Desiree Johnson's Story

Desiree Johnson

The first sign that Desiree was awake was the throbbing pain in her head, pulsing with her heartbeat. Sluggishly one hand rose to her forehead, as if a bit of pressure on it would actually be of any help. With a noise that started like a groan but rose in pitch to a whine, she convinced herself to open her eyes. The blurred, white ceiling above her with bright white lights made her quickly shut them again. Annoyed, she tried to roll to her side and fall asleep again, but nearly fell off the small cot she'd been sleeping on, successfully waking her up with the shock. "Shit!" she swore quietly, half catching herself with her hand and adjusting her body to be more on the bed, before pushing off the floor and getting back on it fully.

After taking a short moment to catch her breath, she finally sat up and looked around. The room was painfully white, and smelled like a hospital. The arrangement seemed something more like a cell off one of those crime shows though, with the bed she had been sleeping on in one corner, a sink and a small toilet against the other wall. The door looked something like the most stereotypical dungeon door, if not for it being all white like the rest of the room. The small window with bars over it, the heavy metal look with bolts that meant some serious business, and a small trap at the bottom of the door for sliding things under.

"How the..." she started to speak to someone who wasn't there, before coming to the startling realization she was alone. "Charizard!" she exclaimed, looking around as if the large pokemon could have been simply hiding from her and would pop up at its name. Nothing in the room moved but her. She reached for her belt of pokeballs and found it missing entirely, causing even more panic in her head.

Leaping from the bed, she barely had both feet on the floor and ended up nearly introducing her face brutally to the floor when her knees failed to keep her upright. Luckily she caught the side of the bed and held herself up, fighting down a returning urge to puke. I remember, I saw something in the trees, and that's when I first felt like this... But then how did I wind up here, is it a pokemon center? Using the wall for support, she shuffled her way over to the door and peered out the bars to another white hallway, with doors similar to hers across and diagonal to her. Echoing from other places down the hall, she could hear voices, other people who seemed to be confused or crying or shouting. It wasn't much of a shock when the door didn't budge as she pushed on it, seeing no handle.

She was about to go sit back on her bed again when the sound of two pairs of sharp footsteps reached her ears, drawing her curiosity again. Not much later, she watched two figures cloaked in all white walk past her cell, keys jingling from the hand of one. A few seconds later, a heavy door creaked open, and a loud, high pitched scream rang down the hallway, hurting her ears with the echoing acoustic. It cut off suddenly, and the footsteps resumed, dragging something with them now. Indeed, they passed again, and she could just barely make out the slumped shape of some poor girl between them, being led away. Dread crept into her chest, the realization that it could be her next. Somebody brought her here against her will, took her pokemon, and then... what horrors could possibly come?

From her small, barred window, Desiree could see other faces coming to see what was happening as well, all peering through similar bars. Everyone seemed confused, unsure. That meant she wasn't the only one to end up here by mysterious means. That meant it wasn't just some weird memory loss, unless everyone else had lost their memories as well. That just didn't seem likely.

"Hey," she finally spoke once she was sure her voice wouldn't shake, gripping the bars and trying to see as many people as she could, which wasn't too many. From one she could see someone sticking their arms out. Likely female, by the shape of them. "I don't know what happened, but we all seem to be here without much of a reason. I... well, I'm Desiree, and as far as I can remember I didn't do anything to end up here either." Some of her short brown hair fell into her face, but she left it there to hide her eyes that threatened to spill over with tears. Despite her sure voice, the girl was utterly terrified. Her knuckles were white from their tight grip on her bars, trying to keep them from shaking. "They took our Pokemon, so they're asking for trouble... damn there has to be a way-" she cut off when she saw the two from before, coming to take away another victim. Taking a few steps back, she prayed to any god that could be out there, any thing that might listen that it wasn't her turn. Maybe it was wrong to condemn someone else, but right now, what matter was getting out and finding her pokemon.

Maybe something listened, because there was the sound of a different door opening with a clang. There was the sound of scuffling, and as Desiree watched with horror, they dragged some new girl away while she tried to fight against them. Letting out a small sigh of relief, she let her forehead rest against the cool metal bars. "We need to get out of here somehow..." she spoke fairly softly. Coming up with an idea, she carefully slid one arm out of the bars as far as she could, reaching down to wear the outside handle was and feeling around. Unfortunately, she couldn't feel what she was looking for. "Hey, can anybody with long arms reach down to the key hole? I might still have a bobby pin we can try and pick the locks with!"

"Please refrain from escape attempts," a calm, low female voice spoke. Almost disturbingly silent, a strange form in a brown cloak appeared in front of Desiree's door. She could only see the lady's mouth, her head completely covered in what almost had to be a bed sheet with how far it extended out to the left and right, covering some odd shapes. Extremely long, dark brown hair spilling out from the hood was the only other defining feature of this person under their cloak. "Professor Redwood would not be pleased, and I will have to stop you." Without waiting for any more answer, the woman turned and walked back to wherever she had come from.

"Well you can tell the kind Professor that he can stick it..." Desiree muttered back angrily, sticking out her tongue childishly. Carefully, she pulled out the bobby pin that kept her hair pushed behind one ear and began to fiddle with it, debating is she should risk an escape attempt, not know if the woman was still there, watching.

Alexander Ashfist

Alexander saw many people starting to wake and move to there bars, being dragged to there cells, there faces obscured for the most part. He could only see a few faces. Too his left the man in his cell was panicking. Though the mess of noise he got his name was Kyle. He moved over to the left side of his cell and put his good hand though the bars so it should be able to be grasped. "Alexander Ashfist, do not be worried my friend we will get out of here" The person in front of him was a girl with white hair. Said her name was Savannah. she seemed quite graceful though confused. "And you young lady, ill get you home to your parents, when we get out of here"

The girl next to her was Desiree, she seemed quite calm given everything that was going on. On the other side of the white haired girl was some young blond haired girl who seemed to be suffering. feeling bad for her he simply tried to give her an encouraging smile.

It was clear that even though there were others in the sound of all this it was hard to pick them out. Moving equipment, other captives moaning, or yelling from panic he could not make anything else out. One thing was clear though, all of them where confused and scared, many in pain. It was odd though, he understood that he had fallen and the attack from behind had hurt him but what about everyone else, many seemed unharmed but where suffering.

They must have done something to them. They have a large abound of people here this is no small operation There must be a reason they needed us but it looks like it is to test something out but what? a new drug? could be human trafficking but they would have no reason to harm us then. looking around he knew things would get worse of no one got any of there questions resolved. As Alexander was about to speak up he saw the girl Desiree try to pick the lock for her cage. No what are you doing! not when everything is so busy there is no wa- Alexanders thoughts where cut off as a woman stepped in front of her cage.

"Please refrain from escape attempts,Professor Redwood would not be pleased, and I will have to stop you". the woman spoke. She had some weird antlers on her head. probably just some odd seance of fashion. from where he was he could see her eyes from the side but knew they were cold and uncaring. They sent a chill down his spine. Alexander did not like that woman.

As much as he would like to be quite and draw as little attention to himself he knew he could not. "Of course not your little professor probably wants all us in good shape for his little experiments." he said in a hushed tone. then he took a break in and spoke loudly "Hey everyone who is locked up like myself, let me give you all my educated guess. You all like myself have been kidnapped, spirited away. We are not here by accident and there is probably no way out."

He paused for a brief moment giving those paying attention a chance to process this. "The good news is that they most likely have little to no intent to harm us directly but use us as some sort of test subjects. they have taken our Pokemon and have no intent to return them I am guessing. Isn't that right mam?" he asked the woman in a lab coat trying to get her to look at him and forget about the young lady she was speaking too. He quickly shoot her and everyone else who could see him a smile. and thought to himself Fuck, we are in deep shit

Mat

"No idea why we're here. I just woke up in this tiny cell. One thing I do know is that we have to find a way out here! This is horrible!"

Someone answered his question. Well, it wasn't much of an answer but a response nonetheless. There were a number of people speaking now. Their words were hard to distinguish from all the rest of the sounds of people yelling and calling for help. It was quite difficult for him to really talk to anyone. Something happened to drag his attention away from the noise however. Their keeper, or at least one of their keepers, appeared somehow before one of the cells. A mysterious woman in a brown cloak which covered her almost completely. The cloak seemed to conceal what looked roughly like a large upside-down clothes hangar in shape. What it was he couldn't really tell.

She had come to quell the plotting of the prisoner in the cell just a couple doors down from his on the opposite wall. The girl inside had been going on about something to do with a bobby pin. Mat just receded from view of the window in his door and slumped back against the wall on his bed panel. They got some pretty well hidden sentries here. I could of sworn I didn't see her approach before that girl tried to open her door through the bars in the window. He pondered while more people continued to talk between the cells while men trafficked prisoners up and down the halls.


After about roughly half a minute of sitting around he got bored so he stood back up again and went over to the window in his door to watch what was going on a bit more. More men were taking other prisoners out of their cells while the rest of his neighboring cell mates continued chatting about the confusing mess they had all found themselves stuck in. He didn't have much to offer on the matter.

"Since everyone's handing out their names I'm Mat. Nice to meet you all, shame about the steel bars and foot thick doors though." He tried to be friendly despite the looming shadow of what was being done to them hanging close over each of them. The last thing anyone needed right now was more screaming for help and cries of despair.

Of course, she couldn't quite reach the lock with the bobby pin, and even if she could barely reach far enough it wouldn't be a good angle to actually pick it. When she heard one of the guys diagonal from her speak to the woman again, Desiree knew she'd made a mistake and the woman had not actually left. Her mistake was to freeze, and almost immediately her hand was smacked harshly, sending the bobby pin flying down the hall. With a small yelp of surprise and a little pain, she quickly pulled her now red hand back into her cell. The woman stood there again, and she could nearly feel the freezing stare from under that brown hood, although no words were spoken in their stare down. Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching again, she knew she had really messed up now.

"This one has been causing trouble," the woman told the guards simply, then walked away. Sure enough, there was the sound of clanking as a key turned in her door. Desiree took a few steps back, hunching over a bit in a defensive stance, making herself smaller. The moment the door, started to swing open, she did her best to make a break for it, charging around the two men and barely dodging a hand reaching to grab her. Momentum drove her to the left, but she knew that was a mistake the moment she saw the woman at the end of the hallway, just beyond the doors. What could one lady really do though?

It turns out, a lot, when that lady isn't entirely human. She pulled that wide, brown hood away from her head, revealing a pair of Stantler horns, which Desiree could put 2 and 2 together to deduce these as the cause of the vertigo that had knocked her out before arriving here. Quickly diverting her eyes, she was still on a set course to push past, when suddenly the ground seemed to warp under her feet, and everything seemed to start spinning. Confused and unaware of the illusion, she took a step wrong and felt her ankle roll beneath her own weight, sending the girl tumbling to the floor. Instantly the hall returned to normal and the guards were picking her up by the arms. She looked up at the woman with a scowl, luckily finding that her horns were covered again by the hood. Half dragged, half hobbling along with the guards to avoid feeling like her arms were being wrenched mercilessly from their sockets, she finally gave in to the situation and accepted fate.

They arrived at some kind of lab setting, where she was tossed like a rag doll onto the table and quickly strapped down. There was some murmuring voices, and the sound of a terrifyingly malicious chuckle. "I hear you're quite the troublemaker," came the voice of an elderly male. A silhouette appeared above her head, preparing some sterile needle with a test tube. "Well, we have ways to deal with that." Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she waited for something awful to happen. All that came, though, was the cool metal of the needle and the slight prick as it entered one of the veins on the inside of her elbow. It only lasted a few long seconds before it was pulled out and the wound was dabbed with sterile alcohol and quickly bandaged over. "We'll be right back with your results then."

It turned out, right back was a painfully long time, leaving her simply strapped down to uncomfortable metal table. Eventually, though, she heard footsteps returning to the room. "All finished. Quite the interesting sample you are! Now, let's wrap this up here." There was the sound of medical supplies clinking, and the the flicking of a needle. The silhouette returned with a very long, sharp looking needle. Her eyes widened, but she knew struggling would make everything worse, so she gritted her teeth once more and allowed her head to be lifted up. There was another prick on the back of her neck, but this one was definitely more painful, the sensation travelling up through the back of her head in a very finely precise movement. There was pressure as the contents of the syringe was released, and then with a quick motion the needle was drawn back once more, and the entry wound was cleaned gently and some sort of bandage was place there, just under her hair. The world was spinning slightly, and the pain in her head was sharp. She could feel herself being unstrapped, but she couldn't gather the strength to sit up on her own. A pair of strong arms scooped her up and carried her off, back the way they had come, but to a different door now. Inside was an entirely padded cell, where she was unceremoniously dumped.

Once the door had shut again, she struggled to force herself to sit up a bit, but her arms shook as she did so. It was the best she could do to drag her body to a wall and use it to prop herself up, panting heavily. Her head felt like a mass of throbbing pain on her neck, her eyes closed to shut out the bright light that only made it worse. Every inch of her felt like it was crawling, but she couldn't do much about it. Eventually, if there was any god out there it finally took pity on her and allowed her to pass out.

As Kyle sat in his cell he saw someone's arm bend around the corner of his cell. The man in the cell next to his introduced himself as Alexander Ashfist, and assured him that they would get out of this place, and that there was no reason to worry. It actually helped somewhat, he was confident that they would make it out of here somehow. Kyle resolved to try, and calm down, trying not to let his fear get the best of him. Kyle with a smile took the hand, and shook it. "I'm sure you're right. Gotta be optimistic in times like this, right?" There was no point in being doubtful about escaping, he just had to do his best to keep a clear head, and eventually he would find a way out. He'd be sure to come back for the others, and help them escape as well.

He watched through the bars of his cell, there was a mysterious girl, with a large sheet over her head carrying something large on her head, walking around the cells. She didn't seem to be the one in charge, but it was certainly her job to keep them from leaving. The girl known as Desiree seemed to try, and unlock her cell regardless, and Alexander seemed convinced they were here to be some kind of test subjects. The thought of being some kind of lab rat was not a pleasant one. Many of the others were taken, and undoubtedly had something happen to them. Kyle held out hope that he would escape before something happened to him as well.

Despite the strange girl paroling the cells Desiree still tried to escape making a run for it as soon as they came for her. She ran past his cell, and though he couldn't see much else, it was obvious that she failed, as he heard the sound of a dragging body. This was not good, there was no way out at this point, and trying to escape would bring nothing good. He let out a sigh. Escape it seems would take much longer than he thought it would.

Soon four men walked up to his cell, and unlocked the door. They walked towards him, clearly intending to take him somewhere. Kyle backed up somewhat, and threw his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender.[color=orange]"Well there's obviously no way out of here, and there's no point n resisting. I'll cooperate." the men looked towards the strange girl apparently looking for confirmation. They forcefully pulled Kyle out of the cell but instead of forcefully dragging him to wherever he was gonna go they allowed him to walk upright. Kyle breathed a sigh of relief, despite the circumstances he was just glad to be out of that horribly small cell. Two men positioned behind him, two in front to prevent him from escaping. They began to lead him to their destination, Kyle walking behind them. As he walked he saw inside some of the cells. Some were normal people, stuck against their will but otherwise unharmed. However other cells contained something less than human. They resembled Pokemon, one looking sort of like a Tangela, the other resembling a Ghastly, though they almost looked human in some ways. Whatever was going on here was not going to be good.

Soon they entered a room, in the center stood an operating table, and beside that stood some doctor, or researcher type people. At this point the guards had ceased being gentle, and forced him down on the table, forcefully strapping him down. An old doctor walked up to him with a needle, and a smile. "Good to see you've been cooperative. This shouldn't take long." Before Kyle could say anything the man plunged a needle into his vein, extracting his blood, then left the area. After what seemed like an agonizingly long time the man returned, and injected him with some kind of chemical. The needle itself didn't hurt, though shortly after he began to feel pain spread throughout his body, there was a pain starting in his head. He barely noticed when they took him off the table, and started carrying him back towards the cells. He grunted in pain as they carried him, throwing him in a new padded cell. Fortunately before he could panic about being back in such a small space he passed out.

Desiree woke up, not too much later, extremely uncomfortable. Still a bit dizzy, she had to use the wall to help her stand up, and then leaned heavily with her shoulder on the plush surface to remain that way. The room seemed darker than it had been before, but maybe it was just because she couldn't make it stay still. Feverishly, she shuffled her way over to the door, panting through her mouth with hot breath at that small bit of exertion. One shaking hand scratched her head, and came away with a fairly large clump of brown hair that was rather wet at the base. Seeing the bright red color on her hands, she dropped it quickly and touched her head in the spot it had come from, feeling a small, stinging patch that was completely clear. She fell to her hands and knees, entire body shaking violently and heaving up the small bit of food in her stomach. Was this all a feverish delusion? What was real and what wasn't? Just how sick was she?

With one last dry heave, she quickly scooted away from the mess she had made, hugging her legs to her chest and trying to control her breathing. Her heart rate was sky rocketing and panic was turning slowly to shock. Dry and hoarse whimpers escaped her throat almost like wheezes, uncontrollable and pathetic. It was starting to feel like everything was itching, but to frightened by what had just happened to her head, she dug her nails into her arms instead, unintentionally drawing blood with her nails.

It was this pitiful state that someone lab worker found her in upon approaching the cell. Desiree didn't even look up, completely oblivious to everything as her eyes glazed over and she withdrew to some inner sanctum. Whoever it was forced some aspirin into her by placing it in her mouth and coaxing her to swallow with a glass of water, just to lower her fever. When they were done, they left behind a change of clothes and a plate of light food, just some juice, toast, and a slightly browned banana. At some point they cleaned up the mess since it was so near the door, likely just to avoid stepping in it. However, with that she was alone again, still shaken but slowly returning to reality.

She couldn't... no, she wouldn't let this get to her. Some psycho was likely relishing in her pain. She could quite pick out a camera in the room, but she would bet dollars to donuts that it was there. Her breathing was still shaking, but she inhaled deeply, held it a moment, and slowly released the air. Feeling slightly calmer, she rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the fuzziness of the things around her and return the room to its former bright state, but nothing changed. Assuming it was whatever drug they may have given her, she did her best to accept that it was normal for the moment. Glancing at the items left for her, she scooted over to them and started to nibble at the toast. The moment she swallowed, though, it felt like her stomach twisted inside of her, though not from nausea. In fact, it was like the bit of food had reminded her just how hungry she really was. The toast disappeared in an instant, washed down with juice, followed by the banana. Yet the hunger continued to gnaw at her.

Doubting she would be able to convince them to give her any more food for a while, she decided to divert her attention, think about something besides the hunger and the itching over her entire body. There was a set of clean clothes sitting there, a bit different from her plain purple t-shirt and leather jacket with jeans. They'd even been nice enough to give her fresh underwear, which was good to see considering how sweat drenched she felt. Although the fever was breaking unnaturally quickly, she was still a bit woozy, which would make it difficult to change. Then again, the difficulty would make a good distraction. Moving cautiously slow to a less conspicuous corner, out of sight of the window, she began to remove the sweaty clothes and use the t-shirt as a rag to wipe down with. She was still bound to smell of B.O., but at least she would feel a bit better. The new stuff wasn't quite sized for her it seemed, however. The wasn't quite her type but it did it's job, the sweater that reminded her a lot of her lost Zweilous was far too big, especially for being a boat-neck style, and the tights were a bit too small, making the stylistic rips a bit worse. Despite it being foreign and not exactly proper, something about the oversized sweater made her feel more secure, hugging it's warmth to her and fighting off the shivers. It was enough that she felt she could try and stand and make her way to the door. Though still week, she managed to make it there and look out at the others. She was in a new location, but she saw the face of one of the girls they had dragged away earlier. She could kind of make out the form of another person in a nearby cell, but it was strange and gaseous. But perhaps that was her still blurred eyesight.

"Hey," she spoke hoarsely, trying to draw someone's interest and perhaps start a conversation. One hand absently scratched at her midsection through the fabric of the sweater, completely unaware of the coarse fur beginning to sprout there.

WALTER

The faint ringing signified a complete lack of sound. Much like standing in a closed sound booth, Walter felt completely isolated. He finally closed his eye, unsure of what he could possibly do at this point. He couldn’t feel his body, and his mind was incredibly fuzzy. He couldn’t even work up the nerve to panic at the fact that his entire body disintegrated. From there, he felt a rumbling under what was left of his skin, like a thousand particles of sand washing through the inside at a haphazard pace. He still could not move. Beyond the uncomfortable writhing, he experienced nothing.

Finally, his eye shot back open. A sense of hearing was coming back to him, only it was flooded by this… nightmarish sizzling. The sound of an egg cooking over an open fire combined with the screams of the damned. His single, uncovered eye snapped to every available field of vision he could view. His head still remained resting on his face at a slight angle, amidst a pool of some sort of sandy substance.

Only the sand was no longer the tan of his skin. The writhing he now felt appeared to show itself in the sand itself. Warping like light through half-melted stained glass, or like gasoline in a puddle, he saw the skin-coloured sand twist into a disgusting purple.

Walter reached… Or rather, he felt himself reaching, using the memory of when he had arms mere moments ago. Surprisingly, the hand made of sand reformed itself, only this time, it felt… felt… more solid. It felt nothing like the lumpy, sagging hand he had summoned before. As he tried to summon a second hand, the sizzling, shrieking noise intensified in Walter’s ears. The writhing, uncomfortable feeling began to grow hot, even blisteringly painful.

Walter cringed in pain, and felt his head roll. A wave of the slowly purpling sand followed his head’s movement, only to sag back to the ground once his head came to a stop. This time, he was facing the ceiling. From this vantage point, he could see a girl. Like the one he saw before, this one was losing her hair at an alarming rate. Unlike the first one, this one appeared to be bleeding from the scalp.

She was by her door, looking through the bars. Her mouth was moving, but the sizzling made it difficult to hear. Walter, fortunately, managed to read her lips and her strain at breathing out. She was saying, “Hey.”

Oddly enough, the greeting seemed to comfort Walter somewhat. The burning sensation seemed to lighten somewhat. Especially when the previous girl’s laughter still echoed through the corridors. The laughter- thank goodness- actually seemed to show signs of dying down, however.

“Hey-HURK,” Walter could hear himself now. His voice functioned properly, but something about the voice terrified him. It was a voice that should not exist. An eldritch cough, followed by more coughs. Walter felt more of the tan-purple sand pour out of the corners of his mouth. He watched as sand of the deepest purple seemed to float in the air and swirl around close by. The burning feeling returned in full force, forcing Walter to clench his eyes shut.

MARA

Finally, after a grueling, unbearably long time, the tickling had finally stopped. Mara thanked the stars she never wet herself laughing, as disgusting and humiliating that would have been.

It was then that she finally managed to pry her eyes open, only to see absolute darkness. She could barely move. All around her, she could feel things that were firm, yet flexible, like the fresh, smooth bark of a sapling. As she touched them, the “roots” squirmed in delight. What was more surprising was that she felt the delight of the “roots” experiencing contact. She squeezed her hands up to her face, feeling more and more of these “roots”.

Part of her wondered if she had been buried alive after that tickling injection. Did her usefulness end that soon? Was she buried alive? The mere thought made her panic… and the “roots” shivered in-sync with the panic. The “roots” began to move away from Mara’s body, allowing the dim light of the padded cell to pour in.

The roots were not roots, but vines. Pale turquoise vines with the finest of details that would be missed entirely unless examined closely. The vines swung away as Mara swung her arms forward. She felt padded walls with more fingers than she knew she ever had. This time, she was confused. What was registering feeling to her brain all of a sudden? She was lying on the floor in the middle of the padded cell. Her legs never moved once, and her arms were the only other things the moved… So how did she feel the walls?

The realization dawned upon her like a punch to the gut. She looked at the vines being suspended in the air in horror. Her hands shot up to her head to feel the roots of the vines originating beneath her skin.

Instead of laughter, the corridors were filled with screams. As a Ranger, Mara enjoyed exploring the Northern areas, where the climates were temperate, dry, and cold.

These disgusting vines were tropical… Mara hated the tropics with a passion.

Desiree looked across the way at what she could just make out a something like a swirling tan and purple mist, but her still faded feeling vision didn't let her make out much more than that. Annoyed, she rubbed her eyes once more with the loose sleeve of her sweater, which tugged one end of the neck down over her shoulder, but at this point she didn't care much.

"Hey-HURK" she heard him fall into an awful sounding coughing fit, deep and mildly terrifying. Waiting for him to finish, she awkwardly debated saying something like bless you, even if it was quite the right context. It seemed more awkward though to say nothing at all...

"Gesundheit," she offered. "That doesn't sound like much fun over there."

Of course, she wasn't having much fun either, as everything continued to itch. She nearly went to scratch her head again, but quickly caught herself and decided to pat it instead, which still got a few hairs stuck to her fingers. Taking a step back from the door, she flipped her hair forward like she was going to dry it and shook it out, allowing quite a bit of dark brown to fall out this way. If it was going to go, at least this way was better than taking her scalp with it. Flipping it back up, she absently rubbed one shoulder and felt little rough bumps on it, and a pain that was like touching a sunburn.

With a sigh, she pressed up against the door again. "I'd say we could still get out of here, but I don't think that would be a good idea at this point... At least we get free food." She gave a bitter laugh, forehead rested against the cool metal bars.

Mat

To sleep. To dream. No steel nor man can keep the mind from escaping the confines of reality, however short it may last. In dreams we are all free.

But what of the flesh?

---

Mat slowly stirred to the sounds of the jail cells nearby. From the piercing screams to the banging of flesh on metal it was hard to shut out this constant stream of noise once the drugs were finally cycled out of his system. While he was not terribly dynamic when waking up he was especially slow to even rise to a sit given how he was just coming out of a drug induced nap. He reached and rubbed his back, feeling sore to the bone. Ow, that operation really did a number on me. I'm still feeling that drill doing it's dance in my skeleton.

Waving the pain off as a simple after-affect of having his spine drilled into he tried to stand up. He yawned deeply as he wearily rose to his feet. As he made his plodding way over the pain in his back slowly and steadily subsided. A pleasant turn in what was overall a pretty unpleasant day.


"I'd say we could still get out of here, but I don't think that would be a good idea at this point... At least we get free food."

"Free food sounds pretty good right now." He answered back to Desiree. Having stepped up to the window of his door now in the neighboring block where the subjects were kept post operation he leaned on the sill and scanned across the cells in the wall opposite from him, looking at the others kept here besides himself. With a somewhat clear view of his face others could see a change which was already underway which he was not exactly aware of.

His left eye had grown a bit larger while the right eye had shrunk somewhat. There was a definite disparity between the eyes which completely threw off the symmetry of his face. He had yet to discover this change as there was little physical difference to be felt and he couldn't see himself without a mirror.

He still had that rather casual friendly smile of his even despite what he's seen and endured. He tended not to really focus on negative matters, at least not when he had company. "I hope your pokemon are okay too. I'd be heart broken if they hurt my pal as well." He responded to Kyle's question, though not technically answering the question itself. While he knew little of the guy he could empathize with the feeling of missing one's pokemon. Rare were the times he and his long time companion were ever separated.


Something was running down his lip. He felt it trickle onto and down his arm. Looking down to investigate what was coming from his mouth he was met with a grave sight. Blood, a continuous flow was pouring from his mouth. His eyes widened at the sudden realization that there was something seriously wrong. He felt a strange and foreign sensation as his body felt tight, the blood within rising to find a way out.

Little did Mat know the mechanical cells were making space for themselves, not content with sharing room with his blood. With what felt like a pushing motion ripping through his body blood began to pour from his mouth, nose and ears. This all was punctuated with violent surges of pain in both his arms and legs, extending all the way up to the shoulders and hips. Unable to stand through the pain he vanished from view of the window, collapsing to the base of the door.

This spectacle was quite frightening to Mat. What few thoughts he could make out through the pain of it were ones of fear regarding just how bad it is to be losing this much blood. The blood that was flowing freely from his orifices was forming a pool which was expanding past the thin space beneath the door. He could of very well died as far as anyone outside would know given the amount of blood which was seeping from his cell into the hall.


With what little strength remained he propped his back against the door so his head could remain facing down. He feared that if he were to lay down either face up or down he'd wind up drowning in his own blood. As it was he couldn't even breath while the bright red fluid was being shoved out of his body. He could only hold his breath for up to a couple minutes tops and he hadn't had the foresight to take a deep breath before this sudden change occurred. All he could do was choke out more blood, the whole front of his body now completely soaked with it.

Dang. What a way to die.

His thoughts weren't rich with optimism as he started to asphyxiate. He was starting to lose consciousness, his eyes beginning to drift up. Just as the black curtains of unconsciousness were about to draw closed there was a distant choked gurgling sound. The blood was starting to let up, his lungs reflexively taking the opportunity to greedily suck in air at any cost. His whole body seized and shook as he coughed and gasped as he kept trying to draw breath while simultaneously forced to purge the blood that was getting caught up in the pull.


After what seemed like hours but in reality was little more than a couple minutes or so the blood had lessened down into a trickle. The cells inside him seemed pacified with this result, only occasionally moving again should blood get in where it's not wanted. From a river to a stream to a trickle to occasional spurts he was starting to pass this gruesome modification that his body was undergo. More than ever he wished they had saved more of that anesthetic for him as he was in severe pain.

His whole throat was rough and sore from the ordeal. The ends of his limbs were starting to feel numb. He wasn't sure if he could stand if he wanted to right now. He focused his efforts instead on calming his breathing, attempting to relax his body and get it back into a natural rhythm again.

"I am back, are any of you hungry I have a scone here and I cant eat anymore."

He heard Alexander offering his food over from his cell. Mat chuckled slightly before stopping quite fast as his chest panged with pain when he laughed. As hurt as he was there was little more he could do but wear a miserable frown. I don't think I've got much of an appetite considering how hard it's been just keeping blood down. Pathetic. He indulged in some self deprecation, in thought only of course as he had no intention of speaking given the condition his throat felt like it was in.

Such was life in his new prison.

Liquid fire, liquid fire, it burns me inside and out.

i breathe, but i can’t feel. i hear but i can’t think

“…could still… out of here but I… would be… this point... east we… food.”

drums… drums… food... need food... but the liquid fire… it won’t stop…

why didn’t the laughing stop, when the very walls weep around me?

the walls weep, and in their tears, i see things, they show… green fields… rivers… hope.

we must get out of here

i need this hope. the burning won’t stop.

Heavy gasses lingered around the pile of purpling sand. Evaporation continued. The gas was odourless, but poisonous. A lab technician quickly, yet nonchalantly covered the padded cell window with some sort of membrane. The lighter gasses neared the window, but did not pass through to the other cells.

“Genetic reaction faster than simulations,” the technician made a note in a small recorder as he stepped calmly back down the corridors. “Though very good news, P. Walter almost contaminated other subject cells. Membrane has been applied, but a more suitable cell is recommended.”



Mara slowly, but surely pushed herself to her feet. Her head felt incredibly heavy, as it was the source of the hundreds of tendrils that curled around her. The tendrils even helped her up by pressing against the floor. These horrible vines… helping? Mara couldn’t even stomach the idea. These were the type of vines that contracted diseases, and choked the life out of all other things. It was a damned weed, seeping the strength of others.

There was no way she could tolerate these horrible things- a similar species to one that had nearly-

Footsteps rang in the corridor… incoming footsteps. Mara’s brain clicked, and she suddenly became unusually tolerant of the horrible vines. Pushing her arm out, Mara willed a goal into the centre of her thought process. Several vines shot out through the small openings between the bars of the tiny window.

“What the-“ the technician spat before he found his neck being squeezed by a set of vines- as many vines that could fit through. Mara felt the figure being pushed against the opposite wall, and subsequently lifted an inch higher.

Yes! Mara grinned. This technician had to have some sort of key, or at the very least, she could lure a guard along to take their key with her vines. It was a perfect pla-

Mara shrieked in agony as a burning sensation flooded the vines. Being fresh, the vines were incredibly sensitive- especially to the fire provided by the lab technician’s lighter.

The lab technician, in a desperate bid for survival, grabbed his lighter and lit it up under the vines at the window. Two of the tendrils even caught fire. Immediately, all of the tendrils shot back inside to put out the tiny, yet deadly flames, and also protect the rest of their body… or host… The technician knelt down to catch his breath.

“Fuck me sideways, that was close,” the technician gasped for breath as he quickly worked up the strength to get the hell away from the padded cells. He glanced at the lighter that saved him, “Damn, It’s a good thing I smoke,” he muttered hoarsely to the recorder with a pained chuckle. “Subject J. Mara: Transformation grants her abilities- Extremely dangerous to friends and co-workers. Must relocate to a more suitable cell ASAP. Until then, avoid Subject J. Mara.

The technician rushed off- now with almost an emergency to report. Mara, on the other hand, was putting her arms over her face as the vines whipped, spun, twirled, and slashed rapidly. The vines slapped and slashed at the cushioning of the padded cell walls in an attempt to get rid of the small fire that had since grown into a not-so-small fire.

It was hardly a fire Mara herself couldn’t handle, given her Ranger training, but she was not herself. She was utterly paralyzed at the sight of the vines slashing everywhere, with a mind of their own. They did not harm her, but they did not stop flailing.

EEVEE: lands the finale blow on a Pikachu girl. she looks around at of the room to see if any are dead but they all were alive she sighing and turns into her normal Eevee form. Emily: "huh? what happened?" Dr. Red: "you won now please go back to your cell" Emily dose as told