Anima Ex Machina (PG-15)

[ChloboShoka]

I, as most people here really enjoyed the story because of the great balance of emotional factors and action. The experiments and the way you wrote the characters were really interesting and I think the sci-fi elements were really creative. Bill in particular was really awesome in this chapter because you've made him so easy to like.

[Bay]

The flashback with Hope there, I was like “awww” over her excitement in winning the contest, only to then feel sorry for her watching the person that saved her being attacked. :< Kind of interesting Tate is actually the one dreaming/seeing that, though. I also like how you referenced Liza at the end.

"Your empress," Bill panted. "Your empress wants me alive, doesn't she?"

Prometheus shrugged. "Of course. But she never said anything about bringing you to her unharmed."

At that, Bill cringed. "Oh. I… I d-didn't think about that."

Okay, I laughed outloud at this part, LOL. Something about Bill realizing that amuses me.

Wee for Bill having a bit more initiative and confidence in battle, but of course he still needs Adam’s help. :P He’ll get there eventually lol. And haha, like how both Adam AND Lanette called him idiot. He's a lovable idiot, though. :3 As for the part with Bill (or Adam for that matter) going crazy, glad Tate came at the nick of time and the return of Lanette’s crowbar lol.

Overall another enjoyable chapter there. Can't wait for the next one!

[JX Valentine]

So a dirty mind helps you write fanfiction, huh?

You know it. ;D

I’m not sure that this will be much of a review, since there’s not a lot that needs fixing in your work, but there are a few highlights.

No problemo. b)'')b I appreciate everything~!

Peace and triumph never seem to last long around these parts.

Haha, nope! Peace might not even be on the agenda for quite some time to come. *fingertents*

I did like how you described the Contest Hall, though. I think the juxtaposition of the nice and safe Hall makes the switch back to the story’s more usual setting helps keep the alien attack scenes fresh.

Thank you! I really wanted to hit home how Hope's life differed before the Ixodida invaded, and I thought that was a good place to start. (Although I definitely have to say there's going to be a lot more glimpses into what Hope was like before the quarantine.)

Well that’s . . . unnerving.

Mission accomplished!

A black and white blur to the rescue. Is this what you meant by “something that will make Absol happy”?

Yep. And you can bet that that black and white blur's going to pop up again. Hope doesn't just have a Squirtle, after all.

This part made me laugh.

Haha, as it should have. ;D I love writing Thom for these kinds of reasons.

It’s Bill. Have you seen the luck this guy’s been having the past few days/weeks? Come to think of it, how long has it been now?

Good question!

Lemme think for a sec.

- Bill took two weeks to transform.
- He spent a couple of days in Mauville before Lanette showed up.
- A huge chunk of chapters took place over the course of three days (basically, between Lanette's arrival and the end of the Mauville arc).
- Between leaving Mauville and chapter twenty-five, a couple of days.
- Between chapter twenty-six and now, one full day.

So in total, it looks like it's been three weeks since Bill was captured by Team Rocket in chapter two.

At least Bill’s not the only one she treats like this. Look out for crowbars, Tate.

Haha, yep.

Guess the Caravan hasn’t had much time for small talk.

*le nod* They really haven't. Most of the time, a lot of its members haven't been particularly talkative, probably because of the anticipation that something's going to attack them at any second. I can imagine Steven and Wallace chatting with each other and Thom talking to whoever will listen (but more likely Bill's unconscious body). Vito talks to Lanette, but Lanette doesn't always respond. Ellen and Veronica sometimes chat, but pretty much the same thing there. Tate, meanwhile, spent much of his time with the Caravan unconscious, and the other times, he was following stealthily. (Something I didn't really get across in chapter twenty-five, actually, but there's definitely a reason why Bill didn't recognize Tate when he was attacked.)

Ah, poor Bill.

Someone has said "poor Bill." It is now an average chapter for this fanfic. b)'')b

Just a nitpick, and it might just be me, but I was sort of thrown off by the term “water-type champion” when I first read through. For a moment I thought you were saying Wallace was a water-type, rather than someone who specializes in water-types. Maybe it’s just me, though.

Actually, that's a good point, especially given the fact that I tend to refer to the Ixodida (who are literally ____-types) by their type names. I'll go back and fix that up when I get a chance, maybe with something that doesn't use "champion" as an epithet at all (to avoid confusion with Steven). Maybe gym leader would work (if we ignore Emerald)? Gotta do some digging concerning Wallace.

Poor Wallace: from Hoenn’s champion to babysitter in an alien-plagued region.

Haha, yeah. Even Steven doesn't get degraded like that because Lanette likes him more.

Ah, looks like Bill likes showing off when the opportunity finally arises.

Absolutely and this is totally canon too. Especially given the fact that the poor guy's been so out of his element lately. It's finally dawning on him that he could still show off his intelligence if he had the spine to do it (so he's totally going to be doing a lot more of this).

This really shows how much he's started getting used to being an Ixodida and having to fight, too.

Finally, amirite? XD

For some reason I imagine someone, probably Lanette or Veronica, making a quip about how much oxygen usually reaches Bill’s brain.

Haha, Veronica totally would. XD

Bill, by now one would think you would have learned not to tempt fate.

Oh, who am I kidding?

"Is Bill in immediate danger because of his complete and utter failure at being genre savvy? Must be Thursday."

I like the change of pronoun from “him” to “it” to denote the change of control to Adam. It makes Adam seem more alien, somehow.

Thank you! It makes talking about the two of them so much easier.

Aw, she does care about him. Until Adam finds a way to mess it up, anyway.

This = most of this arc in a nutshell.

As soon as she starts showing signs of seeing the "Bill" in the Bill/Adam hybrid more, Adam makes his way back to the surface.

In the worst ways possible, no less. ;D

Of course, the poor guy comes to his senses just in time to take a crowbar to the skull. Also, “idiot” seems to be a favorite word of . . . *thinks for a second* about half of the characters.

Haha, seriously, according to one of the spoilers in the responses I made last week.

So now we’ve seen at least some backstory for Lanette, Adam, and Hope over the course of the past few chapters. Who’s next? Tate?

Most likely. And more of Hope too, since I really want her to be more of a participant in the main cast.

I have to say, having access to those lyrics prior to reading the chapter really helped me frame the chapter's emotion in my mind a lot more clearly.

Awesome! b)'')b I hoped so. And this, dear folks, is how you put mood music in your fic without making it feel like you're bludgeoning your reader in the face with a brick. (Seriously, whoever started the "let's link to songs in the middle of the goddamn chapter" trend, especially by way of author's notes, please be ashamed of yourself.)

I have no explanation as for why, but I'm seeing Madoka standing here smiling right about now. That cannot possibly be a good thing.

Better than imagining Kyubey smiling, amirite?

Seriously, hosnap. I didn't make that connection, and now I sort of want to imagine Hope as the Madoka of the cast. And yes, there are characters who might as well be the Homura, Sayaka, Mami, and Kyoko of the clan. And Adam is obviously Kyubey.

And there's the Jax we know and fear love back to screw with us again.

*cackles evilly*

One thing that struck me as odd, though - where does "blood pounded in her ears" come from? It sounds awfully ominous, yet the dark content wasn't until the next line.

It's actually another way of saying her heart is pounding. Although I think I meant "heart pounded in her ears," so that's got to be fixed.

I wonder if it's important to know who this is, or who he even was in the first place.

Nope. Just there for the honorable position of resident red shirt. Don't worry about him. *nods*

Although he is the source of Hope's psychological trauma, and Hope did take a souvenir from him.

Boy, that guy sure fell to a fate that we're all familiar with - almost escaping only for the pursuing creature to grab you at the last minute.

Pretty much. XD

I know this is almost certainly embellished by her memory, but I still get the feeling that something happened here that is going to be important to remember later.

Yep. The blur.

So it was Tate seeing memories of Hope's in his own dream. Interesting. That's certainly an ability that will likely come into play again...

Oh yes. And hilarity will ensue once Bill finds out that someone's been romping around in his sister's mind. (Warning: Trope links.)

Knowing what the song Hope is singing means in English only makes it more soul-crushingly depressing, but that's Jax for you, eh?

*le bow*

Such is the power of a Combee honey addiction. You know what I mean.

Indeed I do. ;D

That could mean one of several things. Oh, Lanette, you crazy yet badass *****.

Why, yes, she totally just threatened the life of someone who can kill her with his brain.

And now I just suddenly got a really ****ing ominous feeling when, at the same time as I was reading this scene, I realized we don't really know much about Tate's parasite. How do we know a stress factor like this is not going to lead to something really, really bad happening?

*whistles innocently*

Seriously, you'll find out what happened to Tate's parasite eventually. When Bill and Tate finally get a chance to sit down and talk… without one trying to beat the crap out of the other.

I wish I could describe such scenes as well as you do. There's just so much beautifully described detail here, yet it never goes into purple prose. It just reads like a really well-written battle scene.

Aww, thank you. ♥ I've had a lot of practice.

And don't discount yourself too much. Your battle scenes are pretty awesome too. b)'')b

Bill, you're a genius, right? Thinking is your job, do it when it will save your *** too.

Haha, take Bill out of a laboratory, and he's just about as useful as a trout.

Remember what I said about thinking, Bill? I take it back, even if Robert Downey Jr. did something similar to stop Iron Monger. Takes a certain level of creativity to put out a fire without using water, you know?

*gives you a cookie again for recognizing the reference*

And I was right, Adam's not telling the whole truth. Not that we had any reason to think he would, though.

*tents fingers* Oh no. The whole truth has certainly not been told.

I'll give Bill a pass this time for not thinking, because of the low oxygen. He better not get used to it.

Haha, trust me, he definitely won't. ;D (I think I like writing him as being creative on the battlefield. It gives me more of a challenge to come up with funky things to do in fights, especially since Bill – along with half the Caravan, actually – absolutely refuses to think inside the box.)

Hey, maybe fighting in low oxygen was stupid, but it worked, didn't it?

Until the "whoops I'm falling" part. XD

In all seriousness though, I think this would have even more impact if we could get just a little more out of Hope herself. It's not that I'm saying Hope is poorly written or unemotional (she is far from either) but she would be even more effective if we knew just a little bit more about her and her situation, I think.

Ask and ye shall receive! While I'm not sure how much of Hope I can edit into this chapter, I'm definitely thinking of including her more and more in future ones, especially since she's actually supposed to play a vital role in the ending.

This is really, really surprising coming out of Lanette.

Change of heart? In my Lanette? It's more likely than you think.

OH NO.

OH YES.

Ah well, nothing a good crowbar to the head can't solve.

It's like duct tape!

I think you can gather that I really liked this chapter, as usual. There was an exceptional balance of action and emotion this time out. I think that's when it's most effective - when you can balance several different things. The plot moved along nicely, too.

Thank you~!

I'm sorry this review isn't the best I've done. I wasn't feeling well tonight.

It's totally okay. *pets* I hope you get well soon, though! Sinuses can be a serious ***** this time of year, and that's got to be wreaking havoc on your emotional state and stress levels.

You see, this is what happens when you don't check SPPf as often as you used to. Things pass by under the radar.

Aww. Real life and ponies, amirite?

Luckily however, I managed to catch this latest installment of "Love/Hate Relationship: A Jax and Bill story"

That is now the fic's subtitle.

THOM IS BEST PONY.

And this is why I love you. XD

…What would his cutie mark even be?

I swear you must have so much fun writing Thom.

I DOOOOO. \o/

He's just the perfect lovable idiot, what with his cheery attitude, also (now that I've watched Firefly and am allowed to reference it) he reminds me a little of Wash in so far that no matter how bad things get, he's always ready with something that will make someone laugh.

He's a leaf on the wind.

    Spoiler:- Spoilers for Serenity… which is an awesome movie you should also watch if you haven't already.:

Show Spoiler

 
But luckily not one that gets sucker-punched by a harpoon.
 

I'm also rather proud of Bill at the moment, he took on Prometheus and actually did rather well. His flying high into the air plan might not have been a winner, but at least it gave him some time and he was also doing pretty good with his offensive abilities (unmastered Mirror Shots notwithstanding) it was only when he thought up another plan that he resorted back to his defensive abilities. Our little man is growing up, *wipes away tear*

Inorite? 8D I'm really looking forward to the upcoming chapters because Bill's finally becoming more and more willing to fight. (Or at least to understand that pacifism doesn't mean just standing by or running away.)

I also never expected his (or was it Adam's) reaction after he fell, trying to eat everyone and such.

Goooood question, the one in parentheses. That is basically their autopilot mode – what happens when neither of them are fully in control but rather their instincts take over. (Which means, yes, technically, there's three personalities in that body. Or two personalities and one semblance of one.) But that will be explained better in the next chapter.

Yay for character development and yay for Thom! Great chapter.

Thank you~!

I, as most people here really enjoyed the story because of the great balance of emotional factors and action.

Thanks very much!

The experiments and the way you wrote the characters were really interesting and I think the sci-fi elements were really creative. Bill in particular was really awesome in this chapter because you've made him so easy to like.

I'm really glad you think so. It's a lot of fun working with both the sci-fi genre and my favorite character in the franchise, so it's really cool to hear that people are enjoying what comes out of it.

The flashback with Hope there, I was like “awww” over her excitement in winning the contest, only to then feel sorry for her watching the person that saved her being attacked. :<

My work here is done. *dons hat and skips off to the next chapter*

Kind of interesting Tate is actually the one dreaming/seeing that, though. I also like how you referenced Liza at the end.

Thank you! And yes, Tate is totally getting dragged into Hope's little side plot thanks to that mysteriously absent twin sister of his.

Okay, I laughed outloud at this part, LOL. Something about Bill realizing that amuses me.

*le bows* It's so much fun to put Bill in situations where he's finally forced to admit that he doesn't know jack.

Wee for Bill having a bit more initiative and confidence in battle, but of course he still needs Adam’s help. :P

Naturally, but not for long. ;D

He's a lovable idiot, though. :3

High five for this comment. XD

As for the part with Bill (or Adam for that matter) going crazy, glad Tate came at the nick of time and the return of Lanette’s crowbar lol.

Oh yes. No doubt Vito's Alakazam would've suffered a fate worse than a bite on a shoulder if Tate didn't pull a Big Damn Hero.

Overall another enjoyable chapter there. Can't wait for the next one!

Thank you~! Hopefully, it'll be up by the beginning of next month. Finals are starting, but on the positive side, that means the semester's almost over. \o/ Summer job from here on out~!

[Sidewinder]

Nicely done

Sorry it took me so long to get around to this. Once again, you did an awesome job. Grammar wise, everything was perfect, which is important. I think you said you had a beta reader, which I'm sure helps out alot. One thing I did notice though was that when Steven called out Aggron and yelled to it, his name was capitalized. However, when Aggron is referred to in the next paragraph, it's name is not. Believe me, I'm not real familiar with English capitalization but since that is it's name, shouldn't it be capitalized all the time? If I'm wrong please tell me lol. Anyway, besides that, the chapter was perfect, and I want to list a few parts that stuck out for me

The part in the beginning where Hope got pushed up the tree by that guy, just to have him be torn down and devoured was so freaking epic. It actually reminded me alot of a few scenes in the movie 'Pandorum'. In it, these genetic monstrocities just rip people apart and feast on them. It's actually quite graphic. So when I was reading that part, I felt like I could picture it perfectly. Nicely done!

Another bit that I thought was really smart was to have bill take Prometheus up high into the atmosphere to combat his fire abilities. Really smart on his and your part. Very rarely do people take science and common sense into effect and combine them. I also liked how it was hard for bill to breathe up there and as a consequence of weakening prometheus's ability, he was losing power as well. Which is smart, as that is exactly what would happen if they were up that high.

One last thug I really liked was when bill went comPletely beserk when he came to. Nice touch, and it was alot of fun to read. During the course of that fight, one other thing that stuck out for me was when he bit Alakazam and he screamed. Screaming is something that always grabs my attention when reading and when I read that, I moved like six inches closer to the screen. It really made it all the more exciting.

Great job once again, and be sure to PM me when the next one is up.

[JX Valentine]

Nicely done

*le bow*

Sorry it took me so long to get around to this.

Totally A-OK. I always appreciate awesome people dropping by either way.

I think you said you had a beta reader, which I'm sure helps out alot.

Absolutely. This is only the second chapter this particular one went through (because oh lol the shenanigans I had with beta readers for the first chapters of the fic), but he's incredibly thorough and helped me straighten out a lot of errors that I seriously wouldn't have noticed myself.

One thing I did notice though was that when Steven called out Aggron and yelled to it, his name was capitalized. However, when Aggron is referred to in the next paragraph, it's name is not. Believe me, I'm not real familiar with English capitalization but since that is it's name, shouldn't it be capitalized all the time? If I'm wrong please tell me lol.

This is an intensely good question because you're not actually wrong, but on the other hand, there's camps that argue that capitalizing everything is only one correct way of doing things. It is seriously something that has caused flame wars in this fandom.

The problem is that fandom terms are a bit of a shady thing. In other fandoms, sometimes, it's very clear what needs to be capitalized. Vulcan is a Star Trek race (and not just a species), so of course you'd capitalize it. Hobbit is capitalized because Tolkien said so. Xenomorph is not capitalized because it's a species name. That and it's pretty easy to tell what should and shouldn't be capitalized because 1) the words were written with our alphabet to begin with and 2) a lot of these examples aren't trademarked, making the argument of whether or not one should capitalize them purely an argument of whether or not the root word is a proper noun. (The root for Vulcan is; the root for xenomorph isn't.)

…But then you get to Pokémon. The source media, up until Gen IV, made things incredibly ambiguous thanks to the convention that everything should be capitalized. This included things like BIKE, however, so that made things even more confusing. If that wasn't enough, all Pokémon names are actually trademarked by Nintendo, meaning technically, they're akin to brand names. We can't even get an official statement on the subject because the Japanese language – which is the root for the original names of each species – has no concept of capital letters, so we can't just point at the original names of the creatures and say, "The creators did this, so logically, the English names should be exactly the same." As a result, you've got two major camps: those who capitalize and those who don't.

The people who capitalize Pokémon names all the time do so because of a lot of key factors: the names are trademarked, they're capitalized in the games, and so forth. (Note: Pokémon species names are not proper nouns, so the argument that "Pokémon names should be capitalized because they're names" is not being grouped here. But that's one of the other major arguments for the camp.)

Meanwhile, the other camp says that, technically, Pokémon names are not proper nouns. After all, if you replace every instance of "Pikachu" with the word "mouse" in a fanfic, chances are, the sentences you'll get out of it would still make sense. That's an indication that you're not looking at a proper noun but instead a common noun – as in, a reference to a random mouse-like creature, not a specific mouse whose actual name is Mouse as opposed to Jerry.

It gets even more complicated from there because while the camps are pretty clear-cut when it comes to species names, not everyone agrees on things like item names and move names. For example, I capitalize move names because to me, they're names of specific techniques, but I know people who don't capitalize move names because you don't capitalize "punch," "kick," or "praying mantis," either.

To boil everything down, though, it really depends on the writer's comfort. Some people do capitalize, and on a level, they're not really incorrect. Likewise, some people don't capitalize, and it's really difficult to argue that they're incorrect too.

So just to clarify, here's a basic run-down of the rules I go by:

1. Don't capitalize species names if they're serving as a common noun. As in, if I can replace a species name with what the species actually is (e.g., replacing "Alakazam" with "fox") and get basically a working sentence as a result, then the Pokémon name won't be capitalized.

2. Do capitalize when the species name is actually being used as a name of an individual. Admittedly, this gets a little confusing because most characters don't actually nickname their Pokémon. So, when you see a capitalized Aggron, chances are, Steven's actually addressing his Pokémon by name.

3. Capitalize all move names. (When move names aren't capitalized, I'm actually describing an action, not the overall technique.)

4. Capitalize all special items. For example, in my headcanon, Poké Balls are mass-produced, so the term is never capitalized. (Also, said term can refer to any ball that's used to capture Pokémon, so there's that too.) However, Master Ball is always capitalized because it's referring to a "brand" or special type of Poké Ball.

5. Pokémon (and Pokédex) are never capitalized.

6. All of these rules do not apply outside of fanfic. (In a regular post, I typically capitalize everything unless I'm working on a word processor/posting to this thread. This is to avoid having someone call me out on my lack of capitals.) So that's why you see me capitalize the word Ixodida in response posts.

And that's your tl;dr for the day! \o/

Anyway, besides that, the chapter was perfect, and I want to list a few parts that stuck out for me

Aww, thank you!

The part in the beginning where Hope got pushed up the tree by that guy, just to have him be torn down and devoured was so freaking epic.

Thank you!

It actually reminded me alot of a few scenes in the movie 'Pandorum'. In it, these genetic monstrocities just rip people apart and feast on them. It's actually quite graphic.

…And I like you.

Although I haven't seen Pandorum, I've heard of it and read the synopsis, and oh yes, it's on my to-watch list. I mean, seriously. Awesome – and violent! – plot but so many critics panning it? Clearly a B-rated epic. (And excuse me while I fangirl all over you for a moment.)

Another bit that I thought was really smart was to have bill take Prometheus up high into the atmosphere to combat his fire abilities. Really smart on his and your part.

Thank you! Like I said earlier, I am really liking the idea of using Bill's scientific know-how in a battle. ;D You're totally going to see more of that happening, just because it's so much fun.

And I also promise that the next time it happens, I'll actually show my homework a little more. (Luckily, no one's noticed so far that neither Bill nor Prometheus suffered from the bends at any point in these shenanigans. Among other lulzy things I'm totally not hand-waving right now.)

One last thug I really liked was when bill went comPletely beserk when he came to. Nice touch, and it was alot of fun to read.

Thank you! Oh, the fun drama that will come out of this. And by that, I mean "more violence."

During the course of that fight, one other thing that stuck out for me was when he bit Alakazam and he screamed. Screaming is something that always grabs my attention when reading and when I read that, I moved like six inches closer to the screen. It really made it all the more exciting.

High five. o/ Screaming does the same for me too. Especially when something visceral is thrown in along the way.

Great job once again, and be sure to PM me when the next one is up.

Thank you, and will do~! o>

[Sidewinder]

1. Don't capitalize species names if they're serving as a common noun. As in, if I can replace a species name with what the species actually is (e.g., replacing "Alakazam" with "fox") and get basically a working sentence as a result, then the Pokémon name won't be capitalized.

2. Do capitalize when the species name is actually being used as a name of an individual. Admittedly, this gets a little confusing because most characters don't actually nickname their Pokémon. So, when you see a capitalized Aggron, chances are, Steven's actually addressing his Pokémon by name.

3. Capitalize all move names. (When move names aren't capitalized, I'm actually describing an action, not the overall technique.)

4. Capitalize all special items. For example, in my headcanon, Poké Balls are mass-produced, so the term is never capitalized. (Also, said term can refer to any ball that's used to capture Pokémon, so there's that too.) However, Master Ball is always capitalized because it's referring to a "brand" or special type of Poké Ball.

5. Pokémon (and Pokédex) are never capitalized.

6. All of these rules do not apply outside of fanfic. (In a regular post, I typically capitalize everything unless I'm working on a word processor/posting to this thread. This is to avoid having someone call me out on my lack of capitals.) So that's why you see me capitalize the word Ixodida in response posts.

Wow, that was probably the best pokemon invoplved explanation I've ever seen. That really clears my thoughts up. I copy/pasted those 6 rules into a word document to use on my own fic lol. So thanks!

Although I haven't seen Pandorum, I've heard of it and read the synopsis, and oh yes, it's on my to-watch list. I mean, seriously. Awesome – and violent! – plot but so many critics panning it? Clearly a B-rated epic. (And excuse me while I fangirl all over you for a moment.)

I really think you'd like it. Ben Foster completely steals the show from Quaid. Definately worth a looksie

And no problem. For some reason, I like reviewing things that are well written

[JX Valentine]

Quickie announcement post because lol work:

1. The umpteenth edit blitz is currently underway! \o/ Chapters zero through five have finally been edited, with things like fixed wordings, the transition from "intern" to "assistant" (because there are no interns at Polaris now), and one censor dodge. (I still have to edit a tiny bit into chapter four, but otherwise, these represent the as-of-now final version of the story.)

2. Chapter twenty-eight is finally done and coming up. I'm hoping that with school out for the moment, I'll be able to write more and get back to a weekly schedule, but I say that every year. :| It's my goal this year, though, especially as I'm shifting focus from all kinds of other fandom pursuits (which I'm sure you didn't know that I did on the side) to writing.

3. There will be a surprise in store for you folks when we hit 300 comments on this thread. What could it beeeeee~?

4. One of the things I'd like to do in this edit blitz is change Hope's name. Weird, I know, but I realized a long time ago that: a) Hope is the name of one of Professor Ivy's assistants (really) and b) I'm no longer quite as fond of the Meaningful Name trope. Or on that level, anyway. So what will her name be? I haven't decided!

This is where you come in. The following are the proposals. Feel free to comment at any point between now and when her chapters will be edited (which won't be for some time) with your choice. I'll take the most popular (or the best suggestion, in the case of the third option) and run with it.

Your choices at the moment are:

1. Sophie
2. Serena (I will always be on a Sailor Moon kick, okay?)
3. Ra(y)e
4. "These names suck, Jax. Here's one that doesn't." (i.e., the "comment with another suggestion" option)

[JX Valentine]

Aaaaaand I wasn't kidding when I said the next chapter would be up soon. \o/


Anima Ex Machina
Twenty-Eight: We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

As Bill soon learned, the gray forest did whatever he wanted it to do except let him go. He could bend trees, convince the sky to turn green, even populate it with pokémon if he wanted, but it would never end.

More than that, there was no real concept of time, but he already knew that. He knew that sometimes two minutes in the gray forest would be an hour outside. Other times, seconds in reality would be years there.

Yet both facts never seemed as real to him as they did when he woke up next. The first several hours, he screamed and cried and clawed at himself in a desperate attempt to get rid of the memory of the attack. All he could think about was how he floated in a dark space behind his eyes but could hear the voices of his friends, could feel his body lash out and act on its own. The second several hours, when his voice grew hoarse and his limbs grew weary and caked in dried blood, were spent in complete misery. Adam hadn't made its presence known, and there was no end to Bill's dream in sight. He was trapped, unable to apologize or fix anything he had done outside of that space. All he had, as he lay on the soft earth, was the memory repeating itself over and over again.

In the third several hours, he got up and started walking. That was the part that took eons.

He had no aim. Although he knew the path through the forest by heart and wanted to go home – his home, the lighthouse on the cliff – he knew he would never reach the end of the forest if he tried walking straight there. So instead, he wandered aimlessly, weaving a winding path between the trees. He made the sun set and the moon rise. He made storms roll in (but never soak him) and clear away. He made ghost-like eevee and squirtle and swablu flit through the trees and fill the forest with sounds, and he made them disappear and fall silent. But he couldn't escape, and he couldn't see what was outside the forest. Eventually, his memory of the outside world began to fade. There was no way for him to tell how long he had spent wandering; he felt like he had been wandering for years but knew it wasn't relevant. So long as he made the sun and moon rise and set when he wanted them to, days didn't mean a thing to him.

Every so often, he would settle down in a spot and close his eyes. He didn't think he was sleeping in those moments. They were simply dark expanses of time that stretched across two points of the gray forest. Occasionally, in these visions, he would reach out and see a flash of light, but the flashes would fade and plunge him deeper into the darkness.

After one of these moments, he felt Adam's presence.

"There you are," Adam said. "I have been looking for you."

Bill sat up. He knew where Adam was – behind him, in a tree – but he didn't bother acknowledging the parasite.

"Upset, are we?"

A rustle and a thump signaled Adam's fall from its perch. Bill could hear the crunch of leaves with the creature's every step. He felt its warm arms slide around his shoulders and embrace him tightly, and all at once, his body tensed.

"Is that any way to treat your partner?" Adam purred.

Bill narrowed his eyes but said nothing in response. Eventually, Adam drew itself away from him and stood.

"I came to congratulate you on a job well done," Adam said. "You battled a member of the empress's court and survived. Had you fed properly beforehand, you might have actually succeeded in doing real damage to him."

In the beat of silence, Adam didn't expect Bill to reply. Because of that, it drew itself away from him, bowed its head slightly, and exhaled.

"Incidentally, that is what happened, if you were wondering. I warned you, did I not? We need fresh, raw meat in order to regenerate ourselves. Pokémon meat especially. We can absorb their regeneration factor and accelerate our own healing, and we need the boost of energy their meat can provide in order to power our own abilities. Cooked meat loses that quality, and your animal 'jerky,' while it may sate our hunger, does very little for us in terms of truly sustaining our abilities. It is nothing more than candy to my kind."

Bill shifted in his seat. Out of the corner of its eye, Adam watched him.

"Did that pique your interest?" Adam asked.

Its host stood, clenching his hands by his sides as he kept his eyes on the ground.

"I must say, I am rather pleased," Adam continued as it rose to its own feet. "Many hosts fail to adapt. That is why rogues are uncommon to rare. Humans, from what I have observed in my dormant state, are particularly fragile. You are indeed different from the others. Perhaps you are worthy of being my partner. There certainly is hope for you as a warrior."

"I'm not a monster," Bill hissed.

Adam lifted its chin. "Is that what you think of my kind? Monsters? Dear host, we are far above that. We fight when it is necessary."

"I'm not," Bill replied, his every word grunted slowly through clenched teeth, "a monster."

"Is this about your loss of control? An amateur mistake. You will learn to harness and control that rage and then channel it towards only necessary battles."

"I. Am not. A monster."

"Is this about the fact that you nearly killed that girl of yours?" Adam's voice dropped low, but it was dripping with his amusement. "The interesting one. Lanette. Oh. You promised her that you would never lose control, did you? Well, this certainly complicates things. Perhaps it would be better this way. You no longer would be burdened with the task of fighting for her favor. After all, I doubt that she would have anything to do with you now that she knows exactly what you will eventually become."

"I. Am. Not. A. Monster."

Adam hesitated. "This is not about Lanette at all, is it? Oh… I see. It is about the boring one who fears my kind. Yes, you could have killed her. She only stood there, after all. A fairly easy target, had it not been for the runt protecting her." It paused for a second time. "I wonder what she thinks of you now. You must forgive me for saying such, but I have never been very fond of sisters. Nothing good has ever come of them. That having been said, the little one would only serve as a distraction to our mission. Perhaps it would be best that she thinks of you as a monster, then."

"I am not—!"

Bill whirled around to face Adam, but he stopped dead in his tracks. There, behind him, he saw himself as a human. The expression was still the unnervingly blank mask Adam always wore, but everything else – the fingers, the skin, everything – was exactly what he remembered seeing in the mirror as a complete and independent person. Adam drew a hand – rounded tips, no claws – to its mouth.

"You dropped this on the way here. I simply picked up what you discarded. It is not like you need it anymore," Adam explained. "But I do find it curious how much you identify with that body now."

Shaking, Bill looked down and drew his steel-plated hands into view. His tail curled behind him in an anxious knot, and he was aware of the fangs filling his mouth for the first time since he began walking.

"Do not fear it," Adam said. "Incidentally, I read something fascinating in your mind while you were preoccupied."

Bill looked up and slowly backed away from the parasite. The blank look on its face suddenly seemed more terrifying than anything else he had faced thus far.

"Nyctophobia, the irrational fear of darkness," it said. "In truth, it is not fear of the dark itself but instead of the things that are in the dark."

With each word, Bill slid backwards. His back eventually hit a tree, and his hands clutched its trunk. A cold, clammy feeling flowed through every point of his body, and with every second, the gray forest grew dimmer and dimmer.

Then, the corners of Adam's mouth twitched.

"Monsters like us, Bill, have no reason to be afraid of the dark," Adam told him. "It is what we find when we wake up that we should fear the most."

At that very second, Bill woke up.

He saw nothing.

Literal.

Unending.

Nothing.

---

The plastic cooler in Lanette's lap rattled violently. She slammed her hands on its top, pressing the lid down to keep the Master Ball inside it closed. Her lips curled back in a snarl, and turning her head away from Steven, she growled just low enough that her voice was masked by the sound of the engines in the Caravan.

"Stop it!"

Even though Lanette tried to keep her voice down, Steven still looked over his shoulder at her. The two of them sat on the back of Steven's metagross as it glided through the air behind the van at the rear of the convoy; Wallace had taken Lanette's place in the truck's cabin on her request. She, meanwhile, sat with her back to the gray-haired champion and her attention mostly consumed by the container in her lap. While it remained mostly quiet for the better part of the journey, there were moments when the ball inside it tried to crack open. The lid would tilt open slightly as a white light flickered from within it, and at these moments, Lanette would slam it closed again, forcing the ball to shut on the pokémon trying again and again to escape.

After several attempts, Steven risked speaking up.

"Lanette, don't you think that maybe we should let him out? He seems pretty desperate," he said.

"We don't know what we'll be encountering if I do," Lanette growled.

"Steel-type attacks aren't effective against metagross," Steven reminded her. "Why don't you let him out when we stop, and I'll worry about keeping him under control?"

"No."

Steven raised his eyebrows at his companion. Lowering her head, Lanette spread one hand out on the plastic lid, pressing it down with as much force as she could apply.

"He stays in," she said firmly.

"You can't keep him in there forever," Steven responded as he faced forward.

"Why not? He barely has any aptitude on the field, he shows very little interest in battling, and he somehow attracts more trouble than the psychic. In total, weak and a hassle when he's in control; dangerous to everything around him when he's out of control. As far as I'm concerned, this thing is nothing but dead weight to us."

"That thing is your partner," Steven answered. After a slight hesitation, he added, "I've read about you, you know. The two of you created the storage system together, right? Trainers all over Japan have both you and Bill to thank. I'm one of them."

Lanette leaned forward to press even harder on the lid of the cooler. "Forgive me for failing to understand your point."

"My point is your partnership is what made you famous. Neither of you could have done it alone. Isn't that right?"

It took a few moments, but Lanette finally answered. When she did, her voice was even lower. "It was a different time back then."

"Maybe so," Steven admitted, "but if you believed with all your heart that no part of what's in that Master Ball is Bill, you wouldn't be this upset, would you?"

"Upset?" Lanette snapped.

"It seems to me that his attack on us hurt more than just Vito's alakazam. You cared enough about him to take him with us, yet you're personally seeing to it that he doesn't escape his ball."

For a long while, Lanette gave Steven a side glance. Even though he could see only one of her eyes, he noticed the dark look in them, the glitter of sheer anger and of something deeper and more painful than she was telling him. He wanted to reach out to rest a hand on her shoulder, but she moved, shifting her eyes to the path and leaning away from his reach. Then, she opened one of the pouches on her belt and pulled from it a poké ball. Tossing it into the air, she let it crack open and release her solrock. As soon as the light faded, it shook itself awake and floated alongside its mistress.

"Go to the front of the Caravan and release the signal," she ordered. "We're stopping for a moment."

"Stopping?" Steven asked.

In the same instant, her solrock nodded and soared over the rest of the Caravan to the front of the line. Lanette, refusing to respond to Steven, slid off Metagross's back with the cooler in her arms. Her feet hit the ground, and she crouched as Solrock flashed twice behind her. Then, as she rose to her feet, the van, the truck, and the metagross all halted in their tracks.

"Lanette?" Steven called. "What's going on?"

She turned to him. "You think I care about that monster?!"

One of her hands reached up to yank her crowbar from its sheath. The other dropped the cooler to the ground. Her boot connected with its side, sending it arcing away from her until it split open and spilled onto the ground. From within it, the Master Ball rolled until it cracked open in mid-cycle. A flash of light lit up the path, and finally, a few yards from Lanette, Bill appeared, kneeling with his head bent low. He wearily opened his eyes and blinked at the black dirt.

"What are you doing?!" Steven shouted.

"What I should have done as soon as I found this thing!" she barked.

Launching forward, she dashed across the distance between herself and the ixodida. The steel-type looked up, the situation dawning on him a second too late. She jumped on him, driving his back into the dirt as she pinned him down with her crowbar. Her knees held her weapon against his stomach while one hand shoved his shoulder into the dirt. The other reached for her side and unsheathed her knife. Its blade glinted in the sunlight, and all at once, Bill felt terrifyingly lucid.

"Lanette, no!" Steven yelled.

Right then, the champion's hand grabbed Lanette's wrist, and an arm curved around her waist. Steven yanked her to her feet as she screamed and struggled desperately against him.

"Let me go! I have to—I have to…!"

"Stop!" Steven cried. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"I know exactly what I'm doing!" she screamed.

Her eyes flashed at the ixodida. As he sat, scrambling to piece together the situation, all Bill could see was the red of her eyes. Angry, dark red. He shook and inched himself backwards, away from her as she glared at him.

"You liar!" she shrieked. "You monster! You promised me! You promised me that I wouldn't have to do this again! You… you…!"

For a split second, Bill could see her face twist, her eyes narrowing and misting as her mouth stretched. She turned in Steven's grip and shoved an arm into the champion's chest.

"You bastard," she growled. "Let me make this absolutely clear so that even you would understand. We're done. I'm willing to believe that you had Bill's memories, but as far as I'm concerned, you killed him. I don't know what you are, but you and I have no further business between us. I'm not your friend, and I'm not your partner. You are nothing but a monster. So, you want your freedom? Take it. Take the Master Ball and do whatever you want with it. But don't you dare come anywhere near me again, or I swear to all the gods, I will end you. I mean it this time."

Shoving herself away from the champion, Lanette stormed off, nearly bowling over Tate on her way towards the front of the Caravan. The psychic shuffled out of her way and nearly fell over Metagross as he clutched a plastic container to his chest. Righting himself, Tate frowned and continued towards Steven.

"What's her problem?" he asked.

"It's… probably complicated," Steven replied as he narrowed his gray eyes at her back. Then, he nodded towards Bill. "Tate, who are we looking at here?"

The psychic glanced towards the steel-type. His eyes flared with blue light briefly as he looked the creature over.

"Hard to say," Tate said.

Steven froze. "Hard to say?"

"I can't get a good fix on which mind is in control," Tate explained, "but I do know it's not hostile. It's just… sitting there."

"Make sure he sits there, then," Steven said. "I've got to go calm Lanette down."

He turned and swiftly made his way to the front of the Caravan. Tate watched him briefly before starting forward with the plastic container in his hands. Halfway between the ixodida and Steven's metagross, the boy cracked open the container. Bill sniffed, catching the scent of dead fish in the air. Perking up, he glanced at the container as Tate tipped it forward just enough for him to see its contents: a dead and gutted feebas. Tate sighed as he approached.

"You're not going to give me any trouble about this, are you? Because whether you like it or not, you're going to have to feed someti—"

As soon as the boy was within arm's reach, the steel-type interrupted him by swiping the container out of his hands. Tate recoiled and clutched one of his wrists as he watched his companion bite into the head of the fish. After a few seconds, Tate shook off the shock and assumed a fighting stance. His eyes took on a brighter glow as a blue aura ebbed off his skin.

"All right, you—"

"Relax," Bill said between bites. "It's me."

Tate paused for a few seconds, his mind probing the other ixodida's. Then, he lowered his claws and let the blue light fade.

"You're actually eating a pokémon," he said incredulously.

"I figured a few things out," Bill responded.

"Like what?"

Bill swallowed. "That the consequences of resisting are far greater than giving in."

Tate furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry. It's too difficult to explain right now."

Bill grasped the half-eaten fish as he shakily stood. With his other hand, he shoved the plastic container back into Tate's hands.

"Thanks for the fish," he said. "I should go before Lanette comes back."

"What? Wait, go where?" Tate demanded. "Look, if you're worried about whether or not she'll try to kill you—"

"That's…"

Bill shook his head and looked at the ground. Her words resounded in his head, and in that instant, he shivered and bared his teeth in a grimace. He could hear her voice and the tone she used when she called him a monster, but he couldn't see her face. All he could see was the thing that snapped him out of it when he attacked everyone. The image of wide, brown eyes staring up at him. The small face, the blank expression, the way the girl's tiny frame stood within range of his claws.

A stabbing, cold pain struck him to the core the second he realized he nearly broke a completely different promise he made to Lanette. He had only one duty on the Caravan, only one reason as far as he knew as to why Lanette kept him on the team, and he nearly forgot about it. He nearly forgot about her, the small, scared face in the rain. What's worse, he nearly broke his promise to Lanette in the most fantastic way possible. He could have killed her, and no matter what he did, he just couldn't shake that single thought.

It scared him to think of how close he came to being that kind of monster.

He could feel Adam's presence in his head, but he tried desperately not to think about it. His thoughts quickly shifted to his own words.

"That's part of it, but it's not everything," he admitted quietly. But then, as he raised his eyes, his voice grew louder and stronger. "There's something I need to do on my own."

Tate frowned. "What's that?"

"Train. Naturally."

Bill crouched with a smile, spreading his arms out as a golden aura flickered around him. Before it could ignite into a full-fledged Magnet Rise, it faded, and a sudden, stabbing pain ran through his torso. He choked back a cry as he doubled over and wrapped an arm around his stomach. The other hung limply, still clutching the fish. At the same time, Tate started forward.

"Um, look, I don't think you're well enough to go by yourself," the boy said. "Maybe if you just waited, we'd—"

The steel-type shook his head. "No. I need to do this alone. There's something I need to figure out, and I can't accept help to do it."

"No offense, but you're not exactly great at defending yourself. And since you're right now more than a little bit hurt, you know that you're taking a huge chance by going out there alone, right?"

Slowly, Bill began to smirk again. "I realize that completely, Tate. Regardless of what the others may think of me, I'm not stupid."

"Then what's so important that you have to risk putting yourself in danger over it?" Tate demanded.

Bill said nothing, opting instead to broaden his grin a little bit wider. His gaze met Tate's, and in that brief second, the psychic froze. A flicker of blue light danced in Tate's eyes, and a second later, the younger ixodida stiffened and backed away.

"While I'm gone, watch over Hope for me," Bill said at last. "I'll come by to visit her once I've gotten through the first part of my training, but until then… just make sure she's safe. Please."

"Um…"

"Also, please tell Wallace and Steven that I've gone," he continued. "Eventually, I'll be ready to train with them as well."

Tate closed his mouth. The blue light continued to flicker through his eyes for a few more seconds.

"And tell Lanette that I'm sorry," Bill finished, his voice softer than it was a moment ago, "and that someday, I'll make this right." Then, with one last glance to Tate, he smiled once more. "Thank you."

Then, he bit into the back of the feebas and held it in his mouth like a cat holding its prey. He dropped to all fours and darted into the underbrush that way, tail disappearing under the bushes before Tate could say another word. Behind him, the psychic only stared at the vanishing arrowhead as Steven returned to the end of the Caravan, this time accompanied by Wallace. Steven cast a curious glance towards the psychic, who finally turned to his companions.

"I think I'll ride with you guys this time," Tate told him. "I need to talk to you about Bill. He's in serious trouble."

"The fire-type?" Wallace asked as he climbed onto Metagross's back.

As Tate leaned down to scoop up the Master Ball, he replied, "No. Worse."

He stopped, examining the ball carefully. Its purple surface glinted in the sunlight no matter which way he turned it.

"Much worse," he said.

---

It was easy to forget whether it was night or day in Polaris Institute. Most of the complex was guarded with thick, windowless walls, so a view of the sun was a rare site limited to the windowed corridor between the Outer and Median Rings and the windows of the employee suites. Even then, sometimes, sunlight itself had no meaning to an overworked scientist.

For that reason, John barely knew what time of day it was when he ambled wearily to his own suite. He only stared straight ahead as he trudged through the halls of the Outer Ring, found his door, and drew his ID out of a pocket. However, as soon as he placed his hand on the door, it swung open before he could unlock it, and all at once, he was intensely aware of his surroundings.

Raising his eyes to the ceiling, he sighed, shook his head, and stepped into the dark apartment. Nonchalantly, he slipped his lab coat off and hung it on a hook beside the door. His heel kicked the door closed before his feet shuffled forward, carrying him through the doorway to the kitchen on his left. As he flicked on the lights, he cast a gaze towards the other door on the adjacent wall. A soft glow emanated from the sitting room beyond it.

"Remind me again what your name was," he announced to the room. "Athena? Ariadne?"

"Ariana."

John moved to the other door and poked his head out of the kitchen. In the next room, he saw the shadow of the woman sitting straight on the couch. The soft glow of a laptop screen – from a computer sitting on his coffee table – illuminated her long, crossed legs.

"Ah." He nodded and drew back into the kitchen. "I could never keep your damned codenames straight."

"My apologies," Ariana said flatly.

"Think nothing of it. Now then. Before we get any further, my dear, how did you get in?"

Ariana pushed herself forward and stood gracefully. "A perfectly valid question. You must know, though, that as chief of security, I have the liberty of indulging in… perks."

"No, no! No need to get up!" John strode out of the kitchen with a glass of scotch – straight, no rocks – in hand. "I was just fixing myself a drink. Would you like anything?"

Ariana cautiously sat back down. "No. Thank you."

"Are you sure? I've got a bottle of aged whisky. The real stuff, straight from Glenmorangie."

"Professor," Ariana said, "we have important matters to discuss."

"I'm sure we do," John replied cheerfully.

"Where is Professor Oak's assistant?"

John paused for a moment to take a sip. "Huh. That's not one of the topics I was expecting. He went home. Seems his mother's sick. Poor creature."

"You're lying," Ariana told him. She drew out the syllables as if she was giving him a warning.

To that, John smiled. "That's true, but I don't think it's any of your business where he is. And it's especially not your boss's."

As he raised his glass, he peeled one of the fingers clutching it away from its sides to point at the laptop on the table. Ariana turned her head but said nothing in response. Instead, a third voice spoke for her.

"Turn the screen to him, Ariana. I want to see him when I speak."

Obediently, she turned the computer, revealing a screen-wide image of a man reclining in a large leather chair. He smiled as if he was speaking to a long-time friend, but his eyes looked hungry and dark.

"Ah, Professor John McKenzie," he greeted. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"It certainly has, and I had hoped it'd be longer." John took another sip. "Say, there's something I've always wondered about your organization. Why have you never tried to take control of the storage system? Seems like that would be your idea of fun, and my boy doesn't exactly know how to make himself inconspicuous."

Taken aback, Giovanni frowned. "It was never of interest to us."

"Is that so? Well, so long as it had nothing to do with me. I don't want you to think I'd ever gone soft." John took a third sip and winked at the screen.

"Are you stalling, John?" Giovanni asked in amusement.

"Not really. It's just that you're of no interest to me, Mr. di Roketto."

"So Ariana tells me," Giovanni said. "From what I understand, if given the proper incentive, you would consider rejoining the fight for our cause."

At that, John snorted into his drink. He had to pull his glass away to burst out laughing. The sound of his voice boomed through the room and echoed off the walls.

"Ah, you Rockets have such a fantastic sense of humor," he said. "No, I didn't say that at all. What cause, anyway? World domination? Have you ever really looked at the world lately? What in God's name would you want to do with that thing? Besides, you haven't got a thing I want. I don't want money, my family doesn't need protection, and I couldn't care less about power. What's there that you could possibly offer me?"

Then, it was Giovanni's turn to smile. As John watched the other man's lips pull back into a broad, white grin, he did his best not to shudder or lose an ounce of composure.

"Come now," Giovanni drawled. "There must be a reason why you've been hiding in Goldenrod City for almost twenty years."

"Yeah. I like it there," John replied as he raised his glass. "The food clogs the heart, the lights keep you up at godless hours, the booze flows freely, the pachinko parlors seduce you with expensive prizes, and the girls have legs miles long. What more could I want?"

"Your old reputation."

John stopped. He drew his glass to his lips to hide a faltering smile, but he didn't dare tear his eyes away from the screen. Giovanni noticed this and leaned towards the camera on his end.

"You can't deny it, can you? You were once the star of the Pokémon Symposium. The greatest mind in Pokémon biophysics. A brilliant inventor in his own right. Creator of the TM and HM systems. The man who wrote the book on move tutoring and who outshined Professor Samuel Oak at the peak of your career. And then, suddenly, he reappears in Goldenrod City addicted to gambling, women, and alcohol. Suddenly, he publishes papers that can be easily debunked by the most amateur researchers fresh from Celadon University. Suddenly, he becomes involved in countless scandals. Nothing too earth-shattering. Conning trainers. Fixing pachinko machines. Dealing with small-time yakuza families. Abandoning whatever work he bothered to do. How did it feel, John, when researchers in the Symposium began ignoring you? How did it feel when they began writing you off as a has-been, a charlatan, and nothing more than a mad scientist? How would you feel if I told you I had the power to erase all of that?"

John downed the rest of his scotch and walked over to place his glass on the table. As he remained bent towards the screen, he cracked another smile.

"I'd say you're an idiot." Straightening up, he started walking back towards the hall. "If I wanted any of that, don't you think I would have bothered to fix my own reputation? All it'd take would be a few papers here and there to prove that I'm not as much of a twit as I pretend I am. After all, if the Symposium lost all hope in me, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

Giovanni laced his fingers together and placed his hands in front of his mouth. "Is that so?"

In response, John turned and said, "Of course. Anyway, now that it's clear that you have nothing to offer me, I'll be off. Ariana, not that it matters considering this complex is full of your people, but make sure you lock up before you leave. Help yourself to anything from the kitchen, but I'll warn you right now, the bedroom doesn't contain anything that'd be interesting to you or your boss. Or if there is anything, don't tell me about it because I don't want to know what tickles your fancy."

Ariana curled her hands into tense fists on her knees. Meanwhile, Giovanni moved his hands to reveal an amused smile. John, failing to notice either of these expressions, disappeared into the kitchen.

"Where are you going, John?" he asked.

"Where else?" John poked his head out of the kitchen to hold up a bottle of scotch. "The infirmary. The Nurse Joys get prettier the drunker you are, and if I'm arrested by the lovely Jennies of the security personnel, I'd rather be the happiest old man on Cinnabar Island while it's happening. And if you don't mind me saying so, talking to you puts me in that kind of mood."

"Isn't it rather early for that kind of behavior?"

John tilted his head. "Is it? What time is it?"

"Noon," Ariana replied curtly.

"Oh."

John nodded. Then, after a pause, he uncorked the bottle, took a swig, and disappeared into the kitchen again. The next sounds either of the Rockets heard were the rustling of John's lab coat and the door clicking open. Ariana immediately stood and rushed towards the front hall. When she found John next, the door was halfway open.

"It would be a mistake to make an enemy out of Team Rocket," she growled.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Well, see, here's the problem."

Throwing open the door, he stepped outside. Turning back, he saw Ariana's face illuminated in the sliver of an opening. Her jaw was set, but the skin of her face was bright red. It looked as if she was doing everything in her power to control her anger.

John took this as a challenge.

"The problem," he told her, "is I'm not afraid of you at all."

With that, he slammed the door shut in her face and walked calmly down the corridor.

[Diddy]

:x nuuu, Jax. your not aloud to ask the readers fer names! In all seriousness, Raye is pretty good. Sophie seems a little too... neither Scottish nor Japanese.

One thing this chapter makes clear to me is that John McKenzie is impossibly badass. The only thing that could have made that scene better is if John called Ariana 'toots' or 'sugar buns' or something sexist from the fifties. A nice little touch from that scene I did like was when John got Ariana's codename wrong and referred to her as Athena which is the name she has in the Japanese version of the games. Ariadne is of course the woman who boasted to have weaving skills better than Athena and once defeated, was turned into a spider for her troubles.

Holy crap. Major Edit time. The weaving woman was Arachne... Ariadne was the princess who gave Theseus the string to get through the labyrinth... Wow, I suck.

If I hadn't already made this clear, I bloody love Greek Mythology and anything that makes references to it :P

Nice to see Bill taking his fate into his own hands (claws?) After his little incident, perhaps some solitude and reflection is the best thing for him.

[Bay]

The part with Bill keep telling Adam he's not a monster, dang quite an intense moment there. D: Like Diddy, I too like Bill taking the initiative and I especially love the "That the consequences of resisting are far greater than giving in" line. Also found it interesting Tate can't distinguish between Bill and Adam. Wonder if that'll be shown more soon (won't be disappointed if that's not the case, heh).

Also like Diddy agree that John is awesome there. Great work, looking forward to next chapter!

As for names, Raye is a good one.

[The Great Butler]

Anima Ex Machina
Twenty-Eight: We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

As Bill soon learned, the gray forest did whatever he wanted it to do except let him go. He could bend trees, convince the sky to turn green, even populate it with pokémon if he wanted, but it would never end.

More than that, there was no real concept of time, but he already knew that. He knew that sometimes two minutes in the gray forest would be an hour outside. Other times, seconds in reality would be years there.

Yet both facts never seemed as real to him as they did when he woke up next. The first several hours, he screamed and cried and clawed at himself in a desperate attempt to get rid of the memory of the attack. All he could think about was how he floated in a dark space behind his eyes but could hear the voices of his friends, could feel his body lash out and act on its own. The second several hours, when his voice grew hoarse and his limbs grew weary and caked in dried blood, were spent in complete misery. Adam hadn't made its presence known, and there was no end to Bill's dream in sight. He was trapped, unable to apologize or fix anything he had done outside of that space. All he had, as he lay on the soft earth, was the memory repeating itself over and over again.[/quote]

Good job fixing the things I pointed out. These are really a beautiful few lines here, and with just these few parts you already painted a very vivid picture.

In the third several hours, he got up and started walking. That was the part that took eons.

He had no aim. Although he knew the path through the forest by heart and wanted to go home – his home, the lighthouse on the cliff – he knew he would never reach the end of the forest if he tried walking straight there. So instead, he wandered aimlessly, weaving a winding path between the trees. He made the sun set and the moon rise. He made storms roll in (but never soak him) and clear away. He made ghost-like eevee and squirtle and swablu flit through the trees and fill the forest with sounds, and he made them disappear and fall silent. But he couldn't escape, and he couldn't see what was outside the forest. Eventually, his memory of the outside world began to fade. There was no way for him to tell how long he had spent wandering; he felt like he had been wandering for years but knew it wasn't relevant. So long as he made the sun and moon rise and set when he wanted them to, days didn't mean a thing to him.

This is creepy enough on the surface, but when you realize just what constructs this world, it becomes terrifying.

Every so often, he would settle down in a spot and close his eyes. He didn't think he was sleeping in those moments. They were simply dark expanses of time that stretched across two points of the gray forest. Occasionally, in these visions, he would reach out and see a flash of light, but the flashes would fade and plunge him deeper into the darkness.

After one of these moments, he felt Adam's presence.

"There you are," Adam said. "I have been looking for you."

Bill sat up. He knew where Adam was – behind him, in a tree – but he didn't bother acknowledging the parasite.

"Upset, are we?"

A rustle and a thump signaled Adam's fall from its perch. Bill could hear the crunch of leaves with the creature's every step. He felt its warm arms slide around his shoulders and embrace him tightly, and all at once, his body tensed.

"Is that any way to treat your partner?" Adam purred.

Bill narrowed his eyes but said nothing in response. Eventually, Adam drew itself away from him and stood.

"I came to congratulate you on a job well done," Adam said. "You battled a member of the empress's court and survived. Had you fed properly beforehand, you might have actually succeeded in doing real damage to him."

In the beat of silence, Adam didn't expect Bill to reply. Because of that, it drew itself away from him, bowed its head slightly, and exhaled.

Very unsettling even though the situation itself is technically still calm. It really is that sometimes the calmest situations are the most disturbing. That's the word I'd use to describe Adam's not-so-subtle manipulation - disturbing.

"Incidentally, that is what happened, if you were wondering. I warned you, did I not? We need fresh, raw meat in order to regenerate ourselves. Pokémon meat especially. We can absorb their regeneration factor and accelerate our own healing, and we need the boost of energy their meat can provide in order to power our own abilities. Cooked meat loses that quality, and your animal 'jerky,' while it may sate our hunger, does very little for us in terms of truly sustaining our abilities. It is nothing more than candy to my kind."

Bill shifted in his seat. Out of the corner of its eye, Adam watched him.

"Did that pique your interest?" Adam asked.

Its host stood, clenching his hands by his sides as he kept his eyes on the ground.

"I must say, I am rather pleased," Adam continued as it rose to its own feet. "Many hosts fail to adapt. That is why rogues are uncommon to rare. Humans, from what I have observed in my dormant state, are particularly fragile. You are indeed different from the others. Perhaps you are worthy of being my partner. There certainly is hope for you as a warrior."

"I'm not a monster," Bill hissed.

And thus the temptation begins. You're really doing an excellent job of giving Adam this almost diabolical edge, especially here.

Adam lifted its chin. "Is that what you think of my kind? Monsters? Dear host, we are far above that. We fight when it is necessary."

"I'm not," Bill replied, his every word grunted slowly through clenched teeth, "a monster."

"Is this about your loss of control? An amateur mistake. You will learn to harness and control that rage and then channel it towards only necessary battles."

"I. Am not. A monster."

Liking the repetition of "I am not a monster" in various ways. It strengthens the conflict between the two sides.

"Is this about the fact that you nearly killed that girl of yours?" Adam's voice dropped low, but it was dripping with his amusement. "The interesting one. Lanette. Oh. You promised her that you would never lose control, did you? Well, this certainly complicates things. Perhaps it would be better this way. You no longer would be burdened with the task of fighting for her favor. After all, I doubt that she would have anything to do with you now that she knows exactly what you will eventually become."

"I. Am. Not. A. Monster."

Adam hesitated. "This is not about Lanette at all, is it? Oh… I see. It is about the boring one who fears my kind. Yes, you could have killed her. She only stood there, after all. A fairly easy target, had it not been for the runt protecting her." It paused for a second time. "I wonder what she thinks of you now. You must forgive me for saying such, but I have never been very fond of sisters. Nothing good has ever come of them. That having been said, the little one would only serve as a distraction to our mission. Perhaps it would be best that she thinks of you as a monster, then."

Wow, Adam, you did NOT just go there. Over the line, bro.

"I am not—!"

Bill whirled around to face Adam, but he stopped dead in his tracks. There, behind him, he saw himself as a human. The expression was still the unnervingly blank mask Adam always wore, but everything else – the fingers, the skin, everything – was exactly what he remembered seeing in the mirror as a complete and independent person. Adam drew a hand – rounded tips, no claws – to its mouth.

"You dropped this on the way here. I simply picked up what you discarded. It is not like you need it anymore," Adam explained. "But I do find it curious how much you identify with that body now."

Dude. I don't think I can even describe how that twist made me feel.

THIS is how you do psychological horror.

Shaking, Bill looked down and drew his steel-plated hands into view. His tail curled behind him in an anxious knot, and he was aware of the fangs filling his mouth for the first time since he began walking.

"Do not fear it," Adam said. "Incidentally, I read something fascinating in your mind while you were preoccupied."

Bill looked up and slowly backed away from the parasite. The blank look on its face suddenly seemed more terrifying than anything else he had faced thus far.

Does Adam have red eyes, a perpetual smile and cat ears?

"Nyctophobia, the irrational fear of darkness," it said. "In truth, it is not fear of the dark itself but instead of the things that are in the dark."

With each word, Bill slid backwards. His back eventually hit a tree, and his hands clutched its trunk. A cold, clammy feeling flowed through every point of his body, and with every second, the gray forest grew dimmer and dimmer.

Then, the corners of Adam's mouth twitched.

"Monsters like us, Bill, have no reason to be afraid of the dark," Adam told him. "It is what we find when we wake up that we should fear the most."

At that very second, Bill woke up.

He saw nothing.

Literal.

Unending.

Nothing.

I like the way you used the last four lines for emphasis, though I might have used something other than "literal."

The plastic cooler in Lanette's lap rattled violently. She slammed her hands on its top, pressing the lid down to keep the Master Ball inside it closed. Her lips curled back in a snarl, and turning her head away from Steven, she growled just low enough that her voice was masked by the sound of the engines in the Caravan.

"Stop it!"

Even though Lanette tried to keep her voice down, Steven still looked over his shoulder at her. The two of them sat on the back of Steven's metagross as it glided through the air behind the van at the rear of the convoy; Wallace had taken Lanette's place in the truck's cabin on her request. She, meanwhile, sat with her back to the gray-haired champion and her attention mostly consumed by the container in her lap. While it remained mostly quiet for the better part of the journey, there were moments when the ball inside it tried to crack open. The lid would tilt open slightly as a white light flickered from within it, and at these moments, Lanette would slam it closed again, forcing the ball to shut on the pokémon trying again and again to escape.

Did you mention before that the gray forest was what Bill sees when inside the Master Ball? I've forgotten if it was said before, but it really is a good idea.

"Why not? He barely has any aptitude on the field, he shows very little interest in battling, and he somehow attracts more trouble than the psychic. In total, weak and a hassle when he's in control; dangerous to everything around him when he's out of control. As far as I'm concerned, this thing is nothing but dead weight to us."

"That thing is your partner," Steven answered. After a slight hesitation, he added, "I've read about you, you know. The two of you created the storage system together, right? Trainers all over Japan have both you and Bill to thank. I'm one of them."

Lanette leaned forward to press even harder on the lid of the cooler. "Forgive me for failing to understand your point."

"My point is your partnership is what made you famous. Neither of you could have done it alone. Isn't that right?"

It took a few moments, but Lanette finally answered. When she did, her voice was even lower. "It was a different time back then."

"Maybe so," Steven admitted, "but if you believed with all your heart that no part of what's in that Master Ball is Bill, you wouldn't be this upset, would you?"

"Upset?" Lanette snapped.

"It seems to me that his attack on us hurt more than just Vito's alakazam. You cared enough about him to take him with us, yet you're personally seeing to it that he doesn't escape his ball."

I see the point Steven's trying to make, but it's painful to watch Lanette not get it.

For a long while, Lanette gave Steven a side glance. Even though he could see only one of her eyes, he noticed the dark look in them, the glitter of sheer anger and of something deeper and more painful than she was telling him. He wanted to reach out to rest a hand on her shoulder, but she moved, shifting her eyes to the path and leaning away from his reach. Then, she opened one of the pouches on her belt and pulled from it a poké ball. Tossing it into the air, she let it crack open and release her solrock. As soon as the light faded, it shook itself awake and floated alongside its mistress.

"Go to the front of the Caravan and release the signal," she ordered. "We're stopping for a moment."

"Stopping?" Steven asked.

In the same instant, her solrock nodded and soared over the rest of the Caravan to the front of the line. Lanette, refusing to respond to Steven, slid off Metagross's back with the cooler in her arms. Her feet hit the ground, and she crouched as Solrock flashed twice behind her. Then, as she rose to her feet, the van, the truck, and the metagross all halted in their tracks.

"Lanette?" Steven called. "What's going on?"

She turned to him. "You think I care about that monster?!"

And now I'm glad I beta'd this, because I'd be screaming at the screen if I didn't know what was coming.

One of her hands reached up to yank her crowbar from its sheath. The other dropped the cooler to the ground. Her boot connected with its side, sending it arcing away from her until it split open and spilled onto the ground. From within it, the Master Ball rolled until it cracked open in mid-cycle. A flash of light lit up the path, and finally, a few yards from Lanette, Bill appeared, kneeling with his head bent low. He wearily opened his eyes and blinked at the black dirt.

"What are you doing?!" Steven shouted.

"What I should have done as soon as I found this thing!" she barked.

Launching forward, she dashed across the distance between herself and the ixodida. The steel-type looked up, the situation dawning on him a second too late. She jumped on him, driving his back into the dirt as she pinned him down with her crowbar. Her knees held her weapon against his stomach while one hand shoved his shoulder into the dirt. The other reached for her side and unsheathed her knife. Its blade glinted in the sunlight, and all at once, Bill felt terrifyingly lucid.

"Lanette, no!" Steven yelled.

Right then, the champion's hand grabbed Lanette's wrist, and an arm curved around her waist. Steven yanked her to her feet as she screamed and struggled desperately against him.

"Let me go! I have to—I have to…!"

"Stop!" Steven cried. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"I know exactly what I'm doing!" she screamed.

I just realized what to compare this to to rationalize it.

    Spoiler:- spoiler:

Show Spoiler

 
Mami flipping out and killing Kyoko in the past timeline.
 

Her eyes flashed at the ixodida. As he sat, scrambling to piece together the situation, all Bill could see was the red of her eyes. Angry, dark red. He shook and inched himself backwards, away from her as she glared at him.

"You liar!" she shrieked. "You monster! You promised me! You promised me that I wouldn't have to do this again! You… you…!"

For a split second, Bill could see her face twist, her eyes narrowing and misting as her mouth stretched. She turned in Steven's grip and shoved an arm into the champion's chest.

"You bastard," she growled. "Let me make this absolutely clear so that even you would understand. We're done. I'm willing to believe that you had Bill's memories, but as far as I'm concerned, you killed him. I don't know what you are, but you and I have no further business between us. I'm not your friend, and I'm not your partner. You are nothing but a monster. So, you want your freedom? Take it. Take the Master Ball and do whatever you want with it. But don't you dare come anywhere near me again, or I swear to all the gods, I will end you. I mean it this time."

I died a little inside at this point just trying to imagine how much this hurts for all involved.

He turned and swiftly made his way to the front of the Caravan. Tate watched him briefly before starting forward with the plastic container in his hands. Halfway between the ixodida and Steven's metagross, the boy cracked open the container. Bill sniffed, catching the scent of dead fish in the air. Perking up, he glanced at the container as Tate tipped it forward just enough for him to see its contents: a dead and gutted feebas. Tate sighed as he approached.

Do you not know how rare Feebas are?!! Zigzagoon are one thing!

"You're not going to give me any trouble about this, are you? Because whether you like it or not, you're going to have to feed someti—"

As soon as the boy was within arm's reach, the steel-type interrupted him by swiping the container out of his hands. Tate recoiled and clutched one of his wrists as he watched his companion bite into the head of the fish. After a few seconds, Tate shook off the shock and assumed a fighting stance. His eyes took on a brighter glow as a blue aura ebbed off his skin.

"All right, you—"

"Relax," Bill said between bites. "It's me."

Tate paused for a few seconds, his mind probing the other ixodida's. Then, he lowered his claws and let the blue light fade.

"You're actually eating a pokémon," he said incredulously.

"I figured a few things out," Bill responded.

"Like what?"

Bill swallowed. "That the consequences of resisting are far greater than giving in."

Tate furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry. It's too difficult to explain right now."

I'll be waiting on that explanation too, because I'm pretty intrigued...

Bill shook his head and looked at the ground. Her words resounded in his head, and in that instant, he shivered and bared his teeth in a grimace. He could hear her voice and the tone she used when she called him a monster, but he couldn't see her face. All he could see was the thing that snapped him out of it when he attacked everyone. The image of wide, brown eyes staring up at him. The small face, the blank expression, the way the girl's tiny frame stood within range of his claws.

A stabbing, cold pain struck him to the core the second he realized he nearly broke a completely different promise he made to Lanette. He had only one duty on the Caravan, only one reason as far as he knew as to why Lanette kept him on the team, and he nearly forgot about it. He nearly forgot about her, the small, scared face in the rain. What's worse, he nearly broke his promise to Lanette in the most fantastic way possible. He could have killed her, and no matter what he did, he just couldn't shake that single thought.

It scared him to think of how close he came to being that kind of monster.

That was actually pretty depressing and disturbing to read.

"While I'm gone, watch over Hope for me," Bill said at last. "I'll come by to visit her once I've gotten through the first part of my training, but until then… just make sure she's safe. Please."

"Um…"

"Also, please tell Wallace and Steven that I've gone," he continued. "Eventually, I'll be ready to train with them as well."

Tate closed his mouth. The blue light continued to flicker through his eyes for a few more seconds.

"And tell Lanette that I'm sorry," Bill finished, his voice softer than it was a moment ago, "and that someday, I'll make this right." Then, with one last glance to Tate, he smiled once more. "Thank you."

Then, he bit into the back of the feebas and held it in his mouth like a cat holding its prey. He dropped to all fours and darted into the underbrush that way, tail disappearing under the bushes before Tate could say another word. Behind him, the psychic only stared at the vanishing arrowhead as Steven returned to the end of the Caravan, this time accompanied by Wallace. Steven cast a curious glance towards the psychic, who finally turned to his companions.

"I think I'll ride with you guys this time," Tate told him. "I need to talk to you about Bill. He's in serious trouble."

"The fire-type?" Wallace asked as he climbed onto Metagross's back.

As Tate leaned down to scoop up the Master Ball, he replied, "No. Worse."

He stopped, examining the ball carefully. Its purple surface glinted in the sunlight no matter which way he turned it.

"Much worse," he said.

Why must you tease us so? To think you leave us like this, wondering what's happened to our hero...!!

It was easy to forget whether it was night or day in Polaris Institute. Most of the complex was guarded with thick, windowless walls, so a view of the sun was a rare site limited to the windowed corridor between the Outer and Median Rings and the windows of the employee suites. Even then, sometimes, sunlight itself had no meaning to an overworked scientist.

For that reason, John barely knew what time of day it was when he ambled wearily to his own suite. He only stared straight ahead as he trudged through the halls of the Outer Ring, found his door, and drew his ID out of a pocket. However, as soon as he placed his hand on the door, it swung open before he could unlock it, and all at once, he was intensely aware of his surroundings.

**** yeah! John's back!

Raising his eyes to the ceiling, he sighed, shook his head, and stepped into the dark apartment. Nonchalantly, he slipped his lab coat off and hung it on a hook beside the door. His heel kicked the door closed before his feet shuffled forward, carrying him through the doorway to the kitchen on his left. As he flicked on the lights, he cast a gaze towards the other door on the adjacent wall. A soft glow emanated from the sitting room beyond it.

"Remind me again what your name was," he announced to the room. "Athena? Ariadne?"

"Ariana."

And **** yeah, Ariana's here! Nice fourth-wall leaning with Athena, too.

John moved to the other door and poked his head out of the kitchen. In the next room, he saw the shadow of the woman sitting straight on the couch. The soft glow of a laptop screen – from a computer sitting on his coffee table – illuminated her long, crossed legs.

"Ah." He nodded and drew back into the kitchen. "I could never keep your damned codenames straight."

"My apologies," Ariana said flatly.

"Think nothing of it. Now then. Before we get any further, my dear, how did you get in?"

Ariana pushed herself forward and stood gracefully. "A perfectly valid question. You must know, though, that as chief of security, I have the liberty of indulging in… perks."

New OTP incoming. Seriously, can you blame me?

"No, no! No need to get up!" John strode out of the kitchen with a glass of scotch – straight, no rocks – in hand. "I was just fixing myself a drink. Would you like anything?"

Ariana cautiously sat back down. "No. Thank you."

"Are you sure? I've got a bottle of aged whisky. The real stuff, straight from Glenmorangie."

"Professor," Ariana said, "we have important matters to discuss."

Must be important if she refused booze.

"I'm sure we do," John replied cheerfully.

"Where is Professor Oak's assistant?"

John paused for a moment to take a sip. "Huh. That's not one of the topics I was expecting. He went home. Seems his mother's sick. Poor creature."

"You're lying," Ariana told him. She drew out the syllables as if she was giving him a warning.

To that, John smiled. "That's true, but I don't think it's any of your business where he is. And it's especially not your boss's."

Remind me where he actually is? I can't remember right now.

As he raised his glass, he peeled one of the fingers clutching it away from its sides to point at the laptop on the table. Ariana turned her head but said nothing in response. Instead, a third voice spoke for her.

"Turn the screen to him, Ariana. I want to see him when I speak."

Obediently, she turned the computer, revealing a screen-wide image of a man reclining in a large leather chair. He smiled as if he was speaking to a long-time friend, but his eyes looked hungry and dark.

"Ah, Professor John McKenzie," he greeted. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

You know, I should have expected this, but I didn't.

"It certainly has, and I had hoped it'd be longer." John took another sip. "Say, there's something I've always wondered about your organization. Why have you never tried to take control of the storage system? Seems like that would be your idea of fun, and my boy doesn't exactly know how to make himself inconspicuous."

Taken aback, Giovanni frowned. "It was never of interest to us."

"Is that so? Well, so long as it had nothing to do with me. I don't want you to think I'd ever gone soft." John took a third sip and winked at the screen.

Lampshading that Team Plasma had control of the system and never did anything with it?

"Are you stalling, John?" Giovanni asked in amusement.

"Not really. It's just that you're of no interest to me, Mr. di Roketto."

Uh oh, watch out, we got a badass here. You generally don't talk to Giovanni like that.

"Come now," Giovanni drawled. "There must be a reason why you've been hiding in Goldenrod City for almost twenty years."

"Yeah. I like it there," John replied as he raised his glass. "The food clogs the heart, the lights keep you up at godless hours, the booze flows freely, the pachinko parlors seduce you with expensive prizes, and the girls have legs miles long. What more could I want?"

I am not sure if he means this in a good way or a bad way. Really.

"Your old reputation."

John stopped. He drew his glass to his lips to hide a faltering smile, but he didn't dare tear his eyes away from the screen. Giovanni noticed this and leaned towards the camera on his end.

"You can't deny it, can you? You were once the star of the Pokémon Symposium. The greatest mind in Pokémon biophysics. A brilliant inventor in his own right. Creator of the TM and HM systems. The man who wrote the book on move tutoring and who outshined Professor Samuel Oak at the peak of your career. And then, suddenly, he reappears in Goldenrod City addicted to gambling, women, and alcohol. Suddenly, he publishes papers that can be easily debunked by the most amateur researchers fresh from Celadon University. Suddenly, he becomes involved in countless scandals. Nothing too earth-shattering. Conning trainers. Fixing pachinko machines. Dealing with small-time yakuza families. Abandoning whatever work he bothered to do. How did it feel, John, when researchers in the Symposium began ignoring you? How did it feel when they began writing you off as a has-been, a charlatan, and nothing more than a mad scientist? How would you feel if I told you I had the power to erase all of that?"

Okay, I take it back, this guy really is a badass. Well actually we already knew that, but it's clear as day now.

John downed the rest of his scotch and walked over to place his glass on the table. As he remained bent towards the screen, he cracked another smile.

"I'd say you're an idiot." Straightening up, he started walking back towards the hall. "If I wanted any of that, don't you think I would have bothered to fix my own reputation? All it'd take would be a few papers here and there to prove that I'm not as much of a twit as I pretend I am. After all, if the Symposium lost all hope in me, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

Giovanni laced his fingers together and placed his hands in front of his mouth. "Is that so?"

Giovanni's clearly looking for someone to clone his dead wife so he can fuse his mutated hand with her to cause the apocalypse RIGHT?

In response, John turned and said, "Of course. Anyway, now that it's clear that you have nothing to offer me, I'll be off. Ariana, not that it matters considering this complex is full of your people, but make sure you lock up before you leave. Help yourself to anything from the kitchen, but I'll warn you right now, the bedroom doesn't contain anything that'd be interesting to you or your boss. Or if there is anything, don't tell me about it because I don't want to know what tickles your fancy."

I get the feeling John would find quite a few things missing from his bedroom...

"Where else?" John poked his head out of the kitchen to hold up a bottle of scotch. "The infirmary. The Nurse Joys get prettier the drunker you are, and if I'm arrested by the lovely Jennies of the security personnel, I'd rather be the happiest old man on Cinnabar Island while it's happening. And if you don't mind me saying so, talking to you puts me in that kind of mood."

Huh? That one reads a little oddly, can't quite make sense of it.

"Isn't it rather early for that kind of behavior?"

John tilted his head. "Is it? What time is it?"

"Noon," Ariana replied curtly.

"Oh."

Okay, I laughed.

John nodded. Then, after a pause, he uncorked the bottle, took a swig, and disappeared into the kitchen again. The next sounds either of the Rockets heard were the rustling of John's lab coat and the door clicking open. Ariana immediately stood and rushed towards the front hall. When she found John next, the door was halfway open.

"It would be a mistake to make an enemy out of Team Rocket," she growled.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Well, see, here's the problem."

Throwing open the door, he stepped outside. Turning back, he saw Ariana's face illuminated in the sliver of an opening. Her jaw was set, but the skin of her face was bright red. It looked as if she was doing everything in her power to control her anger.

John took this as a challenge.

"The problem," he told her, "is I'm not afraid of you at all."

With that, he slammed the door shut in her face and walked calmly down the corridor.

Wow um... he sure isn't afraid if Team Rocket can't intimidate him at all.

I think the strongest part of this chapter was the emotion. At times it actually got difficult to read, and Bill's struggling with the consequences of his actions was very sad to see. Adam was notably absent for a lot of this chapter, but the time he was around served to become outright disturbing.

Sorry if this review isn't so great, I'm still not all together.

[JX Valentine]

:x nuuu, Jax. your not aloud to ask the readers fer names!

OH SORRY I'LL GO POST IN THE AUTHOR'S CAFÉ THEN. :V

In all seriousness, Raye is pretty good. Sophie seems a little too... neither Scottish nor Japanese.

That makes three votes for Raye already (including one from my beta). I get the feeling that's what we're going with. b)'')b Honestly, I really like that one too, and that's one of the reasons why.

One thing this chapter makes clear to me is that John McKenzie is impossibly badass.

He doesn't always drink beer, but when he does, he prefers Dos Equis.

The only thing that could have made that scene better is if John called Ariana 'toots' or 'sugar buns' or something sexist from the fifties.

Haha, if only I could imagine Sean Connery saying that. If I could, that would have totally happened.

A nice little touch from that scene I did like was when John got Ariana's codename wrong and referred to her as Athena which is the name she has in the Japanese version of the games. Ariadne is of course the woman who boasted to have weaving skills better than Athena and once defeated, was turned into a spider for her troubles.

Holy crap. Major Edit time. The weaving woman was Arachne... Ariadne was the princess who gave Theseus the string to get through the labyrinth... Wow, I suck.

Y'know, I was thinking about Arachne because that would've made a better reference, but I went with Ariadne because it's one letter off Ariana's French name (Ariane).

If I hadn't already made this clear, I bloody love Greek Mythology and anything that makes references to it :P

*brofists* And there will totally be a lot more!

Nice to see Bill taking his fate into his own hands (claws?) After his little incident, perhaps some solitude and reflection is the best thing for him.

Agreed. Or as much solitude as he can get with the empress's court trailing after him.

The part with Bill keep telling Adam he's not a monster, dang quite an intense moment there. D:

Thank you! Now the challenge is getting himself to believe it.

Also found it interesting Tate can't distinguish between Bill and Adam. Wonder if that'll be shown more soon (won't be disappointed if that's not the case, heh).

It might be. *grins and tents fingers*

Also like Diddy agree that John is awesome there. :D Great work, looking forward to next chapter!

Thank you all around! John is insanely fun to write, so I'm pleased other people liked how that went down. :D

Good job fixing the things I pointed out.

Thanks! I'll admit I was playing around with the first line for a bit because I wasn't sure where to put that key phrase, but I'm glad it turned out all right.

This is creepy enough on the surface, but when you realize just what constructs this world, it becomes terrifying.

Oh yes. Leave it to Bill to prove that you can totally mind**** yourself.

Very unsettling even though the situation itself is technically still calm. It really is that sometimes the calmest situations are the most disturbing. That's the word I'd use to describe Adam's not-so-subtle manipulation - disturbing.

Y'know, I didn't realize until you mentioned it just how far Adam's come from the first scene in Gray Forest. I guess this just shows that Adam's techniques are most definitely evolving.

And thus the temptation begins. You're really doing an excellent job of giving Adam this almost diabolical edge, especially here.

Thank you!

Wow, Adam, you did NOT just go there. Over the line, bro.

Yep. Adam just jammed its hand on Bill's berserk button. Luckily, this is considered another one of Bill's heroic BSODs because otherwise…

…Well, actually, you'll get to see what happens when you mess with Bill's sister(s) in his presence later.

Dude. I don't think I can even describe how that twist made me feel.

THIS is how you do psychological horror.

*bows* :D

Does Adam have red eyes, a perpetual smile and cat ears?

MAYBE.

It may also ask gullible humans to make contracts with it.

…Which actually happened in this fic. (Oh, that first Gray Forest scene.)

I like the way you used the last four lines for emphasis, though I might have used something other than "literal."

Hmm. That's a good thought. I'll have to play around with that part to see what else might fit there.

Did you mention before that the gray forest was what Bill sees when inside the Master Ball? I've forgotten if it was said before, but it really is a good idea.

Nope, but thanks! Truth be told, Gray Forest is what Bill sees when he's unconscious or asleep. The nothingness is what he sees when he's inside the Master Ball. (In this world, that's what all Pokémon perceive, but most of them enter a state of semi-dormancy. They're vaguely aware of what's going on outside of their balls, but they don't actually perceive that they're locked in a void. This also explains why Ash's Pikachu hates being kept in Poké Balls and why so many other Pokémon have a penchant for breaking out. Because some Pokémon do perceive the void and are incredibly freaked out by it.)

I see the point Steven's trying to make, but it's painful to watch Lanette not get it.

Yep. And she probably won't for some time. She's just that pissed off.

And now I'm glad I beta'd this, because I'd be screaming at the screen if I didn't know what was coming.

*cackles madly*

I just realized what to compare this to to rationalize it.

    Spoiler:- spoiler:

Show Spoiler

 
Mami flipping out and killing Kyoko in the past timeline.
 

Oh my God, that's a beautiful and intensely appropriate comparison.

Even if Lanette is Homura.

I died a little inside at this point just trying to imagine how much this hurts for all involved.

Oh yes. Some more than others.

….

*pets Lanette*

Do you not know how rare Feebas are?!! Zigzagoon are one thing!

PAYBACK FOR BEING SUCH A ***** TO CATCH. >:D

I'll be waiting on that explanation too, because I'm pretty intrigued...

And you certainly will get it, hopefully in the next chapter~!

That was actually pretty depressing and disturbing to read.

Thank you! Yeah, Bill's finally remembering that he's got a duty to his sister. And what's even more depressing is that…

…Well, let's just say that Bill has plenty of family issues he doesn't talk about. (Until maybe next chapter.)

Why must you tease us so? To think you leave us like this, wondering what's happened to our hero...!!

Because I'm evil. ;D

And **** yeah, Ariana's here! Nice fourth-wall leaning with Athena, too.

*le bow* I love John because he's probably the character who's the most genre savvy out of the entire cast.

New OTP incoming. Seriously, can you blame me?

Not at all. ;D

There needs to be, like, a Homestuck-esque shipping wall for the entire cast. It would take forever to describe all the fantastic configurations.

Remind me where he actually is? I can't remember right now.

Tracey? I never mentioned where he was. ;D But don't worry. You'll see soon enough!

You know, I should have expected this, but I didn't.

*le bows again*

Lampshading that Team Plasma had control of the system and never did anything with it?

Oh man, lampshading everything about gameverse evil teams and the programmers. Literally, the only one who gets a pass on this one is Lanette, and that's only because Teams Aqua and Plasma weren't trying to take over the world. >8| Everyone else? Oh, let's see.

1. Team Plasma came close to controlling the system, but did they do anything with it? Nope! Which is hilarious because their biggest goal was to separate people from their Pokémon. Y'know. A goal that would have been achievable by hacking everyone's accounts and screwing with them to either disable the system or release every captured Pokémon in Unova.

2. Then you have Bebe, who lives smack in the middle of the largest city in Sinnoh. Granted, Team Galactic wasn't after disabling trainers in order to reach their goals, but you'd think that'd make things easier, right?

3. And then you have Bill, which turns into all shades of hilarious because he managed to evade being remotely bothered by the one team that's most notorious for wanting to take over the world when it took over his hometown. Even better, depending on how you play the game (read: depending on whether or not you visit Ecruteak's Pokémon Center before defeating the Mahogany Gym), there's a good chance that Bill is actually in the city at the time. And even more hilarious, Gen II had him inventing a time machine, so with Team Rocket crawling all over Goldenrod and with Bill practically painting a bullseye on himself, there is literally no conceivable excuse as to why absolutely no one in the organization stopped and said, "Hey! You know what would be really cool? If we could not only control the Pokémon storage system but also mother****in' time and space." This is also ignoring the fact that Gens I and III put Team Rocket recruiters in the vicinity of his home, which would technically mean that he's happily and obliviously skipped away from Team Rocket's clutches not once but twice. It's also ignoring the fact that, even more hilariously, the only time that Team Rocket has ever targeted him specifically was in the one canon in which he wasn't even explicitly an inventor (read: the anime). In every other canon, they've either ignored him, targeted him because he has an unfortunate habit of making friends with protagonists, or went after a Pokémon he was looking after because it was their property to begin with. (Toshihiro Ono's extra really is that amusing, by the way.)

Tl;dr, evil teams really dropped the ball, but Team Rocket seems to have dropped the ball off a skyscraper. Except for Jessie and James. Somehow.

Uh oh, watch out, we got a badass here. You generally don't talk to Giovanni like that.

Unless you're awesome. ;D

I am not sure if he means this in a good way or a bad way. Really.

Haha, well! John is a man of… interesting morals. His idea of fun is pretty much eating greasy food, drinking heavily, gambling at insane hours, and hitting on young women. (His wife is only okay with this because she knows she's the only one he sleeps with at the end of the day. John may be sleazy, drunk, and lecherous, but at least he's honest to the woman he actually loves.)

Okay, I take it back, this guy really is a badass. Well actually we already knew that, but it's clear as day now.

Haha, he is.

Giovanni's clearly looking for someone to clone his dead wife so he can fuse his mutated hand with her to cause the apocalypse RIGHT?

SHHH. THAT'S TOTALLY NOT THEIR ULTIMATE GOAL.

I get the feeling John would find quite a few things missing from his bedroom...

Like all of his underwear. All of it.

But he wouldn't mind because he probably struts around commando anyway.

Raise your hand if I just planted in your mind the image of Sean Connery without any underwear. To those of you raising your hands, you're welcome.

Huh? That one reads a little oddly, can't quite make sense of it.

Basically speaking, John wants to get drunk at the infirmary and hit on the Nurse Joys working there. He then wants to continue being drunk when the Officer Jennies of the security personnel come to drag him away so he can hit on them and generally be intensely happy that he's being man-handled (professionally) by hot police officers in mini-skirts. He would literally be the happiest man on Cinnabar Island (where Polaris is) if things happened in that order.

With that said, I'll totally take another look at it to see if it can be phrased any clearer. Thanks!

Wow um... he sure isn't afraid if Team Rocket can't intimidate him at all.

Haha, yeeep. Evil organization equivalent to the yakuza on steroids? Mock them and then slam a door in their faces. That will totally end well.

…If you're awesome.

I think the strongest part of this chapter was the emotion.

Thanks! Ngl, I have a lot of fun writing emotional scenes. It's just really fun to watch characters who are normally perky/serene/what-not (like Bill) get backed into a corner and figure out what to do with that. It's especially fun with Bill, I think, because as a genius and eccentric, his brain is seriously not wired like anyone else's, so his reactions aren't going to be the same as mine, yours, or anyone else's. I mean, if I was in that situation – where someone I thought of as a best friend physically abused me and called me a monster – I'd probably break down emotionally. Others might lash out in anger. Bill quietly calms himself down and then decides to leave. It's a completely different reaction from anything else someone would think of as logical, but I guess that's a lot of the point with Bill's psyche, which is why he's so much fun to write (as in, because you just never know with him).

John's a lot of the same, actually, because like Bill, his brain isn't wired the same way. It's just that he adds experience on top of eccentricity and genius, so he's able to shrug a lot of things off as irrelevant. Did someone just rip open a wound by pointing out that you were once respectable and are now an abject failure? I'm sure there are people out there who wouldn't be able to handle it, but John laughs it off and says that was completely intentional.

Tl;dr, it's my opinion that the difference between a genius and a normal person isn't how they speak. They don't engage in sesquipedalian loquaciousness, speak only in extremely formal manners, or pepper everything they say with technobabble. They just react to situations completely differently than most people. That's why it's a saying that there's a fine line between genius and insanity. Writing emotional scenes like these lets me play with that idea completely.

That and I love tormenting my characters, but that goes without saying. ;)

Sorry if this review isn't so great, I'm still not all together.

Totally cool. I hope you're doing better today, though.

Also, thanks for the review. ♥ I seriously appreciate it. And that goes for Bay and Diddy too.

[Diddy]

That makes three votes for Raye already (including one from my beta). I get the feeling that's what we're going with. b)'')b Honestly, I really like that one too, and that's one of the reasons why.

I suppose you could say she will be a 'Raye' of hope!

Ba-dum tss!

[JX Valentine]

I suppose you could say she will be a 'Raye' of hope!

Ba-dum tss!

You know, my beta said the same thing, and in my mind, this happened:

THOM

I guess you could say...

(He dons a pair of sunglasses and poses.)

THOM

...She's our Raye of hope. YEEEEEEAH.

(Significant pause.)

LANETTE

Thom, I will beat you senseless with my crowbar.

VERONICA

I'll watch.

[Sidewinder]

Raye is cool, though I'm still pretty found of hope

More than that, there was no real concept of time, but he already knew that. He knew that sometimes two minutes in the gray forest would be an hour outside. Other times, seconds in reality would be years there.

I liked that a lot. I went through something similar in my own fic recently. Although, it was time slowing down, not stopping. I like that Bill is starting to realize where he is and how he can change his circumstance. The more he frees his mind and settles into more of a 'Mature' state, things are slowly getting better for him. I base that on the fact tht he is able to exercise more control over what's ahppening, (at least in that area)...hope that made sense haha

That was the part that took eons.

I would change 'Eons'...I know you're trying to describe how drastically long it took, but that portion read weird to me.

"You dropped this on the way here. I simply picked up what you discarded. It is not like you need it anymore," Adam explained. "But I do find it curious how much you identify with that body now."

This is why I love your writing. What a powerful statement. Seriously. Got a slight chill when Adam said that.

At first I felt like Adam was being intentionally malicious. Baiting Bill with his image in an effort to show him what he had lost. The more I thought about it though, I came to feel like Adam was trying to break Bill out of his depression and angst by showing him that his body/being is still there. Waiting for him in a way. Bill completely lost his train of thought for a second when he saw it. To me, it felt like Adam was trying to tell him that he ISNT a monster, he is still who he was, but he's growing. That's what I got from it anyway haha

He stopped, examining the ball carefully. Its purple surface glinted in the sunlight no matter which way he turned it.

Why do I feel like this means something

"The problem," he told her, "is I'm not afraid of you at all."

I knew I liked John.

Spelling and stuff was perfect in this chapter as always. The one thing that felt odd to me in this chapter was the pacing. It went from Bill, to Lanette and Steven, to John. Tht's not very many shifts at all, hell I've used a lot more in a single chapter. I was hoping for a little more expansion on the forest, maybe Bill making some Pokemon or changing the scenery Inception style. I don't really have a way for you to fix this, and that suggestion might just be in my head, so pay me no mind lol. It was a good chapter for the sole reason of Bill coming to terms with the fact that he has to get stronger. I knew that revelation would eventually happen, I just didn't think that Lanette would be the cause of it. Anyway, awesome chapter yet again, and I'm 'hungry for more

[JX Valentine]

Raye is cool, though I'm still pretty found of hope

I'd have to admit I'll miss the name, but when her point in the story is revealed, it'll seriously be for the best that the change happened. X_x Lol, yours truly and her "let's be obvious" tendencies back in the day.

I liked that a lot. I went through something similar in my own fic recently.

Thanks, and I seriously need to catch up with your fic and drop a review. orz I mean, I've checked it out, and it looks incredibly awesome. It's just… blargh, real life. X_x Sorry about that!

I like that Bill is starting to realize where he is and how he can change his circumstance. The more he frees his mind and settles into more of a 'Mature' state, things are slowly getting better for him. I base that on the fact tht he is able to exercise more control over what's ahppening, (at least in that area)...hope that made sense haha

It totally did, and you're totally right. Not to give away too much about the next chapter/his cryptic babbling in this one, but that's a large part of what he finally figured out: that he's more in control than he realizes.

And I'm definitely looking forward to exploring that more. *tents fingers*

I would change 'Eons'...I know you're trying to describe how drastically long it took, but that portion read weird to me.

That's a good suggestion. Maybe if I replaced it with "forever"? "An eternity"? I'll have to think about it a bit more, I'd say, but those are the first two that jump to mind, at least.

This is why I love your writing. What a powerful statement. Seriously. Got a slight chill when Adam said that.

*bows* Thank you!

At first I felt like Adam was being intentionally malicious. Baiting Bill with his image in an effort to show him what he had lost. The more I thought about it though, I came to feel like Adam was trying to break Bill out of his depression and angst by showing him that his body/being is still there. Waiting for him in a way. Bill completely lost his train of thought for a second when he saw it. To me, it felt like Adam was trying to tell him that he ISNT a monster, he is still who he was, but he's growing. That's what I got from it anyway haha

You know, I really like this interpretation.

And you should totally go with it because you're on to something.

Aaaaand that's all I can say about that.

Why do I feel like this means something

Because it might. ;D

I knew I liked John.

Haha, it's hard not to like John.

Unless you're Team Rocket.

Or a son with slight daddy issues. Which I'd love to get into eventually because boy howdy is the McKenzie family dysfunctional.

But otherwise!

Spelling and stuff was perfect in this chapter as always.

Thanks!

The one thing that felt odd to me in this chapter was the pacing. It went from Bill, to Lanette and Steven, to John. Tht's not very many shifts at all, hell I've used a lot more in a single chapter. I was hoping for a little more expansion on the forest, maybe Bill making some Pokemon or changing the scenery Inception style. I don't really have a way for you to fix this, and that suggestion might just be in my head, so pay me no mind lol.

When it comes to the lack of shifts, that's actually pretty intentional, admittedly. I used to do a lot more each chapter (with each one reaching twenty pages on average, even), but then a lot of people complained that the chapters were too lengthy and covered too much material. So I wound up cutting down the amount of material I covered, which wound up meaning that each chapter contained either very quick scenes or only a maximum of four scenes a chapter. Sort of annoying because now I have to cover a lot of ground in short spurts, but on the positive side, the people who were complaining about godawfully long chapters stopped griping about that. *solemn nod*

Meanwhile, though, you do bring up an incredibly good point about the Gray Forest. That's something I'd really like to get into within the fic too. I'm not sure if I can fit it in this chapter, but it's certainly something you'll see later on, especially since the fact that Bill now realizes he can control what goes on within it will be a plot point eventually.

It was a good chapter for the sole reason of Bill coming to terms with the fact that he has to get stronger. I knew that revelation would eventually happen, I just didn't think that Lanette would be the cause of it.

*brofists*

Raye/Hope/whatever her name is too, I have to say, which reminds me that I really need to build up that relationship because… whoops. (I totally didn't let my shipping tendencies get in the way of the plot! What are you talking about? >_> <_<)

Anyway, awesome chapter yet again, and I'm 'hungry for more

Thank you! Hopefully, the next chapter will be soon~!

Especially since we're so close to 300 replies. And with 300 replies comes that special surprise(s) that I mentioned earlier. (WHAT COULD THEY BEEEEE~?)

[Sidewinder]

Thanks, and I seriously need to catch up with your fic and drop a review. orz I mean, I've checked it out, and it looks incredibly awesome. It's just… blargh, real life. X_x Sorry about that!

That's quite a compliment coming from you ^^;; You're totally fine! I wait patiently for my chance to be on your proverbial chopping block :P

That's a good suggestion. Maybe if I replaced it with "forever"? "An eternity"? I'll have to think about it a bit more, I'd say, but those are the first two that jump to mind, at least.

Either of those sound a little bit better for me. I know that both of those symbolize unending, infinite, etc, but eons just seemed so much bigger.

And you should totally go with it because you're on to something.

When it comes to the lack of shifts, that's actually pretty intentional, admittedly. I used to do a lot more each chapter (with each one reaching twenty pages on average, even), but then a lot of people complained that the chapters were too lengthy and covered too much material. So I wound up cutting down the amount of material I covered, which wound up meaning that each chapter contained either very quick scenes or only a maximum of four scenes a chapter. Sort of annoying because now I have to cover a lot of ground in short spurts, but on the positive side, the people who were complaining about godawfully long chapters stopped griping about that. *solemn nod*

I see. I too have been guided by reviewers when it comes to pacing and POV shifts. I've always felt like you've had a nice balance, this was just the one time it felt slightly off to me

Meanwhile, though, you do bring up an incredibly good point about the Gray Forest. That's something I'd really like to get into within the fic too. I'm not sure if I can fit it in this chapter, but it's certainly something you'll see later on, especially since the fact that Bill now realizes he can control what goes on within it will be a plot point eventually.

I hope so. When you showed us in this chapter that it could change things, I literally got closer to the screen. I was excited about the idea of the forest when you first introduced it. But now that I see how Bill can alter what he's seeing/feeling it opens up so many possibilities. It becomes pure creation at that point, which can become fantastically gripping. Now that you said that it will be a plot point, I've formulated a few theories

(I totally didn't let my shipping tendencies get in the way of the plot! What are you talking about? >_> <_<)

Hah! Nicely done

[JX Valentine]

First up, a quick response!

    Spoiler:- Huzzah!:

Show Spoiler

 

You're totally fine! I wait patiently for my chance to be on your proverbial chopping block :P

Hopefully, you won't have to wait long. XD; I'm slowly, slowly getting to my to-review list, anyway.

Either of those sound a little bit better for me. I know that both of those symbolize unending, infinite, etc, but eons just seemed so much bigger.

Awesome. I think I've finally settled on "eternity," and that'll be edited in when I finally get caught up on the edit blitz. Thanks for the feedback!

I see. I too have been guided by reviewers when it comes to pacing and POV shifts. I've always felt like you've had a nice balance, this was just the one time it felt slightly off to me

Hmm. In that case, I'll check it out a bit closer and see what I can do to draw out the scenes a bit more.

Now that you said that it will be a plot point, I've formulated a few theories

And I would love to hear them. 8D

Hah! Nicely done

*le bow!*
 

Aaaand now! I'd hate to keep this short, but I'll admit I'm completely exhausted from real-life shenanigans. So, alas, no creative lead-in tonight. Just pure, unadulterated chapter.



Anima Ex Machina: Twenty-Nine
Am I my sister's keeper?

The fog at the top of Mt. Pyre hung thicker than usual as the empress perched on one of the pedestals that once held the Red and Blue Orbs. Her violet fingers fanned across the first of the two orbs, and her blue eyes blazed with a supernatural light as she examined its blood-red surface.

"How curious," she murmured, "that the people of this planet once tried to control their gods."

Beside her stood the source of the fog, Pandora. The ice-type's glistening hands wove patterns through the air, twisting wisps of clouds around her fingers. When she heard her empress's words, she stopped, and the fog around her thinned gradually.

"My lady?" she asked.

Twirling the orb in her fingers, the empress shifted her gaze to the light filtering through the clouds above her. "The Sky Clan has chosen a new lady. May she prove to be a capable leader."

Pandora waved a hand in front of her, completely dispelling the fog she created with a quick motion. Because of that, while Mt. Pyre's natural fog did not completely lift, it thinned enough for her to see not only her fellow ixodida but also the gravestones surrounding her clearly. With the empress now in sight, Pandora stepped carefully towards her, passing like a cat between erect stone markers and toppled marble.

"Something is wrong," she said.

The corners of the empress's mouth twitched. "That presence I felt. It is still there. The Lord of Flames failed, and the rogue…"

"My lady?"

She sighed. "I do not know. Perhaps he will explain himself."

"Perhaps he…" Pandora bowed her head. "Oh, I see."

Pressing her lips together, she swung herself around, tracing an arc of frost on the ground as she moved. Then, she walked forward, towards the edge of the peak. With each step, frost blossomed beneath her claws and spread into white spots that dotted her path. Once she reached the cliff in front of her, she lifted her eyes towards a small, red spot that zig-zagged through the air.

Some distance away, Prometheus plummeted from the skies surrounded by flames. As she watched him, Pandora held up a hand, spreading her fingers as a ball of blue light formed in her palm. Seconds later, the ball burst into a jagged, blue bolt of light that struck Prometheus head-on before exploding. Pandora crouched, allowing the fire-type to arc over her and into the earth. There he lay for a few seconds, smoldering with the last of the fire dancing in embers across his skin. It was only when Pandora turned that he picked himself up – but only with great difficulty.

"You are late in returning," Pandora drawled, "and you have done so without the rogue. How very brazen of you."

Prometheus lashed his head around to hiss at Pandora. She merely stood taller as she watched him turn and stumble to the empress. When he was nearly at her feet, he dropped to a knee and bowed his head.

"It is true that I have failed you, Your Majesty. Please have mercy on me," he announced.

The violet-skinned creature continued to roll the Red Orb in her hand as she glanced at Prometheus in thought.

"Your report," Pandora barked.

"I would not be so thoughtless as to forget," Prometheus sneered. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself just enough to address his empress with a toneless voice. "Your Majesty, I have found the rogue. It is indeed of the Iron Clan, as you have feared. I have attempted to capture it as per your orders, but I am afraid that its host is far more clever than I had anticipated."

"It outsmarted you? The simplistic mind of a native to this unenlightened planet has outsmarted you?" Pandora quipped.

Narrowing his eyes at the comment, Prometheus continued, "Even worse, it seems that this rogue may be more powerful than we have predicted. Although the Fire Clan has always been stronger than the Iron Clan, it was still able to do this to me."

At that point, he stood and held his arms away from his chest. One of his hands arced across his stomach, palm up and fingers curled slightly towards the single gaping wound that bore straight through his body. Pandora drew her claws to her mouth and bent down, eying straight through the hole to see the knees of her empress. On the other side, the violet creature took one look at the wound and then looked away, locking her eyes on the Red Orb again.

"I see. Then we will do well to avoid underestimating this rogue again." She turned her eyes back to Prometheus. "Lord of Flames, is that all to your report?"

Prometheus lowered himself to a knee again. "No, Your Majesty. Just before it shot me, it asked me to deliver you a message."

"Is that so? What message might that be?"

"'Give my regards to Her Majesty.'"

She uncurled her legs from her stone perch and eased her way past both of her subjects. Her eyes remained on the Red Orb, even as she stepped off the cliff. Both Prometheus and Pandora moved to face her, but neither reacted as their leader hovered in an aura of violet flames.

"Interesting. But it does not tell me whether or not I should be concerned. Lady of Frost."

Pandora placed a hand on the shoulder opposite to it and bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"It is your turn to confront this creature. Uncover its nature and report back to me."

"Your Majesty, allow me to do it!" Prometheus begged. "This rogue is powerful, and the Iron Clan's abilities outclass those of the Frost Clan!"

"Then the Lady of Frost is not to engage in combat with the Iron Rogue," the empress replied. "If you cannot contain it yourself, dear lady, then perhaps it would benefit you to know that it is right now within the Flower Clan's territory. Use them to assist you if necessary. Do not return to me until you have determined whether or not this rogue is indeed the threat that we have been fearing. Do you understand?"

Pandora stood to attention. "Consider it done, Your Majesty."

"Very good."

At the acknowledgement, the ice-type bent over as her long, gossamer wings materialized behind her. With a flutter, she lifted herself from the ground in a flurry of snow and shot away from the mountain.

"I wish you luck," the empress whispered. "And may you return to me in one piece."

---

Before the invasion, whenever Hope got angry, she puffed her cheeks out a certain way that reminded Bill of jigglypuff. It was meant to be intimidating, but he couldn't hide the fact that he thought it was cute. That was why, the last time she did it at him, he pressed his lips together and tried his hardest not to smile – because he knew all too well that he was the reason why she was doing it at him.

"You said you'd be here!" she protested.

As he sat on her bed, he slouched just a bit but kept his eyes on her. It wasn't easy to tell her he would be leaving a week before her birthday – especially when he had promised her he would help her choose a starter for when she departed on her journey the next day – but he had obligations as a researcher. When he looked at her, noticing for maybe the first time how much she had grown up since he left home, he hoped that she would understand even though he knew she wouldn't.

"I know, and I'm sorry," he replied. "But the Symposium needs me."

She snapped her head away from him. "And you said you'd take a vacation! Didn't you tell Okaasan that you'd be here for at least another week?"

"I won't be gone for that long, and I'll be coming straight back here afterwards. You'll see. I'll be back for Christmas, even."

Hope's hands, which she had placed on her hips the moment her brother told her he was leaving, gripped her sides a little bit harder. She let out most of the air in her cheeks but kept them just a little bit puffy.

"But I won't," she said, almost inaudibly.

Although she kept her voice low, the quiet of her bedroom let her brother pick up on those three words. Guiltily, he slouched even lower.

"Right. You're leaving in a week." He groaned for a second, and then, abruptly, he clapped his hands together and bowed his head. "Please forgive me, Hope! I didn't mean to break my promise, but I'll make it up to you!"

"Hmph!" She tossed her head. "I'm not five, Nii-chan! That's not gonna work on me anymore!"

Lifting his head, he smiled and held up an index finger. "You know, you're really cute when you're angry."

She tensed visibly. "I'm not eight, either!"

Bill's smile faded, and in his next hesitation, he reached into his pocket. At the same time, he let out a sigh, just loud enough for her to hear him.

"Well, I was planning on at least leaving you a birthday gift to help you on your journey, but…"

Hope perked up a little at his words. She pulled her shoulders up as she bowed her head and crossed her arms, all as if that would barricade herself from temptation. Still, she turned her head a little back towards her brother as her cheeks lost all of their puffy appearance.

"Well… I'll only accept it because it's polite," she said slowly. "But that doesn't mean I forgive you."

Smiling, he held out a fist to her. She opened one eye and watched him flip his hand so that his palm faced the ceiling. At the same time, one of his fingers pressed into the object he was holding, and in one fluid motion, a poké ball expanded for her to see.

But it wasn't an ordinary poké ball. Its entire metallic surface was a rusty red, save for gold scratches and patches of paint on its bottom half that made it look older than it actually was. On its top half, a butterfree was etched in gold just above the release button. The button itself was painted in the same color as the rest of the ball, but attached to its surface was a bronze heart laid over a silver gear. As she drew in a shaking breath, Hope reached out to take it from her brother, and as she held it in her own palm, her fingers ran over the smooth top hemisphere while her eyes widened in awe.

"It's so pretty," she breathed. "What is it?"

"Something special just for you," Bill replied. "It's a one-of-a-kind poké ball that will help you connect with the pokémon you use it on."

Hope blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"It's difficult to explain. It would be best if you used it to see what happens for yourself."

Standing, he stepped forward and placed his hands on his sister's shoulders. She looked up as he leaned down, just enough to stare into her eyes.

"Hope," he said, "I'm really sorry about all of this. If I could, I'd stay here, but I'm doing this for everyone. However… I want you to know that I would never abandon you, understand? I love you, Nee-chan, and Okaasan, and I would do anything for any of you."

Without skipping a beat, Hope responded, "What about Otousan?"

There was a long, drawn-out pause. During this time, Bill's expression refused to waver, although Hope's was slowly sliding into an annoyed glare.

"Our father is a nice man too," Bill finally said.

"You're really weird, Nii-chan."

"Better weird than boring."

He moved one of his hands to her head and ruffled her hair. She responded by closing one eye and batting his arm away with her free hand. Holding his hand above her, Bill allowed his expression to turn grave again.

"I'm serious, though. I promise you – and I'll be keeping this one – that I'll be there for you. If you need me, even while I'm at Polaris Institute, just call me, and I'll come help you."

"No matter what?"

Bill let his expression soften. "No matter what."

Hope's glare broke to make way for a wide grin as she tried to throw her arms around her brother. She would have succeeded, too, but this time, things were different. Instead of embracing her sibling, her arms circled thin air as darkness enveloped her. Her body pitched forward until she fell onto her side.

The next thing she saw were eyes. Dead eyes set in the skull of a man lying next to her. Silhouettes of ixodida played across the space between them, and the only sound she could hear was their growls and the squelching of his organs. Suddenly, an unearthly howl pierced the night, just before a blast of wind took out the ixodida hovering in front of her. White paws stepped between her and the corpse, spreading three black claws just in front of her eyes. As she looked up, she caught a glimpse of the creature's face: black but framed in white, with a single black horn curving upwards from the side of its head. Red eyes glowed at her in the light of the moon, filling her vision and leaving her paralyzed and quivering where she lay. The creature bucked its head towards something beyond her, and after a few seconds, it lifted its head and released a long, low howl that shook Hope's soul.

In another flash, another image filled her vision. This time, she was in a forest, listening to the sound of another unearthly screech – one that was higher pitched and alien compared to anything she had heard before. She found herself running, following a pink mass of light that brought her closer and closer to the source of the scream. Eventually, she emerged in a place where the trunks were spaced out a little further, where mud sucked at her feet with every step.

Where Lanette, Vito, and Steven stood by and watched a silver creature rise from the earth.

"Get ready," Steven warned.

But even with that, Hope couldn't prepare herself, couldn't take cover. She only stood there, watching with wide eyes as the silver creature leapt at Vito's alakazam with its teeth bared and claws extended. Her squirtle cried out and squirmed in her arms, struggling desperately to jump free from his master's grasp in order to join the fight, but with each twist he attempted, Hope clung harder. In her mind, she saw packs full of ixodida, dead eyes, and white beasts with black faces.

The ixodida flew into a tree, courtesy of an attack by the pink ball of light next to her. But it wouldn't stay down. It rose to its feet again. Its lips pulled back to reveal its glistening fangs. It snarled and flexed its claws as its tail whipped behind it.

And all Hope could think about was a pair of dead eyes and the squelching of organs.

Nii-chan… help, she thought.

The creature crouched and readied itself to leap at the alakazam once more.

I'm scared. Please help.

Then, it moved, closing the distance between itself and its prey in seconds.

Nii-chan, help me!

Without thinking, she screamed. Instantly, the creature stopped, freezing just inches away from the alakazam. It blinked before turning its wide, brown eyes towards Hope. A flicker of familiarity flashed across them. Hope knew these eyes, that face.

"Hope?" the creature rasped in her brother's voice.

Suddenly, her vision darkened, and all she could hear was the unearthly screams. All she could see was the flash of metal and the claws of an entire brigade of ixodida tearing at a man with dead eyes.

And in Tate's mind, all he could hear was his sister's voice.

"Tate! Run!"

---

Tate jolted awake. He sat up on the roof of the truck, clutching his chest as he took deep breaths. His heart felt like it was pounding, and his skin felt cold and wet all over. Shaking his head, he listened closely to the quiet of the camp. Except for the standard guard (Veronica this time), most of the humans were asleep. He could hear Thom's snoring from the truck, the crackling of the campfire, the occasional click of Veronica's pistol being loaded and unloaded, and nothing else.

Nothing, anyway, except the soft whimper coming from the van, a whimper that was almost too soft to be detected. Ellen, who was right next to its source, didn't stir from her sleep, and Veronica, who sat with her back pressed against the van on the outside of the Caravan's camp circle, didn't seem to notice it at all. It was a noise for Tate and Tate alone that night, and by then, he was already familiar with it. As soon as his heart rate calmed, he peered through the windows of the van at the young girl who sat with her knees drawn to her chest. Her head was bowed, and her tangled, green hair served as a curtain between herself and the outside world. But Tate could hear her, could hear every last sniffle she made.

"Another nightmare," he whispered to himself. "They're getting worse, too."

Drawing his feet under him, he stood and craned his neck to the sky.

"I know he told us to leave him alone for the time being," Tate continued, "but somebody should do something about this."

He sprang off the roof of the truck while his wings shimmered into existence. As he started soaring away from the camp, he failed to notice one of Steven's eyes slowly open to watch him.

---

Meditating under waterfalls, as Bill shortly found out, was harder than it looked. To be accurate, the first time he did it, he slipped clean off his perch and nearly drowned had it not been for a well-timed Magnet Rise. Some variations of this occurred in the three subsequent attempts – including one in which he found out that the changes in his body meant he had to re-learn how to swim eventually – until he finally came to a rest exactly where he wanted to be: sitting cross-legged on a rock with the waterfall rushing down on him.

The other challenge, Bill soon realized, was that even once one had situated themselves under a waterfall stably, the reason why it was a training exercise in the first place was because having ice-cold water blast the top of your head with the same force as a fire hose at a constant rate wasn't exactly conducive to concentrating. Shutting his eyes, Bill struggled desperately to hone his mind on his task, but every time he came close, his thoughts flickered to everything from the temperature of the water to how he swore this was a good idea an hour ago.

It didn't help, of course, that Adam wasn't exactly going out of its way to assist him in his mental quest.

What a funny little practice, it said. Humans are fascinating creatures.

Bill grimaced as his thoughts careened off track again. Shifting in his seat, he pictured a blank, white space in an attempt to block out Adam's distraction. Still, he felt the parasite poking at the edges of it, and inadvertently, he thought of a meowth slipping through and grinning at him.

So, host, what is this exercise meant to achieve? Discipline? Focus? How, pray tell, do you intend on acquiring both?

Clenching his teeth, Bill wiped his thoughts clean and focused on a blank, white space once again. Yet, no matter how hard he pictured it, a single command to his parasitic partner kept forming in his head.

Adam purred. Shut up? Why on your lovely planet would I do that when it is far more entertaining to test you? Besides, you will get nowhere on your own. It has been hours, and you have tried all sorts of your "meditation techniques" to achieve inner peace. If you wish to understand the secrets to controlling the monster within you, all you need to do is ask.

Bill pressed his eyes closed and tightened his fists on his knees. This time, it was an ekans that slithered through the edge of his mind and across his white space. As it curled itself around a piece of space, Bill felt something in his chest constrict.

The problem, dear host, is not that I am distracting you. It is that you allow yourself to be distracted. You may have the potential to be a warrior in terms of strength, but when it comes to discipline and focus on the battlefield… you lack both.

As the feeling in his chest grew tighter, Bill began to shake. His breaths started to come in short gasps as it grew harder and harder for him to breathe. His hands clicked against his legs, and for the first time since he situated himself, he let out a short, quick grunt as he doubled over slightly.

Hit a nerve? Do you see what I mean? In battle, our enemies will use every weak point to their advantage. You must not show them that you can be dominated.

Bill growled, pulling back his lips slightly to expose his fangs. The feeling in his chest only tightened.

"Adam… Trying to concentrate."

On what? Waterfalls are too easy anyway. You need a true challenge to hone your discipline. On Nila—

At last, Bill's willpower snapped. A cough racked his body, and his balance on the rock was finally disturbed. Before he realized what was happening, he plunged into the river and immediately started sinking. His eyes snapped open as the constrictive feeling in his chest dissipated. At the same time, his mind tailspun into a blind panic, and his limbs flailed in an attempt to pull him back to the surface. But his legs wouldn't work properly to propel him upwards, his tail tangled around his ankles, and the weight of his armor bore down on him all at once. He swore he could hear Adam calling out to him, but in those precious seconds, he couldn't make out a single word.

Eventually, his mind finally cleared, but that was only when his vision faded to black.

Until, that is, he awoke with a start, courtesy of splash of hot water dousing his face. With a gasp, he snapped his eyes open to the night sky. Shortly afterwards, a coughing fit seized him, and he curled onto his side on the sandy bank of the river.

"Good thing I've got telekinesis," Tate said. "No offense, but giving a guy mouth-to-mouth isn't exactly high on my list of things I'd like to do."

Opening his eyes again slowly, Bill groaned. His head still felt muddled and unfocused, and every part of him ached. Besides that, he struggled to piece together how he wound up on the bank of the river, but as he did so, he saw Tate's legs walk into his view. Slowly, he looked up to see the other ixodida peering over him.

"What happened?" Bill mumbled.

"You drowned," Tate replied bluntly. "By the time I got to you, you'd almost sunk to the bottom of the river. I used Confusion to pull you out, get that water out of your lungs, and jumpstart your breathing again."

"Thanks," Bill responded faintly as he sat up. "What are you doing here?"

"I just saved your life, and that's all I get?" Tate's voice slid smoothly into an imitation of Bill's accent. "Thank you, boy. Now wot the devil ahh you doing 'eaah? Yohr interrupting my tea time, and it's most inconvenient. Now, scurry along while I wah-lloh in my own self-'atred."

In answer to your unspoken protests, yes, you do in fact sound like that, Adam quipped.

Ignoring their remarks, Bill reached up to rub one of his temples gingerly. "Tate, I thought I told you this is something I need to do on my own."

"Well, sure." Tate stood straight and put his hands on his hips. "But someone's got to check in on you now and then. I mean, it's not like any of us want you dead, after all. Trust me on that one. I'm a psychic, so I know how these things work."

Bill looked at him skeptically.

"Yeah, even Lanette." Tate shrugged. "Well, it's more like Lanette doesn't want to see you again, but she doesn't really care whether or not—"

"This isn't about Lanette. Why are you here?"

"Well, that was rather rude. What if it was about Lanette?"

At that, Bill rose to his full height. He nearly toppled over at first as his head swam from the lingering effects of his latest near-death experience, but he managed to dissipate the feeling with a wince and a vigorous shake of his head.

"Something's happened, hasn't it? What's happened to Hope and the others?"

Tate's eyes locked with Bill's. "They're safe. They're all safe. They haven't seen ixodida besides the two of us since we left Mauville. If you ask me, it's too quiet, especially since we should be entering the heart of their territory."

"So you came here to warn me about how quiet it's been?"

"No."

Bill raised an eyebrow at that statement. There was something in the boy's face right then that he couldn't place: a graveness, a stone-cold seriousness. It was as if Tate was challenging Bill, was demanding all of his attention.

"It's about Hope. She's been having nightmares. Bad ones. She wakes up in the middle of the night crying."

As soon as Tate said it, Bill's expression softened into a stunned glance. Then, he sighed and looked at the ground. The image of his sister crying… he was expecting her to be affected by the ixodida attacks. Hope wasn't a delicate flower before she left Goldenrod, but she was still a young girl. There were things Bill had already seen in Hoenn that he knew no one Hope's age should see, and he knew she was there longer – and all alone at one point too.

"She's traumatized," Bill said at last. "I would be more worried if she wasn't." He looked up. "She needs to get out of this region."

"So get her out of here," Tate told him.

"I can't. You've seen how humans react to ixodida like us. I can't take her to human civilization myself. If I did, I have no doubt she'd be put directly in the center of a battle."

"So you're going to depend on everyone else like you've been doing all this time?"

Right away, Bill jabbed a finger at the psychic. "Watch it, Tate. I'm doing the best that I can."

Tate scoffed. "Yeah, you're doing a great job of protecting her. You've been more concerned about Lanette than your own sister. Man, if my sis treated me that way—"

Bill didn't dignify that with an answer. He merely turned swiftly, making it a point to scrape the ground between himself and Tate with the tip of his tail. Then, he began walking away, heading downstream to a new training spot.

"Hey!" Tate called after him. "Don't turn your back on me! You're just afraid I have a point, aren't you?"

Even to that, Bill didn't respond. Tate frowned and ground his feet into the earth. If he was going to get Bill's attention back, he knew he would have to do something drastic.

"You told her you'd be there for her, didn't you?" he shouted. "You said she could call you at any time, and you'd come help her!"

That did it. Bill stopped in his tracks and lifted his head slightly. When he spoke next, his voice was quiet, but Tate didn't even need psychic powers to hear the anger in it.

"What did you say?"

"I said you told her she could call you at any time, and you'd come help her," Tate repeated slowly.

"How do you know about that?"

Tate grinned. "Easy. I'm psychic, aren't I?"

"So. You invaded Hope's mind without her consent."

"Well, somebody's got to protect her, and since you're clearly doing such a wonderful job at th—"

A perfect Mirror Shot blasted him off his feet and into the ground. When he looked up, he saw Bill half-turned towards him with his palm held up and outward. The red jewel in its center flickered with its own light.

Lowering his arm, Bill warned, "Stay out of my sister's head."

He turned his back to Tate for a second time and started walking again. However, he took only a few steps before he felt a surge of energy slam into his back. His world lit up in rainbow colors as he was flung off his feet, only to slam face-first into the sandy bank. This time, it was his turn to sit up and turn to an attacker, and when he did, he saw Tate surrounded by a blue light with his wings fluttering behind him.

With a smirk, Tate raised his hands in a fighting position and yelled, "You want to fight? Bring it on. Let's see how much your training's paid off!"

[3D992]

Go bill! Dominate tate!!!! I've been a silent reader for a while. Nice story.

[Bay]

On the first part, yay Pandora! Nice glimpse of her there. I also quite like the "the people of this planet once tried to control their gods" line from the empress, referencing RSE and fits the context of this story nicely.

Ha love Adam's "shut up, why would I do that" comment. XD Ouch though when Tate told Bill what he said to Hope a while back (I thought the flashback itself is a sweet but sad moment between the both of them).

Overall enjoyed this chapter quite a bit. Yep let's see how your training had been going so far, Bill because...yeah, Pandora is coming soon, perhaps with the Flower Clan. D: