Too many questions hahaha

Do not worry. I hate mysteries that tell you nothing until it all gets dumped on you at the very end. This will not be one of those stories, haha.

We will meet this "pokemon-turned-human" soon enough~

OMG—Ah I see! I made an account when I was really young, like 12? I signed myself up with my own email that I made all by myself, and then I pretty much started writing from then on out. I was using my dad's computer to write for a while though. He got sick of it and eventually got me a laptop, hahaha.
Hmm, maybe you know who the person is~ We'll just have to see. (Don't... get your hopes up? haha)

Chapter 7: The Stark Laboratory

Layke

The dark cloak of night has fallen; despite the crowd, we glide through the shadows. From the cavern to the outdoors, there's hardly a change of lighting. Nary a soul materializes to question us, to stop us. I wish I knew what exactly we were supposed to do, but only the redhead by my side was given the "express permission" to the secrets of the mission. Freaking... What am I gonna do with the knowledge if they told me? Literally nothing.

Mars keeps my pace, treading just in front of me. I have no idea how she does it in inches-high heels. Niri never bothered with heels because she said they felt danger—

It's never gonna stop hurting, is it. Every time she flashes into my mind, the pain ripples through me with a violent lurch.

Mars. I try to steer my sick, lonely mind. Mars's shoes. Mars's impeccable balance. The red-lipsticked smear that slashes across her mouth like an afterthought.

Suddenly she draws to a halt, and the small horde of grunts from behind silently cease in robotic unison. "Stay here, you." She points at me. Probably doesn't remember my name. "I need to check something."

"Check what?" I ask. Because I can. Because nobody else will dare to.
Because none of them flipping talk. Do they even breathe? Are they actually robots?

"Pertinent information outlining the mission."

She begins to move, and I stumble forward—my hand eclipses her wrist.

I tug her back. "Wait. Please wait."

Her arm freezes up beneath my grip—but she doesn't move. "What is it you could possibly wish for, grunt?"

"I just, I..." I hover, my voice lodging painfully up in my throat. "I just wanna know why they don't talk. Why you single me out like they—like they won't hear me. Why none of them act like people. Like they're freaking... I don't know... robots, or just super emotionless."

To my last words, her eyes sharpen, narrow, as a light gathers deep inside from I have no idea where. "A prior experiment of dear Cyrus's. A successful experiment. I'd watch out if I were you, grunt..." And I don't know what it is about the word, but it's like her heel has been wedged up into my chest, and she's hacking away at my heart.

"Perhaps you won't have to worry about it. Dear Cyrus has been searching for someone like you. How would you like to become... ahh, Mars, Jupiter—Oh. Saturn. I'd see that. The blue hair... it matches well."

I open my mouth, then shut it. What in the world do I say to her? "Was... there a Mercury or a Venus before you?"

Her brows raise, incisive little red blades attached to her freakishly sinister face. "Yes. There was a Mercury and a Venus before me. They did not please dear Cyrus. Isn't that right..?" Her eyes steadily roll off of me and disappear into the mob of blank faces behind us.

Those red marks shimmer from around their necks, half-hidden by the collar of their Galactic clothing. I hadn't noticed it in the fluorescent light of the Team Galactic base, but... the marks definitely glow, like the rings of a planet.

Saturn...

Pursing my lips, I ask, "Why are you answering all my questions now? You're being... nice." I thought bad guys weren't supposed to be, uh, nice.

Mars smirks, her lipstick a red cut across her face. "Maybe sometimes I like to talk too, and maybe I have an inkling of a hope that you'll turn out better than Mercury and Venus. Your pokemon... they hold promise of a bright future, a future perhaps bright enough to illuminate dear Cyrus's everlasting dream of a world in which all goes perfectly, meeting his vision of a wondrous eternity.

"You may be what we needed to finally see the mission through, Layke." Oh. I guess she did remember my name. "Now stay here and be good. We wouldn't want to lose you and your potential now. I'll just be a moment."

She disappears through the trees, taking the ghost-like marching of the blank-faced grunts with her.

Up ahead, the hills slope downward and meet in a copse of scraggly trees. Behind them lies some sort of dormant mechanism, a massive laboratory. The lights have dimmed in the windows. The only sound is the click of Mars's shoes and the following of the grunts as she saunters into the gilded cusp of moonlight, leaving me to watch them all melt away like ghosts in the darkness.

When she's gone far enough ahead, I try and poke one of the grunts lagging behind the group. "So... uh... any of you wanna tell me what's going on?"

Nope. Nothing. They march on, leaving me to wait in front of the lab like a scruffy old watchog. "Well, cool. I guess I'll just stare at the freaking stars and count them until I fall asleep." Niri used to—Frrrghhhh.

It... hurts.

Breathing through my pain, a visceral wound in my chest, I step up to a sturdy tree and lean into it, releasing a long, empty breath. Then another, and another, as I wait for something to change... but the silence stays the same. The same stars stare coldly down upon me, their lights prickling my skin. I drag the sleeve of my new shirt over my eyes, my wet eyes, but too soon, I can't see again. My surroundings grow blurry, meaningless, a smeary canvas revealing my life as a muddled gray puddle.

Slowly I slide down, letting my head fall against the trunk of the tree. I hum softly to myself, to keep the silence at bay, to keep the world from falling apart all around me. Something to hang onto. I pretend I don't recognize the tune in my mouth, I pretend like I've never heard it before, like I've never heard anyone I ever cared about sing it, and somehow I can manage to hold it. Somehow the pain grows distant, and I feel myself rising, looking over the sad, sagging body of my regrets.

Then a voice cracks through the unending abyss of nothing.

"Layke!"

"A-Ah!" I gasp; suddenly I'm breathing, coughing. I slog to my feet, leaning heavily into the tree. When I look up, I meet Keebae's narrow gaze. "Wh...What. What do you want." Freaking... snuck up on me. She's in this weird yellow dress, and a glowy blue bracelet lights up around her wrist.

Her eyes follow mine, and her hand cups around the bracelet. Only bleak waves of light break through the gaps between her fingers.

She screws her lip up at me. "What are you doing out here?"

I gesture behind me, toward the building where Mars slipped into. Her brows raise pointedly; a breath of hot air escapes through her clenched teeth.

"Geez... there again? That stupid... rrrrrrrrgh." As if this explains everything, she stomps one foot, hard, into the dirt.

My eyes traverse the sleeping laboratory. A light or two winks on within, painting the grass outside with highlighted streaks. "What's... in there?"

"Valley... Windworks." I look back at her, and she bites into her lip, the words I'd been searching for spilling out profusely. "We hijacked the dump a few weeks ago. There's still some workers inside, actually. Very useful on our part. We got them to do Dad's—er, Cyrus's—work, and they can't tell anyone about what they're doing for us. If they do, we said we'd destroy Floaroma town... because... get it... that's where they live. It's the closest town, duh." She twirls with a strand of her white hair, a pleased little smirk escaping across her mouth.

"Okay... and what does you and your dress have to do with it? I thought that creepy Cyrus guy said—"

"He just said to leave! He didn't say where to go, okay. He didn't say I couldn't..." Her eyes finally fall to her feet, and a sigh eases out of her. "I needed some time to myself. He keeps... He keeps... He's my dad, but sometimes I just try my hardest and he doesn't get it and it—and it makes me mad. But... he's my dad, so, whatever..."

The bracelet glows a little funny red. What a cool bracelet. I wish I had a bracelet that switched between blue and red. I mean, I'd just want it for the blue, since blue was Niri's favo—

I shake my head. Keebae's wide deceitful eyes glance up at me. "What?"

"N-Nothing. I can't... I can't believe Niri..."

A wince breaks over her. "Oh. Yeah. It's too bad she died." The bracelet grows stronger, redder, the color flowing through her fingers despite her attempts to stifle it. "I'm, uh, I'm real sorry about that. She was... She seemed like a nice friend."

"Y-Yeah..."

And then a black hole of silence.

What can anyone say to that? I lost her. I lost her. Gosh... All I can hope is that Saturn won't let anything happen to anyone else... in... in her honor. I hope Saturn's stronger. Stronger than Layke—stronger than I could ever freaking dream to be. Even when we were together, I... I never...
The lucario we barely knew kept her safer than I ever did...

I catch Keebae's lips moving. "What was that?"

She blinks. "Oh I just... was wondering who went with you to the lab."

"A bunch of grunts..." I shrug. "Mars." Speaking of weird planetary commander names. "Wait—Wait, Keebae. Did you know Mercury and Venus? Mars said... they used to be around, or something. You weren't—were you?"

Under her breath she mutters "what is it with people thinking I'm more important than I am today..." Before I get a chance to ask what in the world she means, she blurts out: "No. And I don't wish I was. Being Cyrus's kid is much better. They got canned after they totally failed to capture a mythical being for our research. Ruined our one chance at snatching it—haven't had one since.

"Plus, there was... well... they were, uh, in love, or something, I guess, and Cyrus didn't like all the... affection. At all. It uh... It made him..." She loses her breath, shaking her head frantically. "Well, it spurned his experiment, that's all."

"Ex...periment?"

Her eyes widen. "You don't wanna know, I swear it to you." A brilliant flash of blue from her bracelet. That must be annoying to have on in the middle of the night. "Just be good. Be like me. Don't let them know that I'm helping you, okay? They might not like that you know more than you should. Be good. Be good and listen, and do everything they say right so that I get a fr—" Her cheeks explode with crimson. "So that my hard work of trying to educate you up doesn't go bad." And then her bracelet ripples a sudden, flashing transformation, blue-to-purple-to-faint-red.

"I've, ummm... I'm on an undercover mission, L-Layke. I didn't want you to know, but that's the truth." Now the red is even brighter, almost like the bracelet is trying to tell me something. Catching my gaze, Keebae ducks her wrist behind her back. "That's what the dress is all about. So I'll... I'm gonna go back and report on that now. If Cyrus asks you about it for some reason, that's what I was doing. Don't tell him I needed some time to myself because I... uhm... I was definitely lying about that. Sorry."

Her lips pinch around the corners.

She's clearly not telling the truth on this one. I might be dumb, but... oh. Oh, she wants me to cover for her. She wants me to tell Mars, if she asks, that Keebae didn't do anything wrong.

My eyes snap to her moving lips. "Be careful, and stuff. Mars is kind of crazy. Just do everything she says and you'll be okay. Uh... see you later."

And she's gone, running off into the shadows.

I wait for a long time, long enough that little peeks of pink dawn begin to streak along the rim of the horizon. It's late and I'm tired, and the longer I stare into the trees in the distance, the more I see visions of my... of Niri. The taste of her name makes my heart thunder, harder, harder, until I can hardly breathe. I just see her—the long, dark blue hair, blue like the sky as it reaches dusk and stars gently speckle it, highlights of brilliance. Her blue eyes, her full lips—filled with a smile or snarky comment, I'm not sure which. She's got these gorgeous red flowers tucked into her head, and her hair still has that braid I put in for her. Her tan skin shines, her curvaceous body as freaking pretty as it was the last time I saw her, before the rocks tore her apart.

And she's beautiful... but I close my eyes and remind myself that she's not real. She can't be. No matter the way the sun glimmers through her eyes, the way her hair flows in the breeze, the way the lucario behind her helps her down a path—it's not real. It can't be.

It's just a beautiful dream of what I absolutely ruined.

There's a hand on my shoulder—I look up and see Mars.

"Oh, good. You're still here. It... took longer than I thought." Her red eyes slip from me and glare into the steadily-rising sunlight. "There was a mistake. The workers will pay for it." Her pale fingers tighten, digging into my skin.

Her sharp eyes check around the laboratory. "Could've sworn there was another perpetrator," she growls under her breath, "unless he was stupid enough to go in alone... Whatever. They won't find anything that wasn't previously destroyed.

"But... until then..." Her attention returns to me. I try to follow along, but there's too many little assumptions that I know nothing about. "Your turtwig was able to evolve, correct? I have an idea. There are some legendary creatures we attempted to capture, long ago, but we lost them due to inefficient personnel.

"I believe we will be in need of your assistance, Layke."

The blood rushes to my face.

Me. They need me.

I swallow the flush of remembrance, the vision of another girl who needed me once, and I say, "Let's go, then."

We're gonna capture pokemon... that probably don't want to be caught.
Lucaro's stupid lucario mug pops into my head, but I...
No. No. This is all I have now. It doesn't matter what Lucaro thinks.

Cyrus's perfect world. That's what we want. Maybe it can bring Niri back... and even if it can't, what else am I going to put faith into?

The world is imperfect. I've seen and lived through it.

So let's... let's fix it.

Niri

In the early guidance of the morning light, Lucaro aides me down yet another twisty hill. "Gosh," I grunt, leaning hard into him, "I hate how hard this is. Why can't paths just be normal?"

The lucario chuckles from somewhere just above my ear. "You may be tired from all of our walking."

"I..." My breath hisses out. "You're not wrong. My physical condition is nowhere near as perfect as yours." This stupid blue dog could probably trek the whole region in a matter of days, without a single stop.

"So... Lucaro, where do you think we should go next?" I pull out the map we got from the nice Nurse Joy in the center. My finger tentatively circles around the top left corner, marked as Floaroma. "We're way over here. Apparently, if I'm remembering what Layke told me from forever ago... there are gym leaders here"—the town just to the right of us, Eterna—"and here"—the one next over, Veilstone—"and also here"—sprinkling my fingers over the majority of Sinnoh's south. "I heard there was a really cool water one somewhere else, too. I am definitely interested in that man."

Peering over my shoulder, Lucaro meets my eyes with a shrug. "I don't know. We would prefer a well-experienced leader, correct? Do we know anything about who has been a gym leader and for longer?"

"Uhhhhh..." I glare at the colored blocks denoting cities on the map. They tell me nothing. "No idea. Probably should've asked Nurse Joy while we were still in the town. I guess we could go back, but..."

The lucario sighs. It's... weird, to hear a pokemon release meaningless breaths and watch him hang his resolute head on his exasperation. "I do not want to either. It was unsettling how little they knew of the story."

"These flowers are cool though." I point at the big red ones tucked into my hair.

Lucaro gives me an affirmative nod. "They have to do with the deity of Floaroma who looks over the... ah, nature, was it? That is why the town was so full of flowers. The mythical guardian, so the story goes, planted them there."

I shrug. "I wonder what'd happen if the guardian went away. Would anyone notice?"

"I do not know."

My head falls, and I shove into Lucaro's side. He tries dragging me a step or two, then falters and glances to me. "Niri?"

"It's just... We know so little. We know like... like nothing. And I guess Keebae was useful, but it almost feels like she's telling us things that don't connect to what's going through our lives right now. This is... rrrrrrgh, it's frustrating!"

We stop for a moment. He waits, gives me a chance to wipe my face and breathe out my troubles.

"It is frustrating."

"Yeah... Well, thanks, Lucaro."

"Yes, of course." He turns to continue down the scraggly path, only to pause. "Niri, what is that?" I scoot up behind him and glance around at the looming structure just off the trail. White, kind of dulled by years of sun beating down over it. This funky smell radiates from it, something like unwashed lab-coats or the sweat of incredible hard effort going to waste.

"Wanna go check it out?"

Hah, if Layke was here, he would've already been strolling on over to it.

To Lucaro's mutter of "okay, but be careful", we make our way beneath the laboratory's shadow, crawling up to its walls. Then we just sort of sneak in through the front door which was left unlocked for people like us to slip on in, for some reason. Not that we're complaining.

Harsh white light greets us, blaring down overhead. I grasp hold of my metal bar and make headway with it. Lucaro keeps the back guarded, his swift gaze covering over each direction that isn't the front. A long, white hallway beckons us forward. Parts of it have been dyed in mysterious splotches—pale burgundy, bright crimson, an inexplicable cobalt.

As we pass by them, I comment, and Lucaro mutters, "I feel incredible residual waves of energy from these places, but I cannot tell what they are. Something... synthetic? Human-made?"

We continue onward. As of yet, literally no one has launched out of the shadows to stop us. What is going on.

"Do you... Lucaro, do you think that pack of Galactic grunts had anything to do with this dump?"

"Ah." He hums. "Perhaps so. That would explain where all of the laboratory's personnel have disappeared to."

We'd seen a whole gaggle of them running through the trees on our way down the trail. No Keebae, unfortunately, but so so many of the grunts, plus a lady with weird bright red hair. They went too fast for us to really react, but... where else could they have come from?

"D-Do you think there are hostages—" and Lucaro doesn't even let me finish, just grabs a fistful of my slicker and surges us forward, through the hallway and past empty rooms until we hit the back chamber.

Ah. This one, of all rooms, has been locked shut. Lucaro aura-slams the thing, and we bust our way through.

The harsh light flickers inside, between spurts of utter blackness and the painful fluorescence. Some tables in the corner were upended, and I catch oozes of the cobalt blue substance leaking out of a shattered glass vault behind them. It—reeks—of unwashed bodies. Coughing, I cover my face with a hand, and Lucaro grips my shoulder as his eyes frantically dart about in search of a threat.

Just a couple people in the corner of the room, flashing with the light of the chamber.

I run over. Lucaro hustles to keep ahead, his aura-filled paws held out in defense. He won't let me get past him. He's... protecting me again.

The people... they're—there's something wrong with them. Blank eyes stare up at us, blank eyes and faces slashed over in this glowing red, the only source of light when the fluorescence disappears.

"What happened?" I gasp, staring upon them, their shredded faces visibly aching with the touch of whatever monster broke into them.

Two people, a woman and man, in smelly lab coats.

But suddenly a voice rips through my aghast silence. "Team Galactic must've trashed the place."

Then another one, in response: "You're right, Flint. They did."

And—there—behind the comatose scientists, slumped against a cabinet, is a man. His pale, pale face shifts over to meet my eyes—his an electrifying bright blue. His fluffy blonde hair falls about his face and cushions the sharp edges, and I am definitely not lost in his handsome complexion.

Niri, stop falling in love with people, Lup quips.

I'm not in love with him. I hardly know him. He's just hot, okay.

Yeah, well. Chill out. You are staring.

Hissing, I break eye contact with cabinet guy and turn around, only to bump heads with the other man who spoke. Flint.

Groaning into my hands, I eventually peek up at him. He proffers an awkward loping grin. "Geez, sorry about that! Name's Flint." His voice is fast and sharp. "I'm part of the Elite of Sinnoh, but it seems like I'm the only one who genuinely cares about it. Hah. The others are stuffy and..." he lowers his breath and mutters insults that I can't quite make out. Lucaro, hovering by his side, winces.

"What brings you here?" grunts the man on the floor, struggling to stand and eventually giving up on that dream.

I shake my hand, folding my arms over my chest. "I just, ahhhh..." Release a breath. Pinch the bridge of my nose. There's no reason to make something up. "My best friend was kidnapped by Team Galactic. I've been... trying to find him... but I've had no luck so far. My, uh, lucario was interested by this building"—his grimace is freaking priceless—"so I thought to check it out." He mouths over Flint's shoulder I am not your nor anybody else's lucario.

"Um... do you..." I face the blonde man again, the one with the striking eyes, "do you know what happened to these people?"

Grunting, his teeth gritted and sharp, he hooks his arm around the cabinet's door and forces himself to his feet. Immediately Flint jumps over the table in the way and helps the alluring man up. Compared to him, Flint and his gigantic red afro are a joke—striped shirt, cheeky grin, bright pink cheeks.

Then Flint's hands slip around the man's arms and hold him close, and he whispers "are you okay" to the man, who sighs and nods, his head falling into Flint's shoulder.

And that is when I realize just how out of the picture I am.

Haha he's never gonna find you hot, Niri.

Okay shut up Lup you don't have to tell me. I think I know.

The man struggles to meet my stupid stricken gaze. "My name is Volkner. This is Flint. I'm... the gym leader of Sunnyshore City." Releases a breath, relaxes his head for a moment. "They were going to hurt me... but my pokemon deflected their strange whip-like weapon. We... managed to break it. I—I don't know what they're trying to do with it, whatever it was, but it's presumably made these poor scientists unable to respond to... well, to anything.

"And I don't know how to reverse the damage. Now—That's what I know. What is your name?"

"N-Niri," I stumble. "You don't—You don't know anything else?" But Layke...

"I... ahh..." Volkner's strength gives out; he exhales sharply as he leans into Flint. "I might. I just, I..."

Flint cuts him off, shaking his head, his afro shuddering. "Let's get you somewhere you can rest." His flaming red eyes avert to meet mine. "Feel free to come with us, Niri. You're one of the only people who's actually trying to figure out what's going on. We need help like yours."

And that is how I find myself hardcore thirdwheeling with two incredibly powerful dudes, plus Lucaro, who is trying to stay silent. So it's almost like it's just me. And I am so freaking awkward.