?
My body felt as if it was artificial. As a mawile, getting used to a giant metallic jaw hanging off of the back of your head as it grew was a bit taxing. Once a mawile comes into this world, they already have the jaw hanging off of them, so it feels natural at first, but over time as it grows, the weight of your body begins to become lopsided in favor of that jaw, creating a constant balancing act that you need to make as natural as breathing. It's not too difficult, but it's definitely different from, say, evolving into a new body and getting used to that. However, right now, I balanced without effort.
I was locked in a large room, which had the composition of a bright-silver metal without light reflection of any kind. The room was only dimly lit from a few lights that seemed to be coming from above the ceiling, which I found very odd. It was like they were phasing through the solid metal. Other than the odd light, there was nothing in this room other than a large sliding door on one of the walls. It was safe to assume I was brought in through there, and I would eventually exit from the same point. I was at the mercy of those who took me here, trying again and again to break out of this room, but nothing worked. Even with whatever they did to me…
I didn't feel natural at all right now, clearly because of whatever these pokemon did to me. My body didn't feel, or even look like my own. It was something entirely different, made even more evident to me by my reflection in the metal below me. I wasn't a traditional mawile anymore. My body was the same color as my jaw, with a red circle in the middle of my stomach. The circle originally on my jaw was gone completely, and my eyes were bright blue. I was no longer a mawile by my definition. I was some kind of genetic mess. My own appearance disturbed me, knowing that it was an augmented one. I also felt as if I had grown in some way, like I had been strengthened.
My balance regarding the jaw on the back of my head was perfect, which it had never been in the past. I didn't have to try in the slightest to stay upright, it was like the jaw wasn't there in the first place. As foreign as this was, my entire body also felt lighter, like I could move twice the speed I usually would, again, without effort. Physical feelings aren't even the only thing wrong with me, I was able to do certain things that I was clearly not supposed to be able to. For example, the one that met with me when I first woke up, an umbreon, who held a sinister smile, did something to me in order to stop me from resisting her. She hit me with some sort of attack that pierced me, but didn't make me bleed immediately. It looked as if I was being pierced, but it was almost like, in reality, I wasn't. It sure as hell felt like I was though. It felt like the attack shred through my skin, muscles, and pierced my bones, It was easily the worst pain I've ever experienced, but it wasn't even physically damaging me, just causing a ton of pain, at least, at first it wasn't.
Once the umbreon had their fill of staring me down while in grave pain, they somehow detonated the attack, causing me to fly back into the wall behind me. This attack also blew off both of my arms, and created a gaping hole in the center of my body, replacing the artificial red ring. Even though I was in a condition beyond dead at that point, I looked down at myself, and my limbs were back, and there was no hole in my stomach. A combination of the pain and shock sent me into unconsciousness, but I know for a fact that I was missing limbs, and that they immediately came back. Once this really registered in my mind, I was beyond calling myself a pokemon anymore. I was just some sort of monster now.
A loud creaking noise echoed throughout the room I was in, and I swung my head to the large sliding door, which was beginning to open. I instantly glared at the entrance, nobody I saw in this place was going to greet me with a smile, they were here to torture me, to utilize me as a weapon. Not that I'll let them. I refuse to do anything for them after they wiped us all out.
A leafeon entered the room with a lazy expression, like they didn't want to be here. Unlike me, they looked like a normal leafeon, other than very faint purple shading on the top of their ears, and on the leaves that extended from their chest. They yawned loudly before walking closer to me, not stopping until about five feet away. I just held my glare, preparing myself for anything this leafeon might try.
"Alright Metal Face, I don't have very much patience right now, so how about you follow me before I make you into a salad." I lowly growled at the leafeon, ignoring both the nickname and threat she gave me. "Please don't resist, please, please please! I just got done dealing with Hothead, and even with our help he's pretty pathetic, so don't make this difficult, not in the mood."
"You brought someone else here too!?" I shouted angrily, assuming that 'Hothead' was another pokemon that was taken and then turned into whatever I am.
"Huh? Course' I did. Kind of my job, you know? If I ignore my boss' orders, than I don't get to interact with anyone we take, which is where a lot of my fun comes from. Plus, she makes me clean the place. Do you know how hard it is to get bloodstains off of the ceiling? Especially for a non-biped? Let me tell you, the amount of times I have kissed this floor is inconceivable." The leafeon stomped her forepaws on the metallic floor below us. What is up with this girl? She acted nothing like the other pokemon I've seen here.
"Why did you take me back here? Why not just let me die?" I asked, desperately wanting answers.
"Metal Face, you're asking the wrong pokemon. I barely know the reason I bring back certain pokemon I find, and you want me to tell you why someone else brought you here? You have a better chance getting an answer if you asked The Assassin to give you his name." What? The Assassin? "I think I know where you came from, you were with that weird group of kids, right? Then the Assassin was probably the one who killed everyone, and then someone else came and retrieved you. He doesn't like to take any prisoners, just slices and dices until all of his targets are dead." The leafeon shook her head. "I don't get it, how can he kill that many pokemon and not be the least bit interested about what's on the inside? He just slashes and moves on, never observing his victims, but how can you not like taking apart a body!? IT'S SO FUN!" The leafeon shouted. Ignoring their comments, I realized that she just told me who was responsible for murdering everyone in that shelter, as well as the comrades I was with. I grit the teeth of my large jaw, as well as my normal jaw simultaneously. She's treating all of this like it doesn't matter.
"Wait, are you the same mawile that our experiments worked on for the first time!? You're going down in a history book for being the first step towards the Void overtaking the Nest! Congratulations! I should make you a medal or something." What is she even talking about now?
"What do you mean I'm the first step? And what even is the Nest?" The leafeon smirked at me.
"You're confirmation that our experiments can work, I mean, Boss blew you to freakin' shreds! Look at yourself, you're not in pieces right now, what do you suppose that means? You are no longer a normal pokemon, you are the Void's newest bio-weapon." Bio-weapon? "As of now, you can be sliced to shreds, blown up, stabbed, burned, or crushed, and you'll always survive. Your body will heal itself nearly instantaneously, even if you lose a vital organ. Of course, you're not invincible, that regeneration had a limit, but it's not going to be broken unless you neglect your condition." Her eyes widened, and she put on a terrifying smile, one that made me cower. "And the Nest? Let's just say they don't like what we do, and we don't like what they do. We hate them, and they hate us. That's all you really need to know. That, and you're going to work with us whether you want to or not."
"You can't force me to do anything!" Without hesitation, I rushed towards the leafeon, wanting to smack her as hard as I could with my jaw. Despite my new fast movement, she managed to sidestep me and then placed a paw on my back, before wincing.
"Owwww... Moved too fast. Still not fully healed, and I guess I shouldn't be picking fights." I opened my jaw and attempted to clamp the leafeon, but she, once again, slipped away, and was standing in front of me now. "Now now… No point in resisting, you'll be at the Void's mercy soon enough. While we're waiting for you to become a mindless machine, I think I'll warm up my muscles a bit." The leafeon suddenly headbutted my chest, sending me into the metallic wall. Despite my new condition, it still hurt exactly as it would if I was normal. An ache traveled throughout my body, and I struggled to stand up again.
"By the way, you're going to have to be used to your new body, which means building up a pain resistance. Let me help you out a little." She put on the same terrifying grin that was on her face earlier, and walked towards me. Once she was standing over me, I noticed the leaf on her head begin to glow. "I think you should see your new body working with your own eyes!"
The leafeon brought her head down, and cleanly sliced through the top of my chest, and amputated one of my arms. I felt each fiber in my body rip apart, screaming in pain while still on the ground. For some odd reason, I wasn't bleeding, instead, a thick orange matter came out of my now opened wounds. This matter took the shape of the missing limb I had, as well as the clean cut across my chest. A second later, my arm seemed to have formed, only it was orange for a few seconds, before shifting back to the same color as the rest of my body. The pain was sapped away along with the orange matter, and I felt just like I did before I was slashed. I shakily brought myself to my feet, having a hard time accepting that this was real.
"As you can see, your new body doesn't like to give up. You still feel pain, but it'll take a lot of repeated attacks to harm your regeneration. Even if it's not invincible, it's also not something I would want to tango with." I found myself frozen, unable to move or speak. "Sadly, you look like trouble, sooooo I'm going to have to take precautionary measures in order to escort you." She walked up close to me again. "You want to know the most common way pokemon pass out? Believe it or not, it's not exhaustion." She smiled. "It's shock."
I felt another leaf plunge into my body, only this time, directly in the center of my neck. It ripped through my throat, cutting me off from breathing or speaking, and filling me with an even worse pain than the first time.
The sensation was enough to make my vision disappear.
? (Different from the first)
My adrenaline was pumping as I continued to lay into the metallic wall in front of me. After a while, I began to make dents, which was a huge sign of progress when compared to my previous state of being. I may not have been breaking anything to pieces yet, but I could feel the immense boost in my body already. I had only been injected an hour or two ago, and already saw that I was a completely different pokemon. Just you wait... Both of you…
I had been dragged to a random room by the leafeon who took me here while I happened to be unconscious. After hearing her call me by a nickname that I viewed as rather insulting, I decided to be as difficult as possible when it came to her taking me around this place, but my resistance didn't last too long. Once I was threatened to be made into a salad, I decided to adhere to her wishes.
I was meant to meet with the boss of this place, which I now knew to be the Void. I was more than skeptical when I first woke up, unsure of what to think of the mass of metal that I found myself in. It didn't take very long for the leafeon, Grace, to come to me, giving me a supplement of what she promised. As soon as the substance entered my body, I felt revitalized. Maybe that was an understatement, I felt like a new pokemon. I still looked the same, the same as any other hitmonchan, but I most certainly felt the change within me. It only took a few minutes, and I was someone else now.
According to Grace, I wasn't the only one undergoing experimental treatment here, there was also a mawile that was being given a slightly more advanced version of what I had. I didn't know the details, but if it turned out to be anything like what happened to me, then it was probably just as grand, maybe even better if it contained something more advanced. I wasn't too concerned with it though, more concerned with getting used to the way I felt now. It felt great, sure, but it was still very different, and needed to be adapted to.
I spent the past hour or so just wailing on the metallic walls that surrounded me, seeing how destructive I might be now. I could leave a lot of dents around the room, and considering the material, that was an achievement. I didn't feel tired in the slightest either, as if I had an infinite amount of energy building up within my body and couldn't be expelled. I smirked to myself while trying to think of the reaction of the two pokemon I hated most in the world when they saw this.
While reveling in my thoughts, I heard a distinct scratching sound coming from the metal that surrounded me. After turning my body, I noticed that one of the two doors on either side of the room had opened, and in walked a leafeon that I recognized, as well as a mawile, restrained by a liquid-like black substance, sticking both of their arms together, the same substance being present over the gigantic jaw hanging off of the back side of their body. They didn't look very comfortable, but Grace didn't seem to care too much.
"Okay, now that I finally managed to get you two in here, you're going to meet with Boss. I suggest you both watch your tongues, or else you may lose them." Grace led the mawile to the center of the room, fairly close to me. They just kept their head down and eyes closed, a look of self-loathing ever so present on their features. I disregarded it for the most part and turned towards the door on the other side of the room, which Grace was standing in front of. Without even doing anything, the door swiftly slid open after a few seconds, revealing a flygon towering over Grace.
"Heya Passionless!" The flygon just stared at Grace blankely. "I brought our two future members here, just as I was asked. See? I told you I can follow orders!" She stated proudly. Is that an achievement?
"You being proud of that is the reason you're not utilized." The flygon bluntly stated. He sounded very devoid of any kind of emotion.
"Awwww, come on, at least I'm fun to be around!" Grace put on a toothy smile, and the flygon just shook their head, not speaking. "You, on the flipside, are the complete opposite. Why don't you show me how you're feeling? Something? Anything? Or do you really just have a complete lack of any sort of vibe?" The two Void members just held each other's stare, Grace looking like she was trying her hardest to focus on finding something in the flygon that gave away an emotion. "Fine then, I finished my job for now, and I still have blood to clean off of the ceiling, so I'm leaving now. Tell Boss I said hi!" Grace turned around and walked by the mawile and I, before exiting into the hallway once more.
"Now, enter." I looked at the flygon, who was motioning for us to walk into the room he was standing in the doorway of. The mawile behind me finally opened their eyes and walked into the room, clearly uncomfortable. I can't say I felt much different as I nervously followed.
The room we found ourselves in was a bit of a change from the previous atmosphere that I was engrossed in. Instead of the blinding silver, the metal that made up this room was dark blue, with what looked like a bunch of shelves sticking out from a lot of the lower and higher parts of the walls, holding files that contained who knows what. There was a desk near the end of the large room, which I first assumed was also made out of metal, but upon further observation, it looked like something else that had been painted. The desk was completely clean of anything, making my vision of the pokemon behind the desk clear as day. It was an umbreon, which set me off initially, but I quickly composed myself upon realization that this was not the same one that I had such negative feelings about. They just stared at us for a few moments, not even breaking from the sound of the door closing. The flygon walked past us and stood behind the umbreon, who cleared their throat.
"So, you two are the first examples of our newest experiments? I'm curious, how does it feel?" The umbreon spoke with a non-monotone voice, holding a rather malicious one instead. Despite her asking us a question, I couldn't really find my voice. This umbreon… she may not have been someone else whom I greatly dislike, but she exerted a large pressure from her eyes alone. A pressure that made me feel like a speck of dust that could be blown away in an instant, without a second thought.
"What's wrong? No need to feel so intimidated, after all, you'll be working with me now, so we'll be talking quite a bit in the future." Her speech didn't help my feelings in the slightest. She was different from Grace, very much so, that was evident by interacting with the umbreon for less than five minutes. Grace, while threatening, was still easy to talk to, mainly because of her rather… lax personality. This was just… different. Different in every way. The mawile next to me didn't seem to share my fearful thoughts.
"I'll never work for you…" The mawile growled from beside me. It caught me off-guard, as I assumed he came here willingly like I did, but this didn't seem to be the case. The umbreon just laughed at him.
"Sorry, but you really don't have much of a choice. Why don't you feel proud instead? The stuff we gave you isn't common you know, be happy that you're the one who gets to test it out." The mawile glared at the umbreon, clearly not amused. I didn't notice at first, but he had blue eyes, which wasn't normal for a mawile. His body was also the same color as his jaw, again, not natural.
"Why would I ever feel proud of this?" He scoffed. "You made me into a monster. You should have just let me succumb to the fate that one of your members put on me." His gaze was cast towards the blue floor below us. "You should have let me die with everyone else there." What happened to this guy?
"If anyone is to blame, it's you." The two pokemon locked eyes again. "Not many can live a full minute after getting attacked by the Assassin. Look at you, alive and well quite some time after the assault. Had your body not been as resilient as it was, you would have easily died."
"If you never took me to this place, then I still would have died, so why couldn't you just have left me there!?" The mawile began to get agitated.
"We saw an opportunity and we took it, simple as that. You were a suitable candidate for our tests, so we took advantage of that." The umbreon stood up and walked around her desk, before standing in front of the mawile. "We need live pokemon to be test subjects for our experiments, and now that you're here, and it worked on you, you're not being wasted."
"I'll kill myself before I do anything to help you." He growled.
"Too bad you can't, not with what we gave you. Sure, someone else may be able to kill you if they put enough effort forward, but you won't be able to do it yourself." The umbreon chuckled, clearly happy about addressing her superiority.
"I'll find someone else to do it then! If I can't do it myself, then someone else will kill me, I'll make sure of it!"
"And you really think it'll be that easy?" She put on a curious tone. "Tell me, who do you think would be able to wear down your regeneration? It wouldn't be some random civil, that's for sure." Regeneration?
"What about that organization that rivals yours? The first time I run into one of them, I'll have them kill me on the spot!" Is he talking about the Nest..?
"Oh, like they'll do anything once they figure out I took you. They'll know that you're not really part of the Void, and they won't want to kill you. Although we may be similar in a lot of ways, there's the defining difference right there. We, all of us, will kill at a moment's notice, Ravens like to hesitate." In what ways are they similar?
"If I act as a Void member, they won't know, and then they would be more than willing to end my life right then and there." The mawile said with confidence, but the umbreon just laughed.
"You won't be able to act like a Void member without doing your fair share of killing, I'll see to that." She gave a sickening smile. "Then again, maybe your plan could work, maybe you'll get a Raven to attack you again and again, putting you into increasing agony, before you finally break down. I wouldn't put it past some of them. That place isn't as clean as it looks, so perhaps you will be killed." What does she mean?
"If they're the opposite of you, then they can't be that bad, I'd much rather die, knowing that I was killed for a good reason, than stay here and help you at all!"
"You really think we're opposites?" The umbreon shook her head and began to pace back and forth. "You think, just because the Nest is trying to stop us, that means they're some kind of warriors of justice? Give me a break. Want to hear something interesting? I wouldn't be surprised if the Nest have killed more innocent pokemon than the Void has. Many pokemon have this image of the Nest in their heads: the Nest is a fantastic organization that was made to put an end to the Void's activities. Do you really think that's why the Nest exists?" She stopped walking, this time standing in front of both of us.
"Spend some time with the Nest's founder, and you'll know that the Nest isn't this pure place to be worshipped. They aren't angels, they're a set of devils that wear a mask, unlike the Void. At the moment, it's no secret that we have an ongoing war with one another, we have for more than a decade. They advertise themselves as this place that does nothing but help pokemon who request to be helped, nothing more behind the scenes. Why do you think these pokemon need help? Or rather, what do you think they need help with? Do you think that these pokemon just reach out to the Nest for general needs? It's not that simple. Pokemon only ask help of the Nest when they're up to something malicious themselves." The umbreon took a few steps forward, coming uncomfortably close to the mawile and I.
"Want an example? A while back, the Void attacked a camp in order to test out a new chemical we developed to knock pokemon out. There happened to be three Ravens there delivering a parcel to one of the adults who ran that camp. They lost track of the parcel in the confusion we created, and you want to know what that parcel happened to be?" She paused for a few seconds."It was filled with lethal poison. I'd assume that whoever ordered that from the Nest was planning to end the lives of everyone who inhabited that camp. The Nest knew about the contents of this parcel, maybe not the Ravens who delivered it, but the pokemon who organized that mission to take place was all too aware. And you know what? The task still went through, and if we hadn't intervened conveniently as we did, all of the pokemon there would have died not too long after the delivery took place."
I was confused, shocked, and overall suspicious about the information that was being fed to me right now.
Looking at things logically for once, this umbreon actually had a point. I've known of the Nest since I was a child, although not knowing it as 'the Nest,' I knew about Ravens and the tales that came with them. Never expected the likes of Naru to become one of them, but that didn't change anything between us, I still despised her as much as always. That's beside the point though, I had to think about what exactly the umbreon was telling me. She was telling me that all of the stories that I had regarding Ravens, could be true to some extent, but has something darker going on behind the scenes. It had something to do with their leader, but I had no idea what exactly the case was. I was barely given any information, let alone something that specific. But, seeing the Nest as a parallel to the Void as opposed to an opposite was a little hard for me to believe. It was a sudden burst of information to take in, and I don't think I was mentally prepared to process all of it.
I had to keep something in mind though, all of this was coming from the leader of the Void. Granted, I came here of my own free will, but that didn't mean I was ready to unconditionally trust this umbreon. She could be spouting nothing but nonsense, but I didn't have any way of knowing.
"The Nest is also the entity that spreads most of the information regarding the Void. They advertise us to be nothing but mindless killers, and even if they're not wrong about the killing part, they really are misinformed. They constantly say that all we want to do is kill and cause havoc all over, but we do have an endgame, and the Nest knows this, but never tell the public. They want us to seem as terrible and erratic as possible to make us look worse, and make them look like the counter, but the truth isn't so black and white." All of this… It seems like a manipulation game on both sides.
"What could you possibly be aiming for that involves all of this meaningless slaughter!?" The mawile yelled. His emotions probably built up quite a bit over the exposition that was just given to us.
"You haven't been here nearly long enough for me to tell you our goals. I doubt someone like you would get it anyway." She turned to look at me, which made a shiver go up my spine. "Although, a big step to this goal involves a certain pokemon that you dislike. We need something from him to set our overall plan into motion, and that may just be the most important task for the Void right now." I still felt small under her stare, but I felt a bit of excitement spark within me at the mention of who I assumed to be the other umbreon. "I will say that he needs to be brought here alive, but I have no need for his partner, another pokemon you're not too fond of." I didn't question the reason that one of them needed to be alive and the other didn't, but that was fine by me. I would in no way hesitate to beat him to a bloody pulp before bringing him back, and maybe even bring back some old fun that I used to have with Naru.
"I'll do whatever I need to. I just want to get back at them." I responded to the umbreon, which made her grow a devious smile. The mawile next to me sent me a glare, but I ignored it. I didn't really care about the Nest, or the Void for that matter, I just wanted my revenge, and I was going to get it. I will say that it was interesting to hear about these two conflicting organizations, but in the end, it didn't matter to me. I didn't belong to either, I just took refuge with one in order to boost myself in the right direction to my goal.
"Perfect. I'm glad I have one valuable member here." She turned her head back to the mawile, who was still glaring harshly. "It's pretty clear to me that you won't obey anything I say, so I'm afraid that you're forcing me to do this. Don't worry, you might get your wish after all, at least, you'll definitely feel like you're dead." The umbreon walked right up to the mawile and placed one of her paws on his head. He seemed too surprised by the gesture to resist in any way. She gave another malicious smile.
An extremely bright flash lit up the whole room, causing me to shield my eyes. I tried to get a glance of what caused the flash, but I just saw a very blurry picture. I saw a few small pink lights, and two very small specks of purple, before I was nearly blinded. I couldn't make out anything until the bright light left the room. In its place stood the umbreon, still looking exactly the same in every way. I turned my eyes to the mawile, and there was something wrong with him. His eyes kept their blue coloring, but instead of a fierce glare, he just held an empty gaze, staring at nothing. The umbreon took her paw off of the mawile and laughed, before looking at me.
"By the way, I need to give you a new name now that you're working here, and other than whatever random name Grace probably gave you." Hothead… "I'm going to call you Nekro from now on. And by the way, my name is Luna." Nekro… I have a new name now.
"Understood, Lady Luna." I bowed my head down. I honestly hated being obedient to anyone, but I knew I would have to make an exception in order to get what I wanted.
"Someone catches on quick." Luna chuckled and then walked back to her desk, the mawile following her for some reason. She turned around to look at me again. "I want you to head back to the room Grace brought you from. In there, you'll find a bunch of new equipment for you in order to get more used to your enhanced body. Spend some time there, and then tell me when you feel like you can try proving to me that you're a worthy asset." I nodded my head and turned to walk to the door I entered from, which slowly opened.
I'm on my way… Better prepare yourselves! I walked down the hall with a huge smile on my face.
Hello Readers!
First thing I want to say is this chapter came out to five-thousand five-hundred fifty-six (5556) Words, so that was interesting. Never had a chapter end off on such a clean number like that.
Speaking of chapters, I recently went back and re-read the first few chapters of this story, pretty much just going to the end of the applicants' tournament stuff, and to be blunt, I need to fix them up. I really need to look myself in the mirror and ask why I'm so bad at correcting my own work. Luckily, now I have a beta-reader, so that's not an issue, but the scar of the first few chapters is still there, and I made a lot of very embarrassing mistakes. Like, to the point where I was actually flabbergasted at myself, especially since I already went back and edited them, only to find a storm of new typos and errors once more. I mean, I chastised myself for accidentally switching to third person at one point, despite the fact that I have literally never written a piece in third-person, and then what did I do? Did the same exact thing again two chapters later. Like, really Glace? What is wrong with me? Anywho, enough of my own inabilities, the point I'm trying to make is that I am going to go back and edit these previous chapter once again, but it most likely will not interfere with normal progression of this story. [Don't worry, I'll help Glace so that your wait isn't shortened] Finally, I want to thank all of you people who have sent me reviews, PMs, all that good stuff that makes me a very happy person! I want to thank my beta-reader for making sure I don't go into third person on accident! (8-BitUmbreon) I know this chapter is a little bit different than the previous ones, but hopefully you'll all still enjoy!
See You Next Chapter!