Chapter 4: Welcome to the Big Empty
Dee shuddered back to wakefulness and felt the squishy cushion she was lying on. Her whole body ached as she sat up and shook her head while her eyes came back into focus and saw a transparent blue glow in front of her. She almost shot up then overbalanced from a strange extra weight throughout her body and took in her surroundings. She was on some sort of balcony hat overlooked what looked like a city inside a massive crater. Through a blue forcefield she could see odd mostly intact buildings in the surroundings: smokestacks, hexagonal pillars, antenna, satellite dishes and a huge dome surrounded by a red glow from both searchlights and huge red crystals.
Dee only then realized she was naked and quickly checked her body, at first she seemed alright until she felt scars around her head and her chest then, "My chest spike!" she touched the spot between her breasts where she used to have a metal chest spike like all Lucario, only now it was gone and there was only a scar! She took a deep breath and realized how much of a headache she had, then that she felt dulled somehow. Not dumb but as if there was a pillow wrapped around her head. Her aura-sense wasn't working right.
She turned and felt her way around the circular balcony until she found a door and entered.
Dee found herself in what looked like a private high-tech luxury apartment. There was a blue circle computer grid table in the middle of the main room and side rooms that consisted of a small indoor garden with a kitchenette and a living room that further branched off into a bedroom and bathroom. Everywhere there were strange machines that she tried to activate but found each of them non-responsive, and each with a slot for a kind of computer chip.
"They must be missing a vital piece of hardware, can't get it working without that," Dee sighed as she examined what looked like an auto-doc. She'd seen them back in Vault 18 but not nearly as sophisticated as this one. In addition to the central computer and auto doc there was: a mean looking book chute, two overdesigned light switches, a machine in the garden, a sink that wouldn't turn on, a jukebox, a toaster and strangely enough a working Poke ball. She tried to throw the Poke ball to release what or who was inside but it didn't work. When she picked it up to examine she saw a piece in the shape of a keyhole missing from the shell then set it back on the table next to the bed where she'd found it. She marvelled as the level of tech here, other than the missing components it was all more advanced than even Silph Co's Vault technology, or that of the Aether Enclave.
The last thing she found was a working Sunset Sarsparilla machine in what could best be called the lobby, thankfully rigged to not need money, so she bought a bottle and took a long drink to calm her nerves. Dee looked at the star bottlecap she'd received from the bottle, "Not feeling very lucky," she sighed before tossing the empty bottle into a receptacle built into the machine.
In the lobby there was writing on the wall that just said "THE SINK", which she assumed was the name of the apartment, and two doors with signs that said "THINK TANK" pointing to the right door and "BIG MT" pointing to the left. She tried the left door but found it unresponsive, so with no other choice Dee opened the door to the Think Tank and rode the elevator down.
As Dee stepped out of the elevator a wave of what she could only describe as forced pacifism descended on her. She felt unnervingly calm, if that were even possible. She walked forwards up a short ramp into a large room, then had to clap her hands to her muzzle to contain a scream of terror!
In front of her were five brains in glowing spheres that hovered over the ground, each with three monitors that protruded forwards to displayed two eyes and a mouth at sizes that varied from brain-to-brain. From left to right the brain jars glowed grey, pink, blue, yellow and green and all were staring at her! Before she could even think to turn and run, all five approached her and the central blue one shouted at her.
"I THOUGHT I HEARD THE PACIFICATION FIELD KICK IN. ALL RIGHT, SHHH. NOBODY. MOVE. I'LL HANDLE THIS." He made a noise like clearing his non-existent throat, "BE WARNED, INTRUDER! YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MIGHTY THINK TANK OF BIG MOUTAIN, THE COLLECTIVE GENIUSES OF… WE…" he paused, sounding annoyed, "BY OAK, WHICH ONE OF YOU SELF-PROFESSED GENIUSES HAS BEEN ADJUSTING MY VOLUME KNOB? WHO WAS IT! WAS IT YOU, 8?" he rounded on the green brain tank.
The green brain, Doctor 8, emitted a series of staticky noise that Dee sensed meant something like 'Not me, robot breaker'.
"OH, 'DR. O,' WAS IT? LIKELY STORY, O COULDN'T SPARK TWO NEURONS IF THEY WRE IN A LATTICE OF BIOMED GEL." Dee swore she could see the blue brain roll its eyes.
Dr. O, the grey one, responded indignantly with a higher pitched voice than the blue brain, "What? Me? Breaking news, Klein, it wasn't me – all right?! I am the robotical engineer, 8 is soundwaves, that his 'speciality'. You always do this, you always demean me in front of guests! And it's not 'O,' all right, it's…!"
Dr Klein, the blue brain, cut O off, "ENOUGH! EITHER OF YOU DO IT AGAIN, IT'LL BE THE LAST TIME. NOW… NOW… GREAT. NOW I FORGOT WHAT I WAS SAYING… WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT?"
Dee regained enough composure to finally speak up, "Who are you, what is this place?"
Klein stared at Dee in surprise, "DID… DID IT JUST SAY SOMETHING? ANYONE CATCH THAT?" he turned to the yellow brain, "BOROUS, YOU WORK WITH POKEMON, TRANSLATE."
The yellow brain, Dr. Borous, spoke with alarm and a voice similar to Klein's, but quieter and somehow with dramatic gravitas injected into every word, "It's a LOBOTOMITE. Here! In the dome!"
Klein groaned, "OH, AS IF THIS SITUATION COULDN'T GET AY WORSE, NOW WE'VE GOT LOBOTOMITES. DALA," Klein turned to the red brain, "GET THE SPRAY BEFORE IT EXCRETES ALL OVER EVERYTHING."
"Lobotomite? Me? Wait what did you do to me?!" Dee threw up her hands up to her head where she felt a surgical scar , "Did you give me brain surgery?!"
The red brain, Dr Dala, spoke in a sultry female voice and seemed to be oblivious to Dee's question, "Dr. Klein… if my hypothesis is correct, this Lobotomite is the repository of the brain we sent the signal to – the skinvelope once containing it. If so, it's proof that there may indeed be something beyond the Crater." Dala's eye screens extended forwards to get a better look at the Lucario-woman, "Just look at it… the way it blinks. It's like a big stuffed Teddiursa."
Dr. Klein's exasperation was evident, "I KNOW WHAT IT IS, DALA, I WANT TO NOW WHY IT'S DOWN HERE. WITH ITS… ITS LIMBS ALL OVER EVERYTHING." He tilted his eye screens down towards Dee, "AND… ARE THOSE… PENISES I SEE WRIGGLING ON ITS FEET? DISGUSTING."
That statement managed to snap some of the terror out of Dee, "I haven't had one of those in years!"
Dala answered Klein, again ignoring Dee, "I believe those are toes, Dr. Klein. Little Teddiursa toes. Penises are much larger than those tiny extremities… Eh, not that I would know."
"I don't recall a human penis ever being that large," Dr. O interjected.
"It depends on one's own frame of reference, Dr. O." Dala kept her eye screens on Dee, "Look at its muzzle with its two orifices for ingesting oxygen."
"NOSES?" Dr. Klein's screens shuddered, "BY THE GREAT STATIC, THESE LOBOTOMITES CONFOUNDS ME WITH THEIR SHEER NUMBER OF USELESS EXTREMITIES."
Indignation at being ignored and exasperation at their attitudes made Dee ignore her fears as she held up a finger, pointed at herself, then pointed her hand with all five fingers spread to point at each of the floating brain doctors.
Klein recoiled in disgust, "HOW IT'S HOLDING UP AN ARRAY OF FULLY-ERECT HAND PENISES. IF IT TRIED TO INSERT THEM ACTIVATE VIVISECTORS."
"I don't have a penis!" Dee shouted.
"Dr. Klein, WAIT!" Dr. Borous spoke up, "I… I don' believe those gestures were random. Random AT ALL. It's been following our conversation! The Lobotomite… understands us!"
"I agree with Borous' histrionic findings." Dala added, "This little Lobotomite is unusually attentive for something whose brain has been extracted."
Dee felt ice shoot through her body at those last words.
"NONSENSE." Klein dismissed Dala, "NEITHER LOBOTOMITES NOR POKEMON CAN COMPREHEND US."
Dr. 8 suddenly spoke up with a flurry of static and whirrs that Dee was too shocked to even try to understand.
"8, have you been in the Mentats again?" Dr. O sounded annoyed, "If we slow down our auro-processo-receptors to understand this excretion, we'll all be rendered ignorant!"
"ALL OF YOUR, POWER DOWN, SHUT UP, AND LET ME PROVE ONCE AND FOR ALL HOW WRONG YOU ALL ARE. AS USUAL." Dr. Klein focused his screens on Dee, "LOBOTOMITE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? CAN YOU SPEAK?"
Dee was panting as he held her head, "You took out my brain, I… I want to be mad to try and do something but I can't feel that way, why?" She looked up at Klein.
Klein still seemed to be ignoring her despite addressing her, "THOSE WEREN'T WORDS, JUST THE BARKING OF SOME POKEMON THAT WANDERED IN HERE! SOMEONE FIND A WAY TO SHOO IT OFF!"
"What do you mean…" Dee paused halfway through her speech then stopped and paid closer attention to the actual words coming out of her mouth. She repeated what she had said and heard her vocal cords form the words, "Lucario, Lu-Luca, cario? Lucario Lu Lu Luca Cario? Lucario?!" She clapped a hand to her mouth as the Think Tank fell to arguing again.
As Dee was pondering this and trying to force her voice to work she heard a panicked sound from the one called Dr. 8 that could best be interpreted as 'look out!'. She heard a new voice behind her and turned to see a screen on the wall above and behind her and saw yet another brain tank, though this one had one of its eye screens blacked out. "Lucario!" Dee mentally slapped herself as the Think Tank argued with the one they called Dr. Mobius. She had to focus on trying to just get her vocal cords to work right.
"Luuu Lu lululu Cario Luuueeee, LuuuuIII Caaeeee," she really had to strain to get the words to work. From what little she knew of medical science she had to guess that whatever had been done to her brain was interfering with her ability to form coherent words, at least ones that weren't natural to a Pokemon's voice box.
Dee was snapped out of her when Dr. 8 let out a long string of static noise and she picked up that he was suggesting they ask her to help.
"What? Ask the Lobotomite for help?" Dr. O sounded indignant, "8, I think you need the fluid levels in your logic-assist-pumps checked."
Dala interjected, "If this Lobotomite responded, Dr. Klein, then it is clearly intelligent, perhaps even displays heretofore unknown levels of helpfulness."
"But what of its brain?" Borous added, "We scooped that out! We don't even know where we left it! And for putting it back in… none of us have the knowledge!"
Dee snapped back to attention and stared at them in horror!
"Yes, but it's still aware and responsive." Dala turned back to Dee, "Look at it… it's regarding us even now, with its big Teddiursa eyes. If we ask it politely and leave the part about the unnecessary ruthless lobotomizing out, it might be favorably disposed towards us."
"Hey!" Dee managed to bark the word out which finally got their attention, "what d-do to Lucarime?! Ca, bario, brain out?!" her hands shot back to her head, "H-hario hooow I still up?! Aluca-Alive!?" Dee was building to a panic attack, not helped by barely being able to speak to them.
"We removed your brain, yes," Dala replied, "So soft. Barely wrinkled, yet so… flush with knowledge and experience. Brain extraction technology has been standard practice at Big Mountain for an immeasurable amount of time."
Dee could barely follow what the five brain in jars were saying managed to get the major points by the time they stopped talking and she was able to force herself to speak, "B-brain. Hario-Heart. Lucaine-Spine out? Hari-how walk stario-still?"
"Wherever your brain is it's transmitting thoughts to you through the… the… coils in your head," Dr. O replied.
"This is fortunate in many respects, for if you brain was in your body then you could circumvent the pacification field," Dala added, "We had to remove that pesky spike that was in the way and dispose of it."
That explained why despite all of this, Dee couldn't muster up the energy to attack her captors. "Lucare… where brain?"
"We, uhh, kinda misplaced it," Dr. O sounded embarrassed. "After the Auto-doc did the surgery it might have gotten flushed down one of the pipes. Actually pretty likely did."
"If so, it was FLUSHED all the way to MOBIUS! Fwoooooooosh!" Dr. Borous swayed his chassis dramatically, "That.. is the sound of FLUSHING!"
"THAT AUTO-DOC IS ONE OF MOBIUS'S CREATIONS, ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER CONTRAPTIONS IN THE SINK." Dr. Klein sounded annoyed. "BUT ENOUGH OF THIS RIDICULOUS SURGERY TALK. LOBOTOMITE, LISTEN TO MY VOICE AS IT INTONES YOU TO OBEY. WE NEED YOUR HELP. DO NOT THINK TO REFUSE, FOR IF YOU DO THEN YOU WILL BE TRAPPED HERE FOREVER! THE RADAR FENCE THAT SURROUNDS THE CRATER WILL NOT LET YOU LEAVE WITHOUT YOUR BRAIN! WE NEED YOU TO RETRIEVE THE TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN SAVE US!" Dr. Klein said, "THE X-2 TRANSMITTER ARRAY, USED TO FOCUS COHERANT THOUGHT AT EXCESSIVELY HIGH FREQUENCIES."
Borous picked up the line, "The psycho-analytic cardiac-dampening sneaky stealth suit, a suit like NOTHING this world has ever heard, seen, or could EVER see!"
Dr. 8 emitted a stream of static that Dee was able to pull 'my sonic emitter' out of.
Dala still translated, "…and 8's Sonic-Soundwave-Emitter-Projecto-Gun, able to broadcast sound at lethal frequencies. It also gives a great biogel massage."
"Just let me transmit the coordinates to your… piece of Robco tech," Dr. O sounded disgusted as he said the word and a moment later Dee heard her Rotom-boy spring to life and checked to see locations marked on her map. "Also take this." Dr. O floated closer and a claw extended from the back of his chassis to hand a large computer chip to Dee, which she accepted, "You can use that to activate The Sink Central Intelligence unit, in case you need supplies."
Dee examined the chip, trying to focus on it instead of the other horrors she was being forced to deal with, "Muca-more of thario-these?"
"I believe Dr. Klein hurled them from the sink balcony in frustration," Dala turned to Klein.
"THEY WERE AN ANNOYANCE, NEVER SHUTTING UP!" Dr. Klein shot back.
"Regardless, you can use that place. Dr. Mobius used to live there so we don't like to go in," Dr. O added.
Dee started to back away and just nodded. The sooner she could get this done the better. She turned and hurried back to the elevators as she heard the Think Tank start to argue and debate again.
Upon returning to 'The Sink' apartment, Dee had to just lean back against the wall and take a breather. Her heart should have been pounding but it was artificial now and it felt weird, all the horror she was absorbing. She almost crushed the computer chip she'd been given before catching herself. With little else to do she walked over to the central computer and installed the chip.
Almost instantly it came to life and it spoke in an upscale but servile masculine way of speaking, "Salutations and felicitations, sir, and a most jocund welcome to the Sink. I am your electronic valet and household central processor. May I be of service, sir?"
Dee winced and tried to say, "Please don't call me 'sir', I'm a woman." But just uttered a stream of poke speak. "Lucario Lucairo Lu, LuCArio."
Thaknfully the CIU seemed to be able to understand her Poke-speak, "Indubitably, sir," the SCIU sounded apologetic, "but it is with great lugubriousness that I must disclose that my programmers installed only the masculine honorific, sir."
"Then just don't say that at all, please," if it weren't for the unnecessary surgery this would be the most uncomfortable thing Dee had dealt with today.
"Apologies but they neglected to enclose a parameter by which said honorific might be omitted altogether – over my most strenuous of remonstrances, sir."
"Would you mind if I tried to correct that?" Dee brought up the interface and tried to find an option to access the SCIU's programming.
"Unfortunately, sir, my personality matrix is hard coded into Read Only Memory. You would have to rebuild me from the ground up in order to make any such alterations, sir."
Dee groaned, "Can't an artificial intelligence just learn to not say things that offend people."
"Regrettably not, sir. All modules in this habitat are synthetic personalities atop a mundane operating system. There is no intelligence here, sir." For lacking any ability to learn it did sound apologetic.
Dee tried to avoid the subject but she couldn't help wincing, even mentally, whenever she it addressed her as 'sir', and yet she couldn't be reasonably mad with an entity that had just admitted it was powerless to control its speech. "So what's your purpose?"
"In addition to managing the personality matrices of the other household utilities, I can provide sir with direct access to the commissary and repair services." The SCUI lit up an interface, "Supplies and materials manufactured and retrieved from the Big MT and managed by small robots. As a debug test small round metal discs may be used as a medium for exchange."
"And if I had a lot of bottle caps that would be helpful," Dee sighed, "Wait, what was that about other personalities? You mean for all the other machines with empty chip slots."
"Exactly, sir, though if were to suggest one could do without them. Their personalities are more eccentric and built on flawed logic that haven't weathered the years as well, sir." The SCUI paused then continued when Dee didn't respond, "I believe they were crafted by Dr. Mobius as an experimentation in machine/human interface."
"Right," Dee yawned, "I'll see about that in the morning. Just don't wake me up."
The SCUI delivered one last wince-inducing response, "Of course, sir. Good night"
For all the horrors she was currently facing and no doubt about to face, the bed in the Sink was the most comfortable Dee had slept on in years and she woke the next morning feeling refreshed. Even more so was the shower she took, the best shower since she'd had since stayed with Gertrude in Trovitopolis.
Upon leaving the bathroom, Dee noticed another room that had been closed the previous day. Too curious to ignore it, she entered and found herself in a room with three suspension tanks, one empty and the other two containing a suspended heart and spine. Her heart and spine.
A quick examination showed that they were, somehow, still alive and could be reconnected if she got her brain back. She reached behind her to feel the scar up her back then on to her chest where her spike had once been and then around her head. The whole situation was so bizarre it almost made her forgot the fact that she had been cut open and had her insides ripped out and replaced.
Dee shook her head and set about fixing an easier problem, finding some clothes so she wouldn't be running around totally naked. Thankfully that was easier than everything else she'd done today and she found a pair of durable scientist's scrubs in the bedroom dresser, surprisingly stretchy scrubs that were able to slide over her huge tits, hips and ass without any discomfort, and in fact gave her chest support she desperately needed.
After finding a backpack and a decent amount of food and water in the garden/kitchen, Dee ate then headed for the other elevator and descended into the crater. The sun hit her face harshly as she stepped out then checked her Rotom-boy. Three pieces of technology a bunch of personality chips and Arceus knows what kind of monsters stood between her and freedom.