A/N

I will stab someone if this doesn't come out by Friday I swear to god. I've been wanting to write this chapter for months, so I'm hoping for Thursday in all honestly. Anyways, enjoy Grimm paying the price for his lack of vision, electricity included.

Enjoy it if you want.

My groan of pain is stopped short by my body refusing to listen from a mix of the electricity ripping through my body and the poison still afflicting me.

Think, how can you get yourself out of this situation?

Zap. Screech. Zap. Screech. Think- Zap.

Fuck it, playing dead.

I let myself limply fall to the ground, trying my best to not actually pass out. I knew I shouldn't have done this. I fucking knew I had backup coming, I knew I was poisoned and outnumbered, I knew that I wasn't in my right mind, and I fucking knew I was going to regret doing this.

Zap.

But what did I do? Decide it would be fun to try like a fucking dumbass. Like I still thought it was just a happy-go-lucky world and the criminals weren't actually going to do evil shit. I thought I goddamn knew this already, I guess hanging around Ash and other nice people on my trip here made me forget.

Zap.

This world was filled with people willing to do some evil shit, and I just pissed them off because I thought it would be fun to try and win a fight while poisoned and unable to lethally take down my superior opponents.

Zap. Zap.

And this fucking Shinx keeps zapping me even though I haven't fucking moved in the past 30 seconds. I'm going to fucking-

Zap.

Ugh. My body is completely numb at this point, though I'm still aware of my surroundings. They really aren't taking any chances with me. Smart. If I was able to move, the moment one of them got close I would have gone for the eyes.

Shit, Alonso is going to be devastated. Both in my complete lack of tactics and strategy and that I just got myself captured by an evil mafia/yakuza organization hell-bent on conquering Kanto and Johto.

Huh, looks like Shinx finally stopped zapping me. Or I can no longer feel the electricity going through me. It's honestly a toss-up at this point. I can hear them talking, but it sounds like it's through water and on the other side of a door from all those Supersonics that I was hit with.

I feel something impact me, but nothing further happens. I crack open one of my eyes and see a Pokeball laying in front of me through my blurry vision. If the red and white weren't so distinctive, I probably wouldn't have been able to even make out what it was.

Jokes on them, can't capture me since I caught myself already. Suck it, bitches.

Aaaand now they are picking me up. I immediately try to go for their eyes, but all I manage is a slight twitch before my body stops listening to my reasonable commands to gouge this fuckwad's eyes out. Which one is this, Baldie?

My vision rapidly starts to fade as the darkness at the edge of my vision rapidly begins to encroach.

Sorry Alonso, I'll have to meet back up with you later.

LINE BREAK

I regain consciousness to agonizing pain shooting through me, shocking me back into awareness. Thankfully not literally this time.

Blinking the spots from my eyes, I groan as I try to turn to my side. I perk up as I find myself unable to turn properly. And the spots in my eyes aren't gone…

Oh wait, those are just lights. Fucking bright ones too.

And I can't move properly because they had the bright idea to slap a vest on me that feels weighted as fuck.

Okay gotta give them this, that's probably the most inventive way to keep something that weighs 35lbs wet restrained. I could probably break through most restraints and they can't put me in a ball, so honestly well done.

Wait, why am I complimenting them? Fuck these guys, they just kidnapped me.

I turn my head and stare at my surroundings to see if I can come up with any ideas. Hmmm. Yes, indeed. Bare concrete on all sides and a metal door. Riveting.

Just great. Wonder how long before someone checks up on me? I want to see if I can swindle a Potion off of someone or something. My body desperately wants one.

At least it doesn't hurt my ribs to breathe anymore like the last time I was injured. That fucking sucked. At least right now my nerves are probably only fried temporarily, my biology should get that fixed soon enough.

I uh, don't feel comfortable trying to shift into human form with this vest on though. I'm… not confident about how that works and I would rather not kill myself.

I, for one, have had enough of ill-planned and flat out mouthbreather-level plans from myself.

At the very least my poisoning seems to have abated, which has really cleared up my thought process. Turns out that being poisoned completely fucks my ability for clear cognitive thought because looking back at it what the FUCK WAS I THINKING?

Jesus Christ, I managed to piece together that I was being dumb and that it was a horrible idea… then proceeded to do it anyway because it seemed "fun."

Alright, time to see if I can use moves like this. I focus my energy and-

Bzzzt.

A collar from around my neck that I hadn't noticed flares to life and electrocutes me enough to force my attention away from the move, canceling it instantly.

Well, now I'm super glad I didn't try to change. I don't fancy getting decapitated from a collar.

I hear a loud thunk on the other side of the door to my room, reverberating slightly as metal grinds against itself. Fucking great, what is this some cliche movie? I wake up and am given just enough time to realize my situation before Big Bad Evil Guy comes in to do whatever.

Wait, damnit Grimm stop thinking of this as a show or a game or another form of media. This is real fucking life now, even if the world works slightly off of cheesy shit at times. That's what got you into this shit.

The door slowly grinds open, which makes me wonder if they are doing this for dramatic effect. There's no reason for a door to be slowly opened with the sound coming straight from a horror B movie.

"Whoever was in charge of maintenance in this area, I want them shot in the knees. They didn't do their job right, this door isn't oiled at all," a voice says with a calm tone as it passes through the cracked open door.

Ah, don't like that. They didn't seem worked up or pissed off at all. They just ordered them to be shot, like it was the obvious course of action. To be fair, I gratuitously throw around threats to stab people I don't like, so I'm a pot living in a glass house in this case.

The door is finally yanked open, and a weedy-looking man in a white lab coat strides inside my humble abode. Quickly followed by a pair of goons wearing full Rocket regalia. Yep, makes sense to me given that's the organization I just tried to pick a fight with and immediately got slapped for doing so.

"So, come here often?" I ask in Pokespeech, knowing he can't understand shit. He frowns at me and then glances towards his pocket. Pulling out a strange box, he smacks the side of it a few times while grumbling.

"What, did you make a translator or something?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, indeed I have little Zorua. You see, with my brilliance and intellect I have made many such devices. Sadly, I have yet to make one that's universal but I can make it targeted towards a specific evolutionary line," the man says arrogantly, holding out the sleek black box as if it were the savior of mankind.

"So… why am I here?" I ask, completely ignoring over half of what he said.

"A team brought you in due to your… unique appearance. And I must say, I am eternally glad that they did so. You see, Zorua, I had another member of your species in my care. A rather feisty Zoroark," he informs me, starting to pace back and forth a bit while looking at me. Am I about to get a villain monologue? God, I hope not.

"Unfortunately, she died of some apparent unknown cause. Some of my… 'colleagues' informed me that it was due to sadness, but that just seems silly. You can't perish from merely being sad, it was most likely some underlying cause that they missed and are trying to cover for," he states dismissively as he strides closer to me. He crouches down in front of me, getting much closer to my size and making it so I don't have to look up as much.

"You see, Zorua, I needed that Zoroark for my experiments. I had a dream. A goal of creating the ultimate Pokemon. Others assume that Mewtwo was the highest being we could create. That Mewtwo, that ungrateful being, was the ultimate life form," he continues, unaware or uncaring of my lack of interest.

"In my opinion… they failed. That subject displayed absolutely no sign of Mew's signature abilities. Primarily, the ability to shapeshift and learn every known Pokemon move. This supposed successor is merely in name and type." I'm getting the full monologue, aren't I? Fucking kill me. End my suffering.

"I, with my superior foresight, knew that the subject was failed and abandoned my portion of the project after testing showed him to be negative of the desired abilities. Imagine my 'surprise' when I later learned that all of my contemporaries from that lab who stayed perished at the hands of their failed experiment," he gleefully chuckles at this, finally standing up and pushing his long hair out of his face.

"No, I would do much better with the excess Mew DNA that I took with me. I found myself a Pokemon with the ability to look like any Pokemon it wants to. After all, that works much better as a base than attempting to create one from scratch. Ideally, it could shift physically but I had to be realistic here." I uh, I'm not liking where this is going. Both for me and that poor Zoroark.

"So, I had some teams scour Kalos for a viable subject. Preferably, a female Zoroark with a Lucario mate. Aura is such a great stabilizer, what with it being the energy of life itself. It would do wonders for the stability of any offspring that I tampered with and with the offspring being the mother's species…" he gains a much more manic grin as he stares at me. I feel like a piece of lead is sitting in my stomach at this point. This… did I pick a fight with Pokemon Adventures Team Rocket?!

"Needless to say, the first few offspring that I altered did not turn out well. I didn't use any of the Mew DNA of course, not on my prototypes. I just used some spare Ditto DNA as a poor substitute. Quickly though, I was able to reliably force offspring to have a form of the Lucario line's ability for Aura manipulation for internal usage only. The stability of the subjects was astronomically higher now, so I felt ready to begin the final stages of the project."

Why is this man giving me his life story? At this point, I really don't want to hear more about this even beyond my distaste for monologuing villains. I can stomach a lot, but genetic experimentations with near 100% casualty rates are just...

"I knew there were risks of Zoroark's health due to the number of induced eggs we needed, but thankfully she did not perish yet. Using careful amounts of Mew DNA, every single test was a failure. There was hope yet though, the sneaky thing actually managed to hide her original natural egg with an external illusion in the corner of her room. We thought that the team hadn't managed to find it, but she hid it in her hair until she got to the room somehow. We only found it when she underwent testing and passed out. A janitor was cleaning the room and came out with an egg!" he states with raucous laughter.

"This was my chance. We had artificially induced the previous eggs and had them hatch at extremely fast speeds with machines, and at that point, I was ready to accept there was a needed spiritual component. My calculations were all flawless so it was the only remaining explanation! So, I utilized the remainder of the Mew DNA on the egg, only to have it be… inert. There was no sign of life inside of it at all. In my disappointment, I hastily ordered Jeremy here- say hi Jeremy-" one of the goons in the room waves at me. "To use his Alakazam to teleport the egg away from my sight. Shortly after, Zoroark fell into a deep depression and perished from 'sadness'. It didn't matter much anyway, I had used all the remaining Mew DNA."

"So, imagine my surprise, my glee, when I take your DNA for the translator only to see the signature signs of my tampering and upon close inspection, the Mew DNA perfectly bonded! It's mutated of course, but it's there and active. While you were sleeping, I did some tests and I believe you can transform physically with enough familiarity to the subject, while otherwise using an illusion!" he throws his arms out wide, giving me a crooked smile. "Hello there Zorua, the future ultimate being, I am Executive Hawthorne of Team Rocket. And I am your creator!"

I felt my world fracture a tiny bit. Is… is this why I could turn to be human physically? It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but hearing that you're a genetic experiment rather than an actual Pokemon is a bit… This is like some sort of fucked up superhero backstory. Dead parents included.

You know what, I was pissed at Team Rocket before. Now I'm going to do all I can to fuck them over. No more of that dumb shit of trying to fight non-lethally or when in a bad situation.

"So… any chance I could have this collar taken off then?" I venture, seeing if I could push my luck since he seems so pleased I exist.

"I appreciate the attempt, but I am no fool like my colleagues with their failure of a creation," he says good-naturedly, dashing my hopes of easy freedom in the future.

I obviously couldn't escape right now, I'd just waste my chance. First I need to heal and get my thoughts in order. It's… kind of a chaotic mess in my mind right now. I'll settle comfortably about this revelation in a bit, but for now, I'm just going to keep freaking out a bit mentally.

I should try to find Mewtwo and start a "Team Rocket Genetic Experiment Survivor" group with him. If nothing else, I'd get a good chuckle out of it before he threw me off of a mountain.

Hmmm. Does this mean if I get familiar with my team I can change into them as well? Wait, what about legendaries?! I know that Zoroark could look like the legendary dogs in that one movie…

"I'm sure you've got a lot to think about Zorua. I'll leave you to it, but I'll be back in a little while. We need you to undergo testing after all, and we can't have you doing that in your weak pre-evolutionary form!" Hawthorne says animatedly yet absentmindedly, snapping me from my thoughts as he speedwalks from the room. "That Absol is a strange one though, they happily let you be brought here after negotiating visiting rights for any hour of the day."

"…what?" I ask my suddenly empty room.

SMALL INTERLUDE

Alonso

Alonso grimaces as he rapidly flies from the house to where he left the Don. And Absol too, he guesses, but in all honesty, that strange Pokemon doesn't exactly count as any appreciable help.

After informing the other Pokemon and playing some "charades" with the humans as the Don likes to say, they all gathered up and were following behind him as he flew full-tilt towards where Team Rocket was. Even Sneasel was up in arms about the possible loss of the Don.

After about 15 minutes of flying at top speed, despite the poison, Alonso finally came to where he left Don. Only to find no Team Rocket, signs of a fight, and no Don. Spotting the bush they hid in, Alonso immediately touched down and froze.

Don's bag was still here, and no matter what Don would never leave that behind. He may act aloof about it, but as the first thing he ever got as a gift from someone he is rather… protective of the bag. One time when Alonso was sparring with Sneasel they almost hit his bag, and the Don blasted the both of them with a Dark Pulse and the evil eye daring them to do it again.

So if the bag was here and the Don wasn't with signs of a fight… Don lost and was probably captured. Fuck.

Growlithe

Growlithe smirks as he does a small dance in place. This was the life! He had a small crowd cheering him on as he finished off this weird guy's Mankey. What was his name again? Chalk? Chuck? Something like that. He constantly had a giant dumbbell in his hands though, so that made him weird.

His trainer yells at him to calm down and get serious, so Growlithe does a little bit. Not too much though, since his Trainer just likes to be a stick in the mud sometimes. He still can't believe his trainer hates mornings! Who doesn't love mornings, it's when the day starts and you can do lots of training and fighting if you get up early.

Professor Oak

Oak slightly regrets using that law to get Grimm to be a legal trainer. After that ordeal the government tasked him, as per his official position, to clean up a large amount of the old and outdated laws related to Pokemon.

If it weren't such a good research opportunity to have an intelligent and willing Pokemon give insight and verify many of the mysteries related to Pokemon, Oak would be getting much more sleep.

He's just amazed that the Zorua's secret hadn't gotten out yet. He gave it about 2 weeks before someone found out, and it's been a great deal longer than that! Hmm, he should really grab Grimm and do some testing at some point. Zorua and Zoroark are extremely unknown Pokemon due to how hard it is to find them in the wild, and he would be a great boon to clearing that up. Especially around the many questions of how he's able to physically touch items as a human.

Everyone thought that his evolutionary line could only do illusions, having another shapeshifting species around would be interesting.

END INTERLUDE

I groan in relief as I finally struggle out of that weighted vest. The constant pressure on my body was aggravating my poor abused nerves. I'm obviously not going anywhere even without it on, and I can't struggle out of this collar that electrocutes me every time I try to use a move but not my ability.

Besides, Executive Hawthorne seems to have a soft spot for me considering I'm his apparent masterpiece. At the very least, that precludes me from being killed or permanently injured. At worst I'd just get electrocuted again.

I tried a few other moves to see if it activates on every move or only offensive ones, and it looks like it's just every single move causes the collar to activate. On the plus side, I think getting hit with electric attacks so often is getting me mostly immune to registering them. Felt slightly strange after the last shock, and given what I've learned…

I just hope I don't turn into some sort of gibbering mess of mutations like some sort of Chaos Spawn as a Pokemon. After I thought for a minute, I remembered that Team Rocket in Pokemon Adventures had something to force evolution in a Pokemon. Then again, they also created Vee which I'm pretty sure has soup for DNA and is only held together by a miracle.

So, dear old dad was a Lucario? No, nope, don't think about that possible family. In all honesty, it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. I'm a 21 year old man inside of a tiny Pokemon body, not the kid they were hoping for.

Focus on more pressing and tangible matters. Primarily, how the fuck I'm going to get out of here. I'm not sure if it's better or worse if they forcibly evolve me. They have to take my collar off or I'd die, so I have a chance of trying to escape before or after that change.

Positives of letting myself be evolved: More powerful, more control over my powers, faster run speed, and I think I may get healed as part of the procedure.

Negatives: Forced evolution is probably fucking painful so I may pass out and lose the chance, unfamiliar with a body I have to fight with, and a larger body so it's harder to hide if need be.

Fuck, okay. I guess I'll let myself get evolved then make a break for it. I don't think I have the raw power as I am now to fight past anything of note. Sure, I could probably get a good alpha strike in or two and use some fully powered Dark Pulses in hallways, but the moment I hit anything trained and strong I would probably get punted right back into my holding cell. At least as a Zoroark I would be able to blast through some stiff resistance and take a hit much better.

Now if only my one paw could stop tingling and going numb, that'd be great. I keep having to flex it so it stops tingling but it starts again every couple of minutes. Hopefully, all that electricity didn't manage to actually fry my nerves in this one specific paw.

A loud "Ker-thunk" interrupted my plotting, as the door to my room was forcibly and slowly pulled open. I guess they didn't get it oiled yet, since it's still making that awful noise.

Hawthorne looked really displeased about this, but he didn't order another shooting of the janitor. His eyes immediately snapped to me and then to my jacket, but didn't comment on it beyond a cool stare.

"So, forced evolution time?" I ask rhetorically, not seeing any other reason for him to show up. But to my surprise, he shook his head with a smirk.

"No, my dear Zorua. Your body is much too fragile at this moment for that procedure. You'd most probably be fine, but I want to take absolutely no chances with this. You will be my masterpiece and I won't let a little bit of impatience ruin this for me," he says authoritatively as if he isn't talking about another living being and instead of a rather nice piece of machinery that isn't working right for some reason. Motioning behind him for something, another couple of Team Rocket grunts walk into the room carrying a small table.

Once they set it down near the entrance, he sets a briefcase on the table and flicks it open. He gingerly reaches inside and pulls out a strange device before turning to me and slowly walking towards me.

Now, I don't know about other people, but having a mad scientist with a complete lack of morals walking towards you with a strange device activates every single cell of my body into fight-or-flight mode. I manage to force the voice in my head screaming at me to stab him and make a break for it to silence itself. No, brain, we are doing plans now not whatever dumb shit we think is good to do.

"So… mind telling me what that is?" I cautiously ask Hawthorne, backing up slowly until my back hits the concrete wall.

"Oh, this? Well… this is something I created just for you. Of course, I expected to be able to use this just after you came out of your egg, but a few months late is better than never. Now hold still," he orders, reaching down and roughly grabbing the scruff of my neck under my collar to keep me still. The voice in my head demanding blood and escape resurfaces immediately, but I force it down again.

"Now, this should activate the more… latent aspects of your special blend of DNA. Namely, the Lucario side and the mutated Mew aspects," he says calmly, gripping my neck harder as my body tenses from this. Suddenly agreeing with my flight-or-fight brain, I try to act before he can do anything.

That was a pipe dream though since I immediately felt the distinct sharp pain of a needle followed by… nothing? I was expecting more from how ominous that sounded.

"I'll leave you to work through those upcoming activations. Do try to not break your room too much, it'd be such a pain to clean it up," he quips, repacking the device into the case and striding from the room. His guards quickly follow him out, closing the door with a grinding finality.

Well… at least he left me the table?

A/N

And bam, chapter done. A tad shorter than usual, but at the perfect place to leave it off. I've been wanting to write this plot point for months, so I was a bit excited to actually get to it. Oh yeah, didn't mention this last time, but congratulations to the Silver Boi himself for winning Red Bull Wololo V. The Viper has reclaimed his throne, lost for so long. Long live the king.

Peace

-Taldor