"Any word?"

"Look, Simon, I'm sure she's fine."

"How can you be sure? Her team hasn't checked in, they're way overdue, no word. They got snatched, I'm telling you!"

"They didn't get snatched, they had Al with 'em. That Electa-lug woulda shocked the hell out of anything that came near 'em, or punched 'em if they got too close."

"Then why haven't we heard anything?"

"Hey, I'm just as worried as you are. It's odd, I know, but maybe something came up. If they've not contacted in a few days, I'm sure Kane'll send a team after them."

"Kane'll just solve all our problems, huh? That's what everyone seems to think around here. Kane this, Kane that, Kane can-"

"Yes?"

The teenage Persian morph jolted, his cream-colored hair falling in front of his face as his black-tipped ears twitched in response to the sound of their commander's voice so near.

"Sir, I-"

"Simon," the Hitmonchan morph said tenderly, putting a hand on the Persian's shoulder. The other speaker shifted away from the scene with a half wave, disappearing around a corner, excusing himself.

"We're all worried. I've already sent a few of our Fliers to go look for them," Kane admitted. Simon's eyes widened. Then his brow furrowed and he looked at him levelly.

"Then why wasn't an announcement made?"

Kane's eyes flicked away from Simon's, and he understood: they had gotten word back, and it wasn't good news.

"Where is she?" he asked, his voice rising. Kane gave him a look that told him he did not like his tone, and the grip on his shoulder tightened. Simon remembered who he was talking to, and backed down.

"I don't know. All we know is that they left Lilycove three days ago, and no one's seen them since."

Simon sank back out of Kane's reach and into the wall. Alice was his whole world. They'd come to this place together, to live out their lives in a place they didn't have to hide...where he didn't have to hide. And now this lifestyle had taken its payment, and she was missing. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kane, already turned away, cut him off.

"I've already assigned you to the search party we're sending out on foot." He paused, as if about to add something, but simply walked around the corner from where he'd come, leaving Simon huddled against the wall, hugging himself, and vowing to find her and bring her home.

He opened his eyes, then shut them again. He'd never seen anyplace this white before; it was like staring up at a cloud, except it covered your whole eye, and it was room-shaped, and smelled bad and stung your nose, instead of smelling like fresh grass and sunlight.

There was a hum in the air, like a Beedrill was hovering nearby, but quieter. He pried one eye open and looked around. Just...whiteness. Warm, static whiteness. Not like winter (why had he thought of a cloud first? Was it the temperature?). Winter was nice, felt good under your paws, made everything new and equal and sparkly. This was...just not nice at all.

He sat up and tilted his head to the sky. No clouds; just more whiteness. His keen eyes adjusted; tiles? In the ceiling? Little lights embedded in it, with glass in front of them.

But that smell! What was this awful place?

"Hello?" he called out to the ceiling, to no one in particular. No answer.

Then, panic gripped him. He didn't have his bag; his Pokémon were in there! He leapt up, growling, ears flattened against his head. His suspicions confirmed; this place was hostile.

He turned. One wall open, completely freeing him to the pale blue hallway outside! He lunged at it, and was knocked back by an invisible force. It hurt, and he howled like an animal, shuddering.

He rolled onto his side and was face to face with a familiar-smelling, familiar-looking girl. Her soft, reddish brown hair fell around her face, disheveled, eyelashes quivering with the disturbance of his cry.

"Alice!" Kieran said, recognizing her as the human from his team. He shook her gently, and was met with a groan not from her, but from his other side. He turned to see Kip, sprawled on the ground and groaning, his eyes opening slowly towards the ceiling. His head turned.

"Midget? S'that you?"

Kieran let it slide and turned back to Alice. He shook her again gently, and this time she roused. Her eyes fell on his face and relaxed with the recognition of her waker, but she stiffened when she realized the rest of her surroundings. She sat up too quickly and swayed; he held her up until she steadied.

"Elaine!" Alice cried out, and rushed behind Kieran to the fourth body in the room, the Furret Morph. She was still out cold, so Alice moved her into a more comfortable sleeping position against the wall. Kip, meanwhile, had moved to a sitting position, and was staring around at the room with a mixture of fear and hostility on his face.

"You know where we are, man?" Kieran asked, shuffling over to sit next to him.

"Where's Al?" Alice asked, sounding scared. Nobody had an answer for her; they all just sat in silence.

"Kip? Dude, where are we?" Kieran repeated. Kip set his jaw.

"Hell," he said ominously, staring past all of them. They were about to question him further, but a woman's voice stopped them. They turned to the opening of the room, where a girl with red and white hair was looking at them with emotionless eyes.

"You're awake…" she said, softly. The labcoat she wore buttoned swished around her ankles as she moved to the door lock. Everyone held their breath.

"I need the sleeping one," she said, in the same level, quiet tone. Instantly Kieran transformed and leapt in front of the sleeping Elaine, snarling and tense. Kip jumped up too, instinctively reaching for his belt, and his eyes went wide when he found his Pokéballs were missing as well.

"What have you done with them, Four?" he shouted. Kieran paused at the number, but the girl replied.

"Your Pokémon are safe in holding. Your Lugia is sedated for her violence. We noticed you were missing one. Where is the Houndoom?" She glanced at Kieran. "There was also a small, unidentified object we took from the Mightyena. What is it?"

We must be at the Lab that made Gaby! Kieran finally realised. He barked his namesake at her menacingly and kept up his guard. He was pissed that they took the Gengar heart he'd obtained during the Nightmare, but that was the least of his problems right now.

Kip, meanwhile, stared at her stonily. Did she know about his powers? No...his telekinesis had only developed after the Nightmare incident; he hadn't seen either of Sakio's mock-children since then. If she opened the door, if he could catch her off guard…

"There's no need for violence, Mightyena," 004 said.

He simply Howled and felt his strength bolstering. She frowned and drew a disruption pistol. Kip blinked at this; he'd never seen anyone at this lab have any kind of weapon before…

"I'm coming in. This is set to temporarily paralyse you, but undue strain is not recommended for your already weakened bodies."

She keyed in the password that shut the forcefield down, then flashed out her hand. A wave of telekinesis pushed Kip back into a wall before he could get his own attack out, and rooted Alice as well. Kieran, unaffected by the Psychic wave, leapt at her in a Bite attack as she approached Elaine. She fired expertly and stepped aside as he fell hard to the ground, unconscious.

Kip took his chance. He mentally sent 004 flying into a wall, knocking the pistol from her hand. Eerily, she didn't make a sound at the impact, but her concentration broke enough to let him wrench himself free of her mind-grip and set up a barrier to protect him. He dove for the pistol and grabbed it, pointing at her. She raised her hands in submission, her still blank expression unnerving him.

"Give it to me," Alice said, also free of 004's grasp. Kip looked at her, wary. She gave him a grin. "My dad's in the Hoenn navy, military all his life. I know how to handle that better than you, Kip Veeson."

"W-What?" he asked, momentarily distracted. She checked the gun and upped the settings, tossing her hair behind her as she trained it on the Latias morph in front of them.

"Grew up closer to the ocean than you, in Lilycove, on a high hill. Different neighbourhood, same city. I recognise you from trainer school, though," she smiled at him. "Good to have a neighbour in times of trouble!"

She set her eyes on 004 and her demeanour completely changed; militarily she ordered 004 to pretend to be leading them to the medical facilities to treat Kieran, and then to be taking the rest of the prisoners to see her boss. She would instead take them outside and follow them for several miles, and only then would she be released. Kip was impressed with her quick thinking, and hoisted Kieran over his shoulders. He then levitated Elaine up in front of him, and they marched out of the room, 004 in front, Alice behind with the pistol hidden in her pants, the floating Elaine after her and the laden Kip in the rear.

They passed a few scientists in the hallways; none stopped them, though a few gave Kip curious looks. Alice stared pointedly at the Morph in front of her, watching for the slightest sign of resistance, which was a good thing, since she was spared from the horrors in the cells to their left and right.

Morphs, humans, all were clustered together, sometimes as many as six to a small cell. Some still had resistance in them, and hollered as they passed by; others looked resigned, or too sick to react.

"Father."

Kip froze. There was Sakio, examining a computer monitor, just as they entered the main dome area. He took one look at them all, and before Kip or anyone could react, his hand was thrust out towards them, and Alice and Kip were in the air, frozen, Kip's barrier shattered easily. Elaine fell to the ground, as did Kieran off Kip's shoulders. Alice cried in vain and her eyes darted left and right, but to no avail; all her struggling wouldn't move her an inch. Kip could feel the power in his abilities; it was unreal, way stronger than his own or Seth's or even Gaby's; it was complete, precise, powerful.

"Jailbreak?" He asked. 004 nodded.

"The human, Kip. He's developed psychic abilities since last time. He caught me off guard. She took my disruptor and-"

"It's alright sweetheart," he said, cutting her off softly. "You didn't do anything wrong. Kip, how did you come by those powers?" he asked, as he lowered them both to the ground gently.

"None of your business," he answered, but with a hint of confusion in his voice. Something was definitely changed. Dr. Sakio wasn't grinning triumphantly as he normally would have been at foiling their escape for once. He seemed almost...angry? Was it because they had gotten this far? Or was it something else.

"I see. It is actually rather my business," he said, as he levitated the pistol out from Alice's waistband and onto the table, "But I can understand why you wouldn't want to share that information with me." He smiled, a little sadly.

That was weird. Kip was bewildered; everything about the evil man seemed different, tweaked, and it irked him. But before he could ask anything, an unfamiliar, deep voice spoke from his left.

"Is there a problem, Doctor?"

Sakio stiffened, and motioned hurriedly to 004. She nodded, and they were all lead rapidly back the way they had come, leaving Elaine and Kieran where they lay. Kip tried to turn back to see the owner of the voice, but the door shut behind them before he could glimpse more than a tall man standing by Sakio, with the look on Sakio's face being one of utmost repressed loathing.

What the hell is going on?

"Gaby?"

She whipped around, covering herself. She'd been swimming with her Pokémon in one of the caves' large pools, and had transformed to stretch her wings and feel the raw energy of her Lugia body in a way she so rarely could do. That had meant being naked except for her bandana upon retaking her humanoid form, which was fine with just her Pokémon for company…

..But very much not okay when morphs of the Sandslash variety come waltzing in. In this case, just one particularly cute one.

"ARCEUS, TYSON, G-GET OUT!" She yelled, sinking down under the water. Her voice echoed around the cavern, amplifying it. Tyson's tan face darkened a bit and he whipped around to face the wall. Gaby swam to the edge and peeked over.

"The hell do you want at this time of morning? How did you even know I'd be here?"

"You weren't in your room," he said nervously to the wall.

"So you thought it'd be okay to just burst in on me here?"

"Well I didn't think you'd be naked! We have baths, you know, if you wanna-"

"I KNOW that, dumbass!"

"Then why are you skinnydipping?" he asked, unable to stop himself from chuckling. "Not to say that you don't have the body for it-"

"How much did you see?" she said, face blazing red. He laughed.

"Nothing! Your back was turned; your hair's really long; covers most everything."

She eyed him, returning the favour of unknown observation. He had a nice form; his back was a coppery brown like the rest of him, the Sandslash spikes on half his body sloping downward from his shoulders, a small, pointed tail poking out from his jeans...

"Helloooo?" he asked, after several moments of silence. Gaby caught herself grinning, blinked, and frowned instead. "Can I, like, turn around now? Are you gonna put some clothes on or something? This wall isn't particularly interesting."

"Don't turn around," she mumbled. She climbed out of the water and wrung out her hair. Silversong rested in the pool behind her as she redressed, eyeing between the two of them with a look of interest.

"Alright," she announced, and he turned. He was grinning.

"So, do you have a good reason for interrupting me at 4 in the morning?" she asked, arms crossed. Her tail snaked around her leg, the fins on the end waving at him.

"Well…" he suddenly frowned. She sensed bad news.

"Spit it out," she said quickly. She knew it had to be about Kieran…

"Preliminary report got back, no sign of any of them, and...they left…well..." he sighed, and paused, as if trying to find the best way to say the worst.

"Say it!"

"The explosion was centred in Lilycove City," he said.

Kip.

"How bad was it?" she asked, numb.

Kip.

"Awful. Huge casualties. Apparently they waited till help came and firebombed the place a second time."

Kip…

"...So they're dead?"

"No! At least, they were alive when they left Lilycove. But something happened between there and here, because now they're off the map."

Her heart lightened, just a little. She pressed him for details.

"In Lilycove, did...Any word about Veesons or a Kip?" she asked anxiously.

"Right...That boy from before," he said. There was a tinge to his voice that confused Gaby, but he spoke again before she could identify it. "No idea. I'm sorry."

She knew the shots were slim for news on him. Could he have escaped the attack? What about his parents? She suddenly felt sick, remembering how hospitable the people had been when she'd been there.

Oh no...

"Why were they attacked?"

"We're guessing because…" he hesitated again. She finished his sentence after the uncomfortable silence had gone on long enough.

"Because of us. Sympathisers. Whoever did it is targeting us and people who've given us shelter." She turned on her heel and swore, frustrated. "So we have no idea where Kieran and the others are?"

"No. Completely gone. Fliers searched for days. They should have been back by now, which means something grabbed 'em or they've been otherwise delayed…"

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and blinked up at him. He was looking at her with soft black eyes. She felt her heart skip; his hand was warm and dry on her cold, wet t-shirted shoulder.

"We've not given up yet, Gaby. Kane's sending out a team to find 'em. I'm leading it. I came really to ask if you wanted to come along."

"Yes," she answered instantly. "When do we leave?"

"Few hours, once light's come. It's you, me, and couple other people. Nothing big, gotta stay discrete."

"Oh, yeah, you're real discrete," she said, managing to crack a smile, running a hand over one of the spines by his shoulder.

It fell off.

She shrieked and threw it to the floor.

"WHAT?"

"It's okay!"

"I'M SO SORRY!"

"Gaby-"

"AHH!"

"It's okay! They do that!" he said, laughing. She stared from him to the spine, breathing hard.

"They just...DO THAT?"

"Yeah...old spikes fall off, new ones grow back."

"That's not healthy."

"It's totally healthy!"

"If bits of me just fell off when I touched 'em, I'd get pretty worried."

"...Maybe we should test them then?" he asked, giving her a sly look and a hungry grin. She stared at him.

"Oh my Arceus, you pervert."

With that, she turned and recalled all her team to their balls to prepare them for the journey, including Silversong, who shot a message at her just before he disappeared.

"I'm pretty sure he likes you."

"SHUT. UP."

Aw yeah. It's not a year. Sweet!

Bit of fluff in that one, eh? I wonder if I'm gonna get hatemail…

And big things coming up in Rogue Genetics!

Love you all! Still send in your suggestions and ideas and art and fanstuff if you've got any!

- M. "R.T." C.