[WAR] Role Play: Terminus

[Neo Emolga]

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

Speedy's flying cape thing, membrane, whatever the hell it was called, was making it that much harder for Hayes to hit me with those man-mashing chunks of rock and marble he was throwing everywhere like there was no tomorrow. In the meantime, with my mind merged with Speedy's mind, the Emolga was now an extra voice in my head, giving me tips and pointers on how to fight this guy.

Dang, gotta ask, when did a Mega Krookodile become possible?

"Yeah, it's an Ancient Burst Heart. Does the same thing as the regular ones do, only it turns them both into a Mega. Means you got to pump their ass up with more pain and hellfire than before."

And it was already obvious how much mayhem Hayes was able to cause with it. Instead of just being a pasty-face scientist, he was now this hulking reptile of hell and carnage.

Stick to flying around the ceiling, it'll be that much harder for him to hit us up there. As soon as he's got a chunk of something, start turning. Makes it that much easier for him to predict what direction you'll go in!

Damn, couldn't help but say Speedy sure wasn't stupid. In the meantime, I used his Agility power to boost the speed and effectively became harder for that hulking snot to hit me.

In the meantime, Snuff the Dragonite and Cyclone the Floatzel were having a pain in the ass time with trying to fight Hayes. Hayes had slammed the ground to cause an Earthquake attack. Snuff tried to save Cyclone's ass by trying to pick him up off the quaking ground, but Hayes took advantage of that and struck them both with another chunk of the expo. The idiot was so swept up in his own mayhem that he didn't even realize the chunk he had used was part of one of the support columns that kept the ceiling up.

Snuff attempted to attack with an Ice Beam, but Hayes held out his fists in front of him. The clawed fists were soon solidified with ice. It didn't seem to stop Hayes very much. In fact, it really only turned them into rock-hard clubs of icy death. He then stomped toward Snuff and struck the Dragonite in the face with one of his new hand clubs, sending the Dragonite flying toward the back wall. Snuff wasn't dead, but he would have looked better if he had only just woken up in a minefield after a 30 shot glass hangover.

"Your Pokémon are pathetic!" Hayes laughed. "Bring out some more so I can kill them too!"

Ha, ha, that idiot! Hit 'em with Acrobatics. He's a slow lug and he's not going to be able to pick up any more chunks of stuff with his hands like that.

Good point. I flew down quickly, faster than Hayes could have anticipated. He tried to use his ice-rock hands to guard against the attack, but I quickly swooped around and struck the scaly bastard in the back of the head. It hit him pretty hard, enough to the point where I was surprised one of his eyes didn't just launch out of its socket.

"You wretch!" He shouted.

He tried to swat me with the ice clubs, but I was too damn fast for that overgrown fatass. When he missed, I flew under and struck him hard in the neck. All of a sudden, he had a tricky time gasping for breath.

I flew back and that's when the idiot swung hard again, missing me and striking yet another support column. And that was when the ceiling started to groan as it couldn't bear the weight anymore...

---

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

Wow, just wow, I was a total fluffy mess! I imagined if I tried to take a shower like this, it would take six times as long and would take hours to dry off! As for Yarvick, well, he didn't seem completely freaked out. I guess it was a good sign he secured a DNA sample of himself! Maybe he really was ready to take the plunge!

"Thanks... You don't look too overblown, you have an eye for design," He told me. "Urm, I have something in mind for that crazy thing, actually, but I can't actually remember one of the Pokémon I'm thinking of doing it with. 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..."

"Oh hey, a Smeargle!" I told him, knowing what he was talking about. "Yeah, they're kinda cute too. Trust me, I'm sure we've got DNA records on that one in the system!"

Made me really wonder what the guy was going to combine it with, but hey, anything goes in my lab! In the meantime, he seemed really paranoid of my nine tails. Oh yeah, totally forget a Ninetales can slam people with a curse just for touching the darn things! I tried to back up a little to give him more room, but the lab was only so big and already I had practically half the room filled up with my own fluff.

"OK, so you can move all those body parts, but I just thought of asking this," Yarvick told me. "You chose a lot of Pokémon 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."

Oh, I definitely had to try that flying/floating thing out with this! Now, there was no chance I'd be able to squeeze my gigantic fluffy bunny self through the crampy corridors of the Deathwing to get back on deck, but I could just copy the same mutagen, get on deck as a human, use it, and then try it out! Just had to make sure I carried the reversal agent too, or I was definitely going to need someone else to run back to the lab to get one. Since most people would have no clue what I was talking about since they hadn't been introduced to it yet... yeah, I needed to make sure I didn't forget that!

"Dude, I'll be honest, I haven't tried it yet, but that sounds totally awesome!" I told him, totally itching to give that a try. "But hey, judging from the DNA, I should totally be able to fly and use the same kinds of Pokémon moves as these Pokémon. Of course, I just don't have the room to do it in here. We're just... you know, trying these out in here like a fitting room before stepping out the door with them, you know how it is!"

Oh, perfect analogy! Had to applaud myself for that one! But yeah, I'd probably wreck my lab if I tried any attack in here! And both Yarvick and I might lose our human DNA samples in the process and we'd be forced to try and leave the lab like this! Oh wow, I could just see it...

There I was, trapped in the doorframe of my lab that led to the hallway corridors with my giant cotton fluff and giant tails totally stuck, and who comes along? No one but Tiantus himself! And probably one of the other researchers, Makoto, or some other dude.

"And so we were looking for the schematics for the new battle tech and I was...- what the... fuck is THAT!?"

"Hey, Tiantus, it's me, Janine! Got a little stuck here, think you can lend a hand? Ha, ha, I know, I know I can totally explain! Hey, you've gotta help me! Yarvick's in here too and... well, he's stuck in there if I can't get out!"

Oh, that would be so embarrassing! But hey, it would be the kind of thing I would laugh about for years! I always knew how to turn total mishaps into great conversational pieces!

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

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

"Oh hey, a Smeargle!" She said, on his question of what he was thinking of. It all snapped together-that sounded correct. "Yeah, they're kinda cute too. Trust me, I'm sure we've got DNA records on that one in the system!"

"Yeah, that sounds right, thanks." Yarvick replied.

As for the question on the abilities a Chimera had: "Dude, I'll be honest, I haven't tried it yet, but that sounds totally awesome! But hey, judging from the DNA, I should totally be able to fly and use the same kinds of Pokémon moves as these Pokémon. Of course, I just don't have the room to do it in here. We're just... you know, trying these out in here like a fitting room before stepping out the door with them, you know how it is!"

"I see...You're definitely talented. Most of this would have just flown over my head..." Yarvick said. "I'm not a prodigy at computers, I'm just an expert, and that's all I've got for standout education, other than being really good at taking things."

His Chimera form was, in his head, a bit crazier than what Angel came up with, or at least less themed. He would need Pokemon that could be stealthy for the base body, so he would not be easily seen-just as he was now. He needed to keep to his stealth tactics-go with what worked, what he trained himself to do. A Weavile sprang to mind almost immediately. Gengar was thought of as an instant second, Iapetus proved how impressive they were in action. Either of them worked, and he couldn't pick between them immediately. There weren't any clear advantages over one or the other...Were there any more Pokemon like them?

He figured of other additional Pokemon to add to the base form while he figured that out. Since he was working with what were essentially pirate terrorists, if they got anywhere beyond Hoenn (He could at least see there was a chance with taking over a Region or two), he would NOT want Oceanus as his only viable surfing Pokemon. He would need a Water-type, either a new partner or another form. That's when the answer hit him: Greninja. He was familiar with the infamous Ninja Frog, another Black Market favorite for it's unpredictability and assassination skills. Proetan was the ace in the hole for the thing-he was not sure how that worked, but there were very few signs of it on the ninja frog, and it made it absolutely deadly if used properly. He decided against both his previous choices for Greninja instead-it was just as sneaky and twice as unpredictable.

So, Greninja as a base.

He knew about a combo he wanted to try: Ninetales and Smeargle. The former's tails were absolutely crippling to touch, while the latter's ability to copy anything were based on its tails. He slipped in Smeargle DNA, and used Ninetales DNA to grant the cursed nine tails. While he was at it, he made the Greninja form seem a bit more like a mammal than an amphibian-still keeping the general idea of the body but adding sleek fur and some mammal features. While he was at it, he thought of Ampibom, a Pokemon with hands for tails. That was going in on the tails as well-eleven hands were crazy, especially since nine of them had the biological side effect of being cursed as all hell. The result seemed to also give the 'fingers' some 'fingerpaint' to keep the Smeargle's most useful ability in play.

That Pokemon was already looking kind of weird in his head, even though, on screen, they merged quite well. Didn't look terribly awkward.

There had to be somewhat more than that, though...Perhaps a Pokemon that stuck to walls? No, that was too obvious, wouldn't work. the ability to slip into any space, like a Whimsicott, would be excellent, but the large fluff of hair was too obvious unless he shrunk to a useless size...Greninja, Ninetales, Smeargle, Ampibom...Perhaps a Psychic type?

...Yarvick was reminded of Hyperion's presence in the room next to him almost immediately, which kind of brought a damper on things. He had almost forgotten, one of his very few friends were in there, dying, and likely only to come out of it as an alien. He wasn't sure what was going on at the moment..

Yarvick heard a knocking on the door behind him, and turned around to check who it was behind the glass: Yantil Massadar, as if summoned to answer his questions. He looked quite wide-eyed at Janine, the Lopunny angel with a cloud on her back. He helped himself inside: Yarvick still didn't trust Janine to have her head on straight.

"...Janine?" He asked, quickly.

"Yes, that's Janine. I saw a mutated Lopunny in here, decided to investigate, turns out it was her, she's testing out a mutagen, and this is the result of really pushing it," Yarvick said, summarizing it quickly. "Really interesting stuff going on with that, but, I assume you're here to talk about the virus?"

"...Yes, yes, the proto-Deoxys Virus investigation, yes." Yantil said, having a hard time averting his gaze from Janine. "The virus is...Non-responsive to any singular stimuli. All attempts thus far have failed. We believe that multiple stimuli were involved instead, but more on that later. The conditions of the host are worsening, considerably, and Titanus had to do some quick surgery to prevent his death, in fact," Yantil said.

"...What?!" Yarvick said, panicking a little.

"Relax, I assure you that the Alakazam is still alive. Not well at all, of course, but alive. The surgery went off without a hitch. As it happened, we discarded our old theory on how Deoxys mutated, and came up with a second one: the virus is not just trying to reproduce in there, the Proto-Deoxys Virus is attempting to do some sort of mutation to the host to turn it into something else entirely. It's quite in the nature of a virus to do that, actually, but not on this scale, veins were snapping and trying to rearrange themselves, organs were shifting. It was...I'll leave out the details. The Alakazam is still alive, though, due to quick reaction. However, we cannot save it once the major organs start attempting to resize themselves."

That was...Incredibly disturbing imagery.

"In any case, we're now also theorizing that it is not a case of IF we can mutate it, but rather WHAT we can mutate it into...And if we can do it in any timely manner. It's harder than it looks, Deoxys is...Well, all known DNA samples are currently under tight government regulation, to prevent ANY sort of attempts at mutation or the like. In other words, the only way to reliably recreate Deoxys is to, naturally, recreate the environment. This is incredibly difficult, but possible with our assets on-board. The Aurora Borealis, the extremely cold temperatures, the Spring Equinox, a colony of Starmie in mating season...Deoxys was born in some very complex conditions, to say the least. But again, we're trying to replicate them to the best of our ability, and it's not as hard as it seems," Yantil said.

Yarvick tried to dig beneath Yantil's words a little to see how HE thought the odds were, but he seemed about as positive as his words were: It was hard, but possible, even likely.

"Thanks for the update, doctor...I'd rather stick around here and be of some service to Angel here than just sit around, if that's not a problem," Yarvick said.

"Certainly not," Yantil said. "Volunteers are a hot commodity in these labs, to be honest...I'll leave you two at it."

Yantil, still having some difficulty trying to keep his eyes off of Janine, closed the door without another word. It was quiet for a second.

"...So, yeah, want to hear the story behind how I'm involved in all of that?" Yarvick queried. "It's rather on the long side of things."

[TheProtobabe]

Helena Gray
Harper Industries Headquarters in Goldenrod City
Affected RPers: @XaiakuX; @Death's Spook; @Velocity;

The tension in the air couldn't have been cut with a katana, it was so thick. Like straining steel cords, being teased and plucked, vibrating and singing humming songs that rang in Helena's ears.

It was obvious that she was surrounded by powerhouses. Though she'd dealt with plenty in her time, she realized suddenly what she'd gotten into when she decided to spy on Lance Harper. A single, discreet bead of sweat rolled between her shoulder blades, causing gooseflesh to appear down her spine. The chilled air of the building didn't help.

Lance's sibling's charming smile didn't fool Helena for one instant. The small woman gave him her most charming smile, though she knew he saw right through her facade. His dimpled cheeks and harmless grin could not hide the look of worry and calculated caution in his eyes. He feared her. Or, at least, had a respect for her similar to fear. His call to make Lenore Lance's bodyguard only cemented that as fact.

Speaking of Lenore... the dark-haired beauty turned to face the large woman, her sweet smile plastered on her face effortlessly. Instantly, Helena thought of several ways she could possibly take down or escape the bodyguard if she needed to, using Lenore's power against her. And yet, the polite look on Helena's face didn't move. It paid, sometimes, to be able to keep her composure. And the mention of Psychic-type Pokemon...

Great. Now I'll have to be careful around these freaks. She knew Psychics could communicate silently, effortlessly. Her own Alakazam was proof of that, even though she didn't use his power as often as some other Pokemon trainers would. Those Pokemon were nothing short of killing machines and assassins. Good thing Helena had Tonsiru, her Greninja, as a counter to that if she so needed him... Helena snapped to at the mention of 'rabble' by Lenore. She was certain the bodyguard was referring to her, but of course with these mind games, it was impolite to point out people's subtle plays. Helena narrowed her eyes slightly behind the blonde's back. Oh, she already hated that woman.

So instead of speaking to either of them at length, she merely concurred and agreed and exchanged simple pleasantries, even going so far as to take Lance's arm with a delicate touch.

"Lead away," she told him. The other two already knew she wasn't a simpleton, but it would be better to keep up the act. It wasn't good to show your hand; better they didn't know that she knew they'd noticed her killer instincts.

[Neo Emolga]

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

For that quick moment, Hayes was winded from me hitting him in the throat. As he was gasping for air, he didn't pay attention to what was happening around him.

Oh snap, better fly out of there!

Snuff and Cyclone quickly cleared out of the way, and that was when the ceiling started coming down. Hayes caught his breath just in time before a nice chunk of concrete knocked him over and made his head the fleshy equivalent of mashed potatoes. More piles of crap came down, but thankfully it didn't bury the body too much.

I found out what happens when a person in Burst form dies. Didn't think about it until now, but it caused both the Pokémon and the human to be suddenly vaporized. The body of the Mega Krookodile disintegrated into nothing.

Somewhere in that crap heap, there was the Ancient Burst Heart. I dug around for it, trying to move as much junk out of the way as I could. I was definitely not leaving that behind for some other chump to find. I lost Ken and Luke and my Dragonite and Floatzel had the stuffing beaten out of them. Not to account for all the times I was a second away from getting tagged by the Grim Reaper.

And then I heard sirens. What the hell, now the cops arrive? I looked up and yep, three police choppers heading to the expo. Crap, if I tried to flee by the boat, they were going to see it and give me more hell over it.

"Come on, come on," I grumbled, trying to find the darn Ancient Burst Heart by shifting through as many rubble piles as quickly as I could. "Where the hell is it?"

Try that pile over there.

I did, but no dice. Meanwhile, the choppers were starting to land. I estimated I only had about three minutes to find this thing before they had me surrounded. I then just started to pick stuff up and throw it aside, letting me know what was already searched and what wasn't.

"WE HAVE THE BUILDING SURROUNDED, THROW YOUR WEAPONS DOWN AND SURRENDER!"

I looked up to take a peek and damn, these guys sure were fast at getting mobilized. Given, all this destruction wasn't my fault... most of it anyway, but these guys wouldn't know that. Last thing I wanted was to turn myself if. Crap, if they figured out who I was, I'd spend eons in the slammer.

And that's when I found it. I grabbed the gem and took a quick look at it. Yep, this was definitely no ordinary ruby or that kind of gem. It made a regular run of the mill Burst Heart look like cheap glass.

And that was exactly when the cops breached the building. Well, time to have a little fun with these losers.

---

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

The computer system was, well, at the moment, a little technical. Yarvick was probably a little confused by it, but hey, we could easily make this user friendly when we got the time!

"I see... You're definitely talented," Yarvick told me, being ultra nice! "Most of this would have just flown over my head. I'm not a prodigy at computers, I'm just an expert, and that's all I've got for standout education, other than being really good at taking things."

"Ah, no worries, dude!" I encouraged him. "We'll make this whole configuration thing easier. Once we've gone over it, it'll be so easy a caveman can do it!"

Now where have I heard that before...?

But shortly after that, Yarvick went through configuring his mutagen. He really did a lot of playing around with it! I couldn't help but think yeah, you could play around with this thing all day long and still have quite a fun time! Eventually, he was set on using Greninja as a base with some Ninetales, Smeargle, Ampibom mixed in as well, but before he got to finish it, we got another visitor!

And I found out it was that Yantil Massadar dude. Ah man, I knew he was going to tell Tiantus about this if he saw it. Ah well, better to just play along with it and introduce him to this crazy concoction I made up!

"...Janine?" He asked, wondering if the big, fluffy Lopunny was really me.

"Oh, hey dude!" I waved to him, just playing it casual.

"Yes, that's Janine," Yarvick told him. "I saw a mutated Lopunny in here, decided to investigate, turns out it was her, she's testing out a mutagen, and this is the result of really pushing it. Really interesting stuff going on with that, but, I assume you're here to talk about the virus?"

"...Yes, yes, the proto-Deoxys Virus investigation, yes," Yantil told him.

Proto-Deoxys Virus? Dang, I must have been cooped up in here for a while now. I hadn't heard a thing about that and I couldn't help but say I was curious now. In the meantime, Yantil kept looking at me, totally baffled. Ha, ha! Awesome, I had to try to get him in on this stuff too!

"The virus is...Non-responsive to any singular stimuli," Yantil told Yarvic. "All attempts thus far have failed. We believe that multiple stimuli were involved instead, but more on that later. The conditions of the host are worsening, considerably, and Titanus had to do some quick surgery to prevent his death, in fact."

"...What?!" Yarvick said in a panic.

"Relax, I assure you that the Alakazam is still alive," Yantil quickly assured Yarvick. "Not well at all, of course, but alive. The surgery went off without a hitch. As it happened, we discarded our old theory on how Deoxys mutated, and came up with a second one: the virus is not just trying to reproduce in there, the Proto-Deoxys Virus is attempting to do some sort of mutation to the host to turn it into something else entirely. It's quite in the nature of a virus to do that, actually, but not on this scale, veins were snapping and trying to rearrange themselves, organs were shifting. It was...I'll leave out the details. The Alakazam is still alive, though, due to quick reaction. However, we cannot save it once the major organs start attempting to resize themselves."

Ouch, wow, that sure sounded pretty serious! I didn't have all the details about the research, but yeah, didn't take a scientist to figure out stuff like "veins snapping" and "organs shifting" was probably bad news! I mean... well, I was kind of doing the same thing, but at least my way of mutating things was a little bit more user-friendly!

"In any case, we're now also theorizing that it is not a case of IF we can mutate it, but rather WHAT we can mutate it into...And if we can do it in any timely manner," Yantil continued. "It's harder than it looks, Deoxys is...Well, all known DNA samples are currently under tight government regulation, to prevent ANY sort of attempts at mutation or the like. In other words, the only way to reliably recreate Deoxys is to, naturally, recreate the environment. This is incredibly difficult, but possible with our assets on-board. The Aurora Borealis, the extremely cold temperatures, the Spring Equinox, a colony of Starmie in mating season...Deoxys was born in some very complex conditions, to say the least. But again, we're trying to replicate them to the best of our ability, and it's not as hard as it seems."

"Thanks for the update, doctor..." Yarvick replied. "I'd rather stick around here and be of some service to Angel here than just sit around, if that's not a problem."

"Certainly not," Yantil replied. "Volunteers are a hot commodity in these labs, to be honest...I'll leave you two at it."

Boy, was he right about that one! Do you know how few people ever willingly walk into my lab? Geez, I don't bite, people! And I didn't booby trap the place either! But in the meantime, Yantil simply left, still shooting glances at me. Wasn't sure if he was spooked or wanted to give this a try himself!

"...So, yeah, want to hear the story behind how I'm involved in all of that?" Yarvick asked me. "It's rather on the long side of things."

"I... think I have a pretty good idea already," I told him, figuring as much. "Trying to recreate Deoxys... definitely sounds like tricky business!"

I wasn't sure what process Tiantus and Yantil were using, but hey, he had the best guys working on it! As for what Yarvick planned on using Deoxys for... I didn't have a clue. Not really the cutest companion anyone could ever hope to have, but I supposed he might be a handy guy to have around in some cases!

As for the mutagen form that Yarvick was working on, I felt like putting in my own recommendations, but then I kind of realized they probably wouldn't be his style. Nah, he really did seem to be going for the cuter Pokémon, but hey, if he ever asked, I knew just how to respond!

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

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

"I... think I have a pretty good idea already," Janine told Yarvick. "Trying to recreate Deoxys... definitely sounds like tricky business!"

Yarvick felt like she was really misinformed of the whole story, but he didn't bother trying to correct her. That was grisly business with minimal payoff. MEND was truly incredible, but losing Hyperion would be more than a fair tradeoff for the deal...Unless extraordinary circumstances were in play, or Titanus didn't have too much common sense to NOT give someone he didn't trust with a hyper-destructive Pokemon. Even if Hyperion remembered...It would be REALLY tough to get him back for good. He understood exactly what donating the Pokemon to Titanus meant-Titanus would be keeping it if he could.

To be fair, If Yarvick and Titanus switched roles, Yarvick wouldn't give Titanus Deoxys either, and would tell him that MEND was more than adequate compensation in exchange for an Alakazam that was dying.

Yarvick focused back on his plans for his mutagen. He thought of levitating Pokemon. Flapping wings were not very silent and it was a lot of movement, levitation was not. That being said, it was mostly impractical except for getaways. Most guards DID have the common sense to look up and around, as it turned out...He still considered it heavily though. Getaways were going to be harder without the immediate teleportation Hyperion could provide.

...He then thought back to Gengar and Weavile. Eight was stretching it, apparently, so six might still be a bit dangerous...But it was still a good idea to shove a few extra bits in there if he could. He incorporated the claws and darker fur of a Weavile-the result turned the Chimera's fur to a much darker yellow. That was good; absolute black was noticeable even in total darkness. As for Gengar, he just slapped on the spiky backside. He was not ENTIRELY sure if he could levitate with that, but he knew those spikes were poisonous as hell. Even if people bypassed the tails, they had toxins to contend with if they wanted a backstab on Yarvick.

All seemed good...Yeah, that would be it for now. Six. It may have still been pushing it...He hit the confirm button, and the machine whizzed to life, creating another Mutagen. This one was a clear liquid, encased in a needle. He could probably fill his pocket with four of them-counting the reversal vaccine, this meant two transformations of a Chimera per pocket.

Dear lord, he hated needles with a passion as a kid, but he got over it...Somewhat. He'd have to shoot himself with the liquid in the field if he wanted-or needed-to use it that way.

He found an appropriate vein to jab himself in, hesitated greatly, then injected the needle and pushed on the plunger. Once all the Liquid was gone, he almost immediately took it out and stood as far as he could from the lab apparatus and Janine.

...Nothing happened initially...Then, he could hear quite a grizzly noise as most of his body started to shift. The sound of bones and organs harmlessly resizing themselves in his body was a nauseating one. It also reminded him quite sharply of Hyperion and what he was going through, but in his case, it didn't seem to hurt Yarvick at least. He kept his eyes firmly shut-he did NOT want to see it as it worked its magic. However, he could feel something grow on his back, things bulging out just atop his rear-likely the tails-he could feel his arms and legs shift into something else, feel webbing grow in his toes and arms, feel the body narrow and shift. His clothes became mostly useless. It also got a great deal hotter in the room-fur meant for the icy temperatures of northern Sinnoh meeting common room teperature. Perhaps the most gross aspect was his tongue suddenly grew far longer, practically shooting out of his mouth. As soon as he got control of his body, he almost instinctively wrapped it around his neck, quite like an actual Greninja.

Then he actually bothered to look at himself.

To his honest surprise, he kind of looked like a black Lucario with Anorexia, except he hadn't been under-eating at all. His fur was a very dark, golden color, hard to tell when dark. His three-finger one-thumb hands on his arms had retractable claws spring from them with a flex, and between them was webbing to swim with. The webbing was loose enough that it did not interfere all that much with his digits moving, though he would have to stretch his fingers out as far as possible from one another to swim effectively with them. Most of the fancy stuff, though, was on the backside: The tails were fully functioning, able to extent forwards about as far as Yarvick's regular arms. Looking at the three-digit tails, Yarvick noticed that there was a small well in the center of each tail-palm for 9 different varieties of pigment: one tail-hand for each color of the rainbow, as well as black and brown. that being said, most of the colors were very darkened. He avoided touching Janine with them at all costs, though, he remembered the tails were as cursed as all hell, and he knew no cures for magic crud like that. He could also feel the backside spikes of a Gengar. He didn't really know why he threw that in-it was very unlikely he could have merged into shadows without having Gengar as the base instead of Greninja, and it would be a gamble to see if he could float, but that wasn't too important.

Checking a nearby scale, Yarvick's weight had decreased to around eighty-five pounds and his height sat at five feet exactly.. He had gotten shorter by a whole half-foot. He really didn't pick Pokemon known to be tall, of course, so no surprises on his part.

"...Well, it's worked!" Yarvick exclaimed. Apparently Greninja could speak with most of their tongue hanging out like a scarf. He was happy to know he didn't feel any bit sick or dizzy. "I'm going to have to get used to this if I'm going to really use this form in the field...Thought of my primary job of a full-time Klepto, thought of things that might work with it...And the Smeargle-Ampibom-Ninetales combo...I thought of that one pretty quickly and that one was too good not to use...I don't look too bad, do I?" Yarvick asked.

Yarvick had full intention to exploit the ever-living s**t out of these tails as much as possible in any CQC situation he found himself in. The powers of smeargle also meant he could copy techniques-ANY techniques-he desired. Even the kinds of things reserved for legends (granted, they were still always going to be stronger than him). He then thought of how cheap it would be if, on top of all of that, the pigment JUST so happened to also carry the curse as well as the the tails-pigment traps suddenly paralyzing or muting people would be hilariously cruel. But, that was probably not the case...But, then again, this was magic he was dealing with. It would be hard to tell, so he would treat it carefully in case it was. He wasn't even sure which tail and pigment did what, if that WERE the case.

At this point, between the two of them, there wasn't much space left in the room itself to move around in.

"...So...I guess we ought to see if the, Um, thing that reverses the Chimera process works for me, right? I think this is completely brilliant, don't get me wrong, I'd just rather train myself in getting used to this form somewhere where I won't accidentally knock anything fragile over," Yarvick said. "That, and we're kind of running out of room in here..."

[Lord Celebi]

Norton "Norb" Whitehall
La Chevalier, Evergrande
Hoenn
Affected RPers: None

Makoto still had not replied to his text. Tyrus Hale had just finished assuring Noron Whitehall via text that Makoto had indeed heard about the hold-up at Evergrande.

The bloated pirate of an Aqua Captain raised his gun and shot into the air violently. "This is an old fashioned stick-up. It's pretty simple, you give us your cash and your valuables, we kidnaps a few of you as hostages. Whitehall had to laugh to himself. I'd just be giving money back to myself, he thought as he undid his Rolex watch and put it in as alms for Aqua's collections sack. He then fired a devilish smile off at Mitzi, whom was forced to remove her opulent diamond necklace and put it into Captain Marston's sack. Whitehall whispered, "Looks like I get that necklace back now."

"You bastard, you really did set this up to get at me!" Mitzi shrieked at Whitehall. Marston heard the exclamation and returned to the couple-in-name-only on the balcony.

"This yours?" he asked Whitehall, thoroughly objectifying Mitzi. Whitehall was amused because he knew that this would get on her nerves. The fat Aqua growled at Mitzi sexually and said, "Not bad. Mind if I take a spin?"

Norb Whitehall so badly wanted to scream to the heavens, Please, take her out of my sight! but was too wary of the nearby cameras to do so. Often, thing that felt good to say and the thing to say that got you what you wanted were wildly different. He was also going to have to think of something to quell the accusation from his wife that he set up Aqua's hit. He ultimately decided that actions would speak louder than words. He belted Captain Marston across the face, completely breaking his fist and Marston's nose in the process. Marston was completely taken aback: he was not at all expecting Whitehall to stand up to him like that. Likewise, the only reason Whitehall felt at all comfortable hitting the Captain was because he was fairly certain there would be no consequences.

Marston screeched obscenities at the Senior Representative while holding his bloodied nose in the air. He then informed the politician, "I'm going to rape your wife bloody now and you're going to fucking watch. Boz! Hold this bastard down." Another soldier came up behind Whitehall and put the aged man into a full nelson. Any time now, Raidon...

Just as Marston began to unzip, Secretary of War Bron Krad leaped from his table wielding only a dinner knife and stabbed Marston in the back, straight through a lung. Marston gasped for air through his mouth, but was only barely able to keep conscious with one lung. Krad twisted the knife, sending waves of pain through the Captain's body. Boz let go of Whitehall and shot Krad point blank in the head. Whitehall turned around and slammed Boz's head into a nearby railing. Several other Aqua's homed in on the scene. Marston croaked shortly afterwards.

"You're going to regret that, buddy," one of the Aqua soldiers chided him. "You thought he was bad... You'll be rotting in a cell on the Deathwing for the rest of your life. I can't wait to see what Raidon does to you."

Whitehall couldn't contain his laughter anymore. Condescendingly, he told the soldier, "That's adorable." Almost as if it was on cue, a grenade rolled into the banquet hall and exploded at the mob of Aqua soldiers' feet. Whitehall looked towards the entrance and saw Captain Reg Lando leading a squad of Aquas on a rescue mission. Well well, Raidon, looks like you've delivered.

[bronislav84]

(Small post to ease back in is quite small)

Karai "Kar" Horoshi
Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: I think nobody

I kept thinking back to the words I said to Neo when I last saw him. "We're chasing a lead." Chasing as in we had to leave immediately. Yea, that didn't quite happen. We ended up staying at base for a good while. Felt like a couple of days actually. Dan needed access to good computer software and hardware, while the rest of us went to the training dojo. Between meals and sleeping, we would just fight each other into exhaustion. It was a good workout and something to do. I also had time to draw up some mechanical items I might want built. But finally Dan called us together.

"Are we going somewhere finally? I'm tired of staying at base doing basically nothing." I said to him, crossing my arms under my chest and sighing.

"I've followed the trail of breadcrumbs online and hacked into more databases than I could count, but I've finally found some places that might be of interest on our mission to help Aqua." Explained Dan, pulling out his laptop with all the data downloaded and showing us a map of the points clearly marked.

"Do I get to break stuff?" Asked Scar with a grin as the burly man bent down to study the map, scratched his head, and turned away confused but continued to listen. That stuff wasn't his area of expertise.

"We're going to be world traveling, so maybe." Continued Dan as he showed us the map again. "Might be better off if I just tell you guys where we're going each time?"

"I'm good with that. So where's the first location? We can grab a Hellcat chopper." I said, already heading down the corridors of the ship to get to the deck with the others following.

"Our first stop is Saffron in Kanto, but we'll be arriving in Vermillion first." He nodded to Scar who had by now turned back around. "Scar I trust you have our Police outfits?" Scar nodded a yes, grumbling that he had way more than that in the duffel bag.

"And what are we looking for exactly?" I asked as we filed into an unused chopper. The team had tons of these going back and forth and being used, so us using one was completely normal. I did wonder when the ship would be used though.

"You have to ask? More Burst Hearts of course. Like I originally told you and you told Neo, we're following a lead." Continued Dan as everybody strapped in and I started the Hellcat on it's flight path. It was really easy for me to understand the controls, and I pretty much didn't need to move the stick. The autopilot did most of the work. It was almost tragic how easy this thing was to pilot. The new built in cloaking device would mean that we could store it and not have anybody find the thing.

The chopper lifted off, heading to Kanto with us five on board.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Yarvick "The Raticate" Xelsez
Team Aqua
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: All aboard the Deathwing

Without any warning, the lights in the room suddenly shut down, as all but the emergency lighting came aboard. He could hear something incredibly loud going on in the room over-the main lab. It sounded like some very powerful machines were being used in there...This concerned him, greatly.

"Sorry, I'll be right back...I think this may concern me." Yarvick said, as calmly as possible.

Yarvick's sight in the darkness was not at all altered by his transformation. He hadn't bothered to grab the EYES of a Weavile, an idea which didn't strike him, just the claws and fur. Nevertheless, the emergency lights were bright enough that Yarvick could, in fact, grab the door and head on out-and mercifully, his slim frame allowed him to exit without much trouble, he just had to manipulate the tails a bit.

Almost the instant he left the room, Yantil rushed back to the door. The duo could see each other perfectly clear-and it was clear as day that Yantil's eyes popped out even further from his head from gazing at Yarvick than from looking at Janine. "Y-y-Yarvick?!"

"Yes, I'm fine! What's happening?" Yarvick responded, trying to keep as calm as possible.

"Y-y-y-Yarvick?!!?" Yantil said, more panicked, unable to hear at all due to that insane noise.

"YES I'M FINE! WHAT THE F*** IS HAPPENING, YANTIL?!" Yarvick yelled, much louder to compensate.

"Holy Arceus, this is a lot to deal with in a day...Uhh, we got it assembled and we're trying to mutate it now! We assembed some Starmie and got them to create the kind of wavelengths we use when mating, and make sure those wavelengths were caught while exposing the Proto-Deoxys Virus to an electromagnetic field, which caused the virus to finally react and mutate! Of course, this was just a sample! What's going on now is the full-size version of that! We had to use a LOT more energy than we planned, though!"

Yarvick just rushed back to the main lab and looked through the window while Yantil was uselessly running his mouth. Whatever the hell they were using was beyond him completely, but it looked like a complicated setup designed to do exactly what Yantil said it would. It was a process that he did NOT at all understand. However, the machine itself kind of reminded him of an MRI-as of current, all he could see of Hyperion was his very stiff feet. They were strapped to the operating table, and Yarvick could tell that now, instead of being as stiff as a tree, Hyperion's body was now attempting to have some severe spasms, thrashing to get free. His coloration was a very blotchy mix of red and white, from what little he could see.

"Dear Arceus that is absolutely disgusting." Yarvick said.

"I cannot hear you!" Yantil said. He seemed to naturally catch on to not touch the nine tails. Or maybe he was just absolutely scared s**tless of the Chimera form, too much to come close. He didn't exactly choose non-threatening Pokemon for his combo.

"DEAR ARCEUS THAT IS ABSOLUTELY F***ING DISGUISTING!!!" Yarvick yelled. "THAT IS WHAT I SAID!!!"

"Thank you!" Yantil exclaimed. "Tiantus wants you inside, says he wants to make sure if the new Deoxys has any memories!" He added, opening the door.

Yarvick rushed inside. The noise was almost deafening inside, and Tiantus was standing in the middle of all the noise as if it was a simple tuesday for him-until Yarvick entered. "What the...What the actual f*** is THAT?!" He said, briefly losing his normally iron-hard composure.

"I ASSURE YOU, SIR, THIS IS YARVICK!" Yantil yelled, pointing at Yarvick "JANINE! HE VOLUNTEERED!"

His face hardened again, resuming composure, like he almost expected something of this nature. "I'll get a better report from her after we're done with this!" Tiantus said.

"SIR?! I CANNOT HEAR YOU!!" Yantil yelled.

"I'LL GET A BETTER REPORT AFTER WE ARE DONE WITH MUTATING DEOXYS!!!" Tiantus yelled back.

Yarvick noticed Hyperion's thrashing get far worse in the machine, while the duo yelled back. It almost seemed like the thrashing would start damaging the binds somewhat-they were fabric, but the tough kind that made for seatbelts. Alakazam were not known for their ability to attack with their actual bodies. They used their brains and crazy powers instead.

Then one of the binds was actually ripped off, as the culprit left leg now turned completely bright red. "Um, WHAT THE F***?!" Yarvick yelled, pointing at the now-loose leg.

"Huh...Yes! It's working! " Tiantus exclaimed, now taking a marked interest in the leg, even as it began to move about even more erratically without the binds to restrain it. It seemed to lose form as a 3-toed creature with a large foot, shrinking down into a single point, as the mass that was formerly the leg now seemed to...Slide, up the leg, like some kind of gooey liquid.

It was as gross as all hell.

Tiantus had a smirk on his face, reminded of his incredible genius, already marking it as another success. Yantil was mostly just a little panicked by all the loud noise, but was also able to stay relatively calm about it all. Yarvick could NOT stand the sight of the slithering bio-mass and, finding the nearest bin, promptly spilled his guts. It was doubly as bad as a Chimera which included Greninja's tongue, as he felt the incredibly gross taste of stomach acid on his tongue as he spat. He also spat out some water, actual water, as well, though that did not even remotely help. He did NOT want to see the remaining transformation, he did NOT, if only a small part of it was that absolutely puke-inducing...And yet, some incredible bile fascination urged him to look anyways, the kind that made absolutely disgusting and disturbing horror movies good to watch. His sudden sickness won out in the end, forcing his head down for a while. However, he could still hear-he heard another bind breaking, and another, and the final one, with rapid succession.

"Oh, s**t." Tiantus said. "GET OUT! HE'S GOING TO DESTROY IT!"

Uh-oh.

Yarvick, despite having several genes of very fast Pokemon, had the large issue of currently barfing rooting him to the spot while the gag reflex took care of business. In the meanwhile, Tiantus and Yantil rushed out of the door and into the main hallway. Yarvick only managed to get to the door.

And that's when the issue of a mid-transformation Deoxys destroying a rather heavy piece of machinery became a blatant issue. Yarvick's frail body was suddenly and brutally thrust to a wall by a large piece of metal, splattering his pile of stomach acid and half-digested lunch over a wall. He was not unconscious, still alive, and notably the insanely loud noise stopped, leaving a sharp ringing in his ears. His back half was trapped under the fairly heavy part, and his tails seemed to not really help much. Not much muscle, even united. Curses! He could feel MEND working it's beautiful magic back there, but it was still slow and only diluted the pain rather than fully remove it-and the machine part that pinned him down was fairly hot as well. Not burning hot, thankfully, but it was making him sweat from heat.

And, of course, the biggest problem; he was trapped in a room with a newborn Deoxys. That thing was one of the last Pokemon to EVER piss off, and he did NOT know how it would react. He was panicking, severely now. This was looking incredibly bad...Kind of. He couldn't even see what was happening. All he knew is that the machine was torn to pieces, and that it probably had to do with Deoxys.

He didn't know what Hyperion would think of his alteration into Deoxys. That was either a blessing to him, or a massive curse. If it was the latter, Yarvick was a dead man. This assumed Hyperion still remembered Yarvick at all, or that it was even Hyperion thinking in there. But, really, he wasn't banking on a peaceful Deoxys in there. It TORE the machine to pieces.

Yarvick took some calm in the fact that he was knocked to a dark portion of the room, that main power had NOT been restored yet, and that his newly-bestowed dark fur meant he blended in well. Perhaps Deoxys wouldn't see him? Perhaps Deoxys would leave him be? He took a quiet, but deep breath.

As if to spite Yarvick, his bad luck came back with a mighty vengance, and the main power came back on as he exhaled. He wasn't sure how much of him was covered by the machine part, but he feared it was probably not enough. Yarvick was now sweating out of stress.

Maybe he'd luck out here?

Nope.

Yarvick was grabbed by a hand, a hand with a texture that was simultaneously like human skin and thick slime. The odd feeling did not detract it's power, and Yarvick was yanked out from beneath the machine piece like a ragdoll, and brought face-to-face with the new Deoxys.

It had no facial muscles to speak of. No eyelids, no noses, no mouths, no ears, none of that. Just two angry-looking eyes, face-to-face with Yarvick, who he held with a single hand, the other hand at his side...Untangling into two tentacles, from what Yarvick could comprehend of the motion. If he would have dared to turn his head enough to see behind him, Yantil and Tiantus were in plain sight from the window of the door, watching, and at least two Pokemon from each side were now out and ready for action.

"Yarrrrrr...vick." Deoxys thought to Yarvick. It sounded of nothing other than a voiceless whisper in his mind. He couldn't tell any emotion from it, no hate, no love, no friendlyness, no sorrow, nothing. It was impossible. It was merely Deoxys saying Yarvick's name. But, he either remembered enough to know it in some manner, or he decided to read his mind for the information. Either way, he knew exactly what he was, he probably knew what he did to it, and now had completely uncontested reign to do anything to Yarvick.

Anything.

[Neo Emolga]

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

I thought I was all set to deal with the fuzz and then only a few seconds after grabbing that Ancient Burst Heart, I heard something that was just... disturbing.

{Yes... yes... bring on the suffering!!!}

I couldn't help but blink twice. I looked around but no dice, I couldn't see who or what pray tell was saying that.

{Think you can last longer with this than the previous owner!? Let's see how long you live until someone else kills you for it! Mah, ha, ha, ha, ha!}

Seriously? No one was going to kill me. Whoever this punk was, I really wanted to see them try.

I had recalled Snuff the Dragonite and Cyclone the Floatzel back to their Pokéballs. After that fight with Hayes, they looked somewhere between half-dead and raw hamburger. After that, the Burst effect with Speedy the Emolga wore off, and we had to separate. He went back to his Pokéball and I was left having to deal with the fuzz. Whether these chumps would recognize me from the time I stole the Entourage and framed Orre, I wasn't really sure, but I didn't feel like testing my luck.

In fact, it was better to give this Ancient Burst Heart thing a try. I had to get back to the speedboat one way, and I knew of only one real way to get them all to buzz off really fast. I grasped the Ancient Burst Heart, and performed a Burst with Smoky the Skuntank.

Bursting was one thing, but becoming a Mega Evolution of a Pokémon was something totally different. In the end, I was turned into a hulking, 6'8" Mega Skuntank, standing bipedal now with a gigantic skunk tail almost as big as the rest of my body, lots of white and purple fur, a wild batch of furry hair, and a whole lot of fat. Now I knew what it felt like to have suddenly eaten ten thousand burritos. Considering the outright disgusting level of power I could feel in this form, a Mega Skuntank was one hulking behemoth of stinky anarchy.

As the loser cops rolled on in quickly, I was going to make sure they fled for the hills even faster. I took a deep breath, and tried to flood the expo with as much disgusting gas as I could in one, massive, monumental fart. It wasn't just loud, it was explosive and disgusting even for my standards. Now, most farts can't actually be seen, so when you have one that's actually a putrid green-black color that rapidly decolorizes the air everywhere like an apocalypse pea-soup smog, you know it's epically bad.

Any cops that got close risked getting sprayed by my lovely concoction of skunk juice and were at gassy ground zero, which most of them couldn't even bear for a fraction of a second. And I kept rolling on the stink for as long and as hard as I could, and I could see with amusement that even the SWAT teams with their gas masks couldn't fight against it.

"D-damn it, let's get the hell outta here!" One of them shouted, holding his breath while gagging.

Man, this was just too amusing. I decidedly to casually waddle toward the speedboat, and not a damn thing was going to even go near me. I had to keep this in mind if I ever wanted some alone time, har har har.

They see me rollin'. They hatin'.

---

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

I simply watched as Yarvick went on letting his imagination loose on the machine. A little bit of Gengar there, little Weavile there... wasn't quite sure what he planned on doing, but hey, it was cool to watch the surprise! When he finally conjured up the form, he pulled out the mutagen, and... I can say I was honestly surprised when he jabbed himself with it. For once, I actually managed to find a willing volunteer! And they just happened to come to me instead of the other way around!

Given, the darkish Lucario look was... not really my thing and I probably would have recommended something else, but hey, it seemed to work for him! With nine hand tails covering every color of the rainbow, it was crazy! He wouldn't need a paint set ever again! Totally cool and weird at the same time! So in the end, Yarvick had become a Greninja/Gengar/Weavile/Smeargle/Ampibom/Ninetales dude! Again, the mutagen worked without mishaps! Bingo!

"...Well, it worked!" Yarvick exclaimed.

"Yes, we've got a winner!" I shouted, overjoyed this mutagen was actually now working totally the way it was supposed to!

"I'm going to have to get used to this if I'm going to really use this form in the field..." Yarvick told me. "Thought of my primary job of a full-time Klepto, thought of things that might work with it...And the Smeargle-Ampibom-Ninetales combo...I thought of that one pretty quickly and that one was too good not to use...I don't look too bad, do I?"

"Duudde, you look great!" I told him. "I mean, I personally would have probably added a lot more cute and cuddly into that, but hey, whatever works for you is great!"

Still, at the moment, the room was getting a little cramped with the both of us in here. I knew I probably should get working on another reversal agent, just so I could actually get out of this room. I mean, I really loved this cozy, fluffy angel bunny look, but I was essentially stuck in here unless I managed to undo it... or they pulled half of the Deathwing apart!

"...So... I guess we ought to see if the... um... thing that reverse the Chimera process works for me, right?" Yarvick asked. " I think this is completely brilliant, don't get me wrong, I'd just rather train myself in getting used to this form somewhere where I won't accidentally knock anything fragile over. That, and we're kind of running out of room in here..."

"Yeah, no kidding!" I nearly laughed. "It's not too complicated, trust me. Thanks for doing a double-check to make sure this thing was working! You're a great assistant, Yarvick!"

And then, suddenly, the lights went out. Oh crap. The emergency lights suddenly went on, but still, the lighting was very dim and it was just enough to only slightly make sure you didn't bump your head on something.

"Sorry, I'll be right back..." Yarvick told me calmly. "I think this may concern me."

And then, he went out the door. Unlike me, he managed to fit through just enough, but as I got close to the door, yeah, there was NO WAY I was fitting my colossal fluffy bunny butt through that door. I only just managed to see Yarvick run down the hall before he went toward the surgical wing.

I was just about to shrug and make that reversal agent for myself when suddenly... I noticed the computer was now off. Oh boy. If the power to this place never came back on, I'd be stuck like this! In this tiny little room!

I heard Yarvick and that Yantil guy shouting something down the hall, but I wasn't sure what it was about. You know, making more than one reversal agent... that might be a great idea to keep in mind for when the power came back on, because as this showed... you never know!

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

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

Yarvick only saw one way out of this-shove the 9 cursed hand tails into his face. However, he figured Deoxys may have had a way around this-just restraining him psionically could work. As it stood, he had done nothing, not yet. He was incredibly intimidated by that face. With a grand total of zero facial muscles, not even eyelids, it was just a permanent, hard gaze, and Deoxys kept a dead eye lock on Yarvick.

"Why...?" Deoxys questioned.

"It was either turn you into a space alien or slowly watch you die. Tiantus said you probably wouldn't remember, too, but you try picking next time and see how easy it is." Yarvick thought.

Deoxys did absolutely nothing. No lessening or tightening of grip, no movement whatsoever. Just, nothing. He didn't even twitch. Honestly, that he kept THAT still was creepy as all hell. Yarvick could NOT tell what Deoxys was thinking at any given moment. There weren't even hints.

"Pain..." Deoxys thought.

"It was going to hurt either way," Yarvick shot back.

"Intense pain..." Deoxys clarified.

"Look, I'm sorry, but, um...Think of it as a vaccination. It hurts, but it makes you feel better! It really hurt, but you're stronger now, a lot, and you're still the same Pokemon, that's really good, right?"

Deoxys did not respond.

"Right...?"

"...My body is strong, much stronger...My mind is...Weaker...I feel so uncomfortable, so...Wrong...I do not like it, Yarvick..." Deoxys said.

"...Is that seriously it?! You're just being fussy over the fact you're not-"

Deoxys gripped Yarvick much tighter. Almost lethally tight, in fact. If he held down any tighter he'd probably break a whole ribcage and crush his organs.

"...I'm eventually going to be old as all hell someday and all of my old skills and fast thinking are going to be thrown out of a window. This kind of c**p happens, and when it happens to me I'm not going to be happy about it either," Yarvick said.

"My kind...My previous kind...Did not do that." Deoxys said. "My previous kind kept their intelligence until they died..."

"So, you'd rather die than be mother-effing Deoxys, something Mewtwo would think twice about crossing, because you want to keep smart as you died? Didn't know you were petty like that."

Deoxys-or rather, Hyperion, he had to remember that-did not respond in any way whatsoever. MEND tried to repair the damage to Yarvick's body while they just floated there, eye-to-eye.

"You kept me alive for a few years now, I tried to repay the favor. Was I wrong for trying to save a friend?" Yarvick asked.

Absolute silence, not a twitch or a word, and even the breath Yarvick breathed didn't seem to make sound. Then...

"...Good point..."

Deoxys loosened his grip a little, but did not release Yarvick. A good sign.

"...Promise me something..."

"What, Hyperion?"

"...You will change me back someday...When it is safe to...Promise me that much..." Hyperion thought. "I know what you've been doing back there, with Angel...It is possible."

"...OK then...Yeah, I promise you. If you really want to, anyways." Yarvick thought.

Hyperion seemed satisifed, but he did NOT stop holding Yarvick. Finally stopping the huge stare-down, his eyes moved to the window on the door.

"...Tiantus...He does not like this..." Hyperion thought.Yarvick couldn't see behind him

"He's smart enough to realize what will happen when he crosses you. He can't take it out on you in any way right now, he'll know who will win in the end. He'll probably try to just keep us in tighter...To be fair, if we swapped shoes I wouldn't trust him with you either."

"Of course...He will want to run his tests on me," Hyperion thought. "I can forsee him forcing you to join Aqua as an actual member, meanwhile..."

"It will all work out in the end, I suppose. Just the required complication." Yarvick thought.

"Of course." Hyperion thought.

And with that, Hyperion's powerful arm finally let go of Yarvick's chest, letting him drop to the ground. With a thought, the metal pieces were shoved into a corner of the room, including the one blocking the door. Yarvick opened it.

Tiantus and Yantil were standing in the hallway, equally distant from the door and by extension Hyperion, but their body posture told two completely different emotions. Tiantus was slightly frowning, but was otherwise his incredibly calm, incredibly smart self. Yantil, on the other hand, was shaking like a twig, eyes ready to fall right out of his head, sweating like he just ran a marathon. The duo were protected by a group of 4 Starmie. 2 other Starmie were also a small ways away, guarding what looked like an egg. Considering the situation required, Yarvick assumed that the skunks would just give that to someone else.

Upon seeing Yarvick come out mostly OK, Yantil breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, dear Arceus, you're alive...Please, tell me Deoxys is not going to kill us! We did not expect such a violent reaction to it all!"

"He's alright, just needed some talking to on the situation is all," Yarvick said. He was kind of lucky that actually worked-though, he figured it was just that 'bond' between Pokemon that trainers always talked about that helped. "He's braced himself for the imminent testing, while I'm at it." He added.

"Good, I would be less than pleased if he was not willing to partake in some simple physiological tests and some DNA sampling..." Tiantus said, as calm as ever, but without any smugness in his voice. It was a clear sign he was not in a good mood.

"...Yarvick, I would like you to keep on-hand while I do this...There are certain concerns I must address. It is obvious that your Alakazam's mind is still in there, and it would be difficult to remove a Pokemon's attachment to its trainer...And to not be able to use a Legendary to benefit Aqua would be quite the shame...So, I will need you to prove you can, in fact, be trusted with it. It is incredibly powerful, after all...It would be a shame if it fell into the wrong hands...Do you understand?" Tiantus asked.

"Yes, sir. I fully understand your concerns and will be willing to do anything to...Um, allay them." Yarvick said, briefly stumbling over what word to use.

"Excellent. Yantil will fetch you when you're ready. In the meantime, go back to Janine and...Reverse that. I'm interested, but I have a great feeling that will interfere with your ability to burst, and I warn you, that will be...Important."

"Yes, sir." Yarvick said.

"...He wants us to be able to burst, for some reason...I can't exactly tell what he's going to do to test you, Yarvick...It could be anything. I am perfectly capable of any task we need to do without needing to burst, so why he would need us to is concerning..." Hyperion thought to Yarvick.

"Whatever it is, we just have to roll with it." Yarvick thought back.

"Of course."

Yarvick went back inside to Janine's office. "Sorry about that, just wrapping things up. It's all went OK! Hyperion, the new Deoxys, was a little...Er, concerned about everything, but I told him it would all work out. Titanus will do some physio-whatnot tests on Hyperion, then I just have to just ease his concerns a little...I'll need to turn back into a human now, though. He wants me able to burst. Don't know why just yet." Yarvick said.