As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 90 there... And if you guys haven't seen an update in at least a week, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get distracted and forget things. This story (and PTaL) are supposed to be updated WEEKLY from now until they're both caught up with each other (like I was doing with FwB until this weekend).

And if you're just interested in discussing things with other readers, of course, you can go to my DISCORD here: h- t_ t_ p-s -: -/ -/ -discord . g-g / N9yDA8t6Cw (taking out hyphens, underscores, and spaces of course).

You can also read my ORIGINAL FICTION on Kindle. If you've got Kindle Unlimited, they're all free. Here's my author page, h-t_t_p-s -:- /-/ tinyurl _._ com /- 4ffb7wph with links to everything published. (Remove all Hyphens, Spaces, and Underscores, of course... 'cause Ffnet.)

FINALLY, my Pa tree on is back up, under a new name (same management)! Dot Com, Slash WildErotica, for all those who would like to support but can't, or won't, use Sub Star for whatever reason. Follow the links there for access. I won't be posting there frequently or directly any more, but the links will take you to the same posts everyone else who has early access sees. :)

Chap. 67: Cold Hard Truth?

"They're what?" Megumi hissed.

Elle shrugged, repeating what Alex had told her in a low voice as they walked the tree-lined, canal- and stream-riddled streets of Cerulean City. "They injected our real bodies, back home, with Ditto DNA, too. None of us are sure why, since Robin says the trait breeds true and it'd destroy baseline humanity- eventually- if one of us got out and had a kid. But yeah, apparently, they're turning all of our real bodies into Combinant bodies, like we just learned these ones are."

Their friend looked decidedly green. Alex had told her that way so she could decide if Kinta, who was still a kid younger than Elle, needed to know. If Alex had to guess based on her reaction, that would be no, not for a long time. "I know, I'm pissed about it too," he growled, "but apparently there's nothing we can do. Part of the paperwork they had a sign was a 'any medical procedure GF deems necessary'. I'm sure anyone who actually read it, and yes I skimmed it at least, thought it was for safety and health. Not so they could fucking experiment on us, or change our DNA. But we did, technically, consent."

"Shit," Megumi whispered, glancing back to Robin and Kinta, where the rosette was giving her brother some battle tips to help him, hopefully, up his defensive game. "Even the kids?"

Elle nodded next to him, "Yah, probably even that twelve year old. Everyone. I don't know if they have yet for everyone, but…"

"The way Greengrass said it implied, at least to me, that it was part of the original nano-bot medical dosage. They new one they did yesterday was a firmware update, if you believe them… but there's no reason to believe it didn't have more Pokémon DNA, too. Not that they'd need to deliver it in secret, they could just do it to our bodies any time we're here, and we'd never feel a thing since our consciousness is apparently in a whole other dimension."

"That's still hard to even imagine," Megumi said quietly, "A whole other universe, so similar to ours? I mean, people have theorized about multiple realities and branching paths in time for generations, but to learn it's all real? And that, at least for a few years, we've actually been doing it? It blows my mind."

"This whole thing is fucking deep, and super complicated," Elle groaned, grabbing the sides of her blonde-covered head and shaking it back and forth as she walked, "Just trying to figure out what's true and what's bullshit gives me the biggest headache! Who's telling the truth, and about what? What the fuck is GF playing at, what are they really planning? I don't buy them being the saviors of the world. They're still corporate assholes, only out for money and greed. Right?"

"Well, maybe," Alex murmured, "but something about the way Robin said it tells me that she, at least, believes it. I don't know, though, because… well, she was raised by them in a fucking test tube and a VR world. How can she really trust anything they say?"

"Simple," the girl herself replied from further back, "I don't have any reason not to. Yes, it's possible that everything they ever told me was a lie. It's possible I'm not part Pokémon… but it isn't possible that I can't change my shape. We've all seen that, and all agree that I can, right? We've seen real Pokémon in our world. Well, two of you have. I've seen that Omanyte in Greengrass' office too, though she was carrying it around at the time… just two days ago, in fact, while on her way to the meeting. And I can tell you it sure as hell looked real to me. I know we can make convincing versions of anything, and could before generative AI could even fill in the details, but… come on. It eats and shits. It's either real, or way too fake-real to be cost-effective, and that's not a MegaCorp thing, right? They don't like wasting money."

"No, no they don't," Alex sighed, "Elle, you're right. This is fucking confusing… there's no way we can keep track of it all."

"Fortunately," the blonde said, "I've started a database. Well, a spreadsheet for now, but it'll be a database when we have more points. Things we know, think we know, and what we think are lies, and maybe more importantly, what we need to know."

"Huh. Smart," Alex agreed, reaching over to ruffle her hair.

"Stop it," she giggled, smoothing it down once more once he did. "And thanks. I've got lots about Rocket in there, like the brothels and drugs and things like that. Key people we know of, like that Morley Vaan guy, his giant Golurk, and the two Rocket Agents we fought. Uh, and I think I remembered the names of the others right. Or their code names. Scourge and Wall, weren't they?"

"Yeah, I think that's right," Alex muttered, "Scourge was the woman I fought, and Wall- or 'the Wall'- was yours?"

"Yeah. I think. Weird, you had to fight both girls, and one of them kicked your ass," Elle giggled.

Alex's eyes narrowed as Megumi looked between them, confused, "You think you'd have done better? That lady was crazy as fuck, and she was fast. Whoever trained her knew what they were doing, that's for sure. And, well, I believe what she said about being injected with Pokémon DNA, too. Those two weren't… normal."

"No," Elle shuddered, "No, they were not normal. Ugh. Anyway, change of subject. What Gym should we go to first? Do you know the way, Robin?"

"I don't," the rosette shrugged, "I thought you guys had checked before we left. It's part of the city maps if you look them up. Hold on, I'll pull it up in my Pokégear…"

A few minutes later, she said, "Up three streets and right- north- we'll be on the road to the Polar Gym, where we can get the Frostwind Badge from that Snøgrav guy… and if we keep going for another mile here, turn left for five blocks, and then back east on the bigger street we'll find the Water Gym- that's just its name, plain ol' Water- at the lakeside. I suppose we won't be able to miss it, since it's an actual arena as well as a porn studio. The Polar might be underground, but there's a marked entrance, at least."

"Underground?" Alex huffed, "Isn't 'The Underground' the name of Nadine Minier's Gym?"

Robin nodded as she and Kinta hurried a bit to start walking next to the others, five across, "Yeah, but I just mean this one seems like it's at least partially underground. There's an elevator and escalator and ramps to allow Pokémon access, and I think if it went up we'd have seen it. Gyms don't tend to be, well, subtle."

"No," he laughed, "Not from what we've seen. Well, The Underground was, but that's because it's literally just an entrance to an underground tunnel. The Gym itself was… terrifying? Impressive. Both."

"Both," Elle agreed.

"So which first? The Water's further, but I think I'd rather take it on myself."

"I don't think I'd do well at that Gym, as much as I like Water Types," Megumi pointed out, speaking for the first time in several minutes. "Shelldon's a fair match but anything else would be long… but I have two Fire types. Dad's Magmar is strong now, but that disadvantage… I'm better off at the Ice Gym, where I have two advantages."

"Water for me," Kinda chimed in, "Robin's right, that same advantage is great for Leafy. My Growlithe won't help, but at least my Rattata and Grimer are Type-neutral. I need to see if I can get more Pokémon though, 'cause I don't think I can take on the mom. She's supposed to be really tough, I heard someone say it in the cafe. The sisters are maybe harder together, but if you have a whole team it's not that bad. But I only have four. And one of those is Fire."

"Then we'll either loan you some, or find some and train them. We don't have to hurry, no matter what we told those Rockets," Alex said, "We'll just have to explain to this… Ariana lady why we're in town longer so they don't come after us again."

"And hope that works," Robin murmured.

No one had a reply to that. Elle, however, did have some input into the Gyms. "I'm going to go for Water for the same reason: Ice is terrible for Flying and Grass, and my only advantage is Kole. Still not useful to have a Growlithe at the Water Gym, but it's not as bad. I still think we should just scout out the Polar Gym first, just because it's closer. We need to do both anyway, but no reason to waste time."

"True," Alex agreed, "So let's see what this Rocket member is like on the field, get lunch, then check out the Water Gym."

As the five "Playtesters" rode the glass-walled lift down the long, angled slope, Elle gasped. The outside of the Gym had, like The Underground, been rather uninspiring and plain. Dull, even. And, like the Ground-type Gym, she was blown away but what was revealed beneath the surface. Not underground, though.

Because as the line of blue that had started at their feet a minute into what they were told was a ten-minute ride grew larger, the truth was revealed. That blue began to visibly shimmer as it reached her knees, and at her waist, it rippled in patterns she started to recognize. Being even a little shorter than Kinta, she was the first to see directly through the lift: Water. Lots and lots of water. "The lake," she gasped, "Look, we're under the lake!"

The looks on the other's faces as the blue light hit them, too, only increased Elle's excitement. "I've never seen so much blue in my life!"

She had, of course, seen the two lakes and waterfalls that gave Cerulean City both its nickname and its actual name, but Elle had only ever seen holovids of the view from beneath what was left of Earth's oceans, and even then, it was rare to see actual blue water rather than a murky brown that barely sustained life.

This world was, as always, very different.

Not only was everything above and around the glass tube the lift's track ran down, but everything they could see below them was, too. The water was deep enough here, in the center of the northeastern lake, that they could not see the bottom though it was relatively clear. Fish by the thousands swam all around them, regular fish, but of a dizzying variety of shapes and colors. Pokémon, too, usually but not always larger. Basculin, Wimpod, Magikarp, Feebas, and more she could not name, including from a dozen Generations of games that were not supposed to be here, according to Game Freak.

Then again, what difference did it make to most players? It was just background, to them, not something any of them would ever really catch. And how many of Pacific's population even knew Pokémon as well as she did, anyway? Alex, yeah, but the few other playtesters she'd interacted with seemed much more ignorant of the old games.

It was one of the most stunning sights she had ever seen in her sixteen years, and more than she had imagined she ever would see.

Her heart was still racing as the lakebed slowly came into view, and the true Gym made itself visible. A few spires of white, tower-like, spindly needles that rose up into the water. She noticed the air in the lift growing colder as they continued to descend, and slowly as more and more of the upside-down icicles became visible, frost began to appear on the edges of the tube's frame, too. It spread slowly, leaving a frosted look that only partially obscured their view as the main Gym was finally revealed.

It resembled, to Elle's inexperienced eye, nothing so much as a sea anemone made of ice. Thousands of spines, the tallest a hundred feet or more long as far as she could guess, mostly rose but spread in all directions around a central mass. Stepping to the front edge of the lift, she could see the track continuing down another two or three hundred feet, eventually curving and leveling out where it disappeared inside a barely-visible black hole at the bottom of the crystalline structure.

"It's a palace of ice," Megumi gasped as she came up next to Elle, close enough to press her face to the glass, "It's beautiful."

"I would say more a fortress than a palace," Alex murmured from her other side, "but either way, it's impressive. I'd have thought this was definitely a Water Gym coming down here, but seeing that… it's something. Bit intimidating… I wonder how they keep it cold? It's getting chilly even in here."

"Gym Guide didn't recommend jackets," Robin shrugged as she wrapped her arms around herself, "but right now, at least, I'm glad I'm not nude. Barefoot on the metal floor would suck. Either way, it's pretty cool. Looks like we're almost there. Remember, sightseeing and spectating, though. We aren't here to challenge today."

After the others had given a quiet chorus of agreement, the view of the lake around them disappeared behind the one solid wall of the lift as they entered the dark tunnel, and the temperature dropped once more. Then, against expectation in the utterly black space, they started going up quickly enough that Elle's legs buckled for a moment.

Thankfully, once the small, confined space came to a smooth stop, lights came on around them at once, and the doors hissed open to reveal that they were in a small square hole filled with water, with a steel catwalk all around them and a large, clear sign affixed to the wall next to the only door in the chamber.

Polar Gym Entrance. All passengers move ahead. The last person through must hit the Return button to send the tram back for the next passengers. Those who fail to comply will be dealt with by Mr. Lambert personally.

Challengers, take the white path ahead. Spectators, take the blue path. All other inquiries and business must stop at the reception desk at the junction.

Then, below the more formal sign, something else had been scrawled on the wall in something dark and crimson that had since turned brown. Elle's stomach turned a little as she realized it was probably supposed to resemble blood, and might actually be. Whatever it was was written with a finger, and crudely, but still legible.

If you fuck around in my Gym, you will find out why I'm the Gym Leader. Don't be an asshole. That's my job.

- Snøgrav

"Sounds friendly," Alex commented.

"Sounds like you," Elle replied.

"I'm not some Rocket asshole, though," Alex murmured quietly. "Anyway, let's go. Better not to be rude, though, yeah? And make sure whoever's in back hits that button. I think it's that red one on the wall, there."

The check-in process was quite simple, however. They paid a nominal fee to spectate for up to four hours, which seemed par for the course, and then were prompted by the bored-looking receptionist to follow the blue line and to follow the rules. Which, when Megumi asked, was basically illustrated as, "Of polite society. Mr. Lambert, Mr. Snøgrav's administrative assistant, doesn't like it when people are rude. But no, really, if you know what's good for you, just… be polite. Don't litter, don't push people in line, don't cut, that sort of thing."

"Got it," Alex agreed.

"See," Elle hissed as they moved into the wide, mostly-empty corridor, "He sounds like you, too."

He could only roll his eyes.

Robin gasped in awe, and she wasn't the only one, as she stepped into the stands. The place was big enough to hold the arena, yes, but she hadn't expected this. The tradition was that each Gym had some sort of environmental challenge associate with the Pokémon type. The Underground was, of course, underground. Which meant small spaces, tunnels, and so on. The Aerie was high up in a massive tree on a mountaintop, and The Steelworks was, well, in a steelworks. Each had their own dangers, from gravity and the effort of climbing the gym itself, to gusty winds, heat, and so on.

The Polar Gym seemed to have none of those, it was just chilly in the stands. Down on the arena floor, however, it looked a lot colder given how two of the ten people she could see battling down there were shivering. It made sense, as the floor of the massive arena was a rock- and tree-littered snowfield.

The rocky outcroppings were definitely more common than the coniferous trees, but there were still two dozen pines or more she could count across the wide space, whose Battle Circles were delineated not by paint on the snow, but by lights she could not see directly high overhead that cast clear lines on the snow below.

"It's just a combat arena," Elle whispered, "No challenge?"

"Really, the hard part of The Aerie was just one challenge after another in combat, same with The Underground," Alex reminded her. "The Steelworks is the only one of those that was really kind of dangerous. Seems like this gym just dispenses with the theatrics of 'you have to follow this path and fight these trainers', and just makes it obvious you have to win a certain number of bouts."

"Boring," Megumi giggled, "I like the other way better. Makes it seem like you're progressing."

"Yeah, but a tournament-style is fun too," Kinta protested, squirming past the older people to follow Elle down the nearest stairs. The stands were huge, and could potentially hold, she thought, fifty or sixty thousand people. But most were down at the bottom in the first ten or twelve rows, closest to the action. Even so, those rows were filled, so there were probably at least two thousand people watching.

Good. That'd make it easier to have a quiet conversation or two. At least, one unlikely to be overheard by listening devices. She couldn't guarantee spies, but maybe they'd be harder to hear there anyway.

All of them watched intently as one by one, the five battles were decided. Two happened close together, but some were quite far off.

Over the next ten minutes, that five became three, then two.

Those two then had to face off against each other, it seemed, and only the winner would go on to face the Gym Leader.

Robin leaned forward eagerly, her plan to have a private discussion with both Megumi and Elle before speaking to Alex forgotten for the time being.

She knew that man's face. Chris, the one Game Freak had wanted her to get close to instead of Alex and Elle. This was going to be interesting indeed.