All characters in this story are above the age of 18 until clearly stated otherwise.
This story is a collaboration between me and my good friend HorusAlpha. Please check it out and enjoy
Ash groaned as he blinked to adjust to the new light of the room he found himself in, as he
slowly adjusted he could hear gears twisted in the walls, and zaps of electricity.
To his left he could hear his friend and rival Ritchie waking up.
"Augh….. Did a Tauros hit me or something?" the brown haired 18 year old asked as he blinked.
"No… don't think so anyways. Arceus my head hurts." Ash muttered. He wanted to raise his hand up to his head, but he couldn't move it. Looking down, he frowned as he saw his arm was strapped to the chair. The binds were extremely tight and seemingly made of latex or some other kind of rubber.
"W-What happened?" Ritchie muttered as he looked around, equally confused about his surroundings. From what they could see there was some sort of machine nearby, what it did they couldn't tell. They could tell it was huge. Easily the size of a small house, with wires and tubes connected to it from every direction. The thing hummed constantly, with an occasional higher pitched noise escaping from it.
With that noise Ash blinked as his head felt funny, as if it was being smothered in cotton for a brief second. Before anything else could happen, a door in front of them opened, and two people wearing what seemed to be black hazmat suits walked in, pokeballs at the ready. The people didn't say anything as they approached the machine and started tampering with one of the control panels sticking out of the side.
"Where are we?" Ritchie muttered, trying to tug his hands free of the restraints. "This place feels strangely familiar…." he blinked as the same cotton mushed his head. "How did we get here? Last thing I remember is meeting up with you at…"
"The Lake of Rage…" Ash finished the thought. "Yeah, we met up there, went to get some Candy Bars…. Then…." Ash groaned as the cotton stayed in his mind "Th-there was something else… but I can't remember…." Meanwhile the strange Hazmat suited men were comparing something to paper on a clipboard.
"Yeah…. I-I can't remember either…. D-Did we hit our heads?" Ritchie muttered, less concerned about their situations and more about this weird gap in their heads.
"Don't think we did…. And if we did, what are the odds we both forgot the exact same thing?" Ash muttered as the cotton kept building up around his brain. As they spoke one of the Hazmat men pointed something out to the other before flipping a switch, increasing the sounds coming from the machine.
"W-Wait… what were we…" Ritchie blinked as his eyes went hazy for a split second and he groaned again, as if he was just waking up again, blinking rapidly.
"Alright that's enough!" a voice rang through a PA "Shut it down! We can't have them be exposed that long! This is the base sample you two."
The two guys in hazmats nodded and headed back to the machine, flipping a few more switches.
Instantly Ash's eyes went wide as the cotton evaporated from his head and growled "TEAM ROCKET!" he shouted as everything that had happened rushed back into his head.
"You were doing something to the Magikarp!" Ritchie shouted, once again struggling against his bonds "You were injecting them with something!" After a moment the voice said "As you aren't getting out of here I don't see the problem in sharing our plans…."
The two guys in the Hazmat suits walked up to the pair and stood behind the chairs. Looking down, Ash realized they weren't bound on regular chairs.
"Wheelchairs? How thoughtful" Ritchie muttered as the two guys wheeled the two trainers into the room they came from, The room was filled with different instruments, including massive, wall sized monitors, desks cluttered with laptops and various other bits of technology. Scientists in white lab coats with red Rs stamped over their chests were hard at work, focused on the screen and barely gave the two a glance.
They were wheeled closer to the biggest monitor, where a tall, pale man with a bowl haircut and a goatee was reading some readouts from the machine, a cup of coffee in hand. He grinned and turned around.
"Wait a minute" Ash muttered, glaring at the scientist "I know you…"
"Heh, glad to see you haven't fully forgotten me" the guy said with a smirk "Though I imagine my name did."
"Yeah, it did. We've met a lot of assholes who wear red R's on their chest" Ritchie spat at him
The man laughed "But none are quite like me. After all…. Did anyone else figure how to force pokemon to evolve without stones or the like?"
"Wait…. YOU'RE THE CRAZY ASSHOLE WHO FORCED THE SHINY GYRADOS TO EVOLVE!" Ash shouted
"Well, a bit more crass than I was expecting, but yes. I'm Doctor Sebastian, in case you forgot" the guy said with a smirk "Welcome back to my lab. It's been quite some time" As he spoke one of the other scientists finished compiling the data and said "Doctor. The baseline and 2 hour exposure data sets are ready for your review."
"Exposure? What the fuck are you talking about?" Ash growled, trying to break out of his bonds again
"Wait… Two hours!?" Ritchie screamed, his eyes wide as he looked around. He finally found a clock on the big monitor and indeed. It read 7:47 PM, exactly two hours after they met up in the Lake of Rage.
"Indeed. You've been in the chamber for two hours" Sebastian said with a smirk
"T-That's Taurosshit!" Ash stammered out, his eyes wide at the reveal and then yet another bomb was dropped as a different scientist walked up and talked to Sebastian
"Sir. Their Pokemon are progressing as expected. A 60% and 30% increase has happened." he said, not clarifying what he was talking about to the captives
"O-Our Pokemon?!" Ritchie hissed "What did you do to them!?"
"Just like the last time we met, we've taken your pokemon to use in our experiments." Sebastian said
"However sir, that does prove an issue in this case." the other scientist stammered "The Pikachu has managed to get free of his bonds four times now. We've had to post two Kadabra's outside the lab to stop escape attempts"
"HA!" Ash grinned, only to receive a kick to the shin by Sebastian
"We always knew this was a possibility" Sebastian sighted "Right, which other pokemon are currently in the chamber?"
The scientist checked the sheet "Subject 01's Riolu and Subject 02's Charmeleon, Sir."
"Hmm, two to one? Grab another one of subject 02's Pokemon and transfer them to the secondary chamber. The results may be a bit slower, but its made to suppress Pokemon abilities, and the one way electronic lock should keep them inside"
"Yes sir" the scientist said with a nod and headed off to do as he was ordered, leaving Sebastian alone with his two captives.
"So, what are you planning this time?" the 19 year old raven haired trainer asked the scientist "Still working on that Evo-Wave thing of yours?"
"Oh no, that thing was proven to work!" the guy smiled "As a matter of fact, you spent the last two hours next to it!"
"I'm still calling tauros-crap on that" Ash said "You could have just changed the clock on the computer to fuck with us!"
The doctor shook his head and pressed a button on the console. A loud creak rang out as a skylight opened up above them, revealing the moon shining in the sky, and stars twinkling around it.
"Believe me now?" Sebastian said with a smirk as the two captive trainers stared up at the night sky, dumbfounded.
"But… that makes no sense… It doesn't feel like-"
"Any time has passed? Yes that's due to your close exposure to the device" Sebastian said "We've been studying its effects on Pokemon, and recently we got an order to start testing its effects on humans as well. Turns out, very close, short term exposure will cause memory issues." the doctor said as he brought up some random charts that meant nothing to the two bound guys. "It also has some very interesting effects on Pokemon when we put them at distance to it. I think it would be best just to show you" he pressed a few buttons and brought up a security recording.
Ash's eyes went wide. He could see Pikachu locked in a room with Ritchie's Charmeleon, Zippo, alone and chained to a wall.
Ash gasped as he Pikachu spit something out and grabbed it. It was a hairpin he probably got off one of the guards by accident. With a motions he didn't even know Pikachu could even do, he bent it and slid into the lock, his ears twitching as he listened to the tumblers inside.
"Holy shit, he's actually picking the lock" Ritchie muttered, as both of them stared in shock at what the little electric type was managing.
Pikachu soon grinned as the chain clicked and fell to the ground, and he dashed over to Zippo's, ready to unlock his chains. Only to be frozen in place with a light blue glow as a Kadabra walked into the cell.
"Indeed" Sebastian said, as he cut the recording "As you can see, it increases intelligence on an amazing level. In Pokemon anyways. We have yet to see exactly what it can do on humans. Hence why we've grabbed you"
"So, your plan is to make Pokemon smarter? So smart they can break out?" Ash asked with a look of confusion on his face
"Oh our plan goes beyond that" Sebastian said with a nasty smile "But I don't see the need to explain every detail to you. After all, you'll get to experience them live."
"What?" Ash spat at him "If you think I'm gonna let you use us for you experiments, you've got ano-" his rant was cut short by a sudden prick to his neck. Suddenly, everything went blurry as lethargy ran through his body "Wha….did….you…"
"Just something to help you sleep while we prep your cell. Have a goodnight" Sebastian laughed as everything around Ash went black.
ONE DAY LATER
Ash groaned as he woke from his drug induced sleep
"Sweet Lugia, that's sucked" he muttered as he slowly sat up, rubbing the lethargy out of his face.
"Yeah…. And the guy wasn't gentle with the needle either" Ritchie muttered right next to him. Ash looked around, taking in exactly where they were.
They were in a small cell with very little inside. It was two cots on the left wall, a couple of chairs in the center along with a rickety table and on the right wall a sink, and a toilet. That was it. The only other thing they could see was the door for the cell. It didn't even have bars, instead it had thick steel walls with a red R painted on it.
Ash groaned and stood up, clutching his head as it felt a bit weird. Like there were little puffs of cotton inside his skull, bumping against his brain.
"You ok?" Ritchie asked as he got up
"Yeah… head feels…. Weird" he muttered, turning around to face his friend and cellmate. It was at that moment they noticed they both were only in their underwear.
"The hell?" Ritchie muttered, groaning as he grabbed his head too "Gah...I feel funny too...think it's the drug?"
"No" Ash shook his head and turned around, not wanting to stare at Ritchie's boxers "Remember that weird machine from yesterday? He said he wanted to see what it did to humans." he sighed and sat down on one of the chairs, the cotton in his brain becoming less annoying the less he focused on it, and focused on doing anything else. "My guess is we're locked a few rooms away from it"
"Why would he want to do that? All it does is make our memories fuzzy. And I remember everything, it's just a bit hard to focus on them…"
"Yeah… Try focusing on anything else, alright?" Ash said with a smile
As time went on the cotton seemed to grow in amount, but before either of them could say anything about it, a small slot in the bottom of the door slid open and in came two metal bowls with sandwiches on them and a pair of water bottles.
"At least they're not letting us starve" Ritchie muttered, getting up and grabbing the bowls with one hand and the bottles in the other
"That's one upside" Ash muttered as he grabbed one of the bottles and looked it over and frowned "How dumb do they think we are?" he pointed at the broken seal.
"Yeah, but at this point we don't really have a choice," Ritchie said with a shrug as he sniffed the sandwich. "Plus, they want us as test subjects. I doubt they'll just poison us"
"Fair…" Ash muttered as he sniffed the water.
"Look Ash, it's either this stuff, or passing out from dehydration" Ritchie said with a frown "Plus, we need water to flush the drug out of systems"
"Alright, fair point…" Ash muttered as he sighed and took a swig from the bottle. He emptied half the bottle in one gulp, not realising just how thirsty he was.
The water tingled on the way down, but he didn't really notice due to his dehydration. Ritchie grinned at him and handed him the sandwich.
"Here, I'm not sure what they have in store for us" he said as he swallowed his bite "But facing it on an empty stomach is not a good idea" Ash shrugged and grabbed the bread, taking a look at it. It was a seemingly innocuous grilled cheese sandwich, without any strange smells or looks.
He sighed and took a bite of it. It was exactly what he expected taste wise, a bland cheap grilled cheese they probably bought at the gas station.
"Well, they ain't giving the good stuff…" Ritchie muttered as he finished his sandwich.
"I'd be worried if they were" Ash said as he finished his own, blinking again as felt a bit woozy for a split second. He tried to focus on that, only to find the cotton in his head crowding around it even more
The raven haired young man smacked the side of his head and turned his thoughts as far from the cotton or the drugs as he could. He blinked as he managed to clear enough of it to focus on Ritchie's face, as his friend was staring down at him.
"Ash, you ok?" Ritchie asked, looking at him with concern clear on his face.
"Y-Yeah, I am. Just a bit of a-" before Ash could finish, a loud buzz rang out through the entire cell from an unseen speaker made both of them jump in shock.
"INMATES" a robotic voice rang out of it "PLEASE STAND BY THE DOOR. YOUR ESCORT HAS ARRIVED"
"Escort?" Ash muttered, a bit confused at the choice of words as a click rang out, and the door swung open. On the other side was two grunts in latex uniforms, and two rather angry looking Arcanines.
"Get out" one of them growled at the pair.
Ash blinked, the cotton in head parting to make way for that sentence. Getting out of his cell sounded like a good idea.
There's no way to find a way out of here if we stay locked up he thought, trying to rationalize why he wanted to do as he was told. Plus, those Arcanines look pretty mad….
Ash nodded and stepped out of his cell, blushing a little as the two grunts looked over his almost nude body.
"Man, how can someone travel around for like, nine years and still be that much of a twig?" one of the grunts growled at him with a nasty smirk on his face.
"W-What?" Ash asked, completely taken aback by the comment
"You heard him twig." the other grunt said, shoving Ash and forcing him to walk down the hall, his socks slippery against the metal floor. Ash frowned again at the comment as he was led to another room alone. Looking back, he saw that the other grunt was leading Ritchie in the opposite direction
"Hey! Where are you taking him?!"
"Shut up!" the grunt barked, and the same weird whole in the cotton washed over Ash as he nodded, closing his mouth. He was led down the steel hall for five minutes, the Arcanine never letting him move too far to one side, with the grunt making sure he kept pace and didn't slow down. The trek through the facility was mostly quiet, thanks to his escort, until they reached another door.
Like every other door in this place, it had the big red R splattered on it. The biggest difference was a plaque next to the door that read Test Subjects Only. The grunt pressed a button next to it, opening it up and pointing inside.
"Get going, twig" he said with a nasty smirk. Ash gave the guy a quick glare as he stepped into the room, the door sliding shut behind him, and locking with an audible click.
"Guess I'm leaving when they want me to leave…" Ash muttered, shaking his head. He turned around and took a look at exactly where he was locked up.
It looked like a gym of some kind. There were weight machines, treadmills, stepmills, and other typical workout tools. He walked closer to them, his socked feet sinking into the matt coated floor. There were screens all over the walls of the all showed the same screensaver, a pulsing red R on a black background. And the ceiling was nothing but a mess of pipes and tubes, all of them with scientific gibberish Ash never had any chance of understanding.
"A private gym? Seriously?" Ash asked, groaning abit as the cotton in head began to start up again, now that he wasn't focusing on doing what the grunt told him.
After a moment a voice said from a speaker "Subject 01, please begin exercising."
"Wait, what?" he asked, the cotton in head starting to fill it up more and more. It was getting hard to focus on things, but he shook his head "You want me to do what?" he looked at the nearby treadmill then at the screen, wincing as he felt the cotton smack against his brain "Seriously? You want me to work out for you?"
There was no answer from the person on the other end of the PA. Instead there was a low buzz that began to ring out through the room. The raven haired prisoner groaned and grabbed the side of his head, as the cotton in his head began to grow
"Gah" he groaned, blinking rapidly as he looked around. Everything was starting to look fuzzy, like he had been wearing glasses and they had just gotten knocked off.
"01" the voice said again, cutting through the cotton like a hot knife through butter. Ash looked up, his eyes red and looked around, trying to find out where that came from
"A-Are you talking to me?" he asked, still grabbing the side of his head.
"Yes" they said, a lot more calm now. The young man blinked and looked around confused
"W-Why are you calling me 01? T-That's not my name…" Ash muttered
"Yes it is" the voice said again, being the only thing clear in between all the cotton "You're 01. That's what we always called you. Now, please get on that machine 01"
The screen over the treadmill began flashing, a sign to his clouded brain that it was the machine they were talking about. He nodded and walked over to it, stepping on it and looking back up at the screen.
"There's something on top of it. Put it over your ears"
"Ok…" Ash muttered, grabbing a pair of earbuds with bright red Rs and slipped them on.
Run
The words from the earbuds cut through the cotton, and the young trainers started running without question, staring ahead at the screen as he did so.
The screen itself changed. It went form the red R to a red and black spiral that caught the attention of his clouded mind, and he couldn't look away from it.
Ash groaned and grabbed the side of his head.
The cotton was starting to recede slightly, and while that let him focus, it also left him with a splitting migraine. He frowned as he heard something that sounded like static in his ears, and he pulled out the two earbuds, frowning down at them before throwing them to the floor. He stepped off the machine and groaned, his muscles aching as he did so.
"W-What the? W-Why am I so sore…" he groaned and clutched his head again. The cotton made it hard to remember exactly what he had been doing a few minutes ago, but judging by his aching limbs and the sweat running down his body, he'd been at it for quite a while. "Gah, this sucks!" he shouted and turned away from the screens and workout equipment. And gasped at what he saw.
On the wall opposite to the gym equipment, was a window. And inside that window was Pikachu!
"Buddy!" Ash shouted, ignoring the ache in his body as he ran over to the window and stared inside. His pokemon was sitting alone in a rather empty looking room, chained to the wall by a collar of some kind. He growled and pounded on the glass "Pikachu!"
The pokemon's ears twitched and he looked over to the glass, his eyes wide with hope. But the moment he did, his ears dropped and he frowned. A frown that shocked Ash.
It wasn't the normal type of frown Pikachu did when Ash did something dumb. This one was filled with a rage Ash had never seen in his life. He turned back, apparently having not seen Ash.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked, pounding on the glass again. Even though the mouse's ears twitched, he ignored him, instead he was fiddling with the collar, clearly trying to find a way to take it off. "Damn it." Ash muttered, sweat still pouring down his face "Must be one way glass or something…" he sighed and took a step back "At least your safe buddy.
He turned around and headed for the door, which slid open. The same grunt from before smiled at him
"Well well, looks like you've actually done some work, twig" he said. Like before, his voice cut through the cotton without issue.
"Yeah? What's it to you?" Ash growled, glaring at him "Just take me back to my cell"
"No. I'm taking you to the showers first" the grunt said with a smirk "Follow me"
Ash blinked as the cotton shifted again and started following him without comment
He is right… he thought as he followed him to another room right next to the gym I smell like a Trubbish on a sunny day. The grunt led him to something that could barely be described as a room. It was the size of a broom closet.
"Get in" the grut said, shoving him inside.
"WOAH!" the raven haired trainer exclaimed as a cold glass door slammed shut behind him.
"Hey!" Ash shouted, smacking against the door "What's the big idea!?"
"01, please stand back still." the voice from before rang out. Ash growled and looked around. But before he could really do anything, he was blasted with a jet of hot water right on the head.
"GAH!" he screamed, not expecting the water. But right as he started getting used to that, two nozzles sprayed him with a strange smelling, thick green soap.
That went on for about 20 minutes of non-stop scrubbing and water jets hitting him until a large blast of hot air flew out of every spot in the shower.
With a loud hiss, the glass door slid open and Ash stumbled out, panting as the grunt grabbed his arm.
"Heh, come on twig. Let's get you back to your cell" he said as he led Ash down to his cell, opening the door and chucking him inside. "See ya tomorrow!" the grunt called with a nasty laugh as he slammed the door shut and locked it.
"Guh…" Ash groaned, getting back on his feet slowly and looking around. The cell still looked the same, and Ritchie was laying on his cot, groaning and rubbing his arms "Ritchie…?"
"Ash?" the brown haired trainer asked, looking at him "Shit, looks like you got thrown through the ringer too…"
"Yeah" Ash muttered as he stumbled over to his cot and collapsed on top of it "Arcues…. I haven't been this sore in years…."
"Same…" Ritchie muttered "L-Lets try and get some sleep, alright?"
"Yeah….that sounds good" Ash muttered. To be honest, even if he didn't want to, his body had other ideas as he could barely keep his eyes open.
"Goodnight Ash" Ritchie muttered
"Night Ritch…" Ash muttered, closing his eyes and falling asleep instantly.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Ash groaned as the alarm rang out through the cell, snapping him out of the sweet embrace of sleep.
"Ugh, are we out yet?" his cellmate asked as the two slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from their eyes.
"Nope" Ash groaned and stood up, his back cracking as he stretched. He and Ritchie had been here for weeks, at least as far as he could count.
Without being able to see the sky or a clock, it was hard to tell the passage of time. He shook his head as the cotton began to cloud it up again, and sighted.
"Cotton head again?" Ritchie asked as he got up too
"Yeah…. It's starting sooner lately" Ash muttered, just shaking his head. By this point, the cotton was just an annoyance the two had long gotten used to.
"That blows" Ritchie said, as he walked over to the table and grabbed his pants, tossing Ash his own. The raven haired young man thanked him and started putting on what little clothes he had.
Both he and Ritchie had begun to change body wise, for some reason Ash couldn't really understand. They had both begun to bulk up a bit, not a lot, but a bit.
Ash wasn't quite the twig he was when he got snagged two weeks ago. His arms now had lean muscles to be expected of a cyclist, and the small amount of flab he used to have on his stomach was gone. Still confused about this, I mean I haven't touched a single one of the machines in that weird gym they keep taking me to… Ash muttered, groaning as he felt the cotton in his head muddle up his thoughts.
"More cotton?" Ritchie asked, walking over. Like Ash, he was wearing nothing but his underpants and a pair of socks, and he was also slowly starting to bulk up. Only he was a little bigger than Ash, with the beginnings of a six-pack on his stomach.
"Yeah…" Ash wheezed, grabbing the side of his head.
"Remember...Scrub head" Ritchie said, his tone suddenly going more dopey as he spoke, a dumb grin on his face "Scrub head. No thought, no cotton"
"No thought, no cotton…" Ash repeated, taking a deep breath "No thought, no cotton. No thought, no cotton" he repeated the mantra, forgetting what exactly he had been thinking about. That didn't matter. "Thoughts don't matter. Memory doesn't matter. Imagination don't matter. Scrub head, clean head" he finished the mantra in the same dumb sounding voice that Ritchie had, not really remembering where he learned these words.
"Clean head is good. Good boys have clean heads. Good boys let the cotton scrub their heads" they both repeated, staring ahead with a dumb look on their faces for the next three minutes.
BANG BANG!
The two blinked at the smacking against the steel door of their cell, as the slot at the bottom was opened up and food slid in for them.
"Right, time for our big meal" Ritchie said, smiling at Ash and smacking his friend's back. Ash smiled and sat down to eat, the mantra still ringing in his head
Again, it was two bottles of water and a pair of bland sandwiches. The two just sat and began unwrapping them
"So, any idea to get out this time?" Ritchie asked as he took a bite of the sandwich, any thoughts about drugs forgotten. Thinking about things like that made cotton. Better to keep their heads scrubbed.
"Not really" Ash muttered as he drank his water "If they keep us apart, we can't exactly plan…"
"Yeah… Team Rocket is smartier than we thought" Ritchie muttered
"Wait, what?" Ash blinked, confused about what his friend had said
"Huh?"
"You said smartier"
"Yeah, so?" Ritchie asked, a look of genuine confusion on his face
"That doesn't sound right" Ash muttered, groaning as he felt cotton smacking against his brain. "Ow…"
"Member Ash" Ritchie said, his voice going back to the dopey sound from earlier "Scrub head!"
"No thought….. No cotton…." Ash repeated, a stupid smile on his face as he began eating faster, keeping the mantra going as he ate "Scrub head, clean head…"
The two finished their food a few seconds after that, and just sat there, repeating the mantra and laughing a bit.
Soon, the cell's door opened and the same grunts looked at the two with a smirk.
"Well well you two are looking well" he said "Now come on, follow me!"
Ash nodded and stood up, still lost in his mantra as he followed right behind, Ritchie following the other grunt.
"Here's the coffee you asked for sirs" the grunt said as he delivered two steaming mugs to the chief scientists.
"Thanks" Sebastian said as he handed the other cup to his colleague, the grun leaving the room quietly "Thanks for coming on such short notice, Namba."
"It was no issue" the red-haired, balding man said as he took a sip "My projects have stagnated, so I'm happy to get out and speak" As they spoke Sebastian's Personal assistant was compiling the final bits of the data of the past two weeks for them to compare and investigate. "Though I am curious, any particular reason you called me?"
"Well, you are Team Rocket's biggest expert in neurology, both human and Pokemon. So I thought it would be fitting to bring in for this one" Sebastian explained as he grabbed a remote and began flicking through the security cameras. "Here we are" he stopped at the one taking Ash to his gym room.
"Is that who I think it is?" Namba asked, receiving a nod from his friend "Well well. This project just got quite a bit more interesting"
"Heh, thank you." Sebastian said with a smile as he turned to the screen "Now, we've taken to calling him Subject 01. He's been under constant exposure to the device for about two weeks and three days."
"What have been the effects? Increase in intellect?"
"Completely the opposite actually" Sebastian said with a smirk "We've detected a loss of intellect, and an increase in physical attributes. Their bodies seem to try to compensate for their lower intellect with making their muscles grow faster"
"Interesting, but I fail to see the point of this." Namba said, crossing his arms
"Oh my friend, think about it. We're doing more to them than just making them dumber" Sebastian said with a smile "After all, grunts have never been known for their brains"
Namba's eyes went wide, and a smirk formed on his lips "Now that sounds like a very fun idea. Have you made progress?"
"We have been moving slowly, but we have made some progress. We're planning on stepping it up with some new methods"
"Hence why you called me" the other scientist smiled "Well, I believe I can come up with something" he smiled and drank more coffee as he saw Ash get on the stairmaster.
Ash panted as he blinked and looked around.
He was standing in the gym again, sweat pouring down his body.
"W-What was I doing?" he asked, blinking rapidly, his eyes strangely sore. He tried to think back to what he was doing, only to get a wall of cotton in his head. He groaned and started muttering without hesitation
"Scrub head, clean head" he muttered "Empty head. Empty head is good head. Me want good head, so me must have empty head…." he said, not realizing what he was saying, or how weird it sounded. All that mattered was that the words helped with the cotton, and all other thoughts didn't matter.
He smiled, for the first time in two weeks an actually legitimate smile and turned around, looking for that window that let him see how his best friend was doing. For the past few days, Pikachu had been trying harder and harder to escape, and it seemed the Grunts were moving more and more equipment into his room.
"Hope he okay…" Ash muttered, not realising the flaw in his speech as he approached the window and peeked in. He frowned as he saw that the room was dark and empty "Damn it! They move him!" he punched the glass, not feeling any pain as he did so, and turned around.
He sighed and headed for the door, but before he could leave, one of the many screens around him flashed in various colors, catching his eye.
"01, please approach the screen" the voice on the PA said, and did so without question. After two weeks, he responded to his number in an equal manner as his actual name. "Now, listen carefully 01. We're going to ask you some questions. If you get them right, you can leave, if you get them wrong, you have to keep going until you get enough right answers. Understood?"
"Understood" he said with a nod. Ash blinked as he just stared at the screen, an image showed up
"What is this?" the voice asked. Ash blinked and looked at the image, and grinned as he recognized it
"It pokeball!" he said with a big smile. However, the screen flashed a bright red color and a nasty buzz rang out from the speakers, making his ears hurt a bit
"Wrong"
"W-Whut?" Ash groaned, rubbing his hears as he looked at the screen. It was a regular pokeball, there was nothing else it could be. A small sphere with a red top, a white bottom, and a black band on the center. "T-That pokeball!"
Again, the buzz rang out, making Ash wince and his teeth hurt due to the loud sound.
"I-It…. It just ball!" he shouted over the noise. The screech ended instantly and he panted, looking up to see the screen flashing a bright green spiral. The moment his eyes locked onto it, staring into it. His pupils went wide as words flashed on the screen, too fast consciously read.
After about two minutes of that, the spiral got cut off and the young man blinked, not realizing at all that he had been standing there, drooling at the screen.
"I'll rephrase the question," the voice asked. The image showed up again "Is this a pokeball?"
"No! That magic ball!" Ash said with a big dumb smile, the words pokeball not meaning anything to him at all
"That's right!" the voice said, and Ash giggled. A low, dumb giggle that he would never have made in his life before getting sent in here. Not only that, he started to grow a tent in his pants. "Now, next question!"
Ash nodded and smiled. Answering the question felt good, so he was gonna do it more!
THREE MONTHS LATER
Ash blinked as he woke up, slowly sitting up on his cot and yawning. He looked down and giggled as he saw the mast standing up in between his legs.
"Hehe, Ash hard!" he giggled, poking it, which made him shiver and moan. He didn't hear the steps of his roommate, too focused on own member until another one, with orange hair on the base.
"Ritchie hard too!" his roommate said, with the same dumb laugh that Ash had. The raven haired man grinned and leaned closer, kissing Ritchie's rod, which made him moan loudly
"Morning Ritchie!" he chirped as he got up and smiled at his roommate. Ritchie had bulked up quite a bit, having a fully made six-pack, some good muscle growth on his arms and legs. He wasn't an overinflated balloon, but he looked like a swimmer who liked to work out.
"Mornin Ash!" Ritchie stammered out, giggling as he spoke and kissing Ash. The raven haired man grinned and shoved his friend off
"Stop! Not time for kissy!" he giggled and stood up, stretching the knots out of his back, his now big member swinging freely. "It time for food"!
"Right! Food when we wake!" Ritchie said with a big dumb smile, rushing over to the door, still buck ass nude. Ash smiled and followed him.
The two left their now more tattered and stretched pants and underpants just thrown on the floor, forgotten and worthless to them now. They didn't care about walking around naked anymore, their minds so dimmed and shifted.
All they cared about was the things that cleared the cotton from their heads. The two sat down on the floor, giggling and rubbing each other's muscles as the flap at the bottom opened up and their food was slid at them.
The two jumped at the food like animals and tore the wrapping off and devoured the sandwiches in mere seconds. As the two dumb himbos tore into their food, the door to the cell creaked open, but neither of them noticed.
The cotton only let them focus on eating, and that's what they were gonna focus on.
"BURP!" Ash belched after finishing his food. He stared ahead and blinked for a second before breaking out in stupid, low laugh, along with his roomate.
"Lovely" a voice said from ahead, making both prisoners look up, confused. A guy in a white lab coat with an R over his heart and small glasses was standing over the two. Ash frowned as he looked at him
"Who you?" he asked, frowning as he felt the cotton bounce around in his head "Do me know you?"
"Me not know him" Ritchie said, shaking his head "And you not know someone me not know!" Ash blinked and nodded, the dimnes in his head accepting the logic that came out of Ritchie's mouth.
"Right… Me not know him either" Ash said dumbly
"Heh, looks like their ready. Any further exposure and I fear we run the risk of causing too much damage for them to be useful. Shut down the generator" he told someone out of sight.
"Yes sir" whoever he was speaking to responded. Suddenly Ash and Ritchie groaned as they heard a loud clanking ring through the entire room. It felt as though something was lifted off their heads, like a hat with weights tied to it was suddenly taken off.
"Gah…. Head feel funny" Ash muttered, grabbing his head
"Me don't like!" Ritchie screamed, pulling at his hair as if that would bring back the weight.
"Um, sir" a grunt said, walking up closer to the scientist "They don't exactly seem….ready"
"Oh believe me. I know they're not" Sebastian said as he ordered two grunts behind the two. While the two captives had gained quite a bit of muscle, they weren't overly big. It was a decent amount of muscle, but the grunts are still much bigger than the two. They forced the two to their feet and out of the cell "But we have a fix for that. Just like we did for their pokemon"
"P-Pokemon?" Ash muttered, frowning "M-Me know that word….."
"No you don't, my boy" Sebastian said, patting Ash's head
"M-Me don't?" he asked
"Course you don't. If you did know that word, you'd know what it means"
"R-Right…. Me not know what Pokemon is…" Ash nodded, once again accepting the logic without issue.
Sebastian smiled at that and led the two to a small room. It was a simple black room with two chairs in the center, a projector and nothing more.
"Sit down" the grunts ordered. The two himbos nodded and did so without objection.
"Perfect. Shall we leave them to it?" Sebastian asked the grunts, who nodded and left the room "Don't worry boys. Soon everything will make sense" and with that, he slammed the door shut. As soon as the door was shut, metal bands expanded over the boy's arms and legs as a red gas was vented into the room and the projector started up. The gas made their minds extra malleable and moldable. The projector meanwhile showed a hypnotic spiral, the same one that now instantly brought them into a mindless trance. After a moment two sets of ear buds lowered into their ears and started playing a hypnotic script…. "Forget your name. Dumb Grunts don't have names. Dumb Grunts only live to Serve and Obey orders….." As the words entered their minds they were easily absorbed, overwriting whatever was there before….
"Dumb Grunts don't have names…." the two repeated, drooling as they stared ahead
"Dumb Grunts like to be fucked by their Pokemon. Dumb Grunts serve Team Rocket." The voice said
"Dumb Grunts like to be fucked by their Pokemon. Dumb Grunts serve Team Rocket" they reapeated, stupid smiles forming on their faces as their brains took in the information as gospel.
"Dumb Grunts love to wear tight latex, Dumb Grunts love having null bulges." The voice said as machines moved around the chairs, what seemed to be nozzles dripping shiny black liquid.
"Dumb Grunts love to wear tight latex. Dumb Grutns love having null bulges" they repeated, shivering and suddenly feeling naked. As they shivered the nozzles went to work, coating them from the neck down in tight unremovable latex suits with even tighter null bulges. Robotic hands appeared and slipped a pair of heavy gery rubber boots over their feet, and thick grey gloves over their hands. One more nozzle also appeared, this one dripping red rubber, which applied the R to their chests.
"Dumb Grunts don't have names…. Dumb Grunts like to be fucked by their Pokemon. Dumb Grunts serve Team Rocket" the two kept repeating staring ahead at the screen as their names, memories and everything was wiped away, leaving only what Team Rocket wanted in there.
THREE HOURS LATER
"Right I believe our newest grunts have been in there long enough. Crack her open" Sebastian said, grinning and holding to two black and red balls in hand.
The grunts nodded and punched in the codes, the door opening with a hiss. Inside were the two boys, who could now only be described as latex wrapped himbos. The latex grunt suits showed their new muscled physique quite well, while their packages were trapped in rather big but tight bulges. The two were staring ahead, their eyes glassy and still repeating their brainwashing
"Dumb Grunts like to be fucked by their Pokemon. Dumb Grunts serve Team Rocket…."
"Heh, looks like the program worked. Get them out of there" he ordered his two subordinates. They nodded and headed for a nearby console, releasing the two himbos.
The two groaned as the earbuds were pulled out and the chairs titled, sending the two sprawling to the floor, the rubber squeaking as they landed.
"Heh" Sebastian smirked and walked in front of the two and looked at the two "What are you two?" the two himbo grunts blinked for a second, before realising the man was speaking to them
"We dumb grunts!" they said with massive smiles
"What do you do?"
"Dumb Grunts serve Team Rocket!" they said with the same dumb smiles on their faces, the large bulges between their legs twitching as they said that. He smiled and pointed at the black haired one
"What's your name?"
"Name?" the himbo asked, confused as he started at the man "Me not have name….."
"That's right" Sebastian said with a smile "So, what are you called?"
"Oh! Me is Grunt 01!" he said with a dumb smile "Me is good grunt!"
"And you?" he asked the brunette
"Me is Grunt 02!" he said with a dumb giggle.
"Perfect" he said as he gripped the two pokeballs tightly "Now, you two are missing something to be perfect grunts for Team Rocket"
"What we miss, sir?" 01 asked, genuine confusion on his face.
"Your bosses" he said "Dumb Grunts like you can't do things right on you're own. You need someone to tell you what to do. And that's their job" he threw the two balls into the air, where they popped open and released the pokemon inside, who formed in front of the two himbos.
The first to form was a mouse like pokemon, with a long thin, black tail with a thunderbolt on the end, orange fur on most of his body except for his belly and paws. The second was a large winged dragon like lizard, with a fire tipped tail. Both of them had a black bandana with an R on the front.
"Raichu, Charizard, meet your new charges" Sebastian told the two mons.
Raichu looked down at the black haired himbo, grining. There was no trace of anyone the pokemon would know, since he had gone through the same brainwashing that the two morons drooling and laughing on the floor had gone through. Any memory of Ash, having a trainer or anything was long gone from his brain. All that was there was obedience to Team Rocket and the advanced intellect the experiment had granted him.
He had the mental capacity of a Gym Leader now, with all the needed strategies to advance Team Rocket's goals. And all those strategies were at the command of his masters.
He walked closer to 01 and smiled, shoving his paw onto the himbo's face
"Rai!" he said, in a commanding tone. The grunt just stared at him confused, much to the mon's frustration. He gave him a kick on the face and glared at the moron.
"Me sorry sir" 01 said, rubbing his sore cheek "Me no understand…"
"Ah of course" Sebastian said, grinning "I nearly forgot. Here" he handed the two pokemon some earbuds. Raichu looked at him with an evil smile as he took the devices and shoved them into the himbo's ears. He then shoved his paw onto his face again
"Rai!" he ordered again. This time, the moron's eyes went wide and he kissed the paw, exactly as Raichu had commanded.
Charizard meanwhile looked over his human with a grin and quickly put the earbuds in his human's ears "Char!" He ordered and 02 quickly obeyed, falling to his knees and spreading his legs wide so that the Charizard could play with his bulge.
"Heh, good to see you two are enjoying them" Sebastian said as he headed for the door "I'll let you all….get acquainted"
The two pokemon smiled at that, and the last thing Sebastian saw was the two forcing the grunts to their feet before the door slammed shut.
"Heh, well all in all I'd say this project was a brilliant success" he smiled as he headed back to his office for some relaxation "Actually, I'll ask the boss if he's interested in expanding it. Those two idiots might be good at….recruitment…"
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