Anima Ex Machina (PG-15)

[AbsolXWolf]

Author's Note: Hey, Alpha! I'm not ignoring you or anything; I'm just going to be responding to you when I get a chance later on. Because new chapter! One that's twenty pages! The longest yet for this version of the fic! ...We're never doing this again, I swear to God.

A couple of notes for those of you playing at home:

1. The title of the fic comes from an episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. That's not the only reference in this chapter.

2. Hope's quote of the day is a Japanese proverb that (roughly) translates into, "If you speak a rumor about someone, their shadow will appear." It means the same thing as "speak of the devil."

Alpha? New chapter? 20 pages? "Puella Magi Madoka Magica"? WHAT?

Sorry Jx, but I'm not making a 20 page long review -.- (I hope you're not too dissapointed in me)

When I have more time I'll make an actual review I will, but I'm liking the equation for this chapter: Steven+Lanette's past+romantic tension+no kecleon appearance+VERONICA=win.

[JX Valentine]

Short response, but...

Alpha?

...How did I manage to do that? O_o No, seriously.

I think it might've been because, for whatever reason, I was thinking of one of my original beta readers (who ironically actually had nothing to do with this project but had everything to do with my last Bill-centered megafic... which we will never speak of again due to lol things I hated by the second chapter), AlphaWolfNH.

Which is still not an excuse, and I apologize for that. x_x Clearly, I need to clear out my mental Rolodex.

Also, I should hope you're not writing a 20-page review. XD Save some of your sanity, dear.

And thanks very much to both you and Diddy! I swear, proper response will come after I'm not procrastinating like mad on schoolwork.

[AbsolXWolf]

Short response, but...



...How did I manage to do that? O_o No, seriously.

I think it might've been because, for whatever reason, I was thinking of one of my original beta readers (who ironically actually had nothing to do with this project but had everything to do with my last Bill-centered megafic... which we will never speak of again due to lol things I hated by the second chapter), AlphaWolfNH.

Which is still not an excuse, and I apologize for that. x_x Clearly, I need to clear out my mental Rolodex.

Also, I should hope you're not writing a 20-page review. XD Save some of your sanity, dear.

And thanks very much to both you and Diddy! I swear, proper response will come after I'm not procrastinating like mad on schoolwork.

Oh so you’re giving me pet names now? -.-

Joking, joking. ^ ^; I’m not mad or anything, so it’s all cool. I mean, it was just an accident. Plus, Alpha sounds like a pretty sweet name, and I actually kind of like it.

I’m trying to do a few things in another forum that I have neglected for far too long, but I’ll come back every so often. Hopefully ;.;

[The Great Butler]

Anima Ex Machina
Twenty-Five: I won't depend on anyone anymore.

The fact you're quoting Madoka Magica at the very beginning frightens me, Jax. What am I getting into?

The Caravan, which had previously been a massive mobile village of up to thirty vehicles and nearly seventy people, now existed as not so much a caravan as a small band of nomads. Excluding the pokémon, its population count was eight, and all eight of these humans plus the supplies needed to sustain them had traveled almost two days away from the remains of Mauville City in nothing but one truck and one van that had miraculously survived the attack of one fire-type ixodida. Presently, the van and the truck sat in a clearing, flanking a fire – the only source of light for the small camp – tended by Vito. Thom lay in the bed of the truck, already asleep and snoring loudly with his manectric lying beside him. Veronica sat on the hood of the truck with one of her hands holding her gun between her spread knees. Her other hand rested on the head of her growlithe, who slept next to her. Lanette stood not far away, her crowbar in her hands. The only sound besides the crackling fire came from the hushed discussion Steven and Wallace were having. They stood over a map spread out on the back of Steven's metagross, heads bent and fingers occasionally pointing to dots spotting the paper's surface. Lanette kept one ear on this conversation as she stood watch, waiting for either news from them or the first sign of a threat to the camp.

First question: was there another timeskip? It feels like there might have been.

Lots of description here, but you did well avoiding the possible danger of repetition, so it didn't feel grueling to get through at all. Good use of Steven's Metagross, too.

Inside the van, Hope leaned against Ellen's side, her eyes closed and her chest heaving softly in a deep sleep. Ellen, meanwhile, remained wide awake. Leaning her chin on her palm, she stared out into forest. She hadn't had a single second of sleep that night, and she had the feeling she wouldn't, if only because her mind kept thinking about the dark expanse all around her. With her other hand, she reached up to smooth the hair of her charge as she wondered what might have gone through the girl's head. Was she happy? Was she having a good dream? Ellen worried about these things. At least those thoughts were a welcome change from all the mental images that had occupied her mind all day, like the claws and teeth of the ixodida and how many there might have been around them at any given time. Steven and Wallace's presence were only slight comforts to her.

Simply adorable. A beacon of hope (heh) in the middle of hell like this shouldn't be this cute.

Just then, Hope opened her eyes. At first, she remained quiet, as if she was hesitant to disturb her companion's peace, but then, her lips parted to utter a single phrase.

"Uwasa o sureba kage."

I'll stop you here for a minute.

I would totally read a spinoff about Hope before the disaster.

Anyway, ordinarily usage of Japanese in an English story would put me off, but you set it up properly, so I like it here. I think I've said that before, actually.

Ellen looked curiously at her companion, drawing her eyes away from the brush. At that same moment, a shadow appeared between the trees, and the snapping of a twig shattered the quiet outside.

Oh ****. Peace couldn't last, could it?

Veronica was the first to react. She drew her legs under her until she crouched on the hood of the truck. Her arms swung up and pointed the gun steadily at the trees as she cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. Taking notice of the officer's stance, Lanette crept towards the source of the sound and raised her crowbar. The conversation between Steven and Wallace deadened with both champions gazing in the girls' direction.

This is gonna be serious, isn't it? Sure feels that way...

"It's me! Don't attack!" a voice announced from the forest.

Veronica gripped her weapon tightly as her finger rested on the trigger. "Damn it, Bill! Get the hell out here so we can see you!"

Awwww **** Bill. When are you going to learn to not act suspiciously around people who don't trust you?

Or is Adam beginning to rub off on him more?

Not so much stepping out into the light as rushing, Bill stumbled into the clearing, clutching onto a pink and blue burden as tightly as he could. He came to a halt several feet from the others and panted, lifting his head to gauge the reactions he would get. Just as he predicted, the first one he received was Veronica narrowing her eyes and shifting the gun to the burden, but luckily for it, the second reaction was Lanette lowering her crowbar and running forward. Bill leaned back, holding his companion protectively.

I don't really care for the use of "burden" here. It feels a little awkward, and it made me have to read it a couple of times to absorb it properly.

"Wait! Lanette! Don't—"

"What happened here?" she demanded.

Bill glanced briefly at the crowbar resting at her side. Taking it as a sign that she wasn't about to strike, he relaxed slightly, although he gazed at her in confusion. Cautiously, he let her see Tate, unconscious and lying limp in his arms.

I think here the description could have been a bit better. I get that you were trying to make Tate be a surprise, but the awkward wording of the previous bit makes it a bit hard to understand just what it was he's carrying without being explicitly told. It would be better if the reader could reasonably guess who it was before; maybe saying something about Tate's clothing could help.

"We-we got into a fight," he explained. "He attacked me from out of nowhere, and there was a kecleon—"

Lanette carefully pulled at the boy's shoulder to examine his face. She gripped his arm and felt the muscles beneath his pink skin before moving her hand to his chest.

"He's been paralyzed," she concluded.

"Lick," Bill replied. "He took a Lick to his face, and before then, I used Mirror Shot on him."

Lanette gave him a cold look before shifting her gaze over her shoulder.

"Steven! Wallace!"

Always so calculating. Not entirely sure Steven and Wallace are gonna take this well though...

At once, the two champions moved to her side and glanced at the boy in the ixodida's arms.

"It's Tate all right," Steven said.

Wallace nodded and took the boy from Bill's arms.

"I can't tell how serious it is," he said. "Lanette, how much field training does your Nurse Joy have?"

Veronica intercepted the question before Lanette could answer. "Not much. She's a city nurse, but she can learn on the fly."

Interesting. I hadn't really thought of the idea that Nurse Joys don't all have the same training, but again, since you're talking about the field, it's something I wouldn't have even come near.

"He won't require much," Lanette added. "His paralysis can easily be cured with one dose of paralyz heal, and he sustained minimal damage from two attacks. Nurse Joy should be familiar with those types of injuries. Please go get her, Officer Jenny."

The officer nodded and slid off the hood of the truck. As she jogged to the van, Lanette turned to Vito.

"Vito, stand watch. Steven, Wallace, I'd like one of you to assist Nurse Joy. The other may carry on with what you were doing."

"And you?" Steven said.

"I have private matters to attend to," she said as she began walking across the camp.

I wonder what those would be. Suspicious...

Steven followed her for a few steps, leaving Wallace behind with Tate in his arms. "Lanette, would you like someone to keep you company?"

She turned to him and flashed him a look. Bill froze, noticing right away that it was softer than usual, that her voice was a little more gentle than the one she used with him.

"Thank you, but no," she answered. "Concern yourself with protecting the camp and tending to Tate, please. Those two tasks are far more important than what I have to do."

UH OH. Steven moving in on Bill's turf? Adam isn't gonna stand for this!

With that, she walked away, passing by the trees framing the clearing. Bill shook off the shock of what he had just seen and started after her, passing by Ellen and Steven along the way. While Ellen only gave him a brief but concerned glance on her way to Tate, Steven reached out to grab his arm.

"Wait, where are you going?" he asked.

"After her," Bill replied. "Who knows what's out there?"

"And you think you can battle against what's out there?"

"Well, I can certainly try."

At that answer, Steven relaxed and released the ixodida's wrist. "Be careful out there."

Not entirely sure Steven would complain if he couldn't battle out there.... (kidding)

"Of course," Bill quipped as he turned and walked into the woods.

For a long while, Steven stood, watching the ixodida until he could no longer see so much as the arrowhead tip of his tail between the trees. Then, the champion crossed his arms and raised his ice-blue eyes to the sky.

"Something's different about him already. That's for sure," he muttered.

Some distance behind him, between his back and the small crowd huddled over Tate, was Hope, standing wide-eyed and still by the fire.

---

I'm not sure what to think here. Something's different, but what is it? Why is Hope so stunned?

By the time she stopped, Lanette could no longer hear or see the Caravan. The woods were cold and dark and lonely. At that hour, the moon had set long ago, and her only means to see were the smattering of stars overhead. It didn't matter to her. She knew that the ixodida cores and parasites glowed red, so darkness was safety. As such, she kept to only the darkest parts of the woods, her hand gripping her crowbar as she searched for something. Something familiar.

She hadn't found it when she stopped. In fact, by her calculations, she was only halfway to her destination – if she was right about its location. The only reason why she stopped, really, was because for the past ten minutes, she heard a faint rustling behind her. She knew who it was already; she didn't expect anything less from him.

I'm not surprised he'd do it either. Not surprised at all. I do wonder what she's looking for, though.

He stopped somewhere behind her. How far, she couldn't tell, but she could no longer hear the sound he produced as he pushed through the brush. She waited for a few moments, wondering if he would come out to meet her. When he didn't, she sighed and reached into one of the pouches on her belt. Drawing a sphere from inside it, she tossed the ball in the air and let it crack open with a brilliant, white light.

"Solrock! Psychic!" she called.

The sun-shaped stone appeared in an instant with its eyes already blazing bright blue in the direction of her pursuer. Lanette caught her poké ball and stepped aside, just in time for Bill to miss her while Solrock telekinetically threw him into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

She has an odd way of interacting with her friends.

"Ow," he moaned as he stood and held his arm. "Isn't that a little excessive?"

Are you complaining, Bill?

She scowled at him. "What's a little excessive is you following me. I don't need protection, Bill."

No, he does when with you. /runs

He forced a laugh. "Really, Lanette, I may be stubborn and old-fashioned, but I don't need another crowbar to the head to figure out you're strong enough to take care of yourself. No, I'm not out here because I think you'd need an escort."

"Then why are you out here?" she snapped.

Straightening to his full height, Bill's expression turned from an awkward smile to an intensely serious look. "I want to ask you a question."

Don't kneel down, Bill. Don't ****ing do it now you son of a *****.

"Couldn't it wait until I returned?"

"No." He stepped a little closer – cautiously so as not to alarm her but just enough to make it clear he wasn't about to leave. "I wanted to ask it privately."

She hesitated slightly. Bill thought, in that brief silence, that she would simply blow him off and attempt to escape him again, but to his surprise, she looked away.

"Fine. Ask."

Surprised by how easily he had won that battle, Bill found himself stumbling over his own words. Suddenly, the perfect question that had been burning in his mind for the past several minutes became a muddled, vague mess encapsulated in two words:

"Why me?"

Wait, what? I mean, she surprised me that she's actually listening to him, but what?

Lanette looked at him again, this time with an arched eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Gaining a little more confidence, Bill took a deep breath and said, "I don't understand it. You didn't try to kill Tate. I thought you hated all ixodida."

"I didn't try to kill Tate because he was vouched for by Steven and Wallace."

Oh ****. This is going in a completely different direction than I expected. Granted, with the Madoka quote up top, I should have expected my heart to be stomped into a million pieces.

"Even so, the people of Mauville know you can trust me, and—"

"All except Officer Jenny."

"Nonetheless, Nurse Joy and Thom are comfortable with me!" Bill sighed. "Lanette, I understand your feelings towards Adam. I can't blame you at all if you can't trust him, but I want to know why you treat me like a monster."

"Because you are!" she snapped.

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no make it stop make it stop. Please, Lanette, open up to him already...

Bill groaned in exasperation. "What can I do to convince you that I'm not?"

"Nothing."

"I won't accept that as an answer!"

She glared at him. "Well, that's unfortunate, Bill, because nothing you've ever done has convinced me that you're still human and that that thing inside you is at all under control! Considering both, I'm inclined to believe that you're a monster and that you will never be anything but a monster."

Why, Lanette...

The silence lingered over their heads for minutes. In the first few seconds, all Bill could feel was utter shock. His limbs hung limply at his side, his tail rested by his feet, and in both, he could feel a dull, cold ache, the only thing that tied him to reality. In the next few seconds, the ache traveled to his chest. His heart felt like it was about to burst, and he could do nothing more than cringe and place a hand over it.

And to think I feel the same way right now...

"Lanette, I—"

"Don't say anything more about the subject. There's nothing else to say."

"Then I'll ask you another question," he said, keeping his eyes away from her. He wanted something – anything – to serve as a hint of the Lanette he knew almost a year ago, and as such, he scrambled desperately back towards civil conversation. "Why… why are you out here?"

"Do you really want to know?" she asked, her voice dangerously low.

He nodded and breathed. "Yes. Yes, I'd like to know."

"Very well." She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. "Solrock. Show him."

The stone's eyes flashed bright red, and a wave of faint, red light pulsed from its body and swept outward. Bill flinched, instinctively shielding his eyes with an arm as the wave washed over him and passed into the forest. Once it passed, he lowered his arm and opened his eyes slowly to gaze at Lanette's pokémon again.

It was sunny. Literally sunny. He blinked in confusion as he gazed through the tree branches above him at the blue sky. Stepping forward, he craned his neck and felt the warmth of the sunlight on his face.

That was when he noticed something else amiss about the situation. He knew that his tail would have moved at the pleasure he got from the weather, but he realized right then that he couldn't feel that part of him – not the air around it, not the earth beneath it, not the feet of muscles within it. Quickly, he shot a glance over his shoulder to see absolutely nothing behind him. A look of confusion flashed across his face as he bit the finger of one of his gloves and yanked it off. His fangs were gone, and even more than that, when he removed his hand from the glove, it looked completely and mundanely human. He opened his mouth, letting the glove drop into his other hand as he stared in wonder at it.

"What's going on?" he murmured.

"Trick Room," Lanette replied impatiently. "You know what it does, don't you?"

Creative use of Trick Room, but now I'm confused about what IS going on. What is she after?

Bill gave her an uncertain glance. Of course he knew what it was. Trick Room, a technique in which a pokémon distorted space to create a pocket dimension where the laws of science didn't always apply. It was one of the many moves that baffled researchers since its discovery, and Bill himself had never seen it used in person, never mind standing inside the resulting reality warp. He had no idea what to expect.

"Yes, but—"

"So long as you're inside Trick Room, Solrock will make you see what you want to see," Lanette explained. "For example, you wish to see yourself as human, so you're human. More importantly…"

She moved her eyes to the side without turning her head. Bill followed her gaze and noticed that in the distance, he could hear the sound of a truck passing by.

"…You wish to know what I'm doing here. I'll show you my memories. Take as much time as you'd like. I don't care. Just know that besides me, anyone you meet can't hear or see you," Lanette finished.

The fact she's willing to do this is unexpected. Again, though, creative use of Trick Room.

Then, before Bill could ask her anything else, she vanished and left him and Solrock in a clearing. He took a step forward, as if he intended on chasing her, but above him Solrock's eyes flashed red. The world dissolved around him, and in that brief second, he felt as if someone had yanked the ground out from under him. Pitching backwards, he yelped and clawed perfect darkness for something to grab onto, only to fall through thin air.

Luckily, the fall was short, and before long, he slammed into something metal a few feet below him. Groaning, he sat up and placed a hand on the ground as the world rapidly reappeared around him. He looked up at the blue skies and the green tree branches passing quickly above him; it took him a moment before he realized he was the one who was moving. Glancing around him, he let his eyes sweep over the cabin of the truck – whose roof he was sitting on – to the truck's bed. There, among boxes of research equipment, he saw two young women. One was instantly recognizable: Lanette, as she was when he knew her almost a year ago. The second looked nearly exactly like her, with the same shape of a face, the same lean body, the same bright red eyes and orange hair. In truth, the only differences between Lanette and this young woman were that the latter wore her hair short and choppy and that her clothing – the white sweater and black miniskirt – clung to her body a little more than anything her sister would dare to wear.

Craning her neck, Brigette smiled and gazed up at the sky above them. Then, twisting around in her seat, she gave her younger sibling an amused look and watched the girl work on a laptop.

"You'll run out of battery before we're halfway there!" Brigette exclaimed. "Don't you think you should give it a rest for a bit?"

Without looking up, Lanette replied, "In a minute. I just need to finish this letter."

"Oh? Who are you sending it to? Bill again?"

Ohhhhhhh boy. This one is gonna be interesting...

Lanette bowed her head. "Hold on. I'm going to lose my train of thought."

"I knew it!"

Brigette scrambled across the truck bed as her smile turned from amused to mischievous. Knowing full well that neither of them could see him, Bill leaned forward in an attempt to glance over Lanette's shoulder and see her screen. Unfortunately, the girl's body obscured most of it, and his view didn't improve when Brigette wrapped her arms around her sister and restrained her. Although Lanette shrieked and struggled in her sibling's grasp, she couldn't stop Brigette from reading what was on the screen.

"'Dear Bill'—oh, really, Lanette? You'll give him ideas, you know. 'I'd like to congratulate you on your position at Polaris Institute, but I regret to inform you that Brigette and I were blessed with an even better opportunity.' Good gods! You sound like you're writing a rejection letter! Come on, now! Is that any way to treat your crush?"

Okay, that got a spit-take and a good laugh. Good job.

At that point, Bill nearly fell off the truck. Instead, he slipped into the bed, slamming face-first into the metal next to Lanette. Scrambling to his knees, he covered his mouth and nose with a hand and watched the sisters with wide eyes and a red face.

The shade of Lanette's face matched his as she finally broke out of Brigette's grip and shoved her away.

"Don't be ridiculous!" she yelled. "I do not have a crush on Bill! He's just a close friend, and that's all, Brigette! Close friends can tease each other now and then, you know!"

The other woman sat back and lowered her eyelids halfway. "Oh? Does he see it the same way?"

Without thinking, Bill responded, "Are you serious?! Of course I see it the same way!"

Lanette went back to typing fervently. "I don't have a clue. Goodness knows what goes through that boy's head sometimes, and so long as he keeps things like that to himself, I honestly don't care what he thinks."

I like this Lanette. Can we at least know why this Lanette isn't around anymore?

"I don't have a crush on you! I swear!" Bill snapped, his face brightening even more.

"Anyway, why does it matter to you? Bill and I have known each other for almost seven years, after all. If he and I wanted to take our relationship any further than friendship, we would have, but we won't because I can't even begin to list how many things are wrong with that."

Brigette sighed and wrapped her arms around her sister again, this time gently.

"You're way too serious sometimes, Lanette," she said. "I worry about you, you know."

Lanette smirked. "Why should you worry? If anything, you should be more concerned if I ever do decide to start dating."

The older sister frowned and buried half her face in Lanette's hair. "Stress isn't good for your health, you know. You should enjoy yourself more often."

If only Brigette was still around now...

It didn't register in Bill's mind at first that the scene had shifted. It simply felt as if a dark curtain fell over his eyes, and the sensation of being moved ended. However, the more he stared into the blackness, the more it began to take form, and he slowly started to notice that he wasn't in a void. Rather, it was night, and he was standing in the middle of the woods.

A flash of light drew his attention to the side. He watched for a few seconds as two glowing spots drew closer and closer. It took a few more seconds for Bill to realize that he was looking at headlights. Tumbling into the underbrush by the side of the road, he narrowly managed to avoid the truck carrying Lanette and Brigette. In the ensuing hesitation, he turned to watch the taillights shrink into the distance as his heart pounded from the scare. After a moment, he shook off the surprise and sprinted after the truck.

He didn't have far to go. It took a while of tree-dodging and tripping and scrambling in the darkness before he pushed through to a place where the trees were spaced out further than anywhere else in the woods. Moonlight filtered through the canopy onto the forest floor, which was covered with a carpet of splintered wood and broken appliances. Slowing his pace to a walk, Bill made his way down the road that cut between piles of debris, and with each step his eyes scanned both sides of it in wonder. A television set with a shattered screen. A decapitated doll. Scraps of a rug resting on a mountain of broken floorboards. All of them, signs of human life long forgotten. Bill knew at once where he was.

"Fortree City," he whispered.

Oh this is gonna be grim. The seatbelt's going on now.

Stopping, he found himself face-to-face with a plush eevee impaled by wood. It looked used, with frays on its edges that Bill could tell were there for years before it fell. Reaching for it, he realized that he recognized it. He had the hazy image of it sitting on a desk. Not just any desk, either. His desk. It was a gift: a birthday gift. The first one she had ever given him. What was it doing there, among all the details of Lanette's memories? His fingers rose, slowly reaching for it as his vision hazed. He could almost hear her shy, twelve-year-old voice, the shape of her words when she pushed the gift into his hands. The way her face looked when he thanked her.

His heart pounded again, but he couldn't think of a reason why.

Suddenly, he heard a scream not far away, followed by a crash and the roar of an ixodida. Tearing his hand away from the doll, he snapped his attention in the direction of the cacophony, further into the remains of the city.

"Lanette! Brigette!" he cried.

It's about to get horrible, isn't it?

And just like that, he was running again. He didn't think twice about it. It didn't even occur to him that there was no way he could do a thing to save either of the sisters, and it certainly didn't occur to him that, logically, he had no reason to rush to Lanette's aid anyway if she still existed in the present. His body just moved on instinct, carried him closer to danger when he would have normally run in the opposite direction. All he could think about at that moment was the second cry. An ixodida. An ixodida was attacking, and as he considered that, Bill could think of a thousand different possibilities as to what he would be confronting in a matter of seconds.

The mountains of debris gave way to a space only marginally less cluttered than its surroundings. Research equipment, crates, and supplies lay smashed all over the floor of the clearing. Tents still stood or half-stood with rips in their canvas walls and poles bent or broken. Several vehicles stood like ghosts with broken windows and dust gathering on their otherwise intact surfaces, but the one that was transporting the sisters had its front end smashed into the back of a second truck.

Bill could just barely pay attention to the wreckage, however. There was too much blood and too many bodies for him to notice. Piles of them lay strewn on the mountains of debris, in some of the vehicles, half inside tents; anywhere a body could lie, there was one.

There was half of one, in fact, in the right hand of the creature standing in the middle of the clearing. He – or Bill supposed it was a he, considering the way its body was shaped – stood hunched over with his green-skinned arms held away from his bulky torso. Vines adorned his head and moved like snakes down his back as each of the red blossoms that dotted them emitted small puffs of yellow pollen. His tail ended in a club, not an arrowhead, and as it thumped rhythmically against the ground, a golden cloud began to form above it from the pollen emitted by his flowering skin. However, what interested Bill the most wasn't that he existed but instead what he was wearing. Blood-spattered lab coat. Ripped dark t-shirt. Shredded khaki shorts. Once he could picture the man with human skin and human hair, Bill recognized him immediately.

Professor Birch.

OH ****. And to think I know what ELSE is about to go wrong...

The ixodida threw back his head and howled before tossing the head in the direction of the crashed truck. Following it with his eyes, Bill watched as Brigette suddenly leapt from the shadows of the vehicle while clutching a crowbar. Swinging the weapon, she smacked the head like a baseball, sending it flying back towards her attacker until it landed with a wet thump between them. Meanwhile, Lanette sat up in the bed of the truck, holding a small, blue bird tightly to her chest.

"Lanette, stay there!" Brigette yelled. "Swablu!"

The bird wrenched itself away from Lanette and hopped onto the edge of the truck. Her master swung an arm in the direction of the ixodida.

"Aerial Ace!" she yelled.

Her pokémon took flight and dove at Professor Birch as quickly as she could. The ixodida reared back, his hair whipping to his front. Several of the vines framing his face sliced through the air in an attempt to strike Swablu, but the bird dodged, swooping deftly around each tendril until she smashed beak-first into her opponent's chest. Birch reeled as Swablu's cloud-like wings fluttered and carried her out of his reach. However, she wasn't nearly safe then. Swinging an arm towards Swablu, Birch opened his hand and released a barrage of glowing, green leaves from his fingers. Swablu chirped loudly and swooped again in an attempt to dodge, but the leaves followed her, slicing her skin and wings until droplets of blood and fragments of feathers rained onto the ground. The rest of her body endured the brunt of the attack, sailing several feet through the air before crashing into the earth.

"Swablu, no!" she cried. Without thinking, she took a few steps forward. "Come on! Please! Get up! You're our only hope!"

This is not going to end well for anyone involved.

Swinging his head in her direction, Birch growled and lashed several of his vines towards Brigette again. Swablu, with some effort, pushed herself off the ground, her wings frantically flapping to launch herself into the air. Although her flight path was awkward and nearly looped back into itself twice, she still managed to push herself between her master and her enemy just in time for the vines to grab her instead of Brigette. The ixodida lifted her high into the air as her body and the vines began to glow with a brilliant, green light. Swablu screamed and writhed in Birch's crushing grip, but with each passing second, her movements became more and more sluggish as the green light pulsed from her skin back down to her attacker's head.

"Please! You've got to break out!" Brigette begged.

Hearing her command, Swablu twisted and shrieked, but no matter what she did, she couldn't escape. Brigette ran forward, her arms raised with the crowbar poised to strike, but without even turning towards her, Birch simply lashed several of his tendrils out at her to smack her away. She landed on her side with the crowbar slipping from her hands and thumping just out of her reach.

Watching this, Swablu struggled desperately, but the more she did, the more her eyes wanted to close. When her movements slowed to a stop, Birch slammed her back into the ground. Towering over her, he transferred the green glow to his right hand. He lifted his arm, balled his hand into a tight fist, and slammed it into the bird's body. Over and over again, he did this, literally pounding Swablu into the ground.

Picking her head up, Brigette could only watch, but she could feel tears come to her eyes with each successful Needle Arm on Birch's part.

"Swablu!" she screamed.

"Solrock, Fire Spin!" Lanette called.

A swirling tunnel of flame rushed over her and engulfed the ixodida. Lanette gripped the edge of the truck, watching the inferno twist from the ground up to the sky as her solrock remained suspended in the air beside her. In the center, the grass-type screamed. His silhouette twisted and struggled, but the hot air kept him inside, save for the occasional slip of a black claw reaching out of the fire. Swablu dragged herself away from the attack, her body battered and bruised.

Until, of course, a white light engulfed her.

Well, I expected this, given the future.

Brigette sat up at that point and stared. Her bird – her partner – grew rapidly. A graceful neck arced out of a plumper body. A pair of long, cloud-like wings fanned out of her form on both sides. Her claws grew longer, and her beak sharpened to a point. When the light faded, Altaria's blue feathers shimmered, like her skin was made of jewels.

In front of her, the fire died down just enough for her to see the charred face of Professor Birch. Altaria didn't need orders at that point. She simply stretched her graceful neck, inhaled deeply, and released a beam of green light from her beak. The strike was point-blank. It catapulted Birch straight out of what was left of the tower and drove him into the ground several feet away, where he lay unmoving in a heap.

The sisters and their pokémon waited for a good minute for something – anything – to happen. When nothing did, Brigette picked herself up and walked to Birch's side. Using her crowbar, she turned him over on his back and studied his twisted face with its blackened skin, broken jaw, and muscles frozen in a scream.

"I think he's dead," she said softly.

Now that's not what I expected. Didn't even think they'd manage to get this far.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw just the slightest movement across one of Birch's legs. Backing up a step, she raised her crowbar and trained her eyes on the edge of his shorts. A small creature poked out from beneath the hem. Its smooth, round body pulsed red with an internal light as its tiny, claw-like legs pulled itself out from beneath Birch's shorts. Tendrils trailed along beneath it until it cut them using two of its legs while it rested on its host's knee.

"Brigette? What is it?" Lanette asked.

She tightened her grip on the crowbar. "I… I don't know."

Behind her, Bill crept closer. His eyes were wide and fixed on the creature. His chest burned with the memory of the kind of pain he knew would come next.

"Get out of there," he rasped. "Please, Brigette, run!"

OH GOD NO IT'S WORSE THAN I THOUGHT

Then, the parasite leapt at her and latched onto her calf.

The last thing he heard of her before the world dissolved around him was her scream.

---

For hours after that, Bill was in Hell. The next scenes Trick Room forced him to watch were brief, but time no longer registered to him. In one scene, he watched as Lanette led Brigette to one of the tents, made her sister comfortable, and immediately rushed throughout the broken camp in a frantic effort to find medical supplies. All of her pokémon – Spinda, Solrock, Altaria – dug through piles of debris and broken crates. Lanette's hands began to bleed from the scratches and cuts sharp edges of metal and wood inflicted on her, and Spinda and Altaria, both of whom were forced to dig as opposed to lift objects telekinetically like Solrock, fared no better. By the time the sky began to gray with the first light of dawn, the four of them only managed to find broken and soiled medical supplies, scraps of cloth, and hundreds of other unusable objects. In fact, the only two useful objects they came across were the discarded crowbar Brigette had found and a knife that lay forgotten in the remnants of a kitchen.

That didn't seem to stop Lanette, however. The scene dissolved into another one, one where Bill stood by the piles of scraps on which Brigette lay. He cringed as he heard her whimpering while Lanette leaned over her leg. Vein-like ridges radiated from the core, forming spider webs up Brigette's calf and over her knee. As Lanette rested a hand on her sister's ankle, the web shifted beneath Brigette's skin, as if to anticipate what was about to happen. Lanette raised her hand, lifting in it the knife that she had pulled from the rubble. Carefully, she brought it to Brigette's skin, intending on slicing around the ixodida core.

The resulting scream caused Bill to flinch. When he opened his eyes, Brigette was pinning Lanette to the ground as a club-tipped tail whipped above her. On her hands, claws burst through her fingertips and grasped Lanette's shoulders. Brigette sobbed, her body shaking as tears trickled across her skin and dropped onto her sister's cheeks.

"Lanette," she begged, "help me."

NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO THIS IS WORSE THAN ANYTHING I EVER EXPECTED WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS

/Mami getting chewed.gif

If only that was the last time Bill heard that plea.

The next few moments came as quickly as flashes. Lanette pinning down Brigette's flailing, clawing arms. Brigette thrashing and ripping open her own skin. The human tying the ixodida's limbs to a square, makeshift frame made of metal bars she had gathered from the other tents. The ixodida biting whatever she could grasp. All the while, between screams and growls, Bill could hear Brigette's voice.

"Help me. Lanette, please help me!"

I can't take this anymore. This is ****ing agonizing...

[The Great Butler]

Some moments, he found himself standing next to Lanette outside the tent. In those moments of peace, Lanette stood, hugging herself and listening to her sibling's screams. Bill wanted to do something for her, to say something, to touch her and comfort her. But whenever he spoke, she didn't notice, and whenever he reached for her, his hand went right through her. For as long as he could remember, he couldn't recall any time that he felt more useless.

Bill hated it. He hated standing by and watching her suffer. He wanted to go back, to force Solrock to lead him out of Trick Room, to apologize to Lanette for the gods knew what but for something.

He wanted to stop noticing that Lanette was crying. That she cringed whenever her sister screamed. That she wasn't sleeping.

Eventually, though, something changed. For the first time, after flickering scenes of Brigette screaming and vomiting and crying, there was silence. In this scene, Bill stood in the corner of the tent, his arms wrapped around himself as he took shivering breaths and watched Lanette kneel beside her sister. By then, Brigette no longer looked human. Her green skin glistened with sweat and the golden pollen from the red blossoms dotting her limbs. Her vine-like hair twitched and slithered around her head like a living halo. Her clawed hands hung limply from the makeshift bed frame while her tail wound around her three-toed feet. When she parted her lips slightly, she simply breathed, the air whistling between her fangs. Then, she opened her red eyes halfway and stared at her sister listlessly.

Lanette grasped one of Brigette's hands tightly. To her surprise, Brigette squeezed back and forced herself to smile.

"You're way too serious sometimes, Lanette," she murmured.

In response, Lanette untied Brigette's hand, brought it to her cheek, and held it there. She pressed her lips together and swallowed, choking back a sob. In the meantime, the elder shut her eyes tightly and suffered through a shudder.

"There's something I need you to do for me, and you have to do it. Okay?" Brigette said.

This is gonna go where I think, isn't it. She's gonna ask her to end this, isn't she?

The other woman didn't say a word. She only kept her eyes on her sister as she cried into her fingers.

"Listen to me," Brigette urged. "I need for you to do what I tell you."

Slowly, Lanette nodded. At the gesture, Brigette relaxed just a little.

"Go find your knife and stab the parasite. Hurry."

I knew it.

With another nod, Lanette scrambled across the tent on her hands and knees, groping for the handle of the knife. In the corner of the tent, Bill's eyes trailed from her to her sister. Quietly, Brigette used her free hand to shred the bind that tied her other wrist to the bed frame, and then, she sat up. At once, Bill froze, his gaze flicking back and forth between both figures in front of him.

"Lanette, don't turn your back on her!" he cried.

Just like all the other times he had tried to contact her, she couldn't hear him. Because of that, she had nothing to prepare her for the vines that whipped at her and grabbed her by the waist, wrists, and neck. Her hand clenched around the handle of the knife as her body was yanked into the air and turned around forcibly to face Brigette. The ixodida's expression was blank, her red eyes practically dead and glossy as they stared up at her.

Then, abruptly, Brigette shuddered and released Lanette, letting her drop to the floor of the tent with a thud. Frantically, she grasped her head and burst into a fit of sobs.

"Oh gods! Oh gods, I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "Lanette, please! Hurry! Stab this thing! You've got to do it!"

Lanette's hands scrambled to grab her knife again, but the rest of her body pushed itself back against the opposite wall. Her face blanched, mouth hanging open in shock. Brigette threw her head back and screamed once again, her claws curling in the air.

"Please!" she screamed. "I can't! I can't hold it back anymore! Lanette…" She tilted her head forward and cried into her knees. "…Lanette, listen to me. There's something inside me. I can hear its thoughts. It wants… it wants…"

Gripping the handle of the knife a little more, Lanette shakily stood, her feet inching closer to her sister. When she stood in the middle of the room, Brigette looked up at her and smiled one last time.

"Lanette. I love you."

NO!!

With that, her face quickly blanked, and her body snapped the rope used to tie her feet to the makeshift frame. Lanette scrambled for the tent's entrance, narrowly missing her sibling's claws as Brigette lunged for her. The ixodida slammed onto all fours and chased after Lanette, right out of the tent. Bill hesitated for more than a minute, listening in shock to Lanette's screaming as it grew more and more distant. But then, when he started hearing gunshots, he shook himself back to reality and ran after the siblings.

Outside, the night was dark, with the best light being provided by the waning moon. For this reason, Bill could only see silhouettes, but luckily, Brigette didn't make it difficult for him to find her – and not because the parasite on her leg served as a beacon, either. On top of one of the debris hills, she stood, several feet away from the shadows of a muscular, bald man and a wingull hovering next to him. Lanette stood at the base of the hill, her hands clasped as she watched her sister whip her vine-like hair at the newcomer.

The man dodged deftly, swinging a bowie knife in front of him to slice Brigette's hair. She screeched, reeling back as she held her head. Taking the opportunity, the wingull swooped at her, its wings glowing with a brilliant, white light before slicing across her chest. Just as soon as the gull struck, it flapped its wings rapidly to gain altitude, allowing the man to start forward with his knife pointed directly at the ixodida's stomach.

"No! Don't hurt her!" Lanette screamed.

At the sound of her voice, the man hesitated for a brief second – one that Brigette took full advantage of by lashing out with her claws. Her entire arm was engulfed in a brilliant, green light, making it appear to be one long blade as it sliced across the man's throat. The glow illuminated the human's skin briefly, and the light glittered off the spray of blood that burst from the wound. As the newcomer fell to his knees, the ixodida turned to Lanette and gave her another blank glare.

"Brigette, please!" she begged. "Please! You're not a killer! You can fight this! We'll… we'll get you help! Real help! I promise! Just… please!" She bowed her head, her voice lowering in volume as she sobbed. "…Please stop."

The ixodida growled and rose to her full height. Her fingers tensed together, and once again, her arm began to glow bright green. Grinding her toes into the mountain of debris, she crouched and readied herself for a leap.

But before she could, the wingull decided to make its presence known again. For a second time, the bird dove at the ixodida, striking her across the face with a glowing wing. She turned to it with a snarl and swung her glowing arm at it, but suddenly, something hit her with a whack. All at once, her body froze, and her hand fell limp at her side as she arched her back. Behind her, the old man ground his knife into her spine, twisting as he placed a hand on her stomach to push her into the blade. He pressed his forehead against her back, his body wracking with spasms from loss of blood.

Then, the both of them fell to the other side of the mountain, out of sight of both Lanette and Bill.

One last gunshot rang out, followed by a chorus of shouts.

"No!" Lanette shrieked.

She launched herself up the mountain, scrambling as quickly as her arms and legs could carry her before coming to a stop at the top of the mountain. Without a word, Bill followed her, clamoring to the peak until he stood beside her, gazing down at the scene on the other side.

The man lay spread eagle with his head cocked at an unnatural angle. Across his neck, the slash looked like a second smile. His wingull sat on his chest, nuzzling him desperately. Beside him, Brigette lay on her side with her back to the man and the knife still jutting from her spine. The parasite had been shot, leaving a gaping hole in Brigette's leg where it used to be. All around the two, several people were bent down, examining them and chattering between themselves. Only one of them stood still and quiet: a young man with a shotgun. He merely stood over Brigette's head, gazing down at her with an apathetic expression. Then, he moved the barrel of his gun against her temple and pulled the trigger.

Oh God... at least it's finally over...

Lanette wailed. This one was louder and longer than anything else Bill had heard since entering Trick Room, and this one tore at his heart. He could only watch his partner drop to her knees and sob as the other humans made their way up the side of the mountain to surround her and gently embrace her.

---

Bill could hardly focus on the next few scenes. He watched the small band of newcomers take Lanette back to their camp – the Caravan of several months ago – by the river, but all he could do was follow mindlessly. None of the things he saw or heard sank into his mind as the people of the Caravan placed her in a bed and gave her food and water. All he could think about was Brigette's death.

This lasted until Lanette finally woke up. Brigette had been right about her sister; Lanette always took things a little too seriously. Yet, the expression she had on her face when she opened her eyes was a different kind of seriousness. Her eyes were wide. Her mouth was a thin line. Her skin was pale. With trembling hands, she gripped the bed sheets and threw them off her body. One of her hands grabbed her glasses, and as she put them on, she stood and started walking, walking out of the medical tent they had set up for her, walking through the camp, walking forward. Some of the people of the Caravan shouted at her, but she paid no attention to anyone. All she did was continue forward aimlessly.

As Bill followed her, he could hear her voice, but he wasn't certain it was coming from the figure directly in front of him.

"No matter what it takes," she said, "no matter what the risks. I will kill all of them. Even if I have to burn Hoenn to the ground, I will kill every single one of those parasites with my bare hands."

With each step that she walked forward, she and the scene around her shifted. The camp faded away before breaking into flashes of battlefields, of burned ixodida, dismembered humans, and half-eaten pokémon. Her clothing transformed piece by piece from the light green sundress she had been wearing to the battle attire Bill was used to seeing. Flicking her hair over a shoulder, she walked into a black-and-white scene, a still image of Mauville City with a copy of herself kneeling on top of a steel-type ixodida.

"Except…"

Color crept into the scene, bleeding over every surface to transform it from a photograph into something real. The first movement either of the spectators saw was a smile crossing the ixodida's face.

"Hello, Lanette," he said.

As the scene played out, the other Lanette – the one who stood beside the human Bill at that point – looked down at it with an unwaveringly cold expression.

"Do you want to know what I was thinking during that?" she asked.

The ixodida's tail wormed its way from beneath the other Bill and wrapped around his attacker's waist. She was shoved against him, just enough to let him lift his head and whisper into her ear a single word: a password to one of the security layers guarding the storage system. The name of the plush eevee she had given him so many years ago. A fragment of Lanette's full name.

"Melinda."

She straightened in her seat, but as she did so, several other images flashed in front of Bill's eyes. Images of Brigette. Her smile. Her words. Her embrace. Her dead body. Bill choked back a cry as he held his head.

"No," Lanette whispered.

"Not you. Anyone but you. Why did it have to be you?" the other one said.

The scene faded to black and white again at that point, but it continued playing in the background. In the meantime, the present Lanette rounded on her companion, her face contorted in seething hatred.

"Why did it have to be you?!" she demanded. "Do you get it now, Bill?! I can't do it again! I can't watch someone I remotely care about be killed! And the more you demand to be my best friend, the more I can only see you—"

Damn it, Jax. Why did it have to come out like this?

She stopped short and turned her head. Bill straightened where he stood. He could see her lips quivering, the look on her face breaking from cold to human. Suddenly, something inside him moved, like his mind was settling rapidly on a single thought.

"They buried them both somewhere out here. That's what I'm doing tonight. I'm trying to find where they buried them so I could…" She shuddered. Her voice lowered and strained against her throat. "Mr. Briney died to protect me because I couldn't kill her when she asked me to. He killed her for me. I couldn't do it. She…"

Taking a deep breath, Bill stepped forward and reached for her. His hand rested on her cheek and gently nudged her to look at him again. The expression that twisted her face quickly turned into a scowl as she smacked his hand away.

"I hate you!" she cried.

Undeterred, he placed his hand on the back of her head.

"You don't hate me, and no matter how hard you try, you won't," he told her quietly.

"Don't touch me!"

She shoved him and took several steps away from him. Before she could get any further, he rushed forward and embraced her from behind. Right away, she struggled against him, trying desperately to wrench herself out of his grip.

"I said don't touch me!" she barked.

"No," he replied firmly. "I want you to understand something. No matter what happens, I'm not going to let you go through that again. I swear to you – I promise you – that no matter what happens, I will always be me. I'll fight with everything I've got if necessary."

All around them, the scenery changed until they were back where they started, in the middle of a forest in the darkest part of the night. Solrock hovered above them as Lanette bent over, pressing all her weight against Bill's arms.

"I hate you," she muttered, her voice barely much more than a growl by then.

He let her drag him to the ground. Her legs folded beneath her, and once she knelt, she bent her head down and cried, letting her tears fall freely onto the ground while the rest of her trembled. Leaning against her, Bill could do nothing else but hold her up and wait.

"I hate you," she repeated.

Then, resting his forehead on her shoulder, he replied, "I'm sorry."

My mind is full of feelings, Jax. Completely full of feelings.

That was the most gut-wrenching thing I've read in a very, very long time. I knew Lanette's backstory would be bad, but I never expected once that it was going to be this painful to read. Those scenes of Brigette slowly being lost to the parasite were absolutely agonizing and horribly sad. I felt like I'd start bawling as it was going.

You did good, Jax. You did damn good and it's bringing tears to my eyes.

[Agonist]

Oh geez... It's been, what, nearly a year since I last reviewed? Well, this is still as good as I remember, if not better. I'm still working on catching up, but so far it's blown me away. Again. This fic is just... amazing. It literally has everything a reader could ask for in it, and more, and just makes me want to read it even more :c kudos to you Jax, for writing this masterpiece.

[October Winds]

I am highly excited about this. I haven't had this much fun reading a 'something other than Pokémon in the Pokémon world' fic in a long time, and you've pulled it off well. Character development has been good, while the plot has not ceased to intrigue me. There is one thing that's been bothering me, however:

Before he could continue, Bill brought his hands up to rub his wrists. He couldn't imagine why this would be such a bad idea until one hand actually touched the other. As soon as he did, he heard a clack and felt something that couldn't have been right.

Looking down sharply, he examined his fingers. Somehow, while he was asleep, his skin had turned into metal plates, overlapping each other at the joints like the limbs of a suit of armor. His fingertips were no longer the round, fleshy things he remembered. They were now sharp, curved claws. Turning one of his hands over, he found the round hemisphere of a garnet embedded in his palm. In it, he caught sight of his reflection: a gaunt face, fangs just visible in his open mouth, short, bristly hair, and horns – a pair of rounded horns shaped like cat ears on either side of his skull.

Now, Bill had always felt that he was a decently rational person. He would get excited about a success or a recent discovery or a new pokémon in the index, but he wasn't the kind of person to be jumping and shouting over it. Likewise, although he had seen quite a lot of things that would have shocked a normal person – such as, for example, the complete destruction of his lighthouse's beacon by a giant pokémon – he wasn't the kind of person to experience a total meltdown.

Of course, waking up to discover that his hands were made of metal was an unusual circumstance, and as such, it deserved an unusual response. With a cry, Bill jolted backwards, scrambling in an effort to get away from his own hand. In doing so, he could feel his feet and torso dig into the mattress and the foam stuffing flowing out against his metal skin. Looking down, he caught another glimpse of something that caused his voice to catch in his throat. His entire torso was made of overlapping plates of metal, and beyond that, his feet no longer looked remotely human. Inhaling shakily, Bill extended one of his legs and examined it carefully. It looked somewhat normal, although the calf stopped a few inches shorter. Right after where it ended, another joint led into a broad, reptilian foot. Swallowing, he tried to move his toes, only to see the three claws on the appendage flex.

By this description, Bill is 100% metal exterior, even if it is capable of sensing in a manner similar to skin. I may be picturing him wrong, but I'm visualizing essentially, from in to out, skeleton, musculature, nervous and veinal systems and then steel plating. Exoskeleton around upper body, thighs, lower legs and upper arms all in ribbed plate, while that around the skull, face, abdomen and tail is of a smoother type which is possibly less hard, but still metallic.

My curiosity is aroused by:

"Should we kill it?" he asked.

Jenny shook her head. "I've got a better idea."

She swung her arm. The barrel of her gun cracked against the side of Bill's head, sending him sprawling into the ground. Once again, his vision darkened, and he found himself quickly slipping into unconsciousness.

as well as another scene (which I would locate save that I am running out of time and have already reread half of the fic without locating it) in which Bill's face is cut by something that shouldn't have affected metal in any way.

Suffice to say, my question is: is he really metal, or is his facial skin softer than the rest of him? And how could he get knocked out by a blow to the head? Even electrocuted or what have you, the reason steel-types are preferred over rock-types is their ability to handle physical blows and strikes.

Anyways.

Loving this, as I said. Oddly, I found myself thinking of pokémorphs more than anything as I read this. I look forward to the next installment.

[Bay]

Hnnnnnng like Matt so much feelings for this chapter. ;_;

The way you have Lanette and Brigette's interaction be all innocent at first and then have it switched to Brigette slowly turned to an ixoidia is quite tense. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Lanette not wanting to kill her sister and can't blame her for that. With that said, oh no poor Mr. Briney. :< The backstory also made more sense as to why she didn't want to grow too attached to Bill. And of course, d'aww Bill apologizing to her. Touching moment there.

One other thing I quite like is your use of Trick Room. Quite a creative way to have it used to show past events. Trick Room should be used more that way, lol. XD

Another great chapter here Jax along with messing with my heartstrings here, lol. Still looking forward to the next chapter!

[Phantom Kat]

Wow, I don't even know what to say about this chapter.

I really didn't expect this kind of revelation. I'm a fan on how you used Trick Room! This Trick Room just seems a lot more mysterious and actually scary in comparison to the game mechanics I'm used to. There are so many possibilities with this kind of attack. I can't help but think the Trick Room here (or maybe even Solrock) serve as a container for Lanette's memories, ala Harry Potter mode.

That scene in the truck had me cracking up so much. I mean, it's not like I didn't suspect these kinds of feelings, but hearing the banter from Brigette and reading Lanette's and Bill's reactions just made it all the better.

The rest of the flashback was just... deep. I suspected Brigette to be killed by ixodida but become one? I didn't expect that. Then to end up being killed in such a way must have been horrible, so it's no surprise Lanette was trying to be as distant as possible after that.

I don't know if I can say any more because I can't think anything else other than, "Oh my God, what just happened...?". I'll just leave you with the assurance that this chapter was so intense, in a good way, and I can't wait to read what follows. Awesome job!

- Kat

[JX Valentine]

Oh wow. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys. @_@ I'll do my best to get to all your comments~!

(Is still trying to catch up though)

Take your time. ;D Not much happened in that chapter anyway, though, so it's all good!

So I remember the first reading around I was rather surprised that Nettle was actually a member of Team Rocket. Of course, by then I already had her on my “To Hate List” that I didn’t really care much, but it still shocked me.

Awesome! \o/ I think I mentioned in one of my other review responses that I was a little bit uncertain about Nettle because I thought it would come off as too obvious that, yeah, she's totally on the villains' side. So it's always good to hear that people really don't suspect that she's that bad.

Poor girl. The whole thing seems so creepy. And can’t they manage to give her some clothes??

Nope! 8D

Seriously, I think at first, they'd give her a gown or something, but when she stops looking like she's human from the neck down, then they'd probably not bother, especially since Ixodida are intensely violent during the transformation stages (so she'd just rip any semblance of clothing off one way or another anyway). I could throw in a mention of that in the edit blitz… or we can just continue to be amused by the implication that she's completely naked.

You see? She was pissed because you were studying her while she was naked. Reminds me of an old saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman’s wrath.” Considering Lanette, Pandora, Queen of Ixodida, Veronica…Yep, I don’t think it would be too out of line of me to say that this saying has some meaning in this story.

…You know, now that you mention it, it is rather funny that every single woman in this fic except Ellen, Hope, and Julie (the latter of whom doesn't count) is incredibly pissed off, violent, or calculating for one reason or another. I really don't know what this says about my view on women.

On the positive side, all of the men are womanizing, idiotic, stuck-up, overstressed, dependent on women, and Bill, so whatever the female cast members have to say about my view on women is apparently better than what the male cast members have to say about my view on men. (No offense, guys!)

….Do I see a spelling mistake? Or am I just imagining that the “she’d” should be a “he’d”?

Professor Oak got a sex change at some point. Thanks for that! It'll be fixed the next time I edit!

At least until we get a new game. XD You might end up having to edit your story for all eternity. Or until Pokémon ends. Whichever comes first.

Haha, or until I finally finish it. And then whatever number the Ixodida land on by that time is going to be their permanent number, regardless of how many other 'mon we get after that. It'll be like reading all that old, awesome fic written in the Gen I/Gen II period! \o/

There’s a C form, too. Unlike the others, it did end up getting an official name: Chuck Norris.

Pretty much. *nods*

And Bill's going to form-change into it eventually.

Which would probably be something like:

Bill: *RAGE RAGE!!*NOOO! I’M OUT OF TEA!!! *RAGE RAGE!!*

Lanette: Bill…sit.

Bill: Yes ma’am ;~;

I'm extremely amused by this mental image. XD Because yes, that's exactly how it would go down.

Interesting. If Bill was considered a patient, it would be impossible, due to ethical codes, for a family member to be a part of his rehabilitation. But I’m assuming Bill is, in this instance, considered a specimen, which would kind of throw out ethics…

Pretty much, yeah, he's considered a subject and not a patient.

That and the Committee isn't entirely sticking to Earth's code of ethics in all scenarios. ;D

It’s funny, but I keep forgetting that they have video phones in the Pokémon world.

Totally A-OK. It's pretty much only used whenever Ash needs to switch out Pokémon these days. I sort of miss the old days when he used to call his mom all the time, and we'd get interesting backstory/development out of it. (Sort of like that time Ash's mom shared tidbits about his father in the second episode.)

And to think I saved you a seat in the gutter…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLTZc...eature=related

(Yes, this totally needs to be watched instead of said.)

They had no choice but to sacrifice continuity for the sake of making more LOLZ COTD.

Pretty much.

Hey, whatever floats your sailor studded boat. Am I right?

;_;

Now, if we were talking about these kinds of sailors, I wouldn't mind quite as much. *shot!*

    Spoiler:- SPOILER:

Show Spoiler

 
…No. Just, no. Actually, I think the Celebi event in HG/SS pretty much negates this.
 

XD Pretty much.

No, seriously. Sorry about that. ^ ^;

Haha, don't worry about it. In fact… EXTRA COOKIE for making me quote myself. ;D

But speaking of dangerous/dark/evil stuff, I ate at the cafeteria the other day while they were serving “Oriental Beef”, as they called it. For every bite I took, it meowed.

Oh, cafeteria food. I do not miss that at all. *sage nod*

(College food only gets marginally better. You might as well start cooking for yourself, really.)

….Move to Scotland? XD

Tempting~!

I almost spat out my water at this, which would have been horrible as it would have gotten my computer wet.

An appropriate reaction. XD That chapter just has crack on top of crack, and best of all, the art looks pretty.

I’ll look around. I heard it also has a lot of suggestive stuff in it. Is it designed with adults in mind or something?

Sort of. See, the artist behind it was actually a pretty well-known hentai artist, so a lot of stuff that got into the original was just there because without it, it'd be a lot like watching a movie made by Tim Burton that has none of the weird, creepy fantasy elements he's known for. So instead you get the equivalent of seeing a Tim Burton film with the weird, creepy shenanigans in the background.

That's been filtered heavily thanks to American censorship, assuming you're looking at the Viz version.

Seriously, if you read this comic, try to find a translation. Viz went out of their way to edit out a lot of the blatant fanservice and questionable content Ono put in, but luckily, that was largely only the character designs (large boobs, Misty in less than a Speedo, and so forth). There were a few other bits that got edited further (like May, Gary's sister, fully clothed and lying in a bed while tucking Ash in because he's having a "my babysitter is hot" fantasy), but really, those bits, Viz was in the right for editing. Also, they don't affect the story in any way. That's one good thing about this translation. Really, Viz didn't change anything – dialogue or what-have-you. So, you can still get what's going on, and what's getting across is still pretty much what was in the original. You're just missing the missile-boobs, and that's about it.

So I guess the answer to your question is it's got suggestive stuff in it, but I'm not sure if it was explicitly designed for adults. Pokémon manga in Japan tends to be… weirder than what we get over here. (Let's not talk about the Pocket Monsters manga for the sake of everyone's sanity, but to put it in short, Electric Tale is pretty tame in comparison.)

And yet she still ends up saving you from getting sucked into outer space. So the question that remains is: who was worse when it came to killing you? Female sociopath or male schizophrenic?

Ah, but Wheatley was sociopathic at some point too, so…!

I had a feeling that you were the owner.

Naturally. ;D Only I would be crazy enough to spend that much time on fangirling Bill.

So is acid.

No, no. The only one in that family who does psychedelic substances is—

Actually, wait, you heard nothing.

THE BIRD IS THE WORD.

*goes to YouTube*

….

*decides against this course of action*

Valentine may not
Like poetry, but guess what?
I do. VERY MUCH.

Granted, I don’t need
To rhyme in Haiku, so it’s
a bit easier.

*counts syllables on her fingers and is mightily impressed*

I’ll take your word for it…But if:

JOHN vs. LANETTE

Ever happens, my money is on Lanette and, by extension, her crowbar.

Alternatively, John woos her over successfully, and Bill stands on the sidelines, quietly angsting to himself.

And then John woos Veronica for good measure.

SAILOR STUDDED BOAT.

D8

On that note…man, John. He must go to extremes with S and M.

Oh yes. He's into all kinds of freaky things.

…YOU HEARD NOTHING.

Do you really?

Absolutely, man! Tastiest part.

Well in THAT case…
    Spoiler:- CAUTION: Spam:

Show Spoiler

 
Things I liked:
22. VERONICA
21. VERONICA
20. VERONICA
19. VERONICA
18. VERONICA
17. VERONICA
16. VERONICA
15. VERONICA
14. VERONICA
13. VERONICA
12. VERONICA
11. Bill potentially drunk off egg nog
10. VERONICA
9. VERONICA
8. VERONICA
7. VERONICA
6. VERONICA
5. VERONICA
4. VERONICA
3. VERONICA
2. VERONICA
1. VERONICA
I need a drink.
 

I'm surprised you didn't just keep going. XD

Wow... that was, wow.

*bows*

I'm honestly glad that we got to see this, some clarification about Lanette, her past and the glimpse of her past relationship with her sister and Bill. For some reason, throughout the entire chapter, I kept imagining what scenes would look like in a graphic novel and how they would be set out in the panels and such, it was pretty fun.

That would actually be awesome. Anima Ex Machina: The Comic.

….

Hey, Diddy! You can draw decent ponies, right? *SHOVES THIS TASK ON YOU*

….

Which now makes me think of My Little Ixodida. This is why I should not be writing review responses at ungodly hours.

I believe I was vastly too "just-woken-up" to find the references, but it's been a while since I watched Madoka anyway. Nothing else jumped out at me as something reference-esque so it's either I'm not paying enough attention or I'm not familiar with the source material. I'm not very good at this game D:

To put it in short (as if you didn't read my LJ/DW entry or anything), Lanette should be reminding you strongly of a certain dark-haired Ice Queen magical girl.

That and the scene where she wakes up is meant to mirror the one where said dark-haired Ice Queen magical girl wakes up in episode ten.

Or in other words, this is just one contract away from being full of "OH GOD WHY."

I got chills, man.

Mission accomplished! \o/

And then you end it with a "hug it out" moment, where I can only imagine Lanette sobbing her hate and anger into Bill's shoulder, yet doing nothing to release herself from his iron grip.

Yep, that's pretty much what happened after the scene faded out.

Now here comes the question of whether or not she'll get any closer to Bill than this. Or if she'll show her vulnerable side more often.

(Hint: The answer to both of these questions is no.)

Great chapter. I want to hug Bill and Lanette as well!

Thank you!

The fact you're quoting Madoka Magica at the very beginning frightens me, Jax. What am I getting into?

Awesome things. ;D

First question: was there another timeskip? It feels like there might have been.

There actually wasn't. It's more of a scene shift, really. Put it this way. The last chapter ended with Bill carrying Tate through the woods, but the first part of this chapter is still Bill carrying Tate through the woods. The time that's elapsing between Bill's start point and his end point is pretty much embodied with the lengthy opening paragraphs about how each of the Caravan members are standing guard/doing something quietly.

Lots of description here, but you did well avoiding the possible danger of repetition, so it didn't feel grueling to get through at all. Good use of Steven's Metagross, too.

Thank you on all counts, including the part about Steven's Metagross. I have to admit, I was slightly worried about that bit, and I swear, the characters' Pokémon are going to be more than just literally furniture soon enough.

Simply adorable. A beacon of hope (heh) in the middle of hell like this shouldn't be this cute.

Oh, but she totally should. ;D It's like comic relief, only less annoying!

I'll stop you here for a minute.

I would totally read a spinoff about Hope before the disaster.

Ask and ye shall receive!

Anyway, ordinarily usage of Japanese in an English story would put me off, but you set it up properly, so I like it here. I think I've said that before, actually.

Thank you! And rest assured, it's going to be a plot point.

Also, it's a good thing you mentioned the Japanese here. One of the things I forgot to point out in my DW/LJ post about things that people didn't pick up on yet is that line.

    Spoiler:- Because…:

Show Spoiler

 
…Because did anyone else notice that the fourth wall was temporarily missing?

Oh yeah. She's that kind of Creepy Child.
 

Oh ****. Peace couldn't last, could it?

NOPE. Not in this fic, anyway.

This is gonna be serious, isn't it? Sure feels that way...

Absolutely. ;D

Awwww **** Bill. When are you going to learn to not act suspiciously around people who don't trust you?

Or is Adam beginning to rub off on him more?

Haha, nope, that's just Bill being Bill. (Read: Completely oblivious to social appropriateness.)

I don't really care for the use of "burden" here. It feels a little awkward, and it made me have to read it a couple of times to absorb it properly.

I think here the description could have been a bit better. I get that you were trying to make Tate be a surprise, but the awkward wording of the previous bit makes it a bit hard to understand just what it was he's carrying without being explicitly told. It would be better if the reader could reasonably guess who it was before; maybe saying something about Tate's clothing could help.[/quote]

Totally a valid comment, and I do agree. I just couldn't find a better word at that moment, but I'll give it another shot and see what happens when I abuse my thesaurus a little.

Always so calculating. Not entirely sure Steven and Wallace are gonna take this well though...

Better than you'd imagine for at least one of those parties. *whistles innocently and nudges away the implied love triangle*

Interesting. I hadn't really thought of the idea that Nurse Joys don't all have the same training, but again, since you're talking about the field, it's something I wouldn't have even come near.

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, they all receive the same education, but what they do with it and what kinds of experiences they get from it are widely different. It's sort of like how not all real-life doctors are the same in every single city, what with having to deal with different people. You'd still get the same care, but a doctor used to treating middle-class, suburban people probably won't know what to do if forced to treat people in a third-world nation ridden with disease and malnutrition.

I wonder what those would be. Suspicious...

*whistles innocently*

UH OH. Steven moving in on Bill's turf? Adam isn't gonna stand for this!

Haha, absolutely. ;D

In fact, for kicks, the relationship chart!

    Spoiler:- Cut just in case you want to figure all of this out yourself.:

Show Spoiler

 
Note: > indicates one character is attracted to another, but it's not necessarily mutual. >< indicates that the feeling is mutual. Something like ~> or ><~ or ~><~ indicates that the emotion is a little on the weird side. Something like ~>? Or >? Indicates that one of the sides doesn't even acknowledge the other beyond maybe friendship or is otherwise uncertain of how they feel in ways that don't imply that it can be interpreted as love (if that makes sense). And | anywhere means that the person actually hates or is tsundere to the other person.

This does not include straight-up friendship or hate because those are both obvious and would take eons to describe.

Bill ~>| Lanette
Bill's side of the equation is a little weird because I want readers to interpret how he feels towards Lanette. There's two ways you can see it. Either Bill is intensely naïve and actually wants Lanette as a best friend, or Bill is in love with her and completely oblivious to that fact. Regardless of which way you choose, Bill himself definitely only sees her as a friend, and it doesn't cross his mind to label it as a crush. Lanette, meanwhile, is just intensely tsundere towards him due to the end of this chapter. She always has been on a level, even before his transformation.

Lanette ><~ Steven
She has a crush on him (hence why she's particularly warm to him), and he's already only vaguely aware of it. However, because he's never really met her before the quarantine, he only thinks of her as a potential friend and someone to look up to immensely. As a side note, because he's a prominent figure in Hoenn, yes, Lanette would have heard of him/seen him battle before, so I'll just say right now that this is nothing new.

Vito ~><~ Lanette
One of the weird hold-overs from my plans that may not even grow to fruition, but basically, Vito was supposed to be in the love triangle between Bill, Lanette, and a third party, not Steven. As it stands, Vito is actually Lanette's right-hand man, hence why he's still around (even if he doesn't seem to do anything). I may try to shape this into a love polygon later, but suffice to say, Vito most definitely has a crush on Lanette. And there was an unwritten joke involving Lanette's apparent fetish for green-haired men here.

Steven ~><~ Wallace
Heterosexual life partners for the ages!

Ellen ~>? Bill
Ellen… is sort of on the weird side here. She's protective of Bill, and she feels the strong need to take care of him. Part of this has to do with her training as a nurse, but a lot of it is because she cares deeply for him. Bill is just completely oblivious to her to the point where she literally doesn't register anywhere on his radar beyond "friend."

Thom (~)>| Domino
Thom thinks Domino is hot. Domino thinks he's a moron ready to be exploited. According to the Christmas special, anyway. And it's so hilarious I may just pursue it.

Tate ~>? Hope
Also according to the Christmas special! \o/ Yes, you will see these two interact more. Yes, it will be warm and fuzzy from Tate's side. Yes, Hope is too crazy to respond.

Adam || Lanette
Adam wants to do horrendous, horrendous things to Lanette; Lanette wants to stab it through the head if it tries.

Adam || Bill
See above, only with less stabbing and more mental bondage.

And if I forgot anyone, feel free to ask!

But yeah, apparently, relationships are overly complicated in this fic.
 

Not entirely sure Steven would complain if he couldn't battle out there.... (kidding)

;D

I'm not sure what to think here. Something's different, but what is it? Why is Hope so stunned?

When is Hope not stunned? XD

She has an odd way of interacting with her friends.

Haha, if you can call their relationship that.

Are you complaining, Bill?

When is Bill not complaining? ;D

No, he does when with you. /runs

Luckily, he's got built-in protection with that form. Unfortunately, by "protection," I mean "pelvis that doubles as a knife," but.

Don't kneel down, Bill. Don't ****ing do it now you son of a *****.

Haha, save that for the epilogue.

Oh ****. This is going in a completely different direction than I expected.

Mission accomplished! \o/

And to think I feel the same way right now...

It's pretty awesome that you feel that connected to a character. …Mostly because I feel pretty awesome that I got across those emotions to the point where a reader can do that. Thanks!

Creative use of Trick Room,

Thank you~! I always have fun thinking up alternate uses for moves. (Unfortunately, I had to fudge this a little. This borrows canon more from Special than the anime or games, but mostly, I just wanted Bill to see physically what happened to Lanette and realized belatedly that I gave her a psychic Pokémon that isn't actually able to use Hypnosis. Side point: why can Solrock learn Dream Eater, then? Seriously.)

Ohhhhhhh boy. This one is gonna be interesting...

Oh, it will be. ;D

Okay, that got a spit-take and a good laugh. Good job.

Thank you! Also, that will probably be the closest thing you'll get to a confession from either of them.

I like this Lanette. Can we at least know why this Lanette isn't around anymore?

Oh, you will. ;D

If only Brigette was still around now...

Oh, the irony of this line.

Oh this is gonna be grim. The seatbelt's going on now.

*cackles* Gooood plan there.

It's about to get horrible, isn't it?

Well, this is one of my fics, so… yes. Very quickly.

Now that's not what I expected. Didn't even think they'd manage to get this far.

OH GOD NO IT'S WORSE THAN I THOUGHT

\o/

NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO THIS IS WORSE THAN ANYTHING I EVER EXPECTED WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS

/Mami getting chewed.gif

trollface.jpg

I can't take this anymore. This is ****ing agonizing...

It's sort of hilarious that you chose to split the review right here. Even though I don't have sigs enabled, I took one look at the end there and went, "**** **** **** he's serious!"

Nice job at trolling me right back. XD

This is gonna go where I think, isn't it. She's gonna ask her to end this, isn't she?

Yep. Because as much as I love messing with y'all, I've got to throw in some clichés here and there for the sake of "this is a homage to everything ever."

Oh God... at least it's finally over...

Oh, if only (for Lanette).

Damn it, Jax. Why did it have to come out like this?

Because only the most extreme options would be able to shut Bill up. Maybe. Or make him more insistent when it comes to his efforts to repair his relationship with Lanette.

My mind is full of feelings, Jax. Completely full of feelings.

Awesome~!

That was the most gut-wrenching thing I've read in a very, very long time. I knew Lanette's backstory would be bad, but I never expected once that it was going to be this painful to read. Those scenes of Brigette slowly being lost to the parasite were absolutely agonizing and horribly sad. I felt like I'd start bawling as it was going.

You did good, Jax. You did damn good and it's bringing tears to my eyes.

Thanks very much! It seriously means a lot to me to hear that you were affected that much by something I wrote. Seriously, that is a massive compliment for a writer, and it really makes me proud.

Oh geez... It's been, what, nearly a year since I last reviewed?

XD Totally cool. Welcome back, by the by! I was wondering where you went off to!

Well, this is still as good as I remember, if not better. I'm still working on catching up, but so far it's blown me away. Again. This fic is just... amazing. It literally has everything a reader could ask for in it, and more, and just makes me want to read it even more :c kudos to you Jax, for writing this masterpiece.

Thank you! I really appreciate all of that.

And this fic shall continue for some time, too!

I am highly excited about this. I haven't had this much fun reading a 'something other than Pokémon in the Pokémon world' fic in a long time, and you've pulled it off well.

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Suffice to say, my question is: is he really metal, or is his facial skin softer than the rest of him?

This is a very good question because it's always difficult for me to describe exactly what he looks like. To put it in short, basically, all Ixodida look like monsters and their type below the neck. They each have human faces as part of a defense/predatory mechanism (because they operate on the assumption that an uninfected human would pause if they saw the face of someone they knew or something that looked human as well), and the rest of the head tends to be a mix of both. For example, Brigette's scalp when she died had the traits of a Grass-type's skin, so if you just hit her head with a Poison Sting, for example, she would take the same damage as a Grass-type. In Bill's case, it's actually a rather nasty Achilles' heel because, in order to have human skin on his face and in order to grow hair (which, incidentally, is more like very thin wires), the rest of his head is more of a spectrum, with his scalp being a softer metal than the rest of his body. Think "aluminum foil" soft. So with a hard enough blow to the head, it's possible to knock him out. The rest of his body definitely can endure hard hits, however, and if he has Iron Defense up, he probably could take a few to the head too (because it's like he's coating his entire body with a suit of armor… made of light or energy or what-have-you). Just not so much when he's defending himself without any preparations.

As for electrocution, that's the downside of being a walking lightning rod. XD His particular type combination is actually 1x weak/resistant to Electric-type attacks, so it's very easy to cook his innards.

Seriously, though, awesome question!

Loving this, as I said. Oddly, I found myself thinking of pokémorphs more than anything as I read this. I look forward to the next installment.

Thank you very much! And it's totally cool that you started thinking of Pokémorphs while you were reading. I always like to think that if you squint hard enough, this story is about 'morphs… just a different kind of them.

Hnnnnnng like Matt so much feelings for this chapter. ;_;

\o/

With that said, oh no poor Mr. Briney. :<

Yeah, I know. ;_; I wanted to make his appearance be more epic because he was actually the leader of the Caravan back then, but I ran out of time and space.

The backstory also made more sense as to why she didn't want to grow too attached to Bill. And of course, d'aww Bill apologizing to her. Touching moment there.

Aww, thank you! He's really a sentimental character sometimes, and I love writing the moments when he is.

Quite a creative way to have it used to show past events. Trick Room should be used more that way, lol. XD

*bows* And inorite? Moves in general need to be used more creatively in canon. I miss the days when the anime pulled shenanigans like Pikachu Thundershocking a sprinkler system to take advantage of Onix's weakness to water, Meowth using two buckets of water as a Water Gun, and Sabrina's Kadabra using Psychic to attack Pikachu with an electric dragon. Those were the awesome days.

Another great chapter here Jax along with messing with my heartstrings here, lol. Still looking forward to the next chapter!

Thank you~!

I really didn't expect this kind of revelation.

*cackles madly*

I'm a fan on how you used Trick Room! This Trick Room just seems a lot more mysterious and actually scary in comparison to the game mechanics I'm used to.

Thank you! And agreed. The games just never really go into detail about how these moves work, and that makes me frownie-face.

I can't help but think the Trick Room here (or maybe even Solrock) serve as a container for Lanette's memories, ala Harry Potter mode.

That is an awesome comparison, and that may just be fic-canon now.

That scene in the truck had me cracking up so much. I mean, it's not like I didn't suspect these kinds of feelings, but hearing the banter from Brigette and reading Lanette's and Bill's reactions just made it all the better.

*bows* You should've heard them when they were all together and sane and not infected. ;D (In fact, I'm thinking "special prequel one-shot." Y/N?)

I don't know if I can say any more because I can't think anything else other than, "Oh my God, what just happened...?". I'll just leave you with the assurance that this chapter was so intense, in a good way, and I can't wait to read what follows. Awesome job!

Thank you! I hope I don't disappoint!

[Diddy]

That would actually be awesome. Anima Ex Machina: The Comic.

….

Hey, Diddy! You can draw decent ponies, right? *SHOVES THIS TASK ON YOU*

….

Which now makes me think of My Little Ixodida. This is why I should not be writing review responses at ungodly hours.

I remember at about seven pm on Christmas Eve I said to myself, I want to draw a Bill Pony for Jax, but I just didn't get around to it xD

I want to do it again now.

[JX Valentine]

I remember at about seven pm on Christmas Eve I said to myself, I want to draw a Bill Pony for Jax, but I just didn't get around to it xD

I want to do it again now.

I would love you forever if you did.

...What would his cutie mark even be? A Poké Ball?

[The Great Butler]

I would love you forever if you did.

...What would his cutie mark even be? A Poké Ball?

No, he has Tron Lines all over himself. He fights for the Users.

[GastlyMan]

*arises from the dead*

I swear I will be more active with reviewing.

CURSE YOU REAL LIFE! (*smashes multiple expensive objects in uncontrolled fury*)

...Anyway!

First off - loved the Christmas special, even if I read it a few months late XD Hilarious!

As I've said, I will castrate him.

Ooh, new vocabulary word!
*looks up in dictionary*
Ohhh...that’s what it means...

R.I.P.
The innocence of GastlyMan
1993-2012


XD

Unfortunately, Adam wasn't nearly as forgiving. What are you doing? You cannot let all our prey go!

"Well, I can't very well kill it when it's looking at me!"

Bill. They will all be looking at you when you kill them.

"Exactly!"

Lol, poor Bill doesn’t want to kill the Kecleon. I suppose I wouldn’t want to, either...but that’s extremely funny.

Steven followed her for a few steps, leaving Wallace behind with Tate in his arms. "Lanette, would you like someone to keep you company?"

She turned to him and flashed him a look. Bill froze, noticing right away that it was softer than usual, that her voice was a little more gentle than the one she used with him.

"Thank you, but no," she answered. "Concern yourself with protecting the camp and tending to Tate, please. Those two tasks are far more important than what I have to do."

Again...Poor Bill.

And wow, that was a really cool idea, using Trick Room to travel into Lanette’s past. Really, really cool. I absolutely loved that part.

And just like that, he was running again. He didn't think twice about it. It didn't even occur to him that there was no way he could do a thing to save either of the sisters, and it certainly didn't occur to him that, logically, he had no reason to rush to Lanette's aid anyway if she still existed in the present. His body just moved on instinct, carried him closer to danger when he would have normally run in the opposite direction. All he could think about at that moment was the second cry. An ixodida. An ixodida was attacking, and as he considered that, Bill could think of a thousand different possibilities as to what he would be confronting in a matter of seconds.

Also, interesting how this affected Bill so much that he essentially forgot that he was in a memory.

Swablu’s evolution was so cool! But wow at what happened to Brigette. I mean, I could sense something bad was going to happen at that point, but still...wow. It’s sort of like what happens to Bill, with Adam occasionally taking over, but worse. And then what happened after that...I can really see how that influenced Lanette to act how she does now. Poor Lanette.

Keep up the good work! This is getting even more exciting! ^^

[JX Valentine]

*arises from the dead*

So many jokes I could make here, most of which involve Jesus. But I want to be nice today.

CURSE YOU REAL LIFE! (*smashes multiple expensive objects in uncontrolled fury*)

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. ;_; Why do things like the things that pay us get in the way of fun times?

First off - loved the Christmas special, even if I read it a few months late XD Hilarious!

Thank you! It was a blast producing all of that, even the one I recorded by myself. XD (Although fun fact: I lost my voice briefly after recording Domino's parts. Holy crap, I never knew speaking like that for an hour would do terrible things to a person's throat.)

Ooh, new vocabulary word!
*looks up in dictionary*
Ohhh...that’s what it means...

R.I.P.
The innocence of GastlyMan
1993-2012

I love corrupting readers! 8D




Lol, poor Bill doesn’t want to kill the Kecleon. I suppose I wouldn’t want to, either...but that’s extremely funny.

Haha, yeah. Poor guy's probably going to end up starving himself at the rate he's going. Also? That Kecleon's totally a recurring character now. (*pauses and waits to hear Absol scream*)

And wow, that was a really cool idea, using Trick Room to travel into Lanette’s past. Really, really cool. I absolutely loved that part.

Thank you! \o/ Like I said in my last response, it's always a lot of fun coming up with alternate uses for random moves. It makes working with Pokémon particularly exciting.

Also, interesting how this affected Bill so much that he essentially forgot that he was in a memory.

Yep. He really does care about Lanette (and Brigette of course too). *pets him* Too bad he can't figure out exactly what this means himself.

Swablu’s evolution was so cool!

Thanks! It's my personal belief that if you're going to have a Pokémon evolve, you might as well make it one of the highlights of a chapter, amirite? ;D

But wow at what happened to Brigette. I mean, I could sense something bad was going to happen at that point, but still...wow. It’s sort of like what happens to Bill, with Adam occasionally taking over, but worse. And then what happened after that...I can really see how that influenced Lanette to act how she does now. Poor Lanette.

Exactly on all counts. And this is why it seriously sucks to be a drone. Monarchs (like Bill) at least have the option of turning rogue or being sane, relatively stable Ixodida. Drones like Brigette, meanwhile, just go feral and attempt to kill anything within reach (unless a monarch tells them otherwise).

Keep up the good work! This is getting even more exciting! ^^

Thank you! Working on chapter 26, and I'm hoping it'll be a decent follow-up to all of this. One of the bad things about writing a chapter like this one? Being terrified that the next scene would be considered mood whiplash. ._. But we shall see~!

[JX Valentine]

A little Valentine's Day gift that certainly isn't almost a week late or anything.

Also, this may or may not be semi-canonical, unlike the other specials which totally did not happen according to the characters. I also may or may not have stolen something from Sailor Moon.

Lastly, if you want to see any chapter extras at the end of chapters or in random separate posts (and I'm talking things like character profiles, detailed explanations of things I might not cover in the story -- basically the things you might've seen on the Extra Series on my LJ, only updated and posted here), let me know because I was debating on whether or not I should do something like that.


Anima Ex Machina
Special 04: I'm not sorry.

"Attract." Lanette arched an eyebrow. "Really, Bill?"

Across the Caravan's campgrounds, Bill reached down and grasped his ankles in a stretch. "Don't make fun of it. It's the best tactic I could come up with that doesn't harm my target."

"Why couldn't you just learn a low-damage move that has a high chance of inflicting a condition? You know there's a large number of them, and very few of them have the capability of inflicting serious injury on a victim."

A long pause hung between them. In the silence, the other members of the Caravan gathered on the edge of the makeshift battlefield to watch. Thom sat in front of the others with a bag of popcorn, into which both he and Veronica reached every so often. At the same time, Bill straightened to his full height and stared at his partner until, finally, he shrugged.

"Anyway, I was thinking that perhaps I could test the move on your spinda," he said.

Lanette furrowed her eyebrows a little deeper. "That doesn't answer my question, Bill."

Completely ignoring her, he continued, "After all, Spinda is both female and a humanshape pokémon, right? I'm not entirely certain what egg group the ixodida would belong to, but—"

His partner crossed her arms. "Do you realize how disturbing this is? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

"—I have no doubt it will work if I try hard enough!"

"You're just going to ignore me, aren't you?"

"Probably," the others replied in unison, drowning out Bill's answer of "no."

"I just don't think it's relevant," Bill added, his voice quick and high-pitched and certainly not hiding anything at all. "If it works, then I'll have perfected a move that inflicts one of the most devastating conditions in a pokémon battle!"

"Sleep," Lanette answered impatiently.

"What about it?"

"Ugh, never mind!" she exclaimed as she pulled a poké ball from her belt. "Let's just get this fiasco over with so we can pretend this never happened!"

Holding her ball out in front of her, she let it pop open and release a mass of white light. Spinda dropped from the glowing orb and landed perfectly on her stubby feet halfway between her mistress and her opponent.

"Okay, Spinda," Lanette said. "Stand there and watch Bill embarrass himself."

The panda tilted her head and looked over her shoulder. "Da?"

"Right," Bill said. "Here goes nothing!"

He winked and brought a hand to his mouth to kiss the tips of his fingers. As he flicked his fingers away from his lips, his claws guided a wisp of pink energy into forming a heart that floated over his hand. With a grin, he tossed his arm towards Spinda, sending the heart flying in her direction. She looked up just in time to watch the heart split into several that circled her and pulsed. The ring of hearts shrank for a few seconds before halting just above her skin and bursting into a brilliant, pink light.

All of the onlookers watched for several seconds in complete silence until Ellen finally spoke up.

"Was that supposed to happen?"

"N-no, not really," Bill stammered. "Maybe it's just that Spinda is a rather unique pokémon."

Lanette drew her hand to her crowbar. "Go on, Bill. Say that about my pokémon again."

"What I mean to say," he replied quickly, "is that maybe she's harder to infatuate because she's, ah, an incredibly intelligent and independent pokémon?"

"I'm sure that's what you meant," Lanette growled as she gripped the handle of her weapon.

"Well, maybe if we brought out more pokémon, we can see if it would work on any of them! What about Professor Nettle's jynx?"

Lanette allowed a beat of silence to elapse before she moved her hand to the second poké ball on her belt. "If you want to continue testing, I'll let you – but only because I would love to watch Jynx use Ice Punch on you if you fail."

Following the same motions she used to release Spinda, Lanette drew out and cracked open her next poké ball. This time, Jynx materialized, towering over Spinda. As if she heard everything that was going outside of her ball, Jynx balled one hand into a fist and used the other to crack her knuckles.

"I'm not going to fail," Bill squeaked. Then, shaking it off, he resumed a fighting stance. "Right. Attract!"

Once again, he brought his hand to his lips again. Spinda, keeping her eyes forward, took one long step to the side and left Jynx wide open for the attack. At the same time, Bill kissed the tips of his fingers once more, formed a heart out of the pink energy they emitted, and sent it floating at Jynx. The ice princess merely stood where she was, watching as the pink light split and formed a ring of smaller hearts that surrounded her. However, just as it had for Spinda, the ring shrank for only a few seconds before bursting in a flash of pink light. For a few seconds, every spectator merely watched in surprise.

Lanette pointed a slender finger at Bill. "Okay, Jynx! Use—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Bill cried out as he frantically held up his hands. "Maybe the problem is that I'm not a humanshape pokémon!"

"Anyone could've told you that," Veronica quipped.

"Maybe if everyone sent out all of their female pokémon, I can use Attract on all of them to figure out what type of egg group it would work on!" Bill reasoned.

Lanette sighed. "You're really adamant about this, aren't you?"

"Well, I should be if it's going to help us defend ourselves from the ixodida."

She eyed him carefully, her red eyes peering over the top of her glasses. In that state, she didn't say anything. She merely pursed her lips and inhaled deeply, lifting her chin as she breathed.

"All right," she finally said. "Everyone. Release your pokémon."

Her own hands drifted to her belt again and pulled off all of the remaining poké balls. At the edge of the battlefield, Thom, Veronica, Ellen, and Tate stood, the humans drawing poké balls out of their pockets and off their belts. Flashes of white brightened the field briefly before fading into a crowd of pokémon huddled between Lanette and Bill. The steel-type scanned them carefully, surveying his opponents until something dawned on him. His eyes settled on a select portion of the group before he spoke.

"…Some of these aren't female."

Veronica and Thom shrugged and spoke together. "We thought it'd be funny if you tried that move on a male pokémon."

"How is that funny? And Tate, what are you doing here?!"

"Evening out the count," Tate replied mischievously. "So you have four guys and four girls."

Bill pointed at Lanette's pokémon. "Solrock don't even have genitalia!"

"Wouldn't that mean you have a fifty-fifty chance of infatuating it?" Veronica asked.

"That's not how biology works!"

A ghost of a smile flitted across Lanette's lips and vanished. "So Attract will fail on them, and you're not risking anything by using Attract on pokémon it shouldn't work on. What are you worried about, Bill? Or are you not entirely secure about your masculinity?"

"I'm not insecure!" Bill snapped, his voice breaking ever so slightly on the last word. "Here, I'll show you! Attract!"

For a third time, he kissed the tips of his fingers and swept his arm outwards. A third heart formed in his hand, but as he tossed it towards the group, it split into just enough hearts for each of the females: Spinda, Jynx, Altaria, and Chansey. Once more, each light first formed a ring of hearts that constricted and then exploded. The females stood still as the ixodida panted and gazed at them incredulously.

"Maybe he's just inadequate. There's pills for that these days, you know," Veronica offered.

Growling at the officer's words, Bill resolved himself. He dug his feet into the ground and threw a grave glance at the full pokémon party in front of him. Even Lanette had to straighten her back a little at the expression on Bill's face; she had never seen him quite as serious in her life. A shiver went down her spine as she swore she could see the spark of a fire in his eyes.

"Attract!" he shouted.

He threw his hand to the side, opening his claws until he showed his palm and its glittering jewel to the crowd. Then, he winked at his targets and brought his hand to his lips to kiss the tips of his fingers. This time, when the pink heart formed between his lips and open hand, he quickly grasped onto it with his thumb and forefinger.

"Love and Beauty Shock!"

Swinging his arm in a wide arc around his body, he released the heart and let it split into several smaller ones. The chain of hearts circled him before reuniting as a ball of pink light. Then, the ball shot forward and split into eight heart rings that wrapped around every pokémon between himself and Lanette. Each one shrank around their victims, but just like the other rings Bill created a moment ago, the ones around the females and Solrock burst into pink light before any of them touched the pokémon. However, the ones around the males shrank enough to wash over their bodies as a bright, pink light.

Once more, all of the spectators stopped, but this time, each of them stared in a completely dumbfounded silence. Bill lifted a hand, pointing a finger skyward as if he was about to say something.

And then, Manectric, Growlithe, and Tate leapt over the crowd of females to lunge at him. The only thing that muffled Bill's terrified yelp was the excited barking and babbling of all three of his victims. As quickly as he could, he turned and started bolting for the woods, narrowly avoiding Tate's hands in the process.

"That was so cool!" Tate gushed. "Can you teach me how to do that?!"

"Veronica! Thom! Lanette! Keep them away from me!" Bill shouted.

All three of the humans remained exactly where they were, opting to watch Bill and the three infatuated pokémon run back and forth across the campground.

"That explains so much," Veronica quipped.

"Help!" Bill shouted.

After a few seconds – which involved Manectric firing off an affectionate Thunderbolt, electrocuting Bill and allowing the other two to jump on him in the process – Lanette put her hands on her hips and quirked her head slightly.

"You're right," she said. "This is rather funny."

[Diddy]

Say whaaaaaat?

Okay, this was some lulzy stuff. Does this mean that Adam is female? Or maybe Adam was just trolling Bill by purposely making it not work on the females and letting it work on the males? Either way it made me laugh more than that video of Batman eating nachos. Or maybe Bill just hadn't perfected the move until he got to the males.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some characters bios and what not. It would help me to get to know the characters and the world little better.

[JX Valentine]

The universe is a troll. ;D That's all I have to say about that.

Also, awesome! In that case, keep watching this space because maybe in a few hours, you'll see the first profile go up.

[Phantom Kat]

*lets head fall on laptop* What did I just read?!

Not that I'm unhappy. On the contrary, I don't think I've smiled so much while reading AEM as I did when I read this. xD Let's just say that I'm not surprised that Bill's Attract would have that effect, especially after remembering Bill's profile you wrote up. Like Diddy said, maybe he just hadn't gotten the move right until the males showed up, but nonetheless, it does make us raise some eyebrows. I hope Lanette is always there, reminding him of this incident.

- Kat

[GastlyMan]

So many jokes I could make here, most of which involve Jesus. But I want to be nice today.

That was exactly what was going through my mind when I wrote that. XD

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. ;_; Why do things like the things that pay us get in the way of fun times?

I know! I need to learn to live without food and a house so I don't have to worry about all that anymore. >: (

Thank you! It was a blast producing all of that, even the one I recorded by myself. XD (Although fun fact: I lost my voice briefly after recording Domino's parts. Holy crap, I never knew speaking like that for an hour would do terrible things to a person's throat.)

Oh wow! XD

Haha, yeah. Poor guy's probably going to end up starving himself at the rate he's going. Also? That Kecleon's totally a recurring character now. (*pauses and waits to hear Absol scream*)

Ooh, I'm excited to see. |D

Exactly on all counts. And this is why it seriously sucks to be a drone. Monarchs (like Bill) at least have the option of turning rogue or being sane, relatively stable Ixodida. Drones like Brigette, meanwhile, just go feral and attempt to kill anything within reach (unless a monarch tells them otherwise).

Ah, yes. Interesting how the hierarchy of ixodida works. Being a drone would definitely suck.

Thank you! Working on chapter 26, and I'm hoping it'll be a decent follow-up to all of this. One of the bad things about writing a chapter like this one? Being terrified that the next scene would be considered mood whiplash. ._. But we shall see~!

Mood whiplash, huh? Sounds exciting, hehe. ^_^

Oh, and the special was awesome!

"…Some of these aren't female."

Veronica and Thom shrugged and spoke together. "We thought it'd be funny if you tried that move on a male pokémon."

"How is that funny? And Tate, what are you doing here?!"

"Evening out the count," Tate replied mischievously. "So you have four guys and four girls."

Bill pointed at Lanette's pokémon. "Solrock don't even have genitalia!"

"Wouldn't that mean you have a fifty-fifty chance of infatuating it?" Veronica asked.

"That's not how biology works!"

A ghost of a smile flitted across Lanette's lips and vanished. "So Attract will fail on them, and you're not risking anything by using Attract on pokémon it shouldn't work on. What are you worried about, Bill? Or are you not entirely secure about your masculinity?"

"I'm not insecure!" Bill snapped, his voice breaking ever so slightly on the last word. "Here, I'll show you! Attract!"

...I was laughing so hard when I read that. XD

And then, Manectric, Growlithe, and Tate leapt over the crowd of females to lunge at him. The only thing that muffled Bill's terrified yelp was the excited barking and babbling of all three of his victims. As quickly as he could, he turned and started bolting for the woods, narrowly avoiding Tate's hands in the process.

"That was so cool!" Tate gushed. "Can you teach me how to do that?!"

"Veronica! Thom! Lanette! Keep them away from me!" Bill shouted.

All three of the humans remained exactly where they were, opting to watch Bill and the three infatuated pokémon run back and forth across the campground.

"That explains so much," Veronica quipped.

"Help!" Bill shouted.

Oh goodness. Poor Bill. So amazing that the Attract only worked on the males.