Part 7.5: The Crossblade
Chapter 59: Imaginary Friends
Another report happens with another change of pace! Also this gets weird. We're dipping back into Book 1's finale, and uncovering some serious plot.
I don't own Pokémon.
Earlier
"Shaymin. What are you reading?"
"Well Mew, that's what I'd like to know."
"Oh yeah? What, did'ja not read it close enough? Why don't you give it another go? Go on. Read it out loud for all of us to hear."
"Huh? I didn't hear you over the chopper! You're gonna have to speak up!"
"Then why don't we take this outside?"
"Huh?!"
"Seriously, half of us here can already fly on our own. In any case, Shaymin, leave that datapad aside. You should remember everything in there from Chevron's experiences. We're approaching the Grove."
"Mmgh..."
Mew SAYS I should remember everything about the Chroma Institute its Tide experiments, but the more I think back to it, the more it seems like it's all one big blur of blurs, even with Chevron's memory.
Everything that he did at Delta Meadow, I remember. Everything he did at Chroma, I... it escapes me, and it's looking like this is all the datapad contains on Chroma. The rest is... I remember doing some of this.
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Summary of HX results, test run:
[DATE REDACTED] (2019)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: As per direction from Chroma and Doctor Maire himself, Doctor Samuel O'brien is to be put under constant surveillance in his studies. If for any reason O'Brien does not comply with direction, an order should be put out to relocate any and all close family within the area to the facility, whereupon they will be designated as top-class research volunteers.
HX "TIDE" Mk. 3 successfully installed in the Deep Meadow. Suspected mole activity observed during the installation. Private ops agents are to be assigned 'blackout' orders upon suspicion of information leak. Special code orders will be distributed to research and operations staff in order to help team members communicate during possible information overflow or leak, as well as emergencies ranging from fire to volunteer breakout.
At the time of this test run, the following agents will be referred to as such:
M[REDACTED-]: Agent Silver Lotos
G[REDACTED-]: Agent Scourge
[REDACTED; INFORMATION EXPUNGED] (Suspended from the facility until further notice. Doctor Charley Setschur has agreed to treat his injuries.)
Doctor Felix Reigh to operate under the name "Chevron".
At the time of this test run, the following code orders are top priority:
Code Five One: All armed personnel to accompany researchers. Facility on high alert. Top researchers and Inner Circle members may leave the facility. No other team members permitted to leave until state of emergency is lifted.
Code Low Nine: All level research volunteers to be relocated to med bays and tranquilized until state of emergency is lifted.
Code All Zero: All personnel to evacuate the entire facility.
Code Ten Eleven: All LARS units to be remotely deactivated.
Code Dust [Code withheld]: Elimination, by any means, of noteworthy research volunteer OR team member.
Test Observation: "Tide" operated as intended. Slight latency in power compared to previous facility. Recommended that onsite technicians keep close surveillance on local reactors until latency is resolved. Lead alloy insulation thickened to prevent radiation leakage. Internal particle accelerator estimated t – 30(n/π) seconds to desired operation. N variable determined by number of Nano-Defib units.
Note to researchers: Due to previous "Tide" experiments, Subject Travis McNeil is to remain in close contact with Doctor Kimberly Valentine. He is not to be tested in the "Tide" until separate ongoing experimentation warrants it. Inner Circle and all personnel working with the "Tide" will be informed on the field research involving Travis.
Anne Maire and Stanley Davidson selected as possible candidates to monitor Travis in uncontrolled environment.
"Tide" ready for use. Awaiting further information.
Summary of HX results, log 5:
[DATE REDACTED] June 2019,
HX "TIDE" Mk.3 prepared as of the previous test run for use on the following subjects:
4. Molly Maximilius
5. Drew Maire
Prior to the test, Subject 4 displayed fear, but understanding to softer-spoken researchers, and ultimately compliance and consent. It is worth noting that Subject 4's medical background is extensive, as per her physician's files. Alongside concrete evidence, these files show that Subject 4 has developed NSCLC. Treatment is underway for the cancer, and should not be made to expand or grow worse upon experimentation. Previous test results show that tumors do not develop in the lungs.
Prior to testing, Subject 5 displayed what has been described as of late: incredibly antisocial behavior, often hiding in dark places and avoiding eye contact when spoken to. Subject 5 does not speak back when spoken to. Subject 5 was seen trapping small insects and reptiles with a grinning expression. Behavior attributed to sociopathic tendencies in children of young age.
Following testing, Subject 4 cried excessively, raising her voice at researchers and saying that she could not breathe. Continued to cry and scream, physically resisting researchers for as long as three weeks and four days, long after her profile was reexamined and her NSCLC case analyzed. No obvious changes in lung cells could be identified. Subject 5, however, started to make eye contact with personnel. Would often watch researchers persistently with wide eyes, as if to express curiosity. Rarely spoke, unless to his mother, father, or, as reported by both parental figures, to his older brother and two "close friends". Seemed to express interest in handheld video games as Subject 4 had done previously. Marked as change to personality.
Chevron to be monitored carefully by armed personnel after his display of violence with the subjects. He is NOT TO BE HARMED, but restrained, up to and including sedation, if need be.
Amended: Subject 5 speaks to his big brother much more than his parents. Sources show that this behavior has only developed following experimentation. This is consistent with Subject 4's affection for her older brother. Subject 5 has also been observed clumsily attempting to perform ballet dancing, a hobby of Subject 4's.
Subject 4 to be taken in for treatment of her NSCLC. All "Tide" experiments are to be halted until she has made a full recovery, as per Doctor O'Brien's request. Treatment will be performed by Doctor Charley Setschur's team.
Update on HX, January 2020,
Due to Chevron's objective lack of self-control in regards to the project, and due to failure to cure Molly Maximilius' cancer, all "Tide" operations are to remain on standby.
Note to researchers: It is our understanding that the Tide is likely to have caused Molly's cancer to become incurable. Our top physicians, including lead surgeon Doctor Westley Winston, have accompanied Setschur's team in finding a way to counteract the anomalous effects on the cancer that the Tide seems to have had. Operations are underway to send Agents Silver Lotos and Scourge to Catalina Island in order to retrieve data on the incident involving Sofia Reigh as possible headway for Molly's case.
Update: Access to Catalina Island denied by Chroma. All personnel in Delta Meadow have been blacklisted. GPS indicates that Catalina Island is no longer present in the world, likely done by means of disruption to systems.
Note to researchers as of early 2020: Due to the lack of responsive activity from the Chroma Institute and the federal government's decision to cover up any and all activity for as long as the facility was functional, including Delta Meadow's growth since then, research of any variety that pertains to HX neuro/cardiochemistry is to be phased out. Delta Meadow will continue to house the Tide machine in an establishment beneath the Deep Meadow. Excavation of cave systems is currently underway.
Update on HX, late 2020,
Following chemotherapy, monitoring Molly Maximilius' condition in a scholastic environment shows that her capacity for learning has dramatically increased and her rate of acquiring knowledge has accelerated. She has displayed the ability to solve mathematical equations up to 4 years beyond her grade level. She can write in sentences that appear indistinguishable to that of most second year students in a local high school. Possible hypotheses include:
1: Electrochemistry in her brain has been optimized for certain functions.
2: Acquisition of Drew Maire's cognitive intelligence, furthered by observations that Drew appears incapable of learning aspects of basic speech.
3: Development of an auxiliary brain-like organ, furthered by observations that cancerous cells in her lungs are sending electrochemical signals through her central nervous system. Samples of these cells are required for testing.
4: Accumulation of all cognition that has "passed" through the Tide, resulting in a higher intelligence quota.
5: Outside influence. Magnetic anomalies reported to have an effect on children of [REDACTED-].
6: Basic internal human response to a traumatic moment in an attempt to avoid said moment ever occurring again (PTSD).
7: Complete transference of Drew Maire's learning capability to Molly. (Inconclusive; no evidence to suggest that Drew's learning capability surpassed other children of his age. Too similar to hypothesis no. 2.)
8: Quantum [REDACTED—-].
Update on HX, 2022,
Molly Maximilius deceased due to NSCLC. Cancer resistant to every treatment known, spontaneously developed into other vital organs until Molly's heart and lungs could no longer function. Medical profile updated with details.
Doctor Maire's note to researchers: [REDACTED-] Sacrifices are a necessary evil of our organization. Sentimentality is a welcome element, but it cannot become tantamount to our research. Our Tide team is fully aware that they are responsible for the death of this young girl. No previous research had indicated that this outcome would occur. If anyone has a complaint regarding Molly Maximilius, they will need to see me directly. Doctor Samuel O'brien has been put under intense duress in order to maintain secrecy of our research. As you all know, the federal government is still in noncompliance with many of the things we do, namely the Inner Circle. In order to protect Delta Meadow, O'Brien's request to have Molly's body cremated with flowers at Ridge Hospital's morgue will be granted. I understand that this prohibits the remaining HX research that the federal government will allow. The Inner Circle team and involved doctors continue to monitor Drew's condition.
With the exception of Chevron, Drew Maire, Travis McNeil, all three of whom are to be monitored in the appropriated environments, all Tide research is COMPLETELY SUSPENDED until further notice.
Excavation of underground site completed. Relocation and technical overhaul of "Tide" underway.
"Tide" upgrades canceled. Relocation of the machine and Inner Circle to underground facility, dubbed the ICOG (Inner Circle Observation Grounds).
Noted that personnel seem to refer to the ICOG as the "Quiet Rooms".
Summary of HX results, log 6:
[DATE REDACTED] October 2024,
HX "TIDE" Mk.3 powered up in the ICOG and appropriated for use on the following subjects:
2. Travis McNeil
5. Drew Maire
As of the present, all tests from here on have been deemed inconclusive due to the outbreak of the Wave. "Tide" experimentation is to be canceled.
[REDACTED-] Elimination orders for Subject Travis McNeil have reached all research staff.
Jurisdiction passed to Chevron until further notice.
Chevron's note: This thing is still underway. I'm not losing what I've worked for years to get, and I'll get it. I'll get this thing to do what I want it to do, so help me God. Travis has shown us long ago that he's a no-go. Better off dead than for him to live like that. But Drew? Keep the kid alive through this. I don't care what his condition is. He needs to be alive. I'll record what I can find at Ridge Hospital as soon as I get it. Have everything ready for me. Keep Foster out of my face this time. He's already gotten on my case about Topher. Goddamn detective is still head over heels for that kid.
P.S.: Found out that Sam's got a lock-down on Drew. So, Foster and Sam are going to be on my back. What a shit-show. It's fine though. I'll get this figured out.
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...
Waves rolled, brimmed white, then crashed onto a soft shore, shining in a dusk unyielding.
The sea sparkled beneath a sun of pink, yellow, and red, mixing together like watercolor. Speckled through the oily canvas of sky were white dots, a breath of night through a day billowing over, stuck so.
The sand was warm, nevertheless, despite the endless twilight. The waters, too, reaching out to this mutually warm sand, no gradient between the dry and the wet sand; simply that – dry and wet, white and black, with no gray. The waters didn't bend into a horizon. They went, and that was all they could do, until they dipped into the sun, and thus was liquid starlight.
...
Timescape
Secany
This will never end.
The crunch of sand beneath me never let up. Told a tale for the paws that made it go 'crunch'. I didn't stop to breathe the scenery in. I had no breath left to give to this place. It'd taken everything from me. All those warm sand grains rolling into my fur, reminding me who I was now and not who I was before, or why I set out to come here. That tale that my legs told – that tale that the tired spine and low-hanging head told was as bleached as my fur and as stained quiet as the cross I still bore. I brought it out, biting hard, its flame-shaped blades dragging a line in the sand to remind me that I went all that way, should my paw tracks have ever become lost – I belonged to this place now. I was part of it. Nothing could steal me from it. I felt nothing for the memories I owned before stepping onto time's sandbar. Really, they amounted to a tiny speck. They were distant, like the stars behind the sunset haze.
...
...
...
A broken clock couldn't wind. Seconds were dizzy and minutes hurried. Hours passed like smaller spaces between hours and days like smaller spaces between those. Where was I now? Had I jumped into the starry abyss behind the ocean, where would I have ended up? A spot before the Wave? I never thought to try, because I was born into the Timescape walking, or so it felt. I couldn't even release the idea of being born outside of this place. I wasn't real anyway. I wasn't a glaceon anyway. I was just some body for the Crossblade to hurt and complete a trio that I needed to kill, so that the world could rest easy, but what was the world? It was a place so distant from me now that nothing I could have done would have made a difference. I could never turn around, go back, and set it right. I didn't want to walk the other way. I had to keep going one way. I wanted to. I wanted to go until forever was proven wrong. If I went back to the beginning, would I have seen the first cycle? Would I have been whole – REAL – again? Ask that, Secany. Ask that more. That was the only question you needed. That was where your family lived; real ones. Real Champions. Real Rayse, real Aza, real everybody.
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...
...
Once upon a time–'this' time – I met a skywisp and an espurr. They were laying on the beach with each other, talking. They must have been friends. I didn't talk with them because they couldn't see me, like I wasn't there at all. When I finally made peace with the idea that they were never going to notice me, I kept walking, and I met them again, then again, and then I met Xima and the skywisp instead. They talked about Gamma. They talked about this place being Gamma.
...
...
...
So many times did I meet Xima again, along with that espurr, like they were chasing each other through time. I even met Celebi once, but nobody ever cared to look my way. They passed through me like ghosts, and I could only listen to their chit-chat, their musings, or their banter, if they weren't alone. If I went this way, would I ever encounter anything else? How deep did this place run? Was I going to see something like that skywisp and that espurr again, talking, sharing stories and laughing? Friends, on top of the timeline? Well, no; no more friends. No more Xima or Celebi either. Now, I was so far back that I was at a time before Gamma, and yet...
...yet this place – a place that was Gamma – remained. It was still here, like it always had an effect on the human world. It was like the meteorites weren't the source of Gamma. They didn't give life to us. They just gave... rebirth, I thought, to the Champions, other Gammas, all that. It wasn't the realest, deepest birth.
...
Stop, Secany...
I found myself stepping with heavier footfalls, the sanding caving into the nothingness beneath it. Had I held my Crossblade, I would have been biting until I could feel the pain of my jaw cracking, even through the pain of the Cross rooted through of me. My claws were digging deeper holes than before. How far did this bridge of sand go? I needed to know. It was the only path I could walk now.
...
Secany. Stop.
If there was an answer anywhere, I wasn't going to find it on the human world. Not anymore. Maybe I had walked so far back now that many of the humans I'd met hadn't even been born yet. The only way to find out was to take the leap into the void, but how could I ever get back? There would be no meteorite. Just getting here was difficult enough, in spite of how far back that memory lay...
...But, if Gamma came before the meteorite, then there HAD to be a way back here.
I felt my shoulder seize up. It was painless, but it made my legs spasm to a halt mid-step. I didn't put my paw down until I shut my eyes tight, sounded a crunch, and kept moving.
...
Stop, Secany! Stop!
Where did this go?! Where did Gamma begin?! Did it really predate us?! Weren't we ALL THERE WAS?! I was Gamma! I AM Gamma! Time?! What is time?! Time means nothing to me!
Well that was just it...
I'd been telling myself the answer for so long now.
...
Secany... stop.
I didn't take another step forward. I set my front paw down lightly, looked on to a slightly slanted sandbar that divided emptiness and ocean, infinitely annoyed with its infinity, how it traversed a distance so great that it somehow made my own trek appear infinitely more... finite. I had no way of knowing how far I'd come. I needed only look to my left, walk that way up the sandy mound, and take a plunge into infinity painted in dusk, rather walk into infinity bleached with sand. I turned my head. I felt my neck pulse with pain, neural capability that I'd forgotten I ever had, like rust flicking off of bone. I didn't have that, but I had the ability to perceive it. The sand dipped up, like there was rock or soil beneath the shore.
In that moment, doubt washed over me. All that adamant thought of keeping the pace fixed forward fizzled like a fuse into a dud firecracker. I made it this far and managed to stop. Couldn't I just turn around, run through the Timescape at full speed, and make it back where I was? Maybe I would have run for a while. That was the consequence for getting this far.
I quickly cast the idea into the water and instead walked to the ridge of the Timescape, where looking down into the hallucinogenic paint-space tempted me 'till, for the first time in a memory's lifetime, I could put my paws forward no more. I thought heavy and hard; why I was here, why Gamma went this far back.
"It's either me or somebody else," I said. I'd spoken to myself before, but the sound of my voice felt like a stranger's still, especially put to the airless void. I watched the dynamism of colors and stars mix together. "That keeps the Timescape here."
Gamma spreads. The rules look a little different here, but the same idea applies.
The further back I travel, the more I feel like I am inseparable from this place, because I am Gamma and so is the Timescape.
Well, I'm only making more of a Timescape by walking. Unless there really is somebody who walked this whole way before me, tracks buried in the sand by now, I'm the only one who's come this far, which would mean... I predate everything now? I'm the beginning?
How am I even Secany anymore?
I should just jump...
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I watched it blend.
I lifted a front leg and took a breath.
I stepped into unfamiliar territory. Soon, I was falling, warmth passing me by. For a little bit, it was painful, but when all that rushing air flowing through me became my being, there was nothing left. No pain, no doubt, no fatigue. I thought I should have done this sooner, but there was no 'soon' in the Timescape. Still, somehow, that thought 'soon' went blank, and 'soon' after that all other thoughts, and 'soon' this one.
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Amended: Subject 4 and 5 have been observed interacting with an invisible entity. All surveillance and reports have, to this day, failed to attribute any form to this being. Neurologists suspect illusory side effects from the "Tide" experiment.
Update: Entity is tangible. Was observed moving furniture around both subjects' rooms when "in play" with them. Attempting capture of entity.
Update: All attempts to capture entity failed. Suspected paranormal activity. Previous Subject Travis McNeil was isolated in Subject 4's room to test viable hypotheses. Test ran conclusive; McNeil could interact with the entity, but refused to comply with following orders. Secondary capture objective aborted.
Hypothesis on Tide entity: Psychokinetic effects on the children as a result of Tide experimentation. They believe they see something in the room with them, but as all other personnel cannot interact with this entity, said being may be a manifestation of psychokinetic power caused by the Tide. This psychokinetic power is channeled through such manifestation, capable of moving furniture as large as sofas, television sets, etc. Subject Travis McNeil's ability to see and communicate with this entity strengthens the hypothesis.
Update on Tide entity: Appears to have a name: Nasce. Faint illustrations of an outline can be seen in intense radioactive environments. Subject 4 claims the Tide entity to be a "Pokémon". Anatomy resembles the 'Glaceon' species. Further testing required.
All observations and experiments on Subject "Nasce" are to be performed by Doctor Jonathan Maire.
