Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)
A Legendary Search
18. Experimental Horrors
The interview lasted several hours; they took a break each time a doctor or nurse came to check on Tim and provide more Pokemon treatments. Even after the interview was finished, they stayed, talking. Tim wasn't sure what he could politely say to get them to leave.
Amanda came once, as well, with some of Tim's clothing from his apartment that he could change into when he was released. She assured him Mr. Baker had picked them out rather than her going through his things, which he was grateful for. Doctors had informed him then that they were going to keep him one more night, but he would be released in the morning, and would be fine as long as he was careful and didn't put too much pressure on his leg. It would still take a little time to heal fully.
Amanda stayed to talk for about a half hour before leaving; Emilia, Meiko, and even Mr. Graham, to his slight dismay, stayed until visiting hours were over, Emilia taking Pikachu with her again. It was nice to have company, but he'd wanted to go through the notebook, he reflected silently as Emilia promised to bring Pikachu back first thing so they could leave the hospital together. Tim thanked her; it would be easier than tracking his partner down after he left.
Meiko looked back as they were leaving.
"Oh, by the way, I wanted to let you know… that Absol started making people really nervous, so it disappeared, and we thought it had left… but I actually happened to see it when we came. It's been sitting on the roof above the entrance to the hospital."
"What? Really?" Tim was amazed. Why would it still be around?
"Yeah, he's up there, alright. There can't be any other Absol that big."
"You never mentioned him." Emilia sounded surprised.
"Figured if Absol was hiding out there so it wouldn't spook people who think it'll bring disaster or whatever, then I wouldn't ruin his hiding place. Not a lot of people look up when they look for things, and especially not when they aren't expecting anything around, so I thought I'd just let him be. It's a good enough hiding place."
Tim shook his head. "Well, if he's waiting for me or something, then I guess I'll see what he wants tomorrow morning."
Meiko laughed; Emilia joined in, albeit more softly.
"Well, it's not hard to see why it might have taken a liking to you, Tim. I hope we'll still see you tomorrow at the debate?"
Tim looked at Mr. Graham, who had spoken. "Oh, right- the debate and party afterwards. I nearly forgot- but yes, I'll be there."
"Nearly forgot? Half the town is going to be there, as well as all of the people running for Mayor. I'd think it would be hard to forget." Meiko was incredulous.
"It's hard to remember parties when you're more worried about life-and-death, you know." Pikachu muttered grumpily.
"Did you forget, Meiko? It's been kind of an eventful last couple of days. I'm only remembering it because we had to start getting ready for it. And have to keep getting ready for it tomorrow." Emilia said. Then, she gave Meiko a bit of a push. "Anyway, we need to leave before we get scolded by the nurses. Let's go. I'll see you tomorrow, Tim."
"See you tomorrow. Thanks again."
Emila smiled at him as she gently pushed Meiko out the door. Pikachu, who had sighed and hopped off the notebook and down to the floor when it was announced that visiting hours were over, was right behind them, giving Tim a meaningful glance. Graham followed, and Tim was the only one left in the room.
Tim wasn't entirely sure what the look Pikachu had given him meant; it wasn't the annoying one he kept giving Tim when it came to Emila. Tim was very familiar with that one. This look, he didn't know.
Tim waited for a few minutes; the doctors made one last round after visiting hours were over. After they had come, checked him, had their Blissey give him another treatment, and gone, Tim waited until it was quiet, then grabbed the notebook. He would fill Pikachu in on the details later.
We have turned the machine on and confirmed it is emitting the signal. The Pokemon inside our base that know the move Recover have all gathered as close to the source as possible and are staring as though transfixed, frozen. The Pokemon we are using to hold the ones that arrive are unaffected as we chose ones that did not know the move, and waiting for our command to start. Our radars monitoring the immediate area have not picked up anything yet, which is to be expected after only moments of being turned on, but radars we have planted in other locations are indicating movement in our direction. I will check the radars and the area every half hour as we wait for Pokemon to arrive. Those working with the Pokemon needed for the holding are standing by and have already been given our orders to put up the barrier as practiced once they see Pokemon getting close. The entire perimeter is being monitored. There should be nothing that will be able to escape our notice, and hopefully by the end of the day we will have those we need.
The entries after that were logged every half hour.
There have been a few Pokemon that have converged- three Kadabra, a Meditite. A Solosis and a Shellos are visible in the distance, heading this way. Radars indicate many more are coming. The psychic Pokemon have put up the barrier. We are keeping it low strength, for now, to conserve their energy, and will increase it as needed. Everything so far is working well.
Everything is proceeding well. In addition to more of the types of Pokemon noted before, more have gathered and are visible coming this way- Medicham, Alakazam, Gastrodon, Duosion, and even a Reuniclus have joined their pre-evolved forms on the other side of the barrier as well as other, unrelated Pokemon- Elgyem, Shelmet and Accelgor have all been seen and there is even a rare Porygon within the crowd. If a good opportunity presents itself, I may order the team to bring the Porygon in and capture it. The chance to study it once the current project is complete should not be passed up.
I have noticed a problem I did not anticipate. A second Porygon has turned up, with a bow tied around its neck. It seems to belong to someone. Our signal is attracting those Pokemon who have owners, as well. I should have known such a thing would happen, but it did not occur to me at the time, and I have no plan in place for this event. H will want something put in place to return the Pokemon to the correct trainers, especially those from the city- it will look bad otherwise. Once the experiment has finished, we will need to address that issue immediately. Everything else has continued to do well; more Pokemon are arriving steadily. Slugma, Magcargo, Beheeyem, and even Cryogonal, Bergmite, and Avalugg have gathered or are on their way, as well as steadily increasing numbers of the Pokemon previously noted. A Pyukumuku has been seen in the distance. There are not many more different Pokemon that learn Recover that can move over land that still need to get here, except, of course, the ones we are waiting for.
Other problems have now been pointed out to me. It seems that several sea-dwelling Pokemon have been spotted on beaches, leaving their habitat in an attempt to get to our signal. Frillish, Mareanie, Staryu and their evolutions, as well as Corsola, are drying out on the beach and dying. Our signal will not remain unnoticed for long. Trainers have gathered on the beach with their water Pokemon to try to sustain them and get them back into the ocean, and are baffled when they try to get back onto the land. Authorities are looking for both the source of this, and the source of a rash of trainer's Pokemon disappearances- both, of course, are our doing. I expressed a desire to stop our signal to H, but H has refused. H will have the mess dealt with later. We received orders to broadcast the signal until we get what H wants, no matter what.
Tim lay the book on his lap for a moment, swallowing. He felt a little sick at the descriptions. Waals hadn't mentioned anything about noticing hundreds of Pokemon that knew the move Recover all so desperately trying to gather somewhere that some of them were dying. Had he actually not noticed, or had he just not realized it was related? Surely, he was too smart for it to be the latter. But wouldn't this have made the news?
Tim took a deep breath and returned to the book.
Yet another problem has been made clear to me. With so many Pokemon gathered in one place, it is not healthy for any of them. Some of the ice-types with ice-like bodies are melting. Once the signal wears off, all of these Pokemon will be very confused; I realize now that we are going to be in the middle of a battle royale of hundreds of Pokemon if we do not do this carefully. I have ordered all personnel not needed to stay with the Pokemon we trained for this to get down amongst the gathered Pokemon and do what they can- separate ice types out of the hottest areas and away from fire types, use whatever water Pokemon we have here- which are few- to keep the water types we see here from drying out. I should have planned this experiment much more carefully. This is not what I envisioned at all, and it will likely haunt me a long time. Yet, continue I must, for if H is displeased, that will be far worse for me.
Tim checked the time of the entries, and realized this had only been two and a half hours into the signal being broadcast. As he kept reading, the struggles of the scientists' experiment were laid out in detail, making it painfully obvious that this would have been far better off if it had been stopped when the first problem was noticed. More and more Pokemon arrived. More and more power was needed for the barrier; the psychic Pokemon began to tire. Time stretched on.
It had entered its 11th hour, with the writing on the pages even seeming to have become tired, when Tim hit an entry that had been scrawled in a hurry, far messier than any other entry in the book:
Our efforts have at last brought some success. The legendary Pokemon Lugia has responded to our call and appeared on the horizon, heading straight for us. All researchers have been ordered to be ready for its arrival. I will oversee things. Once it is here, we will have the psychic types allow it through the first barrier and stop it at a second, while we deploy the Pokemon we have trained with Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and Hypnosis. This is to ensure it will be entirely unable to move. It has gotten close now; once we have it contained, I shall make note of the progress here.
The next entry was nearly two hours later.
We have captured Lugia at last. It proved to be very resistant to the efforts of the Pokemon trying to render it unconscious, but was affected enough by the signal that it did not fight back much. It took well over an hour for it to go down. Once it was asleep and immobile at last, we collected its DNA for the scientists we needed to send it to, and we moved Lugia into an underground containment unit left unused by a previous experiment. Once in there, we have left some of the Pokemon to continuously use Sleep Powder- research has proved that once a Pokemon has been knocked out by such a move, it is much easier to keep it asleep than it was to overcome it to begin with- and I have set a couple of the scientists there to hooking up the gas tanks to it. I will soon set more scientists to making more gas, as well. Once we have it ready, we will retrieve our own Pokemon from inside the chamber and keep it filled with the gas- meaning, of course, the gas we once developed using mainly Koffing, Weezing, and Butterfree; the combination of what it is composed of is extremely potent and should be enough to keep even a legendary such as Lugia unconscious for an indefinite amount of time. We will keep it contained and study it until H has need of it. I hope we will have a long time to spend with it; it is such a magnificent specimen. We should certainly have some time, at least; H has to put in place the other part of the plans, and we also still need to develop the other tools needed for H's ultimate goal. Now, all that is left is to hope that the Pokemon H wants appears soon, and is not too much of a challenge to capture- though that may be a bit much to hope- so that we can turn off this blasted signal and sort out the mess that it has been creating.
Tim closed his eyes for a moment, feeling disgusted. This person… clearly, they were afraid of this H and would have stopped it before now if they hadn't been, but still- to be in the middle of it, watching all of this, and not putting a stop to it regardless of consequences? The person could have put an end to this horror hours ago. Tim knew he would have, though he supposed it was a moot point both because it was far too late now and because Tim wouldn't have done this sort of thing to begin with.
And… Waals and the other scientists had been told- or at least were under the impression- that the Legendary Pokemon would be released once the cell samples had been collected. Tim couldn't remember if Waals had stated they had promised to let them go or not, but either way, it was very, very clear that they no intention of releasing Lugia- not if they had put it in a containment unit to fill with some sort of knockout gas. And if they had it then… what had happened to it? Had it been released? Broken free? Or did they still have it?
Tim shook his head, a headache starting to pound in his temples. He rubbed them, and went back to the book. The only answers he might get now were in there.
As he read, he only felt more sick. The logs continued following the signal's progress. More Pokemon were attracted. Time stretched, despite the initial optimism in the second post after Lugia's capture that one Legendary would mean more to follow. The Pokemon they were using to sustain the barrier began to collapse from exhaustion. More than once, Tim saw notes that this person in charge has asked H if they could stop the signal now that they had Lugia and had been refused, but that did nothing to heighten Tim's opinion of the person- permission or not, they should have stopped long ago.
It was into the 19th hour of their experiment, with fears of being discovered soon by authorities (how they hadn't already, Tim didn't know) filtering into the notes, where Tim found another rushed entry, this one so hurried and messy a scribble that it was difficult to decipher.
The one we have been waiting for is here at last. I will order the researchers to use every available resource. I myself will join the fray as well. This is the one H wants. Once we have it, we can finally stop. I will oversee the capture now.
So Mewtwo had come then. Tim was relieved; he wasn't sure how many more of the sickening reports he could stand. But still, as he turned the page (for that short entry had been at the bottom of the current one), he felt a sense of anticipation. Tim wasn't even sure what he wanted to see written, much less what he expected to see; as horrifying as the process had been, it held his attention very, very well.
H is going to be very furious. We have lost Mewtwo and the signal transmitter has been destroyed. I can, I hope, diminish his anger at the fact that we were able to get a blood sample from it first, but no doubt he will come to the base in a fury when he finds that instead of capturing Mewtwo, we have Mew instead. For Mew also came out of hiding when we began our work on Mewtwo, and so we directed attacks at it as well, our intentions to knock it out quickly. It was indeed not affected by the signal, and so we hoped to contain it before it did damage. However, we were not expecting it to use some sort of link it had with Mewtwo to free it from our control. We were able to render Mew unconscious and capture it immediately as it did so, for it did not fight back at all and instead focused on its clone. But we were barely able to hold our own when Mewtwo demolished half our facility and broke through the psychic barrier. The underground remains intact and Mewtwo fled; I am unsure whether it knew the signal transmitter was destroyed. Once it originally appeared, we immediately sent people to collect samples from it wearing containment suits so that we could try weakening it with status moves at the same time, which was probably our only saving grace. We were able to obtain some blood from it just before Mew managed to free it from the trance; those with the sample fled underground as fast as they were able to. I can only hope the sample that we got was enough. Mew has been placed in a chamber near Lugia. We will take what time we can to study it as well. We have two Legendaries, as requested, and we have Mewtwo's cells. I hope that this will be enough to calm H's anger. Only time will tell. We will simply need to see now how things will progress, and hope that it will not be too long before we have all that we need.
So there it was. They had gotten Mewtwo's cells here. They had tried to get Mewtwo as well, but had, apparently, been foiled by Mew, who'd focused so much on rescuing Mewtwo that it had been caught itself. The signal transmitter, collateral damage. Tim was relieved it was gone. Continuing to read, though, proved that it had left a terrible mess. The Pokemon, released from the signal, had been confused and started to fight each other as predicted. The barriers from the psychic Pokemon had failed; there was a rampage. Even more damage was done to the building. It seemed the only thing that stopped the building from being completely leveled and the people inside from all being killed were the Pokemon they had trained in Hypnosis, Sleep Powder, and Stun Spore; it took some time for them to cover the entire crowd, but eventually they had taken out all of them.
From there, it seemed that "H" had had them report on TV that a failed experiment had caused the entire fiasco. Trainers were told to collect their missing Pokemon. Once all of those had been returned, the rest of the Pokemon were taken back to the habitats they were supposed to be in. Those that had not survived were buried. All had been done at the expense of the researchers, who were all held accountable. The one writing the notes, however, was not concerned about the cost. "H" was funding everything, after all.
And it seemed that "H" had been furious over Mewtwo escaping, but after some time, came to accept it and assured the note-writer that plans could still move forward. For the part that "H" had wanted to use Mewtwo for, it appeared that Mew would be an acceptable substitute.
"H" had also made sure that this was swept under the rug as much as possible. There was publicity, of course, with a disaster this big people would want answers and reporters would want to get them. But this "H" had limited the attention as much as possible.
As for the facility, they abandoned it, promising the public it would never again be used. The site was condemned and labeled unsafe. As for what happened to the Legendaries that had been stored there, Tim could not find any notes at all. Whatever they had done with them had not been logged in this particular notebook.
Instead, the remaining notes were filled with the process of delivering the cells. The Lugia cells, it seemed, were supplied to researchers from both Rhyme City and Stanza City, with notes that the efforts to deepen the rivalry between cities, particularly the medical sector, were going well.
That baffled Tim- why would they need to do that? It didn't make any sense to him. Still, it wasn't something Tim could spend a lot of time on; there were more important issues than that one.
The last note entered was the notation that they had arrived at the (then) recently-abandoned warehouse to deliver Lugia's cells to the Rhyme City scientists, with Mewtwo's labeled as Mew's to give to one of them- Waals.
The remaining pages were blank. Of course, Gengar had taken the book then. Tim put the book back on the tray and lay back, thinking.
Each entry had been noted with the date and time. The place the laboratory had been, however, was not logged anywhere. No mention of any places were logged, not even where the cell handover sites were, only that they were recently abandoned warehouses both times. However, given the disaster that had happened there, there had to be a record of where the Pokemon had gathered. Even if the incident had been somewhat suppressed, there was no way to make a disaster this big disappear. There would be traces left behind. And while Tim certainly wouldn't be using the signal to call Mewtwo- even if he could, he wouldn't- going there might give him a few more answers.
Tim was up for a very long time, thinking.
A/N: Terrible experiments. Now we know how it went...
By the way, funny story. A few days ago, we had a presentation at work, and someone made comments about "safety nets" and pointed out that once you buckle your seatbelt, you don't turn your airbag off. It's a safety net. And my brain went back to the chapter that Kieth pushes Tim off the cliff, and only now do I realize I made a dumb mistake in that chapter. Even if Tim's airbag was delayed, which is rare but possible, he still shouldn't have hit his head on the dashboard, because he was wearing his seatbelt. Absol had to cut it to pull him out. That would have stopped him from whacking his head... oops. .
All that time I've written this story, and looked through it for editing, and I missed it. My conscience told me I needed to admit and own up to my mistake, so here I am, telling you about it. We can log it as a dumb continuity error.
Anyway, that's all today. Thanks for reading!
