End of a Reality

by Blue9TigerDarkMutatedBrock

A co-written fic of enormous proportions, concocted by the devilish minds of two psychopaths. Pokémon crossed with FFVII. Mutations galore. Glorifies Brock, Giovanni, and Hojo. Scared? Then go ahead and read. We dare you. Chapter 28 up!

12. Innocence Abandoned

End of a Reality

by Blue9Tiger and DarkMutatedBrock

*~*~*

DMB: Ah, yes, I have finally discovered Adult Swim and the shows that are on it, as I proofread this while listening to a Tank mp3 over and over and over and over and over--

B9T: *cough*

DMB: Er, yes. ^^;;; Anyway, this is the longest chapter yet---a little less than forty pages to be exact, so grab some root beer, a pizza, and hopefully you won't take as much time reading it as it took to proofread and you'll enjoy it as much as we did while RPing it. ^_^ Now, I KNOW this whole fic is practically just a revamped version of the same old torture again and again and---Well, yeah. And I knooooow we use the words "pain" and "agony" and "torment" too much, but we're evil! So there! :P

B9T: ^^;;; Enjoy.

*~*~*

hu-man-i-ty (hyôô man'e té) n., pl. -ties 1 the fact or quality of being human or humane 2 mankind; people

--Webster's English Dictionary

*~*~*

Chapter 12: Innocence Abandoned

*~*~*

Not only was Team Rocket HQ in shambles; so were the thieves who had dwelled there. Many of the TR members were sitting, stunned, on the outskirts of the destruction. Others were stumbling around in a daze. Some others were punching trees and kicking stones in their anger, and still others were crying in pain in makeshift tents, and a very small number were weeping.

Jessie was one of the latter.

"WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!" She cried, pounding her fists on the ground as she kicked up with her feet. "I LOST OUR PAYCHECK IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

James patted the distraught Rocket's shoulder and said in a comforting voice: "It's okay, Jess. You would've lost it anyway."

"I would've lost it ANYWAY?!" Jessie exploded, ready to hurl the might of her paper fan upon her blue-haired partner's head. "What kind of a consolation is that?!" After the minor explosion, she was flooded again.

"Well, it's only the truth," a disgruntled Cassidy scoffed, glaring at her rival. She was sitting on a stump nearby, eyes narrowed, arms folded, and legs crossed. "Nothing to cry about.... unless, of course, you're a WIMP......."

"I'm NOT a wimp!!" growled Jessie, jumping to her feet and shaking her gloved fist at her blonde rival. "Besides, what did YOU do? It's not like you tried to stop---"

She likewise had done nothing, but nevertheless, she said it with contempt. But who could do anything in a situation like that? It was every man for himself: it wasn't a question of fellowship or friendship or whatever it was called, but a question of survival, boiling down to the basic instincts. "---the boss!!!

"Well, DUH!!!" Cassidy snarled, clenching her hands. "DO YOU THINK THAT IT WOULD HAVE DONE ANY BETTER TO JUST KILL HIM BECAUSE HE WAS--------"

"SHADDUP!!!!!" Meowth suddenly hissed, scratching both women across the faces. He heaved a breath and gestured towards the pitiful form of Persian. It had been unconscious since the attack on it, and the entire top of its head was bandaged, only its ears poking out.

"My pal here's tryin' to recover!!!! He don't know where he even IS, I'll bet!!!! You'll just make it worse with your roarin'!!!! 'Sides----" Meowth's voice dropped into a hushed whisper. "I don't t'ink da Boss would appreciate it if ya spreaded da word dat he's----well----da uncomfertable situation he's in!!!!"

Jessie arched a scarlet eyebrow, her gaze transfering from Meowth to Persian, and back again. What the smaller cat had said in normal volume alarmed her: he was actually DEFENDING that pampered feline that he had constantly envied and swore to take the place of. How things changed... and so quickly.

"Since when did you get so buddy-buddy with Persian?! And about the boss...he isn't here to hear me!" She crossed her arms stubbornly, hot-headed as she usually was.

Persian was laying on the ground, crumpled up in a pitiable physical and emotional state. The bandages on its head crossed its eye sockets, that were empty and yawning with the absence of eyeballs, and it lay unmoving, thrust deep into the realms of unconciousness.

Butch was not in the mood to fight, even with James. He was lying on the ground, watching the afternoon sun hide behind clouds and then unveil itself, the light shining on the ground. He had been strangely passive lately, and not because of what happened in the HQ. There was something else, something unknown, that was festering inside his mind, waiting to be let out. He didn't know what it was, the same as it didn't know who he was.

"Well, I agree with Meowth!" James piped up, crossing his arms. "If he gets back to normal and finds out that we ruined his rep..... well..... he'll fire us!!!!!!"

Meowth glared. "Dat's NOT what I mean, Jimmy-----"

It was then that Ash stumbled out of the trees, covered in filth and mud. His head was missing his hat, his vest had long since been lost, and his black shirt's color was the only thing that hid the various stains that it had. His shoes were in tatters, his pants had been reduced to shreds, and he only had enough strength to take an awkward step, waver a moment, and then collapse to the ground.

The reaction to the sight of Pokémon trainer that time and again, thwarted either team's plans, and had disgraced every one of them along with his Pikachu, was pretty much unanimous: "THE TWERP!!"

"Team......... Rocket........." Ash groaned, rolling over onto his back with visible effort.

There was silence for a moment.

"Whadda YOU want?!??!" Meowth demanded, clenching his paws at the site of the overly-ambitious trainer.

"You've....... gotta...... help......."

"Help?! Help YOU?!" Jessie yelled in an outrage equal to the churning magma that bubbled to the surface when the sea floor spread apart. This was unthinkable. After all the years of humiliation, their balloon deflating, hundreds upon hundreds of shockings, gallons of water in their ears and knife-like leaves always ready to tear them apart, this little brat was asking them for HELP?

"No offense, brat," Cassidy said acidly, "but why in HELL would we want to help YOU after you busted all our INGENIOUS schemes?!?!?"

The battered boy gazed into the rage-contorted faces of his enemies, gasping out his explanation of why he was there and why he was thrashed.

"Followed Misty... and..... Brock.... followed.... monster..... caught....."

"Kid," Butch croaked, "Say it out."

"....went back.... Pewter... saw... Brock..... he... wasn't... happy...." Ash finished his scattered narrative with a weak groan, falling foward on his face.

Jessie blinked. "Which monster?"

James gaped. "What happened?"

Meowth cocked his head. "And where's ya cap?"

"Dun... know....." Ash moaned, making no effort to get up. "Monster...in..there..."
He gestured with his scratched-up head towards the remains of the headquarters. "Lt..Surge...got...it...." he let his head drop down on the ground again, heavy with fatigue and weakness. Funny, he wasn't recovering very fast from it. Usually within a few seconds of getting hurt, he would be able to get up again. But Brock wasn't a light hitter, even more so now that he had been changed.

"GOT IT?!?!?!" Cassidy yelled, grabbing the boy by the collar and shaking him. "THAT SURGE GUY CAUGHT THE BOSS?!?!?"

A moment too late, she realized her mistake.

"Uh----the MONSTER-----" her eyes darted around in a strange fit of paranoia. "I meant----Surge caught the MONSTER??!??! Eh-heh-heh...... heh......"

Butch ruined Cassidy's efforts on accident. "Yeah, the big gym leaduh caught ouh boss? Did I heah you right?"

Ash rolled over onto his bruised side, blinking his amber eyes blearily. "...Boss?... Monster?..." Slowly, he put two and two together. "Your... boss.... is... the... monster...?!"

He couldn't be more befuddled than if someone walked up to him that very moment and said that Tracey had sprouted celestial wings and became an angel overnight.

"......Yah," Meowth admitted, hanging his head. It suddenly snapped up, and he pointed towards Persian. "But he ain't in his right mind, so he can't be held responsable fer his actiens! Look what he did to his poor Persian! And he's had dat t'ing FOREVER!!! He didn't like it so much when he found me, but I sappose da novelty wore off-----he's had dat cat since before..... since before he was da BOSS!!!!"

Ash's mind suddenly became hazy, triggered by something Meowth said. It filled his mind with a puzzling memory: he was sitting on the steps of his house in Pallet, playing with a vanilla-colored Meowth.

"Wook! It's gunna be a big and stwong Posian!"

Ash raised his black eyebrows as the memory faded. Another memory, relating to the one about vanilla. He stared over at the Persian, still laying motionless on the ground. So familiar...

Meowth blinked tiredly at Butch and Cassidy. "You guys are just making it woyse."

Meanwhile, James had been inspecting Ash with his eyes, and was astounded to see how much damage had been inflicted on the young trainer.

Butch stole a casual glance at the unevolved feline. Prior, his mind had been elsewhere.

"What?"

The biting ache in Ash's arm came back in full force when James so unassumingly brought it up. It crept over his arm like a dozen venemous Caterpie, and made him groan dully in answer: "Y-yeah.....he-----he did...He... just..... RAN at me... I called 'im.... then he started... scratchin' with his claws... Was it somethin' I said??"

"Your sob story doesn't move me in the least, brat!!" Jessie cut in with indignance lacing her voice. "Knowing you and your twerp friends, you brought it on yourself!!"

"But... that's... not--it!" Ash protested faintly, the four gouge marks up his arm draining him. It was as if Brock was reminding him... but of what? Oh, yeah. How his verbal slip-ups fueled the mutant's self-hatred, intensifying the heat of its subconscious vengeance, but inwardly and outwardly, merely a fulfiling of the need to unleash certain instincts. Instincts, that he inadvertantly helped to infuse. He saw himself again, battling instead of RUNNING... if he had JUST TURNED AROUND AND RAN. The weight of the blame for what had happened was also upon his head. Not Misty's, definitely not the mutant that was Brock, but Ash. And now he was denying it. Denying that he had driven the nails into Brock's coffin of interminable torment with a careless pound of the mallet upon the nail head. Denying it all by lying.

Lying.....who else lied? Team Rocket. Didn't they have a hand in this, too? That horrible transformation that caused worlds in the heart and mind to crumble and disintegrate? But he was responsible too. That made him.....no better than his enemies: no better than those he condemned for their amorality, the evil which he himself posessed.

The boy raised his vexed gaze level with the Rockets. "I didn't-----MEAN to--make him feel bad..."

Cassidy's face seemed annoyed as she glared at Jessie, but the look cooled down a bit as she turned towards Butch.

"Do? What's there TO do, Butch??!?!" She put her hands on her hips and scowled. "The boss has been captured by someone or other, TR is practically DONE for......."

"But we'he just gonna sit around and watch while everything falls apaht? We 'gotta do SOMETHING, Cass.".

Butch got up and walked towards his partner, who seemed so resolute in just...giving up. It wasn't like her. Everything was falling apart at that very moment.

"Like WHAT?!!" the Rocket yelled at her partner. She sighed and leaned forward, holding her chin up with her hands. "It already happened, and the ONLY thing that'd get the Boss back to normal would be if we got an ANTIDOTE or somehing......"

"An antidote........" Butch frowned and then looked up. "Lets go look foh one."

Jessie stopped belittling Ash at that moment, the latter falling again. Butch stepped on his bruised chest in the process of walking towards Cassidy.."What do you think, Cass?"

"Yeah.... but....." Cassidy scowled once more, and stood to her feet. "Where the hell do we FIND one?!??!?!? It's not like we can just walk into a drug store and lift an antidote meant to turn humans-gone-psycho-reptile back to normal!!!!"

"Then we'he sunk," Butch moaned, letting his nerves go limp in a melancholy state. Jessie casted a disgruntled eye on both him and her rival, folding her arms in dsmay.
"Haahahaa! You're members of Team Rocket?! The team doesn't keep quitters!" she taunted with that wry smile on her face.

Cassidy's eyes narrowed. "It's not like YOU'RE volunteering or anything...." she growled out the side of her mouth.

"We were------GOING to...RIGHT, James, Meowth?!"

She drove her elbow into James' ribs, a bit harder than she meant.

"Owwwwww!!!!!" James whined, and then scowled, glaring back towards Jessie. "What was THAT for?!?!? For not wanting to go after the Boss!!?!?!? YOU told me to keep my... 'sorry ass' safe!!!" Jessie grimaced and grabbed her partner by the arm and took him aside, out of earshot of Butch and Cassidy.

"Just say it!" Jessie hissed into James's bewildered face. "We don't want them to think we're scared!" She thought for a second and added, "No, it wasn't for that....." Her face flushed the color of her hair for a split-second, but it couldn't even be detected when she snapped,"It doesn't matter what it was for!!"

Cassidy finally grit her teeth and grabbed Butch by the arm. "C'mon..... we can't just sit here and watch those two bicker all DAY!!!!!

Butch nodded willingly as he was grabbed, eager to be far away from their rivals. "Yeah, lets get out of heah..... didn't she have a lab in Valencia oh something?"

Cassidy grabbed Butch even harder, pulling him in the direction of Mondo. "Maybe HE can patch up one of the vehicles to use or something...."

When ten feet away, she called out: "YO!!!!!!! DITTO BOY!!!!!"

Jessie and James didn't even seem to notice.

Not a great distance away, Mondo poked his round face out from a nearby tree, and made a face of displeasure when he saw who was calling him.

"Ew.....it's Botch and the barbie doll!"

"Barbie doll?!?!?!" Cassidy stood, blinking in confusion, not sure if it ws a compliment or an insult.

"The name's BUTCH!!"

Their answer to Mondo's address was in unision, as it was habitual for the pair of Rockets. Mondo giggled to himself, having confounded one of them, and embarassed the other. After having his laugh, the white-uniformed Rocket came out from behind the tree, his Ditto squishing across the ground behind him. "What do YOU want?"

"We.... er....... we need something..... to get to Valencia Island with!!!!!!!" Cassidy crossed her arms indignantly. It WAS Valencia Island.... right.....? She blinked a moment and then shook it off. "Anyway------seeing that the very being of Team Rocket is at stake, and we're of higher rank..... You need to help us get there!!!"

Mondo was feisty, but was a very agreeable person. He was also very trusting, to the point of slight naiveté. Sitting down next to his Ditto, he put his chin between his thumb and palm in a contemplating state. Suddenly he jumped up, Ditto squeaking as it followed its trainer.

"Okay......I'll help! You can take......"

He dashed into the forest, and within minutes, he was back again, the Ditto suddenly having disappeared, and in its place an odd-looking Machop, that was hauling a.....red submarine. But, it wasn't, surprisingly, the Magikarp-shaped submersible vehicle that his idols had used to navigate the Orange Islands with, but it a larger sub, and it was clear that the Ditto was having trouble dragging it. Butch backed away as the nose of the crimson submarine was dragged in front of him and Cassidy, gawking at the sheer size of it. The submarine was actually being carried on wheels, and despite the reduced effort needed to push it, the Ditto was still having a hard time with it. At last Ditto let go of the submarine, and Mondo introduced it proudly, beaming at the machine, something never before seen on Kanto.

"Here it is! I jumped into the ocean and saw it wrecked! So I brought it up and fixed it! Isn't it a beauty?"

He breathed in in a sort of satisfaction, and rubbed the red paint vigorosly. "Funny...the rocks down there are different from the ones in Kanto..and I jumped through this white spot to get to the water...wonder what it was?"

Butch arched an eyebrow as Mondo babbled. It was all unintelligible, anyway; the kid was talking at 123 kilometers per minute.

"So... since we aren't anywhere NEAR the ocean, I suppose we need to GET it there, right?" Cassidy scowled in dismay. "What are you, retarded or something?!??!? SHEEZUS!!!!!!" She began stomping off towards the ocean, trudging in her unthankful exasperation. She paused, and suddenly whirled around.

"Well?!?!? What are you waiting for??!" She yelled. "START PUSHING THAT THING!!!!"

"Heyyyyyy!!!!!" Mondo whined, bunching up his fists, a bit miffed. "I'm doing you guys a favor, you know! Be a little nicer to a poor kid!"

He signalled to Ditto and started pushing the sub, the wheels under it creaking as the patched up sub slowly, painfully began to roll. Butch sweatdropped as the submarine inched along, a quarter meter, a half meter, finally a full meter, bit by bit, covering as much ground as a Slowpoke would in fifteen minutes.

"Ditto, lets go faster!"

"Maaaachop!"

Ditto nodded, beads of sweat clinging onto its head, as it started to jog, and then run, pouring all of its strength to move the sub. Butch finally had enough.

"Go, Primeape!"

The enlarged orb spun onto the ground, unleashing the hairy Pokémon, its eyes perpetually enfuriated, and it immediately rammed itself into the side of the sub, grabbing it with its fists and pulling it towards the direction the Rockets were gradually headed for.

"Cassidy nodded in curt approval, and began to walk forward. "Now.... all we have to do is keep pushing that thing for a few hours....."

*~*~*

Surge gazed upon Vermillion, his hometown turned into something more, through the glass window of the elevator that ascended to the upper levels. He held his key card for the 37th floor in one hand, and the Ultra Ball in the other. It was now safely double-locked and bolted with the deadly monster inside it and nowhere to flee. He patted his muscled chest in great satisfaction and pride, as well as relief. Though Viridian and Pewter were lost, there was no waythat any other city would fall. The threat had been eliminated, and after Surge reached the 67th floor, the slightest reason to worry would be as well. They were ALL in good hands with Shin-Ra Inc.

He stepped out of the elevator, his catch clutched in the middle of his large palm, and his heavy combat boots thudded across the polished floor, making his way to the most infamous place in Shin-Ra HQ: the labs.

The labs.... ah yes, those horrible, evil dungeons of despair, from which specimens, subjects came in.... and many times, never came out--at least in a recognizable form. As Surge came to the door, he suddenly felt ill.... like Reno had, at hearing the tormented squeals of some creature or another, and a dark voice, sharp, but strangely quiet, as if it didn't need an aggressive tone to prove its superiority.

"So... that DOES hurt, I suppose? Hm.... effect of THAT chemical being..... "

Despite his military expertise, Surge got a queasy feeling in his stomach. There was something about that sinister voice that raked on his nerves. He took a step inside, nervously looking around, the shocking sights of caged specimens greeting his unintended gaze. They squirmed behind the steel partitions that kept them in their place, pleading for liberty that they would never have.

"Uh.....'s anyone here?"He knew the answer to that question as much as the next deaf person. But he wanted to hear an affirmation of that himself.

"Another person knocking at my door...?" Hojo came, hunched over and a clipboard in his left hand as he adjusted his glasses and squinted upwards--FAR upwards--with his right. "And what might you be here for...? I'll let you know I am currently in the process of---" His eyes had been moving downwards, and they suddenly locked on the UltraBall, narrowing. "What is that?"

"It's th' Pokémon attackin' Viridian an' Pewter! It got rough with us, but we put th' 'lil baby in 'is place!!"

He presented the ball to the short man, bending down in the process: he was at least 5 heads taller than him. "I lost th' thingy yah use tah get tah the 39th floor. Figured I take it tah yah."

"The creature that-----Ahhhh......." Hojo immediately dropped the clipboard and snatched the UltraBall away untrustingly, as if the large man would keep it for himself instead of turning it over into.... proper... hands. "Yes.... certainly more heavy than most UltraBalls..... I wonder.... could Ivy have truly been telling...... could it be.....?"

He shook his head, and the awed look left as soon as he glared back up at the large man in front of him. "There is no more use for you here."

Surge's ego fizzled out in that instant. Here was this little.....scrawny...four-eyed....CIVILIAN being condescinding towards him, a respectable lieutenant in the Kanto army. More than miffed, Surge grumbled as he stomped off, the sound of his boots through the corridors steadily abating until it disappeared entirely.

As soon as Hojo was sure he heard the door slam, a smile upturned the corners of his lips. He looked down at the UltraBall once more, turning it around and fingering it in his pale, dexterous hands. "Ivy..... is perhaps more qualified as a scientist than I previously assumed...."

The creature trapped inside the circular device was struggling with all of the might that it had left to escape the confinement. There was something wrong about the surroundings outside...he could tell it was being held, but by who? And what did he want with him? "How" still echoed in his mind, dully, but still pounding, the unsolvable puzzle of how. But with the decrease of justifying came the increase of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the unseen.....fear of what lay ahead in his clouded future. And the empty pores of his being were filled with guilt, flooded with remorse, of the destruction he had caused, the lives he had taken....so monstrously, with his own fangs. Guilt hurt the most. It was a leech, clinging onto the beast, sucking it dry of its blood, or in this case, his mind, leaving him nothing to do but writhe in agony....all inside that spherical prison.

Hojo was unaware of the creature's dread--its musing--as he slowly shuffled towards an object towards the right side of his lab. It was something out of a... well, a mad scientist's lab. It was a large, plexiglass tank, filled with some kind of bluish liquid and completely sealed. Inside dangled cords, IV tubes, and several wires with large.... hooks at the ends. Giovanni's fate seemed clear.

The trapped monster felt himself being moved, gradually, across a space. He could not tell if it was outdoors or indoors, nor did he care at the moment. No light penetrated inside the Ultra Ball. It could see nothing, nor feel nothing, save for the human blood dripping down his face, a glaring reminder of the deaths he had caused. Blood...Gemini had drawn some from him, but it wasn't nearly as painful as this red blood.....the NORMAL blood of NORMAL human beings that he had so ABNORMALLY spilt.

Hojo was chuckling to himself as he reached the instrument of science. He gazed at it a moment, distractedly punching in figures with the fingers of one hand into a keyboard attached to it. The rest of his body was still, save for his mouth; it upturned into a wicked smile. With a small nod to himself, he steadily took his right hand and minimized the UltraBall, placing it in a small niche at the center of the control panel that he was operating. With another click of the keys and the twitch of a lever, a plastic encasing shot up from the panel and protected the ball as a hole opened under it and it was hurled into the far reaches of the machine.

A white burst of blinding light exploded from the opening device, overtaken by the opposite hue of the spectrum as the lizard materialized, crushed against the limits of the cyllindrical tube. An inevitable roar gushed out from the reptillian vocal cords, overwhelming the finite space with a tormented rhasphody. His tremendous roars were released in unision with the clashing of his protruding horn against the glass, fighting against the undulating tide of the alien liquid, decreasing the weight of the deadly end on its target. His succession of assaults on the impassable barrier proved futile, only serving to heighten the despair of his roars. Fear put all guilt to rest. No matter what atrocities he had instigated previously, the leader of Team Rocket, even if he indeed was this totally inhuman monster deserving nothing but men's hateful scorn, he couldn't be penned up like this. Or could he? The crimson liquid rolling down the reptile's face served as a painful reminder.

The glowing pits of scarlet wandered the strange surroundings. It was definitely a laboratory...its sheer size intimidated him, and he shrank away from the horrid sights of the unimaginable, only to focus his gaze on something else that struck more terror in him besides the dim light that shone beyond the glass: a man. A man in a labcoat. A man in a labcoat whose face was adorned with that smile.....that familiar sinister grin of ill intent.....

"......Good evening."

Those were the first words. It was customary for Hojo to try to calm his subjects..... try to coo them with meaningless phrases and calming ideas.

"I trust... that you had a good trip?"

..Good..... trip....?! What do you---what are you---doing?!! It was clear that Giovanni had regained his ordinary frame of mind, but it was stifled in rising panic.

"Now, now...." Hojo arched an eyebrow, taking a step back and running his eyes over the creature's form. It didn't seem as if he could hear its thoughts. "I don't believe that hurting yourself will solve anything..... In fact......." He punched down another button, and the wires and tubes instantly came to life, the hooks launching themselves at the
defenseless..... creature. "It will only hurt more."

Hurt.... more?! How is that possble?!

A speedy answer came in the dreaded form of the swarming multitude of wires, at the termination of the flexible material projected curved hooks that penetrated the struggling Pokémon's flesh, sinking into the gaping wounds that Gemini inflicted, unknowingly reducing the work of the wires and hooks, their descent into the muscle unimpeded. The defenseless monstrosity roared in pain, struggling against the next onslaught of hooks that gradually pierced the scaled hide, burrowing into the flesh, drawing out the ebony blood from the writhing animal, painting the blue liquid that surrounded Giovanni, who was doing everything in his power to escape: biting the wires, slashing the hooks, smashing his giant tail against the glass, but the more he struggled,the more the tangled plethora of cords stretched and became taut, yanking the hooks up from the muscle but then burrowing deeper.

Suddenly, there was an onrush of chemicals, the hooks somehow releasing fluids into his black bloodstream, the pure pain escalating as the chemicals flowed into his brain, every drop of the liquid colliding into he cerebellum as a bullet train collides with a sealed tunnel, repeating over and over, one surge of unrelenting pain after another, interminable, infinite.

"Now............" Hojo answered a moment too late. He smiled, putting a hand to his chin as he pursed his lips. "Searching for brain patterns, intellect, memories..... composition of body....." With each word, he brought his head lower and lower, bending down over the screen atop the panel. "Hm......." His eyes widened just slightly as his face brightened, and his eyes narrowed in a mix of satisfaction and fulfilled anticipation. "I suppose Ivy DID do something right, after all..... Though I find it hard to believe that Professor Demoni's prized son was in such obvious light. It almost insults me that you were here all along, just as should have been expected......"

Such were the mutterings of Professor Hojo. The mutterings of which Giovanni was too agonized to bother to understand. They were just words, after all..... nothing truly important, just everday language.....

"ROARGHHHHHH....."

The sound of his own coarse growling jerked him aware. He knew how invaluable words were... why was he suddenly ignoring their meaning? The comprehension was still there, but the drive to understand them somehow... disappeared.

These... chemicals... why are they dulling my thoughts?

The pale glow of the screen emanated entire paragraphs that spanned the length of the screen. They were blurry and indiscernible, much the same as spoken words.... were... steadily... becoming...

"GROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

From the tube and mess of wires shot an enfuriated cry as the monster gripped a bundle of wires and with every effort of his muscles and brain working in conjunction with each other, pulled the wires connected to his arms and chest up into his fanged jaws, where he chewed at them, the points of the teeth burying themselves into that loathed surface, hoping that his fangs and the acid within his mouth would somehow sever that messenger of those despicable chemicals, that would end the infinite flow, and end his acquired dullness with it.

Hojo noticed the resistance, and frowned, looking to the tube and then down at the control panel. Back and forth.... back and forth..... as if putting two-and-two together. His eyes suddenly brightened in realization.

"Of course..... you're suffering from Cuerpaphobia," he smiled again. "With good reason, of course......" He looked down at the screen once more, using a finger to scroll up and down the box that contained information concerning his subject. "Ahhh... I see you are able to employ thought-speech as well."

The wires weren't breaking. They weren't even scratched. But Giovanni's despair escalated, and the nagging desire to not understand was growing. His teeth sunk farther and farther into the smooth surface of the wire, but never severed them, letting the chemicals continue to flow freely throughout his very being. He failed to see the futility of it all, though, and chewed for all it was worth, which was absolutely nothing.

Hojo noticed the actions and scowled. "You should know that we cannot allow that..... His hand slithered towards the upper right-hand corner of the panel, hovering over a small, red buttton labelled "Negative Impulse Generator".

"Now...." he smiled. "You don't want to make me press THIS, now, do you? Relive your worst nightmares....?" As he smiled, he used his other hand to take a small pair of headphones that was connected to the whole sadistic machine and held it to his left ear.

Nightmares? The monster gave a growl of confusion as he halted, the wires bunched up in his jaws, that slowly grew into bitter anger. Nightmares.....?! This... here... now.. IS a nightmare already! It can't get any worse... The eyes of the beast glowed a defiant crimson as he mashed his teeth into the wires again.

"Would you care to.... bet.....?" Hojo said carefully. It was surprising to Giovanni that he could hear the thought-speech through his headphones.... but... did that mean that....... those wires were directly in contact with his brain?! Perhaps so.... a few had attached themselves to the top of his reptilian skull, numbing the skin and bone as they burrowed down.... down.... down........... Tunneling into the every layer of his brain, like nightcrawlers through the earth. Alarm suddenly gripped him, because now, that man could hear his thoughts, his mental screams, he could now be inside his HEAD......

"......Interesting..... very interesting....." Hojo murmured, stopping his threats as Giovanni paused in shock. "Leader of Team Rocket.... showing DEFINITE predatory instincts.... this at least proves that Ivy's dubious credence was sincere in this operation.... Hm...... these.... subconscious thoughts.... fairly swarming.... Remarkable...!"

AARRRRRRGHHH!!!!! Stop it!! Stop------looking into my head!! You....shouldn't be... INSIDE, there.....You shouldn't be hearing my BRAIN! He snarled as he grew aggressive again, smashing his tail spikes against the glass, thrashing in every direciton, anyway and everyway to get out of this hell......to escape being heard, his mind being probed.... a mind at that moment that was growing less and less developed... degrading itself....

"Ah.... so I take it you are unaware of this... subconscious, then, hm?" Hojo rested his right forefinger on the red button, lightly enough so that it wasn't activated. "Would you like to see for yourself? It should subdue you, and you would not be ignorant. See? A benefit for both sides."

No...... no...It struggled all the more, banging its head against the cylinder, the wires tugging at every inch of his writhing form. ...I don't want to be aware...... let me out of here..... what purpose do I serve you? What purpose did I serve her? Why don't you both let me be!!?!

Hojo paused for a moment, pensive. "Because.... because of science, fool. What else do you think would drive us so completely? He didn't wait for a response. "But... I suppose sense MUST be HAMMERED into some subjects..... Very well, then. Experience the event that made you this way.... forever...more..... Hahahaaa......."

He pressed down the button.

Incredible splitting pain seared straight through Giovanni's mind, engulfing it with a venemous sting that radiated outwards from the concentrated source. It was unlike anything he had endured before or since. It invaded every single lobe of his brain, the pain concentrating itself to there, but with its full force, sparing no ounce of devastation upon the monster's inhuman mind. It equalled a hacksaw being driven into his skull without restraint, so terrible was the pain that swelled until it could increase no more, until his mind was saturated with the immense agony.... and then, the void. Darkness and silence enveloped everything around him. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see in that infinite oblivion that was everywhere. For the longest stretch of time, there was only oblivion, and its vastness was beyond his comprehension. Its magnitude was comparable to space, but its finality... it had none. Until..... haltingly, the one solid blackness began to fade, greying, into a dark grey, that slowly lightened, and then a light grey, that finally became light, dim light, the kind that needed to be squinted at to see clearly, but still a speck of light. Then another, with the same sluggishness to spark as the first.

Silence was the next to go. A drip of some substance that was unidentifiable in this degree of light hit the ground. Another drop of it hung from its perch, and joined the next drop, and another, and yet another followed. The final drip yanked him into consciousness, and he sat up, beads of sweat hanging on to his forehead.

"Where am I?"

Unnnnngghhh......

The dark pupils of his eyes whisked about the dim area, a cold feeling of dread sweeping over him. He looked down to see that he had... shrunk, and then it hit him that he was a child again. A human child.... The boy that was Giovaanni looked down at his small hands, that were covered with a thick film of something or other. He felt the floor beneath him: it was dirt. "What is going on?!"

Mommy..... where are you...? I'm scared!! Get me out of this place, Mommy!!

Giovanni stood up on his legs, stumbling foward in the inadequate light, only to hit a.....wall. No, not a wall. He felt around, and poked his hand through. Another feeling of dread washed over him when he felt another "wall" as he moved his arm. They were BARS, and not just any bars.... grimy bars..... dirty bars.... bars used to hold.... an animal inside a cage......?

He didn't have much time to realize what was happening, for it was then that he heard the distant creaking of an old door as it opened, and then the faint sound of two voices, fading in and out as they went around corners and down the corridor towards him.

".........course we appreciate the sacrifices you have made...."

"........not a factor, I can assure you. Gloria hasn't the slightest....."

".........risky? What if the P.A.H.P.A. arrests or even......"

".....don't know this technology. They won't even know where to......"

".......rather cocky....."

".......only the truth......"

"......still, I believe....."

".....opinion, not mine. Ah..... we are......."

Giovanni's eyes widened at each new word. "They can't..... do this to me!!!"

I'm hungry......

He peered outside of the grimy, gritty bars, trying to see who was coming. But he found himself fighting against the urge to back away, in fear of what they might do to him. It was as if he didn't have any control over his movements, as he hid at the corner of the small cell, curling up into a ball wth the Rattata that were nesting there.

"......nearing him....."

The sound of footsteps came to its peak, and stopped arubtly, the sound echoing around the dank dungeon. Giovanni could hear breathing.... one dark and heavy, anticipating..... the other nervous and quick, as if dreading.

"....Sir. He's only....." A smaller, quieter voice.

"A child?" The darkness that resounded in the next voice was so subtly malicious that it seemed like a candy coated with poison....

"Well, yes. He's only a small boy... Sir, if I may say so, we should find a.... more mature subject. One who would---"

"Are you saying that my son is incompetent, Edward?"

"Well-------no. But I was a child once.... Those really are the hardest years....." A shuffling of feet, an uncomfortable shifting of weight. "Later, that's what makes you feel weak....."

"Do you have any reason to be weak?"

"No! Of course not, sir!"

"Really? You certainly sound it."

"No, sir, I'm just------excited about completing my internship with the other students. That's all."

"....Fine, then. Open the door, will you?"

"All right, Professor Demoni," another shuffle, the sound of keys jingling, and then the distinct noise as the keys were inserted into the keyhole of a metal door and the creak as it opened.

It all stopped abruptly.

"Professor, sir?" Came the shaky voice of the younger scientist.

"What is it?"

"Are there any spiders down here?"

"I should hope so, or else our ecosystem would be overrun with insects. Why do you ask?"

"...............Nothing, sir. The door is open."

One last, loud creak, as the door slammed open with reluctant force.

The boy that had made himself known, a deep, hidden part of Giovanni's soul, didn't move from his curled-up position. He didn't even open his eyes. He just wanted this to be over. But they wouldn't. They were here to accomplish something, and they wouldn't leave until they had fulfilled their task.The boy squeaked as he heard the older scientist walking towards him, and he drew his knees up, wrapping his dirt-streaked arms around them, his eyes widening and shaking uncontrollably.

What he saw was a man, standing in front of him. Although he was in reality a small man, he looked huge, as he was an adult and was sillouhetted against the small bit of light that came from the hallway that led to the cell. Because of the lighting, it was hard to make out his features, but this much was clear: he had dark brown hair, probably lighter if it had been in the sun, which frayed off to one top side, as if he didn't have enough time to comb it both ways in the morning. He was also wearing a lab coat, and seemed to have fair-complected skin. Behind him, the other man stood, and although he was almost completely enveloped by the oppressive darkness, it could be discerned from the large amount of light reflecting off of his eyes that he wore glasses. A few times he would push them up with one finger, even as he stared at the small boy, as if they were too large and had a tendency to slide down the bridge of his nose.

"Vanni..... I'm sorry I had to leave you alone."

The voice.... disturbingly familiar.....

Alone...? I want Mommy....

"Yes, I know you do, but she's on a trip....."

"......What...?!" Adult Giovanni could feel his vocal cords loosen as he yelled out. "I didn't say---!!!!"

D-----daddy? The child Giovanni looked up with enlarged eyes in innocent hope, and the adult gazed blankly in perpetual shock. He thought he had seen the man before, but the pervading darkness casted an impermeable shadow on his self-proclaimed father. He was shocked further that his own words were not the ones heard by these men, but the words of his younger self, of innocence, of love, of purity... of veritable weakness.

"Yes, it's me..... I'm sorry you're down here. It was necessary....." Professor Demoni looked around with a furtive gaze, and then leaned in towards his son, putting a hand to the side of his face and whispering. "....Because I need you to do something very important for me.... and guess what? You're the ONLY one who's able to do it!"

It seemed as if the man knew how to fool children.

"Do you take me for a fool?! Why did you lock me up?!"

Okay, Daddy....

"Impossible...how could I fall for this?! For the worthless words of my father?! Why the hell are you LISTENING to him!!!???"

What do I 'gotta do?

"Nothing, really...." Professor Demoni helped the small boy to his feet, taking his hand as they walked out of the cell, past that other man, who looked a bit disshevelled. He followed them as the Professor and his son walked along. "Just help me with an experiment...."

Giovanni's blood froze in his veins the minute that word was said, and he suddenly found that he had free reign of every movement in his past self. He jerked away from his father's hand, tearing away from him through the hall. But the man didn't bother to grab him. Giovanni froze, icy sweat creeping down his brow as he slowly turned around, and realized that his... father... was still walking, talking in a quiet voice, with his hand still clutching at a nonexistent hand.

"No... impossible..." Giovanni uttered in a hushed voice. He then looked down at his own childish hand, to the place where it should have been, at his father's side, and then back again. "Completely... how could I.... he's still walking... no... I have to stop it... I can't.... let.... him.....

Giovanni had been stuck in a strangely calm state throughout the entire memory, but now, as he saw his father, the other scientist, and the invisible outline of his past self walk along the corridor, towards the darker side of the old dungeon, the light dimming with every step....

......He screamed.

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Giovanni cried, suddenly, in the shrill voice of a child. "NO, YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!!!!!!" He yanked at the air the scientist was holding, wanting to pull his younger self away from the twisted man, but to no avail. He cried out, sounding more and more like a desperate child, as tears even rolled down his face, wailing and screaming like a banshee, while his father calmly walked forward, murmuring words in a soothing tone. Giovanni finally clutched at his father's hand, pulling him away with all his strength, but again, nothing happened. When he found that the hand felt like steel, being carried on an unstoppable treadmill, he stopped walking and stood, his small feet planted on the grimy floor. He was too desperate, screaming and crying, to even realize that he was now being dragged along, his knees scraping against the floor of the hall as he tried to stop the upcoming events, trying to somehow cease his future torment....

But of course, nothing changed. It was all a memory... an unchangable memory that Hojo had tweaked into a distorted, perverse kind of torture.

Giovanni finally let go, letting his small body flop to the ground, sobbing weakly into the dirty floor as his father rounded the last bend in the corridor, leaving the boy who was really a man to his own, lonesome self. The only source of light had been the flashlight that the younger scientist had been holding, and now it was gone, all gone, leaving Giovanni in the cold pitch-blackness.

He closed his eyes, curling up into himself, completely devastated by the discovery of this unacknowledged, unreleased pain that had been buried in the deep darkness of his heart years before.

Daddy.... he heard his subconscious, the voice of his inner child, and he shuddered, hugging himself tighter. How much will it hurt? Like an ant bite or somethin'?

"Like hell...." Giovanni's small hands grabbed at his hair, and he tugged at it as he talked to himself between sobs. "Like---like---hell, do you understand?!"

"Not even as bad as an ant bite, Vanni," Demoni's voice came, a poison coated in milk chocolate. Giovanni could hear the magnified sound of footsteps as his father led his past self up a flight of stairs, to a hallway above the dungeon, but not yet in the house. "You see, an ant bite is meant to weaken you, to hurt you, and it's completely at random where it bites you. However----these shots will be timed and positioned perfectly, and are meant to help you become stronger. How does that sound?"

Umm....uhh......

"Lies........ALL.....LIES........" Giovanni said through grit teeth. He pulled out a handful of hair from his scalp, holding it in front of his eyes before he growled at it and threw it behind him. His eyes darkened, and he began to wipe the tears away with the back of his hand.

"Why the hell am I crying!??!" Giovanni staggered to his feet, albeit weakly, and leaned against the wall, breathing hard. He narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the direction that his father and his past self had gone. "Damnit... that------that-----RUNT-------inside......" He made his left hand into a fist and hit his own chest, as if trying to kill any remnant of a weak emotion that he hadn't already destroyed inside of his heart. However, the force of the punch was strangely weak itself, and he frowned even further, pulling the hand away and flexing his boyish fingers.

"Strange.... almost... as if... my dexterity....." He brought his right hand up as well, flexing all of his fingers together and comparing the way that they moved. His eyes widened. "I'm not----I can't-----my hands---aren't-----equal!??! .....But.... I was ALWAYS----always----ambidextrous!!!!"

His face paled. "...........Surely, that couldn't have been caused as well----by----"

But he had no more time to ponder, as he suddenly found himself standing behind his father and another image of his past self as they both ascended the staircase, with the other scientist in the lead. The child's naiveté was seen in his light and happy eyes, so willing was he to believe anything his father said: everything was true and good, nothing was false, nothing was evil. Despite that he had been shut up in a cell for God knew how long, he still trusted that man, a fatal mistake the adult in Giovanni was thoroughly remorseful at.

Sounds neat!

"Good!" They finally came to a door---a wooden door, padlocked on one side. Demoni motioned for the other man--Edward--to open it, but as he moved out of the way, he turned towards his son, causing the other man to be blocked from Giovanni's view. "Now, son.... remember..... it will hurt just a teeny-weensy bit, but you'll be stronger afterwards, okay?"

Okay, Daddy...

"Bastard..........You are nothing but a BASTARD!!!" Giovanni rammed his fist into the scientist's jaw. No effect. He swung again, but the man felt nothing. He relented when the other man unlocked the door and opened it, revealing what was inside. The boy glared with fury as his eyes fell upon the sight of the laboratory, hot-blooded anger at the sharp-ended scalpels or the bubbling liquid in the test tubes paling in comparison at both the fear and anger induced by the syringes. He knew what would come next, and could only hope that this nightmare would somehow end before its ugly climax.

It didn't.

"Now, I know this looks kind of scary, but trust me---it's all safe!" Demoni smiled, leading the boy. Again he ran away, fully aware of the impending torture. Then the nature of the memory changed. No matter where Giovanni was in the room, he felt the madman grabbing his hand. But he was nowhere NEAR the professor. He was on the opposite side of the room.

"WHAT..?"

He ran towards the other man, staring up at the glasses, which was the only thing visible about him. He forcefully pleaded,

"How can you let this happen?! You cannot do this to a human!"

No answer. He was lifted onto something.....it was a chair. But the chair was at the other end of the room!

"How can this BE?"

Hanging loosely off of it were leather straps and buckles, on the arm rests, the legs, and the backside. Demoni began to take the straps and tie the boy down, hard enough so that he wouldn't escape. He had enough mercy to make them loose enough so that blood could flow through his veins. And Giovanni, sitting on an invisible chair could not move under their weight.

"See.... this is for your protection. Some of these---" he picked up a syringe and pointed to it. "---will make you act differently, and we don't want you to hurt yourself, now, do we?"

The adult in Giovanni had stopped boiling. Gradually, disbelief began to swim through his troubled mind. Disbelief that his own father, his own flesh and blood, one of the reasons he was actually alive, could do this to him. That disbelief swelled into dismay, and eventually culminated at a distorted blend of anger and distressed shock, that stole away his words as the boy nodded, not feeling any need to struggle against the tight straps. The memory changed course again, and the boy found himself IN the chair. No matter where he went he would still be in that chair. And looking up at his father in complete loathing.

"Now...." his father took that same syringe and approached him, kneeling down on one knee. "Are you right or left-handed?"

Uh... right, I guess...

Elder Giovanni's dirt-streaked face contorted in puzzlement. "But then--my thesis.... Must be correct...."

"Okay, then......." Demoni moved over to the boy's left side and used his left hand to pinch a bit of skin in the boy's upper arm. Shortly after, he very precisely and very methodically inserted the needle, pressing down the tab and then quickly pulling it out. He stood up, looking down at his boy. "How does that feel?"

That sickening sensation of being drugged was upon him again. AGAIN. He could almost see Ivy, blood gushing from her heart and lungs, laughing bitterly in his face, mouthing "You can't escape".

It HURTS!!!!

"AGHHHHHH!!"

"Really, now?" Demoni stood back, putting a finger to his chin and scratching it. Even now, it was hard to make out his face.... so hard..... "How do you feel? How is your left hand?"

He opened and closed his left fist, feeling some strength, but more pain and dullness than anything. There was a swelling of something inside the arm, pushing against the walls of his veins.

It.... hurts....

"Why did he do this? What made the bastard inclined to DO this?!" Giovanni snarled.

"Hurts....?" He arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "How does it hurt? Is it a stinging sensation? A headache? A muscle ache? How, Vanni? If you help me...... I'll let you have a materia."

He blinked his chemical-dulled eyes, filled with hot anger. BRIBERY...TRICKERY...it was all an outright LIE.

What's that, Daddy?

"It's a small...... toy you can use. It shines and it...... lets you use magic," Demoni smiled secretively. At the word "magic", the one with the glasses twitched uneasily.

Giovanni's adult side didn't want to fall for such a ridiculous bribe, but it was tantalizing to the boy, who gave in without hesitation. Muscle...it hurts......

Demoni nodded and took another syringe from the counter and now walked towards the poor child's right arm. "Just a few more......." He administered it as he had with the other side; carefully, precisely, with unquestionable care. "How's that?"

This liquid added itself to the first concoction, flowing through Giovanni's system, subjecting the boy to more chemicals. His glare intensified as the chemicals coursed through him. He felt feverish. It was as if a virus had suddenly entered into him. Daddy, I don't WANT any more shots!

"Daddy" wasn't listening. He laughed quietly, walking back to the counter and bringing with him seven MORE syringes. He took the first one and pulled down the boy's shirt, quickly injecting the chemicals into his chest. "How's that? How are you feeling now?"

He could hear himself SCREAM as his chest was punctured, still glaring. He again struggled fiercely, grabbing the straps with his hands, both aching now, and pulling at the restraints, kicking wildly, throwing his head against the chair, banging it again and again.

"Sir........" The lower-ranked scientist suddenly broke in. "I think that's enough-----"

"SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!" Demoni suddenly roared, whirling upon the intern. "Only I will decide when I am finished, UNDERSTOOD?!?!?!"

"Yes.... sir......"

"Good," Demoni calmed down, and, holding two of the other syringes in his hands, administered one to the left ankle and the other to the right. The pain was now stinging, leaving a sharp ache, but Giovanni hardly noticed the sting, slamming his head against the chair, not caring that there were bruises forming, not caring that his head was beginning to ache through this, and not caring that the animal in him was being released.

"NO, WAIT----" Demoni suddenly yelled, lunging forward towards the writhing boy. He grabbed Giovanni by the shoulders roughly, his fingers digging into the child's shoulders as he yelled:

"Don't you DARE do that, Zero-X.

"Don't you DARE try to kill my son------just to keep yourself out of my hands. DON'T YOU DARE."

He did not stop, but the professor releasing his shoulders indicated that the boy stopped. He stopped as well. A rage combined with his present anger overtook him, a rage that was separate from him: a completely different being caged deep within his soul. The adult struggled against his father's rough grip, of course not affecting the outcome at all, the distant past having been carved out long before he was awakened from the slumber that been his ignorance. What had already been ground out and shaped in the stone of time could not be changed, which only fed Giovanni's hot anger, raising the crushing impact of this nightmarish memory even further. But was it a nightmare? Or was it real? Was it perhaps, not real in the present, but real in the past? Did its perturbing events actually unfold, or was it only a grotesque fabrication twisted in its interpretation?

"Real......" The adult choked as he felt the pain of the chemicals shoot through his seven-year old self, the heat of the anger rising as the chemicals worked on his brain.

"Good....." Demoni's tight grip was slowly released and he stood back, staring into the darkened irises of the boy. "Just a few more injections, and then......." He smiled. "My work will be finished and you..... my son...... shall take hold of the power which should be rightfully inherited into our family name....... through the....." He looked down at the boy and noticed that the hue of the drops of blood that were slowly flowing down his arms was gradually changing color, from a healthy, crimson red to the deep, dark gloom of midnight black.

"Through the..... blood........ Heh-heh....." He smiled then, his lips upturning into a vicious grin. "So, now..... How do you feel? Worse? Better? Stronger? Weaker? Tell me....." He clasped his hands together and arched an eyebrow quizzically at his.... son.

The anger had blurred into near-submission. He blearily glowered at his father, and every word escaped him. It was all too much for him to bear: so many injections, so much of this foreign fluid swimming around in his body, making him feel things that he shouldn't feel, forcing him to think things that he shouldn't think, forcing him to BE something that he wasn't supposed to be. And even more... his father... was doing this all to him, the one who had raised him from the time he was born, the father who he had once trusted, loved, honored, and respected was the one who was.... DESTROYING him with these damnable drugs. Just like that, unmeasured rage engulfed both Giovanni of the present and past, some spark of anger that exploded into a dark wave of unbridled hatred, combined with pain of every sort that made his heart scream in sordid agony. This hatred for that voice, its tenor avaricious for his son's pain, expanded until this rage filled his small muscles, lending him unparalleled strength. It grew inside of his body, and he scrunched his face with pain, finally screaming,

I FEEL-------------LIKE THIS!!!!!

The straps began to tear and rip as he wrested the abominable restraints, and he hurled them aside, his eyes burning with unrestrained rage. With a pained scream of the damned, he rushed at his father, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the floor. The boy backed away, and regaining his senses for a minute, as the adult side watched in disbelief at what he had done. They were once again separated. He was still sullen. Normal reaction or not, normal strength or not, his father deserved it.

Daddy? I didn't wanna hit you... His eyes began to moisten, not out of sadnesss, but fear. What'll I tell Mommy? What am I gonna do?

"You recieved... what was coming to you," Giovanni's older self murmured as he shook his head at the fallen figure.

I hit Daddy......

I HIT DADDY!!

For a last time the memory changed its game. The adult physically separated from the child, and stood watching him sob. The latter ran out of the room, shoving the scientist aside in a frenzy to get out, to get away from this place. His sobbing escalated into a bawling as he fled, his little legs loud on the floor as he ran through the hall. It was so big... he was getting tired... it was such a long way.... the hallway seemed endless. But then, the sight of an incline greeted him, and he ran faster, his eyes blurry and red with tears, stumbling up the stairs, until he hit the door. He shoved it open, running to the door that led out of the house, crying on the doorknob, and turned it in his frenzy, finally shoving it open. The first sight that met him was the light, the sun... that was so painful, the blinding rays, both to him and his older self, who had followed him at a slower pace, controlled by anger and not sadness. But past the rays, past that hateful golden light, was a shadow. A tall, well-built shadow, of strength and of security, walking towards him. Bawling as loud as ever, he threw himself into his mother's arms.

The mother in question had just come from a rather long business trip in Italy; she was the vice president of a chain of Pokémon breeder schools that was centered there, and had actually planned on coming back a week later, but when her conferences had ended surprisingly early, she had not hesitated in the slightest to come back to her husband and son.

However, now as she stepped out of the backseat of the limousine that she had been riding, she was shocked to see her only child jumping on her and clutching for his mother like a young bird flying from the bleak world and back into its nest. Puzzled and a bit frightened, she immediately kneeled down, putting her arms around the small boy and bringing him into her reassuring grasp.

"Shhhh......" she closed her eyes and ran her fingers through the childish down that was hair on his head. "What's wrong, Vanni?"

Big tears dripped down his moist face, reducing his words into incoherent wails as he tried to tell his mother, this stable foundation that after this terrible experience. She was his only shelter, the only thing certain in his world... his mother. He knew she would never betray him, never hurt him, never cause him any pain.... He knew that she would make what was wrong right, that she would be a healer to his emotional wounds. She could not fail him now.

The mother sat there for a long amount of time, and she would have stayed there, comforting her child, for as long as he needed it. She was a loving, caring mother, and as soon as the sobs had been reduced into small breaths and tears, she pulled him away and smiled into his face. "There, there, honey....." And then she softly, soothingly repeated the question. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." However, it wasn't Giovanni who had answered. It was the man who had just walked out of the house, and who seemed to be forcing the smile that adorned his face, His hands were clasped in front of him, and in his eyes hid a dark expression. The younger scientist seemed to have vanished, perhaps through one of the secret back ways in the old mansion. "Giovanni just got locked down in the dungeons is all---here, I'll clean him up--" He leaned forward, his arms outstretched towards the boy in false concern.

Giovanni clung to his mother even tighter, going into hysterics again, violently shaking his head, yelling and screaming "NO" over and over again. He was going out of control, no longer blind to his father's masquerade. He buried himself deeper into his mother's arms, trying to make himself smaller, to hide away from the maniac that was his father.

The mother frowned, hugging her son tighter as well, and as she stared off into space, a dark look came over her face. "What.... did you do.....?"

"Me? I did nothing, Gloria." Demoni said levelly, calmly, without emotion. "I accidentally locked him in the dungeons after one of my research experiments, and-----"

"Experiments....?"

"Indeed. On the effects of----"

The mother--Gloria--suddenly grabbed Giovanni, her eyes wide with panic as she stared at his sleeves, tattered and torn, punctured with needlemarks..... the red sweater that he was wearing looked as if it had been speared through by countless knives.

"Vanni...." she whispered, looking into the blotchy, reddened face of her child. There were tears in her eyes. "Vanni.... please..... please.... tell me what happened...."

Her husband simply looked on with a cold gaze, slowly moving to the back of Gloria, where he was able to shoot his son---his son--a glare of pure ice.

You tell her and you'll be sorry. It said. You'll be so sorry.....

Giovanni yearned to tell her the whole story, to shed light on what had happened, to pour his heart and soul out to his mother, but that glare, that glare of steel that rammed into his own eyes, blurred by tears of terror, kept silencing him before he could begin... before he could tell her anything. He looked up helplessly into her eyes, lip quivering in stark fear, communicating to her silently that he could not utter a word, though he desperately wanted to say everything, say how his father did this to him, made him sit and be injected by force, about how he felt more awful than he had in his life, and that he threw his father to the ground..... but that single glare grabbed him by the tongue.

She saw that look in the eyes of her child, and without even looking up at her.... husband.... without even asking any questions, she narrowed her eyes and said in a cool, calm voice:

"Did.... Daddy do something to you, honey?"

Giovanni nodded shakily, so filled with fear of that man that loomed like a dark storm cloud behind him, menacing and pernicious.

The man muttered something under his breath. "Don't listen to him. He's only a child, after all, a child who--"

"GET_OUT."

The voice came strong and biting, of a tone so dark that it could have pierced the dark heart of the strongest armored knight.

"But, Gloria...? Surely, you must--"

"NOW." It came even stronger, and she took her hands from Giovanni's shoulders, whirling around and using those same, caring hands to grab Professor Demoni's collar and shake him violently.

"GET_OUT, DAMN YOU."

And so had his father. Demoni stared in shock at his raging wife, who now grabbed him and practically threw him to the ground in her wrath.

"I don't care WHERE you go, just NEVER_TOUCH MY SON again." She suddenly shook her head, and tears could be seen in her eyes. "You told me you stopped testing.... you stopped experiments..... I KNEW you must have been lying.... I was an idiot to think you wouldn't."

Demoni only stared upwards, sitting on the ground where he had been thrown in a mix of disbelief and shock.

"Gloria... another chance....... please, another chance...... I can stop myself... I.... I can......."

"No. You can't."

She gave him one last glare.

"GO."

He stared back, the evil in his eyes replaced by fear.... Then.... he simply stood up, walked to the Mercedes that was parked in the space just outside the mansion, stepped in, and drove off.

Giovanni would never see him again.

His adult self now walked towards the child and his mother, having done nothing until now. There were haunting memories bubbling up inside his mind. "I remember, now....this is why he left. This is why I never saw him. She drove him away....away from me. I don't remember her being this way. No...I remember her being nothing but cold. Is this memory real? It can't possibly be. I don't remember any of it. Was that because I wanted to shut it out?"

He reached far back into his younger self. If this was truly not his memory, but someone else's, he would see its falsehood immediately. But everything was real. It wasn't a fantasy or something imagined and dreamt up by a twisted mind. It was his past. But one thing, pride, prevented him from accepting it fully.

He looked at his younger self, hurt and fearful, an innocent that had been wronged. Him, innocent? He shook his head in dismay. Striding up to the small boy, he questioned in a tone harsh and cold.

"Are you... me?"

The past remained silent, having nothing to offer him except things that had taken place.

"You CAN'T be me..."

A sound of soft crying, but disconnected from him, distant.

"Yes... you are a weakling. I am not a weakling!"

No answer.

"You're such a pathetic excuse for a boy, weeping in your mother's arms. Why don't you be STRONG?! Why are you still crying?! It IS because you are weak, isn't it? No doubt. How is it that YOU ever grew to be a man?! Incompetent WORM! You try to mock me with these..... false.... memories, by seeking solace from MY mother!! And she only shows you love because you are a worthless MISTAKE to mankind. She managed to pity you, to give you comfort, when what you needed was to be-----treated as I was by her. There was never a kind word, never that... that caressing! That affection! That... that love!"

He turned away, stiff.

"...NEVER."

But the past couldn't respond, and his young self only continued to sob as he held his small hands to his face.

Mommy... I need a band-aid.

The woman simply stood there, staring after the cloud of dust that had been kicked up by the fleeing car. She then turned around, and blinked for a moment at her son. The anger had left her, and was instead replaced with a sad, sad gaze.

She kept on looking at her son like that until she put her hand to her forehead and rubbed it with the back of her hand.

"A----a band-aid?" She smiled, weakly. "Of course, Vanni."

She then took his hand into hers, and began walking forward, but only at a slow, steady pace that she was sure would be comfortable with her son. She would go out of all ways for... Giovanni, as she clasped his small fingers in her own, elegant hand......

"Don't worry, honey...." Her voice seemed to be fading, however... the farther they walked, the more distant it became. "Everything will be all right...."

"Why....don't I hear her anymore------ ?"

Denial was no longer an option. "Why are you fading?"

The sillouhette of his mother and himself disappeared into the house. He could not hear what was going on in there, but only see, and feel.. And what he saw made him tremor, shake, and spiral out of control. "Why are we in the bathroom? Yes, to get a band-aid. But for what? No... you'll see the blood. Damn you, bitch! Your eyes are cold..... your voice is cold..... you've changed. You see the blood..." All of a sudden he was inside himself again, staring up at his aghast mother. "Your eyes are cold..... Everything about you is... ice..... cold...."

Sweat ran down his face, which was pierced by those icy pupils.

"Mother...despite all this, you still love me....."

His gaze quivered while staring into that dispassionate face. "...right?"

Silence.

"Don't... BE this way... why are you... BECOMING... this way?!!

Her lips moved faster and faster, but he could discern nothing. "Why won't you answer me?!! ANSWER me, Goddamn you!!!"

She turned away, just as rigid as before, not loosening in the slightest. Her lip curled in a mix of disgust and horror at the blood: there were no words needed to decipher THAT expression. The boy grabbed her sleeve: she pulled away. He tried again, not even his own voice could be heard by him. Again she pulled away. One last time he tried, and she grabbed him, just like she grabbed his father, and shook him by the collar, her eyes engulfed in pure ice. The boy could only watch as she walked out of the bathroom, stiffly, rigidly. She was different exiting than from when she was entering. He could only stand there and watch... watch as his mother became the evil, satanic woman whom the world knew as Madame Boss. But not of her own volition. Because of his own blood. That revolting, repulsive blood...

Giovanni hung his head as his surroundings slowly faded into black, and he encountered the schizophrenic sensation of fitting himself into a different body, a different mindset as the blackness of his memories then faded into the bluish hue of the liquid that he was imprisoned in... and through that liquid.... the sight of Hojo, who didn't even seem to be paying attention to the mutant; he was sitting at a nearby table, the glasses resting on his nose, making yet another barrier between his eyes and the world as they darted over a game of solitaire.... as if... Giovanni was less important.... than cards....

Slowly, painfully, the latter's crimson eyes opened, drilling past the tangle of wires, through the glass at Hojo. The expected snarl from him was weak and subdued, like the sound made from a smaller animal. That memory that had just played in front of him, so despicable in every way, had left him completely wordless and had for now, overpowered his will to retaliate. It led him to think instead of speak, and the harder he thought, the less inclined he felt to use words.

The scientist only glanced up at the snarl. He smiled slightly as his eyes went back down to his game, and as he laid a two atop an ace in the top right-hand corner of the table, he began to speak quietly, with a sinister undertone.

"Computer... engage thought-projection simulator."

A monotonous voice replied: "Orders...... received. Thought-projection simulator.... confirmed." There was a small beep, and hard breathing could be heard through a speaker at the top of Giovanni's study cell---the hard breathing that was still being carried out in the subconscious depths of what still remained of his humanity in his mind.

"So.... I trust you slept well?" Came Hojo's voice once more, his eyes still focused on the game as he spoke.

Giovanni growled in irritability, at both the scientist's rather rhetorical inquiry and the wires that were once again crowding him. What do you think? His thoughts returned to the memory he had been thrust out of, clamping his claws on his head, only to grasp those damnable wires, that made him all the more distressed, and he shook his head angrily.

Hojo arched an eyebrow, his eyes resting on one of the cards for a moment as he contemplated his next move.

"I think you should be grateful. After all, I just showed you what you have been too cowardly to face. Ah... of course, the jack of hearts....." he reached for his hand and set the card upon the queen of spades, then moving a set of ten to three upon it.

Grateful?! For what, may I ask?! My past that would have been best left forgotten?!! He growled , baring his cruel fangs as his jaws parted, the bluish fluid leaking in and choking the immense beast.

"I suppose......" Hojo finally leaned back from his game, putting his hands behind his head as he raised his greenish eyes towards the creature. "That you are the type of...." he smiled, stretching the next word, ".....person who believes that ignorance is a bliss....?"

The monster's hellish eyes locked with the green ones--odd, it was an almost... unnatural green, but the assaults on his pride drew him away from that thought. The overemphasis of "person" engulfed him with renewed rage, and he roared at him again, feeling the inevitable punishment of a throatful of the irritating liquid. Both you and I know that I am a PERSON; I don't know what ignorance you are talking about. However, even he knew that it was a lie that wasn't even feasible.

"Ignorance?" Hojo slowly rose to his feet. He smiled once more and clasped his pale hands behind his back, walking towards the cell. "Indeed, you were ignorant of how... important your blood was, weren't you, Zero-X?"

That name.... that infernal name.... That pitiful excuse for a name he loathed to admit was his. It was so..... insignificant. The name of a lab specimen. What he was at this current time. Something dispensable, disposable. A name that could and would be easily forgotten. A name that reminded him of his current status in life: below the human beings that he had murdered and once had been. But, that was in the past. He did not want to accept it, he had been defiant so far, but slowly but surely, the will that he had once claimed to be stronger than Mewtwo's, an encounter also forgotten, was cracking. Slowly the foundations of his humanity were collapsing, leaving nothing to support the weight of the will, gradually, causing his once-unbendable ambition to crumble.
No...... do not call me..... Zero-X! I am Giovanni!! I ALWAYS WILL BE GIOVANNI!!! NOTHING CAN CHANGE THAT!!!

And it was crumbling faster than he realized.

"Hm.... you seem to be rather convinced about that, don't you?" Hojo put a finger to his chin. "Then again, I suppose that when a style of life is so ingrained into a creature's mind, there is no possible way for them to ever see the world from a different perspective....." He nodded to himself. "Indeed.... you..... the leader of Team Rocket.... so used to being respected and feared, is now looked down upon in disgust and hatred." He shook his head, his brow furrowing mockingly as he looked off into space. "Such a.... shame for you, is it not?"

But... how did he.... know who......?!??!

The reptile's blood-colored eyes widened in renewed vexation. How did you know---who I am---was----am?! He roared in a panic, his eyes wandering feverishly around the cell, half-expecting to see a bizzare mind-reading device or something such as that, but all he could see were the latched hooks and wires, still pumping chemicals into his body. The condescension hardly registered, overshadowed by that agonizing detail: that the scientist knew his former occupation, when they had never set eyes on each other.

"Heh-heh.... Oh, come now!" Hojo chuckled to himself. "Even with your now-limited brain power, your experience as a crime lord should have told you that Ivy couldn't possibly have been working alone. No, no, no.... In fact, she has been working for us---Shin-Ra Incorporated--for over a year now, monitoring your plans and schemes, your whereabouts... and of course, 'helping' you gain your full potential. Her drive was... personal revenge, I believe, but in the process, we benefited."

Yes....I did not forsee that. But it couldn't have been the result of my brain power being reduced. After all, I was human with a normal brain...and I STILL have a normal brain, but...He dug his claws into his snout in frustration, drawing the infernal black blood. Something is getting in the way of it. It must be this..bestial form...when I was completely unaltered, I would have deduced that it was not an individual plan, but...He dug the claws in further, unable to think straight, and only succeeding in confusing himself. But, if I was normal before, why---why didn't I SEE it before?! Why?! The monster's features were consumed by rage as he flailed violently, bashing his head and arms against the tangle of wires, spitting acidic drool. This time the primal cries he made were accompanied by a jet of burning flame, dissolving one of the wires.

"Perhaps because you weren't even human then," Hojo said calmly, his eyes following the flame that slowly dissolved into the water. "And I'd be careful with those wires; it could be quite painful to sever them."

An electrical jolt of enormous proportions was suddenly sent into the water.

Hojo smiled. "See?"

"GRAGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

The jolt was intensified by the conductivity of the liquid, sparing no organ of the beast as it electricuted him, the searing hundreds of volts coursing through every sinew like ten Thunderbolts aimed at his entire body. The jolt was brief, but damaging, and he felt his flesh sizzling and smoking afterwards. Pain accomplished its purpose brutally and swiftly, but the monster's immense pride and sense of self-worth went beyond all reason.The giant mass of flesh was thrown into jerky convulsions, but upturned his head defiantly.

I was human!! Do you hear me, whoever you are?! I was-----

He threw his head sideways, tightening the wires that sank into an open gash in his throat. An anguished roar, a clear snap of an entire row of wires, a sickening zap, and a feral whimper.The creature once called the leader of Viridian Gym clawed at his head, still smoking with the electricity. This simple action, though, was denied him by the wires that hung from his snout.A gruff sound resembling a whine was heard from him, as he clawed at them again, finally snapping the abominable objects that pumped chemicals into his brain, and the surge of electricity shot into his brain, intensifying in the very center, and a virtual scream leapt from his

hooked throat, echoing in every corner of the laboratory. When the liquid emanated its normal hue, when the final remnants of electricity had dissipated , Giovanni let his head dangle to the floor of the tube,only held up by the wires flowing from the left side of his massive, coal-black head.

.....hu.....man.....

He now had been utterly convinced that he was to cooperate fully with the superior being, or suffer the consequences. For the sheer capacity of Giovanni's ego, that was seemingly next to impossible, but this jolted his mind as well as his body. He would have to become willingly obedient if he was to be..and live... in that Hell.

Hojo saw the new dullness in the monster's eyes after the round of shocks, and turned away, speaking even as he walked away. "Good! Remember, Zero-X, a creature cannot act like a human lest it wishes to be hurt physically and mentally, and although you think yourself as a higher being....

"You are not."

He turned around once more. "You are simply one of my specimens, a very intriguing one, at that, which was a failed experiment long ago and whose only purpose now is to further scientific knowledge in the field of genetics. Perhaps the information that we gain from tests upon you will help us to bring the Gemini to its full potential, and perhaps........ to regain the other."His eyes suddenly snapped upwards, boring into those of the monster. He grinned.

"Other than that, you also serve as an effective bait."

I'll be used to reclaim the boy.....

His thoughts went to Brock, who was out there somewhere, still roaming free. If that scientist kept to his word, it wouldn't be for long.

Bring him to potential.....I am here for research? So you can bring the boy here and
torture him as well? His eyes darkened at the thought of that. Bait.... .specimen...... an..... experiment..... EXPERIMENT........

.The humiliation fell upon his soul like a mallet on the shell of a raw egg, cracking his spirit, which had already begun to split. Giovanni ground his predatory teeth in anxiety; pondering the meanings of words had never returned him with cruelty. But these were words describing his nightmarish reality. Bait was the worm on the fishook: no one cared if the fish devoured it. A specimen was just as disposable. Experiments....were those Pokémon deep in the bowels of island-wide Team Rocket laboratories. He was just the same, if not lower, than them. He growled submissively, casting his eyes down to the cylindrical base of the plexiglass cell, asking an--almost--sad question that reflected his weakening faith in himself. Is that all I am?

"Indeed," Hojo answered without mercy. "And a failed experiment, at that." He turned towards the control panel. "However... I believe I may find some use for you.... Especially in impressing the... heh-heh... the president, for the time being."

President? What president? He gazed up blearily, a low snarl escaping from him as dread began to overtake him, for fear of the unknown.

"George W. Bush.... Oh, yes, you should fear him, indeed....."

What is he?

"An imbecile beyond imagination," Hojo scowled downward. "But that is not the president who I am speaking of. I meant to say.... President Shin-Ra, owner of Shin-Ra Incorporated." The scowl turned into smile. "Surely, you've heard of Shin-Ra Incorporated...?"

The monster shook his head, silently hating the tone that was in the scientist's voice: it was as if he expected him to know what it was. He did hear reports of new buildings being erected in Vermillion City from his Grunts, but he found that out much too late.

"Shin-Ra....." Hojo paused, scratching his chin. He raised his eyes towards Giovanni. "You could call it an organization quite like your own... of course.... quite superior as well, both in its coffers and in its crime. We do everything from a strictly legal point of view.... Rufus is an expert at bending the law to his whim-----but...." Hojo frowned. "He has become a bit unstable since his revival...."

Superior? Rufus? Revival? What are these? The creature looked up vacantly towards the outside of the tube, utterly confused. His capacity for normal flow of thought was dwindling at the rate rate as his will was, the amount of information being thrown at his animal brain, further dulled by the wretched chemicals, too overwhelming to process.

"Words... of course..." Hojo turned away. "But, then again, you are currently illiterate, so it is only expected that the brain capacity in other parts of your skull will diminish as well........ Let's only hope that Gemini appears soon, or else I might have to spell your own name out for you in your frustration." Hojo sighed, looked at his watch, and tapped his foot on the ground.

Gemini.....That name rang forlornly in his emptying head, and he scarcely heard the rest of the scientist's words as he realized that the wronged creature would not take his family's untimely death... no... their barbaric slaughter, lightly. The killer would have to pay.

"Yes, Gemini....." Hojo walked towards a rack of syringes, took a bottle from the counter, and began to fill them with the liquid within. "The first Gemini, anyway. And with the first Gemini, we will be able to reclaim.... the second." His eyes narrowed as he continued with his work. "It took us quite some time to find the first, until Ivy came across it by a stroke of luck, but as for Gemini 2....." His jaw tightened. "We have yet to find it."

There are two?? He inquired with decreasing vitality. A growl of irritability was heard soon after, and he shut his glowing eyes in more confusion, his capacity for intelligent thought diminishing.

"Of course. The Geminis were twins in mythology, didn't you know?"

No, I didn't. But.....He shifted his head sideways much like the manner of a dog, somehow the motion loosening the pull on his aching mass of nerves, restoring, if not his intellect, a degree of the basic desire to learn and understand. If you are a....... scientist, why do you bother to study myths that have no tangible basis?

"Why?" Hojo responded, his back turned. "Only the myths turned into reality I can believe, but otherwise, yes, stories are worthless creations of the collective imaginations of all time, and I, for one, am only interested in knowledge."

What would you possibly want them for? He inquired again, a dim light appearing in his eyes, feeling the hooks not so tight on his brain for the time being. Now he didn't feel as...stupid or helpless. Maybe that feeling was only chemically induced, and not what he actually was? Or maybe it was only wishful thinking of one disillusioned.

"I want them for scientific data, to help, perhaps, to give more power to this falling human race.... to integrate our foolish, selfish selves with the rest of the kingdoms, phylums, species, what have you, of the world...... both worlds, in fact. However..... when I am finished...." He looked upwards. "They have the use of being two of the most powerful beings on this planet... or the other."

His crimson eyes widened, and his face was once again marked with confusion as he craned his scaly neck, the cords sinking into his brain. The boy... Brock... a powerful being.... and another planet? What are you speaking of?

"Brock? Oh, the human name given to Gemini 1.... Yes, him....." Hojo looked at Giovanni condescendingly. "He is most definitely not from my world, but from yours, although a series of.... fortunate circumstances helped him to become what he--it--is now. I doubt it even realizes the full extent of its powers..... Unfortunately, it's currently in a state of denial and depression, from the signals that the sensor implanted into it is telling us."

Depressed......I know why he is depressed......The monster ground his teeth as he drew up his claws and raked them across the glass, leaving jagged marks in the walls of the tube.

"Yes, depression...." Hojo continued. "In fact, I might as well check up on his updated index....." It seemed as if the scientist had completed his chore of filling the syringes and now moved over to computer terminal on the other side of the room. After a long silence, only broken by the clickety-clack of keys being punched, Hojo smiled, his back still turned towards his specimen.

"Add 'hell-bent on vengeance' to that list, would you?" A chuckle came from the back of his throat. "It's sniffing you out... following the trail of your blood..... your scent.... It has a surprisingly keen sense of smell..... Hm. I believe this will be its first time using that.... ability... Yes, disgust is one of the emotions the implant is picking up... Self-loathing..... Yes, I believe so....."

His voice trailed off into incoherent mutterings and then trailed back into plain speech.
"......amazing, isn't it?"

Amazing? He looked away, his chest heaving uncomfortably. More of...unnerving. He is coming here to kill me.....for murdering his family... The monster tore his misshapen hands from the glass, hissing in vexed contemplation. Did I TRULY kill them? No... how can I think that? It was that..... that.... Pokémon inside of me. Zero-X is to blame. He... I.......... A sudden roar shook the bundles of wires and the liquid they were hanging in. It was a roar of despairing acknowledgement of his ruthless actions, and signal that he finally accepted the grim fact that he truly was Zero-X. It was no longer a mutant extension of a human being whose deeds were separate from the latter. Rather, it was a mutant that once had been human, whose every action was connected with that human, because it and him were one and the same.

"Hah," Hojo turned towards the subdued monster. "Roaring will only bring it here quicker....... and according to the readings from the sensors...." He walked towards what seemed to be a storage room. "... You are actually digesting several humans that bear an uncanny resemblance to Gemini's human DNA..... Your body breaking them down into nutrients..... the nutrients being carried to all parts of your bodyto your brain.... by your blood....."

Stop it......Damnit, STOP!!!!! He was overwhelmed with guilt that stabbed into the far reaches of his blackened heart. At the very thought of those bones, flesh, and tissue that were coursing through his bloodstream as digested food, those..children that were so cruelly denied the opportunity to long life, haunted his conscience, and struck back at it with a passionate vengeance, and he roared all the louder, resisting the mind-numbing effects of the chemicals, attacking his cyllindrical cell without restraint.

"Go, ahead, then!" Hojo called from the other side of the laboratory. "Roar. It makes my job....." He walked out of the spare room, a large dart-firing gun in his hands, which he was currently arming with doses of tranquilizing liquids. ".... much easier."

"GROAARRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHH---"

The black lizard stopped when his eyes fell upon the potent weapon, and the deafening cry was no more as he gradually recognized the weapon's use and the scientist's intentions. A wavering growl signalled that he could not continue, knowing that if that feral sound lured Brock there , the latter would only feel more pain, more unbearable agony...the younger had enough to deal with already.

".........RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOORRRRRGHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Too late.

Hojo whirled around toward one of the barred windows on the opposite side of the room, the gun poised surprisingly expertly in his hands.

"GrrrooorrrRRRRGHHSSSSS!!!!!!...." a growl and a hiss was heard as there was a shattering of glass and the sound of twisting metal. Then, accompanying the din of an uncharted roar, there was a soft thump as a shadow descended from the window sill and landed on the ground in a crouch.

I'll KILL YOU.

Beyond the cords that still held fast to him, the captive reptile could vaguely discern the deformed outline of the creature that had been continuously punished wrongly, whose only thoughts were of vengeance against his family's killer, to kill him, to gorge on the hide that he was close to destroying before, to let the hellish black blood run between his claws. Giovanni set his gaze level with his would-be predator, and he snarled, but the noise weak because of the fluids and that inevitable fear of death. Don't come closer. That---------human there will capture you.

The shadow continued to approach, and suddenly, two points, to beams of a blazing red inferno were seen.

LIES...... ALL....... LIES.........

He-----it-----walked forward, hunched over and its arms hanging at its sides, muscles tensed as it's tail whipped furiously behind it.

It snarled, baring it's fangs which seemed to have grown in length.

.....MURDERER.....

For once..... I am not lying, boy. Giovanni bared his fangs as well, but whatever attempts to be intimidating failed; those cursed wires restricted foward movement. He dared not struggle against them, fearing an electric shock, and at the same time, he had to convince the avenging demon that a tranquilizer gun was trained on him. See, he is ready to shoot at you. Run away before it is too late!!

CINDY...... SHE.... SHE'S DEAD........... And the TWINS...and TIMMY..... and..... and... and..............Tommy..... you made me..... made me.........

Tears in those eyes, those eyes so full of hatred........ Gushing down his face like a waterfall, falling to his neck, his chest, his shoulders, his arms......... those scaled arms.......

........HE'S DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KILLED HIM!!!!!!!! YOU MADE ME KILL HIM!!!!!!!!!

He was hyperventilating, his grey, scaled chest falling and rising at rapid speeds. He held out his arms, his claws, those spikes on his shoulders. Then, he brought the claws to his face, staring down at them. His thought speech quieted as the hands began to shake, and he began to flex those...those talons of death...... As if he was searching for a ghost, a stolen ghost of the tanned skin, the fingers that he only used to help people... HELP-----THEM....

I.... I killed him..... with these......... my.......... what's left of my.... hands.......

He slowly looked upward towards the study cell and the creature within, the eyes, which had been subdued for a moment, once more enreathed with the infernos of a fury brought on the by the fires of hell and the spawn of the devil.

NOW I'LL KILL YOU.

The mental threat echoed throughout the caverns of the reptile's brain, that hateful word, "kill" resounding with raised volume. The liquids flowing into his bloodstream pulsed faster as his anxiety heightened, doing the same to the primal instincts. Fear was displaced by ferocity, and he reared up on his hind claws, gripping the front of the glass with giant foreclaws. The low hiss in his throat escalated into a savage snarl as he glared at the smaller mutant in his raging visage, as if daring him to take another step.

And Brock himself...... became a killing machine.

KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KILLKILLKILLKILLKILL!!!!!!!!!!! At the complete lack of remorse shown by the monster, he hissed and was engulfed with energy the hue of midnight. He gave out a cry, the cry of one avenging a ten, a hundred, a million wrongful deaths...... He ran forward, leaping into the air, his arms outstretched as he prepared to slice open the cell and whatever laid inside....

That was when the dart hit.

Brock soared through the air, knocked out almost instantaneously. His momentum caused him to tumble out of control in the air, hitting the plexiglass tube on his back with a sickening crunch.

Then, black blood being trailed down the tube as he slid down its length, he fell to the ground, sprawled out on the cold, tiled floor.

I... tried to warn you, boy. The monster bent his head to stare down at the unmoving creature, the wires tightening once more. Gemini's blood left an uneven line of black, and it crawled down like an earthworm, collecting in a small pool of darkness. The larger monster fixated his gaze onto the blood, following the mobile trail with his eyes, widened as if there was raw meat dangling in front of him, and he licked at the glass walls voraciously, while watching the crumpled heap of flesh at the base of the tube.

He caught himself, scratching the right side of his head in a sudden fury, letting small drops of his blood stain the liquid. So......arrogant...that was not the way to speak to him....what came over me? His eyes glowed as he pressed his snout against the glass. Oh yes...Nothing came over me. I was this way since childhood. I came over me. He scraped at the glass, looking down at the stationary demon. Brock.... do you hear me?

"Of course he can't hear you," Hojo said calmly, walking from the shadows. He flicked a switch, illuminating the area and making Brock's blood painfully contrast against the stark white tile. He was bleeding from the back of his skull, it seemed, the puddle of blood collecting around the back of his head.

"Hm....." Hojo dropped the gun and walked to Brock, where he looked down at the unconscious mutant. "So..... I have finally found him...... years of searching.... Hah." He grinned. "Demoni would be proud, I suppose...."

Demoni. Giovanni's head jerked upwards, the wires following him. Did you say my name? The thought-voice was terse and yet frenzied, even more so as the artificial light, blinding him with the intolerable whiteness, as he tried to comprehend the significance of that name... his family name, being mentioned, and of all people, why did that.... scientist know his........ mother??

"Yes... your family name...." He arched an eyebrow. "Don't you remember? I doubt you could have blocked it out so quickly after being reminded.... Your father....? Do you believe you were his ONLY victim?" Hojo chuckled as he pulled a radio from his labcoat pocket. "Fascinating... fascinating......"

You mean to say....he acquired the boy, too. He clamped a hand above his eyes to see past the light, and regarded the knocked-out monster with a degree of pity in his deformed countenance.

"Yes... and before his birth... his mother," Hojo grinned, putting the radio to his ear. "Yes... ? Rufus. We have them....... both." Hojo smiled at whatever it was that was said to him in the radio. "Indeed..... yes, you can say we defeated the----yes. Politically correct... locked up? Of course. Yes, President Rufus, understood." With that, he put the radio back in his pocket.

There was that Rufus again. Inexplicably, it set the conscious monster on edge. Giovanni clenched his fangs together, hissing viciously as he pressed his muzzle that had ceased to bleed against the glass, a wave of panic overpowering him. What are you going to do with us?!

"Do?" Hojo took a PokéBall from the same pocket he had deposited his radio into, paused a moment, and threw the ball at Brock's limp form. The tortured soul disappeared with a blast of crimson light, and the ball returned to Hojo's hand. He took a moment to think, his eyes fixed on the pool of black blood in front of him.

".......Only experimentation...." He raised his eyes and grinned up at Giovanni.

"Only experimentation."

*~*~*

DMB: Hooooo, boy! That ain't good! What kind of evil stuff is Hojo planning on doing to our hero and semi villain/semi hero?!? How long will it actually take for DMB to actually PROOFREAD the next chapter?! How long did she take to proofread THIS chapter? Will DMB's current Cowboy Bebop obsession hamper future work on this fanfiction, as B9T thinks it will?!? And most importantly--------WILL THE POWERPUFF GIRLS MOVIE KILL US ALL?!?!?!?

....Tune in next time to find out! ^_^

Next Episode: Sympathy for the Devil!

Er----I mean.....

TO BE CONTINUED....

DMB: ....Damn, I need some hallogenic mushrooms. ::Blinks. Hits head.::