Welcome to Gaia! ::

"This place looks just slightly familiar..." Sub commented as they journeyed deeper, now finding themselves in a place lined with human sized cages. Such things didn't bother him anymore, or did they ever? He wasn't sure. "Not that I've been here but the set up, the way it's constructed, it's all very familiar. That said the lack of genetic monstrosities and other murder devices makes me confident that this isn't one of Ein's places, but it does have some of his style to it." He said as he began to fumble through some boxes.

With Lykas and Rein checking the desks and Sub checking the boxes, I started looking through the cages, which were, for the most part, empty. No surprise, there. As I decided to look somewhere else, though, I caught sight of a Happiny lying in one of the cages. When it saw me, it ran over to me, wavng it's stubbly arms and cheering at me in Pokespeak, as if trying to get my attention.

"How long have you been here? I asked the poor thing gently. As it spoke again, Rala expressed telepathically that the Happiny felt familiar to her, somehow. My thoughts went straight to Keiko's Happiny, but Rala had never met Stasy before, so that couldn't be it.

I shook off that thought and looked to the other Snagems in the room while cradling the Happiny in my arm.. "Find anything?" I asked.



The papers Lykas read were a mix-up of diary pages and research notes, all of which were written in the same handwriting, with the name 'Lovina' on the front page. The writing describes the writer's scorn for Ein, her desire to one-up him, the idea of an army of Shadow hybrids, and the troubles of creating a 'catalyst'. Apparently, she's lost four test subjects to failed experiments, but she's certain that 'the machine' will work this time. Unfrtunately, ther no mention of Keiko in Lovrina's writing.



Sub would find several mechanical parts in each box. There wasn't much in the way of documentation but there were certainly enough parts to make something. Maybe multiple somethings.



Among the usual office supplies and a certain shady piece of paper, Rein would find a blueprint for an unusual machine. The writing on the blueprint would be difficult to read, but there was a bullet list on the back.

"Lykas , I found something here too It's ..Plans? I guess for her Hybrization machine , Which means if she already captured Kieko, She already has it built. and another thing aswell." Rein slipped the paper from his pocket into lykas' right hand . The document read "Gima Eisaku, A futile effort to sway into my league of henchmen." This Document had also been signed by lovrina including The picture of what exactly looked like Rein his birthplace in orre and the birthdate.



The other document however, he approached terashi with, giving the "plans to himas he patted the happiny in terashi's arms.

While I listened to the others share their findings, my thoughts drifted back to Keiko. "I hope we find Keiko in as good of a condition as this Happiny is," I murmured, holing the Happiny tightly.

Said Happiny started cheering at me the moment I said that. No being able to rely on Rala to read it's mind, I took a shot in the metaphorical dark. "You know Keiko?" I asked. The Happiny cheered even louder, leaped out of my arms, and ran to one of the doors in response, pointing, bouncing, and cheering all at once.

I started to walk toward it, but I was distracted by Rein, who handed me a blueprint. I didn't think much of the front, but when I saw the back... well, how I felt about it was likely obvious, since I threw it aside and ran past the door that the Happiny was pointing as fast as I could.

~*~

"It worked!" Lovrina cheered, smiling at the Lopunny hybrid strapped to her machine. "It finally worked! Whew! So glad that I don't have to re-calibrate this thing again! Didn't expect her clothes to get this torn up, but eh, she won't need 'em." she shrugged.

The three men in white tuxedos looked up at Lovrina, looking impatiently at her .

"Yeah, yeah. She's all yours." Lovrina huffed, puling a strange device from a coat pocket. "Naps. Hey, turn off the scramblers for me. Because I've been busting my butt all month getting this project done and I deserve a freaking vacation! Yeah, she's ready. Come see for yourself! Thanks!"

Hold it!" I shouted, out of breath from running. My gaze was torn from Lovrina to her hybrid captive. It was Keiko, that much I was certain of. From how her emotions felt to her facial features. But mostly, it was her eyes. I've seen defeat in those eyes only once before - in a vision. At the time, I thought it was a look of disappointment, but no. Given the feelings that came with the vision, what I was seeing now made more sense. Still, tha dark vision I had in Mossdeep... Despite how badly I wanted to avoid it...

I couldn't believe that it actually came tru-

"GAAAAH!" I screamed as pain flooded my head, bringing me to my knees and forcing me on all fours. The numb feeling that usually accompanied my headaches was slowly building, but it couldn't overpower the pain.

"Ugh, get him out of here," Lovrina scoffed, not recognizing me as a Snagem. Her henchmen approached me as she reached for a ball on her belt, planning to Teleport out of there.

Lykas followed after Terashi when Sub was done explaining who Lovrina was. He still felt like he knew that name from somewhere but as far as he could recall, she hadn't been around when he'd first encountered Ein and he didn't think Sub had ever mentioned her before but no matter. He brushed the familiarity of the name aside in order to focus on the task at hand: saving Keiko from her captors and whatever fate they had in store for her. After they burst through the door and found the madwoman herself, he paused for a moment. A hybrid on the table behind Lovrina, clothes in complete shambles at this point, felt very familiar to him, despite the alien-ness of her energy. A Lopunny hybrid, he assumed from the look of her. The foreignness of her chi must be because of it being Normal-type energy flowing through her body and his own Ghost hybrid body's inability to process that information correctly. Regardless, what he could feel was definitely the one they were after. "Oh no...." He whispered to himself, the concern he'd shown before suddenly masked by rage, black light shining within his eyes and his forehead gem glowing with a bright blue.

"How DARE YOU?!" He roared at the woman standing before him. "HOW COULD YOU FORCE THIS KIND OF CHANGE ON SOMEONE?!" In an instant, a barrage of Will-o-Wisps exploded outward from the hybrid as his rage overtook his rational mind. This couldn't be good for anyone involved. Hopefully Sub, if no one else, could see what was happening and might be able to stop it, otherwise Lovrina might be in for a hell of a lot more than she bargained for.

"Ter... Keiko moaned. Weak as she was after what she'd been through, she was awake, and she saw me curled up like that. Much as she wanted to check on me, make sure that I was okay, she didn't have the strength to break out of her bindings, let alone walk over to me.

~*~

Lovrina was confused when she was confronted by a man she barely remembered, though he did look strangely familiar. Before she could ask who he was, he pulled a Pokemon on her. Before she could react, she was targeted by an intense heat that lasted no more than a minute. Wondering what the hell was going on, her eyes followed the familiar stranger, and the man holding him back. This man needed no introduction, not to Lovrina. The fact that he was a former member of Team Rocket might have been interesting to some, but she didn't care. At least, not in that moment. Her henchmen advanced on the Snagems once Sub gathered them all up, and Naps was on his way. They could deal with the Snagems, there was no reason for her to fight. She had to get out of here. Now that she knew how to properly calibrate her creation, she could start the project over from scratch if need be. But only if she evaded the Snagems.

~*~

The pain lessened a bit, just enough that I could think. I didn't have to guess what was hurting me - The Ghost-type energy bubble in my brain popped. Given how stressed and emotional I was, it made sense, but I didn't have time to lie around and be hurt, dammit! In an act of desperation, I focused on my mental core, and pushed forward, to the point in my head that I remembered the bubble being. The point in my head that the bubble was stuck in was thankfully enough to push the uncontained energy through, though strangely, the energy slid through my tear ducts, nostrils... any facial orifice it could find. By the time the energy was out of my head, and laying innocently in my hand, I heard Keiko's weak voice echo in my mind, callng my name. In that moment, my consciousness was consumed by an unquenchable, unyielding rage.

I got up in an instant, tossed aside the energy that had been plaguing my brain for months, and bolted toward Lovrina, leaping over any of her henchmen that tried to stop me. She was about to pluck a Pokeball from her belt, but the moment she saw me, she raised her arms over her face, seeing to protect herself to no avail. My fist connected with her cheekbone, and she was cast down to the ground, her body sliding a good three feet from where she landed. I wanted to turn away from Lovrina at that point. I wanted to free Keiko from her bonds and get her to safety. But the righteous fury burning in my soul would not be denied.

I couldn't control myself, and somewhere, deep in my psyche, I didn't want to.

Lovrina got up and ran for an empty corridor, and I chased after her. When I entered the corridor, I saw one of those emergency exit doors that sprung an alarm if opened improperly. No way I was letting her open that. Fueled by wrath, I outran and overpowered her, throwing her against a wall and positioning myself between her and the door.

~*~

Lovrina's henchmen, unable to stop me, decide that the C'thulu hybrid and his Team Snagem overlord were the biggest threats and focused on them. And since Lovrina's stalker was in the area, why not take him out, too?

[You each are beset by one of Lovrina's henchmen. They have three first or second stage Pokemon native to either Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, or Alola, either chosen by you or at random, at your discretion. You may snag one Pokemon.]

The Snagem leader just sighed as one of the angry, blue balled, thugs approached him. He was a tall man, pretty handsome, clearly worked out, could probably have any woman he wanted so why was he in a place like this to perform questionable acts that he really didn't need to lower himself to? It was a mystery to the man, people had their ways and sometimes there was absolutely no way figuring them out. Then again he was one to talk about being strange.

"Listen up, this is how it's going to go down." He said, pointing a cocky finger at the man with pent up urges. "I'm going to take you down with just one Pokemon." To emphasize his point he lifted the finger he was pointing with towards the sky to indicate the number one. "But here is the humdinger. The Pokemon that's gonna send you packing without any of what you came for? It's gonna be a tiny little Oddish. You know, just to further emasculate you and make a bad day worse." He grinned.

The did not respond, much to Sub's disappointment as he at least expected some disdainful ranting or burst of anger. Lame, he was trying to have fun with this. Tired of waiting he took out the Safari Ball containing Hemlock and unceremoniously let it roll out of his hand and onto the floor, the ball bouncing off the ground and burst open to unleash the Weed Pokemon its self.

"Oddish odd!" Chimed happily the Grass type as it jumped in place from one foot to the other, smiling the whole time.

The Torchic blocked dude would grind his teeth, a little bit of his anger and annoyance over how things have transpired today finally surfacing. The guy woke up thinking he was going to have some 'fun' and now he was standing in front of the wrong sex and being mocked. This was not fun at all. Before he let his anger reach the boiling point he tossed out a Great Ball, the device opening with a show of light to reveal a Dusion, the Psychic Pokemon flexing its gelatinous body upon release.

"A Psychic type, huh? Oh dear, our weakness, whatever will we do." Sub said dramatically, putting the back of his hand on his forehead and leaning back for emphasis. "Hemlock, we might just lose...but we can at least go out with style. Show them your flare." He said with a smile as he straightened back up, the Oddish utilizing one of its leaves to pull a pair of Blackglasses out from its grassy head and put them on, the Weed Pokemon giving off a cocky grin to rival his owner's. Sub had finally found a Pokemon to give those old things to, and for good reason. Apparently Toren knew what he was doing when he caught this Oddish.

"Hidden Power." The trainer ordered. Hemlock would respond by separating its individual blades of grass, sticking them out straight as small orbs of almost pitch black energy formed at their tips. With a cry and a fanning of its grass blades the Weed Pokemon sent the orbs of dark energy flying into the Duosion, taking both it and its trainer by surprise as the Pokemon recoiled and pain, shocked not only by the revelation that it had a Dark type Hidden Power but also by how much that actually hurt coming from an Oddish.

Mister bad day would order his Duosion to use Psywave, the Mitosis Pokemon sending a pulsating wave of Psychic energy at Hemlock. The Oddish would be unable to avoid it and took a direct hit but thankfully, while super effective, it wasn't as strong as it could have been. Psywave was funny like that. However, it did give Sub and Hemlock an opening as the Duosion focused on its attack. "Mega Drain!" The man ordered.

With intense concentration the Oddish would begin to sap away some of the Psychic's energy, damaging its opponent and also recovering some of the damage it suffered its self from the Psywave. While it didn't put it back where it started health wise it was in better shape than it was a second ago.

Realizing that standing still was not a good idea and the Grass type would win out on this power struggle the man decided to take on a more direct approach as he ordered a Rollout, the Pokemon dropping to the ground with a thud as its gel-like body became solid and it began to roll violently towards Hemlock. Sub however was not worried. "Ingrain! Hold it back buddy!" The trainer shouted.

Adjusting its glasses and giving a cocky grin Hemlock would stomp on the ground with each foot, planting its roots into the concrete floor which surprisingly were able to pass right through the man-made stone and reach the soil underneath. It wasn't very rich so he couldn't draw much energy from it but that wasn't the true purpose. The true purpose was to hold its ground as the Duosion came barreling into it, the Oddish grunting in pain as it stood firm and held firm.

"Now Mega Drain! Sap it dry!" With the enemy within physical reach Hemlock would ensnare it with its blades of grass and begin to suck the life right out of it. Apparently fueled by adrenaline the Mega Drain was far more powerful than Sub had ever seen it before, maybe a Giga Drain? It was hard to say but one thing was for sure the Duosion did not last long as its movement suddenly ceased and it just laid there motionless in Hemlock's grip.

With an annoyed grunt the man recalled his Duosion and quickly replaced it with a Watchog. Sub couldn't help but scoff at the Pokemon, this wouldn't take much longer. The man would order his Lookout Pokemon to use Super Fang, the Normal type rushing the Ingrained Hemlock. Sub had tried to get his Oddish to move as he too was taken by surprise but the roots were already set and Hemlock took the hit, its hit points cut in half and the Weed Pokemon quickly put in bad shape.

"Minor set back but nothing we can't- Sleep Powder!" Sub shouted the command in mid sentence, throwing off both Pokemon and trainer as Hemlock rustled its leaves to unleash a cloud of Sleep Powder around the area between it and Watchog, there was no getting away from this. "Heh, this is over. Hemlock? Drain it dry." He said, both Pokemon and trainer giving off a devious grin as they looked upon the sleeping form of the helpless Watchog.

[Five minutes later with Watchog not waking up, despite the man's pleas for it to.]

"So that's twice you got denied! Why don't you go up to Pyrite and buy it like every other scumbag? Get on out of here." Sub said to man as he recalled his Pokemon and walked off. He wasn't in any of a hurry but still wanted to get away from this annoying man. With a laugh Sub turned to his Pokemon as it took off its Blackglasses and stored them away. Shades removed the Oddish turned back into its childish happy self and began to bounce around its trainer with glee. Sub would just sigh.

" Not happening Naps, However I will tell you how this is going to go down, Your Onix, Though vile and vicious will be mine as for you, your coming with, To a damned cell." Gima tipped his glasses looking down on naps focused more then ever now, this wasen't the time to play around. Gima Sent out his own Trustee, Binacle ."Rock Polish! Double your speed we need to be faster then that onix if we are going to have a chance!"

The barnacle Pokemon shined as it soothed out its sharp stones rasing it's speed times two Hopefully faster then the shadow onix, though Gima could feel the hatred and rage of what lied within this onix he would not stop not till he got what he wanted."Now, Naps make your move, Don't forget I have my teammates here if you try to run."