Gary and the Professor did not find anything out of the ordinary, except that there seemed to be no one else around.
"You would figure everyone would be in their tents in this weather," the Professor grumbled as he wiped melting snow from his face.
"But it seems like everyone is out."
"Could they have gone home?" Gary asked.
"Doubtful. We are all funded by a single grant. In order to get paid, everyone would need to be present for the whole expedition."
"Then I guess some people won't be getting paid," Gary said with a shrug..
The Professor was going to agree with him, when he noticed some red spots in the snow. He knew just by looking at it that it was blood.
"Gary," have your team ready," he said.
"What's up, Gramps?"
"Just...have your team ready, and follow me."
The Professor followed the red spots between the tents, pausing when he came to the end of the trail. They were at the tent of Professor Bosc.
"Professor Bosc!" The Professor called, "come out here!"
Gary looked at his grandfather skeptically, but then Professor Bosc lumbered out of his tent, and Gary could only stare. The man seemed larger, and more muscular. He still wore his glasses, but his white coat was gone. He seemed indifferent to the subzero temperature and the ice that was falling on him.
"I know now, Bosc," Professor Oak said, raising his voice above the howling wind. "My grandson and his friends were right when they barged into your tent. There is something wrong about you. And it must have something to do with our empty camp."
Bosc glared at him. "Perceptive, aren't you? Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. The deaths of the others were necessary. As will your deaths be."
He stepped toward Gary and the Professor.
Now!
Gary threw his other pokeballs in the air, unleashing his other four pokemon. He ordered them to attack Bosc. The Ursaring, Sneasel, and Flareon all lunged forward to take him down...but horribly, a massive split formed in Bosc's chest and stomach...and it was lined with jagged teeth. The Sneasel and Flareon fell into the gaping maw before they could get away, and it slammed shut on them.
Gary was too shocked to cry out. He could only watch in horror as his Ursaring and Kingler attacked Bosc. The Ursaring managed to slice his shoulder with its long claws, but Bosc's monster mouth opened again, and the Ursaring was gone. Then the Kingler fell into the horrible jaws. And with every pokemon Bosc consumed, he grew larger.
Gary's Charizard swooped down to take a slash, but Gary managed to scream at it. "No, no!"
The Charizard rolled in midair and turned back, narrowly avoiding Bosc's now-huge hands.
"We've got to go!" Gary cried to his grandfather, who could only agree. They ran, with Gary's Charizard and Steelix fleeing with them. They only made it halfway through the camp when they ran into Shane.
"It, it, it got Jean!" He panted. "And she tried to get me too."
"I don't even know what it is," Gary growled, but it got Bosc...and four of my best friends." His voice cracked. The Professor hugged him.
"I'm sorry, Gary. I should have figured it out sooner. What we're dealing with is not a pokemon. That's why your Potion didn't work on it. Not a human. Not a ghost. It's something not of our world. It consumes, but it also mimics what it consumes. It was probably mimicking a Glaceon when you found it, Gary. Then to escape, it mimicked Jean."
"But Professor," Shane interjected, "it didn't consume Jean. So how did it mimic her?"
"I'm guessing it didn't need to eat all of her at the time. It bit her - got her blood, her DNA. perhaps it needs to consume food to increase its biomass, as we can see with our friend, the Bosc-thing."
"Stop, don't listen to him!"
Gary looked to see another Shane running toward them. His mouth was bloody, and a Delibird was flapping beside him. The real Shane! Which meant the one with them was...
"Gramps, look out!"
The Professor leapt away just in time to dodge disgusting tentacles that had burst out of the Shane-thing's chest. Gary's Charizard blew a fireball at it, and it screeched in pain.
Gary grinned fiercely. "Fire! It hates fire! Do it again, Charizard!"
The Charizard spewed flames again, so hot it seared through the falling ice and vaporized it. The flames consumed the Shane-thing, and it screeched as it was burnt to a crisp. But then the Bosc-thing caught up to them. The Charizard blew flames at it, but it seemed more resistant to fire.
"It's too large!" Gary shouted.
Tentacles burst from the Bosc-thing's sides, stretching toward Gary and the Professor. The real Shane jumped in the way, getting caught in the tentacles instead. "Fly away, Ditz," he said to his Delibird-Ditto. "I'm as good as dead anyway."
But Ditz morphed back into a Ditto and clung bravely to its master as they were both drawn into the Bosc-thing's toothy maw.
Gary expected that he and his grandfather would be next to die. He was surprised when he lived for another moment, and when the Bosc-thing appeared to melt into throbbing, pink goo. It looked like shifting muck that changed colors, parts getting hard and trying to remain stable, bubbling before melting into soupy mush. Finally, it grew still.
"It's over," the Professor said. "I think the Ditto's unstable DNA was the creature's undoing. The brave little guy saved us, maybe even the whole world." He paused, as if debating whether he should say something.
"It could save your mother."
Gary stared at him.
"But...you told me mom died, and that my dad was killed."
"We can talk about this when we get home."
"No, let's do it now! We only almost got eaten by some alien monster virus!"
The Professor sighed. "Very well. Your father was indeed killed," he said heavily. "Accidentally. By your mother. She has a condition, you see, passed down from me. It didn't manifest until after you were born. So I put your mother into a deep sleep as I look for a cure. And I think what's left of this thing that attacked us...may be the missing piece."
Gary felt too many emotions to make a coherent thought. His mother had been alive all this time? His grandfather had lied to him. What was the condition he was talking about? Had he just lost his pokemon friends for nothing?
Anger and grief welled up in him. Without knowing what he was doing, he took a swing at his grandfather. The Professor caught his fist in one hand.
"Calm down, Gary. I'll explain everything; I promise."
Tears streaked down Gary's face. "Somehow I don't believe that, Gramps."
The Professor put his hands on Gary's temples.
"You have to trust me, Gary. Everything I do, I do to protect you. Now sleep."
Gary suddenly felt drowsy, his world fading to darkness.
He did not see his Charizard torch the whole camp, or feel his grandfather holding onto him as they flew away on the Charizard's back. He was unaware of his grandfather's tears, or of the sadness in his eyes as he watched the campsite burn. Another disaster in research, more lives sacrificed to the gods of science. One day the pain and grief might break him, but today was not that day. He was now carrying a vial that contained the thing-DNA. DNA that could very well help him remove the pokemon DNA that he had passed onto his daughter...and grandson. He only hoped he could create a working vaccine before the condition manifested in Gary, and accidentally destroyed the ones he loved.