Chap. 15-Spliced
Willow and Captain Marius faced each other in the chill, misty arena. Willow knew that if she could defeat the Captain, Team Blade would be disheartened and might retreat. She had to win this battle to help the ghost Pokemon!
The battle had seemed hopeless at first--Captain Marius' spliced Pokemon, Nightshade, had easily dodged Rafael's attacks using its ghostly energy field. If Rafael couldn't strike Nightshade, there was no way to defeat the Captain.
But now Willow smiled, face alight with hope. She knew the secret to defeating Captain Marius-she knew how to win! Rafael, seeing his trainer's confidence, felt more confident as well. He might not know Willow's plan, but he trusted Willow and would do what she asked of him.
"Rafael, I've got an idea-I think I know how we can stop Nightshade from dodging your attacks!"
"Did you hit your head when you fell, little girl?" Captain Marius smirked. "There's no way to stop Nightshade from reading your attacks. Your Pokemon may be well-trained, but it can't match what my Pokemon has-perfectly designed DNA. Nightshade was born to fight!"
Willow shuddered. The idea of designing a living creature for battle, of making a Pokemon one more war machine, was disgusting. "My Pokemon are strong because they choose to be. We'll win because we're a team-not like you and your machine!"
"Pika pi!" Rafael shouted in agreement. The difference between being created to fight and choosing to fight might seem small to Team Blade, but he knew it was all the difference in the world.
"Believe what you like-belief doesn't win battles. Superior strength does. Now...attack, Nightshade!"
"Rafael, dodge and use Thunder Wave!"
Rafael was confused; Thunder Wave didn't seem like the right attack for this situation. He still didn't know Willow's plan, though, so he would just have to trust her. He leapt away from Nightshade and sent paralyzing waves of electricity toward the spliced Pokemon.
As he expected, Nightshade easily dodged it. The attack missed and one of the metal poles in the arena wall. The metal, damp from the fog, crackled with electricity; the other Team Blade members hastily moved away from it lest they be painfully shocked.
Nightshade sniffed disdainfully, preparing to strike again. "Now--use Shadowball!" shouted Captain Marius. He didn't know what Willow could be thinking, but he knew it must be a pretty stupid plan if she was using Thunder Wave against Nightshade.
"Keep dodging and using Thunder Wave, Rafael-just trust me!"
Rafael nodded. "Pikachu!" He was totally loyal to Willow, and would follow her plan to the end.
Rafael's attacks continued to miss and strike the various walls and structures of the arena instead. The arena was very old, and the ghosts hadn't bothered to keep it in order; bits of junk were scattered here and there, and soon they were all sparking with the electricity of Thunder Wave.
"Chu...pikachu!" Rafael saw Willow's plan-it would work!
Captain Marius was perplexed. What could this little girl be thinking? So what if her rat used Thunder Wave-he could use it as much as he wanted, he would never hit Nightshade. Nightshade's special energy field allowed it to sense attacks before they hit.
"Now, Rafael--use Thunderbolt!"
The Captain rolled his eyes. Would this foolish trainer never learn? "Dodge, Nightshade!"
To Marius' surprise, however, Nightshade looked confused. It tried to leap aside, but the Thunderbolt struck home. Nightshade gave an unearthly shriek of pain that rose out of Willow's hearing range. She was unnerved, but quickly focused on the battle. Her plan was working!
Captain Marius scowled. "How did you do that? How did you strike Nightshade?"
Willow grinned proudly. "You thought all the Thunder Waves Rafael used had no effect. They may not have had an effect on Nightshade...but they had an effect on the field! Look around. All of those Thunder Waves created a new electrical field that disrupted your Pokemon's energy field!"
Captain Marius gaped in shock. Mouthing silently, he looked around the field. There was no denying it; Willow was right. He had been outsmarted by a rookie trainer! Furiously he tried to think of a new strategy, but he was at a loss. Captain Marius had depended on his spliced Pokemon's special powers to win battles for some time, and he wasn't used to losing the upper hand, let alone thinking of a new strategy on the spot. Willow, on the other hand, was used to being the underdog. She immediately followed through on her plan.
"Now, Rafael-use Thunder! Finish this battle!"
"Pi...ka...CHUUUU!" Rafael leapt into the air, charging his electricity. At the height of the jump, he released a powerful Thunder attack, striking the confused Nightshade and knocking it out.
Captain Marius grimaced in disgust. "Damn...the spliced Pokemon are supposed to have increased power-how could this happen?"
Willow and Rafael looked angrily at the Captain, united in their feelings about Team Blade's gene splicing experiments. "You could never understand the power that we have when we work together."
Captain Marius turned on his communicator, ordering the other members of the Team Blade attack force. "All units retreat-the Ghost Op. is a failure. Move-now!"
Team Blade hastily packed up their weapons and retreated to regroup and rethink their strategy. They had failed in their objective at the Ghost Town...they would have to move on to their next target.
Willow held out her arms to Rafael, who jumped onto her shoulder, as happy as his trainer. "Rafael, you were incredible! That was the best Thunder attack I've ever seen!"
"Pika, pikachu," Rafael agreed, very proud of himself.
Arturo came to join them, making sure Willow was uninjured. "Willow, what will we do next? The "Team Blade" has retreated, but we do not know where to. How can we stop them now?"
Willow pondered for a moment, at a loss. Then she looked up with determination. "I don't know how we'll find them, Arturo...but we will. I won't let them hurt anyone else!"
Willow felt a chill touch one her shoulder. Startled, she turned to see one of the ghosts examining her seriously. Turning, the Haunter called to the other ghosts, who came to drift around her, all watching her thoughtfully.
"Haunt. Haunta haunt?"
"Uh...I-I'm sorry...I don't know what you're saying."
I do! I do, Willow! They're saying, why did you fight those people?
"Thanks, Katsu! Ghosts, those people were Team Blade. We're not completely sure what they're up to, but we know it's not good, and we don't want them to hurt anyone. They attacked you, so...I just thought we might be able to help out."
"Haunt. Haunt, haunta!"
The ghost Pokemon turned to confer with the other ghosts. Several sped off to summon their leader, the Pokemon Ghost Lord: Spooky.
Willow stifled a gasp as the enormous ghost she had seen before appeared, turning its blood-red eyes on her. Waving one disembodied hand, it grinned. "Spooky! Spook...spooky, spook. Spook!"
It's saying thank you for helping them. Oh, and it says Team Blade was after him because he's a Pokemon Lord. It seems they were trying to...steal his essence? I'm not sure what that means...
"Does he mean DNA? That's what that Slicer thing said, right?"
I guess so...they don't seem to know for sure.
"Haunt. Haunt, haunta haunt," added the Haunter, who seemed to be the Pokemon Lord's advisor and spokes-Pokemon.
He says that if Team Blade is stealing the essences-you know, DNA-of Pokemon Lords, they may go after the Ground Lord next. That's further north...maybe we should head there next?
"Hmm...well, we don't have anything else to go on, so I guess that's our best bet. Thank you, ghosts! If those Team Blade people come back, will you be all right?"
"Spooky, spooky," the Pokemon Lord said, waving a hand dismissively. He was clearly supremely confident in his ghost subjects. If Team Blade returned, they would be ready.
"That's good to hear. Well...we should get going, I guess. Thank you again for your help!"
"Spooky!"
He says, good luck!
-o-o-o-o-o-
Rose trudged back through the thick overgrowth, seething. They had been defeated! They, Team Blade, had been defeated by one trainer! Rose was ashamed. Captain Marius, their unstoppable champion, had lost to a rookie. How would her platoon face the others now? And the ghosts--even with their special weapons and assurances that the creepy machine, the Slicer, would help them, the ghosts had beaten them.
The Slicer...Rose hated it. It was disturbing to catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye. She would turn her head quickly, trying to see the true form of an object that had seemed frightening from that unique viewpoint, only to discover that as usual it was the Slicer. And the Slicer was just as creepy seen with both eyes as out of the corner of one.
They were heading back to the temporary base now because of the Slicer. Captain Marius would surely be demoted as well; no wonder they were marching so slowly. Marius was in no mood to hear the reprimands of his superiors and lose his prize spliced Pokemon, which up to now had never lost him a match. But such was the way of it; if you failed, you couldn't expect anything else.
Finally the group reached the concealed door to the base. The scouts softly called out the password, and a trapdoor ground open from the shadows of the forest floor. They filed down the narrow stairway into the dark caverns below. This was only a temporary encampment, so the accommodations were rough; they could barely see by the fluorescent lights strung intermittently along the ceiling.
Rose and her fellow Team Blade members headed to the main chamber to be debriefed. As expected, Captain Marius was soundly berated by his superiors and summarily demoted; he would move to a new unit immediately. His spliced Pokemon, Nightshade, was taken for "adjustments."
Later, Rose idly wandered down the corridor to watch these being done; none of the rank-and-file Team Blade operatives really understood the splicing process. For them, it was like a magician's act at a fair--the results looked much more spectacular than the process that created it. All Rose had ever seen of the splicing labs were computer monitors and testing programs. She had never actually seen a Pokemon get spliced, whatever that was; all of the specimens she had seen worked on had been babies, being adjusted while still in the egg. This was different, and Rose hoped it would be worth watching.
The splicing labs, unlike the rest of the small complex, were brightly lit. The Team Blade scientists who worked there said they needed light to perform their experiments, and no Team Blade member would dare challenge them. At first Team Blade had thought little of the scientists, considering them lab-coated cowards who would never be seen near a real fight. After seeing the results of their work, however, respect for them increased. There was no question that those experiments produced excellent results.
To Rose's disappointment, Nightshade had already been adjusted; the two researchers were only checking over their results now. She stayed to watch all the same; it was better than doing nothing.
"Hmm...adjust the display and increase the scope slightly--it's blurry. You made changes to the bone structure? Yes...yes, I see. What is it they had you do to it?" The white-coated man stroked his mustache, examining the scanning electron microscope's display. He had helped create Nightshade, and naturally was not eager to make adjustments; he saw nothing wrong with the original model.
Another researcher turned to hand him a file, pulling off some surgical gloves. "More speed, they said. I tried to explain to them that there's only so far we can push the speed before the impact damages the joints, but they never listen...I had to substitute some other adjustments to make it faster." She too bent to examine the image on the screen.
At this point, Rose ceased to understand what they were talking about: the two scientists began to confer about the various chromosomes and alleles and tendons and neural pathways, and she tuned out. Instead, Rose turned her attention to the Pokemon itself.
It--that was what the others always called the spliced Pokemon. Rose thought that was a little strange, since they referred to their own Pokemon as he or she. Why were all the spliced Pokemon "it?" It couldn't be that they were all hermaphroditic; the research team bred the spliced Pokemon to see what traits the offspring would have if they survived. So why?
Rose watched the cat-like creature; its eyelids flickered. Nightshade was suspended in a tube of some strange, greenish liquid, covered in various tubes and monitoring devices. The Pokemon could have been suspended in the womb, waiting for its own birth. Waiting as it had done the last two times it was "adjusted."
"It's only a temporary fix. They do understand that, don't they? At some point the thing's system will reject all of these changes. Its body is going to give out if we keep doing this. And this time we needed surgery for the leg adjustments...you did explain this to them?"
The man nodded. "I tried, I tried...you know how they are. They have no appreciation of art. That's what this is--art. Look at it. Look at the svelte body, perfect for dodging attacks. Look at the head, the wedge-shaped skull to make it more aerodynamic, the forward-facing, round eyes to help it hunt and improve its night vision, the mouth, perfectly shaped for a carnivore's teeth. And the integration of ghost and dark-type characteristics! And they want me to adjust it? No appreciation at all."
"Mmm...and they'll just ask us to make another one. They don't understand at all. It isn't some kind of template. It's a painting, not a photograph. We can't just pull them off an assembly line."
The woman sighed, then turned to the Pokemon. Carefully she drained the chamber, then opened the capsule and removed the various devices attached to Nightshade. She stood the Pokemon on the table, gently drying it off with a towel. The feline creature yawned, scratching an ear. It looked so normal, doing that. You'd never guess what it really was, Rose thought to herself.
"Hmm...well, it looks fine. It seems to have adjusted well...give it a few more days and it'll be ready for battle."
"A few more battles and it's done. It's shameful. We give them a miracle, and they throw it away. Shameful..."
They walked off together, releasing Nightshade to roam the base as it pleased. The spliced Pokemon wouldn't damage anything, and it was good for it to have a chance to exercise and grow accustomed to its changed body.
Rose cautiously approached the strange creature. It flicked an ear, watching her out of the corner of one yellow eye. Nightshade's appearance was frightening (although Rose stubbornly told herself she wasn't afraid): its body was somehow too sleek, too black, too fast. The creature amiably padded over, however, and nuzzled Rose's hand. Nightshade was lonely; it had no one to play with. It didn't know why it was in this cold, dank place or why it was made to battle or why its body was adjusted over and over again. It was content to stay with Team Blade, but it would have liked a change of pace.
Rose knelt, stroking the spliced Pokemon's smooth head. "Heh...guess you're not so scary after all, huh? Not that I was scared," she added quickly, giving the Pokemon a look as if it had suggested this.
Nightshade made a sound that might have been purring.
"I'm busy, you got it? I don't have time to play. I have work to do...I need to train. I can't hang around with someone else's weapon. That would be weird, you know? You're not a pet. I can't play with you."
Nightshade looked at her coolly, tail flicking back and forth. Rose twisted a lock of hair in her fingers, indecisive.
"I guess...I guess you could train with us. You could probably use the practice. That's what a good operative does on break, trains. So, I guess you can come along."
Nightshade purred louder, silently following Rose down the corridor. Rose's voice echoed faintly back to the empty lab. "But this is not playing. You got that?"
-o-o-o-o-o-
It shimmered unnaturally in the dim lighting of the underground chamber. Its smooth, visor-covered face, if it could be called a face, was devoid of features or emotion. Looking into it, all that could be seen was the viewer's own face. It was sleek, sharp, elegant death on legs.
It was the Slicer, and it was being adjusted.
The Slicer had been unable to help Team Blade in their last mission because its functions had been jammed by an outside source. To prevent this, Team Blade was adding in another of the Progenitor artifacts in their possession: Crystal Refraction Armor. They were making the final check now; all was in order.
The electric light's bare bulb glared down at the Slicer. The light reflected brilliantly off the Slicer's impossibly smooth surface, creating a blinding glare. Its body sparkled in the light, but the effect was far from pleasing: it had a surreal, sickening quality to it. The Slicer's new armor made it an even more formidable foe, and Team Blade was satisfied. They avoided looking at it if they could help it already; this didn't make much of a difference. The technicians left the room, packing away their tools and chatting idly. Their work was done, and they were ready to rest up for their next mission.
The Slicer stood alone in the room, glimmering impassively. If it had had a face, it would have made a very slight smile. Its mission was going well; it was unperturbed by Team Blade's failure to retrieve the Ghost Lord's DNA code. There were plenty of other targets to seek out on their journey north. The Slicer moved noiselessly down the corridor to its designated area to await its new mission.
In the empty room, the single bulb flickered and died.