CHAPTER THREE

I woke up again, exhausted as I normally was after the attacks, at around , I forced myself to sit up and then looked around the hospital room. I saw Jaeson staring out the window, and so I choked "Hi" out of my dry mouth.

He turned around and smiled, just a little, though even that much was a lot for him. "Good morning, kid. Welcome back to the world of the living." He walked over to me and handed over a glass of water, which I happily drank.

I smiled weakly back at him, saying, "Thanks. How many times in total did you shock me?"

Jaeson shifted his calculated gaze to stare at his feet. "Twenty-one. Plus I had to-" he stopped to look around, at the door, the window, etc., to make sure no one heard him- "use psychic to keep your heart beating for a while. You would've died without that."

I nodded, flinching inside. This disease... was hard. For me to live through, for Jaeson to watch me live through. "Thank you. And Jaeson..."

"What?" he asked, tensing slightly with worry and looking back at me.

I gritted my teeth before answering, "Maybe it's time you tell them what you really are. That you're a mewtwo."

He stared at me with his piercing purple eyes for a long time, and I wondered what he was thinking. Finally he asked, "What about you, Buizel Boy?"

I shook my head. "Not time yet. The other doctors don't respect me enough to accept it. They would accept you being a pokemorph, though. You've saved so, so many lives and each of these doctors and nurses and all the agents respect you. Many even look up to you. I don't have that yet, and until I do I think it's a bad idea, especially because there are a lot of people who don't like pokemorphs in the workforce."

Jaeson shook his head sadly. "I know all too well. There's even some here, for goodness' sakes. PIPA- Pokemon Interactions Protection Agency. Our whole job is to protect people and pokemon alike. Why they would be against morphs yet still work here, I wonder."

"Maybe it isn't pokemon nor humans they've a problem with. Maybe it's just when they are combined," I suggested. My voice sounded weak and disdained. One man- Caleb Jackson- was on our minds for certain. He knew Lightning and Blueaura were morphs, and never would he let them forget it.

"Maybe," Jaeson said slowly, nodding. "Hm." He shifted his purple piercing gaze back to whatever lied outside the window

LIGHTNING AND BLUEAURA were called to Doctor Kane Johnson at around seven that morning. Blueaura was actually the one called, but Lightning tagged along. She sensed trouble here. She and Jaeson agreed with almost everything, but this was one thing she could not. She didn't trust Johnson like he did.

"Hello, Blueaura," Johnson grinned. "Welcome back. First time here since you quit my special research, right?"

Blueaura nodded, eying the man carefully. He knew Lightning's judgement of the man as well as Jaeson's, but went with his girlfriend's just to be safe.

Johnson frowned as Lightning came into view. "I invited Blueaura, not you."

She smirked and crossed her arms. "Well, Blueaura invited me."

There was a small staredown before Johnson turned and walked into his office, beckoning the two behind him. They met a glance before cautiously following.

Johnson walked them to a door. He knocked on it and said, "Lucifer. Come out so I can show them the results of my research."

"Hang on," came the voice of a teenager, one that Lightning noticed was eerily familiar to Blueaura's when he was a kid. A moment later the door opened and a boy came out.

"What the hell?" Lightning demanded, shocked. This boy looked exactly like Blueaura, just when he was younger. The same dark blue hair, shocking ocean eyes, thin frame...

Blueaura, immensely shocked, looked from Johnson (who was grinning with joy) to Lightning (who was horrified) to the kid (who looked confused). "Is he my clone?"

"No. When he was fifteen, before he hit puberty, DNA was grafted into him. I-" Johnson began to explain.

"Does Jaeson know?" Lightning demanded, looking at the poor kid. She guessed he must have been through a lot... a lot a lot.

Johnson shook his head. "Jaeson-"

"Jaeson what?" Jaeson demanded, stalking into the room with Will on his heels.

Johnson went white.

Jaeson and Will both looked from Blueaura to the boy a few times.

"Oh, f***," Jaeson swore, obviously figuring something out right away. He looked at Johnson, his piercing, cold purple gaze intimidating. "That document you've been reviewing and revising. I was wondering how you got the information. You actually grafted DNA into this poor kid?"

Johnson shrunk under his boss's gaze. "I did."

"Whose DNA did you graft into him?" Jaeson demanded, then closed his eyes. "Please, please tell me it was only Blueaura's. Please."

"It was his, Lightning's, and Will's," Johnson said, then suddenly regained himself and stood tall. He explained very clearly which chromosomes he used and why. Apparently this kid could heal, use gained electricity (basically the ability lightningrod) and use Blueaura's enhanced auric abilities. "Isn't that amazing?"

Will looked horrified and Jaeson had tensed and snapped his eyes shut, thinking.

"What..." Lightning whispered, anger and fear mixing in her voice, as she began feeling the powerful emotions clutch at her heart, "What does that mean?"

Will swallowed. "It means he may get several serious complications from our DNA. Lightning, there is heart failure running in your genes, an increased cancer risk in Blueaura's, and... and..." He couldn't say it.

"And we are fairly certain Will's heart condition is in the chromosome Johnson grafted into the kid," Jaeson finished slowly. He opened his eyes, piercing stare now an angry glare. "He could get Will's heart condition, Johnson. Do you know what that means!?" he yelled. "Do you, Johnson? Will's last heart attack nearly killed him. We had to shock him with the defibrillator twenty-one times. Do you hear me? TWENTY-ONE TIMES. And now this kid's got an increased cancer and heart failure risk. You've basically killed this kid!" Jaeson's eyes burned with anger.

"Jaeson," Will said gently. Jaeson glanced at him but didn't answer. He turned his gaze to the kid, who looked terrified, and his gaze softened. "Kid, you are not going to die any time soon. I'll see to it." Jaeson shook his head suddenly, and his normal calm seriousness returned. "Johnson, I'd fire you if you didn't have tenure. I'd have to explain to the board exactly what you've done and then you'd probably get arrested, but, unfortunately, you know the most about this kid. You're being demoted to a clerk instead."

"You can't do that!" Johnson yelled, his eyes burning with outrage and his fists clenched at his side.

Jaeson's glare turned ice cold and his body stilled with the chill. "Oh, yes, I can. Did you have his parents' consent to do these tests?"

Johnson gave no answer.

"I thought not. Then you'll take the clerk job or you will be sued on the kid's right as well as get arrested as mentioned earlier," Jaeson responded, crossing his arms. His gaze softened again as he turned to the kid. "What's your name?"

"Lucifer," he answered shyly, obviously afraid of Jaeson.

"You named him Lucifer?" Lightning demanded, outraged. "You do know what that means in Christian religion, right?"

"I didn't name him," Johnson muttered.

"My mother did," Lucifer whispered, his soft voice abruptly quieting everyone. "On purpose. She would've signed everything anyway; she never cared about me."

Jaeson closed his eyes. "Whatever the story may be, you are here now and those papers were never signed. Do you wish to go back to her?"

Lucifer's eyes widened, and he shook once. "No. Please don't make me."

"You won't have to, kid," Jaeson said kindly. He turned to Lightning and Blueaura and asked, "Can you guys take him home with you until I find a better solution for him? He is not staying here with the monster who cursed him." Johnson flinched.

"Yes," Lightning answered right away. She felt for this kid. She'd grown up here, living in the cold white hospital room, and (not that she'd ever, ever tell anyone) every day she wished she could go home with someone like a mom or a dad. She didn't want this kid to have to feel the way she did: lonely, unwanted. Blueaura glanced at her as if to ask if she was ready. She determinedly met his gaze and then nodded.

"Can I go to school?" Lucifer asked randomly, looking hopeful. "I... I liked it when I was little. Before I came here. Mr. Johnson has been teaching me, but... but I'd like to go to a real school if I could."

Jaeson actually smiled a bit at him and answered, "Of course, kid. After what he probably did to you, anything you like we can probably get you." Jaeson sighed. "Especially because if we are right you can have a heart attack at any minute. I'm going to send you to a school where there are quite a few morphs and the nurse is someone I trust, okay?"

Lucifer nodded, then stared at the floor for a few moments, focusing his eyes on the carpeting. Finally he looked up at Jaeson. "Thanks. Am I..." he looked sheepish, "This is a stupid question, but tell me the truth. Am I going to die from this stuff?"

Jaeson paused for a moment, meeting the kid's small, innocent blue eyes with his intense purple gaze. The air stilled around them while he thought, and the kid wondered and feared for the answer until Jaeson responded, "Not if I have anything to do about it, kid."