Jessie slowly opened her deep blue eyes. Everything was so dark and her head was throbbing badly with dull pain. The wounds on her legs seemed to have been cured and bandaged. She was aware that she was laying on her side on a big metal table and got up. She heaved herself off. She landed and, with a sickening feeling in her stomach, realized that her arms were only as long as her hands. Not to mention she couldn't get on her feet easily and had to stay on all fours. Had they cut off her legs or something? No..it was a different feeling…
The light suddenly came on and Jessie blinked before crouching down, ready to spring and defend herself.
"Now, now, don't get excited!" a young man was holding his hands up in defense.
He was a scientist from the Rocket Labs. His messy brown hair gave him a youthful
look. He smiled down at Jessie with his big brown eyes.
Jessie started to feel frightened. Why was he so much taller than her?
"Seems that you woke up a couple days early. Another success."
"What do you mean? Who are you?" Jessie hissed.
"I am Xavier. But you really don't need to know that and what is going on. You're the third successful experiment we've had in metamorphosis at Rocket Labs," Xavier went over to the counter and began washing his hands at the sink. Jessie looked around. The room looked like an ordinary room at the doctor's with the same blinding white walls and cabinets.
"Experiment? Metamorphosis?" the queasiness in her stomach was getting worse.
"See for yourself," Xavier held a small hand-mirror to level with Jessie.
Jessie nearly passed out. She couldn't believe her reflection. The mirror had to be broken! Instead of her normal, beautiful self, the reflection revealed a Flareon: a Flareon with a small tuft of hair on the top of her head that curled back just like her's-or what WAS her's- and the same shade of blue in her eyes.
"But..bu…but…" Jessie stammered.
"No use, Jessie. I can't change you back. We've only succeeded in turning people into pokèmon but we never found out how to change them back. You see, back in the days when Team Rocket was still small and unknown-run by a woman we only know as 'Madam Boss' or 'Woman Boss'- the idea of agents with the power to turn into pokèmon and back again in dangerous missions was revolutionary and the Team Rocket Scientists were put to the test. We came up with the solution some twenty years ago; you ever heard of Ryan?"
"Doesn't everyone? He was one of the best agents in Team Rocket history, and one of the best surfers too. He died in a boating accident though. But what does that have to do with me?" Jessie replied, sitting on her haunches, reciting the well-known information, a bit annoyed.
Xavier chuckled uneasily. "That was the cover-up story. He was the top agent, that's for sure, but he was also the first one to survive the metamorphic process; the first to successfully turn into a pokèmon and survive. We weren't sure what he would become but it seems that the person becomes a pokèmon of an element they represent. Ryan obviously had a shocking personality so he became a Pikachu; a blue-eyed Pikachu."
Ryan? He became…Puka the surfing Pikachu?! Jessie remembered the aged Pikachu with the blue eyes on the beach.
"We also tested the process on other people, but most of them never survived the process. Remember, you are only the fourth to survive so you must be very fit in body and in mind. Ryan and the others had blue eyes. Must be something to do with genetics. Very interesting…" Xavier jotted down some notes before scooping Jessie onto the table again to check her physical conditions.
After reluctantly letting him check her heart rate, temperature and endless note taking, Jessie asked softly, "Why did you do this to me?"
"I don't know. I wasn't in the group who did the process and I probably have said too much already. If I were you, I'd choose my last words wisely. The vocal chords take the longest time to change after the procedure so you won't be able to talk human language quite soon. I was quite surprised you woke up so early."
"But-" Jessie protested. The door opened.
"Xavier, you have no permission to be in here," a woman with short green wavy hair and wiry glasses glared.
"I am sorry, Katherine, but Dr. McNamara had asked me to check up on Je-"
"The right people shall do that and they will be behind the further testing, not you."
Further testing?! She'd heard of all the horror stories of what they
did to "test subjects" and she wasn't staying around to find out if they were
true.
Quick as a flash, she disappeared out of the room. Surprised agents could only
see a crimson streak as Jessie ran through corridor after corridor. She finally
found a way out of the building through a small window and disappeared into
the bushes. Jessie slumped down and caught her breath before slinking off into
the surrounding woods.