A bunch of my friends, the other day started discussing what was their favorite Eevee evolution. Obviously, based on this piece of fan based literature, my favorite as always been Espeon. I sort have mixed feelings about the new evolution, Sylveon. But, hey, things you have to get used to, or else you'll never move on properly.

Chapter 5- Lunch at the slaughterhouse

Well, Victor had the last laugh. In a shocking twist to Spencer's disbelief, the brutal training he received from military school in Germany actually prevented Spencer from making any of his threats, true. So naturally, Victor was chosen (or handpicked) by Spencer to be the very thing he would vent all of his red-hot anger on. Seems like I've been replaced—not that is bad and all.

The inside of Pine's lab appeared quite unusual for a normal Pokemon laboratory. There weren't any machines, or expensive technologies or even white polished walls around. Instead, it was replaced with dried blood stained walls, used hospital beds, and some worn down medical tool trays. The most common thing I saw was an unusual amount of syringes and scalpels caked with blood. I swear, I had to check every three seconds just to see if I stepped on one of the needles.

It was dim, since the only thing that lit the room was a single light bulb, hanging from the cracked ceiling above. Even Spencer felt disgusted just standing around it. No wonder this room was off-limits. The rest of the glass laboratory was obviously newly built, it's just this part. Victor looked to me and saw the reluctance in my eyes. It felt awkward to say nothing since the opportunity was offered.

"So...Your father works here, huh?" I said, feeling Spencer mouthed the words "What the fuck" behind my back. Victor didn't give me any ill looks to my surprise and shrugged nonchalantly.

"He's used to working in dark conditions. For him, it's fine." Victor explained to us.

Spencer and I exchanged looks as he lent us over to a scratched white door with a small window framed with metal bars. Above was a red half-blinking sign that read: "Surgery room—Unauthorized personal only." Something stirred inside of my stomach, and I looked to Victor who was too busy unlocking the door. Are we even suppose to be here, now?

He finally unlocked the door, but It wouldn't come loose when he tried to pull it open. Victor stepped back and scratched his head. "I guess dad must have locked it from the inside with chains, again." Spencer turned to him with a suspicious expression, but who wouldn't in a dark, abandoned room like this. Even I feel like I'm doing something illegal.

"Why does your old man lock it from the inside? Is he afraid of something?" He asked as Victor turned to him, quite solemn and grim in expression.

He was never used to personal questions and always kept a secret even if it disturbed him. Spencer didn't seem to detect this and stood there, brash with a bold face, as Victor turned away silently. I glowered at him for his rude behavior however he dismissed this and went off to looking at a red stain on the wall.

I watched as he slammed his fist against the door, shouting for his dad to open. There was a moment in silence followed by some light, almost inaudible footsteps that approached the door. I noticed how small the shadow was under the door and suspected that his dad stopped a good few feet away for some unknown reason. A low and cautious voice followed.

"Are you the cops?"

"No, dad. It's me, your son." Victor said, almost in a tedious manner, as if he had to deal with this often. There was a pause, which Spencer made it more awkward by fake coughing as he wanted this to move on faster. I glared at him and he shrugged.

"Victor?...Are the police forcing you to do this?" He sighed out loudly and I could see how stressful he has to deal with this. Especially on a daily basis.

"No. I'm with my—

He turned to us, with puzzled expression written on his face. Victor glanced at me, then back at Spencer who displayed for him the traditional fuck you with his middle finger. He then turned back to the door.

"I'm with my friendand a random asshole." I stiffened a smile as Spencer scowled at him, tightly clenching his hands together into hard fists.

He opened his mouth to protest but it was interrupted by the sound of multiple locks clanking loudly against the other side of the door. It stopped and the door was suddenly swung open, almost hitting Victor in the face. He stepped back and ended up tripping into me. We crashed landed on the ground as Spencer looked on with a humorous face.

"S-sorry." Victor mumbled as he quickly got off, pulling me up back onto my feet.

For a tall guy, he was pretty heavy, but it suited his stature quite well. I wiped the dust off my jeans furiously. I didn't mind being dirty, just the dirty here meant something else quite different. When I looked up, I almost fell back in utter surprise as stands before me is a giant of a man.

He draped in a white lab coat like most professors, but had blood splattered all over it with a blue scrub underneath. As if someone splatter painted all over that shit. He wore a doctor's mask that covered his mouth and had goggles on, painted in a shades of red. What scared me the most was that in his right was what looks to be a large scalpel wet with what ever's blood was that on it and in the other was. A small buzz saw? I felt faint.

"Dad. You busy now? I brought them to you like you asked." Victor said, brushing some of the dirt off of his palms. Professor Pine nodded his head.

I looked to Spencer and was surprise to see that he was completely fine with the scary image of Victor's dad, just staring at him with one of his eye browns arched up as if he was intrigued. Is he not batting an eye at the huge, blood dripping man right in front of him?!

"S'rry boys for the hold up. There's a war between heaven an' hell in there." He stepped to the side, revealing the surgery room.

I swear, I was not blood tolerate, because when I saw it, I tasted some of the vomit soar up into my mouth and, to my chagrin, I had to swallow it back in. To describe the surgery properly, I have compare it to a pig's slaughterhouse.

There was blood. Lots and lots of god damn blood. Like every where. On the walls, floors, chairs, equipment—basically everywhere. To top it off—limbs. Body parts of...well, I'm not certain if they're people or Pokemon, but they were splatter all over the floor! Sitting in the middle of the gore was a long operating table, with a medical tray next to it. Strapped to it was...oh god.

I felt a warm hand clutched onto my shoulder and looked over to see that it was Victor reassuring me as he turned to his father. Spencer, however was staring off into the room, breathing lightly as his pupils scanned the room without an utter reaction. I can see that his blood tolerance didn't come in a bottle...

"W-what were you d-doing in here, professor?..." I stuttered nervously as Victor supported my weak stature, since the sight of all that gore made my vision.

"Oh...well, I was just doing some...experimenting. You know, being a scientist and all, you have to conduct experiments once and a while..." Pine said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, still holding onto that small buzz saw of his. Spencer glanced at him, curiosity lodged in the eyes.

"What can you possibly gain from cutting Pokemon up and collecting their limbs?" He asked boldly, as Pine blinked.

"Why, a lot of things! Anatomy, species comparison, origins of their abilities—Oh, they were already dead by the time I found them—their disease resistance, organ comparison to ours, you know, a ton of science-y things."

Spencer coaxed his head, looked into the room, examining everything that was considered science-y and looked back at pine, brash and rather apathetic. "My old lady is a doctor, sir, so I'm sure your medical license doesn't allow this."

Professor Pine drew back and Victor sighed heavily. He looked at his father, with a dismissing, rather painful expression and Pine leaned back against the wall.

"Well...the truth is...I'm not exactly a licensed therapist—

"So you don't have a medical license."

"No. In truth, what I do is... black market material—but it's for science, not the money!" He said hastily as we looked at him, astonished and rather horrified. Spencer glanced back at where we came from and stared back at Pine.

"If what you do is so illegal, then what's with the whole, big, shiny glass laboratory back there? It's not really secrecy if that's what you're hoping for."

"We built that part to make it seem like I'm licensed and legal, but really, I never use any of that shit. It's this part of the lab I actually get to work on." Pine said as Victor smiled at him, finally free from keeping this place a secret, from what I can see.

Spencer shrugged and leaned back to the wall, somewhat lost interest in the current topic at hand. Pine pulled down his mask and wiped the blood from his goggles as he extended his arm out towards a door at the far end of the hall. It was hidden by a group of medical trays huddled near it. Wonder if that lend to another bloody chamber?

"Follow me up to the new lab. There I have some things to give you boys." Pine strolled in between us and urged us to follow him, though I was still rather cautious of the unlicensed doctor.

Spencer shrugged and simply stride to the professors' side. Victor followed, but grappled my hand as an attempt to force me to come along as well. Reluctantly, my legs proceeded to obey and before I knew it, I was already walking up a long set of stairs. Please don't reveal any more blood. I feel like all that red made me unintentionally high.

The stairs lend us to the very peak of the Laboratory, the observatory since it allowed us to see the entire town below and even further into the mountains. It would've been more beautiful if Pine hadn't been leaving a trail of blood as he went. Along the way Spencer made a funny remark on how the janitors have a busy afternoon today, and we agreed to Pine's chagrin.

In the glass observatory, there was a single machine. With a protective glass sealing the top and keypad attached to the side, inside held three small red and white poke balls. It was quite noticeable since it was the only machine in the entire room. If the police were here, suspicion would rise like up like the Apollo rocket.

Spencer and I stood by as Victor and his father approached the machine. He pressed a few numbers on keypad as Victor bent down to retrieve something from the bottom section of the device. As they did, Spencer leaned over and whispered something in my ear.

"I don't like that friend of yours, nor his old man. After he gives us what we need, let's just git to the next town."

"Victor? I don't know why you don't like him, He's real nice, but okay. His dad sort of scares me a bit."

"Good. After we get lunch and supplies, we'll take off."

"What are you two talking about?"

We turned around and saw Victor as he approached us with a flat box in his arms. We shook our heads quickly and Pine came up, with his hands in his pockets and a warm smile on his face.

"Well, the reason I wanted you two here was for a specific reason. I recently took the job as Professor and was suppose to help start the journey for young, armature trainers like you two."

Spencer glowered at him and I winced at his words.

"So, after discovering you in the forest, I saw that both of you only had one Pokemon and no Pokedex. So, best I give them to you now, along with another Pokemon to join you on your quest."

Immediately, our grim expression were replaced with delight and pleasant. Victor then lifted up the thin box and opened it, revealing three shiny, brand new...they sort of look like an advance version of the game boy to me, but I was quite puzzled what they are. But they were shiny. And had three customized colors, Purple red, black yellow and finally, the last had a cool army green camouflage. They glimmered under our noses.

"They're called a Pokedex. A hi-tech encyclopedia, able to record just about every species of Pokemon that exists in this world of ours and can keep track of how many you catch and evolve along the way." Pine explained. "Before I give you two any additions to your one man team, I suggest taking one of these for your trip."

I was too overwhelmed by the beautiful display of the devices to actually pay attention. It was just two days ago that I found Kenny and now, I'm here, getting my own Pokedex...for most kids, it takes only one day for all that shit to happen—but it's happening to me now!

I felt a nudge on my shoulder and saw that Spencer was offering me the first pick. "Go ahead. I don't care what color I get, really." He said as he gave me a small smile, which appeared genuine and warm in most cases, and to me, rare and very much needed.

I returned the smile and approached the case, eyes scanning over the Pokedexes. I lifted my hand and it fell against the purple and red device. It reminded me of Kenny and blended in very well with the sun. Spencer merely took a millisecond to swipe the black and yellow Pokedex off of it's spot in the box. Victor closed it and put it away under his arm.

"Well, now that's done, why don't you boys go see who would you like as a second partner." Pine offered as he extend a hand over the big machine at the far end of the observatory.

Over by the machine, sat the three Poke balls we saw earlier. Like the Pokedexes, they too, had the same effect on me as I stared at them with admiration. Spencer just took a mere glance at them and gazed off somewhere else, which was understandable since he saw millions of Poke balls before. I sure hope that this wasn't a dream.

"There's three Pokemon in total. Cyndaquil, Chikorita and Totodile. Fire, grass and water. These three were imported straight from the Johto region." Pine said with high pride.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that Spencer was waiting for me to choose, obviously wanting to go last again. Turning back, I stared at the three, anxiety fuming over me like a cloud. Tch, why is this so hard?!

Something warm gripped my shoulder and I saw that Victor stood next to me, reassuring with the same kind eyes I saw before. He leaned in and whispered into my ear. "I recommend you choose Cyndaquil. It's nature is the best to get along with and is easier to train."

I nodded, deciding to just comply and choose one already. Resting my hand on the first Poke ball on the left, I pulled it from it's spot and allow it sit on my palm. It was quite warm and pulsed with life, which felt strange to contain for some reason.

A bizarre vibration came my right hip and I looked to see that it was Kenny's Poke ball shaking. I tapped it for it to stop but instead, the ball just flung open and Kenny popped out from the ball. Pine whirled his head over to see the same, purple feline who took the liberty of scratching his paws on my leg. I ignored him as Pine came over.

"Is that your Espeon?" He asked as he bent to examine him.

Kenny turned around and saw blood dripping Pine. The most normal react was for him to scratching the fuck out of Pine's eyes, but instead, I stared in disbelief as he licked the blood from the doctor's cheeks. Victor laughed boldly and Kenny bounded over to him.

"Yes, sir. This is Kenny. He's sort of..weird, I guess." I said sheepishly as Kenny stride to Victor and rolled over for a belly rub. He really likes Victor, huh?

"Are you sure? No offense, but you just a novice trainer, and this Pokemon's too strong a level for you to use him. Did he disobey you when you battled with him?"

I shook my head and peered over to Spencer who had already chosen his second Pokemon. He leaned against the far wall, listening in to our conversation with his arms crossed against his chest and sullen appearance written across his face.

"Strange, indeed...you know, your Pokemon reminds me of a famous trainer I knew. He also owned an Espeon like this. Weird fella, too." He mused softly as Kenny attempt to crawl on top of Victor's head.

"Sorry to interrupt." Spencer said as he pushed Pine and Victor aside. "But me and my friend should really get going." He glanced at me, with attentive eyes, and kept shaking his head for me to agree. I eventually complied.

"Is that so? Well, why don't you two stick around for a bit, at least have some lunch while you're at it. The chefs down at the kitchen really know how fatten you up." The professor suggested, with a hopeful grin on his face.

I looked to Spencer. Neither of us had eaten anything in over two days and surely we couldn't go anywhere any longer if neither of us had the energy. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. I'm sure that was a good sign.

"If it's free, then I'm in." He said. I smiled at him, and felt my empty stomach responded the same.

"Good then! Victor, why don't you show these two where the cafeteria is. As for me..." Pine placed on his goggles and turned around, heading towards the stairs. Victor stepped aside as his father's coat left another disgusting trail of red goo. "I need to finish up my experiment."

The cafeteria was set right next to a large and lovely garden with water and a variety of fruit trees. Like most of the lab(with the exception of the professor's slaughter room) was covered in a coat of beautiful crystal glass, which meant we could sit down and enjoy the view of the garden.

Victor had to leave but promised he would return to Spencer's chagrin. We sat down at a small circular table with only two chairs so there wouldn't be any unwelcome guests and each, our own trays of selected food. I took a large cheeseburger and had some freshly cut apples for Kenny to munch on since he liked the stuff so much. Spencer took nachos with cheese and had Blacky eat some cut up pineapples.

Spencer rested his chin on his hand as I gobbled down on my burger, already starving from the long duration of the time we ate. He watched me with a nonchalant expression, not bothering to touch his food. He then sighed and reached into his hood pocket and pulled out a small, black box. He flung it onto the table between us and I stared at it.

"What's this?" I asked, half chewing my burger, half trying to swallow it down to talk. Kenny looked up at us.

"It's for you. My end of the deal yesterday." Spencer said as he relaxed his elbows on the table and gazed at me.

"Deal? You mean the bet we made while we were battling?"

"Yeah. You won. I keep my promises, so here you are."

"I-I won? That's strange, I didn't really see who won." I mumbled, trying to remember the events of yesterday afternoon's battle. Spencer shrugged and pushed the box over to me. Kenny stopped eating and peered upon the table to see what's happening.

"This is my most prized possession. Honestly, it's the only thing I actually value. Take care of it." Spencer said as he started to taking a bite at his nachos.

Gazing at the small, black box, I reached over and lifted the lid open. Inside was thin, yet solid, jade amulet with a black chain. There was a strange symbol carved on the amulet.

诅咒

I lifted it up and held it to him. "What does this mean?"

Spencer looked up and stared at it. I don't know if it's just me, but I thought I just saw the faintest sign of a smile. His eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth twitched, as if he was resisting something. He gave a fake shrug.

"Why, I don't know, Dante. but I'm sure it's not important..." His words sounded forced and behind, it was dripped with malicious intent. But I could be just hearing things, because Spencer was in a good mood now. Kenny stared at it with such unwavering focus.

"Who did it belong to?" I asked, gently placing back into the box. Spencer flinched at my words and he looked down at the ground, with his bangs partially hiding his face. Perhaps I never should've asked that.

"My father."

"Oh."

There was an uncomfortable silence between us, and the only sound at our table was Blacky chewing on his pineapple. Spencer sighed and looked at me, with somewhat of a vexed expression. Kenny twitched his ear and shifted his gaze over at Spencer.

"You'll wear it, won't you?"

"Huh?" I blinked at his sudden question. He continue to stare at me, serious and quite grim as his hands rubbed against each other, turning almost white and pale. Something in my stomach stirred violently, similar to how it did when I saw the inside of pine's room. A bad omen indeed...

"I'm not a jewelery wearing dude, so I never wore it, but even still, I want to treasure my dad's memory so perhaps..." He paused to peer down morosely at the box, pursing his lips and breathing heavily. He was being serious about this, isn't he?

"I'll wear it." I complied as I reached out for the necklace and lifted in the air. Spencer muttered a grateful "thank you" and smiled as unlocked the back of the chain. Kenny suddenly growled with his fur standing up and his tail low and bent. I cringed and realized he was growling at the necklace.

"Kenny, what's wrong boy?!" I stuttered, almost falling out of my seat. Blacky looked up and Spencer glowered with a dark expression at him. Kenny didn't care as he his body started to vibrate and I noticed how low his legs were bent. Oh god, he's going to jump!

I suddenly ducked down under the table as Kenny pounced in the air, attempting to snatch the necklace from my hands. Instead he landed gracefully on the other side and turned around by the time I got up. His eyes were unfocused, crazed and full of hate as the red dot on his forehead glowed. Spencer and I got up in alarm and Blacky dashed over to Spencer's side, ready to subdue crazed Kenny.

"K-Kenny, now boy. Best you don't do that..." I said softly, slowly shifting over to him with his poke ball in my hands.

Kenny growled at the necklace which was entwined around my slender fingers. The amulet was dangling below my knuckles and shined at Kenny. He cried out and shot a beam of purple red light at me. Spencer quickly pushed me aside and Blacky pounced on top of Kenny, digging his fangs into his neck. We landed into my chair and ended up slamming into the wall.

We looked up and Kenny had kicked Blacky off into our table, attracting attention from the other occupants of cafe. He got up and turned to us, glaring with pent up rage pulsing through him like a volcano. Spencer pulled me up and Kenny dashed towards the necklace which fell right next to me, on the floor.

Before he could get to it, a ray of yellow lightning struck him and Kenny crumpled on the floor, paralyzed as he twitched around violently. I stared at him, feeling my heart lose it's beat and warmth. What happened to you, boy? Is it me?

Spencer tapped my shoulder and I looked over to see Victor, standing at the edge of the cafe door, along with a yellow cat with very pointy fur beside him. It looks so much similar to Kenny and Blacky in many ways. I could see the electricity sparking around the Pokemon and it was more than obvious that the lightning bolt came from it. Victor came over along with lightning cat and observed Kenny who had white foam spewing out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I had to attack him...I just saw that he was going to attack you so I told my Jolteon to subdue him." Victor mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed and guilty. I patted his shoulder.

"No problem..and thank you. But it wasn't me he was going for...it was—

Before I could finish, Victor bent over and picked up the necklace that lies on the floor. He held it up to his face and watched as the amulet dangle in front of him. Staring at the symbols carved on the jade, with his expression quickly turning dark and grim. He then shifted his gaze towards me.

"Do...do you even know what this symbol stands for?"

"No. But that isn't important, I was just going to wear it and Kenny freaked out." I explained, taking the necklace back. Luckily during the fight, it wasn't damaged so I wrapped the ends of the chain around my neck and locked it in place. Spencer gave me a grateful smile, but Victor frowned, almost disapproving of my decision.

"Who gave it to you?" He demanded.

"I did. Is there anything wrong with that?" Spencer asked threatening as the two glowered at each other, intensity rising like fire and inflaming the atmosphere like a fog. Victor's fist clenched together and he gave a heavy shudder.

"Psychic Pokemon only becomes violent if they around dark magic." Victor explained, taking the amulet stone and slightly lifting up. "If he tried to attack the necklace you gave Dante then why—

"GUYS!" I shouted, breaking the rivalry between the two and they stared at me, stunned and confused. I glared at them. "Can't you two stop fighting for at least one day?! What should we be worrying about is getting Kenny to a god damn Pokemon Center!"

"Right! Right." Victor mumbled as he walked over and picked up Kenny from the floor. I went over to our fallen table and lifted it up, only to see Blacky laying in the middle of it, finishing off the lunch we were about to eat. At least someone's full.

"Here, let's bring him to my father's healing machine. He has one in the lab, upstairs." Victor suggested as I took Kenny's paralyzed figure into my arms. He twitched around and I stared down at him, nodding.

Spencer flopped a couple bills onto the table to pay for the food and we grimly strolled out from the cafe. I must be sick or something, because I have this strange sensation of Spencer smirking behind my back as we walked out. But it's just a feeling, I'm sure it's not real.