Unspecified time passed, but it felt like a long time. I went out of my body more and more frequently, and learned a bit more.
I assumed that the first few times had been during the night, because the lab seemed pretty busy at other times. Researchers in white lab coats kept running in and out, examining results and rushing off, all with a red "R" insignia on their coats.
Unfortunately, I couldn't hear in this "spiritual" form, but it was pretty easy to figure out that they were studying us. And not just studying… Editing. Altering. Meddling…
I knew that there were others, because I had seen their tanks, but my vision in this form was not good, and I couldn't make them out. Later however, I managed to make contact with them through telepathy.
It appeared that the others had gained psychic powers as well, and had been communicating with each other for some time. We didn't speak in words, but thoughts were communicated just as (if not more) effectively through thoughts and feelings.
Discovering the others was a great comfort. We managed to support each other in spite of our pain. It was hard to discern individual Pokemon in this "joint mind", but I could tell that Henry and Solar Wind (Illumination) were also there.
Oddly enough, the researchers couldn't detect our composite mind. Henry let me see what was happening to his body, and I could see that it was becoming elongated, serpentine, and small wings were starting to grow out of his neck.
Also, one of the Pokemon in the composite mind identified the researchers as those from Team Rocket. I also learned that the wood my family had been living in was right on the border of the two human regions, "Johto" and "Kanto". The two Galactic scouts had been sent to gather exotic Pokemon (and had succeeded, as me and Henry knew too well), and had shipped us to a large island in the north; Sinnoh.
It made me queasy to realize I was so far from home. Of course, nobody knew where we were now. Like me, they had all been knocked out prior to coming here.
And so it continued, the pain and monotonous observation, desperate to find something we hadn't noted before, but no new stuff came up. Every now and then, the scientists would adjust the flow of liquids in our tubes, but that was all. We couldn't read what was on the monitors because nobody in the composite mind could read human characters, but everybody was watching, with one mind always observing every few feet.
And then it happened.
All at once, the hive mind was cut off. I couldn't hear the others. After being with them for so long, being away from them was like having your arm cut off. I felt alone, and afraid.
I realized that I was no longer floating. The liquid was draining out of my containment tube. Once it was all out, the clear glass disappeared completely. The wires were still in my body. As terrified as I was, my first thought was to yank them out.
So I did. Using my bigger-than-used-to jaw, I tugged at the wires (which were of various sizes) from my body, which for some reason did not bleed. Alarms were going off, red lights flashing and a loud horn blaring. I could see and hear that the others had been released too, and were making a break for it. I tried to join them, but could barley make it down from what used to be the base of the tube, my muscles almost nonexistent after lack of use so long.
The rest is a blur. I don't remember much. I do distinctly remember collapsing in the cold snow, and muttering in impolite word I had learned from the humans into the snow.
But try as I might, I still couldn't remember how I got out of the lab.