Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Chapter 4: The Room of Pain

It was a cloudy day as Dawn and Piplup followed Muldoon into the island's tropical forest. Dawn had decided to take Muldoon on his offer to look for new Pokemon from two days earlier before he battled Amber and Zwei. Going on a little expedition into the woods was certainly better than just sitting around the house waiting for something to happen, and Dawn felt like it was only a matter of time before it did. It seemed like she was sitting on a time bomb, waiting for Dr. Fuji's little experiment to somehow go awry. And there was really nothing that Dawn could think of to do about it, short of having Palkia tear the house apart, but Dawn felt that was a little extreme.

There was a rumble of thunder as though it was going to rain soon as Muldoon hacked apart a vine with his machete. He stopped and motioned Dawn to come closer with a wave of his hand. Dawn silently approached and saw a Pokemon before them in the clearing. It was a tiny mouse-like creature that was mostly yellow orange in color. It had round black ears that were cream colored on the inside and a black tail with a spiked tuft of fur at the end. Its stomach was the same color as its ears, and it had two round orange circles covering its cheeks. Growing from these circles were two pairs of black whiskers that resembled T.V. antenna. The little rodent was sitting in the clearing eating a berry, totally oblivious to Dawn and Muldoon watching it.

Dawn couldn't help but squeal upon seeing the little mouse. "Oh my god! That is one of the cutest Pokemon ever!"

Piplup let out a small cry and puffed out his cheeks. Dawn could tell that the little penguin seemed offended by her comment.

Dawn crouched down and patted Piplup on the head. "Aw. Don't be like that, Piplup. You're just as cute as ever."

"That li'l fella there is called a Dedenne." Muldoon informed her. "It's an Electric and Fairy-type Pokemon. If ya wanna catch it, now'd be the right time."

"Okay Piplup. Use a Bubble Beam on Dedenne there." Dawn politely requested.

After a moment, Piplup got over his hurt feelings and fired a barrage of bubbles from his beak. Dedenne was struck in the side by the attack and fell onto its stomach. Dawn took the opportunity and threw one of the empty pokeballs that Muldoon had given her. The ball struck the electric mouse on its back and sucked it inside. The ball jiggled for a few moments before making a signal that the capture had been completed. A second later, the ball flashed white and vanished.

"That was an easy capture." Dawn remarked.

Just then another Pokemon suddenly wandered into the little clearing. The creature was a fairly small slug-like blob that was light purple on top and dark purple on the bottom. It had two beady black eyes and five large green dots on the sides of its body. On the top of what could be considered its head two four horn-like feelers, with the two in front being longer than the two at the back.

"Well, well. We're certainly gettin' a lot of luck on this li'l hunt." Muldoon whispered. "That there, missy is called a Goomy, a pretty rare Dragon-type Pokemon. The weather we got right now musta brought this one outta hidin'."

"Okay Piplup. Use Ice Beam on that Goomy." Dawn quietly ordered.

Piplup nodded and fired bolts of white electricity into the clearing, striking Goomy as it slowly slithered its way across. The dragon slug was hit in the side by the attack and frozen in a block of ice. Dawn threw another empty pokeball at Goomy. Goomy was pulled inside, and the ball only jiggled on the ground for a few moments before making the sound that signaled a completed capture. Soon after, the ball vanished with a flash of white light.

"Guess I'm two for two." Dawn observed. "I'm a little surprised that Goomy was such an easy catch though, since it's a dragon."

"Goomy are known for bein' the weakest Dragon Pokemon out there." Muldoon explained. "We're not too far from the beach. What say we take a break out there for a bite?"

"Sounds good." Dawn agreed.

With that, Dawn and Piplup followed Muldoon as he led the out of the forest to the section of beach on the outer rim of the island. When they exited the forest, they found a pair of large rocks on the beach and sat down on them to have their lunch, which they had brought with in three small bags that Muldoon had prepared earlier, one of which contained food for Piplup. They ate largely in silence. When Dawn had finished her meal, she pulled out her pink pokedex and began pressing a few buttons.

"Let's see… I think I'll send Togekiss and Pachirisu back to Professor Rowan's lab and send Dedenne and Goomy here." Dawn decided.

With the press of one final button, two of the pokeballs strapped to Dawn's belt glowed white and changed into the balls she had earlier used to capture Goomy and Dedenne. Dawn threw the two balls out and her two new Pokemon emerged.

"Hi there." Dawn greeted. "Sorry I was so rough on you two earlier. I'm Dawn, and this is Piplup."

After a moment, Dedenne scurried up to Dawn and crawled up her leg and onto her shoulder. Dawn smiled and patted the tiny electric mouse on the head. Piplup meanwhile went over and introduced himself to Goomy. The dragon slug brushed into Piplup in a friendly manner, causing a string of slimy mucus to form between them. Piplup let out a small cry of disgust.

"Ya don't often see trainers use the Pokemon transfer system built into their pokedex." Muldoon remarked. "Most of 'em just use the PCs in the Pokemon Centers."

"Yeah, well it's not like I have a lot of other options on this island." Dawn pointed out. "I'm pretty much cut off from the rest of the world until that supply ship gets here, and that's not going to be for a few weeks."

"Well, at least ya got a couple of new friends to enjoy yer say with." Muldoon pointed out as he pulled a flask out of his pack.

"True." Dawn replied. "So Mr. Muldoon, how long have you been working for Dr. Fuji?"

"Ever since 'e set up shop on this li'l island and began those daft experiments of 'is." Muldoon answered after taking a swig from his flask. "Before that, I was a deputy warden at the Kanto Safari Zone."

"Why'd you leave that job?" Dawn asked.

"Well missy… let's just say I was relieved of my duties because I overindulged a bit during an afternoon shift." Muldoon answered, shaking his flask a bit to explain what he meant. "And 'cause of that, a heard of Rhyhorn got loose an' almost ran over the chief warden's grandkid. I was sacked right 'ere on the spot."

"I'm… I'm sorry to hear that." Dawn told him, though she wasn't entirely truthful.

Muldoon waved his hand and took another swig from his flask. "T'was my own bloody fault. Besides, this job ain't all that bad. Pays better than my job at the Safari Zone. Wasn't quite what I was expectin' when I signed on though. Certainly never thought I'd 'ave to do any bloomin' housework, but then the ol' doc can only do so much with those gimp legs of 'is."

"Well, you certainly weren't what I expected you'd be when Dr. Fuji described you." Dawn admitted.

"An' just how did ol' Doc Fuji describe me?" Muldoon asked.

"Well… he called you his manservant." Dawn answered somewhat reluctantly.

Muldoon let out a deep hearty laugh. "Yeah? Well let the 'im think what he wants! He's completely bugger anyway!"

"Did… did you know that Dr. Fuji made another Pokemon like the one you battled before years ago?" Dawn asked.

Muldoon's expression became serious and he took yet another swig from his flask. "Yeah, 'e mentioned it to me once… when this whole thing started. The ol' doc's completely out a 'is mind, 'e is. An' what really makes 'im daft is that 'e don't see that girl 'e grew in that lab as a human bein'. To 'im, she's just some thing that 'e can toy with."

"What do you think about Amber? Do you think she's human?" Dawn asked.

"…Damed if I know." Muldoon answered. "She certainly didn't come into this world as a proper human ought to. What do you think, missy? Do you think she's a proper human bein'?"

"I think she is." Dawn answered. "But you're right… I don't think that Dr. Fuji sees Amber that way. And I'm pretty sure that something bad will happen because of it."

"To 'er or to us?" Muldoon asked.

"I don't know… maybe both." Dawn answered. "I just have a bad feeling about everything that's going on. The last time I bumped into Amber, she seemed so cold and distant. I think Dr. Fuji might be doing something bad to her."

"Yeah, well… there's not much we can do about it, missy." Muldoon told her as he got up. "Just sit back and wait things out 'til that ship get 'ere, that's my advice. As for me, I got me own coapin' mechanism right 'ere." The former safari warden shook his flask again to show what he was talking about. "Now, I think we should get back to the house before it starts to rain."

With that, Dawn called Goomy back to its ball and followed after Muldoon back to the forest with Piplup following close behind. She let Dedenne ride on her shoulder for the trip back. Dawn didn't entirely trust Muldoon, but she found that she felt better talking to someone besides Piplup about everything that was happening on the island. Of course she still didn't have a solution to the problem with Dr. Fuji, and it didn't seem like Muldoon was going to be much assistance. At that moment, Dawn was reluctant to do anything except wait and pray for the best.

As the rain started to come down outside, Zwei flew in through the large window of Amber's upstairs bedroom. The psychic feline had taken to exploring the island in the mornings out of sheer curiosity. Zwei found Amber still in her bed, lying in a fetal position. For the past two days, Zwei had been troubled by Amber's behavior ever since she started the solo experiments with Dr. Fuji. What was most troubling was that Amber had closed off her mind to her for some reason. Zwei decided at that moment that enough was enough. She needed to know what was wrong with her friend.

"Amber?" Zwei spoke. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Zwei. Just tired." Amber told her. "Father's last experiment went late last night, that's all."

"I do not believe you." Zwei told her. "I can tell that you've been in pain. Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

"I told you! I'm fine!" Amber insisted. "Now leave me alone!"

Zwei reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Amber, I'm very worried about you! Why won't you tell me what's wrong? Please… open your mind to me."

Amber sat up a little in her bed and nodded. Zwei peered into her green-haired trainer's mind. Suddenly the feline was assaulted by images of Amber strapped into some kind of chair with some kind of device on her head. She also felt the sensation of hot needles burrowing deep into her skull, the very pain that Amber was feeling in the visions. Zwei could also hear Amber's voice begging for her father to stop, but in the visions Dr. Fuji merely looked at the screen of a computer in the lab with a cold indifferent expression on his face.

Zwei quickly cut her mental link with Amber and cried out in anger. The large mirror on the dresser in Amber's room was suddenly shattered by an invisible force.

"How could he?" Zwei spoke with anger filling her voice. "I will tear Dr. Fuji to pieces!"

"No don't!" Amber begged as she grabbed hold of Zwei's arm. "Please Zwei! Don't hurt him."

"But Amber! He's hurting you!" Zwei pointed out.

"I know, but… he's still my father!" Amber told her with tears in her eyes. "That's why… that's why I shut myself off to you. I knew that if you found out what father was doing, you'd want to hurt him. And I… I don't want that to happen."

"Amber…" Zwei spoke, her expression softening.

Amber managed to compose herself a little. "I don't know what the purpose of father's experiments on is, but I'm sure there's a good reason behind them. So even though it hurts, I'm going to continue to help him with his work."

"…Very well." Zwei agreed after a moment. "I won't do anything to harm Dr. Fuji… at least for now. But if your life is in danger, I will act. You are my closest and only friend, Amber. I don't think I could take it if you were to die."

"Thank you for understanding, Zwei." Amber replied as she lied back down. "Now could you close the curtains? The light hurts my eyes right now."

Zwei turned to look at the curtains and her eyes began to glow, causing the curtains of the large window to shut on their own. Amber closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Zwei remained standing where she was and watched her trainer intently. She wanted to make sure that nothing happened to her while she was asleep.

It was the dead of night as Dawn shot up in her bed. She had just had a nightmare where Amber had Zwei pull Dr. Fuji's head off with her psychic powers and ordered the feline to do the same to her. Dawn realized that life on Dr. Fuji's island was starting to get to her. As she got out of bed, Dawn saw Piplup sleeping on his back in a corner of the room with Dedenne sleeping across his stomach. Despite Piplup getting upset about Dawn's comment about Dedenne earlier that morning before capturing him, the two Pokemon had ended up becoming friends very quickly. The sight of the two sleeping in a pile like that brought a smile to Dawn's face. Dawn decided that Piplup and Dedenne were too cute to wake up and got out of bed as quietly as she could.

After grabbing one of her pokeballs from the dresser, Dawn left the room and headed for Dr. Fuji's library. Even though she knew that the library was also the secret entrance to her host's lab, Dawn decided to try reading a dull book again to get back to sleep. It seemed impossible to get back to sleep any other way, not after the nightmare she had just experienced. When she got to the library, Dawn saw that the entrance to Dr. Fuji's lab had been left open. The blunette assumed that the scientist was so busy conducting another experiment that he forgot to close the door.

Dawn attempted to ignore the open lab and began searching the shelves for a book. Her search was interrupted though when she heard a scream come from inside the lab. She recognized that the scream was in Amber's voice. Dawn took a firm hold of the pokeball she had taken with her and dashed into the lab. Inside, she saw light coming from a smaller door in the corner of the lab that was open a crack. Without hesitating, Dawn burst through the door and was instantly shocked by what she saw in the room.

Amber was strapped into a reclined metal chair and had on some kind of strange metal helmet with thick cables leading back into the wall behind her. The helmet was giving off some sort of electrical discharges, and from the angle that Amber was leaning back, Dawn could see red laser beams inside the helmet that were firing into Amber's forehead. Whatever was happening seemed to be causing Amber great pain. As all this was going on, Dr. Fuji was at a computer station at a back corner of the room looking at a screen with a furrowed brow.

"I don't know what the hell is going on, but this has gone on long enough!" Dawn declared as she threw her pokeball. "Typhlosion! Spotlight!"

Bursting out of Dawn's thrown ball was a large creature that looked like a cross between a bear and badger. It was mostly dark-blue in color and had a cream-colored chest and stomach. Round red vents were around the back of the Pokemon's neck, and when it roared spiked flames erupted from those vents.

Dawn scanned the back of the room and saw what looked like some kind of fuse box mounted on the wall. "Typhlosion! Hit that box over there with Flamethrower!"

Typhlosion opened his mouth and breathed out a stream of red flames across the room and hit the box. As soon as the metal box was hit, it gave off sparks and the lights inside the room flickered. Soon after, the device that was on Amber's head stopped functioning.

Dr. Fuji scowled and wheeled away from the computer station. "Ms. Berlitz! While I appreciate your curiosity, this kind of interference is not something I tolerate!"

"What the hell were you doing to Amber?" Dawn demanded to know. "It looked like you were torturing her!"

"I was merely trying to stimulate Amber's psychic abilities!" Dr. Fuji explained as he went over and started undoing Amber's straps. "I will admit that the process is uncomfortable, but it is necessary if my work is to succeed! Now because of your heroics, my work will be set back for days, maybe longer! It all depends on how badly the damage you just did to my lab."

"Did you really expect me to just stand by and ignore you as you tortured Amber?" Dawn asked. "This… this whole thing is just twisted!"

"I don't expect someone like you to appreciate my work, Ms. Berlitz." Dr. Fuji told her. "I only expect you to not interfere."

"Like hell I won't!" Dawn shot back.

At that moment, Amber removed the helmet she had on and sat forward. "Dawn, please! Just do as my father asks. I know these experiments are painful, but I'm willing to endure them for his sake!"

"Amber… I don't think you realize who your father really is." Dawn told her. "Who you really are. And while I'm here, I can't let this thing go on! Now come with me! I'm getting you out of here!"

"I'm not going with you!" Amber told her.

"Amber…" Dawn began.

"I SAID NO!" Amber shouted. As she did, her eyes started to glow blue.

Suddenly Dawn was lifted off the ground by an invisible force and hurled into the wall behind her. Typhlosion roared at Amber, but the green-haired girl simply glared at the fire badger and hurled him against the wall he was standing in front of with the same psychic force, knocking him out cold. Amber's eyes stopped glowing and she let out a surprised gasp at what she had just done.

A triumphant smirk formed on Dr. Fuji's face. "Well Ms. Berlitz… it seems that I owe you a bit of an apology. Your interference tonight was just the stimulus Amber needed to trigger her psychic powers. Now, if you will excuse us… I have some notes to make. Amber, you can return to bed and we can begin the next phase of our experiments tomorrow."

Frightened, Dawn called Typhlosion back to his ball and ran from the lab as fast as she could. She didn't stop running until she reached the hallway where her room was. When Dawn went into her room, she saw that Piplup and Dedenne were still fast asleep as she set Typhlosion's pokeball back on the dresser. She then got back into bed and merely stared up at the ceiling. Dawn was at a total loss as to what to do. She knew that Dr. Fuji claimed that Amber had psychic powers of her own, but she never imagined that the green-haired clone could do anything that extreme. Her mind wandered back to her conversation with Muldoon before and how she said she thought that Amber was human despite how she was created in a lab. But after what had just happened, Dawn was no longer sure about that.

The only thing that Dawn was sure of was that what happened was probably going to give her a whole new set of nightmares.

Author's Note: Sorry if the scene with Dawn and Muldoon at the beginning of this chapter seemed out of place. It seemed like a good way to flesh out Muldoon's character a bit, plus it was a good way to put some new Pokemon on Dawn's team that I could bring back in future stories. I can probably get some pretty amusing scenes out of the tendency of Goomy's fully evolved form to hug its trainer and cover them in slime. Imagine that happening to someone like Dawn.

Please review and let me know what you think.