I would like to take this time to apologize for my long absence... and for the direction this story has taken. When I first came up with HLH I had orignally thought of having more than one storyline, perhaps like five or six different stories all happening at once, which was kinda the plan here. Now I see that I don't think I can pull that off... so instead, I think I'll make Amanda's tale a seperate story for those who are interested, picking up where this chapter left off...
However, I do feel this arc was needed to help us better understand what Mark and his friends will have to deal with in future... Poor fox has no idea what's going to happen to him.
And I feel that another apology if this chapter seems disapointing in anyway... I had orginally tried to stuff as many old characters as I could into this one chapter, however it just didn't work out and the end result left me unsatisfied... I'm sorry.
Anyway, enough of me and my excuses, let's finish this arc up!
Chapter 28: Assault on Lab 104
Date: 7/11/2038
17:43 Hours
Subject: Amanda Taylor
Location: Deep in a Venezuelan Forest
Stupid trees, stupid heat, stupid jungle… navigating through this God damn forest reminded me how much I hated them. Every five second I end up trip over an oversized tree root sticking out of the ground or slapped in the face by a branch. "DAMMIT!" I shouted as I quickly slapped the back of my neck, catching everyone's attention. "These God damn, mosquitoes are eating me alive!"
Raide suddenly covered my mouth with his red furred paw. "SHH! Are you insane, Taylor? Keep it down! We don't want the enemy to hear us."
I quickly swatted the zangoose's paw. "Hey, don't look at me!" I shouted. "It's all these damn bugs mistaking me for a full course meal- GOD DAMMIT!" I shouted, once more slapping the back of my neck. I angrily drew my handgun started looking for the insect that keeps biting me.
Rodes quickly shocked me and snatched the weapon from my hand, unloading it in the process. "Take it easy, Taylor. You're going to get one of us killed! Besides, you shouldn't be complaining, you were supposed to stay on the ship and heal." Oh God, not this again…
"Uh… Is she always this… ahem, demented?" Rebecca asked.
"Don't worry, Rebecca." Emerald suddenly spoke up. "She's only a danger to herself. Like a new born poochyena pup."
I quickly shot the emotionless gardavoir a glare before getting shocked by Lan again. "Like Em said, there's nothing to worry about! She's just a little cranky." The rodent laughed. I really hate that rat… I wonder what he'd looked like with his fur shaved off?
Raide suddenly lifted his head started sniffing the air. "Hey guys, do you smell that?" He asked us.
Randal quickly sampled the air which was thick with the smell of tobacco. "…Yeah… Diego!" He called out into the forest. The rest of us tensed up when a lone figure slowly walked out of the underbrush. It was a lone human that looked to have been in his thirties with a thick, black beard on his face smoking a thick cigar in his mouth. He reminded me of a former president of Cuba only younger looking.
The man chuckled as he took a puff of his cigar. "Sargento Randal… You are late, amigo. We've been waiting for you for horas." He snapped his fingers, signaling his men to show themselves. The human rebels slowly came out of the forest brush, giving us all dirty looks, most likely because of the morphs in our group.
"Have you located the facility?" The sergeant quickly asked.
Diego chuckled as he took another puff of his cigar. "Of course, mi amigo, it is in a clearing not too far from here." The Latino pointed into him. Randal nodded and started to move in the direction the man was pointing only to be stopped when Diego placed his hand on Randal's shoulder. "Ah! Not so fast, Randal. Remember what happened in Mexico? You're with us."
Randal laughed and nodded. "Fair enough… I guess owe you for your help."
Diego turned to face his men and started speaking to them in Spanish. His soldiers all responded affirmatively and started moving deeper into the forest. "Follow me." The man commented. Unsure of what to do, we all looked at Randal who simply motion us to follow him.
Diego swiftly guided us through the underbrush leading us to a small plateau overlooking a five building compound. "There is your prize." He said pointing to a one-story building tucked underneath the shade of a large tree. "We believe that small building is the lab that houses the creatures you are searching for."
"So you've heard?" Randal asked a little surprised that Diego knew.
"Sí, we were told about these bestias… however we were given very little information about them, leading many of my men to suspect that these 'weremorphs' are nothing but enemy propaganda." He quickly shot a glare at Lan, Emerald, Raide and Rebecca. "Something the Imperialistic pigs made up just to scare us humans. Speaking of… are sure you can trust them?" He asked the sergeant, referring to the four morphs in our group.
"With my life." Randal simply responded.
"That was crony." I mused aloud before addressing our comrade. "And the least you can do is pretend you trust these guys."
"That's what most humans do." Raide grumbled as his red furred ears flattened against his head.
"Trust is earned, señorita, not given." Diego shot back before pointing back into the forest. "…It would appear we have company."
"I've noticed," Emerald said as she focused her energy on the two newcomers restraining and forcing the morphs out of hiding. None of us were surprised to see that the charmeleon morph and pikachu morph were following us.
I clicked my tongue and strolled up to them with a devilish smile on my face, enjoying the look of sheer terror the pikachu girl gave me. The charmeleon, however, was rather calm despite being unable to move and helpless before a crazed sadist. Before I could even do anything, Rodes grabbed my arm forced me behind him. "Oh come on!"
"Thank you, Rodes." Randal sighed as Diego walked up to the electric type.
"…What are you are two doing here, puta?" He growled at the mouse.
"W-we're here to st-stop you filthy humans!" She squeaked letting loose a weak jolt as warning.
Diego laughed as he looked Randal. "Did you hear that, amigo? This little rat believes she can stop us."
Randal simply shook his head unamused as glared at our captives. "…What do you think we should do with them?" He asked his friend.
Diego laughed as he raised his weapon and pointed it at the charmeleon. Although the yellow mouse let out a small squeak as her eyes started to water, the lizard didn't even flitch. He gave the Hispanic freedom fighter an unsettling calm and cool look.
"…Do you think that I am intimidated by you, human?" The charmeleon asked spitting fire at Diego's foot. The flame the charmeleon spat landed just an inch away from the freedom fighter's foot and started to burn the grass at Diego's feet. Rebecca quickly stepped in and used water-gun to quickly dose the small flame.
"¡Vil perro de imperialista!" Diego roared, attacking the fire-type in the face with the back of his rifle. "You will die for that!"
Our sergeant quickly grabbed Diego's weapons and forced is out of his hands. "Taylor, Rodes, restrain those two." He ordered me and the Raichu.
We both nodded and slowly approached the two imperial morphs. "Dibs on the rat!" I shouted as I cracked my knuckles.
"I think I should be the one to restrain the pikachu, Taylor. I am a raichu after all." Lan pointed out, already handcuffing the yellow mouse's paws… What a killjoy… Oh well.
I sighed as I took out a pair of handcuffs, course these are just plain old cuffs meant to restrain human hands, practically useless on a fire-type. However, these things are my only option at this point.
"Randal!" Diego shouted. "What is the meaning of this?"
"They are more useful to us alive then they are dead, my old friend." Our sergeant grinned. "These two will serve as our guides and help us find what we're looking for."
"The hell we will!" The pikachu girl roared. "What makes you think we'll cooperate?"
I laughed and flicked the tip of her muzzle. "You don't have much of choice at this point, rodent." I sneered, pushing her towards the base.
Diego gave our team leader a disgusted look. "You are far too merciful, amigo." He hissed as he grabbed the lizard by the neck. "These beasts must be destroyed… if we are to survive."
"That's debatable." Randal replied forcing the other human to release his grip. "Now let's focus back on the mission… when will your men be ready?"
Diego gave us all an evil grin before looking at his watch. Seconds later there was an explosion by the front of the base followed by an eruption of gunfire. "I cannot guarantee you a lot of time, Randal… however, we will hold their attention for exactly one hour before pulling out… after that, you are on your own…" Diego turned away from us. "My men need me… Good luck, Amigo… you are going to need." And with that, Diego quickly ran off to join the fight his men started.
"What an asshole." I spat once he was out of earshot.
"Don't hold it against him, Taylor." Randal solemnly replied. "He's wasn't always like this…" Our leader shook his head in disappointment. "Alright, we have a mission to complete, let's move."
Subject: Lan Rodes
Sneaking into the complex wasn't as difficult as we had originally thought it to be. The two imperials we captured made it easy on all of us. The charmeleon was nice enough to burn a hole in the fence surrounding the complex for us to use to sneak in and the pikachu girl served as an excellent guide when she wasn't busy cussing out Taylor, that is.
However, I can't help but think the two of them gave up rather quickly. They didn't put up much of a fight… something doesn't seem right here. Hell, even the weakest of Imperials would rather die than betray their empire…
Another thing that seems odd is that we've yet to see any imperial guards. The place seems rather dead and empty. When Taylor asked where the all the soldiers, our two captives replied they were all off fighting the human rebels. While that answer was enough to satisfy Taylor, not me. I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss.
"-And you're sure this is where we'll find that pet project of Caniner's?" Amanda asked the charmeleon, standing in front of pair of old doors that appear to be falling off of their hinges.
The lizard simply nodded giving us an unsettling smile. I quickly looked at Emerald who appeared to have been reading the fire-type's mind. "Hey, Em, this guy telling the truth?" I asked as Amanda kicked down the twin doors and rushed in followed by Raide, Sarge and Rebecca. She looked at me and shook her head.
"Sergeant!" I shouted as me and Em rushed in after the others. Too late. As soon as we were through the doorway, the doors quickly shut closed and locked behind us trapping us inside the large laboratory.
Amanda just glanced behind her before pouncing on the Pikachu girl and warping her hands around the rodent's skinny neck. "You little bitch! I should've shot you when I had the chance!"
The electric-type let off a change to stun Amanda and knocked her off. "Did you really think we'd betray our own empire like that?" She giggled. "Now you're in for it!" She confidently shouted as she turned around, most likely expecting to see a couple of morph soldiers ready to tear us all apart… too bad for her, there was no one there.
"Uh… Rubin… this is the right room… right?" She asked her partner as Amanda forced aching body back up.
"I hope so…" The charmeleon whimpered as me and Raide leered at him.
Randal was rather calm about this. "Not a very effective trap you have here." He noted. "…I don't know, what you think we should do them, Rodes? Shoot them? Or let Raide and Taylor handle them?"
Before I could answer, the lights in the room dimmed and a strange, cone shaped device suddenly lowered from the roof. A green light beamed down and the transparent image of a blocky Pokémorph appeared, giving us the dullest laugh I've ever heard. It sounded like someone was playing around with an old computer speech program from the late 90s.
"Ha, ha, ha." The image creature flatly laughed. "Just as I calculated. You foolish humans are so easy to predict." It said in a monotone voice. "Now how do dispose of you?" He flatly asked himself… at least, I think it's a guy… it's hard to tell with proygon morphs.
"Tech! What's going on?" The charmeleon roar. "Where's the ambush party you had set for us?"
"I lied." The proygon move simply answered. "There never was an ambush. I simply used you as bait in order to lure these rebels here so I could conduct some experiments." It flatly explained.
Raide's eye twitched a bit as he covered his pointy ear with his paws. "…Anyone else annoyed by that guy's voice? For Mew's sake! Shut up!"
"Screw you." It plainly relied, once more devoid of any emotion.
I gritted my teeth as I faced the digital morph. "Experiments? What do you mean by that?" I asked trying to pry information from it.
"…You will see soon enough." Tech responded. "Rubin, Kate, I am sorry but you will most likely not be leaving this room alive." It said. "We thank you for all your work and your sacrifices. You will be remembered… we must know how well our creatures would fair against these conditions."
"Your creatures?" Randal suddenly spoke up. "You're talking about the weremorphs, right?"
The artificial morph ignored the sergeant and continued to speak. "I predict the humans will die with the first few minutes of combat and their morph friends soon after. Rubin and Kate, you both have a 7.82% chance of surviving. You have severed you empire well. Thank you for all your help." With that last, emotionless statement, the lights brightened the room and the hologram disappeared as the cage on the fair end of the room opened. What came out of it, however, was completely unexpected.
There was only one young and scrawny human girl dressed in dirty, worn rags that barely covered her body. She was all chained up and had a couple of Machamp morphs watching her. What kind of sick joke is this? This is their secret weapon? You've got to be kidding! The human isn't even armed!
The Pikachu girl, Kate, looked at the skinny human, puzzled by the sight of her before laughing. "This is a joke, right? I mean we've got to be being pranked by our superiors."
"Why would they pick now to play a practical joke on us, Kate?" Rubin impatiently argued, never taking his eyes off of us. As the girl slowly approached the sickly human guarded by the machamp, Emerald's eyes suddenly widened in shock, showing us emotion for the first time.
"Lan!" She urgently shouted. "She mustn't disturb that human! She isn't what she appears to be!"
The human suddenly started to twitch as she slowly lifted her head to stare at us. She suddenly shook violently before letting out an inhuman yell as fangs quickly replaced her teeth while her skinny, short neck began to thicken and lengthen. Everyone stared in disbelief at what was taking place before our eyes. Her skin was rapidly changing color, from pink to light blue as scales replaced her skin. Her body grew was rapidly growing in muscle and mass until she was about three times her old size, shredding her tattered clothing in no time.
My eyes widened in shock when I saw blood on her swelling hands. Took me a while to release that the blood was due to claws forcing their way out of her fingers, which were much shorter than what they were when she was human. In fact, her hands looked more like oversized paws than human hands.
She hunched over in pain as her back began to bulge. She hissed and groaned in pain before giving off a loud roar as red wings ripped out of her bare, blue scaled back. Finally a tail slowly slithered out of her rear end just as her face shifted into more draconic shape with horns growing out of her head. Her faced grew and formed muzzle better fitting her new set of fangs. At long last her docile eyes were replaced with the red eyes of blood-thirsty beast.
With her transformation complete, the new transformed salamance let out a loud roar ripping the chains right out of the ground. The machamp morphs started to panic now the creature was loose and slowly attempted to back away from the new morph.
The salamance, however, had other plans. With a quick lash of its tail, it pounded the ground with an earthshaking force, causing all of us to lose balance. The monster then looked hungrily at its escorts, who began to panic and tried crawling away from the monster. One managed to get back on his feet and quickly ran, trying to get away from the newly transformed beast only to get its attention. In the blink of an eye the dragon quickly flew towards the fleeing fighting and crunched down on his leg with its power jaws, snapping is leg like a stick.
The Machamp screamed as monster quickly moved its head to bite the morphs head off. The fighting type held it back with two of its four arms while the other started punching the weremorph's draconic muzzle; however the only thing that seemed to have done was anger the beast. The salamance tore open the grey morphs bare chest with its massive claws and started to feast on his inside. The machamp let out a weak cry, weakly attacking the monster before fading.
The other Machamp let out a terrified scream and ran straight towards us. The salamance hear the other fighting-type scream, quickly turned around breathed an intense flame at the machamp, setting the unlucky bastard on fire. Afterwards, it quickly lunged on top of the morph and crushed his head underneath its massive foot. Once the escorts were finished off, it beast then turned its attention on us, glaring at us with same predatorily gaze it gave its escorts moments for attacking them.
An unsettle silence settled in as the beast leered at us. Not one of us moved or even dared to make a sound. We were all still in shock at what had just transpired before us. Even the two imperial morphs couldn't believe what had just happened.
Without warning, the beast finally let a roar, spread its wings and charged us head on, flying at an incredible speed. Amanda quickly snapped out of her fear induced stupor and immediately shot the monster with her assault rifle. Much to our surprise, the bullet didn't even slow it down. I doubt the beast even felt the round penetrate its skin. Unfortunately for the human, the weremorph set its sights on Amanda, attacking her with an intense flamethrower attack.
Amanda quickly rolled out of way and fired her weapon again. "Am I the only one fighting this thing?" She shouted narrowly avoiding the dragon's massive tail. "Come on, guys! Seriously, I could use a little help!" She commanded. Recovering from the shock of the transformation, Raide quickly charged the beast head on, his long, black claws had a metallic shine to them as he attacked. The Zangoose managed to cut deep into the monster's side, gaining the beast's attention in the process.
The monster slammed the normal-type with its massive tail before unleashing a powerful beam of energy at the white furred morph. Raide was blown back by the force of the attack and slammed against the wall, twitching in pain. The monster roared as it spread its wings and soared straight at the Zangoose in a blind rage, determined to tear him apart with its bare claws.
Instinctively I let loose a weak jolt of electricity to try and paralyze the rampaging monster, however, much to my horror and disbelief, the dragon didn't even flitch, however that jolt did get the creature's attention… The salamance quickly changed direction and charged me! I stumbled on to the floor just as Emerald caught the weremorph with her psychic power, sparing me the horror of being torn to ribbons by its massive claws.
Seeing the weremorph was defenseless and open, Amanda quickly reloaded her weapon and fried several rounds into the beast's belly. "YEAH! EAT IT!" Amanda cheered as the dragon roared in pain, flailing its limbs around like an upset child. The dragon's roar was enough to make Emerald loss her concentration and canceled out her psychic hold on the dragon, leaving the Gardavoir surprisingly exhausted and weak. Once free, the animal started thrashing about, smashing computers, destroying windows and table, all while trying to crush anyone of us. "You've got to be kidding me!" Amanda cried. "All that, and this thing's still breathing? I shot it in the God damn stomach for crying out loud!"
"Taylor, that thing isn't a normal morph." Emerald said, slowly recovering from her fall. "It took all of my energy to immobilize it! So you can for about subduing it."
Amanda quickly reloaded her weapon and looked at the Gardavoir. "I can see that! Just tell me how we can stop it, God dammit!"
While we talking, Raide was trying his hardest not to get killed. The Salamance seem focused on him for some odd reason. It kept clawing at him and breathing fire all over the place. It's a good thing that Raide is much more agile than the giant beast in front of him; otherwise he'd be burnt to a crisp right about now.
I won't why the sergeant or Rebecca isn't helping out? When I turned to face them, they were both gone! Are you kidding me? Where the hell did they do? Of all the times to leave us, why did Randal pick now to disappear?
I quickly turned to face the two imperials that were left here die alongside us. "Hey! What are you two doing?" I asked as Amanda and Emerald finally decided on a battle plan and charged the weremorph. "Don't you see that thing's out to kill us?"
"We-well what do you want us to do about it?" The Pikachu girl squeaked. She was curled up in a little ball, rocking back a fourth hugging her lightning bolt-shaped tail. "We saw five of those things destroy an entire Imperial Morph Army battalion without slowing down! You know how many soldiers are in a battalion?"
The Charmeleon was a little calmer than his partner, but I could easily tell that he was also frightened by look on his face and the dimly light flame on his long, scaly tail. "My friend here has a point… What chance do we have against a monster like that? Imperial morphs couldn't even bruise one of those creatures, what makes you think you can do better?" Way to stay optimist, asshole.
I quickly glanced back at the fight in time to watch Amanda and Raide being tossed around like ragdolls by the massive rampaging morph. Seeing that there is no way in hell these two would help, I sighed and turned my back on them. "Screw it, I don't know what I was thinking." I grumbled. "You imperials are all the same. Too afraid to face a real challenge."
Seeing that morph was distracted by my teammates I quickly charged the weremorph, focusing my energy into my right paw, channeling a current of electricity through it as I made fist and nailed the mammoth of a morph with a strong electrical punch to the muzzle just as it turned to face me.
"It's about time you jumped into the fight!" Amanda shouted. "What kept you?"
"Better question, why is this thing still alive?" I shot back as the feral morph lashed its tail at me. I sidestepped to avoid being crushed by the monster's tail only to get swept off of my feet when it quickly spun around.
"Hell if I know!" Raide shouted as he once again struck the beast with his metallic claws, this time cutting a hole in its belly. "It keeps healing itself! Like it's consistently using Recover… CRAP!" He yelled as the Salamance unleashed a powerful flamethrower attack, searing the fur off of the Zangoose's right arm. "DAMMIT! You know how long it'll take for my fur to grow back?"
"It doesn't look like we're doing much damage…" Emerald weakly muttered as she used all of her power to restrain the beast. "Taylor, you have a working weapon! Aim for the head!"
Amanda giggled and quickly reloaded her gun then took aim at the dragon's head. "That won't work!" Kate the Pikachu girl suddenly shouted. "When we tried that when we were attacked and the bullets just bounced off of the weremorphs, we didn't even slow them down!"
Amanda laughed, ignoring the yellow furred mouse as she shot the Salamance. "HA! Well that's because you were using morph weapons… everyone knows human weapons…" The monster broke free from Emerald's unseen grip and charged Amanda. "Never work right when you need them to!" She shouted as she tried to evade the monster of a morph. While she just avoided escaping dismemberment, the creature's claws dug into her back. "GOD DAMMIT!" She yelled in pain.
"Taylor, you idiot, get out of there!" I shouted, instinctively unleashing a strong blast of electricity at the dragon. The monster roared in pain, swiping me with its front claws knocking me back into a wall, tearing into my uniform and flesh.
Looking down at my chest, I considered myself lucky that I wasn't sliced wide open like the Machamp guard. Ignoring the pain in my chest, I charged forward with blinding speed and delivered powerful electric punch to the face. The beast stumbled back a bit before being lifted by Emeralds psychic and thrown across the lab, damaging and destroying several machines and computers in the process. Amanda then stepped in and fired her rifle until she ran out ammo. After that, she took out a grenade from her pocket, pulled the pin and tossed it at beast.
After the explosion, we all just stood there, too afraid to move, too afraid to breath. Did we slay the dragon? None of dared to approach to body to find out. Hell, I was too afraid to look at it, let alone move. Finally Amanda let out a sigh followed by a small laugh. "That was close!" She exclaimed.
As if on cue, the salamance roared once more and let loose a powerful beam of energy. "You idiot!" The charmeleon yelled as he tackled the human female to ground, narrowly escaping vaporization. Once out of danger Amanda elbowed Rubin in the nose and broke free of his hold on her.
"My luck CAN'T be this bad!" She shouted. "Seriously, HOW DO WE KILL THIS THING?" Amanda exclaimed.
"You're not." A voice came over the loud speaker. "At least, you're not supposed to. These things were created to be the ultimate killing machine." I was shocked to realize that the voice as Rebecca's, the quiet scientist that had accompanied us. Before she could continue, what sounded like gunfire was played over the loudspeaker, driving the beast into another frenzy.
Rubin and Raide quickly ran into restrain the weremorph while the girl simply unleashed on it. After all the rounds she's fried, I'm surprised Amanda has any ammo left for rifle. "Randall! I can't work well if I'm being shot at!" Rebecca shouted over the loud speaker before addressing us again. "These monsters are first generation weremorphs, something Caniner had originally planned on since before the Revolution." The buisel started to explain. I wonder if she can the battle from where she is, because most of us aren't listening!
Seeing an opportunity to get the jump on the dragon, I climbed on its back and stabbed it in the neck with my combat knife. Using the knife as a conductor, I began channeling electricity into the morph's body, shocking frying its insides. It was a good plan… in theory at least. It took all of my strength just to pierce the greenish-blue scales, and by the time I started to channel an electrical current, the large violently shook its head, tossing me clear across the room.
"…Their skin is at least four to five times thicker of a normal pokémorph and because of their cellular structure; they have a slight regenerative property, meaning that their bodies are almost always repairing any and all damage…" Oh now she tells me.
"Based on the data we have obtained we believe the head to be the most vulnerable point." Rebecca continued to explain over the loudspeaker. "Keep in mind that this thing is way stronger than any normal Pokémorph or Pokémon and- sergeant! What are you doing? Watch the door!" She yelled before Randal's voice boomed at us.
"I believe they've already found that out, Rebecca. Listen up, Rangers, because I'm only going to say this once! After that thing is dead, you will regroup with me at the rear of the base after that we're to radio the Kestrel and report everything we're seen here back to the commander, got it? Good luck…"
"Sergeant!" The buisel girl hysterically cried once again gunfire was broadcasted over the p.a. system.
"That's their advice?" Amanda shouted as the dragon lashed at her with its tail. She ducked and dug her knife deep into the tip of its tail. "You know how a small a target that is on this thing? And how hard it's going to be to hit it? Plus I'm almost out of bullets!"
While watching Raide and others fend off the beast, I began to formulate a plan on how to take this thing down… conventional weapons seem to be as effective as BB guns and it's nearly impossible for one of us to deal any damage because of its scales… there must be a way to kill this thing… I just have to think!
"Hey Rodes! A little help here!" Raide shouted as he was being crushed by the beast's massive paw. Rubin the charmeleon chomped down hard on the weremorph's leg in an attempt to get it off of the pinned Zangoose. Giving his partner Kate the Pikachu time to jump on the monster's back and electrocute, forcing it to stumble back in pain.
"There's an idea!" Amanda shouted as she too jumped on the weremorph's while it was stunned, knife in hand. As expected, the dragon knocked her off of its back with its neck and attempted to use a fire attack to burn Amanda to a crisp. Sighing in disappointment, I used my Quick Attack's speed to knock the human out of the way and concentrated my energy into creating a light screen to shield myself from the fire.
Unfortunately, my flimsy little shield was no match for the fierce flames. The searing fire shattered my shield and practically scorching my body. I'm lucky to have any fur left after an attack like that! I fell to my knees, unable to move any part of my body without experiencing a burning pain.
"Lan, look out!" Amanda called as the weremorph once more lunged at me, its muzzle wide open and ready to tear my head off. And if would've had Emerald not been around to ensnare in another psychic trap. She used all of her power to hold the massive dragon in place, just inches in front of my muzzle. I could tell she was struggling because I saw blood running down from her nose.
Seeing that the Gardavoir could not keep this monster contained for very long, Kate began to charge for an attack. "Don't!" I shouted. "If you… attack, you'll only anger it again." I groaned finding it hard to talk in my weakened state.
"I know that!" The mouse shouted. "I have something different mind." She smiled as she channeled a weak, paralyzing jolt of electricity into the monster. "No go! Get out there before you wind up like the Machamp!"
As much I wanted to move… I couldn't. I was too injured to move. My body too badly burnt. There was nothing I could do. The salamance resisted the paralyzing effects of Kate's Thunder Wave and Em's Psychic hold fairly well as it slowly inched its way towards me, looking at me with a feral, blood thirsty glare.
I heard Amanda sigh as she suddenly appeared in front of me. "Looks like I have to play hero again." She shrugged as she took out another grenade. Without wasting a second, she quickly shoved the explosive into the mouth of the beast, grabbed me by the tail and literally dragged my brunt ass away from the creature. At this point, the two morphs holding the giant dragon released their hold on it and dove for cover.
Before long there was one final roar before an explosion followed by a loud thud.
Subject: Amanda Taylor
I held my breath as I slowly looked behind me… I swear if that thing survived this… Lucky for all of us that grenade did the trick. I guess you can't regenerate if you don't have head.
"Phew!" I sighed out in relief, falling to the floor out of fatigue. "We got it!" I laughed. "Oh dear Lord… I think I'm going to puke…"
Raide suddenly glared at me, kicking me the face as if I had it coming… Seriously? After everything we've been through. "GAH! Raide! What the hell?"
"Get up!" He commanded, yanking me by arms and forcing me to stand up again.
"Owowowowow! Alright! God dammit! What the hell?"
"How are you feeling?" I heard Emerald ask Lan, gently rubbing his arm.
"I'm not going to lie… I've felt better." He chuckled. "You wouldn't happen to have any rawst berries on you by any chance?"
I laughed as I walked over to the brunt Raichu. I couldn't help but look away from the injured rodent. While his clothes and fur mostly survived the fight, much of his coat was scorched darker than coal! His arm was almost completely bald, red and blistering, making it a rather sickening sight to see. I don't know if I should be shock or laugh at the fact that his suffered the least abuse aside, from me yanking it that is.
"Well if you're making joke, then I guess we have nothing to worry about." I grinned. "And to think, you were worried about me this whole time." I laughed.
"Nice work killing the weremorph, Rangers." Rebecca the cowardly buisel morph grinned as she slowly approached us. Behind her was our sergeant who was choking an imperial meowth morph to death with his bare hands. "Though I do wish you would've at least kept the brain in one piece…" She sighed in disappointment.
"Well maybe if had some help!" I angrily shot back. "Where the hell were you and Sarge?" I asked as Randal tossed a grenade into the room behind him. "And what were two doing!" I roared over the explosion.
"Our mission." Randal simply answered as he turned to Emerald. "I told Emerald to fill you in on the details of our plan… however it seems that she was preoccupied with something else at the time…" He looked at the Gardavoir as he slowly approached Lan.
Emerald nodded and turned towards me. "We were to cover the sergeant and doctor Rebecca while they searched this base for intelligence on the weremorph project. The sarge believed we were more than enough to take this thing… it appears he was right."
"Are you kidding me? We just barely survived an encounter with that thing!" I shouted pointing at poor Lan while Rebecca opened up a first aid and began to treat the rodent's burns. "Why did sergeant-"
"That's enough, Taylor!" Randal barked. "Given the circumstances, it was only a matter of time before that thing would've killed the whole lot of you… our orders were to investigate this area for any information on these beasts…" Randal slowly approached the dead weremorph and crouched down next to the corpse. "…I'd say that this encounter has given more knowledge about Caniner's plans than we ever wanted to know…"
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
Rebecca slowly stood up and turned to me. "Well… while we were at the control room, we were able to find several files that suggest Caniner has been working this project for years now. During and perhaps even before the Revolution." She explained.
"Are you kidding me?" Raide shouted throwing his white furred arms in the air. "You mean that the Pokémorph Empire has been working this mad scientist experiment for over a decade?"
The buisel shock her head. "No… just Caniner. And I doubt the world leader even knows about his plans…"
"But the information suggested that Caniner was making spies, not weapons of mass destruction." Raide pointed out, referring to the information I snagged from Caniner himself.
The orange furred water-typed sighed before shrugging, mubling something under her breath before she answered the Zangoose. "If you had listened to what I said earlier, you would've heard me say that these unfortunate beings are considered to be first generation weremorphs, the by-product of Caniner's main project. While they weren't the results the sick Lucario had in mind, he planned on using them like war Pokémon. Juggernauts on the battlefield that were almost impossible to kill… however, not even could control these monstrosities." She sighed.
I looked back at the slain dragon… thinking about my poor brother and how he's involved in all this… ear wield in my eyes as my hands clenched into fists. My head fill with thoughts on how I could make Caniner's death as slow and painful as possible… "…Is there any way to reverse the weremorphing project? To turn the creatures back into just normal humans?"
Rebecca didn't answer; she just slowly walked up to the sergeant and asked if we could get going. "I asked you a question." I sternly said, leering at the water-type. "Is there a way to reverse it?"
"…No… if there was… it'd be too dangerous." She answered, not even bothering to look me in the eye. "The DNA is… too unstable… it has to be in order for them to shift between forms… any tampering with it might lead to horrible and possibly fatal mutations…"
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath… trying my hardest to stay calm… my head was filled with thoughts of my poor brother… why? Why did it have to be him? Am I to blame? Is it my fault he got caught up in all this?
"Taylor…" Randal said as he motioned us to follow him. Raide had helped Lan up and let the Raichu lean on him while they walked out of the lab. "We can't stay. We must hurry back to the Kestrel and report what we found here. I know you're worried about your brother, you have been ever since you joined my unit… but there is nothing we can do for him… not now at least." He said. "Come on… let's go."
Before leaving the room, I took one last look at the weremorph's corpse… once more thinking about my younger brother… I shook my head, clearing my thoughts before running after my comrades…
Mark… I promise one day I'll return home… I'll return to you and Marcia… someday soon I hope…
Like I said before, I will make Amanda's story a seperate tale all together if people like. Next chapter will be with Mark and his crew and we will stay with them until this story ends.
Again, sorry if this story dissapoints... had a rough time these last few months and my family suffered a loss... eh, but those are excuses in my book.
Hopefully it won't take me half a year to update again... look foreword to the next chapter guys, because you're favorite hot headed Vulpix morph will return! think of this chapter as forshadowing events Mark and his friends will have to deal with...
As Always: Love it, Hate it, Just Review it.
Gunner out
