Chapter 18: The Infinity Stone Experiment

Lloyd continued to dangle inches above the air, being taking who-knows-where despite his obvious struggle to get away.

Why is this happening to me... One day I'm a big and strong Raichu, then bam, a puny little Pichu!

Lloyd finally gave up squirming free and just hung their, hanging his head in defeat.

The Brotherhood members that caught him brought him up the elevator, which his new, much weaker form didn't enjoy at all, and then took him outside into the streets of Havok City.

A short walk from the HQ's entrance and they stopped in front of a lone building. The outside of building was colourful, the front bright blue, with the roof being and equally bright red. A sign hung over a door, reading 'Daycare'.

Life officially sucks...

---

"Hey, where's our mail?"

"It should have been here by now!"

"What's going on back there? Hey!"

Jennifer's job wasn't as easy as Isaac had thought, there were already teams arriving for their missions and Isaac wasn't even half finished distributing it. It wasn't helping that he now had dozens of pokemon yelling at him from the other side of the cubby holes.

"Hurry up will ya!"

"We should have been gone already! What's taking so long?"

"You couldn't be any slower!"

Isaac had enough, he couldn't concentrate with the constant yelling, so he went to the back room door and yelled out to everyone.

"Would you all shut up!!!"

Everybody went silent.

"Thank you, it'll be five, ten minutes tops, go do something or whatever and come back later!"

Isaac was surprised when they actually obeyed, everybody marched into the hallway not saying a word. He figured they weren't used to such aggression from the person distributing the mail, Jennifer was, from what Isaac knew about her, pretty much a passive pokemon.

Isaac, still frustrated by his work, continued to put mail in its proper slots, trying to move as quickly as possible before more pokemon came in to complain.

---

Lloyd couldn't believe his situation, he was now standing inside a big, fenced in room full of baby pokemon. He had no way to escape, no way to call for help, and it was only a matter of time before the kids took notice of his sudden arrival.

He looked around the room, hoping to find a place to hide. He saw a large toy house that would be perfect, if he could just reach it without being noticed he could think of a plan to get out of here.

That's when something pushed him, making fall over. One of the baby pokemon had noticed him, and wasn't being very friendly. Without getting up he looked at his assailant, it was one he was very familiar with from back in Celsius Cave, a Magby.

"I Don' Wike You."

Lloyd knew he couldn't talk it over, for multiple reasons, so he did the only thing he knew he still could do. He reached over with his foot and tripped the Magby, making it fall backwards very similarly to how Lloyd just had fallen over.

The Magby didn't get back up, instead he just began to cry and scream very loud. Lloyd got up and ran to the toy house before anyone else noticed what was going on. He ducked inside and peeked out the tiny window, a Chansey came to the gate that came across the door and opened the gate by pulling a level. Lloyd couldn't hear what the Chansey had said to Magby, but obviously it was trying to comfort it, she scooped it up and took it out front, closing the gate behind her, locking it by pulling the lever again.

Lloyd knew now how to get out, all he had to do was reach out for the lever that opened the gate, and sneak out while Chansey was busy with Magby.

He started to leave when something, or someone, grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the house. Lloyd fell over again, flat on his back staring up at an Igglybuff.

Lloyd freaked out when he saw what was in its hand, it somehow got a hold of a black, permanent marker, and she stood over him, marker open ready to draw.

"Play with me?"

Lloyd tried to get up and escape, but Igglybuff already began to draw on his face, doodling away like Lloyd was a piece of oddly shaped paper. After a moment, she stopped, and closed the marker.

"All done, your pretty now."

Lloyd was horrified, his faced was now covered in marks that would take hours to wash off. He couldn't stand this awful place anymore, and completely dropped the "sneak" part of the plan, bolting for the gate.

He got to the gate, reached through and pulled the level that kept the gate firmly in place. It dropped to the floor and fell forward, leaving no more obstacles between him and freedom.

Finally! Yeah! Time to get out...

"Thought you would try to escape again huh?"

Lloyd looked to his left, he saw the Chansey starting not two feet away, hands on her hips.

"Your being very naughty, maybe you need a nap young man!"

Lloyd tried to get to the door before she got to him, but she was too quick, obviously used to escapees. She grabbed him by the arm, lifted him up, and began to take him into the room she had just came out of.

Inside was a half dozen cribs, most contained a baby pokemon, each baby asleep. The Chansey put Lloyd, laying on his back, in one of the cribs.

"Now get some sleep, no more running off today!"

The Chansey said everything in an annoyingly cheerful voice. Lloyd wanted nothing more then for her to leave, which thankfully she did, leaving him alone in the room with the other nappers.

He looked around his new prison, not seeing anyway to escape. There was no knobs, levers or buttons within reach that might have helped him. Nothing was there except surrounding wooden poles, a blanket and pillow, and a nearby doll of a Clefairy. The doll creped him out slightly, so he immediately tossed it out of the crib.

Great, I'm trapped in baby prison, can't talk, can't use any of my abilities, and nobody who can help me knows I'm here. How could this get any worse?

"It can't, and it won't, I'm here to help."

Lloyd recognized the voice, it was the one from Tesla Depths, the one that told him to do this in the first place. He tried to yell out to it, but nothing came out of his mouth, he forgot about not being able to speak.

"Just think, you don't need to speak with me."

Who are you? And what's going on?

"Its too early for me to tell you about myself, but what I can tell you is why you have experienced de-evolution. First, I must explain the reason behind your evolution into Raichu. Inside your body is a special, artificially created stone called an "Infinity Stone", normally infinity stones are used to evolve anybody, no matter the requirements the pokemon must have to evolve."

There's a rock inside me? How is that possible?

"An experiment, soon before you lost your memory, you were part of an experiment. The goal was to create a pokemon that could evolve and devolve at will, with as little effort as turning a light switch. The experiment failed, but not completely, you are still capable of evolving and devolving, but your evolution is uncontrollable, and your de-evolution is a side effect. Any time your body experiences a high amount of stress or pain, the stone will automatically activate itself, causing you to evolve. Unfortunately, once you go to sleep, the stone also, in a way, sleeps. Why exactly you devolve twice is unknown."

Is that why you made me walk across that electrified floor in Tesla Depths? To show me my power?

"Do you not remember my words?"

Lloyd thought back to yesterday, remembering the things the voice told him.

"You're the only one Lloyd, your special, nobody else would last more then a few seconds. Think of this as a test, a test with a reward at the end."

"The only way you can learn to use it, is to call on it. One day you'll need this power, and you'll thank me."

"This is your power Lloyd, this is the power you will call on when you need it most. You will definitely need it in the future."

Yeah, I remember. But you said I needed to learn to use it, to call upon it, not have myself electrocuted just to evolve for a few hours!

"I know, and you still can, if I'm correct, if you get used to the sensation of evolving, you may one day be able to do it anytime, and with enough practice and strength, without becoming what you are now."

Ok, so basically, this happens because I'm an experiment, and it only happens when im stressed out and hurting and stuff, but I can change that by doing it a bunch of times and making myself stronger.

"Yes."

Ok, but who did the experiments? And why? And you mentioned my memory, do you know who I am or how I can remember again?

"I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you these things yet. You must wait until the appropriate time, please trust me."

Trust you? I don't even know you? Who are you?

"Someone you used to know very well."

Huh? What do you mean?

But the voice was gone, he didn't hear a single response.

Great, now what?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the glowing ball that he saw before and after hearing the voice the first time appeared. Before his eyes it transformed into a small metal tool, a miniature saw. It was obvious what he was supposed to do, he picked up the tiny metal saw and began to cut the wooden poles of the crib. Five minutes later he was free, Chansey nowhere in sight.

Better get out of here, before I get in any more trouble.

"One last thing, when you get back to the Brotherhood Headquarters, go straight to your room, and rest in your bed until your friends wake you. And I would wait before telling your friends anything, your Chikorita friend is going to have a lot to deal with very soon."

Lloyd didn't even bother to think anything in response, he new this was all the voice was going to tell him. He hopped down to the floor, quietly walked to the door out of the daycare, opened the door and ran as fast as he could towards the Brotherhood HQ.

---

Isaac finally finished the mail distribution, he looked at the clock, it was exactly noon. He had to hurry back to Team Valiant's room, so he decided not to go down to visit Jennifer again, he could see her when he got back from what ever their mission was.

Only one letter, obviously their mission. He pulled it out of the cubby and went straight out of the mail room and towards room 160.

---

Rita was on her way back to their room when she spotted Ewan along the way. He didn't seem to notice her as she approached.

"Hey, Ewan!"

"What? Oh its you! Hey Rita."

"Listen, you seem to know a lot of stuff, what do you know about the royal family on Oasis Island?"

"That's a bit of a random question, isn't it? Well, they run the entire island, making all the major decisions and stuff, the roll of leader being passed down to the next generation of the family. Right now the rulers are King and Queen Tropica, who've been in charge of Oasis Island for about... 30 years? That's all I know really, why'd you want to know?"

"Its a secret, and thanks."

Rita left it at that and moved on, continuing to go to her room to find Isaac and Lloyd.

"Eh, your welcome? That girl sure is something all right."

Ewan just shook his head and did the same as her, continuing to move on to where ever he was going.

---

Lloyd opened the door, which again required him to use all his strength to do, and looked inside. Both Isaac and Rita were gone, not a sign of them or where they went.

Nothing to do but do as what that voice told me to do, time for a nap.

Lloyd crawled into bed, and immediately went to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, Isaac opened the door and sneaked inside. He looked at both beds, Rita was gone and Lloyd was asleep.

Perfect. He thought to himself. Once again I didn't get caught!

Right then, the door opened again, Rita quickly came in, not closing the door behind her.

"Isaac! Where were you?"

"Uhh... Food?"

"... Whatever, get ready, we gotta go."

"Where? I have our mission right here!"

"Crud, I forgot about our mission... Uhh. Maybe you can do it yourself? This is kinda an emergency."

"Myself? But wait I..."

"Good, get ready then, I'm taking Lloyd."

Isaac just stood their, at first he was saddened about going alone, but then he got a great idea. The perfect was to get to be better friends with Jennifer.

"All righty then. See you later!"

"Its gonna be a few days, so don't freak out or anything if we're not back in two or three days ok?"

"Hehe, no problem."

Isaac went over to one of the dressers, and began to pack a bag. Meanwhile, Rita was over on her bed, holding a book. Isaac turned around and looked at her, still packing.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Waking up Lloyd."

She threw the book, hitting Lloyd right where his head should be. Out from under the covers, a bolt of electricity flew upward, harmlessly hitting the ceiling.

"Ah, what the heck was that?"

Lloyd got up, and everyone, including Lloyd, was shocked to see what he was. Lloyd had returned to his original form, a Pikachu.

"Whew! This is great!" Said Lloyd.

Rita was confused by his enthusiasm. "Uh, your happy you devolved? Why did you devolve anyways?"

Lloyd forgot, they never knew about him turning into a Pichu.

"Ah, nevermind, and I don't know. Don't worry though, I missed my old body anyways."

Lloyd expected Rita to continue to badger him about it, but instead she dropped the subject and pulled Lloyd out of bed.

"That's great, come on, we gotta boat to catch."

"Wait what?"

Rita didn't explain, she just pulled him out the door and closed it behind her, leaving Isaac alone once again.

Finally, the perfect time to be alone with Jessica, I hope she says yes!

Isaac left the room as well, a bag filled with supplies, more then enough for a single pokemon.