it up with your flames, can't you?"

"That and the entire building…your horns…Lucy's furry dress…our trainer…did I mention your horns?"

"Point taken."

"Move out!" The human called, but the only result was Fenrir hesitantly moving ahead and bumping into a wall. "I can't see!" He growled and tried again a few feet further down the wall, only to smash into something else.

"Allow me to help…" The psychic type said. A second later, the room was brightly lit when she created a shimmering orb of…psychic energy. Apparently. "I shall light our path." She then launched the ball of light down the hall, illuminating it as it sped through the air.

"What was-" Fenrir asked softly, but his trainer started talking a second later and shut him up. "I'll move first, stick close!" Math said and showed his team how NOT to stumble into solid objects when moving through the dark. His night-vision had to be excellent; even with Lucy's orb of light, the hideout was dark as the night.

It took them at least several minutes to find their way back to the surface and when they finally emerged from the hidden hideout, the sun was already starting to set. The town was quiet and the once so busy streets had completely emptied.

The metal monsters, however, were still very much present.

~0~

The fight in the Rocket hideout had been refreshing for him. It presented him with a much-needed exercise and testing procedure to see how far he could push his body without his MJOLNIR. He was thankful that the people in there hadn't seen fit to wield firearms in their defense, but that didn't make the fight a slaughter, neccesarily. The many Pokemon that had been sent out to stop them were initially seen as a threat by him. But the moment he witnessed his team fight their way past the obstacles like a well/trained team of soldiers, all doubts of their functionality had disappeared. They performed excellently; tearing through humans and Pokemon alike without as much as breaking a sweat. Cinder's fire-based attacks were guaranteed to disable her foes at every range and Fenrir's powerful moves spelt total defeat for every hostile he hit. The super-soldier still had no idea of the lethality of his poison, but he could leave that up to his imagination.

And even though he had specifically ordered Lucy to stay behind in order for her to acclimatize to her new powers, she had proven to be a very powerful supportive asset. And that didn't neccesarily stop at blocking hostile attacks; she had even managed to create pure light seemingly out of nowhere. And given the fact that she didn't carry a lantern underneath her natural dress, that had to mean she fabricated it out of pure psychic energy.

He didn't know much about energy-conversions in Pokemon, but that had to be quiet the feat, right? Lucy had indeed grown to be very powerful. Why didn't he use her more often? Why hadn't he let her mop up all the small Pokemon that the Rocket gang had sent out to stop them?

Deep down, something prevented him from letting Lucy unleash her full powers. It had to be the doubt of control, right? He simply didn't trust her control over her newly gained powers and that was it.

'Master! We need to move before those machines can spot us!'

Speaking of the devil. "Roger that; move out!" The Spartan waited for the right moment to charge through open space and then moved as fast as he could. The flying Forerunners had presented him with a slight opening and he would take FULL advantage of that. Cinder was fast enough to accompany him, but Fenrir was having difficulty with taking the right timing. In the end, the psychic-type had been forced to teleport both herself and the Nidorino with her to the gym. But at least they had managed to reach the building without being detected by the hunter-killer units and their mission had been successful. They had succeeded in turning the generator off through the Rocket access point, which in turn shut off power throughout the entire city. The machines had no reason to stick around and when they left, he would move too.

He rose from his half-crouch position and felt something poke him against his thigh. That was strange; didn't he put his grenades on the other side?

He reached for his leg and pulled the red-coloured Pokedex out of his pocket. So that was where he had stuffed the device when he had stripped his armour! It would come in rather handy when it came to identifying Lucy's new form.

'I have a bad feeling about the situation…' The psychic told him, but he ignored her comment and moved to the double set of doors in the gym. He would get some more information from Erica the leader and then proceed to Saffron city, where he could contact the UNSC.

While pushing the glass doors open, he aimed the red device at Lucy and pushed the button.

…nothing. That was strange, why didn't it respond? Why wasn't it working?

Shaking his head, the Spartan moved inside of the gym-

-and immediately froze in position with the Pokedex in his hand. Something was definitely wrong! All the women were lying underneath the bushes and small trees with their hands on their heads, curled up in fetus-positions or otherwise protecting themselves from some invisible harm. All the flasks of perfume were broken and scattered throughout the room and Erica was lying flat-out on the ground, her Poké balls scattered over the floor and a simple bush serving as her cover.

What happened? Had someone attacked them? Robbery? No, the 'valuable' perfumes had been destroyed, not stolen, and the Pokemon were either unconscious on the ground –their vegetable-like forms were still breathing- or captured in their balls, lying on the floor. No robbery…murder? Assassination? Then why was everyone still alive?

Erica slowly raised her head and looked at the door. She spotted him standing in the opening and her eyes widened in shock. Why was it a bad thing to see him?

She brought one finger to her lips in a silencing gesture and then aimed at the ceiling. Her finger led his gaze upwards and he spotted the reason why everyone was playing dead.

A large draconic and very grey dinosaur was hanging from the roof, its head covered by a purple wing. The thing had to be at least as big as a full-grown man and judging by how terribly scared the occupants of the gym were, very carnivorous.

And apparently sleeping. It was curled up at the roof, the woman were still alive but acting dead and Erica gestured for him to be quiet. If he could reach his rifle and shoot the thing before it disemboweled everyone, that would be fantastic.

"AERODACTYL, THE DINOSAUR-POKEMON. IT IS A FEROCIOUS, PREHISTORIC POKEMON THAT GOES FOR THE ENEMY'S THROAT WITH ITS SERRATED, SAWLIKE FANGS. IT IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN THE KING OF THE SKIES."

Hey! The Pokedex was working! Only he had been holding it the wrong way; aiming the device at the dinosaur-pokemon instead of Lucy. And it had a delay…funny how things could go.

With an ear-splitting roar, the Aerodactyl attacked.

~0~

"It is as has been said. A human laboratory created to make clones of Pokemon…the only result has been the creation of me…a clone of Mew. No longer will these…facilities be used to fabricate human desires. I shall reshape them and subjugate them to own…desires. Mew will not be able to stop me. Not again. Not this time."

- Conversation between Mewtwo and UNKNOWN CONTACT