I do not own Pokemon
Somewhere in tha caves of Mount Moon
Parker followed the cables until he reached a large room with a few computers and three large vats, now shattered, with large quantities of stagnant water still inside, mold clinging to any surface they could get a grip onto to feast upon the foul liquid.
He approached one of the computers and booted it up, only to be met by a familiar red R with a black background. He smiled. He wasn't sure if his Rocket credentials would grant him access, but fortunately for him, they did. The computer was obviously used to monitor whatever the vats were supposed to contain, and whatever that was, it had to be important. Important enough to grant him a pardon? Probably not, but important enough to be worth some cash? Most likely. He started to check out the experiment data, but he soon discovered that the folder was locked by another security check. Unfortunately, this time his access level was too low. He glanced at the desk, hoping for some conveniently placed credentials with a high clearance level, but he found none. A shame. He could potentially take out the memory of the computer, but he honestly had no idea where that thing was supposed to be or what it looked like. He could try yanking out a random piece from the computer and hope for the best, but that kind of luck only happens in movies. Besides, pulling random parts of an old computer could corrupt the data, and trying to sell damaged files could irritate the wrong kind of people... It was a gamble, but Parker didn't like his odd. With his limited clearance, he started to open up the few files he could, mostly cleaning schedules for the maintenance crew, a handful of personal files of the five or six people that were working at the facility and, to his shock, the complete log of the past four and a half months, tucked away in a folder perfectly accessible from the desktop and separated from the previous logs.
"That's… unusual" He muttered, opening the folder.
He started to explore the various sub-folders, shocked to find everything, from a food storage inventory to a collection of experiment files titled 'Project Dome'. To make a weird discovery even weirder, it was blatantly obvious that none of those files followed any kind of official regulation. What kind of idiot uses a One Note to keep inventory? It was like a janitor had decided to take over. It couldn't have been, right? He started to look at the files available on Project Dome, and all of a sudden his theory wasn't as far fetched as he first thought. Whoever was in charge of the project had clearly been around these machines, but it was also abundantly clear that they had no clue as to how the machine actually worked.
Essentially, a janitor was playing scientist.
And worst, if the reports were to be believed, he was slowly stumbling his way into… creating something? Some kind of genetic experiment, from the language used, but that was the most that Parker was able to recognize. The janitor's frustration with the lack of results was clearly growing by the day, but he was making progress. Mostly by dumb luck, if Parker had to take a guess, but about a month ago, he was able to make something living. His eyes glanced at the broken vats. Something that had most likely broken free.
This 'scientist' often talked about disposing of undesired results into what was referred as 'the shit pit', perhaps examining that place would provide more detailed information. Not that wanted to get anywhere close to a place called 'the shit pit', but these entries were rather concerning, and he desperately needed more information. For Arceus's sake, this glorified janitor turned mad scientist seemed to go out of their way to be as vague as possible, referring to their subject with a number. Parker wasn't even sure if the test subjects were humans, pokemons or even just a theoretical patient conjured in this moron's head.
He took a deep sigh and frowned, looking at his pokemons sitting in a corner, bored after exploring the room.
"Let's go." said Parker, his tone a bit more serious than what he intended, unsheathing his sword as he led the way.
He walked around a little more, following the power lines. After checking a couple of alcoves the previous Rocket team used as bedrooms, now containing nothing but broken bed frames and night tables, he opened a metal door, sword raised to strike whatever creature was hiding inside. Immediately he was hit by the stench of decomposition and had to do a double take before he could take a step inside and turn on the light switch.
This place clearly used to be a bathroom of sorts, but it seemed like at some point it had stopped working, probably because of the decomposing mass that was clogging the drain.
It was horrifying to look at: mutated creatures with multiple eyes, deformed exoskeletons with claws and legs growing out of their faces, heads grown far too big for the rest of the body, one mandible grown five times the size of its counterpart, and most of all, orange mushrooms growing on the creature's body.
Parker closed the door. These corpses hadn't left him a single clue as to what the hell this Project Dome was supposed to accomplish, but whatever that thing was, he had no intention to see the kind of Cronenberg monster this self-proclaimed scientist had conjured up. That nonsense could stay in the shit pit where it belonged.
After that stomach-turning vision, the trio continued to follow the electric cables, in the hope to find a kitchen to gather some additional camping gear, a water container and a pot being probably the single most important piece of equipment he was currently lacking. With the aura uneasiness that the logs and the nauseating pile of bodies had casted upon him, Parker didn't dare let go of the sword, using the tip to push doors open and immediately raising his guard to strike at any potential assailant.
After searching for what appeared to be hours, they finally found what they were looking for: a small room with a simple electric oven, a fridge and a sink. He started to rummage through, finding a large collection of pots and pants, as well as a few kitchen knives, wooden ladles and plates. He packed three pots, a couple of thermos, a ladle and two knives into his gym bag. One of the knives was serrated and even though it wasn't exactly a saw, Parker figured it could be used as one rather easily.
Unfortunately for him, the fridge and the cupboard were equally barren, but overall he was pretty satisfied with his loot. As he was finishing packing, he noticed Vike suddenly becoming alert. He glanced at the Zubat and jumped to his feet, hiding next to the kitchen entrance with the sword raised.
"Pan, get ready. Something's not right."
The Nidoran nodded, imitating her trainer with claws at the ready.
They heard something from the corridor, the hard tapping of insectoid legs over stones, the scraping sound of claws being over the rocks, the squelching sound of something soft and gooey being dragged over the floor. Nothing about these sounds promised anything good.
A creature moved into the doorframe, a huge twisted red deformed carapace, with holes oozing black goo was hiding the deformed body underneath. Too many legs to count, many way too different from the rest to be functional. A pair of massive, deformed crab-like pincers were sharpened, like some sort of deformed ax blade. The face of this pokemon… no, this creature carried two milky-white eyes, now staring at the kitchen.
Before any of them could react, the creature opened its mouth with a gurgling noise, shooting a compressed jet of water straight at Parker, pushing him back slamming against the counter. Vike dove down, chomping onto one the creature's legs, draining its blood.
"Pan, Growl!" shouted Parker, leering at the monster in anger.
Uncaring about their moves, the monster twitched, releasing a puff of black dust that covered Vike, forcing him to release his grip. Vike sputtered for a second, before stopping and falling onto the ground, fast asleep. Parker charged, sword swinging against the hard carapace, landing a visible gush against its exoskeleton, oozing a foul yellow liquid.
Pan jumped in front of the creature, wagging its tail in mockery in an attempt to distract it from the wounded Parker and the sleeping Vike. The creature dashed at the Nidoran, his claws now opened to reveal themselves filled with a black viscous goo, slashing at their target in a cross motion, opening an X-shaped cut on her left side. Stepping behind the thing, Parker stabbed at it, his sword digging deep into the monster, who barely seemed to notice the weapon impaling him. Pan jumped at him, furiously swiping at the creature's face. One lucky strike severed something, and Pan was covered in a sticky substance. With a screech, the wild beast swung its claws again, opening another cut into the Nidoran's side, only to lose its balance for a second at the now awake Zubat blasting supersonic waves at it.
Once again, Parker plunged his sword into the monstrosity's side. With a deathly glare, the creature blasted Parker again with a powerful jet of water, slamming him against the fridge and causing him to fall, dropping his sword from the sheer strength of the impact. He knew that he couldn't take another hit. He had to let his pokemons handle the rest of the fight while he stayed back and Leered at the monster.
Without hesitation, Vike sank his fangs into the creature's side, right where Parker had stabbed him and started to bleed the creature out. Still trapped in the weird substance, Pan could not free her own claws. Growling in frustration, she threw herself at the creature, slamming against his frame with her poison-coated stinger. With a growl, the creature regained control over its senses, snapping out of its nausea. Its mouth parted ways, revealing a long proboscis that impacted the Nidoran, stabbing into her cross wound and the monster started to absorb her energy. With a vicious screech, Vike grabbed something within the monster and pulled, ripping it out and spurting red and viscous blood everywhere in the room. With one last twitch, the pokemon clawed at the Zubat, launching Vike up in the air, only for the pokemon to turn and swipe down, one last blow with its twin tails that knocked the creature down for good. Not willing to risk such a monster getting up, Parker moved forward, sword raised in a swift motion and slammed it on the creature's exoskeleton, cracking it and exposing its neck. With a war cry, the sword swung again, decapitating the monster.
Notes
A bit of a different style than what I usually write, but I hope you liked it. I think the specifics of what happened are pretty obvious, but in case it wasn't: after Red took the Helix fossil (PRAISE THE HELIX!), the revival project was officially abandoned, but someone decided to continue it with... less than stellar results. If you are interested in the mechanics of the fight, I took inspiration from Pokemon Infinite Fusion and used a level 24 Kabusect (Fusion between Kabuto and Parasect) vs lvl 15 Vike + Parker + Pan
Hope you enjoyed this little excursion into my horror experiment, from next week forward we'll go back to something a bit more in line with the previous chapters