In this chapter, we return to the professor's lab and take a quick look at the research that he's dealing with! Will we finally get to see what this "evolution variance enhancement" everyone's talking about is? Be prepared, this is sure to be an exciting chapter as we see just what's going on! A lot of questions are about to be answered! Remember to review!

The Elimination Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has started! Make sure to get those votes in, we've only got a couple of people who have voted so far! Please, make sure to get those votes in! You can vote for up to 5 girls, so make sure your favorites have a chance to shine!

Nominated: Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Chloe, Cynthia, Donoma, Elaina, Kate, Maddi, Marion, Misato, Ryoko, Sango, Satsuki, Sylvia, Vic

Hyphenman: I don't know, there are certainly a lot of questions to answer, who knows when we'll get to them all?

Tambry96bj: I needed some levity because things are about to get really intense. Like right now, in fact.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 973

Needless to say, the Phantom did not, in fact, leave his seat to go use the restroom. Nor did he need to explain his goal to Misato, either. The diligent Mechadoll followed him out of Phenac Stadium without a word.

As Valon stepped out into the street he took a deep breath. Phenac City was so clean. The normally dry, arid climate of the Orre Region was displaced by the water in the air, making the atmosphere feel a lot more hospitable than one would expect. It was a quality of life that one wouldn't normally think about when considering the benefits of an oasis, but it was an unquestionable benefit all the same.

It was so clean he could choke.

It's good to be back, the Phantom mused, thinking fondly of his time in the Orre Region. Though it had been years since he last set foot here, Phenac City always did have a note of… nostalgia about it. But he wasn't here to reminisce about the good old days. He had work to do.

With Ange's acquirement of the Oracle, there were two things still left undone on the Phantom's checklist. The first was related to Sylvia. Before they'd left, she'd mentioned something that had caught his ear, and while he couldn't be sure whether or not she was serious, if she was even partially telling the truth then he absolutely needed to check it out. But that would be for later. Right now, he needed to focus on the main reason he'd come to the Orre Region in the first place.

"Let's go," he said, getting in the jeep he'd rented. Misato sat down beside him. He glanced over his shoulder and took one last look at Phenac Stadium. "Enjoy the show," he whispered under his breath. It was a pointless taunt, really, the only person to hear his wicked one-liners was Misato, and she didn't care one way or another.

The truth was, it wasn't the school who'd purchased those seats for Kiana and the others, the Phantom had arranged that through his contacts in the Orre Region, the same way he'd arranged to rent this jeep. He needed a good distraction to get away from them, and a tournament worked as well as anything. Of course, there was no way he could pull the wool over their eyes the entire time; it would take an hour just to get to his destination! But it was enough to fool them in the short-term, and get away, and that was more than enough.

He'd deal with the fallout when he returned.

As the jeep shot across the desert sand, he couldn't control the anticipation surging through him. He'd been holding it in ever since the winter semester began, and now he could finally get to act on these urges of his.

Let's see just what research you've been hiding, professor, he thought to himself, a wicked grin spreading across his lips.

The Phantom's jeep pulled to a stop beside the S.S. Libra, and he froze. That bike… he recognized that bike.

"No… no, it couldn't be…" But he wasn't that much of a fool. That bike… it belonged to Wes! How many times had he seen it in the reports from Cipher? Half a lifetime ago, and yet still as vivid in his mind today. He couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing.

"Oh, this… this is providence!" He cackled, practically falling over in the sand. "To think that you would be here, now, at the end… oh, this is just meant to be!"

He couldn't wait another second. He needed to get to the professor's lab immediately.

"Let's go, Misato," Valon said, leading the Mechadoll over to what appeared to be a rundown hunk of scrap metal in the shape of a house. But Valon knew better. The professor's lab was located underground.

Of course, you would normally need permission to enter such a place. But Valon doubted Professor Decker would grant him such a professional courtesy. So that was why he brought Misato.

"Misato, if you would?" He gestured to the panel by the door.

"Affirmative," Misato nodded. She raised her hand and punched the door with all her might, prying it open. The elevator was open to them.

"…I meant hack into it," Valon dryly responded.

"Oh. Understood."

"No matter. You saved us some time. We should make our appearance suitably… theatrical, after all," he laughed, setting down a small device outside the building. Misato got the elevator working, and they descended down into the lab. When they reached the bottom, the bomb he'd planted detonated, shaking the entire structure with the explosion.

The effect was instantaneous. Alarms were blaring and flashing lights burned through the rooms, but he didn't care. The Phantom strolled forward without a care in the world, waiting for his lovely host to come out and greet him.

Professor Decker's response was immediate. Maddi forgotten, he rushed to go see what was going on. Wes was quick to follow.

"Stay here," he ordered Maddi sternly. "This could be trouble!"

Maddi gulped, and nodded. She might have been a rebellious girl at heart, but even she wasn't an idiot. She curled up on the ground and started shaking, hoping that everything would be okay. That's what you were supposed to do in an earthquake, right?

Professor Decker wasn't surprised when he saw who attacked him, but he couldn't say he had been expecting it, either.

"You," he growled.

"Hello there, professor," Valon greeted him with a cheerful wave. "So good to see you again! I just came because I had some questions about my extra credit project, do you think you could lend me your assistance?"

"What are you doing here? No, save it, I've got a pretty good idea," Professor Decker scoffed. "You're here for my research, is that it?"

"You've completed it, haven't you?" Valon asked, his eyes shining with greed. "The evolution variance enhancement? The ability to unlock dormant DNA within a pokemon to grant it a new stage of evolution, but one capable of being reversed. Turning a pokemon into a stronger form, and the reverting it to its normal appearance."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the professor lied.

"Come, come, Johannes, let's not be coy," Valon laughed. "Don't you think you owe me a little professional courtesy? I am your old colleague, after all."

"All these years and you haven't changed a bit, Gleiss," Professor Decker muttered.

Valon raised an eyebrow and smirked, running his gaze over the professor's body. "…You certainly have. You've gotten old, Johannes. But me…" He slapped his hand against his chest. "I'm still in the prime of my life."

"I don't know what you've done to yourself, to keep you from aging all these years," the professor said, shaking his head, "but I doubt you've ever been in the prime of anything."

Valon scowled. There was no need to be rude.

"And what about that girl?" Professor Decker asked, glancing at Misato. "Does she know what you are? The horrible things you've done?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Valon clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "You should know better than that. Misato here isn't one to trifle with such things. She's a Mechadoll after all."

Professor Decker gasped, his eyes widening in realization. "…I should have known from the name. The Misato series. So you were the one responsible for the attack on Silph Co."

"Weeeeell… technically that was Team Rocket," Valon said with a shrug. "I mean, yes, they did it because I provided them with the intel on several of Silph's projects, as well as giving them a working knowledge of the building's access points, but hey, it's not really my fault."

He reached out and ran his hand through Misato's hair, cupping her cheek. "When I learned that such a useful tool was being developed there, along with all those other juicy little secrets, well… I've never been good at controlling myself."

"I see. So it seems like you're the 'bad guy' then."

Valon blinked, turning to see the newcomer. Wes! He had been waiting around the corner, listening to the entire thing.

"Ah, Wesley! Good to see you again!" Valon said cheerily. "You've gotten pretty old yourself, I must say. I could recommend a good skin treatment, it really helps soothe those wrinkles you get from the sun beating down on you all the time."

Wes narrowed his eyes. He wasn't amused. "Have we met before?"

Valon blinked, taken aback. "Why, Wesley, I'm hurt! It's only been what? A couple of decades? Is that really enough for you to forget all about me?" Then realization dawned on his face. "Oh! I know! This should help! I brought them with me to beat those sandstorms, and I thought they would be rather nostalgic."

He reached into his pocket and fished out a pair of sunglasses, slipping them over his face. "Ta-da! What do you think? Coming back now?" He asked, holding his arms out in presentation.

Wes's eyes widened in disbelief. "…No…"

"…I'm afraid so," Valon smirked, nodding.

"Ein!?"

"The one and only! Although I go by 'Valon' these days. Or Richard, if you prefer. We are such old friends after all, Wesley, I feel we don't need to stand on ceremony here."

"You… they said you escaped, but… how are you here? How are you still so…"

"Young? Vibrant? Virile? It's a long story, and not one that concerns you, I'm afraid. But what are you doing here? Come to get Professor Decker's help with the Shadow Pokemon again?" Valon asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

Wes couldn't believe what he was hearing. He shook his head. "No, you're not… that's…"

"Oh, yes, I have," Valon smirked. "You crushed my goals for Cipher 25 years ago, and destroyed everything I'd built. But my mind… my mind was still working tirelessly, dreaming of creating the perfect pokemon. So I started over, with a new team. Nothing… overt, of course, I couldn't just jump right into creating more Shadow Pokemon, not with Johannes over there collaborating with me. But luckily, I got more than enough data from that little incident with ADAM, and the Silph Corporation… and now I'm back in the game!"

Wes curled his hands into fists. Shadow Pokemon… he thought that he and Rui had already put a stop to Cipher's plans, all those years ago. But Ein… or Valon… whoever the fuck he was, he had restarted his ambitions, creating brand new Shadow Pokemon to torment.

"I stopped you once," Wes growled, reaching for his pokeballs, "and I'll stop you again."

Valon sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, Wesley, come now. This has nothing to do with you. I'm not here to relive the glory days, I'm here to speak to your friend over there."

"He's not my friend," Wes spat.

"Ugh, semantics. No matter. Johannes, I've come here to take a look at that data of yours. If you've really completed your work on the µ Gene, then it could be just what I need to take the Renegade Project into its next stage. I do hope you won't let any old grudges stop the advancement of science," Valon said.

Professor Decker didn't give him shit.

"I always thought there was something suspicious about you, Gleiss," he growled. "And when you disappeared around the same time that ADAM escaped, I thought my suspicions had been confirmed. But it's worse than I imagined."

"Greater, you mean," Valon corrected him. "Greater than you imagined."

The professor narrowed his eyes. "No… so, so much worse. I thought you were cold back then. Even though you were always smiling, I could see that you were a cold, heartless monster. You didn't care about pokemon. You just wanted to make a weapon. Even with those glasses, I can still see the evil in your eyes."

Valon sighed. "Please. Don't pretend like you're better than me, Johannes. You created the same monster I did."

"But the difference is, I didn't set out to create one," Professor Decker reminded him. "I've always thought of ADAM with nothing but love. He was like my son! And you… whatever you did to him, whatever horrors you subjected him to, to make his power run wild like that…"

"I set him free," Valon snorted. "Free from that lab. He was just a failed experiment, professor, there's no need to get sentimental about things."

"Enough of this!" Wes snarled, reaching for his pokeball. "I don't want to hear another-"

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the room, and Wes fell to the ground.

"Aargh!" He groaned, clutching his shoulder as blood seeped out into his coat. "Y-You…!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Valon sighed, rolling his eyes. He turned the gun on the professor next. "It's just a flesh wound. I wouldn't kill you like that, Wesley, you need to pay considerably for everything you've done over the years. Setting back my plans like that… not at all nice."

"Ein…!" Wes growled. He fumbled for his pokeball, trying to push the pain out of his mind. But when Valon turned the gun back on him he froze.

"I wouldn't like to kill you, Wesley, really I wouldn't," Valon admitted. "I want you to see just how great my final creation will become, so I'd like you to live until then. But if you make this difficult for me… well, don't expect to make it back home to see your wife and daughter."

Wes's blood ran cold against his hand.

"Wh-What…?"

"You think I don't know about sweet little Victoria?" Valon asked. "You see, Wesley, I've always held a great deal of respect for you. And that's why I'll let you live, just so you can see that, in the end, my way was correct. But your wife, whose cursed eyes ruined my plans? And that daughter of yours? Well, they're just in the way. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Wes understood. The glare he gave Valon was enough of an answer. He wouldn't be getting in the way anymore.

Valon turned the gun back on the professor. "Now, Johannes, I believe you were going to show me that research of yours?"

Professor Decker went pale. "Th-That… Gleiss, there's no point, my work isn't even close to being done, I still haven't-"

BANG.

Valon put a bullet in the wall. "I'm sorry, Johannes, what were you lying?"

Professor Decker swallowed. "F-Fine," he muttered, turning around. "Follow me."

Valon smiled. "Excellent. Misato? Please relieve Wesley of his pokeballs and bring him with me, understood?"

"Affirmative," Misato nodded, taking Wes's pokeballs from his belt and throwing them away. She dragged the man to his feet, startling him with her inhuman strength, and hauled him after the Phantom and the professor.

They arrived at the large vault door.

"Oh, yes," Valon smirked. "Now this definitely screams 'secret research lab'. Now go on, open it. Let's see what progress you've made on the evolution variance enhancement."

With a resigned sigh, the professor went to the vault, typing in the passcode. The vault door began to rumble, swinging open to reveal a large laboratory.

Before, Maddi had been relieved to see that the professor's lab wasn't filled with half-dead pokemon and genetic monstrosities.

That's because they were all here.

It was a horror show. Artifical Pokemon mutants in various stages of development were suspended in tubes, with various samples of data running through a complex computer system. For all the professor's talk about having changed and not viewing pokemon as experiments, he'd certainly done quite a lot of research on living test subjects, it seemed. It was enough to turn Wes's stomach.

The professor was a true hypocrite, through and through.

"And you call me a monster?" Valon asked, clicking his tongue in mocking disapproval. "I might created Shadow Pokemon, professor, but I could never do something as depraved as this. Testing the µ Gene on living subjects? Growing your own pokemon in a test tube? Sickening."

"It was… necessary…" Professor Decker hissed. "To perfect the µ Gene… to create the evolution variance enhancement… I needed… to sacrifice so much… but I'm not like you. I'm not a heartless monster… the pain I felt, causing the suffering of all these innocent pokemon… but it was necessary!"

Valon sighed. "I'm sure you believe that, professor," he admitted. "But to someone like Wesley? To a real human being? You're just as much of a monster as I am."

Professor Decker sighed. He couldn't deny the Phantom's words. "Maybe so… but still… in the end… to create that masterpiece… it was all worth it."

He led them deeper into the lab. To another tube, so large it reached the ceiling. A clear pink liquid flowed through the tube, and suspended in the center was… the last thing Valon expected to see, if he was being honest.

It was a girl. Perfectly human. And not just any girl. His jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Dakota Evans?!" He gasped. "How… How is that possible?"

It was Dakota. A perfect replica. Naked as an infant, though no one present cared. The only trace of a difference was her hair, as pink as the liquid she floated in, reaching down to her ankles. Below the stasis tube was a single label.

Evolution Variance Enhancement

E.V.E.

"All my experiments to perfect the µ Gene proved fruitless," Professor Decker whispered. His eyes were filled with madness, there was no trace of the dignified scientist from before. "I sought to perfect the mistakes we made with ADAM, to create the evolution variance enhancement, my EVE. A pokemon capable of transforming to suit its foes. Capable of mastering any type of attack. To do that, I needed… test subjects. Field tests."

"Those news reports," Wes realized. "Those strange attacks in Kanto and other regions, from pokemon no one could identify…"

"Prototypes, I created countless prototypes, pokemon capable of unlocking the true powers of Mew. But they ultimately decayed and rotted away after a few tests. I just couldn't get it stable!" The professor ranted. "But then that girl… her DNA… a human being was the missing link, don't you understand?! Her DNA allowed me to finally, finally create something that would last! Look at her! She's perfection, don't you understand? Mew's DNA, the DNA of all pokemon, stabilized in the body of a human girl! My perfect creation… my daughter… after all these years…"

Valon raised his eyebrow. The professor had used Dakota's DNA, or rather, human DNA, to stabilize the unstable qualities of the µ Gene. He found the idea rather ironic.

"Well, it wasn't quite what I expected," Valon admitted with a shrug. "But no matter. We'll be taking her with us. If that thing is as stable as you claim, then we should have no trouble extracting the relevant data from her genetic code."

Professor Decker shook his head. "You'll do no such thing."

The Phantom cocked his gun, pointing it at the professor's head. "I don't believe I was asking, Johannes."

"It won't matter." Professor Decker just smirked. "She may be perfection, but she's still in her infancy. She can't survive outside of that tube for long. Take her out of there, and her body will decay long before you get a chance to…"

Movement caught the professor's eye and his voice trailed off. He turned to look at the tube, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Valon looked as well, and so did Wes.

"Can it be?" Professor Decker whispered.

The subject's hand was twitching. Particularly her fingers.

Halfway across the world, a comatose Dakota finally awoke. Her duplicate did the same.

"Eve… she's awoken!" Professor Decker looked upon his "daughter" with pride as the artificial human-pokemon hybrid's sapphire-blue eyes scanned the laboratory.

The tube exploded in a burst of glass and pink fluid that pushed everyone backwards. She touched down on the ground, blinking in confusion as she adjusted to the world she'd found herself in.

Professor Decker recovered first, approaching his creation. He didn't care about the Phantom or his gun anymore. All that mattered was welcoming this new life into the world.

"Good morning, Eve!"

So the evolution variance enhancement has finally been revealed! But it wasn't some simple project, it was the creation of another artificial pokemon! A second clone of Mew! That's right, we have Mew, Mewtwo, and now Eve, or Mewthree! Or Dakotatwo, if you like. But how will this newly-created pokemon react to its new life?