CHAPTER 25: SECRETS UNVEILED, DECISIONS MADE

Miobach Badlands, Abandoned Silph Co R&D Lab

The hard drive in the computer tower beneath the desk whirred to life as the data of the video was called to the screen. Then, the playback began.

---

The video started on a shot of a woman in a labcoat who appeared to be in her mid-thirties, pulling her hand away from the camera. Behind her, a klink floated idly, one of the sentient gears rotating around the other. She cleared her throat.

“Today is June 15th of the year 2074. I’m Rebecca Stanley, a Silph Co scientist working at their Miobach Badlands laboratory. Today, I have finished developing an extremely important substance. If you saw the title of the video, you may be thinking, ‘Hey Rebecca, what is this thing you’re talking about and how will it end all wars forever?’ Well, to all you naysayers, I say to be patient, because I’ll get to that when I get to it, okay?

“Anyways, it was about a year ago that I began on this project. The reason I didn’t talk about it in a video diary is because I wasn’t sure it would actually work. That said, we tested it on an inmate with a lifetime prison sentence the other day and it worked exactly as I hoped it would. Now, we have a full tank of the stuff outside, freshly produced.

“Now, you may be wondering, what is this ‘stuff?’ It’s a gas that I have decided to call ‘Transmogrium.’ It is an extremely potent gas that, in significant amounts, can blanket itself over massive areas.” Rebecca raised a finger. “But you may be wondering, what does it do? Well, as you may be able to guess from the name, it can transform any human being into a pokemon simply by having them breathe it in, all without causing any other form of harm. It also will not affect anything other than a human, whether it’s a pokemon or otherwise. As for the criminal we tested it on?” She lifted a cage with a wimpod inside; it was cowering in fear. “This is him right here. Here, I’ll even play the video of the transformation.”

The four pokemon looked away from the screen during this part of the video, wincing at the screams of the man as he was rapidly transformed from a human into a wimpod upon the gas’ release into the chamber he had been placed in.

“Isn’t science amazing?” Rebecca noted as she closed the video and lowered the caged wimpod back to the floor. “Now, you may be wondering, how could this possibly bring an end to a war? You see, all any given combatant nation would have to do in a war is drop a small canister of the stuff, only about a liter, onto the enemy nation from their plane. Then, every human in a seven-hundred-kilometer radius would be transformed into a pokemon. The amount of chaos that would result would rapidly cause the country to collapse, winning the war for the other side. And, it will linger for thousands of years with no currently known way of expunging it!”

“Eesh,” Ryan commented while cringing, “that doesn’t sound fun…”

“You might now be worried about the tank of Transmogrium we have. I mean, if a small canister can affect an entire country, then surely a full tank of the stuff could potentially transform the entire human race, bringing about the downfall of civilization as we know it?”

She threw her head back in laughter.

“Oh, relax, you worrywarts. Not only will the IEF and their faraway colonists carry on our civilization even if something goes wrong, the tank has a one in five-hundred-million failure rate. We have nothing to worry about.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to need to contact the president of Silph Co about that bonus for completing the development of Project Transmogrify… Rebecca, out!”

After she reached for the webcam again, the video stops. Ryan sighed.

“Wow, that woman…” Terry said. “She seems awfully sure of herself…”

“Tell me about it,” Ryan replied, then hesitated. “Wait a minute… she said something about a large tank, right?”

“Yeah,” Lena affirmed, as Ben and Terry both nodded.

“As we came in here, I saw a large tank with a giant hole torn into the side of it. I bet that is where the Transmogrium was stored….” He put a paw to his chin. “Only thing is, I wonder how the tank was ruptured.”

“Maybe the other video will shed some light on that,” Terry said, dragging the mouse over to the other video, and the hard drive once again whirred to life as the last video on the list began to play.

The first thing that stuck out about this video as opposed to the other was that, instead of being illuminated by overhead LED lamps like in the previous video, the room was lit up exclusively by the red emergency lights on the wall, and, presumably, by the computer screen. The room being darker resulted in video footage that was lower quality than the last one, although it was still high enough that you could easily make out Rebecca, front and center on the screen. However, instead of appearing cool, calm, confident, and bordering on cocky, like last time, she had a look of total panic on her face, and she was on the verge of tears.

“H-hello,” she stammered fearfully, trying her hardest not to cry, “this is R-Rebecca S-S-Stanley of the Silph Co Research and Development team on J-June 22nd, 2074… I… I’m afraid I have some horrific news… you know that tank of Transmogrium outside the laboratory? Well… a rogue pokemon… I think it might have been a metagross, judging by the security footage… it… it attacked the tank for seemingly no reason, and… b-by the time anyone saw… it was already too late…

“The metagross… it had torn a gaping hole in the canister, and all of the people we had sent out to stop it were rapidly transformed into pokemon. The lab itself has self-contained oxygen tanks, thankfully, but I don’t think they’re going to hold out for much longer, and then… it’s either…” Rebecca started to bawl her eyes out. “It’s either suffocate or open windows and let in the contaminated air!

“And you want to know the worst part? The tank was only ruptured ten minutes ago, and there are already reports of transformations as far away as Hearthome City all the way in Sinnoh! At that rate, it’ll only be a few hours before every human in the world is affected, far too quickly for anyone to do anything about it!”

The next few minutes of video footage was just of her crying and moping about how this was all her fault, how she robbed her children, and everyone else’s, of a future, giving Team Seekers some time to process this.

Ryan’s jaw was agape. “T-that’s… I’m speechless… what do I even say? That’s horrifying…”

“I know, right?” Terry chuckled nervously. “I’d say something to lighten the mood, but there’s no lightening this; this is heavier than a cube of pure osmium!”

Lena growled. “So, this woman is the reason I became a sneasel?” She sighed. “I would be very angry at her, but at this point I’m beyond the point of caring. Besides, it’s not her fault that that metagross attacked the tank; I don’t think anyone could have seen that coming. Not to mention, she probably had to undergo a transformation just like I did, so even if I did still care, she got her just desserts anyways.”

Just then, a robotic voice in the background of the video called out. “Oxygen tanks near total depletion; opening vents to outside in three minutes.”

Rebecca took some deep breaths to calm herself.

“Oh,” Ryan said, raising a paw to get his companions to stop talking. “I think she’s about to start again.”

“Well,” she started, still sniffling, “it seems like it’s nearly the end of the line for me… soon, I, and my colleagues, will be turned into pokemon. What happens after that, I have no idea… all I know is, I seriously did not think this whole project through… and now humanity will pay the ultimate price… it almost feels like some kind of divine punishment for playing Arceus…”

She shook her head to get herself back on track, knowing she had under three minutes left to finish the video. “I just have one more message before I send this video to the fine people who run the IEF: whatever you do, if you can help it, stay far, far away from Earth, for your own sake and for the sake of all that remains of humanity across the galaxy.

“And with that,” she said sullenly, “this is Rebecca Stanley… signing off for the final time…”

The video then cut off. Ben sighed.

“Oh, I feel bad for her,” the torracat said. “She just wanted to end conflict but accidentally brought on the end of humanity…”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, by facilitating war crimes.” Then the glaceon put a paw to his chin. “But come to think of it,” he added, “this does kind of explain why there are both civilized pokemon as well as wild ones.”

“Oh, yeah,” Terry interjected, “because the civilized ones, like Ben, are descendants of transformed humans!”

Ryan nodded. “Uh-huh, probably. But more importantly, we now know why Lena, as well as Martin and Kori, transformed: Transmogrium in the air. Heh, guess Phanpy Penelope’s book was right on the money about there being something in the air,” the ice fox mused.

“So, what now?” Lena asked after a short pause in the conversation. “Do we… find out what the gas is actually composed of, so we can find a cure?”

“Ooh, I’m curious about that too,” Terry added.

“Nah,” Ben said, “I’d rather not stay here longer than we have to. Something about the atmosphere of this building doesn’t sit right with me…”

“If you’re uncomfortable, then that settles it. Let me copy the two video files over to my laptop really quickly, so we can show them to Martin and Kori, then we can leave,” Ryan said, grabbing his PSB from his bag. After the pair of files were dragged and dropped from one device to the other, the quartet utilized their badges to instantly warp back to Luneria Village.

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The members of Team Seekers were utterly exhausted from their journey, and in Ben’s case, the fact he had just evolved didn’t help; it’s a good thing they didn’t have to actually do any battling in the lab! In any case, when they got back, they immediately hit the hay after cleaning themselves up, despite the fact that the sun was still about an hour from setting, and they ended up sleeping for nearly twelve hours. The next day, they woke up well-rested, so they were able to take a mission. After rescuing a bounsweet from the clutches of an outlawed skarmory, they made for the bakery to discuss what they had learned yesterday with the stranded space humans-turned-pokemon.

Lena was the first through the door. “Hey, dad,” she called, “where are you at?”

From the back doorway, behind which was the living area, there emerged a muscular, navy-gray uniform cladden, black hair with red streaks having, human who looked in his mid-forties.

“Wait what?” Lena asked flatly.

“Wait, a human? Here?” Ryan said incredulously. “Considering what we know now, that should be impossible!”

“What are you talking about?” The human asked before he looked down at himself curiously. “Oh, right, I almost forgot I haven’t changed back…”

The man that stood before Team Seekers, as well as Jack behind the counter, dropped his illusion, leaving behind a zoroark instead.

“Yeah, you know how zoroark have the ability to take on any form they want?” Martin said. “Well, I’ve been practicing that ability, and as you can tell, I’ve pretty much mastered it already. Turns out, it’s as simple as visualizing what you want to look like in your head.” He tapped a claw to his forehead. “I also found that it’s not really a biological process, but is instead made possible by this thing.” He lifted his mane to show the turquoise pearl near the end.

“Fascinating,” Terry said, a paw to his chin.

“I’m not the only one whose been practicing, either,” the zoroark continued. “Kori couldn’t walk at all before you left, but now she’s agile as if she’d always been a shinx. She also just mastered spark and is currently working on discharge with Angela. I think she thinks she’s never going to get to go back, so she wants to at least make the most of her new form.”

“Huh. That’s nice to hear. I kind of want to pick up discharge myself but don’t know where to start.”

“Well, I’m sure Angela would be more than happy to teach you. She is your sister, no? Speaking of, those two are amazing at cooking. So much better than the cafeteria food that we IEF employees get. Probably healthier, too, since I can actually identify the individual ingredients just by looking… and smelling it. Did I mention how much stronger my sense of smell is as a zoroark?” He clearly desired to learn more about himself and his new body, but shook the thoughts off for now. “But enough about us. How was your… um, expedition?”

After Ryan pressed some buttons on his PSB, his laptop materialized on the table, which drew a raised eyebrow from Jack.

“Wait, did you buy a laptop during your visit in Miobach City?” the sylveon asked.

Ryan shook his head. “It was in my bag that was brought over with me when I ended up here,” the glaceon answered. “Doesn’t matter, though, because for now…” he turned to Martin. “…I have something… kind of distressing to show you.” He brought up the file. “It’s a video diary of a Silph Co scientist who worked at the laboratory we went to.”

He played both videos, and Martin had a grim look because of what he had learned.

“This is… you were right about it being distressing,” the zoroark said grimly. “I need to let the IEF know about this as soon as possible, before they send anyone else down here, because they could get transformed, too!” He sighed. “Unfortunately, the holophones are practically paperweights this far from the Pernautica… we found Lena’s ship, but the spare key was missing… and although the distress signals have a long enough range, neither of them are working at the moment… it seriously feels like something is trying to keep us from getting back…” He shook his head. “Probably just bad luck, though.”

“Oh!” Terry said, raising a paw. “I think I can help you!”

“Really?” Martin asked, raising an eyebrow. “How could you possibly help?”

“Back on my home world, I was an engineer, an inventor. I managed to build an interdimensional portal practically on my own! If I can do that, I can certainly fix your distress signal!” the pachirisu said, giving a gesture of approval. “It’s just a matter of getting the proper tools so I can look in and diagnose the issue.” He turned to Jack. “Do you happen to have a toolbox I can borrow?”

“Sure do! We kind of have to keep one around so we can fix the appliances as needed, since no one else around here seems to know how to do so. It’s all yours, as long as you tell me about that interdimensional portal you built later.”

Terry hopped onto the counter to take the sylveon’s paw in a handshake. “Deal.”

As Jack left to go bring out the toolbox, Terry turned back to Martin. “Okay, now, hand over your distress signal so I can look at it.”

Martin obliged, pulling out the camo-pattern PDA-shaped device from his mane. Terry took an investigative look, removing the back plate to look at the battery. Everything seemed to look fine to him, but he still wanted to look at the internals to make sure there was actually nothing wrong.

Jack, carrying the toolbox in one of his ribbons, returned. He set it down next to Terry, who then pulled out a screwdriver in order to remove the panel and look at the computer boards inside. Everything looked how he assumed it should, with no burn marks, embedded sand, water damage, disconnected wires or anything that would normally prevent such a device from operating properly. After putting the back of the device back on, he hummed aloud in thought.

I wonder… could it be that simple? He thought to himself as he turned over the device again.

He began charging static electricity within himself by rubbing his cheek pouches. Soon, he was positively radiant from all of the energy he was harnessing in that moment. Then, he touched a paw to the bottom of the device, near the charge port, and held it there for about ten seconds as the others watched.

Then, the electricity around Terry dissipated, and the device played a startup chime. Then a battery icon appeared briefly on the small OLED screen; above it the screen read ‘100% – fully charged.’ After that, the device finally ended out on a menu. The pachirisu smiled confidently.

“Well, there’s your problem,” he said. “The thing wasn’t broken at all, you just forgot to charge it.”

The zoroark facepalmed with embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about it,” Terry said, waving a paw dismissively. “We all make mistakes in the heat of passion, Jimbo.”

“…that’s not my name,” Martin deadpanned as Ryan sighed with great annoyance behind him. He took the device from Terry. “Now, it won’t be until tomorrow at the earliest before help arrives, but at least we can contact them now.”

This screen was, unfortunately, not as conducive to the touch of a claw as that of his holophone. However, it does have a built-in stylus that he can use, so he pulled that out, opened up the text app and began typing.

“Who are you contacting, anyways?” Ryan asked, trying to look at the screen.

“Someone on the Pernautica,” Martin replied tactly.

“Yeah, I know that, but who on the Pernautica?”

“A close colleague and friend of mine, Robert.”

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Pernautica Mass-Transportative Space Station, Command Bay

Robert Padilla has always been a close colleague, confidant, and friend of Martin’s within the IEF, which is why, when he had heard absolutely nothing from him for the last several days, he was beginning to grow concerned. For now, though, he sat in the command bay, sifting through emails on the computer, as Martin had nominated him to temporarily take charge of his work while the Commander himself was away. Robert was a bit older, with slight signs of age in his face and peppery hair that was rapidly thinning, as well as the same uniform as Martin’s, only with less regalia.

While he was working, he got a message on his holophone. He pulled it out of his pocket, and his eyes widened. It was a message from Martin, or, more specifically, from Martin’s distress signal.

“Huh, that’s not a good sign,” he said before opening the message and reading it aloud. “‘To Robert. Hey, Robert, how’s it going? Things could be better right now, but we are alive and well. The good news is that I did find my daughter! Bad news? Well, to make a long story short, my ship exploded and now we have no way of getting back to the Pernautica. Attached are the coordinates where we will be meeting you. I have a lot more to tell but it would be better if I explained it in person. Please come ASAP. Sincerely, Martin. P.S. make sure you have your pokemon-to-human translator headpiece equipped. Also, do not leave the ship unless you have your spacesuit equipped.'”

“‘Got your message. Will be there tomorrow at around 9 AM, your time,'” Robert texted back. It’s a good thing that I don’t need approval to go down to the planet if I’m answering a distress signal, he thought to himself. Although, I do wonder what that postscript was about… it probably means nothing.

Rob then turned his attention back to the holoscreen to finish up the emails, making a mental note to remember to charge his distress signal on the off chance that he, too, would need to use his.

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Luneria Village, Jack’s Bakery

Martin fistpumped when he got Robert’s message just as Kori and Angela came into the main part of the bakery. He turned to face the shinx.

“Great news, Kori! Terry fixed the distress signal, I contacted Robert, and tomorrow, we get to go home!”

Terry hastily added, “I didn’t fix shit, he just forgot to charge it!”

Kori’s face lit up. “Oh… oh, that’s great!”

Next, he faced the glaceon standing behind him. “As for you, Ryan… I heard you wanted to go back home to your own universe.”

Ryan winced. “Actually, after mulling over it for the past week, after what mom and dad said… I still want a bit more time before I actually make my final decision, but I’m not entirely sure I actually want to go back anymore.”

Martin raised an eyebrow.

“Oh…” he said. “Well, I was going to offer you and your team to come up to the Pernautica with us, because we’ve got an experimental, interdimensional exploration division, complete with an operational portal… although it hasn’t actually been tested yet.”

Deja vu, Ryan thought. Something’s going to go wrong, I can feel it.

“…well, I’d still like to get back to our Earth,” Terry replied. “Sign me up!”

“Me too,” Ryan said. “Even if I don’t go back, I’d still like to see Terry off before he returns.”

“I will as well,” Lena added.

Ben was confused about what was going on, as he had been too busy chowing down on a cupcake. “Um, I don’t think I follow. What’s going on?” he asked.

“Martin’s gonna take us to space,” Ryan said, grinning.

Ben’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Yes, yes, a hundred percent yes!” he answered, slamming a forepaw on the counter excitedly.

“Alright, then,” Martin said. “The four of you, meet me at the beach tomorrow morning. Fill up your bags with whatever you’re going to bring, especially you, Terry and Ryan, if you’re returning to your own world.” Just then, the bells of the clock tower outside struck six, and Jack began to close up for the night. Ryan stood up.

“Oh, I think it’s time for us to go now-“

“No need,” Jack said. “You’re our son, you and your friends can stay however long you like. In fact, I think I speak for both Angela and I when I say that I’d love it if you stayed for dinner. Especially if you decide to leave for good tomorrow.”

The glaceon smiled, licking his chops at the offer, and realizing how hungry he actually was. “Well, in that case…”

Before long, all of the pokemon in there surrounded a table, chowing down and discussing stuff. As he took bites, Ryan looked around the table. Everyone was getting along well, talking, laughing; even Kori was in a better mood than he had seen her in since he first found her on the beach.

When the food was all finished and put away, Ryan spoke up.

“Everyone… you know how I was struggling to decide whether to go back to my own universe or stay here?”

Angela perked up at this, as did Jack, Martin, Lena and the rest. All of them looked at him.

“Well, I thought over it while eating, and I think I’ve made my final decision.”