Chapter
4 - Adaptation
It was a fairly normal morning in
a fairly normal suburban kitchen. A woman stood by a stove,
preparing a breakfast for her son. There was nothing odd about
this scene at all, except for the woman herself. This woman was
made entirely of a shimmering, translucent blue gel-like fluid
that didn't move; it flowed from position to
position like some kind of surreal sculpture. What made the scene
even more mind-bending was the red apron she wore with '#1 Mom!'
stencilled on the front.
Delilah Ketchum prepared the
breakfast, while she waited for Ash to leave his bedroom and come
down stairs for his morning meal. Yesterday, after hearing her
revelations, he had asked her to leave him alone and give him
time to think. Of course she agreed without question... she
understood his situation.
Hearing somebody come down the
stairway, Delilah immediately assumed her "human" form.
Blue fluid flowed and re-formed, paling to the colour of
Caucasian flesh-tone. Her hair darkened to fiery red and her body
re-shaped itself into the likeness of clothes, taking on the
colour and texture of fabric. By the time Pikachu and Chikorita
walked into view, there was no way to tell Delilah was anything
but a completely typical human female. Of course, the two Pokémon
knew that she was not.
"Pika-pi-chu-kachu-pika-ka."
[Ash will come down in a few minutes,] the electric mouse said
formally.
"Thank you, Pikachu,"
Delilah replied. She took two bowls full of what Brock once
called 'Pika-chow,' and put it down by the rear door. "And
here is your breakfast." The two Pokémon observed the food
that she made for them for some moments before they began to eat
it slowly: it was as if they were checking if the food was
normal.
With her back for them, Delilah
clenched her hands in tension. What is wrong with them?
she asked herself in hurt. Do they think I would poison them?
Maybe poison my own son too?
And should you not have done
that? Her inner voice asked in a sneering tone.
She shook the head, trying to
drive the thought from her mind. It was difficult, God it was so
difficult. She had spent her entire adult life as a terrorist and
an outlaw. She wasn't used to trusting anyone, and her
condition made it even harder. She had been programmed
as to what she should do if anyone were to discover her true
nature. She loved her son, but it was a continual fight against a
behavioural conditioning that was far more perfect than
she realised.
"Mom?" Speaking of her
son Here he was, entering the room. He looked messy, just
as he always did when he first got up in the morning. She managed
to hold in a snapped rebuke for his not even bothering to brush
his hair this morning as always. Being a mother was far
tougher than breaking into a heavily guarded Pokémon Breeding
Center.
"Hi Ash! How are you?"
she asked, with her best and most warm smile.
"Fine, I think." Ash sat
down at the table and turned to look at his Pokémon. "Guys,
could you go to another room for a while? I need to speak with my
mother... in private."
"Chiko-kori-chi-ta?"
(Are you sure?) Chikorita asked, looking at the woman
who smelt more and more like some kind of Ditto the more the
Plant-type focussed her senses on her.
Ash told Chikorita he was sure,
and two Pokémon walked out, looking nervously at Delilah.
Delilah noticed the seriousness in
her son's face, and she sat down. Now they were face to face. He
breathed in deeply, trying to summon his courage and his
determination.
"Mom, first, I want say that
I understand the reason why you have hidden..." Ash sought
the right word, "your condition."
"Thank you Ash."
"Second, I would like to ask
you some questions."
"Sure. What do you want to
know?"
The young Pokémon Trainer looked
his mother in the eye, grabbed all his courage in both hands and
leapt into the breach. "Well... what are the chances that I
will become you know, like you?"
Delilah had been waiting for that
question. She had to admire the subtle way with that Ash had
asked if he would become a mutant freak like her. She knew that
that would worry Ash; hell, that possibility would worry anyone
who was halfway sane. Fortunately, she already had an answer
ready (that even managed to be a partial truth) to reassure him.
"Absolutely zero. Since you
are a test tube baby, you don't have my mutant genes."
Ash hid his relief well, but then
his brain caught up with what his mother said and he blinked.
"One moment! Do you mean that
I am a test tube baby?"
She nodded. Ash was confused.
"But then... why did you tell me stories about my
father, that he was a Pokémon Trainer, and all? If I'm a test
tube baby..."
Delilah couldn't stop herself from
smiling in amusement. "But you do have a father,
Ash. Where do you think the sperm came from?"
"Oh! Oh, sure... I
hadn't thought of that..." Ash murmured, going bright red in
a combination of embarrassment and shame. He always acted like
this when "adult subject" came up in any discussion.
Delilah especially remembered her long discussion with
Ash about that dream he had about Misty now that
had been painful. He had almost been as frightened then as he was
now.
"But, Mom... even so, the
ovum came from you! How can you be so sure that I don't
have your mutation, no offense, ok?"
"Because... the ovum was also
donated. I'm completely sterile, Ash... I don't even
menstruate," she murmured, seeming embarrassed and more than
a little ashamed to have to admit to such a detail. Ash blushed
again and looked away in shame. What a wonderful mother you
are, her inner voice asked, ironically and sadistically. How
easily you lie to your precious son.
Meanwhile, Ash decided to pass for
the next topic. One that was a cause of even more trauma for a
growing teenage boy. "When you... well, when you changed...
your clothes transformed too. Does that mean that your
clothes, actually, are part of your body?"
"Yes. For the last sixteen
years," she replied.
Ash's chin dropped and his face
blushed in horror when he understood what her answer, so easily
and casually delivered, meant. "Do you mean then that you
were naked... that whole time?"
Delilah shrugged easily.
Technically it wasn't the case, but this was no time to lecture
Ash on the mechanics of adaptive protein biology. The term
'naked' was accurate enough. "I suppose you could say that,
yes," she replied.
For a few moments, Delilah could
not understood why Ash was so embarrassed by her answer. The boy
nearly died on the spot! He went bright red and looked
away from her, sweat beginning to bead on his brow. Then it
dawned on her... Dear God! She realised that she really
owed Ash a very good explanation...
"Well, Ash... would you go to
the trouble of having to put on and take off clothes, if you
could just make them to appear on your body?" she said,
sounding a little defensive. "To tell the truth... it is
actually easier to create the appearance of fabric than the
appearance of skin. The textures, colours and patterns are so
much more regular"
Delilah realised that Ash wasn't
listening. Nor was he looking at her. Indeed he was staring
entirely in the other direction and he was wearing an expression
of utter panic.
"Wah... Mom... Could you use real
clothes from now on? Please?"
Delilah's eyes showed her surprise
with the request. "I beg your pardon?" she asked.
At that moment the phone rang, and
Ash looked comically relieved. "I'll get it!" Ash ran
from the kitchen, leaving a confused Delilah staring in his wake.
"Ash!" She called after
him.
When she realised he wasn't coming
back, she sighed and leaned back. She couldn't blame him for his
reaction. Every time he had touched her clothed back, he had
touched her skin. As a child, when he had hugged himself to her,
he had been touching a naked woman Well, it was a
lot for a teenage boy to handle.
Delilah stood and looked at her
reflection in the kitchen windows. She felt that her recreation
of a woman aged about 30 was quite good. She had deliberately not
factored in too many age-related features (she had some
vanity), but overall she was pleased with the look. Maybe Ash
would calm down if I tried a different look, she thought
impishly.
Delilah concentrated and her
clothes and hair begin to blur into her blue gel-like default
appearance and reform. When they regained the appearance of
clothes and hair, she was wearing a yellow tank top and a pair of
jeans cut off at her thighs and held up by a pair of red braces.
Her hair had re-styled itself into a tightly pinned cap of hair
with a shoulder-length ponytail extending from just above her
left ear. Delilah grinned before returning to her preferred
clothes and hairdo. Agent Omega, you are one sick, SICK
individual, she told herself.
One week later, Ash and Delilah
were in Cerulean City, amongst the guests celebrating the
marriage of Misty's sister, Violet Simone Williams and Pokémon
Trainer Rudy Vanderberg, expert in Water-type Pokémon.
Ash and Misty had met Rudy during
their journey through the Orange Archipelago. Misty and Rudy were
quite interested in each other but, for some reason (and Ash
never stopped thanking God for this), Misty chose to keep
journeying with Ash. Still, Ash had to admire the fact that Rudy
didn't give up easily. He came all the way to Cerulean to take
another shot at wooing Misty, but she, Ash and Brock were in
Johto by then. Instead, he met Violet, who tried to soothe his
disappointment at missing Misty and the rest was straight out of
those syrupy romance stories that Misty liked so much... Ash was
very happy that Rudy, who was a nice guy really, had found
someone to share his life with. He was even happier that he was
marrying Misty's sister.
Still, the whole situation had
evoked emotions that made Ash feel uncomfortable. As
uncomfortable as his mother clearly was right now. "Mom,
stop fidgeting!" Ash whispered to his mother. "And try
to smile for God's sake!"
Delilah moved again, feeling
trapped in the elegant midnight blue dress that she wore. After
sixteen years without using clothes, wearing a dress was a novel
experience for her... She had briefly considered re-forming
herself around the dress, mimicking it and expelling the real
thing in some dark corner. She didn't because she knew her son needed
to know she was wearing real clothing and because the thing
was hired and she couldn't afford the fine for loss or damage.
Then the wedding march began and
all the eyes went back to the entrance of the church. Violet
entered, accompanied by a tall, black-haired man wearing a UN
Defense Forces uniform, and a very serious and cold expression.
Ash knew that that man was General Kent Lanning Williams, Misty
and her sisters' father.
God, what an expression!
Ash thought, not understanding what was happening. Looking at
him, you'd think he was being led to his execution instead of
giving his daughter away in marriage!
***
Later, the party of the year took
place in the Cascade Gym, one that everyone who was anyone in
Cerulean City was celebrating at. Well, everybody except a girl
who had turned 16 just one month ago. She was seated on a bench
outside of the Gym.
The girl was feeling very lonely
and unhappy, so she was glad when felt a hand touch her shoulder.
"Hey Misty. Would it like a
glass of juice?" Ash asked, giving her a glass of orange
juice. Daisy, Misty's oldest sister and the organiser of the
party, would strangle them both if they ever thought of
drinking something stronger (beyond the one small and strictly
monitored glass they both had for the toast to the new couple).
"Thank you, Ash." Misty
smiled and Ash's heart almost stopped.
She was dressed in a simple, but
elegant, peach-coloured bridesmaid's dress. Her ginger hair was
free of its' usual weird style and flowed freely down to waist
level, some curling forward to frame her face. She wore a small
flower in her hair, just over her right ear, and Daisy had done
her usual professional job on make-up. The first time that Ash
had seen her like this was when Violet arrived at the church. At
that moment, Ash suddenly realised what Officer Jenny and Nurse
Joy did for Brock. Delilah had to stop him from jumping over the
pews to get closer to Misty, and now, with her face lit up by the
moonlight, Ash's brain was in serious danger of overloading and
shutting down due to the strength of his emotions. For the first
time in his life, he wished that he were older...
"Ash?"
"Huh? What,
Misty?"
"Are you ok?"
"Sure!" I am not
Brock! I am not Brock! I am not Brock! he thought over and
over again, trying not to start drooling. "Why are you here
outside?"
She sighed. "I was just
thinking about stuff."
"Like what?" Ash noticed
that something bothering Misty; after nearly four years of
spending almost all his time around her, he had learned to read
her body language.
"You had to have seen that my
father and my sisters don't... get on very well with each
other."
Ash didn't want to comment on his
friend's family, but since Misty herself brought up the
subject...
"Yes, I noticed." He
said finally. "With respect, Misty, he doesn't seem to be
very happy being here."
"You are right. Actually,
that is the first time in ten years that I and my sisters have
seen him."
Ash almost choked on his juice.
"Huh?'"
Misty sighed again and continued
in a low, dispirited tone. "Have I told you that my mother
died when I was born?"
"Yes." Ash said gently.
He remembered that night in Goldenrod City. Misty had sent him to
her backpack to fetch Togepi's Pokéball, and he had, by
accident, found a photo of a brunette in a swimsuit with the
markings of a member of the Elite Four and those of a Pokémon
Master. The woman had an incredible likeness to Misty. Misty told
him that the photo was of Rosemary Oceana-Williams, a famous
oceanographer and the previous leader of the Cascade Gym. Misty
had told him about her death, which was due to complications from
childbirth, Misty's birth. It was the very first time Ash could
ever recall his tough-natured friend crying in his presence.
"Well, Daddy has never said
anything, but I know that he blames us for Mom's death..."
Misty looked at for the friend, tears threatening to escape her
eyes. "He blames the pressure that Mom suffered, having to
take care of us as well as taking care of the gym... and I know
that he blames me..."
"Misty..." Ash said,
hugging his friend. He wanted to make her feel better, but was at
a loss as to what he should say.
"I would do anything
to make him love us again," Misty murmured through her
tears. "I would do anything to make him love me"
Without them knowing, somebody had
heard them, somebody that was about a hundred meters from them,
somebody that they could not see.
She would do anything
to get her father's love. Including turning you
and your son over to him as weapons for
him to use in his wars, the inner voice of Omega hissed at
Delilah Ketchum. She had left the party for a while to get some
fresh air. Her genetically modified body had adapted to the night
immediately and, in what to her were near-daylight conditions,
she had seen Ash and Misty talking at once. A combination of
instinct and motherly concern made her mimic the superb hearing
of a Zubat. And she heard everything both teenagers said with
perfect clarity.
"She would never do
that!" Delilah murmured to that hateful inner voice.
Would you bet your
life on it? Omega sneered. Would you bet his
life on it?
"Shut up!" she snapped
at the night. As much as Delilah hated to admit it, however, the
voice had a point. "Better safe than sorry" was a motto
that had got her and her Field Team out of far more bad
situations than she cared to recall. She resolved to have an
urgent discussion with Ash when they got home.
Her eyes, which had been glowing
green with a hint of snake-like slitted pupils, returned to their
normal brown colour. The only hint that there was anything
unusual about Delilah now was the fact her pupils glowed like a
cat's when the light hit them at the right angle.
That night, a meeting was taking
place in the hidden headquarters of the Team Rocket organisation.
Scott and Jean, two White Rockets responsible for the
organisation's surveillance satellites were showing their latest
discovery to a man with his face hidden in the shadows, the
leader of Team Rocket.
Scott coughed nervously. He was
thinking that the data that he taken a week to process would
still require a lot of courage to show to his Boss.
"Well, sir, this was what our
satellite spy, the Venonat-G3, sighted while it was over Pallet
Town, in the North Region of Indigo Continent." The man
pressed a button and an infrared image appeared on the big
screen.
The image shows a winged form, of
the size of a human being, flying in direction of the
Pallet-Viridian Fault." Jean explained. "Five minutes
later, the being detected by the satellite flew in the direction
of Pallet Town, as this image shows." A similar image
appeared. "The interesting thing is that the main body of
the object has a very low body heat, similar to that of a large
Ditto, but on the return flight, you can see it is carrying
something with body heat that matches that of a human."
The Boss spent a few moments
considering the images on the main screen before asking a
question that sounded like a demand: "Normal Light
Photos?"
"Sir, you should understand
that the Venonat-G3 is one of our older satellites. The
visible-light imaging resolution is inferior the infrared images
and"
"Show it," the
Boss snapped, not interested in a lecture.
The image showed, in a very low
resolution, a person with wings and flesh seemingly made out of
some kind of clear blue material that shone in the reflected
moonlight like polythene. Scott and Jean could not see the Boss's
reaction, and he stayed silent, not giving them a clue as to what
he thought.
"Sir, do you want us to
change the orbit of the DarkArticuno 2 so it will over-fly Pallet
Town?"
"No. It is not
worthwhile," the Boss said. "A change in its' orbit
would impede our monitoring of the migration route of the
Gyarados in the Orange Archipelago. Besides, we will have to be
impossibly lucky to have another incident like this one." He
turned his back to his agents. "Leave."
After the two Rockets left,
Giovanni Carpenter buried his face in his hands. He stayed like
this for several minutes but, for him, they seemed hours.
Finally, the man sat down in his leather chair opened the right
drawer of his desk. There was just one thing inside: a photo.
Her younger sister had taken it
during a New Year's Eve party, eighteen years ago. On it, a young
Giovanni, a proud Red Rocket, hugged a beautiful redheaded White
Rocket, older than him, but youthful still in how vivaciously alive
she was. They were hugging very tightly, and the mischievous
gleam in their eyes showed that there was something very serious
happening between them. Giovanni could still remember the warmth
of her body so closer to his and that unique scent that she wore.
He remembered the soul-shredding horror he felt when his mother
told him what she had ordered done to her, 'for the good of the
Cause,' and the feel of the butt of the gun that he pressed
between her lifeless automaton eyes to kill someone to set
them free
If Giovanni were still a whole
man, rather than the empty shell that years of criminal activity
and the casual ruination of innumerable innocent lives had left
him, he would have cried.
Instead, he just looked at the
roof and spoke, completely without irony. "Then you are
still alive? Congratulations!" He sighed and shook his head.
"I just don't know if I thank you for that or if I hate
you for that..."
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To be continued...
