[WAR] Role Play: Terminus

[Lord Celebi]

Grassy and I came to the conclusion that the ill-effects of bursting her post described are regarding mass produced Burst Hearts. Player characters have the genuine article and no side effects. NPCs with Burst Hearts will not be so lucky. Likewise, Ancient Burst Hearts have no side effects.

Now back to your regularly scheduled RPing.

[XaiakuX]

Lance Harper
Harper Industries Headquarters in Goldenrod City
Affected RPers: @TheProtobabe @Death's Spook @Velocity

---

"Lance, if there's one things you need to remember throughout your life. It's to love and protect you family. You and your brother will need to be there for each other. Because There will come a time where your mother and I won't be here, and you'll need to survive without us. You have such a mind for business, you are smarter than anyone in this region could ever believe. The day that comes when you take this company from us will be the day that I can die proud and happy. I hope Alastair is by your side, and I hope you'll take this company to greater heights.

I love you, son. I love Alastair. I love your mother. I know I don't say it enough, but this is always my last thought before I go to sleep. I am truly blessed with a beautiful family. This success is nothing without you three. If I died tomorrow, I would die happy. But, it is my hope that I live to see you and your brother become great men. So that I can die forever proud, and die happy. If I should die before I see that, It is my wish that you become those men in my honor. It is my hope that you will be strong, that you will survive, that you will succeed, and that you will live."

- Oliver Harper to Lance Harper on the Eve of his 18th Birthday.

---

Lance temporarily looked puzzled. A bodyguard? He didn't need a bodyguard. However, his brother had only meant to look out for him. He sized the woman up, and profiled her. Something told Lance that he would end up protecting her, instead of the other way around. He huffed and smiled. "My notoriety with gorgeous investors is just as such with my bodyguards, Alastair. Good to meet you, Lenore! I should have you know that I'm well known for ditching the bodyguards my family members hire to follow me around. So, I also wish you luck. Do try to keep up."

He turned his attention to Helena, approaching her and getting quite close. Keeping his mind clear of though, he took her by the hand, slipping an ear piece into her palm. He then stepped back to make it appear as a handshake. "I would much appreciate your involvement in out visit to the Hospital." Lance said, looking Helena in the eyes, and smiling, "It will assist in our public vision being restored. An investor speaking on our behalf will definitely provide positive feedback."

He then turned his attention to Alastair, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I look forward to stories of your adventures! We can talk in the limo on the way to the hospital, I've already paged for it, so it should be waiting for us! Let's go make some people smile, shake some hands, and tell Johto that we aren't going to lose this war."

He made his way to the office door, and stopped for a moment. He actually felt good. The surprise visit, the positive direction that this plan was going in. He hadn't felt this way in a while, and it was nice to feel this way, again. He, with the help of the people standing behind him were going to fix Johto, bring Giovanni down, and settle this nasty business with Hoenn and Kanto. Harper Industries will be the name that this world will remember forever. With this final thought, he stepped through the office doors and made his way to the elevators.

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
Mossdeep City, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

10 million flat for our release. So, now instead of striking up a deal for cybernetics research, which obviously was never there to begin with, it was now 10 million for our freedom, which was something we already had. Or, become a lab specimen. Heck, why not? Everyone was always itching to sell their bodies to science.

And that was when Luke and Ken revealed that the boom mike was actually a shotgun loaded with 12 gauge slugs and the camera was in fact a P90 submachine gun. It seemed this was not what the good doctor had intended to see.

"Light 'em up!" One of the henchmen shouted.

A very amusing and quick ten second firefight broke out. Those two with their peashooters maybe only got two shots out before they went down. They were schmucks for hire and it seemed like Hayes cut corners with who he had employed. Either that, or he really wasn't actually expecting anyone to be better armed than those two were.

In the end, the boomstick and P90 proved they were a little bit more special than .22s. One of Hayes's bodyguards ended up like Swiss cheese after the P90 pumped him up with more lead than a pencil and the other was now missing his face while his brains were sprayed across half the expo. With that mess resolved, I gave him my best golf clap.

"Thank you, Mr. Hayes, I was very much entertained by that performance you arranged," I smiled as I approached him. "For that, I'll actually tell you the truth. You've earned it. There was no investor. Or ten million. But, given your research was fake after all, I suppose the trade was fair!"

"You're slow," Hayes laughed, reaching into his pocket. "I don't specialize in that kind of science, you dimwit. But it doesn't matter, because you're dead now too."

He then pulled out a rather interesting-looking relic out of a compartment he actually grafted into his own flesh. Unlocked by only biometrics, it was clear Hayes possessed something he absolutely didn't want anyone to steal.

"Ooh, is that what I think it is?" I asked, having a good hunch about it. "Hayes, you kidder! I never thought you'd-"

But, he didn't give me the chance to finish! He confirmed my hunch right away, showing he in fact possessed exactly what I thought it was. An Ancient Burst Heart.

But, the reality of the situation was he quickly used it to Burst and become a massive Mega Krookodile. The hulking red and gray reptile had glowing red eyes, plenty of knife-like teeth, spikes all over his head and face, a heavy metal chain around his two cuffs, and he stood about eight feet tall. He roared loudly, giving the whole expo a nice rumble.

"C-crap, what the hell...!" Luke shouted, nearly wetting his panties over the sight.

Good, I was hoping this wouldn't be too easy.

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

The Hoenn Council arranged an emergency conference and forcefully declared a complete ban and full removal of PokéTarts from all store shelves effective immediately. I was honored my candy got that kind of attention! The authorities were up in arms, trying their darnest to track down the infamous creator of PokéTarts and bring them to justice! Little did they know, the mastermind behind their whole plan was me, a cute lil' Furret in a makeshift lab inside an aircraft carrier parked at an island that was nearly impossible to find! As for Happy Buneary Candies... you can't fight what you can't find! Their Bureau of Investigation looked like a bunch of jokers when they kept trying to find where the real manufacturing plants were, only to keep running into dummy warehouses! Wee, was this wild goose chase fun or what!?

The penalty for trying to destroy PokéTarts... their black market value went SKYROCKETING!!! Other already impoverished trainers faced the bitter music as their Pokémon gorged themselves to deal with the inability to get their PokéTarts fix! It was a sad, sad day for everyone in Hoenn!

Except for us, of course. So far, the return on PokéTarts was an estimated fourteen billion in cash. Ha, and those kingpins on the top didn't think my stuff was up to it! I wrecked just about every Pokémon trainer in Hoenn and raked in a fortune from it!

Anyway, back to work, and less giggling at the television news reports.

I decided I wanted to try and blend a Furret and a Lopunny together. Well, why not? It would be like a Lopunny, only the ears would be pointed like a Furret's, and it would have a Furret tail. Oh, no reason, just to try it out! Hey, I had to try something, and going out there as a Furret all around the Deathwing asking all the Team Aqua grunts "hey, want to try becoming a mix of a cute Furret and Lopunny?" Forget it, I was a lone ranger on this assignment!

Once the DNA configurations were set up the right way this time, I managed to complete the mutagen. This time, I did it without goofing up and cutting corners like I did last time. So, only question was... did I do it right? Only one way to find out!

I took the syringe with my cute, little Furret paws, jabbed myself, and pressed down on the plunger to let the unpredictable fun commence! I stepped back, and wow, my whole body began changing. I mean, at least I didn't suddenly explode! No one to blame for that if that happened!

It was a good sign the tail remained the same, but everything else was undergoing a total metamorphosis. My legs suddenly grew long, along with my arms, and again there was that grizzly crunching and popping sound with the bones getting transformed! My ears grew long and wide while I was suddenly standing much taller.

When it was all done, I got a good look at myself. Oh my gosh, I think I got it to work! I mean, work the way it was supposed to! I really did become a Lopunny with a Furret tail! This was awesome! And the tail wasn't screwy either, it was like this was a totally natural situation! Awesomeness!

Wait, wait, wait, I had to keep going with this! I was going to go out on a limb and try something that would really put this thing to the test. I managed to combine two Pokémon into one and actually make it biologically work. This... whew, it was going to wrack my brain a bit, but I wanted to see if it was really possible. Okay, I was arguably doing some real mad scientist stuff right here, but... I challenged anyone to deny this couldn't be a massive amount of fun.

So... it all came down to how I wanted to really go out and try this. So many fun and crazy options, it was nearly impossible to pick!

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Yarvick "The Raticate" Xelsez
Team Aqua
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: Neo Emolga

Titanus had sealed himself tightly within the skunkworks with two assistants. Their plan was simple-to figure out how the Deoxys virus mutated, then mutate Hyperion into a Deoxys before he died. However, Yarvick was no part in it, because he was no scientist. He would probably kill the department by not understanding which two chemicals were which, or something stupid like that.

Yarvick had obtained MEND from the department before being expelled outside of the main lab, so the skunks could do their work in relative peace. Yarvick was not all that surprised to figure out it was regeneration, but what really shocked him was that quite a few people had insisted that it was pretty awesome. Even though it would still hurt, the basic premise was that any wound made that wouldn't kill you would, over reasonable amounts of time, grow back, as long as it wasn't a huge wound or outright lethal. Head-shots still killed, heart-shots still killed, any critical damage still killed-otherwise, in some period of time, it would just grow back. Less extensive damage would be repaired in minutes, seconds if it was like a paper cut or a bruise-things like limbs being cut off would take weeks if the blow didn't kill you. MEND did not work as fast as, for instance, Wolverine's ability (or Alpha forbid, Cell's ability). The would would also be naturally disinfected, though how that worked Yarvick truly did NOT know. One was still fully prone to being knocked unconscious, one still felt all the pain of the injury, and as long as something physical was in the way MEND could not repair in that area, from what he gathered. He'd have to remove bullets from his body before MEND covered it up, or they'd require some surgery to remove. Some very annoying surgery.

But, it would be incredibly useful. At the bare minimum, Yarvick could be a bit more risky in his plays, and not have to be like he was a character from Hotline Undella, going down in any attack. Being less frail had its incredible perks. He had tested it by cutting the palm of his hand, lightly, with a scalpel. Within seconds, the wound repaired itself without some fuss. Still hurt like it should have, but that was fantastic. If Titanus bothered to sell this to the millitary (through some shadow operation), Aqua would make a fortune. A ridiculous fortune. This was especially considering that all it took were a few syringes: it was a three-part process to get MEND properly, one syringe per part. Yarvick caught wind of something involving a literally exploding tumor being the cause...

Meanwhile, well, he had NO clue what they were doing in the skunkworks to Hyperion. He could see what they were doing, and he would hardly call it torture: Titanus and his two skunks scurried from instrument to instrument, talking about things Yarvick was beyond understanding. They took blood and skin samples, but honestly, Yarvick could have mistaken them for completely ethical scientists. It was probably out of pragmatism more than anything-they didn't need huge grafts of skin or half of Hyperion's blood. Meanwhile, Hyperion's appearance had only gotten worse: He was now as red as the pelt of a fire type. He also was apparently attempting to move his body around, which, considering the borderline paralysis, didn't really work, and all it did was get him restrained with some straps. He couldn't make out details any better than that, but it seemed to be going OK. Curse his unenlightened mind! Outside of that, all he could pick up was that it was smelly enough that whoever lived in there could live with a Skunktank on a diet of prunes and burritos without noticing-hence, skunkworks.

He had politely requested he be filled in on what was happening from time to time, hence why he was standing around out here. Outside of keeping track of progress, the only think he could do was sit around and wait, or more accurately pace around. He was too tense for sitting. Titanus had confiscated the meteorite, as well, though it was likely that he'd give it directly to Greaser once it was done-MEND was the full compensation for his donation to the skunkworks, as it were.

He didn't really pay attention to the other lab areas, until one of them happened to catch his eye...Inside was the standard assortment of science-y tools, occupied only by a Lopuuny. You'd see them all the time in Sinnoh, the favorite of teenage girls as their Buneary evolved, so Yarvick could tell what it was on sight...Except, the Loppuny's ears were just not correct, and he knew for a fact Lopunny did NOT have tails that big.

It was only the next station over from the main lab, so Yarvick decided to...Investigate. It wouldn't kill him. Hopefully.

However, only when he made up his mind did a man from the main lab come in, another scientist. Yarvick was at least polite. "Hello, there, um..."

"Doctor Yantil Massadar. You've requested a small summary of happenings as they occur, so we're just giving you a quick update. We haven't gotten much data from the Proto-Deoxys Virus that the facsimile didn't already tell us, though we have a few new theories on Psionics that we would like to test out in the future, very interesting ideas, but that isn't your concern. We're now focusing on mutating the virus itself, trying to find what stimuli caused the mutation. We think that we can gather much more from the virus as it mutates, you see. We're merely weeding out various stimuli as we stand. It's mostly cheap, unlikely stuff, like water, living non-Psychic Pokemon, noise of various frequencies, that sort of thing. Highly unlikely, but we cover all of our bases. We are currently testing if the cause was related to temperature, extremely cold temperature. The original Deoxys was 'born' near one of the arctic poles, so it is reasonable that conditions there may have caused the mutations."

The Doctor said quite a lot, very quickly. Yarvick's head was spinning a little. "Thanks for the update."

"You're welcome, now, back to work," Yantil said, returning to the Skunkworks almost as quickly as he left.

OK, they were focusing on the mutation aspect of Deoxys. Trying to figure out how that happened, and why. Hopefully they'd be getting onto the actual mutation soon-the sooner this was over, the sooner he could figure out if Hyperion truly survived...The better. Yarvick wanted his friend, liked his intelligence, and needed his assistance. In the meantime, Yarvick decided to just look back at the weird Lopunny. It was still inside the lab. There was only one window in the frame of the door, so he or she may have just been out of the line of sight...

Yarvick, not looking to steal anything this time, decided to knock on the door first. Maybe he or she was testing out some kind of invisibility potion, or something?

[VeloJello]

Lenore Valdis.
Goldenrod City, Johto.
Affected RPers: @XaikuX, @Death's Spook, @TheProtobabe

The entire scene at the top of the Harper Tower was a lot to take in. She decided to look away from Alistair and Lance for the moment - she sensed that whatever was passing between them was private, after all - and focus on the third, more mysterious person. At first, given her fine clothes and attractive appearance, Lenore assumed that she was perhaps Lance’s wife or escort. As it turned out, however, Helena was a new investor in Harper Industries. This was on its own enough to rouse Lenore’s suspicion - after all, there wasn’t exactly much left to invest in, let alone in a time of such fear and tumult. A second later, Deborah relayed a warning from Alistair sent through his Staryu - that Helena was an individual to be watched. Hmph, Lenore thought at Deborah. Tell him I got the message. And that I didn’t really need it.

Just as Lenore was mentally resurfacing, she realized that Lance was addressing her. She met his eyes calmly as he spoke, betraying no outside emotion in spite of her irritation. The comments about “gorgeous” and “keeping up” annoyed her - they reminded her much too much of Eusine, and that fiasco had been bad enough when blood relation had been there to prevent flirtations. However, Alistair had never implied that Lance was a fool, and therefore if he thought that she was nothing more than a pretty face he would realize his mistake sooner or later.

It was with this in mind that she proceeded to give her most winning smile and say, “Good to meet you too, sir. Don’t you worry about my keeping up. In fact, my Nidoking and Absol are waiting in the lobby to keep any fresh rabble at bay,” she tried very hard not to glance at Helena as she spoke, “and my Xatu has already telepathically scanned your limousine and its driver for any hazards or harmful intent. Which there is not,” she continued, matching her new charge step for step as they crossed the threshold toward the elevator, “so, no, I do not think that you should be worried about me at all.”

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
Mossdeep City, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

I had to say, the Mega Krookodile was so not Hayes's style. I thought for sure that science nut would have been more into Mega Porygon-Z or something whack like that!

"Eat shit and die, you lab freak!" Ken shouted, firing the shotgun again.

But, nothing was ever that easy. The slug was deflected off of the metallic cuff that Hayes now had as a Mega Krookodile. Shortly after that, Hayes grabbed a nearby stone statue of a globe, ripped it off of its mount, and hurled it at Ken.

Ken didn't have much time to react, and was quickly struck by the stone globe, which carried his squashed body into the back wall, which then collapsed upon whatever was left of him and the globe, burying them under what I probably thought was at least twenty tons of stone, metal, and debris.

"Well, thanks for your service, Kenneth," I shrugged, seeing as there wasn't much I could do about that "Say hello to the angels for me!"

"You and your men are pathetic!" Hayes shouted and laughed with a growly snarl, grabbing a large chunk of a marble staircase. "You have nothing that can stop me!"

Well, nothing yet. Luke opened fire on the hulking croc, blasting lead, fire, and hatred at Hayes with the P90! Unfortunately, most of the shots bounced off or harmlessly sat in his toughened reptilian hide and didn't do jack to stop him.

"Here, catch!" Hayes laughed, tossing the massive marble chunk of stairs at Luke.

"Oh... holy fu-!"

I'll admit, the squish and the crunch that came out of that was definitely one of the more gruesome things I've had the displeasure of hearing during my career. I didn't exactly see what had become of Luke when that massive slab landed on top of him, but the sounds gave me a good idea of what went on anyway. That wasn't something I thought Hayes could pull off, but I suppose there's always someone out there willing to outdo what you thought just couldn't be done in the first place!

"Crap, and we were supposed to celebrate with beer after all this!" I exclaimed. "Aren't you quite the devil, Hayes!"

"Haw, haw, you don't take your death seriously enough, do you?" Hayes laughed. "Well, no matter. I'll be your reaper for this evening!"

And this was the exactly reason why I usually liked to carry a rocket launcher on me. Because just way too many times, I found myself running into situations like this! And right now I didn't have one!

Hayes quickly threw another heavy stone pot at me, but I quickly dashed out of the way just a split second before it broke into a million pieces in the exact spot where I had been just a moment earlier. I was going to need a creative way to get rid of Hayes.

And preferably sooner than later!

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: @The Nonexistent Tazz

While Hoenn kept dealing with the zany effects of PokéTarts, I was busy in my lab as well! But I was probably having WAY more fun than they were!

Not to spoil such fun, but I decided it would probably be a good idea to clear the slate, just to test. I wanted to see if there was a way to actually reverse the crazy double Pokémon as one and return myself to my human form. I know, totally lame to give up the cute Lopunny and Furret form to go back to being just a run of the mill human, but I had to see if this worked. Then... then I'd go all out, of course!

The DNA mapping of my own human DNA seemed about right. I doubled checked to make sure nothing goofy had happened to it! It was everything I remembered about me! So, I loaded up the mutagen with that, but just before I used it, there was suddenly a knock at the door!

Holy crap, it was Yarvick!

Crap, I couldn't let him see me like this! Imagine trying to explain this mayhem! I quickly ducked out of sight, and headed to a corner of the room where he couldn't see me.

"Hold on, just need a minute!" I called back to him.

I then quickly jabbed myself with the syringe, and pressed down on the plunger. Oh boy, I sure hoped this worked and didn't do anything really stupid!

It was really kind of sad in a way, but the cute Lopunny and Furret form began to vanish, with the fur being sucked back into my skin and my body shifting and transforming back to my normal, old fashioned human self. The cool and super-cute ears were suddenly pulled back into my head and just seemed to vanish while the Furret tail just seemed to shrivel up and get pulled back into my rear. Well, it was a perfect restoration back into my natural human self, but aww, it was so disappointing! But hey, at least it worked. Now, if someone really regretted the mutant form they picked out, no worries! Either that, or they could change into something else. Variety's the spice of life!

After swiftly getting dressed again, I quickly grabbed the door. Thankfully, he was still there, probably not suspecting a thing!

And I was really lucky that reversal agent worked exactly the way it was supposed to just in time!!!

"Oh hey, Yarvick, sorry for the wait," I smiled, acting like nothing unusual happened. "Come on in!"

I casually strolled back into my lab. Yep, nothing weird going on in here!

"So hey, what brings you to my place?" I asked, wondering how I could help him out.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Yarvick "The Raticate" Xelsez
Team Aqua
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: Neo Emolga

The mutated Lopunny ran away the instant he knocked. Then, when it was out of sight: "Hold on, just need a minute!"

Yarvick was immediately convinced that the Lopunny was definitely not a product of nature. The simple fact of where he was should have said it all.

He waited a few minutes, then...She came to the door. She looked quite like a regular Aqua grunt, which isn't saying much as the only addition most of the skunks made to their outfits were labcoats and goggles, and only inside the lab. She seemed to be of the same mind as those middle-school girls that he'd figure to be into Lopunny, just judging from the interior-if not scientific in nature, it seemed to be dedicated to cuteness, and even the research notes seemed to have doodles of standard cuteness on them.

He would make a mental note to be extra cautious and not approach syringes. This skunk looked disarming but was likely dangerous. General rule of thumb, he found: The more disarming they looked, the more unhinged they were.

"Oh hey, Yarvick, sorry for the wait," said the unknown female doctor. "Come on in!"

Yarvick helped himself to the door, as the woman stepped back into the lab. "So hey, what brings you to my place?"

Yarvick decided to ask the all-important three questions; who was she, how did she know Yarvick, and what did he just see? Before doing so, he gave a look over throughout the room, keeping an eye on her hands and on every sharp implement in the room. "OK, I was here for no reason except to inspect the clearly mutated Lopunny that I saw in passing, so I'll ask two-no, three questions: First, what's your name? Second, How do you know my name? And last, what was the deal with the Lopunny with the weird tail and ears? I've seen Lopunny before, that thing was not just a Lopunny," Yarvick said. "I'm not here with you for any reason other than to sate my curiosity and pass time, is all."

He opted to not talk immediately of the the fact that Hyperion was literally a room over, being experimented on. He could imagine that they were going to try the Electromagnetics stuff now, officially through with all the unlikely reactive substances-though Yarvick wasn't there, so maybe the fringe idea was the trick. He didn't really know, he wasn't a scientist, or at least not a scientist who specialized in those fields, and he definitely wasn't there actually seeing the progress, standing in the room. He at least knew what Electromagnets did because of his own knowledge: The one 'nerdy' thing he knew a great deal of were computers. He could effectively hack databases, websites, a lot. Atlas usually handled tech, but when circumstances arose that Atlas'es wizardry with computerized gizmos was unavailable, Yarvick made do. The fact that Atlas WAS naturally a master of computers was pretty much the reason Yarvick learned how to screw around with computers-sneaking him into school through their own wires.

Of course, computer science was not biology. Unless you were Atlas or another Porygon, but that was a rather loose connection. Yarvick didn't understand DNA beyond it being a sequence of 4 proteins, and that it was how every living being was unique. Screwing with it was the only reason he could think of for the weird Lopunny, so the girl in front of him was a genetics expert.

...Yarvick got an urge to ask her the odds. Two opinions.

"...You know what's going on in the main lab right now?" Yarvick asked. "That would be why I'm here, in the labs at all." He said.

He still kept an eye out for sharp implements and kept a steady eye on her hands. He didn't want to become a guinea pig because she was THAT crazy.

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
Mossdeep City, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

Figures the one time I need a rocket launcher the most is the one time I decide to dress up like a reporter and not carry one. But then again, I thought I would be scamming Hayes out of his cybernetics, not fighting him as a Mega Krookodile. Hardly my fault. Meanwhile, the shotgun and the P90 we took along sure didn't do squat to stop him.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Hayes laughed. "Legs, arms, head... all going down your asshole!"

He picked up another stone chunk of a marble banister and then hurled it at me. I quickly threw myself on the ground just a second before it flew past just inches from my head. Crap, that was a close call. I could see why Ken and Luke got turned into gooey ketchup.

I didn't have much to fight him with, so I was going to need Pokémon. I quickly grabbed the Pokéballs for Snuff the Dragonite and Cyclone the Floatzel. With two flashes of light, they emerged, and it was obvious who I wanted them to fight.

"Excellent, I was looking forward to killing your Pokémon too!" Hayes laughed. "You can all die together! And when you're all dead, I'll stuff each one of their corpses down your throat until your belly blows open!"

"Snuff, hit that prick with a Hurricane attack!" I shouted to the Dragonite before turning to Cyclone. "Cyclone, attack with Hydro Pump!"

In the meantime, I got my ass off the ground and knew I needed to be more of a pain for Hayes to fight. I quickly grabbed my Burst Heart and decided to Burst with Speedy, my Emolga. I was suddenly surrounded with a brilliant flash of light, and like that, I was merged with Speedy. My body became exactly like his, coated with white fur while I had his arm to leg membranes that would allow me to fly. Meanwhile, I had his ears and his yellow cheek patches. I think the only thing that wasn't quite like an Emolga was my face and hair.

Of course, Speedy's electric attacks weren't going to jack-piss to Hayes, but the flying techniques might be a bit more useful. In the meantime, Snuff attacked Hayes with the Hurricane, but it didn't do too much besides stun him for a moment. Seconds later, Cyclone's Hydro Pump slammed into Hayes's ass. It really pissed him off, but didn't seem to put much of a dent in him.

I could already tell this prick was going to be a die-hard son of a bitch.

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: @The Nonexistent Tazz

I was wondering what Yarvick was doing here, but hey, I was okay with company! Besides, I figured there was something he could help me with! I just had to see him try out this mutagen thing!

"OK, I was here for no reason except to inspect the clearly mutated Lopunny that I saw in passing, so I'll ask two-no, three questions," Yarvick told me, looking a bit perplexed. "First, what's your name? Second, How do you know my name? And last, what was the deal with the Lopunny with the weird tail and ears? I've seen Lopunny before, that thing was not just a Lopunny. I'm not here with you for any reason other than to sate my curiosity and pass time, is all."

"Ha, ha!" I laughed. "Okay, I'm Janine Price, one of the coolest researchers you'll ever meet! I also use 'Angel" as a code name. As for you, ha, well... okay, I'll admit I sometimes snoop around when I'm bored. I may have overheard your name once or twice."

I guess I let that little secret of mine slip. No biggie, though!

"As for that Lopunny, ha, ha, you'll never believe this but... that was actually me a second ago," I admitted, feeling a bit bashful about that. "I've been working on these cool mutagens that can turn you into a mix of several Pokémon! Dude, you have got to try one of these out. You'll totally dig it!"

Okay, I didn't expect for him to believe that. He was probably thinking that was just impossible, but if that crazy Lopunny combo didn't convince him, ha, he hasn't seen me in action! Actually, that was true, he really hasn't.

"...You know what's going on in the main lab right now?" He asked me. "That would be why I'm here, in the labs at all."

"You mean that Tiantus dude?" I asked, figuring he might just be up to something new. "Hey, not too sure to be honest! I... yeah, I probably should be helping him out rather than screwing around here, but hey, I'm pretty sure I'm onto something even that guy could appreciate!"

I really had to try and sell Yarvick on this combo Pokémon mutagen thing. I mean sure, it wasn't fully tested yet, but maybe... just maybe if I showed him how it worked in action, he'd be like "Whoa Janine! I've got to try that myself!"

"So check this out," I told him with a smirk, showing him my research notes. "This mutagen can turn you into a combination of several Pokémon into one! I'll admit, I was just trying two at the same time with that Lopunny and Furret thing, but I was really thinking of cranking things up to the next level, you know?"

I tried to show him how it worked, putting together a combined Pokémon form piece by piece and then having it come together as one creature that had all the separate parts together as one. I imagined if I tried to explain it in scientific terms, it would get a little complicated for a guy like him, but Tiantus's DNA mapping software did make it a lot more easier for the Average Joe to understand. I invited him to take a peek at it.

"The good part is that if you get tired of the mutated form, as long as you have a sample of your human DNA, you can just return to normal anytime you'd like!" I told him, trying to sell him on the whole idea. "I mean heck, it works! It managed to help me go from Furret-tailed Lopunny back to human in just a few seconds!"

Of course, I doubted a thief dude like him would want to try the exact same Furret and Lopunny thing as well. Totally not his style, even though it would be really cool and cute!

Okay, so I showed him I had the workings of a mutagen that could transform people into combinations of Pokémon, and the same mutagen could also return them to normal if they decided hey, being a mutant of multiple Pokémon got a little boring after a while. Or if they wanted to go visit Grandma and not look like a mutant that some crazy imp coughed out! At least now people might be more out to try this if it worked and there was a safety net to return to normal. This Yarvick guy had to see there was really no risk involved and it could be a lot of awesome fun!

Now then... I wanted to try a Pokémon form with a whopping eight Pokémon rolled into one. Totally and completely nuts, I know! But it was the ultimate test to see if this would work and Yarvick had to see I wasn't kidding about this mutagen. If this worked, well, then just about any amount of Pokémon gene splicing should be okay to rock and roll with! Maybe with the help of that Tiantus guy, he could work on the software needed so just about anyone on Aqua could request one of these Pokémon mutant forms and program the DNA coding for the mutagen based on what they wanted. After that, it was just up to their imagination! But it would also keep their normal human DNA on file just in case they wanted to go back to their old, vanilla selves again. It was great to make it user friendly!

"Okay, check this out!" I told him, knowing my creative reputation was on the line. "You've got to see this to believe it. I'm putting this mutagen to the ultimate test by having a whopping eight Pokémon combined. Watch, it's really not that hard to set this up."

What I didn't tell him was I hadn't actually tried this many before, but hey, it was all for the fun, right? Hopefully this wouldn't cause me to explode or die in a weird way! That would just be bad, and I knew he wouldn't even want to go near it if that happened.

As I got to dreaming up the form I really wanted to try out, I decided to start with Lopunny again, showing Yarvick the whole process. Well, because Lopunny is ultra cute and sweet, that's why! I figured that would be a great "base" form to start with. After that, I'd go with the Furret tail again. But, then I dash in a bit of Ninetails into the mix to multiply that Furret tail into nine of them. After that, I'd give the form some of that extra plushy white Cinccino fur. That covered four. After that, I'd add in the combination of a Togekiss, and give the whole form some white fur instead of brown fur, plus the really cute wings to be put on the back.

Already this was getting to be kind of ridiculous even for my standards, but I really had to push this thing to the limit to make sure it could go that far! So, I kept going with it. I decided to give the winged, white bunny form some extra fluff by adding in that giant cotton ball of a Whimsicott on the back. And while we're working back there, maybe add in the extra-long furry hair of a Zoroark, only make it nice and white this time. Lastly, top it all off with a Shedninja's halo thing.

So there I had it... eight Pokémon smack-dabbed and rolled into one! It all added up to one ultra-fluffy mess of an angel bunny, but hey, it'd do the job and would ensure this thing was totally fully tested. When the mutagen was finally created, boy, I was subjecting myself to some really, really crazy stuff right here, but it could be serious fun!

"And that's pretty much it!" I told Yarvick, taking out the processed mutagen from the machine. "All you need to do is just jab yourself with it, and presto, you'll transform! See, watch what happens!"

I then showed him how easy it was. Just jab the needle, press down on the plunger, take it out, and step back. I could imagine this was probably going to look really overly goofy to him, but hey, he was free to pick whatever he wanted!

Well, I wasn't even sure if this eight-Pokémon form was going to be too excessive for the mutagen to handle, but as soon as I saw it working, it seemed good so far! I was suddenly covered from head to toe with snow-white fur, and my entire body starting changing. And suddenly, I had lots of really huge, white tails come out of my rear, two fluffy white Lopunny ears came out of my head, along with a gigantic ball of Whimsicott fluff, long white hair in Zoroark style, two giant Togekiss wings, and a halo above my head. My entire body had been reformed into this ridiculously super-fluffy angel bunny look. I imagined it must have looked either really cute or really silly or even a combo of both.

"Oh man, I... think I overdid it!" I laughed, feeling a bit goofy about this overly-fluffy form. "Wow, geez, just look at this, it's nuts! Yeah, I don't recommend mixing this many Pokémon, but hey, it really does work! So yeah, why don't you pick a few, mix 'em up, and give it a try! It seems to be working great! Just let your imagination rock and roll!"

Ha, ha, wow, I felt like a white bunny that had been glued to a giant, fluffy cloud! Everything seemed to be working, though. I could flap the wings, move the tails around, and all that jazz, but yeah, I think I would get stuck in the door if I tried to leave the lab like this!

I was curious to see what Yarvick was going to pick... or if he was just going to run out the door screaming for his life! Ha, ha, that would still be pretty funny!

[Lord Celebi]

Raidon Makoto
Le Chevalier Hotel, Gateon Port
Orre
Affected RPers: None

Raidon Makoto and Finch Reynolds touched down near the outskirts of Gateon Port. Once their pilot had confirmed their safety, the Hellcat took back off towards the Deathwing. The pair of Aquas began their journey on foot towards Gateon Port, the new seat of power for DyneTech Industrial. The port was the single largest import/export hub in the world, so it made sense to Makoto for DyneTech to set themselves up here after the destruction of their former headquarters, Realgem Tower. Once the two were within the town, Makoto purchased himself and Reynolds the penthouse suite at the top of the Le Chevalier hotel using money specially laundered by Whitehall to set up their base. Their patron saint had sent them information on the most workable target: Darwin Lynch, an executive at DyneTech and former Hoenn citizen.

Makoto's plan was to make contact with Harlan Ericson, Orson Barkley's campaign financier within DyneTech, and win him over in order to guarantee Barkley's contributions. In doing so, he'd use him as a stepping stone to give himself a larger foothold within the company. He didn't need to control DyneTech, but he did need to make sure he was influential enough for Whitehall to be satisfied.

The commander's phone buzzed. "Raidon, what are you doing right now?" Tyrus "Tiantus" Hale asked.

"I just sat down in my hotel... Shouldn't you be performing surgery right now? I read the docket on what you're up to on the way here," Makoto replied.

Hale chuckled condescendingly. "Yes, yes I am. Thank Arceus for Bluetooth headsets. Now turn on the TV. It's on literally every channel." Makoto listened to Hale and picked up the remote. He didn't even need to change the channel to find out what the scientist was talking about.

TEAM AQUA HOLDS UP CHARITY BENEFIT IN EVERGRANDE read the blurb at the bottom of the screen. A helicopter shot of the banquet hall was broadcast in the corner of the screen while anchors and analysts tried their best to inform the populace of what was going on. "What the...? I never authorized this!" Makoto protested to Hale.

"Oh it gets worse," Hale said. Makoto heard something pop in the background and Hale let out a flurry of curses. "Sorry, I popped a vein. Fixed it though. Anyways, look whose in the crowd." The commander scanned the helicopter footage on the screen looking for familiar faces. Blazes Boylan was the first person to pop out to him, but he wasn't important enough for Hale to tell Makoto about. After another second or two of looking, he saw Norb Whitehall and his estranged wife Mitzi on the balcony of the banquet hall.

The dread lord of the Deathwing's phone buzzed. He removed the phone from his ear and put Hale on speakerphone. It was a text message from Norb Whitehall. It simply said: "Explain yourself."

"Tiantus, who the hell is doing this?" Makoto asked.

"It looks like Captain Kip Marston. The report he filed for this mission said that he took his squad out for "wealth acquisition." He dun goofed, alright. I am with others right now, but I think you'll understand when I tell you that you're going to need to handle this one," Hale consoled his friend, implying that he needed to fix this to keep Whitehall happy. Makoto had no idea how he was going to smooth this one over with old, white, and political.

Think, Raidon. You've got Finch with you... who else can you trust to carry out this mission? Makoto contemplated. Reynolds and him met eye to eye for a moment, both speaking to each other without talking. "Reg Lando!" Makoto exclaimed. He nonchalantly hung up on Hale and dialed in Lando's phone number. "Captain Lando, this is Raidon Makoto. I have an S-Class mission for you. I need you to round up the best damn soldiers on the Deathwing and storm the banquet hall that Captain Marston is holding up. Your mission is to kill Marston and his entire squad. We are going to disavow them all."

Without even questioning the orders, Lando said, "Yessir. I will activate the 08th Assault Team."

Makoto smiled ear to ear. Miles Kieron, Anton Rodan, Kei Nguyen, Jack Rinage, and Tanis Raistlin were some of the most capable field soldiers that Makoto had. They would show absolutely no mercy to Marston. "Excellent. Make it so, Reg."

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Yarvick "The Raticate" Xelsez
Team Aqua
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: Neo Emolga

"Ha, ha!" She laughed. She didn't SOUND insane. "Okay, I'm Janine Price, one of the coolest researchers you'll ever meet! I also use 'Angel" as a code name. As for you, ha, well... okay, I'll admit I sometimes snoop around when I'm bored. I may have overheard your name once or twice."

'Snooping around' was clearly not enough. At bare minimum, she'd have to have also heard of the fact he looked like a hobo and had a rat-like face. This was concerning.

"As for that Lopunny, ha, ha, you'll never believe this but... that was actually me a second ago," She said. "I've been working on these cool mutagens that can turn you into a mix of several Pokémon! Dude, you have got to try one of these out. You'll totally dig it!"

OK, what?

Yarvick was not immediately distrusting of this claim. This place was where crazy people went to attempt to defy the laws of, well, everything. She was at least open on what she was doing, and he could IMMEDIATELY see the applications of this. Having 4 arms and a stupidly high intelligence was an incredible benefit from the word go, and this was just two Pokemon. If properly advertised, everyone on-board would be a Chimera. Everyone. Even himself, if a mercenary like him could get that privilege. He could see this being so ridiculous it hurt just to look at it.

"You mean that Tiantus dude?" She asked, on the question of why he was here in the labs. "Hey, not too sure to be honest! I... yeah, I probably should be helping him out rather than screwing around here, but hey, I'm pretty sure I'm onto something even that guy could appreciate!"

Yarvick would have told her of the fact he was attempting to mutate a Deoxys out of his Alakazam in there, but he didn't decide to get a word in on that incredibly dark spectacle. What was happening in there was, to him, the salvaging of a bad situation. Janine here...She seemed so bubbly, so carefree! No wonder they called her 'Angel.' Granted, this did not make Yarvick's guard go anywhere near down.

"So check this out," She said, smiling and showing him research notes. "This mutagen can turn you into a combination of several Pokémon into one! I'll admit, I was just trying two at the same time with that Lopunny and Furret thing, but I was really thinking of cranking things up to the next level, you know?" She said as she started to work on a computer. Yarvick could easily see the DNA of 2 Pokemon having separate parts of them removed and then combined into one with every click she made. It didn't seem all that complex...Which was good for his understanding of it. If he knew of anything about DNA, he might have even helped out improve it. "The good part is that if you get tired of the mutated form, as long as you have a sample of your human DNA, you can just return to normal anytime you'd like!" She added. "I mean heck, it works! It managed to help me go from Furret-tailed Lopunny back to human in just a few seconds!"

Yarvick was already planning on indulging...The problem was, he wasn't entirely sure of if he had his DNA tucked away in the Aqua DNA Archives.

"Okay, check this out!" She told him. "You've got to see this to believe it. I'm putting this mutagen to the ultimate test by having a whopping eight Pokémon combined. Watch, it's really not that hard to set this up," she said as she got to work.

While she was creating the most fluffy angel bunny ever, Yarvick plucked a hair from his head, used his saliva to clean it theroughly, then shove it in a convenient, empty container almost specifically for it. He labeled it "DNA of Yarvick Xelses. Do NOT destroy." It was HARDLY a defense against anyone who did want to destroy it, but hey. At worst, who ACTUALLY cared? She wouldn't really.

Or maybe she would. But in a good way.

Great, here Yarvick was, getting a crush on a woman he has JUST met, who he was certain would stab him with a syringe to test her mutagen on someone that was not herself.

Yarvick couldn't even think of 1 Pokemon to turn into, and she picked a whole octect out like it was on the tip of her mind, making a Lopunny with enough fluff to be mistaken for a walking cloud, and enough lightweight Pokemon DNA added in that Yarvick was certain she could use her like a balloon if she breathed in some helium. He was trying to think of something that didn't make the mutagen screw itself over while still being...Flexible. Not powerful, flexible. Wide toolkits did great service if he didn't know the obstacles ahead. He knew of a Pokemon that could, in theory, do ANYTHING, as long as they were given proper time, but were restricted by simple anatomy, apparently...What was it? He didn't remember the name, or even what it looked like. If he had that along with a few others...

A machine next to the computer whizzed to life for a few seconds, popping out a syringe loaded with mutagen. "And that's pretty much it!" Janine said, taking out the mutagen. "All you need to do is just jab yourself with it, and presto, you'll transform! See, watch what happens!"

And with that, she injected herself with the mutagen on the spot. Jeez. He was almost certain she had MEND, as otherwise he'd be hard-pressed to think of a reason why she didn't rub some alcohol on it.

THen, the magic happened. She suddenly shot out white fur from every which way. Even her hair turned white in response to it. Then it got really weird-what were basically clouds sprouted out of her back, she suddenly sprouted Lopunny ears as the human ones vanished, and a moon-shaped halo suddenly grew on top of her head, eventually completely separating, floating up and hanging above. Nine tails of a beast he didn't really know of shot out the backside as well. The only thing that didn't change was her height...Which was odd, as the Lopunny-hybrid form he saw earlier was correctly proportioned to a Lopunny. Might have been so that she could actually move around that massive cloud. Even Eos occasionally struggled with her own load.

It was all white, or light gray, a fluffy mess of an angelic bunny practically stapled to a cloud. And quite frankly, it was all crazy. 8 separate pieces of DNA...Whoa. She didn't even flinch...

...Or maybe flinching was kind of hard to do while having most of your bone structure re-written.

"Oh man, I... think I overdid it!" She laughed out. She definitely did go overboard-there was more cloud than the rest of her, doubled over "Wow, geez, just look at this, it's nuts! Yeah, I don't recommend mixing this many Pokémon, but hey, it really does work! So yeah, why don't you pick a few, mix 'em up, and give it a try! It seems to be working great! Just let your imagination rock and roll!" She said, testing out her body, revealing Togekiss wings in the back.

"Thanks...You don't look too overblown, you have an eye for design. Urm, I have something in mind for that crazy thing, actually, but I can't actually remember one of the Pokemon I'm thinking of doing it with..." Yarvick said. "I think it has a tail that it uses to draw art with, that's what I'm thinking of...Don't know the name...Uh, Johto native..."

Yarvick was trying his hardest to not drool at the amazing sight that was the new merged body, either out of dumbfoundment or out of a slight crush. Really, either would work. Yet, at the same time, he was still convinced that she was pretty crazy, and kept a GREAT distance away from her as she flexed her various parts, ESPECIALLY the tails. He knew of the one Pokemon that had nine tails; the aptly named Ninetales. It was a Fire Type, which was always concerning, but those tails were cursed. Like, the tails actually caused incredibly crippling ailments on contact. He actually saw a guy fall victim to that, so he knew what was more dangerous. Poor sod was blind, deaf, paralyzed, and he felt like he was freezing to death, even as he was then burned to death. It quickly became far less of a wonder why they were so popular around the Black Market after that incident.

Then Yarvick actually bothered to question if the caution around the tails was actually required, or if it was just aesthetic.

"OK, so you can move all of those body parts, but I just thought of asking this: You chose a lot of Pokemon that are pretty lightweight. I know Whimsicott are very physically akin to a cloud, I have one of my own...So, can you just jump up and float? Or is all of that just aesthetic? I mean, people might be more interested in volunteering if it was clearly more than just an aesthetic...Bit odd to ask, I know. The answer is probably yes, you're brilliant enough to think of that, but I ought to ask now, rather than rush in as part-Bastiodon, thinking I'm invincible, when I'm not, for instance." Yarvick said.