Chapter Three

"I was only joking when I asked if there'd be a gift shop," said Cynthia.

The Visitor's Centre, despite being unfinished, was what Diantha would refer to as grandiose. Everything was white and gold and gleaming and the marble floors echoed with every tap of Dr. Stone's cane. Around them, men and women in matching khaki shorts and shirts were assembling varied collections of bones, presumably to match the Pokemon filled murals that lined the walls. She recognised many of the creatures, but not all of them.

From the middle of the lofty ceiling hung a complete Tyrantrum skeleton. It loomed over them, casting pale shadows over the floor. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the jagged, grey teeth that somehow seemed larger than the ones in the mouth of her own Tyrantrum.

The gift shop was to the right of the entrance and Steven made a beeline for it.

"-the most advanced safari park in the world," Dr. Stone continued, ignoring his nephew's sudden departure. "Attractions so astonishing they'll capture the imagination of the world!"

"Like a living museum," said Cynthia. She seemed the only member of their group paying actual attention to Stone's diatribe.

Dr. Stone pointed his finger at her, a wide smile stretched across his face. "Exactly."

"We're going to make a fortune," said Martin under his breath. "Ten-thousand, twenty-thousand a ticket. We can charge whatever we want."

Dr. Stone inclined his head in agreement, but Diantha suspected his interest in the financial benefits were secondary to his vision for the park. "I didn't design this island only to cater to the super rich, Martin. Everyone should be able to enjoy the wonders we have on offer here."

"Oh course, of course," said Martin with a grin. "We'll have a coupon day." Dr. Stone laughed.

Diantha and Cynthia exchanged a look, and the frown on the other woman's face deepened. It was comforting to know that she wasn't the only one perturbed by what was happening here. The men seemed not to notice and Dr. Stone resumed his tour of the facilities, pointing out features with his cane and greeting every staff member he passed by name. Without fail everybody dropped what they were doing and spoke to the older man like he was an old friend. Stones' enthusiasm had obviously spread to his workers.

Stone was leading them to the next wing of the building when Steven caught up with them. In his hand he grasped a small plush Tirtouga, presumably a gift for Wallace. Diantha's attention was immediately drawn to the logo on the price tags - the outline of an Aerodactyl skeleton with the words 'Prehistoric Park' splashed across it. No time had been wasted on the licensing and merchandising it seemed. Dr. Stone had been very confident that his investors were going to keep funding his park. His confidence, was perhaps, warranted in this case; Martin's eyes had all but become coin shaped.

"Find what you wanted?" asked Cynthia.

"A water type." Steven held up his toy. It was, admittedly, very cute. She wondered if they had an Amaura for sale. "I left the money on the counter. Did I miss anything?"

"Just a distressing display of capitalism," said Diantha, quietly enough so as not to be heard by Dr. Stone or Martin. "I still can't even work out why we're here."

No more words were said as Dr. Stone led them up a set of stairs and then down a plain corridor that had enough pots of paint and stencils lying to imply that it wouldn't be plain for very long. At one point Stone turned his head towards them with a glint in his eye. He led them to a door then, large and somewhat imposing, and pushed his way inside.

The first thing Diantha noticed was the fact that the air conditioning was far superior in this room than it had been in the main entrance. The hairs on her arms prickled with the sudden, yet welcome, temperature drop. It was like stepping into a cave without the hard floors and smell of damp. Or rather, she thought, noting the plaques backlit in a golden glow, a very dark museum. It took her eyes a few moments adjust to the low lighting, but when they did different shaped fossils scattered haphazardly against the walls came into focus. She took a step forward and looked down, feeling strange bumps beneath her feet. Shallow bones protruded from the floor. Her mouth twisted into a frown.

"Don't worry," said Dr. Stone, strangely jovial. "They aren't real bones. This is an exact replica of a cave we found on the island."

"A cave covered in bones and fossils?" said Steven. He had moved over to one of the walls and had pressed his fingers against the etchings there. Diantha couldn't see his face, but she imagined if she could she'd be able to read the awe on it that she could hear in his voice. She didn't know him very well, but at the conference on mega evolution where they'd met he had spoken about the stones themselves with a determined passion. She didn't share his interest in old rocks, but could see even then that studying them brought him a great deal of joy. "Usually you'd only find two or three and even then the chances of finding a viable sample is small."

"That's right, my boy. Enough rocks for you to study for decades and still not be done!"

"And your first thought when you found this…burial ground was to turn the island into a safari park?" asked Cynthia. Whether Dr. Stone didn't hear her or had elected to ignore her was unclear, but she didn't get an answer either way. Privately, Diantha agreed with the sentiment. There was something eerie about the place that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Considering everything was made of fibreglass and plastic it was quite the feat.

"A lot of these fossils are damaged," said Steven. "How did you fill in the DNA sequence?"

"That would be the clever bit," said Dr. Stone.


"Ditto!"

The two pink, gelatinous looking Pokemon wobbling within their glass cages seemed somewhat out of place in the sterile lab Dr. Stone had taken them to. The walls and floors were white and each scientist wore a lab coat over a plain white shirt. A number of complicated looking machines that she couldn't even begin to comprehend gleamed silver and carefully arranged on every flat surface lay either a series of shiny metal tools and instruments or a long line of test tubes. She wasn't close enough to see what was in any of the tubes and was in no hurry to rectify that situation. On the table furthest from the door sat a row of what looked like glass cylinders. Incubators?

"This is incredible," said Steven. His blue eyes were wide as they slowly roved around the room, until they eventually settled back onto the Ditto. "How do you…?"

"Simple," said Dr. Stone. "Once we put the work into bringing back each Pokemon, we had the Ditto transform into it and we extrapolated the DNA sequence from there. It was quite the challenge," he added with a grin that showed a row of white teeth. "A challenge we were more than up to, of course."

A young man wearing a lab coat came to stand beside Diantha. In one hand was a clipboard and with the other he gestured wildly with every word. "Since then we've actually managed to breed some of the Pokemon with the Ditto. It's harder to control the gender that way, but allows for more inter-species variance."

"Control the gender?" said Diantha. It was the first time she'd managed to get a word in edge-ways since they'd left the visitor's centre. She'd tried to ask a few questions as they'd moved, but had been continuously shushed by Martin who had stared at Stone the entire time with rapt attention, unwilling to allow his monologue to be interrupted.

"We're still working on the ecosystem of the island," said Dr. Stone. "Population control is necessary at this point for security. Maybe it always will be."

"All our Pokemon are female," said the scientist. "We engineer them that way."

Something uneasy settled in Diantha's stomach at the word 'engineer'. "But how can you be sure they're all female? I'll admit…this isn't really my area of expertise, but it just seems…like a level of control you'd struggle to achieve?"

"It's quite simple," said the scientist, with a gentle but patronising smile. "We control the chromosomes. All vertebrate embryos are inherently female to begin with and require the right hormone at a certain developmental stage to make them male. We just deny them that hormone."

When he put it like that it did sound simple. But…

"Diantha's right," said Cynthia. She straightened up from where she'd been examining some kind of whirring machine. Steven hovered behind her, his usual smile replaced with concern. "The kind of control you're trying to achieve here isn't possible. If there's one thing history has taught us it's that life can't be contained. It expands to new territories, and not always peacefully. What you're doing here is…" She trailed off and shook her head.

Dr. Stone's answering smile was incredulous and he twisted his fingers around his cane. Had he been expecting a path of no resistance? Maybe he had. So impressed and blinded by his own cleverness, had Stone swerved even considering the moral implications of what he was doing here? The word 'engineer' still weighed heavily in her gut. They were living creatures; not a science experiment. Part of her wanted to say something. Agree with Cynthia maybe. She kept her mouth closed.

"You're suggesting that a group of Pokemon that are entirely female will find a way to breed?" asked the scientist, amused.

"No," said Cynthia, frustrated. "I'm saying that life…finds a way."

Diantha felt a chill run down her spine.


Pins and needles shot up and down his legs as he and Kelly made a break for the tree line. It was hard to tell how long they'd been hidden, cramped behind the biggest crates they could find, but the sun was hot and hung high in the sky so he'd guess five or six hours. Not exactly the best weather for attempted stealth, but somehow they managed to avoid detection and disappear into the trees.

"Holy shit," said Kelly, panting heavily and clutching her chest. "I can't believe we made it."

Todd leaned backwards against a tall tree he didn't recognise and nodded his head. His heart pounded so hard he could feel it in his throat. Somewhere behind them he could still hear the genial shouts of sailors and heavy thumps of crates being loaded onto jeeps. "I thought for sure that guy with the dumb hat had seen us."

"He was probably too distracted by that really whiny Gogoat," said Kelly. She puffed out a heavy breath and then started to stretch out her arms.

The Gogoat had been a bit of a surprise. On their admittedly limited exploration through the freighter they'd skipped a few of the doors, but it hadn't even occurred to Todd that they might have been transporting live Pokemon. They hadn't heard a peep from any of them on their fraught journey across the sea and neither of them had seen any of the dock workers loading the Pokemon onto the boat while they'd been scoping it out the night before. Had they just missed it somehow? Or where they being specifically hidden? Whatever it was, it was all good information to note down to take back to the Boss.

"Where the hell are we?" said Kelly.

"No idea," said Todd. "Somewhere hot." Hot and muggy. The back of his Team Skull tank top was already sticking to his skin with sweat. "And leafy."

"It's Alola. Everywhere's hot. And I don't think we were travelling long enough to have left the region."

He agreed, but geography wasn't exactly his area of expertise so that didn't really narrow things down for him. Nothing was his expertise really, if he was being honest. That was why they were here though, wasn't it? To find out stuff like this. Todd allowed himself a smug grin. He bet not many newly recruited team members could say they'd gone on such a wild adventure on their first time out. That would show those guys not to mess with him.

"We should look around," he said.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," said Kelly. She stopped stretching and looked at him seriously. "We have no idea where we are, man. It could be dangerous."

"We're Team Skull! Who's gonna mess with us?"

Kelly let out an exasperated sigh. "Todd…you're twelve years old. You're really not as threatening as you think you are. Maybe we should get back on the boat? It's probably going back to Poni Island?"

"No! We only just got here. We have to take information back to Guzma. I said we would."

"We've done enough."

"We've not even done anything! All we know is that a group of people on a boat took some food and some Pokemon to a random island."

Silence fell between them, though around them the jungle teemed with sounds. Pokemon screeched in the distance and trees rustled and creaked despite the distressing lack of airflow. Somewhere to the left a twig snapped.

Then, Kelly nodded her head. "All right," she said, reluctantly. Todd felt a swell of relief. "We'll have a quick look around, okay? But if we can't find anything I really think we should head back to the boat. At least I have Litten if we get into trouble." She patted the single Pokeball he could see outlined in the pocket of her shorts.

"Thanks," he said. Then he straightened up, already regretting his words. Team Skull members didn't thank people. "Right so…" He looked around, suddenly feeling at a loss. "Which way do you reckon we should go?"

In the end they decided to walk in the opposite direction to the freighter, because at the very least they were less likely to get caught that way. They moved deeper into the jungle.

Even on a normal day this wasn't the kind of thing Todd usually enjoyed. He'd spent too much time living rough to find much appeal in what he sometimes heard people call 'the great outdoors'. As far as he was concerned there was very little about it that came even close to great and once he earned his place in Po Town he didn't plan to ever leave it. Screw nature. What was so great about a few plants and wildlife? He had his own Pokemon, of course - a small Zubat he'd caught in a stolen Pokeball once. The stupid thing had never once won him a battle though and he felt no affection towards it. Not in the same way Kelly clearly felt for her Litten anyway.

What was the point in a Pokemon if it wasn't even strong enough to protect him?

He wasn't sure exactly how long passed, but they walked through the jungle for what felt like a good old while before they saw anything of note. He'd probably have walked straight past it if Kelly hadn't grabbed his arm.

"Hey. Look at that thing."

His eyes moved to where she was pointing and he stopped walking. "I don't know that Pokemon."

"Neither do I," said Kelly, with ill-concealed excitement. "I thought I knew all the Pokemon you could catch in the Alola region."

It was a little thing (about a foot tall, he estimated) stood on all fours with a yellow body and a large round head. He couldn't quite make out the details of it's face because it was currently being rubbed up against one of the strange trees they'd passed earlier, but from where he was standing it looked and sounded like it might be made of metal. Huh. A steel type then? Kelly took a step towards it and the things head shot up.

"It's so cute," said Kelly.

"You think they're all cute," said Todd, unimpressed. The Pokemon's big eyes stared at him. "Come on. Let's keep moving."

With some reluctance, Kelly pulled her eyes away from the strange looking creature and they continued their trek. Todd swallowed, wishing he'd thought to grab a bottle of water or something on their quick exit from the ship. His mouth felt dry and sticky and he hadn't seen or heard anything that sounded like running water since they'd left the island shore. It might have been his impending dehydration that distracted him from noticing that the Pokemon was following them.

He was glancing around aimlessly when the structure caught his attention. He squinted up through the gaps in the trees, not sure if he was seeing it right.

"Is that what I think it is?" he said, pointing upwards.

"A radio tower," said Kelly.

With unspoken agreement, they altered their course and headed towards it. Electronics usually meant civilisation and so far they hadn't learned a single thing Guzma might be interested in while wading through slightly damp underbrush. The occasional thought niggled in the back of Todd's mind - maybe Kelly had been right and this was a bad idea? He pushed them away with determination though. That was weakness talking, and Todd wasn't weak. He'd show Guzma and Kelly that he knew what he was doing.

His resolve was tested when they finally reached their destination.

Towering metal meshed fences stretched up towards the sky guarding what looked like a few shacks. Large yellow signs warning of electrified fences and danger hung from the both the fences and the buildings they surrounded. A stiff breeze whooshed past them, ruffling his blue hair around his ears.

There was a lot Todd was willing to do for his new boss, but touching a fence that might electrocute him wasn't one of them, so they walked slowly around the perimeter. Neither said anything, but Todd could sense Kelly's unease.

"Who do you think they're trying to keep out?" she asked. Her hand gently cupped the Pokeball in her pocket.

"Or keep in?" said Todd.

"Keeping in those tin huts?" said Kelly, sceptically.

"Maybe not."

They reached a door built into the fence, wrapped in barbed wire and padlocked shut. Kelly grinned and pulled out a hairpin from her tight black curls. When they'd met one of the first things she'd ever said to him was that there wasn't a lock she couldn't pick. He supposed now he'd finally get to see that skill in action.

"Last chance to turn back," she said. If it had been any other time Todd would have laughed at her dramatics, but something about what she'd said rang ominously true.

"Do it."


AN: Some sadly necessary exposition in this chapter. Hopefully things will start to get a bit more exciting soon!