End of a Reality

by Blue9Tiger and DarkMutatedBrock (Cheese Masters of the Universe)

*~*~*

Summary: A co-written fic of enormous proportions, concocted by the devilish minds of two psychopaths. Pokémon crossed with FFVII. Mutations galore. Revolves around Brock, Giovanni, and Hojo. You think we're freaks NOW? Then go ahead and read. We dare you.

Blue9Tiger's Legal Stuff: Brock, Ash, Misty, Giovanni, etc., and all characters related to Pokémon are copyright to Nintendo, GameFreak, CREATURES, 4KidsEntertainment, TVTokyo?, Half-HP Studio---wait, maybe not. All characters pertaining to Final Fantasy VII are copyright to Squaresoft. Any infringements of copyright are unintentional.

Blue9Tiger's A/N: The insanity is BACK. YES! IT IS BACK!!!!!!!! And now, two heads are OFFICIALLY better than one! This is the product of many near-sleepless nights, and the combination of two very twisted minds. We really hope you ENJOY THIS! If you don't, well, it won't matter, but we still hope you do. ^_^ This is the farthest from a normal fanfic you can get---I think. Prepare yourselves for the most warped, freakish, and psychotic series you ever laid eyes on! ::Crushed by a Graveller.:: And now........the REALITY ENDS.
started: 4/11/01 finished: 1/27/02

DarkMutatedBrock's Legal Stuff: WE OWN EVERYTHING!!!! OUR NAMES ARE SATOSHI TAJIRI AND TETSUYA NOMURA!!! MUAAHAHAHAHA!!!!

DarkMutatedBrock's A/N: You like? Then review. REVIEW. Contains pairings typical of me and Blue, so if you want to know THAT little detail, GO READ OUR OTHER FICS!!! Wooo. Self-promotion. So sue me. YES, SUE ME, SQUARESOFT AND NINTENDO LAWYERS!!!!! Um.. right. ^^;; Anyway, this whole thing is based on an RP between me an' my buddy, Blue, which began April 11th, 2001, and has so far gone on continuously and spanned hundreds of pages of written text. Now, we attempt to bring the wonder of evil mutations to the rest of the world....along with some dark/insane humor mixed in. :) I'm from LA. Yeah, THAT explains it.... I apologize for grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors. I forgot to spell check and I'm too lazy to do so now. Sorry, but only ONE reference to Final Fantasy VII in this chapter... Don't worry. More to come! ^_____^ Oh yes, and did I mention that you should REVIEW??!?! We ain't mainstream, but we ain't cheap either!!! ^^;;;

IMPORTANT NOTE: We do NOT believe that Ivy raped Brock. The reason that Ivy acts like she does in this fic is because she's a sadist, and enjoys the pain that she inflicts. She's NOT a rapist. Sadist. Rapist. Two very different things. Go buy a dictionary.

Genre: Everything except songs and poetry. Seriously. Mostly Sci-Fi and Adventure. LOTSA WONDERFUL ANGST, however.

Main Characters: Brock, Giovanni, Hojo... and people. :P

Rating: PG-13 for violence, graphic mutations, some implications, profanity, and some raunchiness in MUCH later chapters.

The Reason Why There's So Much Damned Stuff Before the Actual Fic:

The gerbils did it.

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Chapter 1: A Perfect Day

*~*~*

It was a perfect day.

The sun shined brightly over the Orange Islands, and the sound of laughing came from the peachy beaches over the trees, coming upon three travellers--friends, really--who were enjoying the scenery to the point of absolute bliss.

One of them in particular, as tanned as the beachgoers that were so close to them, was feeling especially eased. The French crepes had turned out perfectly that morning, and so far, there had been absolutely no arguments between the threesome. None. Perhaps it would have been an insignificant fact to anyone other than him, but in his own mind....

"Aaahh....." The young man sighed, stretching his arms behind his head as he put on his best smile, which was warm enough to heal the heart and cure the soul. "It's shaping up to be a good day, you guys!"

"Yeah! 'Specially with that Pokémon con today! I can't wait!" an energetic Pokémon-master-in-training yelled in answer to his older friend. This day had started out and was still going extremely well. Usually about then Team Rocket would come to hinder them, but so far they weren't showing up. That was a convenient factor, since the annual Valencia Island Pokémon convention was running from dawn to dusk. Misty was less excited about it, as she wrote busily in her diary. It was a small book of pastel colors, with images of Goldeen, Lapras, and a score of Water type Pokémon stamped on it. She guarded it closely, so closely that hardly any humans other than herself had ever set eyes on it, and was writing in it only because this was a perfect day. Any other time she would be turned off by the hampering events during their long "Pokémon journey" and wouldn't even bother writing in it. However, this day was not the case. The brilliant sun shone its warmest without becoming brutal, warming the earth with its rays of life. The air was light, the trees seemed to be smiling, and the whole world seemed to be enveloped in the perpetual mood of happiness.

"It's such a beautiful day!" she half-sighed as she stated the obvious.

"I'll vouch for that," Brock grinned as Ash plodded happily along. He chuckled and snuck up behind Misty, mock-grabbing for her precious diary. "Oooo, didn't know you had one of those! Hah-hah!" He was in a good mood, even better than usual, and was oblivious enough to not even check the map that he should have been referring to.

"Hey, what are you doing?! Stop it, Brock!" Misty yelled, hinting at slight irritation, holding the diary as concernedly as she held Togepi, who at that moment was plopped in the scarlet backpack that was slung over her smooth shoulder. The little egg was perhaps the only one that was troubled, because it foresaw something disastrous that would happen to it in the future before it could have the chance to enslave the minds of all the people in the free worlds. As for the other Pokémon who travelled outside PokéBalls, Pikachu was walking next to Ash, as good-natured and hyper as his trainer, running across the ground as cheerily as possible, his face turned to the sunlight, mouth open and turned into a wide smile.

"Pika!!"

"You think it's a great day too, don't you, Pikachu?"

"Pi! Pika!"

Brock gave a sidelong glance towards Misty. A wicked idea suddenly crept into his now-carefree mind, and he stopped his walking, giving out a gasp as he pointed with his forefinger to somewhere behind Misty. "Look! It's Prima!!!"

"Huh?!!!!! Where?!" the girl's head shot up from her diary, distracted by the mention of the elite Ice type trainer. She completely lost sight of what she was writing, and dropped her pencil onto the ground. After ascertaining that Prima was not there, she shot Brock a dirty look. "Brock, can't you see I'm trying to write?!"

This said, she picked up her pencil and continued to scrawl in the diary. Wouldn't it surprise the other if he actually was able to see what was in it? In truth, every formed letter made some reference to the older boy.

Seeing that his ploy hadn't worked, Brock gave out a sigh and ran up next to Ash, pulling the map out from one of his vest pockets and resuming his daily routines. "So... where is this Pokémon battling contest anyway?" He asked distractedly as he flipped through the pages of his book, which was entitled: How to Become a Pokémon Master in the Orange Islands for only Five Bucks a Day.

"It's at the big center near Professor Ivy's house!" Ash answered rather carelessly, forgetting the fact that Brock feared that name with every fiber of his mortal being.

The latter suddenly stopped, as if he had been impaled through the heart by a blade of diamond-hard ice.

"DON'T....." he choked, his face contorting into a horrible mask of fear and pain.

"MENTION....." he fell on his side, landing in the middle of the dirt road.

"THAT...... NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!" He was shivering now, clutching his knees to his chest as he lay sideways at his friends' feet.

The two began to sweatdrop, until Misty glared at the culprit with hardened eyes. "You heard him. Don't say THAT in front of him. You KNOW he gets upset, Ash!"

"Huh? You didn't seem to care about it this much," Ash blinked in surprise.

The boy thought a while, trying to conclude something from the given information. "Hey, you're in love with him!!!"

"No, I'm not!" Misty snapped back, a bit too quickly to be believed.

"Yeah, you are!"

"Am not!"

The unusually bright, problem-free day had lapsed into a typical one.

"Just....just...... BE QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!" Brock suddenly yelled. He seemed to have gotten over his bad spell, and was staggering to his feet. His voice was stern and motherly as he reprimanded them. "Would you two PLEASE just CALM DOWN?!?!?"

Yes, it was a typical day indeed...

After some minor differences had been settled, Ash and Misty regained their stunned reaction to Brock's agonized reaction toward the mention of Professor Ivy. It had been almost two years since Brock had returned from Valencia, but the subject of Ivy continued to hurl him into a pitiable state of mental well-being. The reaction, once somebody thought about it, was astonishingly different than how he acted towards his many rejections by the supposedly more gentle sex. Yet, Ash and Misty simply knew that their older friend was perturbed by that name, and never asked or cared to know WHY. They had all along assumed that it was yet another rejection. After a bit of hard thinking about some notes she had seen Professor Oak jot down about Brock's mental health, the name of an asylum, and a phone number, Misty suddenly realized that Ivy must have done something unspeakable; she felt it was her duty to find out what and nip the problem in the bud.

"Brock?" she asked gently, putting her diary away and bringing out Togepi, the little egg crying for unknown reasons in her arms. (Had a translator been available, its cries could have been deciphered as: NOOOO!!! My mortal slaves will fall into the hands of the ENEMY!!!) Misty's cerulean irises, not dark and brooding like the sea but bright and hopeful as the sky, reflected her concern for the Pokémon Breeder. She stopped walking, ignoring Ash who was trotting on ahead with Pikachu following him like a persistent ray of sunshine, and instead looked at her shaken friend, and asked, her sincerity unable to be doubted: "What did she do to you?"

Brock looked downwards towards the other, still shaking slightly as he wiped quite a bit of sweat off of his brow.

"N-nothing, Misty," he said rather stiffly, as he adjusted his backpack straps once more and began to walk forward again, a bit to quickly for comfort. "Absolutely nothing! I'm fine, see?" He forced a chuckle and a smile, which looked to be more like a grimace under the bright sunlight.

"Yeah, Brock...okay..." Misty accepted his refusal to explain what had happened, though she was slightly miffed at the fact that Brock didn't seem to want to open up to her, to pour his feelings out to her... She simply didn't understand it--didn't understand boys in general, although she had been studying them unrelentlessly over the past four years, (three of them in particular). She finally sighed and broke into a jog to catch up with Ash and Pikachu.

None of the three travellers seemed to notice that their greatest hinderances were hiding in the bushes, and that a dark shadow was hanging over their heads. It was not in the vicinity, yet it was there, threatening and possibly deadly if the outcome of this attack was to go sour. Jessie and her comrades rose out of the bushes, the crimson-haired girl looking quite tense for some reason or another. The usual aura of oblivious confidence that followed her was wavering as she nodded to her partner and jumped out of the foliage, pursuing the younger Pokémon Trainers at a safe distance.

James and Meowth came soon after, both looking a bit more stiff and... strangely, more professional than usual, as if they were trying to impress someone or another.

"Now, remember, guys...." Meowth said through grit teeth to his two comrades. "We hafta get dis one right, or we're REALLY in da cathouse!!!!"

"But Meeeowwth...." James whined in response, losing that evil smirk of his for a moment. "What if we do mess up?!"

"We CAN'T mess up, James!" Jessie replied vaguely, her eyes, the hue of the turbulent ocean, teaming up with her harsh voice to communicate the message. In truth, she didn't know what WOULD happen if they "messed up", as James had so eloquently put it. However, one thing was for certain: the boss was losing patience rapidly. This in mind, she darted through the cover of the foliage ahead of Ash, Misty, and Brock, utilizing Team Rocket's infamous surprise element as she lay in wait for them to cross paths.

Brock suddenly paused from walking hurriedly, and began to.... sniff.... the air lightly as he slowly turned around towards his friends. "Something..... doesn't smell right." He then shook his head slowly, putting a hand to his forehead and rubbing it, as if he had a migraine. ".....Ow.... my head hurts...."

Ash turned around, suddenly jolted awake from his unnaturally joyous mood. He looked about, but saw nothing. He had not seen Brock use his nose before, which was a rather odd feat, to detect danger, and assumed that Brock was still a bit out of it after his "ordeal". Thus; everything must have been normal. Still, he knew how Team Rocket worked, and still commented on the remark for good measure. "Huh? What doesn't smell right?"

"Brock, are you alright?" asked Misty when he began to groan, again betraying some concern for the older boy. She was about to say something else when Jessie bounded out into plain sight, reciting the motto with a strange desperation and lack of confidence that neither Ash nor Misty detected. Little did they know that Jessie, James, and Meowth were being given one last chance. After hundreds upon hundreds of failures, this was their last mission. If they failed, only uncertainty marked their fate.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie started, her voice strangely urgent.

"And make it double!" James made his appearance as well, pulling out his rose as he stood next to his partner.

"To protect the world from devestation!"

"To unite the peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Woooob---"

Meowth jumped on top of the impudent Pokémon. "Eheh--Meeooooowwth!!! Dat's right!!!!!"

Ash's bright face fell into a coastline after a tsunami, moaning,

"Aw, there goes a perfect day!"

Had he been paying attention, he would have noted that the perfect day had been lost fifteen minutes before.

"What do you want with us this time?!" Misty shouted, holding Togepi in her arms extra tightly.

"Can't you just blast off again first and save us the trouble of battling?" The repetitive words only worsened Brock's strange headache, and he rubbed harder as he glared upwards at the old "friends".

"Blast off again?!" James growled indignantly. "Hey, we ALWAYS put up a good fight, twerp, so--"

"Shut up," Meowth muttered, kicking him in the shin.

"Owwwww!!!!"

"James, Meowth, stop it!!! We're not failing this time!!" Jessie growled, whacking the both of them with her ever-present paper fan. "Remember what we're here for!"

"R-right!!!" James nodded, turning towards the small band of brats. He had developed a strange immunity towards fans of all shapes and sizes, as he was perpetually bombarded by the paper and human versions of them alike. "There's one thing you have wrong, guys...." He addressed the brats, smirking widely.

"And.... what's.... THAT?" Brock responded through ground teeth; the headache was only increasing in pain as the routine progressed.

"We ain't here for yah Pokémon!!!" Meowth exclaimed, laughing in glee as he climbed up in front of Jessie and James. "We're here for YOU!!!!!!"

The feline chuckled once more as he took two of the fingers on his paw and snapped them together, as if in some sort of signal...

Ash and Misty's mouths widened, gasping. They were not sure what the Rocket meant by that, but braced themselves for something terrible. Pikachu fell into an attack stance, electric sacs sparking wildly.

Jessie's face lightened slightly as she struck a dramatic pose and whipped out one of Team Rocket's devices, that seemed to be in nearly infinite supply.

Meowth blinked at the remote control that Jessie held in her hands, and his large eyes instantly narrowed. "Heeeeey!!! Dat's my job!!!!"

"You guys--" Brock said through grit teeth, as Team Rocket argued, his eyes shut as he battled the strange pain. "--should run before they try anything..... again....."

Ash, being his usual obstinate and somewhat hard-headed self, did not comply. He faced the agressors, and shouted, "No way! We're 'gonna fight and beat them like we always do! Pikachu!"

Misty was wavering now, and she clutched Togepi tightly. Something wasn't right about this battle. It was almost as if the outcome was predetermined. Yet, she shrugged it off and stood behind Ash.

On the other side of the battlefield, Jessie glared at Meowth severely, fairly chucking the remote control at his head. "We don't have TIME to bicker, Meowth! Just push the button!!!"

"But you---?!??! AAARRGHH!!!!" Meowth growled, grabbing the remote from the air as it was thrown. "Fine!!!!" He laughed once more as he slammed his paw down on the large, red button."Here goes everythin'!!!"

The large, mechanical head of an oversized Fearow rose out from the surrounding forest and made its way towards the "twerps". It looked strangely fierce, more dangerous than the other contraptions that Team Rocket had come up with during the long years of their unending pursuit.

"Woooooo!!!! Things are looking up, guys!" James yelled with glee, beginning one of his long, maniacal laughs. "Heeeheehahahahaha!!!! We'll finally get that Pikachu!!!!"

Meowth's eyes narrowed even further, and his brow twitched as he looked towards James. "We ain't aimin' for da Pikachu dis time, ya idiot!!!! Didn't ya even LISTEN to da boss?!?"

"Ummm......"

However, the usual bickering was only a background hum for our heroes, as they backed away from the huge monstrosity. Brock was forced to stagger, as the pain in his head increased tenfold, and he gave out a cry of pain. What's wrong with me?!? This headache... it feels like it's.... induced... controlled or something!!!! It feels like.... back... THERE.....

"AAAAAARRRGHHHH!!!!!" Was the only thing that he managed to convery verbally to his friends.

By now, Misty and Ash failed to pay any attention to the other's pain, completely absorbed into the present peril. Bringing down a balled fist, Ash commanded, perhaps a bit too confidently, "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

The electrical attack shot through the air at amazing speeds, accompanied by Pikachu's usual battle cry. Yet, there was something protecting the gargantuan weapon, that deflected the attack right back to Ash and the others, resulting in a terrible and unexpected electricution.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Ash and Misty yelled, the pain of Pikachu's powerful electricity coursing up through their veins, incapaciting them quite thoroughly. Jessie laughed, but it was not outright: it was the way she would have laughed before the three Pokémon trainers met with Team Rocket: dangerously.

"Alright, Meowth! Make it dive and catch the twerps!!"

"Pika?! Pikaaaa-Pika!!"

"Prrriii?"

Brock yelled as well as he was thrown backwards from the force of the blow. He crashed into one of the nearby trees, and groaned as he fell to the ground. He felt so woozy... sleepy.... his whole body felt as if it had been burnt to a crisp. As he twitched, the only bit of consolation that he managed to gather from the ordeal was that the headache had disappeared. The pain had gone a bit too quickly for comfort, but it had LEFT, which was all that mattered at this moment.

"Whoa!" Meowth uttered as he stared at the kids and their Pokémon. "It worked! It actually worked dis time!!!"

James gulped, keeping a wary eye on the trio. "Yeah, but.... but isn't this the time that one of them usually gets up and defeats us in an extremely unbelievable manner that's meant to only appeal to Ash fans?"

"Maybe so, James, but not today! Meowth, do it!!!" Jessie growled, her eyes engulfed with determination that this time was unstoppable. Her teeth were clenched tightly; she was willing the outcome to be right. It HAD to be right. They would HAVE to succeed this time. There were no more chances.

"Right, Jess! Hah-haah!!!" Meowth flipped the remote control over and began to twist dials and punch in numbers. "Now... da specialty of dis machine.... Sleep powder!!!!"

The mechanical Fearow opened its jaws, releasing a cloud of bluish-purplish gas. Brock's narrow eyes slowly wandered upwards, widening at the sight in front of him.

"Guys?" He coughed.

The typical day had slipped into the realms of a bad one.

Ash raised his hand to order Pikachu to attack again, but the powder weighed heavy on his eyes, and he and his yellow Pokémon dropped to slumber. It was the same with Misty, and though she struggled to fight it, she and Togepi rapidly fell asleep as well. Brock felt as if lead weights had been attached to his eyelids... pulling them down... down.... down.... He yawned, struggling against the powder, but... it was so strong....

Within seconds, they had all fallen asleep.

James watched in awe. ".......W-we....we did it?!?"

Jessie had the compelling urge to embrace James and celebrate, but the work was not done yet. She wasn't acting normally: possibly, the knowledge that this was their last chance was spurring her on to be vicious about the whole excursion. Whatever it was, she was in no mood for games. "Lets tie them up and take them back to HQ!"

"But... but... Jess!" James exclaimed, his eyes widening. "Don't you want to celebrate like we always do?!?"

"Exactly da point!" Meowth retorted, jumping up and swiping madly with his claws at James' face. "And dat's why we always lose valuable time!!!"

Jessie longed to celebrate. She yearned for their giddy victory dance just for old times' sake. But she was not about to risk anything this time. It was all or nothing.

"Meowth's right!" she seconded, grabbing some rope from nearly thin air, starting to secure the trainers and their Pokémon. "James, Meowth, help me with this!"

After being thoroughly beaten, James grumbled something about impudent cats and shouted towards Jessie: "Why don't we just have Mondo drive them back to HQ?!?"

"Hm.... he DOES have a point....." Meowth nodded. "Dere's no way in meowth dat we can DRAG 'em da whole way!"

"See?!" James said, rummaging through his pockets, (which held mostly bottlecaps and spare change). "We can use the radio that the boss gave us!"

Jessie frowned at being overruled, but realized that the boys were right for once. "I'll call him! You and Meowth load the twerps in the jeep!" she ordered while snatching the radio from her partner, as she was the bossy, rash type.

Meowth and James nodded, grabbing the rope and making their way towards the three trainers. Together, they managed to bind them all by hands and fee, tie them back-to-back, and throw the incapacitated Pikachu and Togepi into a rubber sack.

"Dere!" Meowth grinned, stepping backwards in satisfaction as he dusted his paws off. "Dat oughtta do it!!!"

"Wait 'till the boss sees how efficient we've been!" James clapped his hands together. "We'll get promoted for sure!!! Heeeheeheeheeheehee!!!"

"We can't celebrate yet, James! We have to actually GET the twerps there!" Jessie growled in disgust at James' lighthearted attitude. She strode over towards the bound trainers and attempted to lift them. Of course, with their combined weight, it was an impossible task.

A mushroom cloud was emitted from Meowth's mouth. "I guess we hafta wait for Mondo, den...."

Both Jessie and James blinked and sighed, dropping down and sitting on the grass. There was silence for a full minute, only interrupted by the ominous chirping of the birds in the forest and a sudden stomach growl that seemed to come from all directions.

Blink.

"Say, Meowth...." James sweatdropped. "Could you see if there's anything to eat in that big twerp's backpack?"

Most obviously, they soon had a feast.

*~*~*

The secretive leader of Team Rocket was seated on the chair in his office. With the amount of monetary resources he had, the man could probably have bought a vast number of chairs, yet he seemed to take pleasure in that single one for reasons unknown. In his mouth was a cigar imported from Jouto, and great puffs of greyish air floated from his mouth, which was currently twisted into a sinister grin. His ever-present Persian sat on his lap, and one hand constantly moved across the silky, carefully-groomed ivory fur; he was externally taciturn. He never seemed to betray his deeper, internal emotions, either exploding anger or a false happiness hiding whatever truly lay inside.

A few minutes later, the cigar had reached its end. He was about to discard it when a knock was heard at the door.

"What is it?" he demanded as he left his chair, placing Persian gently on the floor before he strode towards the door, fairly throwing it open. To greet him were the familiar, but none too pleasant, at least in his esteem, faces of Jessie, James, and Meowth.

"What do you want?" he growled icily, as he stared down, his triangular eyes immediately narrowing.

Just the sight of the sinister man was enough to make anyone's blood run cold, but to the Rocket members, he was doubly terrifying. Giovanni's primary goal in life, after becoming the respective dictator of the world, of course, seemed to be to intimidate all human life. Whether he achieved this with his stature, his voice, or his orange suit was at his own whim.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w......" James stammered, his eyes wide in fear as he stared upwards at the boss's huge form. Though not as large as some of the other Rockets, the leader of mafia-esque crime team still managed to cut out an impressive figure.

"We gotcha da goods, sir!" Meowth said quickly, covering up the weakness of his teammate. The small, humanized Pokémon turned towards the gladiator-garbed guards that were stationed outside the door. The two burly men walked in, nodding to their boss as they dropped the heavy load at his feet. Or, to be more exact, three heavy loads, although only one of them truly interested the infamous leader of Team Rocket.

Had he known the story behind one of the other trainers that was brought to him, his interest might have aggrandized immensely....

However-- that's another story.

"So, you FINALLY have succeeded," the man stated coldly as he watched the still-unconscious "cargo" fall to the ground, emphasizing that word with as much exaggeration as he could muster. Jessie became nervous at the declaration and sought refuge behind James, jumping behind him. It was only around the boss that her true sensitivity was apparent. There was just something about him that cracked apart that shell of confidence.

Giovanni glanced at the bundles, and then shifted his eyes, gazing directly at the trio. "I am only interested in the eldest. As for the others...throw them in the dungeon. And..." he added, a smile daring to cross his hardened face. "...take all their Pokémon."

"Yes, sir!" said Jessie quickly, in a mad rush to leave. She bent down, grabbed the load that was Ash, and departed as rapidly as possible.

"O-o-orders received!!!" James exclaimed in fright, grabbing Misty under his arm and dashing out the door.

"Meeeeeowwth?" Being a cat, which are inquisitive by nature, Meowth blinked upwards towards the all-powerful, iron-fisted BOSS. "Why DO ya need dis one so badly, anyway? If you're plannin' on recruitin' him, don't put ya hopes up! Dis guy's a softie if I ever saw one!"

Of course, curiosity did kill the cat in the end....

Giovanni's smile quickly faded, and he reverted to a cold, piercing glare, looking down at the small cat, his teeth clenched in a snarl.

"Do NOT question who I recruit," he commanded, unforgiving eyes fixated on the little Pokémon. With that, he shoved his hand into his pocket, and fairly threw a small paper at Meowth. Then, he slammed the door.

The small feline couldn't even REACT to the fact that Giovanni was recruiting a twerp and had just slammed the door on him. All he could do was stare at that precious piece of parchment as he caught it in his paws, that lovely, printed paper........

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He shouted in complete and utter jubilation, as he raced towards the dungeons to catch up with his comrades.

It was a paycheck.

*~*~*

Meanwhile, Giovanni's phone rang.

The evil man himself grabbed the phone off the hook and shoved it against his ear in irritation. The sound of a phone ringing was one of the most annoying sounds, and it did not help his mood that it bleeped a great many number of times.

"Who is it?!" he fairly shouted into the receiver.

"Who do you think, Demoni?" Responded the deep, silky, dangerous voice on the other side of the line.

There was only one who had that voice, one who had that confidence, one who even dared refer to him by his last name, and even more, straight to the man himself....

"Ivy..." Giovanni whispered, his voice dropping down about ten decibels. There was something at the back of his mind that told him that this woman was bad news. Yet, he was too stubborn to listen to that nagging voice in his brain.

Regaining his composure, the Team Rocket leader asked, in a very business-like tone: "What?"

"Do you have it?"

"Yes."

There was another thing about her that shortened his conversations even more. He was usually abrupt and brief, but Ivy had the skill to carry verbal transactions to short questions and one-word answers.

"Hm... Hah-hah...." The muffled chuckle was heard from wherever the purple-haired demoness might have been residing. "You've fulfilled your half of the deal, then. I'm surprised your.... henchmen didn't fail once more."

There was a moment of silence.

"Have your men bring it to the HQ labs," there was another chuckle. "It's my turn for some... entertainment."

Another pause.

"See you there."

Click.

Giovanni was externally unshaken by the brief exchange, but mentally he was becoming more apprehensive of her. Unfortunately, over-ambition led him to shove the suspicions from his mind, and he exited his office, looking towards the guards.

"You there, bring this boy to the labs!"

The Romanesque-armored guards sprang into motion, lifted up the bundle, and began walking towards the destination.

*~*~*

She was waiting just outside the door, leaning against the wall with an amused expression on her face... one of a housecat. A small, outwardly harmless housecat with a mouse just between its paws......

Ivy's smirk only widened as Giovanni and his men drew near... and her eyes did the same in unsurpassed ecstasy as she glanced at the precious, immobile cargo that they were carrying. Brock couldn't possibly have the slightest clue that he was so near to his greatest fear, as he lay limp in the arms of the "Roman" guards.

"........Good."

The Rockets approached the lady that seemed perhaps too excited about this entire venture. They seemed to be growing more cautious, though the fact was not shown on their faces; the leader was grinning as was to be expected, and the guards were stolid and expressionless, doing what they had to do and nothing more.

The guards reached the door, and presented their load to her, extending their arms simultaneously. The other man advanced again, finally finding something that he could say to this woman who was never at a loss for her own words.

"This had better be good."

Ivy only chuckled in response, still staring at the young man in front of her as she answered Giovanni. " 'Good'... the description that I just so recently used...."

She extended a hand towards the boy's head, which was still in the guard's arms, and stroked the right side of his face lightly, just beside his eye and nose, as one would do to their long-lost.... pet.

She smiled, and narrowed her eyes.

"As I was saying, Demoni, 'good' is a viable understatement."

Though he refused to admit it, Giovanni LOATHED how Ivy picked at every word he said. It was possibly his motivation for keeping the conversations brief.

"I certainly hope so."

Another thing that irked him was how she handled humans. Believing in the superiority of man, the Team Rocket leader was puzzled at Ivy's behavior towards fellow human beings. Though he did not treat his subordinates especially well, he didn't go so far as to act as if they were... ANIMALS.

Ivy paused a moment, closing her eyes and breathing in.... something. Was it triumph? Revenge? Some kind of grudge that she was letting out after years of suppression? Before Giovanni knew it, her eyes had opened towards the boy again, and were narrowed. There was a strange smile on her face.... as if she knew something dark. Something secret. Something that Giovanni did not.

"It's unfair to hope when you haven't got a prayer."

With those cryptic words, she whirled around and walked into the lab with a single step, leaving Giovanni to decipher whether the words had been meant for the boy.... or for him.

In fact, Ivy's comment was very troubling for the ominous man. What could she have meant by that? Ivy was looking directly at Brock, yet the sentence struck fear into his tainted, corrupted heart, and he couldn't help wondering if she was saying it to him. Yet, there were things of greater importance to be thought of, and he attempted to follow her into the laboratory.

However, there was little time for Professor Ivy to explain the bubbling chemicals... the frothing liquids.... the medical instruments that lay on countless tables and racks.... the table, with the leather straps hanging off of it, in the middle of the entire collection....

For that was when the subject began to wake.

"Uuuuungghhh...." There was a muffled groan that came from the arms of the "gladiators", and for a moment, Ivy tensed.

"Strap him down," she commanded curtly, to Giovanni's personal guards.

"NOW."

This was the only time the guards assumed an expression, and they looked at each other in a deep puzzlement. However, their superior thought it best to not argue with her, and said, in a tone that could be considered gentle compared to his normal tone of voice: "Do as she says."

The guards obeyed without question, strapping down whom they imagined to be a quite terrified Pokémon Breeder to the table, securing him tightly on the flat, even surface.

However, instead of terrified, Brock seemed rather... disoriented, as if waking up from a long sleep that had drained his energy rather than restoring it. "Uuurgh...." He attempted to sit up, but found it impossible, as if he was chained.... strapped...

STRAPPED.

Images, visions suddenly racked his brain, and he cried out as he was reminded of experiences that he would have rather forgotten....

"Where am I...?" He mumbled incoherently. He suddenly tensed and let out a yell. "WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?!??!"

Giovanni might have liked to know that too, as his eyes scanned about the laboratory. All manner of detestable tubes, machines, the type of technology that was often unreliable, that was hard to trust, made by scientists not necessarily affiliated with Team Rocket. And then there were the SYRINGES. A memory darted into his mind and then vanished. He seemed to have lost the it, and had no intention to try and retrieve it.

He was hesitant to answer Brock, and considered letting Ivy do the talking, which was something that she was apparently very good at. He noted that Brock seemed very uncomfortable in this situation. More so than others. He wondered why. Ivy never explained the details of WHY she wanted this specific boy. Come to think of it, she never explained anything in detail..at least to him.

The demoness smiled and chuckled, putting her hand to her mouth, as if Brock's reaction was incredibly cute and adorable. "Awwwwwww, sweetie.... You don't even remember what I did to you, do you?

Brock froze.

His eyes widened.

His jaws opened up to scream, but his throat was caught.

He began to shiver, then shudder, then shake.

"No......... It can't........can't...."

The fear in those eyes....

It was indescribable.

Ivy smiled sweetly once more, laying a hand on Brock's cheek. "Welcome back."

".......Get...get your hands off me.... " Brock whispered, still paralyzed with terror, staring at the cobwebbed ceiling.

"And why's that? Are you afraid? Of what?" Ivy cooed, leaning towards his face.

"......Don't touch me......"

"Why?"

"Just.... LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Brock suddenly screamed,head lashing out and snapping with his teeth at Ivy's hand as she wisely recoiled.

Giovanni may have come off as a simpleton to Ivy, but he was intelligent enough to decipher that. It was then no wonder that Ivy had wanted to capture Brock.

He was a human experiment.

As he listened to the ongoing conversation between superior and inferior, his suspicions of her were screaming louder and louder inside his head. The man almost.....ALMOST sympathized with Brock, and felt the boy was justified in trying to defend himself. He noticed nothing about that very subtle hint of inhumanity. Ivy's experiment LOOKED human, therefore, he MUST have been HUMAN. It was a simple answer.

Brock's eyes were consumed by anger, complete rage spurred on by fear... and something else, something buried that had been triggered by the sight of the sadistic woman. He ground his teeth together, a growl forming at the back of his throat as he kept his eyes fixed on her face.

"Let.....me......OUT......" He snarled through grit teeth, baring them at the good Professor. "LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!" He began to struggle at the straps with all his might, wriggling, writhing, crying out in complete agony and turmoil.... of a coming doom.

The leader of Team Rocket watched in silent horror as the amorality unfolded, and again saw no abnormality when Brock bore his teeth. He considered it rather normal, in fact. His whole mentality about this was that humans, no matter how inhuman they acted, were still human. It was the GENES that directed this, not any type of behavior. This still furthered his pity, and it took every ounce of restraint to keep him from shouting "enough". Strange it was that he was so moved by the sight... The man had ordered robberies, assasinations, even torture, and yet.... The visage of the young man in pain disturbed him so totally.... As if it reminded him of something... someone....

"Hah-hah...." Ivy laughed at what she considered to be Brock's "antics" instead of seeing it for what it truly was: the frantic desperation of a doomed, tortured soul. "That won't help you at all, sweetie. In fact...." She turned away, stationing herself at one of the worn, well-used computer terminals. ".....You're just proving that my... playing with your mind achieved my..... hm-hm..... essential goals."

As Ivy proceeded with her "work", Giovanni was actually beginning to be SICKENED by the sight, by the way Ivy taunted her little experiment, as if he had always belonged to her, as if he was PROPERTY, and was very close to leaving the lab in disgust. Had Brock been a Pokémon, he may have approved, appraised, even encouraged Ivy with her work. But, as Brock looked in every way, a human, there was no way he could be otherwise. Such were the musings of the Team Rocket leader.

Seeing and LOATHING the fact that she was right, the victim of the whole fiasco slowly calmed, realizing that his teeth had been gnashing, and he had been lashing out with every muscle in his body.... Which had suddenly become..... strangely strong.......

In place of brooding, he instead went to his original question.

"Where.... where am I.....?" Brock said weakly, his voice on the verge of breaking. He had the look of someone who had been recently possessed.... and excorcised.

There was a negative comment about this complete lack of ethics bouncing on the tip of Giovanni's tongue, but he could not seem to force it out. After all, wasn't he known for being merciless and heartless?

Ivy flashed her teeth at her specimen's humble request, and then turned her head towards Giovanni, arching an eyebrow in amusement. "Why don't YOU answer that..... Demoni?"

There was a moment of silence.

Giovanni... was strangely... shaken. It took him nearly five minutes for him to regain his composure, and even then, it was fairly muddled. The guards, who were silent as usual, witnessed the very odd answer to Brock's inquiry.

"You are in....."

He turned to his GUARDS, eyes wider than normal. "Where is this, again?"

Ivy smiled at Giovanni's large back. "What's wrong, Demoni? Cat got your tongue?"

Brock was too disoriented in mind and body to react to the strange response. Besides, he didn't even KNOW this.... "Demoni". All he knew was that he wanted to be HOME... home....

Giovanni didn't hesitate to show his irritation with the scientist's snide comments, and turned around, narrowing his eyes at the woman. Yet, he could find no retaliation save for a pitiful order, that could almost be akin to a PLEA.

"Enough with your wise-acre remarks!!" he barked, putting his eyes back towards Brock. He had once, long ago, considered to fund human experimentation. This savagery thoroughly convinced him not to even THINK about it.

"Then what are you here for? Do you even remember?" Ivy said in her persistent low voice. "The deal...? Your POWER?"

"Yes, I...." He trailed off. There was something about that word...that simple eight-letter word, that caused that flitting memory to return, and it lingered for a quarter of a second before it disappeared again. But in that quarter of a second, the message of the memory conveyed something so terrible that it completely shut him off. He was unable to respond to Ivy, and stood there, ramrod-straight, stiff and proud as usual, but his eyes blank and his mouth hanging open.

Persian, who was on the floor at his master's side, meowed softly, tilting his head at an angle.

"What, Demoni?" She noticed the look, and cocked her head to the side. "You don't want to go through with this?"

"Home.... I want... to go.... home......" Brock said just above a whisper. It's doubtful that anyone heard him.

Ivy looked towards Brock, sighing. There was a needle attatched to a a tube and a pouch of liquid in her hand--an IV that nurses used in hospitals.

"Well....." She turned her back to Giovanni, saying a bit loudly, "I suppose I could always find OTHER employers......."

A sly smirk accompanied this, one that Giovanni didn't see.

Hm.... Rufus is paying me TWICE his measley amount already....

Giovanni stared, and exhaled loudly, finally giving in. He nodded reluctantly, no longer smiling at this, and he failed to see Ivy's smug expression.

"Fine. Proceed."

Ivy turned around and smiled.

"Thank you, Demoni."

She rounded the table, craning her neck behind her back and grinning at him.

"You're an..... angel."

She hung the pouch of liquid from a hook stationed above the bed and grabbed Brock's left arm, squeezing it mercilessly.

Giovanni was well aware that he had sealed the boy's fate. He was not proud of this, nor did he feel accomplished or satisfied as usual. The entire deal reeked with the kind of dishonesty that he could never posess.

Steeling himself for the sight, he watched the abominable events begin to unfold.

"Please.... please, don't......Ivy......" Brock whined, whimpering almost, like a ginuea pig about to be dissected. "You're a lunatic... you're CRAZY... Please.... no...."

"Sorry, sweetie," she smiled. "It's all a part of the game..... You'll thank me later."

She twisted the needle into the crook of Brock's elbow, causing him to cry out. He began to sweat as chemicals flew through him.... a thousand icy hands... grabbing at him. His body became rigid, as ever muscle seemed to tense underneath the straps.

"These are only the primary injections," Ivy explained as she walked towards the computer terminal. "The fun is yet to begin...." She punched some information into the keyboard, staring at the screens.

"Oh..." she murmured off-handedly, waving a hand dismissively. "I believe your guards would prefer to leave at this moment.... Tell them to flip the soundproof switch at the door as they exit, would you?"

Ivy's employer wished to call off the whole deal more than ever as he saw Ivy enter the information, but he was somehow blinded...by the lust for power. All he could do was stare at the boy, at Ivy, at the countless monstrosities of science that adorned the mildew-infested walls....

Perspiration lathered Brock's body, soaked through his clothes.... His vision went in and out of clarity as he stared at the man.... and the woman... the loathesome, loathesome woman.....

"Help....." He croaked out weakly, scrunching his eyes shut. "Oh, God...... Misty.... Ash..... HELP......"

When Ivy noticed that Giovanni had not sent his guards away, she said coldly, still staring at the screen: "I'm warning you... You DON'T want any unnecessary witnesses...."

Giovanni stared back down at the boy, the tormented, tortured soul strapped on the table, and then looked back up at Ivy, clenched his teeth, and ordered the armored guards,

"Go."

One left rather eagerly, but the other one lingered, ducking his enormous form out of sight, but still present.

"Hm... Hah-hah!!!! Just what I was looking for!" Ivy suddenly and unexpectedly giggled at the screen in front of her. "Take a look at the screen, Demoni. The ferociousness.... the power.... the discipline...."

Brock could see as well, but tears blurred the sight before him. All he could see was the dark outline of an even darker form.....

Giovanni walked over to the screen, and for someone as vicious as himself, he was absolutely horrified with what he saw. There on the screen was an extremely dark brown mixed with black.....CREATURE, that was most definitely NOT human. Its closed mouth bared sharp fangs that were an inch long, wild and beastlike in every way. The eyes were two narrowed slits of glowing crimson, burning with the pure wilderness from which it seemed to have sprung.....except that it would be springing from a very different source. At the ends of the fingers, or what were supposed to be, at least, were giant, knife-like claws, with only four to speak of on each hand, which were swamped with scales...reptillian scales...

He blinked before looking at it further, wondering what kind of sick, sick, SICK mind Ivy had. He then ran his eyes down the chest, which was moderately muscled, and the arms...that seemed to have long, protruding spikes that stood at about six inches high, and the feet were similar to the hands, but longer, at least making the creature proportionate. Yet, the back was curved slightly, and that flesh covering the bent spinal cord ended in a long tail, at the end of which was the trademark of so many demons and devils, a sharp, triangular-shaped end, that stood as long as nearly three-quarters of the creature's total height. Perhaps the most notable characteristic of the monster, however, was the hair.....it was the only thing that anyone could use to identify it as the human from which it was formed. Seeing THIS brought back all lost words that he had been dying to convey.

"You....are.....a.....twisted...bitch."

*~*~*

Enjoying so far? Review and maybe we'll continue. Ah, hell. We'd continue it anyway. Just be benevolent and give us some input, yes? Yes.

TO BE CONTINUED......