Chapter 9: They Went That-a-Way

Dee sensed the ambush before it was sprung. The feelings of greed and desire poured off the sides of canyon walls, in fact she could pinpoint the exact location of the four raiders: two to the left, one to the right and one ahead hiding behind a wrecked car. Dee pulled out a frag grenade and pulled the pin as she felt an extra feeling of lust directed at her.

Dee conjured a Vacuum Wave around the grenade then suddenly turned and hurled the wave and grenade at the left canyon wall. The raider, a Volbeat-man popped up from behind a rock, rifle in hand, just in time to get beaned in the skull by the grenade a moment before it exploded. Their companion, a Butterfree-man, jumped out of cover while staring at the headless body of his companion. Dee jumped up the side of the canyon, feeling light as a feather as she found each outcrop underfoot and jumped up over the edge, startling him as she delivered a Thunder Punch to his face then landed and finished him off with a Blaze Kick.

Gunshots from the other side of the canyon and the road below rang out as the last two raiders, a Durant-man on the other wall and a Beedrill-man on the road. She took a couple shots on her new scrubs as she rounded on them, seeing their fear and anger pouring off them. She focused on the Durant-man and put her hands to her side. She formed an Aura Sphere in seconds then fired at the Durant-man. The Aura Sphere flew straight for about a meter before it spiraled into a corkscrew that got wider until it struck the rock below her target. He gave a cry of fear as the rock collapsed below him and he was sucked into the rockslide. The Beedrill-man tried to take flight but was struck on the head by a rock that bounced out from the wall then he fell right into the path of the rockslide.

Dee stood there, feeling her heart race for the first time since the Big MT then looked down at the bodies of the two raiders on the canyon wall on which she stood. She was still rattled from how she had killed the Think Tank and felt a little ill at how easy this had been, but this was kill-or-be-killed and knew if she didn't fight back she'd be dead now, or worse. Dee pushed that thought aside as she set about taking the dead raiders' gear, mostly bullets and their guns, before she easily hopped down to the road and uncovered the dead bodies of the other two raiders.

The Beedrill-man buzzed as Dee pulled the rocks off him, then he suddenly lunged forwards and stabbed Dee's outstretched hand with the stingers on the ends of his fingers.

"You die!" he buzzed, "Poissssson…" he fell back, twitched, then finally died.

Dee felt the injury burn and saw some of the liquid venom in the punctures. It was a couple moments later that the burning stopped. Dee waited just to make sure before she went back to taking the Beedrill-man's gear. Now she was indeed immune to even the radiation intensified poison and venom of the wasteland. She hadn't wanted to test it but it was a relief to have it confirmed. Even as she walked she didn't feel any pain or effects from his venom.

Dee was definitely stronger now, not just because of the enhancements to her returned organs but now that she wasn't carrying a few extra kilograms of metal inside her and all the effort she'd had to expend to even use aura with an artificial brain now it came so much easier and stronger. It was the first time her Aura Sphere had flown in the right direction and even if it didn't strike her intended target, it still got the job done. She just had to find time to train it better, but for now she continued on the road to the next town or city.

While walking, Dee couldn't help but reflect that this was the second time she'd been the subject for the experiments of insane scientists that ended up to her benefit in the end, and in both cases she'd killed the ones responsible. Lusamine, The Mother Beast, merged with the Ultra-Beast Nihilego, the one who'd cloned her from a blood sample of the original Dee, the heroic Vault Dweller, and implanted the Ultra-parasite in her that had let her regenerate. Her success had been because she was the first Ultra-Parasite host to change into a Poke-person, which had weakened the parasite enough that it would regenerate her without the risk of overtaking her body and turning her into just another Ultra Beast. Dee wouldn't exist without Lusamine but at the same time the mad scientist was still dead, Dee had killed her to stop her from opening an Ultra-wormhole that would have unleashed the Ultra Beasts on the wasteland.

Dee paused and took a deep breath. It was still hard to deal with what she'd done to the Think Tank, but she knew that they had to be stopped. As strong as the reinforcements had made her, she wouldn't wish the procedure on anyone especially since her success had been a fluke both times. She took another deep breath then continued onwards.

It was two days later when she spotted the next settlement, Dendemille Town which had a still functional windmill that could be seen from almost a day away. When she arrived after midday she was surprised to be greeted by a familiar face.

"Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit, if it ain't my old friend from Vaniville."

"Victor?" Dee stared at the vehicle-sized cowboy Porygon who floated at the gate to a motel where the windmill stood; he still wore his cowboy hat and neckerchief. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't rightly know," Victor shrugged his arms, "I just got he notion to make my way to New Lumiose. Reckon I'll find out when I get there."

Dee folded her arms as best she could, "Are you following me?"

"Considerin' I got here first I could accuse you of the same thing," Victor turned to the road she'd just come from, "but it's strange we didn't run into each other before now. It'd be a sight more surprising if we didn't meet, seeing how this is the only road to new Lumiose not infested with nasty critters."

"Right," Dee tried to focus her aura sight on the Porygon but couldn't sense any deception, then again she could barely read the digital Pokemon's aura even now. "Do you know if the Persian-man who shot me came through here?"

"No," Victor turned and pointed north, "but I hear there's a lot of good rumors from the lady at Gibson Scrap Yard just North of town."

Dee smiled, "Thanks, Victor. See you later," she turned to walk past Dendemille and gave the cowboy Porygon a wave, and he waved back.

The scrap yard lived up to its name: a small garage connected to a chain-link fence surrounding a junkyard filled with scrap parts including a couple wrecked vehicles.

The owner was a youngish Stunky-woman seated on a concrete letter O by the garage's front door with a plasma rifle at her side and a defender holstered on her hip, "Hello, what brings you to my junk pile?"

The voice made Dee stare at the Stunky-woman and then double-take when a robot Growlithe pushed the garage's door open and came to sit at her side.

"Melany? GR-0-WL?"

Melany snapped her gaze up to Dee, "How do you know my name… wait… Dee?!"

"DEE!" GR-0-WL the robo-Growlithe bounded up to Dee and leapt up at her, its tongue hanging out making a happy panting noise.

Dee smiled and stroked GR-0-WL's head, "Nice to see my programming still holds up."

"I owe you for giving me life," GR-0-WL licked Dee's face, which was rough but she could take it.

"You helped save my life, we're even," Dee stepped back so GR-0-WL could drop back to all fours.

Melany stood up and walked to Dee, "What the fuck happened to you? You're bustier, thiccer and… shiny? How the fuck did that happen? And how do you carry those tits without a new spine?"

Dee winced, "A lot of tragedy. I nearly got blown up at Galar a couple years ago and… I kinda do have a new spine, or at least a reinforced one."

Melany stepped back then looked to the west where the sun was beginning its descent, "Might as well come in and share what's happened while I make supper. If someone needs some scrap they'll knock."

The garage was a one-room apartment divided into a kitchen, a bed, a table with chairs, a toilet and storage lockers. Dee shared her story as Melany cooked supper for both of them, telling her everything since they parted ways at Trovitopolis six years ago, right up until her escape from Big MT and who she was searching for.

Melany's just stared at Dee in astonishment as they sat down for supper, just bowls of noodles, "Damn, Dee, just… damn… you've been through three kinds of hell. I'm sorry… makes my problems seem kinda miniscule…" she stirred her food before eating slowly.

"What happened? Why are you in Kalos?" Dee started eating as Melany spoke between mouthfuls.

"After I went back to the heart of NKR I opened a small repair shop. It didn't do so well at first but one day when GR-0-WL and I were out scavenging for spare parts I stumbled across a group of humans. Turns out Silph Co. was still around."

Dee swallowed, "Silph Co? The people who made the Vaults?"

Melany nodded, "Yep. Also turns out they were part of the Aether Enclave, or at least worked with them. The Vaults were a bunch of experiments to test how humans could adapt to various special situations for a post-apocalypse or space travel or something," Melany shrugged, "Apparently my vault was a 'control vault' so it didn't have any social experiments." She took another bite, chewed and swallowed, "but I'm getting ahead of myself. Seems they feel the same way about us Poke-people as Aether and were hoping we'd just collapse into tribal or wild societies so they could rule over us. They're pissed that we managed to make a successful self-sustaining society so they planned to nuke Shady Sands and hope the NKR collapsed so they could swoop in and rule over us."

"After that I got in contact with Captain Zade and he pulled a squad together," the Stunky-woman grinned, "Then we struck!" she threw a punch in mid-air, "Those asshat scientists never saw it coming, none of their energy weapons even hit us before we took them out, disassembled their bomb and hauled the survivors back to military HQ. We were heroes but I just took a cash payout and let Zade have all the credit because I didn't want all the attention on me."

There was silence as both finished their food, "So what happened after that?"

Melany sighed sadly, "Things were fine until the election three years ago and Kimball was elected." Melany huffed, "He's a jackass, literally he's a Mudbray-man. His whole platform was to 'clean up and expand NKR' especially by kicking out or locking up any undesirables that he decided were to blame for all their problems," Melany pointed to herself, "and that included 'ex-raiders' like me. My pardon was just damning evidence that I had been a raider, even though I was just a slave. Zade warned me so I packed up and headed east with GR-0-WL. It made me a fugitive but I was screwed either way."

"Oh… sorry to hear that," Dee looked at her empty bowl, "I mean it's s different kind of problem but at least I can go where I want…"

"Let's not play misery poker," Melany grabbed Dee's bowl and took them to wash, "We both have problems. Anyway, I passed through Trovitopolis and Maxwell offered to protect me from the government since he was responsible for my problem, his words but he's right. He's matured, even evolved into an Aggron-man since then. But I didn't want to wreck Trovitopolis so I just kept moving until I was outside NKR territory. I stopped in Dendemille a while ago and found the old lady, Gibson, who ran this place wanted to retire. After I showed how good I was at fixing stuff she let me have it and went to live back in the town." Melany smiled as she finished cleaning the bowls, "It's nice, close enough to town that I can visit when I want but far enough I can keep to myself otherwise." She sighed and sat back down at the table, "then, of course, the NKR's trying to annex Kalos. So, I'm caught between misogynistic slavers and a jackass who wants to lock me up for being a slave to raiders. At least for now they're occupied with the Kogun but I don't want to pack up and move again."

Dee tried to smile, "You two could come travel with me again."

Melany stood up, "Thanks, but I'm done travelling. I never wanted to in the first place." She started to undress, "As for your Persian-man and the Rockets, I saw them pass by heading north a while ago. They probably passed through the 188 Trading Post. You can stay the night if you don't mind sharing the bed with me." By now Melany was unclothed and headed for the bed, "Don't worry about undressing, I'm not interested."

Dee chuckled then undressed and joined Melany in bed. They slept facing opposite directions while GR-0-WL lay down nearby despite not needing to sleep. The next day, Dee set back on the road north after a short farewell from Melany.

"Remember, Dee, never waste anything in the wasteland," Melany sat back down in front of her garage.

Dee waved, "I remember. Good luck, Melany."

It took a few days to reach the trading post and while on the road Dee was forced to fight Fire Durant for the first time, the large ant Pokemon having somehow mutated to part-fire types. Dee was burned before she put them down and continued on her way. The most valuable thing she learned was that the red scrubs Dr. Mobius gave her indeed were self-repairing. She was curious about the limit of their durability but decided to not risk destroying them. They proved invaluable when she got caught in a firefight with another group from the Bug-type raider gang.

A day from the trading post, Dee witnessed a skirmish between a squad NKR soldiers and a group of ashigaru from the Kogun. The ashigaru charged into melee and lost half their number to gunfire before they were able to start cutting the soldiers down with their crude katana-like swords, but their strength left only two members of the NKR alive who retreated back they way they had been going. Remembering Melany's words, Dee took the chance to grab what she could off the corpses of both sides, including both the paper money of the NKR and koban like coins from the ashigaru, the latter of whom were mostly fighting and normal types.

The 188 Trading Post was built on top of an old car bridge and saw people coming and going in small caravans all day. Dee arrived near noon and sat down at the outdoor diner under a corrugate metal awning to get some lunch and supplies, which she traded for with guns and ammo she'd looted.

Partway into her meal of meat she didn't care to identify, someone in a hooded grey robe sat next to Dee. Dee turned as they pulled their hood back to reveal she was an Eevee-woman, who ordered her own food, then turned to Dee and grinned, "Hi."

Dee couldn't sense any malice or ill intent from her so introduced herself, "Hello, I'm Dee and you are?"

"Call me Crafty," the Eevee-woman extended her right hand, which Dee shook.

"Do you greet everyone here like this?" Dee turned back to her food.

"Nope, but it's not every newcomer who's a hyper sexy shiny Lucario-woman," Crafty hooded her eyes sexily and leaned sideways on the counter.

Dee blushed but kept eating, "Thank you, I…" she stumbled over what to say

"Not used to flirting?" Crafty laughed as her food arrived, "Relax, I've been stuck here for a while so I watch all the people who pass through here and I recognise all the regulars. It's nice to meet someone new who isn't a soldier."

Dee swallowed her food, "Have you seen a Persian-man in a checkered suit and some Rockets pass through here?"

Crafty chewed as she thought then swallowed before she answered, "No, if they did they must have passed through when I was asleep. Haven't seen a Persian since I was a boy-!" Crafty immediately clammed up as if she'd said too much.

Dee turned and stared at Crafty who was paying her attention to her food. "What was that?"

"Nothing!" Crafty dug in and pretended she hadn't said anything.

Dee saw the fear pouring off the Eevee-woman and so decided to take a verbal plunge, "Are you trans too?"

Crafty froze, then turned to Dee, "You're trans? Did you change when you hybridized too?"

Dee nodded, "Yes, did you grow up in a Vault?"

Crafty visibly relaxed though she was still a bit on edge, "I never thought I'd meet someone else like me. I did grow up underground, not a Vault but… not important." She finished her lunch, "So how did you discover you were a woman?"

"It was kind of an accident," Dee blushed slightly at the thought, "I was given an accelerant injection right before my Vault was invaded. I went to sleep then woke up as a Riolu-woman. It felt… right somehow but a lot happened so I didn't really have time to question it. I had a little more time to come to terms with it recently and affirm this is who I am, but that's a morbid story… How about you?"

Crafty leaned sideways and poked at what was left of her food, "It was a lot slower of a burn than that, but I figured it out before I underwent the hybridization ritual. Took me a while to explore and figure out but by the time I was sent outside I knew I was a woman, and so did my…" she trailed off.

"Mate?" Dee leaned sideways to look Crafty in the face.

Crafty looked away, "Yeah. We were having a rough patch at first, I was scared to tell her what I really was and she was getting distant," she smirked, "turns out it wasn't a big deal since she was into girls, she told me she didn't want to lie to herself anymore, so I immediately told her I was a woman. She was relieved but we didn't tell anyone else because…" she sighed, "We were isolationist so most people down there believed it was critical that all couples be capable of breeding, guess what her parents thought?"

"What was her name?" Dee asked.

"Holly, she was a Zorua." Crafty shook her head, "Anyway, I went out to sit in the wasteland so I could try and hybridize, no accelerant so they could see if I was 'worthy' of that gift. Long story short, I did and I was happy but not as happy as when I started growing breasts," she smiled and squeezed one of her modest breasts through her robes. "Everyone was surprised when I came back inside female and Holly was thrilled and I chose my new name, Crafty. Things went downhill after that."

"What did your parents say?" Dee held her breath.

"Nothing, they died a couple years before that in an accident," Crafty hung her head, "everyone tried to act like my being a rare species of Pokemon was all that mattered, but some thought I shouldn't have changed my sex and most of them thought that Holly and I shouldn't be together. Sadly, one of them was Elijah. He was sort of my adopted grandfather after my parents died, taught me a lot but he became distant after that."

"So why are you out here?" Dee turned on her stool to fully face Crafty.

"Long story short: Elijah left, Holly left, and I got tired of everyone trying to set me up with another guy. He wasn't bad, hated the idea too, but I wasn't given much choice. So I volunteered for 'long-term scouting duty' and after an… incident… I decided to just stop by here since it's a fairly important trading crossroads and," Crafty's ears perked up and she jumped from her stool, "Actually there's another reason I've been staying here and I think he can help you." She grabbed Dee's arm, "This way!"

Dee let herself be pulled along, Crafty wasn't weak but if Dee wanted she could have easily resisted the Eevee-woman. Dee was dragged to the underpass of the trading post, past another vendor and to a crude canvas tent right under the bridge. Seated at the open tent flap was a Kirlia-man wearing rough leather pants with his natural skirt poking out over top and – Dee had to blink at the sight – pink hair instead of the common green or even 'shiny' blue. He also had rather broad hips and narrow shoulders; were it not for his flat bare chest Dee might have thought he was female at a glance.

The Kirlia-man blushed as the two stopped in front of him, "Hi, Crafty, who's this sexy- gorgeous Lucario?" His voice was an enthusiastic high tenor, almost alto, despite his nerves.

Crafty released Dee's arm, "This is Dee. Dee, meet Frankie."

Frankie stood up nervously then stared at Dee, "You're hurt!"

"Huh?" Dee shook her head then looked down, feeling some of the pain from the burns and bullets she'd taken from her fights on the way over. She hadn't thought to take any stimpacks on the way, "Guess I was trying to save supplies."

"Hold still," Frankie held up his hands, palms forwards as a small globule of glowing blue water formed in front of his palms. He shot the glob forwards onto Dee, which quickly absorbed into her body and she felt her injuries quickly soothed.

Dee pulled back her sleeve to look at where she had been burned and saw it was healed then pulled her scrubs down to see the bullet hole on her upper chest had similarly closed up, "What was that?"

Frankie couldn't help but blush a bit as Dee had inadvertently flashed her cleavage, then he cleared his throat, "Life Dew. I get by offering to heal anyone who comes through here."

"Oh right!" Dee fished a handful of caps, a koban and a couple NKR bills from her pocket, "thank you."

Frankie accepted the payment, "Thank you too. Between the mutant Pokemon, raiders attacking caravans and the fights between the Republic and the Kogun there's always someone looking for a quick fix."

"He's also a fortune teller," Crafty folded her arms and smiled, "If anyone here can tell you where your Persian went, it's him."

"Really? Can you?" Dee turned her full attention to Frankie.

Frankie took a step back from the intensity of her gaze, "I can, but mostly little things. I could probably tell you which direction to go but seeing where he is might not work."

Dee saw how nervous Frankie was and stepped back, "Anything you can tell me would help. I need to find the man who shot me in the head."

Crafty jumped back and stared, "How'd you survive that?!"

"Long story and I don't feel like sharing again," Dee turned back to Frankie, "Can you help me, please?"

Frankie nodded, "I'll try." He put his hands together and closed his eyes as his red horns started to glow. "I see… going east… somewhere near in… Cyllage City AHHH!" Frankie's eyes suddenly shot open and started to glow.

"Frankie what-!" Dee was about to move but Crafty grabbed her shoulders.

"Wait!" Crafty held Dee back enough that she turned to look the Eevee-woman in the eyes, "It's a big vision, he doesn't get these very often."

Frankie's voice sounded resonant as he spoke, "Travel and you will find the one who left you for dead, but if you take revenge before you make peace, mend hearts and heal souls then you will know only despair for the rest of your days! Go to the bunker, that is where your path to happiness must lead!" His eyes faded back to their original light-pink irises and he held his head, "Haven't felt one of those for a while."

"So he went east to Cyllage city?" Dee saw Frankie nod.

"Or what's left of it," Crafty had folded her arms again, "It got blown up during the first battle of Gaiva Dam."

"Thank you," Dee handed Frankie another NKR bill, "I need to go."

"Wait!" Frankie called out which stopped Dee before she'd taken three steps, "Please listen to me!"

Dee turned back and saw Frankie's face twisted in fear and even Crafty looking nervous, "What's wrong?"

"If you ignore my vision, you'll suffer." Frankie shuffled nervously, "I'm not threatening but… I've only had five big visions before and the one time someone ignored it, they regretted it for the rest of their lives… You seem nice, lost and you regretted the last time you just went for revenge."

Dee's hands flew to her head, "Did you read my mind?!"

Frankie held up his hands, "No! I just saw a bit of your past, a brief flash of your last time… I didn't think someone so se- beautiful could feel so much pain…"

Dee lowered her hands, her own mind flashing back to the blinding rage she'd felt when she slaughtered the Think Tank. Even if she knew it was necessary she still regretted what had happened.

"He told me the same thing," Crafty looked from Dee to Frankie, "his last big vision was for me and he said that if I waited here I'd finally find what I lost, but if I left before I did then I would lose it forever. He even told me what happened with the one time it was ignored…"

"So what should I do? Where's that bunker?" Dee carefully approached Frankie.

"I can show you on your Rotom-boy," he held out his hand and Dee extended her arm with the wrist computer forwards. Frankie dragged the computer's map over and touched a spot, marking it on the screen, "There."

Dee pulled her hand back, "Cyllage City's on the way. If I go there will that ruin my life?"

Frankie looked down, then shook his head, "No, not if you don't take revenge there. If you make peace there it will help you later."

Dee smiled, "Thanks, Frankie."

"Good job," Crafty gave Frankie a kiss on the forehead then turned to leave with Dee as the Kirlia-man fell on his butt, blushing furiously.

"Goodseebyeyou!" he blurted out.

Crafty walked with Dee back up topside, "Knew he could help you."

Dee smiled, "He did, but he's a real honest flatterer. Is he like that with every hot woman who comes to see him?"

Crafty laughed, "Yeah, even me despite how plain I ended up. He hasn't told me much about his past but I get the feeling he didn't get much female attention before he came here, and he really wants it." Crafty walked to one of the concrete guard rails and leaned on it where she could get a good view of where the trade and supply caravans passed, "So you heading off?"

Dee turned east, "Yeah. Cyllage isn't too far so I should make it by evening if I hustle."

Crafty gave a wave as Dee set off, "Hope to see you again!"