This chapter is dedicated to my parents, as today is their anniversary. Also, we've hit 1,000 views on Snowbound!
Dr. Dexter led me outside to his car. It was one of those old-fashioned types, the kind of car where you have to put the keys into the ignition in order for it to start. As soon as he did so, the engine roared to life.
"I've heard that the last few days have been rather difficult for you" the scientist told me as he began backing out of my driveway.
I snorted. "You could say that again. Honestly, Dr. Dexter, that's quite the understatement".
"Call me Andrew, please" Dr. Dexter told me. "It's really no big deal. I'm perfectly fine going by my first name".
"Okay, Andrew".
He drove through the downtown area of Gardenia, which, as downtown areas went, was pretty small. It was a small line of retailers next to a train station, the tracks leading towards downtown Pastoria City.
"Where is your laboratory?" I asked Andrew. "Is it downtown, or in the suburbs?"
"It's in the suburbs, but still a ways away from here. It took me about half an hour to get you, but in the intervening time since I got to your house, traffic has probably picked up. My guess is maybe forty-five minutes".
I nodded, hoping that I didn't start feeling restless. That was of course going to be a difficult task, because I seemed to have so much more energy as a Lucario than I did as a human. I then thought of something even more worrisome.
If we were driving through the downtown area at all, I'd get seen by even more people. Hell, some might think that Andrew was kidnapping me and taking me to a poacher. I didn't want to create all that panic for nothing.
Normally, I liked downtown Pastoria City. There were a lot of cool things to do there. However, today, I knew what I had to request to the scientist.
"Can we not drive through downtown?" I asked him. "There are going to be a lot of people who see me".
Andrew nodded. "We can do that, but it'll take even longer to get to my lab then. Are you okay with that?"
"More than okay if it means not getting noticed by too many people".
"Okay then".
For much of the rest of the ride, we didn't talk too much. My mind was stuck on something Andrew had said to me when we were back at my house, something that had made the fur on the back of my neck tingle slightly.
I have an offer you can't refuse.
Something about that sentence seemed rather sinister. It made me think that there was an evil, ulterior motive for Andrew to take me to his laboratory.
Maybe it's a poacher ring.
Well, if that was the case, there was no getting out of this situation now. I might have opened the car door and tried to get out as said car was moving, but that would have been very stupid of me. Assuming I didn't break both legs in the attempt to get out, where would I run? And how would I avoid being seen?
I wasn't sure about the answer to the former question, but as to the latter, I knew that there was just no way.
As the minutes passed, and we got closer and closer to the lab, my sense of consternation only increased exponentially. Sooner or later, I would find out if this guy was legit or not. And if he wasn't, this could very well be the last day of my life.
After roughly an hour and fifteen minutes of driving, we were in a forested area in the exurbs of Pastoria City. Pine and spruce trees dotted the hilly landscape. A river ran through part of the forest.
This place really is quite beautiful, I thought. I suppose we're kind of out in the country now.
Eventually, the ground leveled out, and I saw an enormous building in front of us. And, when I say enormous, I'm not messing around. This place could have fit three hundred copies of my house, if they were stacked roughly ten long, ten wide, and three high. There was no doubt in my mind that we'd reached it now.
This was Dexter's laboratory.
After Andrew turned the car off, I opened the door and got out, stretching my arms and legs in order to try and get some feeling back. My back often goes numb when I've been sitting in a car for a long time, but, then again, so do most peoples' backs.
"We're here" he said, unnecessarily.
Even if I wasn't the best science student in school, I still found science impressive, especially the field of modern medicine. Modern medicine had saved so many peoples' lives, and I found that rather amazing. Our situation as a human race, as well as our relationship with Pokemon, had really grown and developed as a result of science.
In that light, I should have found the building a place of wonder, but I didn't. It looked more like an imposing castle at which some evil king lived, from which he ruled over his kingdom with an iron fist.
My palms started sweating. If this is the place where I'm meant to die, well, it was nice knowing you, world.
Andrew led me over to the front door, and I noticed the switch on the right, which had a single red button, much like the buttons used to open doors for people in wheelchairs. The scientist pressed that button, and then there was a gruff voice on the other end of some intercom.
"What's the password?" the gruff voice asked.
"Infantroopen" Andrew responded, without hesitation.
It was such a silly word that I had to laugh, even if for only a moment. Whatever the case, it was clear that Andrew had opened this door using the password many times, judging by how quickly he'd said that word. But the door swung open, so it worked, I suppose.
We headed into the lab, and, behind the desk, there was a rather plump woman who appeared to be on the older side of middle age. She was wearing a blue blouse and had a shock of frizzy red hair. She looked up as she saw us, nodding.
"Dr. Dexter, is this Lucas Enfield? The young man who has turned into a Lucario?"
Andrew nodded. "I was just going to show him around my laboratory, and then give him an offer that I think he can't refuse".
The woman behind the desk nodded, as though she knew what this offer was. Which, come to think of it, she most likely did.
"Well, I'll just print out your badge, Lucas. You need an identification badge in order to progress any further inside this facility, so you'll need to wait just one minute".
She typed some things onto her computer and clicked a couple of times. Within seconds after the last click, a small white badge was printed out with my name and photo on it. It was a photo of my Lucario form, not my human one.
"You don't even need to take a picture of me?" I asked her. "Wow, the technology here is just like magic". Then again, you know what they say about any sufficiently advanced technology.
"Indeed" she replied, nodding. "In any case, I'll let you take Lucas on the tour, and then you can come back here".
We went through the nearest doors and entered a room that was roughly the shape of a perfect octagon, with every side the same length and every angle the same degree. Much of it was made up of glass cases, and, intersecting each other in the shape of a cross, there were two hallways with benches to sit on. In other words, it looked rather like an exhibit at a museum.
In each of the four massive glass cases, there was a large tank of water with a bunch of smaller tubes running through it, roughly the size of intravenous lines you'd find in a hospital room. They were connected to Lucario, which were floating yet submerged in the tanks.
"What is that?" I asked Andrew. "That looks rather inhumane, does it not?"
"Trust me, Lucas, all of the experiments that we run are perfectly humane. No humans or Pokemon are being harmed in the process".
The eyes of all four Lucario were closed, and their aura sensing organs hung limp behind their heads. For all intents and purposes, they appeared to be dead.
"They're not dead, you know" Andrew told me. "They're all in states of stasis as we study their brain waves and heart rate. They should be completely unconscious, but sometimes Lucario can sense things even when asleep. We're trying to see if they can sense things even when they're placed in a 100% comatose state".
"But wouldn't they just end up drowning?" I asked him indignantly. I didn't care about decorum at all. From my point of view, all four Lucario appeared to be dead.
"That's where the sedative comes in" said Andrew. "It's so that they won't panic and screw up the oxygen system that is keeping them alive. The reason they're in the water is because it's not actually water, it's a fluid called Wyomium. It stimulates their muscles, so that they won't atrophy while they're unconscious for a period of two weeks".
"That's interesting" I thought. I tried envisioning being told that, after being put under, I was going to be held in a tank unconscious for two weeks as a bunch of scientists studied me. "Are the tests painful?"
"No, they're not. If you've ever gotten an EKG or anything like that, you'd know that it doesn't hurt at all. The only reason they're sedated is because two weeks is a long time to be just there doing nothing, and also, like I said, so that they don't panic".
I nodded. I was only one room into this laboratory, and I was already quite amazed at what I was seeing.
"Dr. Dexter? Andrew?" I asked the scientist.
He turned to me. "Yes? What is it, young man?"
"You're not going to experiment on me, are you? At least, not without my consent?"
Andrew put his hand on my shoulder, much like a father would do to comfort a child. "No, Lucas. The Lucario who are participating in this study all gave their written and verbal consent prior to the experiment, and they're each getting paid five hundred thousand dollars, annually, for the rest of their lives".
"That's quite the incentive" I replied.
"Sometimes subjects would be willing to pay half a million to do this, especially if they're very rich already. Who doesn't want to help advance scientific causes? But no, the law says we have to pay them and not the other way around".
There was something in the way Andrew way too casually talked about this experiment that made me feel uneasy. There was no light in his bright blue eyes.
"In any case, let me show you some more rooms here in the lab".
Andrew led me into a short corridor, and there were two doors that we passed along the way to the next room. I was wondering what might possibly be behind either of them, but, fortunately, I was able to resist my curiosity to open them. I strongly suspected that if I had done that, Andrew would not be happy with me.
Eventually, we reached the next room, and I saw another curious sight. It didn't quite grab one's attention the way the comatose Lucario had, but it was still quite interesting.
A bunch of what appeared to be medicine bottles were in another glass case. Inside of them, rather than pills, there was a liquid that was a medium violet red color. "What's that?" I asked Andrew.
"Those would be samples of the antidote we're working on. Our goal at the laboratory, after all, is to save as many lives as possible through the different technologies we develop".
"Antidotes for what, exactly?"
Andrew scratched his beard with his fingers. "There's a particularly powerful poison used by some poachers...they call it Zexonyte. If you're envenomated with it, it takes as little as thirty minutes to kill you...very painfully. There's no known antidote, except for the one we're working on developing".
I was afraid to ask this next question, but I did so anyway. "How does the poison kill its victims".
"It effectively cuts off your ability to breathe, while basically liquifying the victim's organs. It's almost like drowning on dry land".
I shuddered. There were lots of things I hoped never to experience, and drowning on dry land was most certainly one of them. "How many poachers use it?"
"Not many, fortunately" Andrew replied. "It's a Class I illegal substance worldwide, as mandated by the United Regions. Just the possession of as little as one tiny vial is enough to warrant a life sentence in a maximum-security prison. Not even using it, just the possession of it. As such, most poachers don't want to take that risk; they simply use less deadly poisons".
"Wouldn't they want their victims to remain alive, though?" I asked Andrew. "After all, if you're a brutal poacher, don't you want the victim to feel as much pain as possible? Also, would the poison remain in the fur?"
The scientist shrugged. "I wouldn't necessarily think that way, but then again, I'm not a brutal poacher. And no, the poison only kills one being. In any case, the antidote is still under development, so it's really better to avoid getting hit with it at all".
I brought up the thought I'd had. "Should I learn how to fight, then? I feel kind of naked without any aura sensing abilities".
Andrew shook his head. "You might think that way, but being able to defend yourself is no substitute for being able to avoid poachers. In fact, that's related to the offer that I'm going to give you later".
With what he'd told me about the poison that made it feel like you were drowning on dry land, I'd almost forgotten about the offer he had alluded to. But I hadn't been able to completely get it out of my mind, and so I knew I'd have to reckon with the decision eventually.
After another moment of silence, he led me into the next room, which resembled something like a home gym. In one corner, there were several weights and a bench, while, in the other corner, a Lucario was running on a treadmill. I could tell this one was female.
"Maisie?" asked Andrew. I guessed that was the Lucario's name.
Maisie the Lucario took out her air pods and turned to face us. "I was just in the middle of listening to 'Believe Her', but I'll talk to you guys instead. You're also interrupting my workout, so there's that".
"I'd like you", Andrew said, directing it at the female Lucario, "to meet Lucas, the white-furred Lucario. He's here with me, going on a tour of the facility".
Maisie held out her paw for me to shake. I held it out and shook it a few times, the way my mother had always taught me to whenever I met someone new.
"Why do you have white fur?" Maisie asked me.
I felt my face flush slightly, but I was able to answer without fainting from embarrassment. "I wasn't originally a Lucario. You might have heard on the news about Lucas Enfield, the 18-year-old who turned into a Lucario?"
Maisie nodded. "Indeed I did".
"Well, that's me. I'm Lucas Enfield".
"Figures" she replied, shaking my paw once more. "Well, I'm Maisie. And I'm just here doing a stress test on the treadmill; I suppose I'm another one of the subjects here. Fortunately I'm not one of the people being sedated and going in the tanks, I don't have the guts to do that".
I chuckled. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Maisie".
"Nice to meet you too, Lucas" she replied.
After that, Andrew and I left the room and headed down the hallway to what appeared to be a conference room. It held a long, oval-shaped table with eight swivel chairs around it, three on each side and one on each end. There were a couple shelves on each side of the room, as well as a desk with a computer at it.
"Sit down, please" Andrew told me. "At any chair you prefer".
I selected the chair closest to the door from which I had just entered. If this turned out to be a trap, at least I'd have an easier time escaping than I might have had otherwise.
Andrew took the seat on the other end of the table. "So, Lucas, you probably wondered why I invited you to tour my laboratory today. I can assure you that this wasn't a trap at all, but rather, like I said, an offer you couldn't refuse".
Maybe it is an offer that I can't refuse, but why should that mean that it isn't a trap?
"That's why", I replied. "So that you'd give me the offer. Well, tell me what the offer is, and then I'll decide".
"You don't have to decide right now. In fact, you should probably take a few hours, maybe even days, to think about it. Just decide eventually so I know if and when I should get the helicopter ready for you".
"Wait" I said. "What does the helicopter have to do with this?"
"That's what I was about to get to" Andrew replied, smiling. It didn't appear to be a sinister smile, but I was still having a hard time trusting this man.
"Please explain".
"I have a friend named Thomas Kemp. He's a very wealthy man, and a very good person as well. A philanthropist, if you will. In fact, he donated most of the money to help set this place up".
Sounds like a good guy, except for keeping Lucario in glass tanks. No matter if they were sedated to the point of being in induced comas, I still didn't think it was humane, but I wasn't going to push Andrew any further.
"Like I said, great guy. He lives in a mansion about fifty miles north of Hearthome City, which is surrounded by the Coronet Range and numerous forests. It's a beautiful place, and I think you'd like it there".
I could practically picture the place in my head, even though I'd never seen it. It sure sounded beautiful to me!
"I think I know where this is going" I replied sheepishly. Even if the place surrounding the mansion sounded gorgeous, I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't a little bit uneasy about the whole prospect.
Andrew nodded. "It's probably no secret to you by now, but you, my friend, have a target on your back. There are so many poachers who want to get to you, it's not even funny. But the mansion has great security; you'd be safe there".
"Are you sure about that?" I asked him. "I'm not going to compromise my freedom, let alone my life in Gardenia, for safety".
The scientist raised an eyebrow at me. "Even if it means getting hit with that poison? The one that feels like you're drowning on dry land?"
My heart almost stopped at that question. That was definitely a terrifying idea, to be sure, but I wasn't ready to accept his offer just yet.
"Uh...I'll have to think about it".
"I told you this earlier", Andrew replied, "but you don't have to decide right now. I'd prefer you told me sooner rather than later, because I really don't want you to get caught by a poacher, but it's your call".
"How long do I have to make my decision?" I asked.
"As long as you need, as long as you are still alive". Andrew smiled at the last few words, but if that was a joke, I didn't think it was particularly funny.
Before I could object to his "joke", he continued.
"If you want to accept my offer of protection, just say the word and come over here. The chopper will be ready to take you to the mansion".
"Why a chopper? Why can't I travel by plane or train?"
"My friend", Andrew responded, "I think you already know why".
Almost immediately, I realized just how bone-headed I had been to imply that there was any other option. The fact was, I'd attract way too much attention on any form of public transportation. I knew a thing or two about the geography of the Sinnoh region, having taken numerous classes on it in school, and I knew that Hearthome City, or rather the area fifty miles north of it, was much too far to walk.
But at the same time, I was filled with wonder. I'd never been in a helicopter before, but I could imagine that it would be quite incredible to see the woodlands of Sinnoh from relatively low in the sky, or at least lower than an airplane.
I nodded sheepishly. "You're right. I know why".
"So yeah. If you want to accept my offer, then come here with thirty minutes' notice. The pilot of Thomas Kemp's helicopter can take you and one other person with you, and you can choose who that person is, or if you even want someone else with you at all. I hope you aren't afraid of heights?"
"Not terribly" I said. "I don't think I'd be scared in a helicopter, at any rate".
Andrew nodded. "The choice is yours. But choose carefully, Lucas, because poachers don't take a summer holiday. They'll keep on hunting you until your head is hanging over their fireplace".
I was originally going to include a scene at the end of this chapter in which Dr. Dexter takes Lucas out for ice cream in order to try and "butter him up" to get him to accept his offer. In the end, I decided that it would be kind of anticlimactic, and, more importantly, not too important to the plot.
