Chapter Eighteen: The Second Illicuno

"Okay, that's everyone, right?" Gloria inquired, as she made sure she had not forgotten anyone.

"Farfetch'd!!!!" Squabbled Farfetch'd as she flew up.

"Okay, now that's everyone." Gloria corrected herself. "Let's find out what's up there."

She stood up, pushing the trapdoor open with a rusty creak as she did so. (The tunnel wasn't tall enough to stand up on the platform.) All of a sudden something stepped or was moved on top of the trapdoor, forcing Gloria down on her rear. What she had seen in the brief moment she before the whatever-it-was stepped on the trapdoor was very startling. "I was probably seeing things, but I think I might have seen the lab I've told you about!"

Michael grew wide-eyed. "You mean the one where the…" He paused, trying to find the proper term. "…Um…accident happened?!"

"I think so." Gloria replied in a slightly irritated tone. "Kind of hard to be sure from the brief view I got."

"What happened, anyway? It seemed as if you were startled by something." Joshua questioned.

"I think someone or something stepped on the door. Either that, or someont put a Snorlax on it!" Gloria said. "Whatever it is, it's heavy!"

"Let me try." Joshua offered. He crawled to the trapdoor and opened it. "WHOA!!!!!" He exclaimed, dropping down again, letting the trapdoor close with a rust-tinged slam.

"What did you see?" Julie asked. She opened the trapdoor too. "Yipe!!!"

"What's all this about?!" Gloria asked.

"See for yourself!" Joshua replied nervously. Gloria opened the trapdoor and quickly climbed out. The others followed, Gloria making trips to pick up the Pokémon, except Farfetch'd of course, who had flown out of the open trapdoor. They had surfaced in a huge meadow, surrounded by nothing but grassy flatlands as far as the eye could see. Positioned to the right of the quartet, the Illicuno was standing.

Michael, Julie and Joshua, despite having been told there was another one out there, were surprised how shockingly similar this Illicuno looked like Gloria in her Illicuno form, but with two major differences. This Illicuno's eyes weren't fiery red nor were its feathers blue. Its eyes were a light, glowing sea-blue, its feathers that flaming red. Everything else was perfectly akin to Gloria's Illicuno form.

"……I didn't think I'd ever see him again…" Gloria said reminiscing the moment she first saw him. "And yet, here he is!!"

"Hold on! He?!" Julie interrupted, snapping Gloria out of her reverie, "I thought you said you were like that because the cloning machine went out of control, right?? If that's true, how come that one's a boy and you're still a girl???" Julie hesitated a moment. "Erm, if you don't mind my saying so…" Julie blushed at the awkward moment.

"That's okay." Gloria said. "Remember, when the machine went awry, it mixed my body with the clone. I guess I was just plain lucky to stay female when I did the conversion."

"Huh?" Said the other three in unison.

Gloria shook her head. "Never mind."

"How do you know it's a boy?" Michael asked, still staring at the magnificent bird just a mere few yards from him, as everyone else was doing also.

"See how its feathers are red and its eyes are blue, just the opposite of how I am in Illicuno form?" Gloria said pointing at the Illicuno for effect. "I guess it's just like in the Nidoran species; male and female Illicunos look different from each other."

Just then, attracted by the conversation, the Illicuno turned around. He craned his long neck down to get a better view of the tiny creatures before him.

"Hold on, fellows." Gloria said approaching the Illicuno. "I'm gonna' try to talk to him." She transformed, haloed in bright light. When the light faded, Gloria was in Illicuno form again. She walked over to the puzzled Illicuno, bobbing her head as she always did when she walked in Illicuno form. She spoke a series of squawks, tweets, chirps, and trills. The male Illicuno responded in a series of bird-sounds.

"What did you say to 'im?" Joshua asked curiously.

"I just told him you all are friends of mine and that you won't hurt him. Which is what I assumed, am I correct?" They nodded. "Good. He then told me that he's seen a lot of 'two-legers' lately. By the way, that's how wild Pokémon seem to refer to people." The Illicuno chirped again. Gloria chirped back in response then the Illicuno did another melody of birdcalls.

"He says he wants to show us something." Gloria said tentatively. "He says it's a little weird so I think…" She hesitated. "…I think he's talking about the you-know-what."

The others were surprised. "I don't suppose you mean the lab, do you?" Asked Julie.

"Yes I do." Gloria said nervously. "I'm strongly against going back there again, but if the experiments have gotten worse and/or more drastic, I feel it's my duty to see to it that this madness is stopped immediately."

"So how far is this 'lab'?" Michael wondered.

"I'll ask." Gloria replied. A series of chirp-exchanges later she spoke again. "He says it's a few minutes flight to get there. He also said he'd 'like the privilege of carrying the two-footed ones,' in his own words. Do you mind? I'll carry the Pokémon."

"That's a perfectly fine concept, but can we really trust him?" Joshua said skeptically.

"I'll ensure he doesn't harm you."

"Awk!?!?" Farfetch'd quacked.

"Oh, all right, all right. You can fly too." Joshua said.

"Farfetch'd!" Quacked the slightly snobby duck.

Later…

"……It's the lab all right." Gloria said after everyone got off. "I'd never forget a place like this!!"

It was a truly odd-looking set of buildings. Built in dome shapes connected by tunnels, camouflaged -no chameleoned to its background, and half-hidden in a valley, the "labs" looked much more like military bomb dumps than laboratories.

"Geez, this place is creepy!" Michael commented.

"No kidding. You can imagine how much torture I had to endure in my six months of being trapped here..." Gloria said, transforming again to human form.

"Awk-awk, tweet?!?!?!?!" Chirped Illicuno.

"Tweet chirp awk!" Gloria said to the Illicuno.

"What did you say this time?" Joshua asked.

"He was confused when I transformed, so I told him it's only me." Gloria said as she pulled out her Pokédex. She began doing something with it. As she did it Pikachu, Raichu, and Chikorita disappeared.

"What the heck did you do?!" Michael asked wide-eyed with surprise.

"Oh. I guess you don't know how to link a Pokédex with a PC." Gloria said. "I just exchanged some Pokémon in my PC with some of the ones I have with me. It's pretty easy to do once you know how. You just have to be linked to a PC to do the initial programming." She put her Pokédex away. "If we're going in, let's do it now." Gloria walked tentatively to the closest of the domes. She flipped up a cover on a keypad and typed a number in too fast too see. A door-shaped portion of the dome slid upwards. "Onward." She said, motioning inside dramatically. "Immortality awaits…"