Caught in a Lie

"If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter." - John Gotti

Korou

I don't know why I let Lorette talk me into this. By means she insists on calling a "deus ex machina," she somehow obtained two lab coats and a key card for the elevator in Dr. Ketchum's lab. Lorette's goal is to see how the infected pokemon are doing. Get in, take a peek, get out. Sounds simple enough except for the part where we are sneaking into a restricted area and could get arrested if we get caught.

I wish Ash was here to help me talk Lorette out of- Who am I kidding? If he was here, I'd have two nutjobs dragging me along. And, one of them could throw me over his shoulder! At least Lorette weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, so I should be able to pull her out of here if things get crazy.

That being said, I really would like to see how those poor pokemon are doing. We're just field workers, so we haven't been allowed on the upper floors. It would be nice to see if any progress has been made on treating the infected.

But if we end up behind bars, I'm blaming Lorette.

"You realize people are gonna recognize us," I say. We are standing just outside the lab and putting on the stolen lab coats. (Lorette's doesn't even fit her. She isn't swimming in it, but it's obviously too big.) Meanwhile, I am questioning my life choices.

We complete the look by tying our hair into small professional ponytails, making our faces even more visible…

Lorette waves me off. "Grayson," the receptionist, "might, but he's going on break soon. Be honest, Korou, how often do you see anyone from the upper floors besides the boss lady?" She means Dr. Ketchum. "She's the only one we need to worry about, and I hear she's gonna be busy showing some new chick around, anyway."

Because that's such a comfort.

"Look," Lorette says. "We get in, we look around, and we get out. Simple!"

"Is it?" I ask.

Lorette scoffs and jabs her finger at my chest. "Don't pretend that you don't wanna know what's going down with the sick pokemon. Nobody tells us anything! Ash doesn't even know, he's the boss lady's nephew!"

"I know it's frustrating, but it's not that weird. We aren't trained for this stuff."

Lorette rolls her eyes and waves her hand up and down toward me. "Well, I see you put on the lab coat. That alone tells me you're in."

I finish buttoning the lab coat in question. "I never said I wasn't in. I just think you're crazy."

Lorette grins in that mischievous way of hers. "Well, you agreed to this, so you must be just as crazy."

Can't argue with that logic.

Lorette peers into the window and waves for me to follow her. "The coast is clear. Come on."

My pulse races as we quickly but carefully speed through the lobby and to the elevator. I keep watch and tug my lab coat's collar higher as Lorette pulls the keycard out of her pocket and fumbles with it, betraying her nerves.

It reminds me that I pride myself on being straight-laced, so this impending disaster is way, way out of my comfort zone. Though, I will admit that there's a certain thrill in it.

Get in. Sneak a peek at some pokemon. Get out. Don't get arrested.

Lorette swipes the keycard, and the door opens. We step inside, and I grapple with the urge to push the "close" button over and over again.

"Wonder what floor we need," Lorette says quietly even though it's just us.

I speak quietly as well. "I think it might be floor three."

I press that button and don't breathe until the doors close. So far, so good.

Lorette nudges me. "Remember. If anyone asks, we're visiting from the Saffron City building."

"And, our names are Frank Smith and Hillary Pierce," I recite.

I receive two thumbs-up in reply.

The elevator dings, and my heart rate skyrockets at the sound. I hope I don't sweat too much. That would definitely give us away.

The hallway is nondescript enough. White walls, beige tile flooring. The hall we step into is mostly empty but for the occasional person who actually belongs here.

Lorette tugs on my arm and I follow her, happy to let her take the lead on this one. There are no large windows on the walls surrounding the rooms, so we'll have to chance opening the doors to see what's inside.

"Maybe they aren't locked," Lorette whispers. "Stand guard. I'm gonna try this door."

I turn around and all I can think about is how suspicious this surely looks. I hear the latch give as Lorette opens the door. She closes it immediately and steps back.

"Broom closet," she says. "Not interesting. Let's try another one."

A few steps later, my hand is on a doorknob because, as completely insane as this is, my curiosity is peaked. Seeing the patients might make me worry about them even more, but at least I would have a better idea of how they're doing.

Get in. Check on some pokemon. Get out.

I try the knob, but it barely moves. "Locked," I whisper pointlessly.

Somebody comes out of a room, carrying some beakers on a tray. I have no idea what's in them, and I'm not sure I want to know.

I grab Lorette and tug her just enough to make her move. We walk forward and act like we know where we're going, not relaxing until the footsteps behind us start to quiet.

Lorette braves a look over her shoulder, and sighs in relief. "I think he turned a corner."

I let out the breath I was holding.

Our attempt to blend in took us back toward the broom closet, so we walk past that, and I keep watch once again while Lorette tries a door. I hear this one open and cringe at the sounds coming from the room.

A pokemon is screaming. I can't tell the species, but it sounds scared, in pain. We must have found one of the sickly ones. The scientists sound calm, analytical as they babble about samples and white blood cells and whatever else. I can't concentrate on the human words. I only hear that awful screaming that rips my heart out.

Which is why I can't just stand here and keep watch. Some morbid part of me decides to join Lorette in peeking through the cracked doorway. From my angle, I can't see what's happening very well, but what I can see is more than enough.

The pokemon is a Mankey. It's encased under a clear dome while it writhes and screeches through one of those violent fits that characterize a Poke-X case. The dome looks like the sterile kind I've seen in movies, with thick gloves fitted into it so the scientists can handle the patient safely. Someone is holding the Mankey's arms, doing what they can to stop it from hurting itself. But, the Mankey works around this by reaching up its feet-

I turn away as a shudder rips through me.

Lorette closes the door as quietly as she can while shivering, though I imagine those scientists wouldn't notice if she'd slammed it shut. "How can they be so calm?" she wonders.

"I guess they're used to this," I say heavily.

Lorette's wide brown eyes are still locked on the door. "Where did this even come from?"

Good question. Poke-X just seemed to spring up out of nowhere.

We jump when the elevator dings. Panicking, I grab Lorette by the arm and yank her toward the broom closet. I fumble with the knob in my haste but manage to squeeze us both inside just in time for the elevator doors to slide open. All I can smell is cleaning products. Lorette's face is pressed against my chest, and a shelf is digging into the back of my neck, but neither of us is willing to move.

I curse myself when I see that I failed to shut the door properly, and doing so now would risk attracting attention. So, the two of us remain frozen as two sets of footsteps and two feminine voices drift in through the crack.

"It just seems like overkill to me," the first voice says.

The second voice belongs to Dr. Ketchum. The other woman must be the person she was showing around. "Do you want people to find out about this? Lord knows what would happen if the public learned what's actually going on around here."

Lorette looks up at me in confusion, but I have no answers for her.

"Let's discuss the real weirdness, Miriam." Dr. Ketchum goes on. "Namely, you letting your Hatterene out of its pokeball in this place."

The other woman, Miriam, says in rebuttal, "It survived the early version of Poke-X. I'm curious if it's developed an immunity."

They're getting farther away, and now I have to strain to hear.

"And, if it hasn't?" Vivian asks.

"Then, it gets sick and dies," Miriam replies. "Nothing it wasn't supposed to do initially."

Lorette's mouth is wide open, and if it was safe to speak, I think she'd say something like, You hearing this shit?

I want to run after them and demand answers, but I force myself to stay put. Lorette quivers against me but not from fear this time.

We wait. More footsteps come down the hallway. More chatter is heard, though none of it is particularly noteworthy. Once it's quiet, I mentally count to thirty before poking my head through the door and looking down both ends of the hallway.

"All clear," I whisper.

Lorette and I creep into the hallway, and Lorette whirls on me and whisper-shouts, "What did we just hear?"

"I don't know," I reply. "Something's not right."

"No shit, Sherlock." Lorette pulls the keycard out of her lab coat pocket. "You think this would get us to Dr. Ketchum's office?"

To do some deeper snooping. If I hadn't heard what I heard, I'd be against that. "Let's find out."

Luckily, the elevator is mere feet away from us. Lorette swipes the key card, and we step into the elevator. This time I give in to my desire to spam the "close" button until the doors slide shut.

Lorette examines the panel by the door. "What floor do you think she's on?"

"In all the video games I've played," I say thoughtfully, "the bad guys usually reside either on the top floor or the bottom floor, depending on whether or not the base is underground."

Lorette just stares at me, but there's a tentative grin on her face when she says, "You are such a nerd."

I smile back. Our banter makes for a pleasant icebreaker, but the chill settles back in once I press the button for the top floor.

"So," she says, "you're with me that the boss lady is hiding something?"

I adjust my glasses. "Yeah. I don't think Miriam would have been that casual if she thought Dr. Ketchum would react negatively."

"And, what did Miriam mean about the 'early version' of Poke-X?" Lorette asks rhetorically. "This whole thing spells 'Trouble' with a capital T."

I couldn't agree more.

The doors open, and we cautiously step into the room. The entire top floor is a wide office space. Some furniture is placed haphazardly but the room is mostly empty, as if Dr. Ketchum didn't need the extra space but wanted to do something with it. There's a purple couch with a big stain on the armrest. On the opposite side of the room is a small refrigerator and freezer. A microwave sits on a table next to it. If there were more seats, this place could be used as a break room.

Lorette makes a beeline for the desk at the back of the room. I follow despite every instinct. The longer we're here, the worse an idea this is.

But, after what we heard, I can't bring myself to walk out.

Lorette plops in front of the computer, and I say to her, "It's probably password-protected. Maybe it's written down somewhere."

Lorette jiggles the mouse then stares at the screen with a raised eyebrow. "Or, maybe she left it unlocked."

I walk around the desk and gawk at the screen in disbelief. Sure enough, there is no prompt for a password, only icons and a desktop photo of the beach.

"Is it seriously this easy?" I muse.

Lorette shrugs. "Didn't Ash learn that story about the infected Corphish from his aunt leaving her laptop on? She must do this sort of thing a lot." She chuckles and shakes her head. "The woman is smart, but clearly she's a smart idiot."

As Lorette clicks on various icons, my mind is stuck on one singular thought. "Is this too easy?" Lorette looks up at me in question. "Think about it. No one's stopped to ask who we are. We got into the boss's office no problem. Now we've accessed her computer like that." I snap my fingers. "You're a writer. If this was a scene in one of your books, what would you think?"

Lorette's face slackened in dread with each word I spoke. "That this was too easy, so I'd make something bad happen." She shakes her head clear. "This isn't a book! And besides, we're here now. We may as well keep snooping.

It dawns on me that the only place to hide in this room is under the desk. Great…

The first few files Lorette opens are pages of data and diagrams that make my eyes cross. Lorette's as well from the frustration on her face. A strand of kinky black hair fell out of her ponytail, and she pushes it behind her ear and clicks on a file labeled "Subject 0359." This one appears to be a series of videos. Lorette clicks on the first one.

A pokemon I've never seen before appears on the screen in what looks like a laboratory. It's a quadrupedal creature with long white fur, especially around its neck, and a hairless black face and tail, as well as a thin, curved black horn that juts out from one of its temples and sticks out in an arc over its head. It turns and gazes at the camera with curious red eyes as the holder brings the camera closer.

I recognize Dr. Ketchum's voice. "Recording this for future reference. Species: Absol. Typing: dark. Gender: male. Estimated age: thirty-six years. Height from feet to horn: three feet, nine inches."

Throughout the analysis, the pokemon - Absol - tilts his head one way then the other, and we see his nostrils flare when he leans forward to sniff the lens, which draws a little grin out of me.

Dr. Ketchum goes on. "Weight: 110.2 pounds. So, a little on the hefty side, which surprises me, considering I found this guy on a snowy mountain top." Absol scowls at Dr. Ketchum until she reaches out to ruffle his neck fur, which makes him smile, particularly when she adds, "But these things are omnivores, so we'll assume that means this one's a good hunter. I've also seen it battle, so I wouldn't be surprised if those extra pounds turned out to be muscle weight."

Absol straightens and raises his chin proudly. I smile wider, and Lorette giggles.

"This thing is so cute!" she coos. "Why have we never met it?"

"I don't know," I reply.

The camera pans away, gains a bit of height, wiggles a bit, then goes still. Dr. Ketchum must have put it on a tripod. "In the coming days," Dr. Ketchum says, "this Absol will become an integral part of this experiment. For now, I'm simply going to do a few noninvasive tests. Resting heart rate, blood pressure, hair and saliva samples. Things like that. I might take a blood sample too, but that's as invasive as it'll get. Ah, relax," Dr. Ketchum adds when Absol squints at her. The lower half of her comes into the frame. She grabs Absol's horn and wiggles his head playfully, something he clearly doesn't like. "You'll have plenty left over." She lets go and leaves the frame. "I also won't be feeding you today, as I would like to watch you hunt."

Absol nods and barks in agreement.

Lorette fast forwards, but it's clear that there isn't anything incriminating in the video, so she clicks out of it. "I wonder why Dr. Ketchum never mentioned having a partner. You'd think Ash would have at least said something. He's been staying with her, hasn't he?"

"The timestamp showed that the video was from five years ago," I say with a shrug. "It's possible she doesn't have that Absol anymore. She's only been in this town for about a year. Anything could have happened in the four years between."

Lorette clicks on a video from a little later, three months, by the timestamp on this one. Absol had lost weight by this point. A lot of weight. I don't know what the average weight for an Absol is, but he looks unhealthily thin here. There's a heaviness in his posture as well. He looks exhausted. When he brings up his back foot to scratch his neck, dozens of long white hairs fly off. That's not a good sign.

"Today we'll be doing another endurance test," Dr. Ketchum states from her spot behind the camera she's holding. "Ready, Absol?"

Absol's smile is forced but determined. He is slow and shaky as he rises to all-fours. I don't think he's ready for whatever that test is.

"The poor thing looks sick," I say. "She isn't really going to make him do some test, is she?"

We watch Absol climb on to a platform, and Lorette quips, "Yes, she is."

The camera is held close enough to Absol that I can't get a good look at the machine. I only see the platform and part of a column.

Absol's smile wavers, and he braces himself as his trainer counts down. "Beginning in three, two, one."

Lorette and I, the former with her hands over her mouth, gasp in horror as bright white electricity flashes over Absol's whole body. A pained growl is heard beneath the static. Absol's head is bent, his teeth are gritted, and his claws leave visible scratches on the platform.

Lorette says it for me. "That's an endurance test? What the fuck?"

And, all Dr. Ketchum has to say is, "You're handling this better than last time. I'm gonna raise the voltage a little."

"No, no, no." Lorette slams her hand on the mouse and fast forwards. "I am not watching that."

"Thank you," I say sincerely. I don't want to watch this any more than she does.

How could Dr. Ketchum be so cruel? And, to her own pokemon, no less!

But, from what she and Miriam were talking about… What's really happening in this building?

What have Lorette, Ash, and I really been bringing pokemon into?

Lorette brings the video to a point where the test has finished. Absol is panting heavily and seems to be standing upright through sheer willpower.

He brightens somewhat when Dr. Ketchum says to him, "Not bad. You'll eat tonight."

He'll eat tonight?

Absol tilts his head and makes a concerned sound when Dr. Ketchum audibly breathes out. "Don't mind me. Just that magical time of the month again."

"I hear you, girl," Lorette mutters.

Then Absol does something that's unexpected but, honestly, makes sense. He headbutts his trainer, who cries out and presumably falls into a chair.

"What are you doing?" Dr. Ketchum demands.

Absol ignores her and, despite the pain he is obviously in, jumps up and places his front paws on the counter. He stretches his neck enough to grab a water bottle with his teeth. Then he jumps down and holds out the bottle with a severe look that brings to mind a parent trying to make a child take their medicine.

"Even after all that," I say, "he's still trying to take care of her."

Lorette shakes her head pityingly. "Just like a pokemon." She clicks out of the video and looks up at me. "Should we try a different file?"

I couldn't make heads or tails of those documents, and these videos are giving us more coherent information. Albeit, less direct.

"I think we should watch the last video."

Lorette grimaces. "I was afraid you'd say that."

She clicks on the last video listed, this one taking place just under two months after the second one we watched.

Absol hasn't lost any more weight, but I can't say the same about his fur. He looks scraggly with a few bald patches scattered about. There is something dark, distant in his red eyes. He is being held in place by a clasp that is latched around his flank and attached to something unseen.

Dr. Ketchum holds a syringe up to the camera, and my heart stops at the sight.

Lorette puts her hands over her eyes. "I can't watch."

I can't look away.

"It's time for the first test of our formula," Dr. Ketchum says. "Let's see how the subject responds."

Absol whimpers with his tail between his legs. I still can't tear my eyes away. It's like when you drive by a car accident on the highway. You know you shouldn't look, but you can't not look.

Dr. Ketchum does nothing to ease her pokemon's fears. She callously brings the syringe closer to his neck and says, "Hold still, you."

Absol hisses as the liquid is injected into his skin.

"Now we wait."

We don't wait long.

Absol's face scrunches up, and agonized growls leave his throat. He shakes out his pelt, sending more hairs flying. When that does nothing to ease his pain, he brings up his back foot as well as he can with that clasp there and scratches his shoulder hard enough to draw blood. The sight startles a yelp out of him, and he trembles with the effort of not doing that again. Dark red oozes from his shoulder, and every few seconds, he jerks this way or that, making those awful sounds all the while.

The early version of Poke-X.

"How bad is it?" Lorette asks from behind the safety of her hands.

My voice quakes with the rest of me. "How bad does it sound?"

Lorette peeks through her fingers and instantly shuts her makeshift blinds. "Oh, Jesus."

I can't stand it anymore. I bend over to fast forward past this horrible scene. Lorette slowly lowers her hands, and we watch the little bit that's left of the video.

That clasp is the only thing keeping Absol on his feet. His head is low and his tongue is out as he pants from his conscious effort to not hurt himself.

And, Dr. Ketchum… "Unexpected. The readings show that the virus has already left Absol's system."

"Virus," Lorette breathes. She's connected the dots as well.

Dr. Ketchum does something off-screen that undoes the clasp. Absol collapses, still panting. "Clearly," Dr. Ketchum goes on, "the hallucinogenic property works, but the virus shouldn't have been fought off so quickly, if at all. And, the subject shouldn't have been able to resist."

I keep my eyes on Absol, whose expression shifts as he slowly but surely climbs to his feet.

Dr. Ketchum is oblivious to the way her "subject" glares at her in a way that screams of enough. "Then again, I did use the dosage Miriam gave her Hatenna, which is a significantly smaller pokemon. Perhaps if I up the dosage-"

Absol lunges, claws extended. There's a scream, and the image goes to static for a split second before the video ends.

Lorette and I just stare at the screen while our minds catch up with what we've just uncovered.

We've been sending sickly pokemon here for help. Or, so we thought...

"That's genius," Lorette says suddenly. When I whirl on her in disgust, she clarifies in a spacey tone. "I mean, it's horrible, but think about it. She claims that she's working to stop Poke-X…so that no one will suspect that she's making Poke-X. That's…that's horribly genius! Or, maybe it's genius-ly horrible. Yeah, that's the one."

I think about all the people in this building, and… "How many of these people know about this?"

Lorette slashes the air horizontally. "Do not go there, man." Her eyes widen in a new fear. "Does Ash know?"

That's another good question. He is Dr. Ketchum's nephew. But, I remember the way he spoke about his missing Pikachu and Charizard. The pure, childlike glee radiating from him as he found different ways to prove that he suddenly gained the ability to understand what pokemon are saying.

"Probably not," I decide while hoping and praying that I'm right. "You've seen the way he is with pokemon. I don't think he's involved." Which means that he is not going to like this.

"We gotta tell the cops," Lorette says.

She's right. "We need to show them this video. Let's check the drawers. Maybe Dr. Ketchum has a flash drive tucked away."

We each open a drawer and start digging through the cluttered I-know-where-it-is-so-it's-organized method that Dr. Ketchum apparently uses.

Lorette shoots upright in triumph, a small pink flash drive in her hand. "Got it!"

Too easy. Too easy. Too easy. The words pound through my skull like a heartbeat.

Lorette plugs the flash drive into the computer. "Think I should download all the videos?"

"No time," I say. "Just get the last one. It's the most incriminating."

"Aye aye, captain," Lorette quips.

The downloading process is the speed of molasses, or maybe it just feels like that way because I keep expecting someone to walk in on us. When the video is finally downloaded, Lorette stuffs the flash drive in her pants pocket.

"Now let's bail before-"

The elevator dings, cutting her off. Next thing I know, we are levitating over the desk before plopping unceremoniously on the hard floor. I knew this was too easy.

A thin blond white woman in a lab coat stands over us. Besides her is a tall, limbless pokemon with a blue to pink to white ombre going from top to bottom. The top of the pokemon's head strongly resembles a pointed hat and has a long appendage that ends in a three-fingered hand attached to it.

The woman's voice is the one Dr. Ketchum was talking to in the hall. This must be Miriam. "Korou and Lorette, right? Vivian pointed you out to me on the way here."

Lorette and I scramble to our feet. Lorette is so pale, she could almost pass for caucasian, yet she tries her damndest to get us out of this. "Who are Korou and Lorette? My name is Hillary Frank and this is Smith Pierce."

I mentally curse her out, and I can see that she's doing the same.

Miriam is not amused. "You two shouldn't be here."

Her pokemon sneers at us, and I recall Dr. Ketchum saying that Miriam let her Hatterene out of its pokeball. This must be that Hatterene. I wonder if it's also the Hatenna that Dr. Ketchum mentioned in that video; the name is similar enough.

Miriam rolls her eyes, though there's a fondness in the gesture that's at odds with our current situation. "Let me guess. Vivian forgot to lock her computer again. She's a brilliant woman but so careless."

"The police are on their way!" I blurt out. "If you let us go, we'll tell them to back off."

"Y-yeah!" Lorette stammers. "We won't say a word about this to anyone!"

Until we get out of here, that is. God, how I wish the police really were on their way!

A cruel smile forms on Miriam's lips. "Like I'm gonna believe that. You obviously know more than you should." She turns to her partner. "What shall we do with them, Hatterene?"

Hatterene squints at us, and a shutter rips through me. Without our own pokemon, Lorette and I don't stand a chance. Especially since Hatterene, who is surely a psychic-type, can simply hold us in place with a single thought.

Then it hits me. A possible way out. "Hatterene, you don't have to listen to Miriam. She doesn't care about you! You shouldn't have to take orders from a trainer who doesn't love you!"

Lorette catches on. "Korou's right, Hatterene! We heard Miriam in the hall, saying that she only let you out to see if you would get Poke-X! And, she doesn't care if you die from it! You want a trainer like that?"

Hatterene smirks, not believing a word we say.

"Are you finished?" Miriam asks. Then… "Pokemon can be easily replaced, and Hatterene knows it. It doesn't care."

Oh? Then why did Hatterene make that startled noise and stare open-mouthed at you when you said that?

This is working better than I expected. Miriam is digging her own grave! "All pokemon care about is combat. Why do you think so many people use them in battle? Why do you think they are key components in wars? Do you know how many people are killed or injured by pokemon every day?"

"Sure, pokemon like to battle." Lorette leans forward with her hands on her hips. "But, do you know how many pokemon are ordered by humans to do all that other shit?"

"And, isn't that exactly what you're telling Hatterene to do?" I demand with my fists clenched in front of me. "You're a goddamn hypocrite!"

Monster is the word I should have used, as Miriam is merely bored by us now. "I don't know why I'm engaging with you when I should be silencing you."

Lorette and I back up into the desk. My voice is shrill with panic. "I have a husband! He'll come looking for me. And, so will our pokemon. And, Lorette's pokemon."

"I have an Electrode," Lorette snarls. "It'll blow you to smithereens!"

Miriam shrugs. "I'll figure out some tale to spin. Hatterene, take them out so they can't spill the beans!"

Hatterene…doesn't move. It only stands there, clutching something in the tiny hands I didn't notice before. That something is a purple bead dangling around its neck. It is staring at it, seemingly deep in thought. Maybe there's still a chance?

"Hatterene!" Miriam snaps. "Do as you're told!"

Still nothing. Hope blooms in my chest.

Even more so when Miriam snarls, "Where did you even get that stupid thing? Give me that!"

Hatterene shrieks when Miriam grabs the bead and rips it off her pokemon's neck. She tosses it over her shoulder, and Hatterene screams and throws itself on the floor. I see now that its body is extremely tiny and thin, and that mass that I thought was its body is actually…hair?

The bead bounces and rolls on the floor, and Hatterene crawls after it, too panicked to remember that it can pick up things with its mind. The bead falls into an air duct, lost to the vents. Hatterene is motionless, its eyes glued to where the bead disappeared.

My heart goes out to the pokemon. Not only did it lose something it clearly treasures, but it has a trainer like that.

"Whatcha go and do that for?" Lorette growls.

"That necklace is obviously important to Hatterene!" I snap.

Miriam laughs. I have never wanted to punch someone so much in my life. "I told you, all pokemon care about is fighting. So many people are so delusional."

Is she serious? "The only delusional person in this room is you!"

Miriam throws her hands in the air. "Enough of this. I don't want to hurt you, but I can't have you ruining our plans! Hatterene, use Psycho Cut!"

Hatterene doesn't react.

Frustrated now, Miriam groans and walks over to where Hatterene is still crouched. She kicks her pokemon, sending it rolling into the wall. Somehow, Hatterene's hair is still in place. "Pay attention!" is Miriam's callous demand.

I throw my arms around Lorette to keep her from charging at Miriam, though I would happily do the same. "You bitch!" Lorette shouts as she struggles in my grasp.

Miriam turns back to us with a smug grin. "Call me what you want. It won't change a thing."

Hatterene rises to its full height, and fear shoots through me. Until I see that Hatterene is looking at Miriam the same way Absol looked at Dr. Ketchum in the last video.

Right before he attacked.

Miriam holds her hand out toward us, unaware of the hell that is building up behind her. "I'll say it again. Hatterene, use Psycho Cut!"

Hatterene obeys.

It's the last command Miriam ever gives.