Chapter 36
Olivine City itself appeared to wait silently, preparing itself for the unveiling of Team
Rocket's experiments. The breeze wafting from the sea had calmed, the only sound
remaining being the pulsating squeeze of the puddle, shuffling into a comfortable
position on the floor. The boss and the blob waited directly in between his two
opponents; Lucia with her pokémon, assisted by Ampharos, and Setijin, standing
supportively by Cyndaquil's side.
Behind them lay Medicham, battered and bruised from his busy, yet short taste of
battle, resting messily in the clump of brick and dust strewn across the pavement,
Setijin glancing back at him at almost every given opportunity. Before he could check
his partners condition one last time, the boss issued a charge.
"Go!" he called, the blob whipping forward with unbelievable agility, lashing out a
large tentacle of ooze at Cyndaquil. The deep blue liquid that formed the 'creature'
was almost transparent; the view through it distorted much like looking through a gel.
Slapping the tiny mouse, the puddle collapsed on itself, slithering back into one big
mould, Cyndaquil struggling on its side, frantically wriggling its tiny feet to regain
balance.
With Lucia's order, Espeon formed a cloud of mental energy, gathering around the
dot embedded in its forehead. Concentrating the energy into a beam, it speared the
blob cleanly through its center, only to watch it combine once more with no apparent
injury. Ampharos then took center stage, shorting the miscellaneous opponent with a
flurry of sparks, engulfing it in a blanket of electricity.
"Stop toying with them," suggested the boss, the blanket fluttering away with a burst,
and the blob wriggling into a more solid shape.
"Ditto…" it hissed, its form being just that: a ditto, only with its modified blue body,
also sporting misty purple eyes and a series of black blotches running down its
supposed back. It writhed on the spot, gazing indefinitely forward, not focusing on
anything in particular.
"A Ditto?" stated the bewildered pair or trainers, all attention focused on this apparent
marvel of science.
"A rather impressive Ditto might I add," the boss began. "You see, we've been
working with this one for quite a while, and thanks to Team Rockets research in the
past, we've been able to…alter it in a number of interesting ways."
"How so?" Setijin asked, the doubt and anxiousness dissolving from his voice with
each word.
"That would be ruining the surprise," he responded. "The best way would be to show
you…watch your Medicham carefully."
"What are you going to do to Medicham?" Setijin panicked. The boss replied with a
cacophonous guffaw.
"Just watch! Ditto, infest!"
"Infest?" gasped both Setijin and Lucia indefinitely. They did nothing but stare as
Ditto steadily slugged its way along the road towards Medicham in his bed of debris,
rippling as it prepared to dive. Setijin's palms sweated a cold moist, everything
running around in his head at once, causing total lockdown yet again. Out of pure
desperation, he fought with his own thoughts, pushing his own way through the
bustling crowds of random shards of subconscious, not knowing where to go. Then
within a nanosecond of inspiration, the crowd shattered, one single answer shining
brighter than all others. With this, Setijin snapped back to reality, determined to make
things go his own way for once.
"Cyndaquil, tackle Medicham with all your might!" he cried, Cyndaquil twitching
back with doubt. "Please, just do it!" he begged, the mouse agreeing doubtfully,
bounding past the blob and charging straight into Medicham's side, landing in the
heap of dust beneath him. Kicking up a cloud of eye blistering grains, Cyndaquil
shook itself off, unaware of the diving blob, ripping its way towards him. Thanks to
his ready state, the blob simply bounded off, minimum force put behind its thrust,
shimmering back into one puddle. The group watched as the dust cleared, the blob
physically confused as to where its intended target had gone, Medicham lying out
cold a clear few feet away from its resting spot.
"Now what was all that about?" the boss asked snidely, hinting frustration. Setijin
neglected to turn, whipping Medicham's original pokéball from his belt, launching it
forwards. Cracking into the unconscious fighter, the ball clicked open, sucking
Medicham inside, closing securely without struggle. Dashing forwards, weaving in
between the combatants, Setijin skidded to the floor on his knees, sweeping up
Medicham's pokéball in the process.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed excitedly, Lucia cheering alongside the rest of the pokémon,
the boss applauding his over exaggerated display.
"Very impressive," he chuckled. "You do put a lot of effort into these things…no
matter, I can still show you what I intended to do." He clicked his fingers, his own
Medicham groggily stepping forwards. Clicking again, Ditto started back towards its
master, taking shape once more. "Example time," he sneered, Ditto launching itself at
Medicham, slipping inside its body as if a spirit, simply disappearing into the weary
pokémon's body.
"Whoa…" Lucia uttered in shock and fear. Medicham remained frozen in time, before
encasing its body in a cocoon of blue, tiny specs of substance fluttering off,
disappearing into the wind, each shining as brightly as a star in the night sky.
Eventually the light blue faded, two pokémon left on the floor: Ditto with a small
stream of white mist swimming around inside of it, and a Meditite, lying apparently
dead on the floor.
"Is it…dead?" Lucia stuttered.
"It may as well be," shrugged the boss. The virus was far too much for it. If it is alive,
it isn't by much, and besides, it's served its purpose."
"That's just sick…" shuddered Setijin, his fist clenching, terror and worry fizzled out
by the blaze of rage whisking through his head.
"I suppose. But now, thanks to this valiant warrior, Ditto is now that much stronger,"
explained the boss. "Normally, it'd just use processed energy, but the raw element is
so much more effective."
"What are you talking about?" Lucia inquired nervously, edging her pokémon
backwards.
"This Medicham would also be one of my experiments. Thanks to a rather clever
process, it has evolved long before its time, and gained substantial amounts of energy,
which have nowhere to go. Ditto simply takes this concentrated energy and absorbs
it."
"…so that's how my Cyndaquil de-evolved."
"Exactly why. Why, Ditto more than likely has a little Cyndaquil spirit swimming
around inside of him right now."
"What does it do to Ditto?" Setijin pondered..
"Just full of questions aren't we? I'll humor you though…I have been itching to
explain it to someone. You see, this energy is highly unstable, especially in the body
of, say, a prematurely evolved pokémon. Thanks to this special technique, we can
evolve said pokémon to our advantage, and take the energy back for Ditto. This
energy of course contains DNA of each and every pokémon that is absorbed,
heightening the abilities of Ditto in that specific area."
"But Ditto can already transform into other pokémon. What difference does this
make?" Lucia queried.
"It is true that Ditto already has the ability to take the form of pokémon it has seen
and studied, but this only works to a certain extent: the original pokémon's strength,
abilities, attributes and experience lost in transition," the boss continued. "This
process simply takes the statistical enhancements pokémon of the maximum level
would hold, and siphons it into this single pokémon. It retains everything the original
pokémon had, meaning that it technically has all the powers of every pokémon that
ever existed."
"How every pokémon that's ever existed?" probed Setijin, Cyndaquil waddling to his
side, regaining its breath from its last assault.
"Team Rocket was simple enough to leave their research data on its genetics project
Mew-Two lying around. Considering that this pokémon was a clone of Mew, who's
DNA is said to code every pokémon in existence, we simply copied it and modified it
to suit Ditto's body. Thanks to its already versatile state, taking this information in
was quite a simple task."
"And so this is what you Rocket's meant by 'Legendary Pokémon'…"
"It seems nothing gets by you!" he snidely replied, clapping his hands together,
rubbing them vigorously. "I feel so much better for finally getting that off my chest,"
he chuckled. "Okay, who's next?" he bellowed.
"Not a chance," Jasmine called out, Steelix by her side, curling around itself, before
unfolding and rearing its head into the air, letting out an almighty roar. To her left
stood Winona, with her squad of Pokémon unleashed and ready for battle, along with
Setijin's Umbreon, Barboach and Ninjask. Each pokémon waited eagerly, preparing
to protect and aid their respective trainers. With this, Lucia too released the last of her
pokémon, Minun, Staryu and Gulpin flopping to the floor either side of her.
"Quite a selection you have here," the boss howled. Casually sliding his jacket off,
brushed off his suit, removing the top of that, leaving just his white shirt and tie,
rolling the sleeves up. "I've been looking forward to a battle like this for a long time!"
he remarked. "Let's just hope you put up more of a fight that Gold and his friends.
"Gold?" Jasmine repeated.
"Yes. For a master pokémon trainer, he sure did like the dirt."
"That's it!" she cried in response. "Steelix, use Iron Tail!" With this, the steel snake
swung around, whipping its segmented tail into the air, flicking it back, as if pulling
back an elastic band. With a snap, the tail slammed down, shattering the floor with a
terrifying crunch, creating a thick fissure in the center of the battlefield. Sliding back
into a spiral, Steelix grinned smugly, Jasmine patting him congratulatory on the chunk
nearest to her. The group and their pokémon peered down the crack where Ditto had
apparently disappeared. The slit was magnificently smooth on either side, leading
down into pitch darkness, a slight rustling heard from inside.
"That was remarkably easy," sighed a relieved Winona, leaping backwards in surprise
as a royal blue liquid Pigeot swiftly swept into the sky, screeching abnormally.
Calmly flapping its majestic wings, it lowered itself closer to the ground, a circle of
dirt blustering away from beneath it much like grass beneath a helicoptor. Swinging
its head back, it screeched once more, before lunging forwards, unleashing a
pressurized torrent of water from its beak, pounding Steelix's head backwards and
into the floor.
"Nice try," complimented the boss sarcastically. "At least you left a nice dent in the
floor."
"That smug look will be wiped off your face soon enough!" wailed Jasmine,
determination rising, flicking the frill of her white skirt backwards, before raising her
hand; a pokéball resting snugly in her palm.
In a shower of red light, the steel snake returned to its pokéball, Jasmine unleashing
the second of her pokémon: Metagross.
"Very nice," continued the boss. "I could do with a bit more data on that thing.
Thanks for the reminder. You may take it away now."
"Not a chance. Winona, care to join me?" Jasmine asked, Winona nodding
comfortably in return.
"Ready Graveler?" The boulder growled with battle rage, chugging forwards to take
its place by Metagross.
"Like I said, you better put up a bit of a good fight, other wise I'll have to start getting
nasty."
"Don't you worry about that," Jasmine continued. "You wont be forgetting the
elimination of Team Rocket for a long time…"
"I won't, no…that was a good day," he replied, fading off into a whisper, looks of
disgruntlement echoing through the ranks. "Enough stalling. Begin…" he finished,
Pigeot crashing to the floor in a tear drop pool, before crumpling into shape again…
Olivine City itself appeared to wait silently, preparing itself for the unveiling of Team
Rocket's experiments. The breeze wafting from the sea had calmed, the only sound
remaining being the pulsating squeeze of the puddle, shuffling into a comfortable
position on the floor. The boss and the blob waited directly in between his two
opponents; Lucia with her pokémon, assisted by Ampharos, and Setijin, standing
supportively by Cyndaquil's side.
Behind them lay Medicham, battered and bruised from his busy, yet short taste of
battle, resting messily in the clump of brick and dust strewn across the pavement,
Setijin glancing back at him at almost every given opportunity. Before he could check
his partners condition one last time, the boss issued a charge.
"Go!" he called, the blob whipping forward with unbelievable agility, lashing out a
large tentacle of ooze at Cyndaquil. The deep blue liquid that formed the 'creature'
was almost transparent; the view through it distorted much like looking through a gel.
Slapping the tiny mouse, the puddle collapsed on itself, slithering back into one big
mould, Cyndaquil struggling on its side, frantically wriggling its tiny feet to regain
balance.
With Lucia's order, Espeon formed a cloud of mental energy, gathering around the
dot embedded in its forehead. Concentrating the energy into a beam, it speared the
blob cleanly through its center, only to watch it combine once more with no apparent
injury. Ampharos then took center stage, shorting the miscellaneous opponent with a
flurry of sparks, engulfing it in a blanket of electricity.
"Stop toying with them," suggested the boss, the blanket fluttering away with a burst,
and the blob wriggling into a more solid shape.
"Ditto…" it hissed, its form being just that: a ditto, only with its modified blue body,
also sporting misty purple eyes and a series of black blotches running down its
supposed back. It writhed on the spot, gazing indefinitely forward, not focusing on
anything in particular.
"A Ditto?" stated the bewildered pair or trainers, all attention focused on this apparent
marvel of science.
"A rather impressive Ditto might I add," the boss began. "You see, we've been
working with this one for quite a while, and thanks to Team Rockets research in the
past, we've been able to…alter it in a number of interesting ways."
"How so?" Setijin asked, the doubt and anxiousness dissolving from his voice with
each word.
"That would be ruining the surprise," he responded. "The best way would be to show
you…watch your Medicham carefully."
"What are you going to do to Medicham?" Setijin panicked. The boss replied with a
cacophonous guffaw.
"Just watch! Ditto, infest!"
"Infest?" gasped both Setijin and Lucia indefinitely. They did nothing but stare as
Ditto steadily slugged its way along the road towards Medicham in his bed of debris,
rippling as it prepared to dive. Setijin's palms sweated a cold moist, everything
running around in his head at once, causing total lockdown yet again. Out of pure
desperation, he fought with his own thoughts, pushing his own way through the
bustling crowds of random shards of subconscious, not knowing where to go. Then
within a nanosecond of inspiration, the crowd shattered, one single answer shining
brighter than all others. With this, Setijin snapped back to reality, determined to make
things go his own way for once.
"Cyndaquil, tackle Medicham with all your might!" he cried, Cyndaquil twitching
back with doubt. "Please, just do it!" he begged, the mouse agreeing doubtfully,
bounding past the blob and charging straight into Medicham's side, landing in the
heap of dust beneath him. Kicking up a cloud of eye blistering grains, Cyndaquil
shook itself off, unaware of the diving blob, ripping its way towards him. Thanks to
his ready state, the blob simply bounded off, minimum force put behind its thrust,
shimmering back into one puddle. The group watched as the dust cleared, the blob
physically confused as to where its intended target had gone, Medicham lying out
cold a clear few feet away from its resting spot.
"Now what was all that about?" the boss asked snidely, hinting frustration. Setijin
neglected to turn, whipping Medicham's original pokéball from his belt, launching it
forwards. Cracking into the unconscious fighter, the ball clicked open, sucking
Medicham inside, closing securely without struggle. Dashing forwards, weaving in
between the combatants, Setijin skidded to the floor on his knees, sweeping up
Medicham's pokéball in the process.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed excitedly, Lucia cheering alongside the rest of the pokémon,
the boss applauding his over exaggerated display.
"Very impressive," he chuckled. "You do put a lot of effort into these things…no
matter, I can still show you what I intended to do." He clicked his fingers, his own
Medicham groggily stepping forwards. Clicking again, Ditto started back towards its
master, taking shape once more. "Example time," he sneered, Ditto launching itself at
Medicham, slipping inside its body as if a spirit, simply disappearing into the weary
pokémon's body.
"Whoa…" Lucia uttered in shock and fear. Medicham remained frozen in time, before
encasing its body in a cocoon of blue, tiny specs of substance fluttering off,
disappearing into the wind, each shining as brightly as a star in the night sky.
Eventually the light blue faded, two pokémon left on the floor: Ditto with a small
stream of white mist swimming around inside of it, and a Meditite, lying apparently
dead on the floor.
"Is it…dead?" Lucia stuttered.
"It may as well be," shrugged the boss. The virus was far too much for it. If it is alive,
it isn't by much, and besides, it's served its purpose."
"That's just sick…" shuddered Setijin, his fist clenching, terror and worry fizzled out
by the blaze of rage whisking through his head.
"I suppose. But now, thanks to this valiant warrior, Ditto is now that much stronger,"
explained the boss. "Normally, it'd just use processed energy, but the raw element is
so much more effective."
"What are you talking about?" Lucia inquired nervously, edging her pokémon
backwards.
"This Medicham would also be one of my experiments. Thanks to a rather clever
process, it has evolved long before its time, and gained substantial amounts of energy,
which have nowhere to go. Ditto simply takes this concentrated energy and absorbs
it."
"…so that's how my Cyndaquil de-evolved."
"Exactly why. Why, Ditto more than likely has a little Cyndaquil spirit swimming
around inside of him right now."
"What does it do to Ditto?" Setijin pondered..
"Just full of questions aren't we? I'll humor you though…I have been itching to
explain it to someone. You see, this energy is highly unstable, especially in the body
of, say, a prematurely evolved pokémon. Thanks to this special technique, we can
evolve said pokémon to our advantage, and take the energy back for Ditto. This
energy of course contains DNA of each and every pokémon that is absorbed,
heightening the abilities of Ditto in that specific area."
"But Ditto can already transform into other pokémon. What difference does this
make?" Lucia queried.
"It is true that Ditto already has the ability to take the form of pokémon it has seen
and studied, but this only works to a certain extent: the original pokémon's strength,
abilities, attributes and experience lost in transition," the boss continued. "This
process simply takes the statistical enhancements pokémon of the maximum level
would hold, and siphons it into this single pokémon. It retains everything the original
pokémon had, meaning that it technically has all the powers of every pokémon that
ever existed."
"How every pokémon that's ever existed?" probed Setijin, Cyndaquil waddling to his
side, regaining its breath from its last assault.
"Team Rocket was simple enough to leave their research data on its genetics project
Mew-Two lying around. Considering that this pokémon was a clone of Mew, who's
DNA is said to code every pokémon in existence, we simply copied it and modified it
to suit Ditto's body. Thanks to its already versatile state, taking this information in
was quite a simple task."
"And so this is what you Rocket's meant by 'Legendary Pokémon'…"
"It seems nothing gets by you!" he snidely replied, clapping his hands together,
rubbing them vigorously. "I feel so much better for finally getting that off my chest,"
he chuckled. "Okay, who's next?" he bellowed.
"Not a chance," Jasmine called out, Steelix by her side, curling around itself, before
unfolding and rearing its head into the air, letting out an almighty roar. To her left
stood Winona, with her squad of Pokémon unleashed and ready for battle, along with
Setijin's Umbreon, Barboach and Ninjask. Each pokémon waited eagerly, preparing
to protect and aid their respective trainers. With this, Lucia too released the last of her
pokémon, Minun, Staryu and Gulpin flopping to the floor either side of her.
"Quite a selection you have here," the boss howled. Casually sliding his jacket off,
brushed off his suit, removing the top of that, leaving just his white shirt and tie,
rolling the sleeves up. "I've been looking forward to a battle like this for a long time!"
he remarked. "Let's just hope you put up more of a fight that Gold and his friends.
"Gold?" Jasmine repeated.
"Yes. For a master pokémon trainer, he sure did like the dirt."
"That's it!" she cried in response. "Steelix, use Iron Tail!" With this, the steel snake
swung around, whipping its segmented tail into the air, flicking it back, as if pulling
back an elastic band. With a snap, the tail slammed down, shattering the floor with a
terrifying crunch, creating a thick fissure in the center of the battlefield. Sliding back
into a spiral, Steelix grinned smugly, Jasmine patting him congratulatory on the chunk
nearest to her. The group and their pokémon peered down the crack where Ditto had
apparently disappeared. The slit was magnificently smooth on either side, leading
down into pitch darkness, a slight rustling heard from inside.
"That was remarkably easy," sighed a relieved Winona, leaping backwards in surprise
as a royal blue liquid Pigeot swiftly swept into the sky, screeching abnormally.
Calmly flapping its majestic wings, it lowered itself closer to the ground, a circle of
dirt blustering away from beneath it much like grass beneath a helicoptor. Swinging
its head back, it screeched once more, before lunging forwards, unleashing a
pressurized torrent of water from its beak, pounding Steelix's head backwards and
into the floor.
"Nice try," complimented the boss sarcastically. "At least you left a nice dent in the
floor."
"That smug look will be wiped off your face soon enough!" wailed Jasmine,
determination rising, flicking the frill of her white skirt backwards, before raising her
hand; a pokéball resting snugly in her palm.
In a shower of red light, the steel snake returned to its pokéball, Jasmine unleashing
the second of her pokémon: Metagross.
"Very nice," continued the boss. "I could do with a bit more data on that thing.
Thanks for the reminder. You may take it away now."
"Not a chance. Winona, care to join me?" Jasmine asked, Winona nodding
comfortably in return.
"Ready Graveler?" The boulder growled with battle rage, chugging forwards to take
its place by Metagross.
"Like I said, you better put up a bit of a good fight, other wise I'll have to start getting
nasty."
"Don't you worry about that," Jasmine continued. "You wont be forgetting the
elimination of Team Rocket for a long time…"
"I won't, no…that was a good day," he replied, fading off into a whisper, looks of
disgruntlement echoing through the ranks. "Enough stalling. Begin…" he finished,
Pigeot crashing to the floor in a tear drop pool, before crumpling into shape again…