Life in the new tank was pretty much the same as before. S-577, Bubble, and Tiny played together, spoke together, and thought together about what would happen next. Even though the tank was less full than usual, S-577 didn’t think too much about it. He had stared at the many tubes leading out from the top of the tank, and he guessed that the others were just in new tanks. They were getting bigger, so it made sense that they would need more space. He hoped they would be able to visit each other, maybe have sleepovers in each other’s tanks.
He found that with his growth, his mind grew much sharper. More than once, simultaneous thoughts would run through his head. He could count higher, faster, and think about other things at the same time. Despite that, he still found it hard to string lots of words together.
“Tiny!” S-577 said, swerving around Bouncy, who moved nonstop around the tank. “Can’t catch me! Can’t catch me!”
“I–I will!” Tiny said, trying to gather his confidence.
“Get him, Tiny!” Bubble cheered, watching them chase each other in an orbit around her.
S-577 laughed as he took a sharp turn around Sleepy, who blinked as she woke up from another one of her long naps. “What?” she said groggily. “Hey, no speeding!”
“Can’t catch me!” S-577 repeated. He shot forward, arcing towards the tubes.
They opened and turned on. A sharp current snagged him and dragged him out of the tank. He cried out in surprise.
“S-577!” He heard Bubble yell before he was whisked away.
“No feeding!” It wasn’t time for that, not yet! “No feeding! Play chase!”
That’s when he realized he hadn’t been sucked through the feeding tube.
In a heartbeat, the tube spat him out into somewhere new. Another tank, more spacious. But…
He blinked. There was no green fluid. He found himself hovering just a few handspans above the sterile white floor, rounded glass surrounding him in a wide cylinder. In front of him was a small table. A large, disorganized pile of blocks sat on its surface.
S-577 remained still, not sure what to make of the new environment. The lack of fluid made everything feel… empty. He moved forward, lurching too far and nearly bumping into the table. He retreated, surprised. Movement was so easy without the fluid. He felt like he could zoom forward faster than ever, leaving everyone behind.
Movement caught his eye. He looked beyond the walls of the tank and gasped. Unlike the place where the other tank was, he could see other individuals outside the tank. People wearing long white coats and wearing big goggles on their faces. They were crowding around tables, watching monitors, writing down things on clipboards, and speaking with each other. Occasionally, one looked directly at him, but they didn’t approach.
What was going on?
Something clinked behind him. He turned, and before he could react, a mechanical arm rose up from the floor and stuck something into his blue bubble. Some kind of cable leading into the ground. He squirmed, trying to remove it, but it remained stuck firm, attaching directly to his head. “No!” he yelled, trying to get it off. “No, no!”
“Subject S-577.”
He jumped. The voice had come from somewhere near the top of the tank. He stared at the people. One of them was talking into a thin rod.
“Subject S-577, can you hear me?” His voice seemed to be projecting into the tank somehow.
S-577 tilted his head, curious. Some of the people nodded. The one who spoke leaned forward and continued speaking. “Sort the blocks by colour.”
Sort? He approached the table. How was he supposed to do that? His arms were too stubby; he couldn’t touch anything with them, let alone rearrange the blocks.
“Sort the blocks by colour,” the voice repeated.
S-577 stared for a few seconds, confused.
A sudden ZAP made him jump and yelp. A thin mechanical limb had appeared from out of the floor behind him, the end charged with yellow electricity.
“Sort the blocks by colour,” the voice repeated.
Sort… Sort… S-577 stared at the blocks, focusing all his frantic thoughts and panic towards one singular goal. He had to sort the blocks.
The mechanical arm zapped him again, sending a jolt through his entire body.
“Sort!” he screamed.
A faint white light surrounded him, and he felt something click in his brain. At his will, the blocks floated from the tabletop, hovering in the air in front of him as if pulled by invisible strings.
But there weren’t any strings. It was all him.
“Sort…” He wasn’t sure what was going on exactly, but somehow, he had managed to move the blocks. He stared at a cluster of red blocks, focusing on them.
“Sort…”
Slowly, the red blocks moved, separating from the main cluster of blocks. He then focused on the blue blocks, slowly manipulating them until they were all gathered together. Then he moved the green blocks, and the yellow blocks, and finally the orange blocks. Within minutes, five clusters of blocks floated in front of him, separated neatly by colour.
image [https://imgur.com/CdUrLSy.jpg]
S-577 grinned, proud of himself.
Then the arm sent a third jolt through his body.
He gasped, and his concentration waned. The white glow disappeared, and the blocks fell, clattering to the ground and scattering in all directions.
He trembled, worried he did something wrong. The people beyond the tank spoke to each other in blurred whispers, writing things down on clipboards and entering data on their devices. They didn’t seem to be focused on him.
Finally, after floating among the scattered blocks for several tense moments, he heard the voice of one of the people. “Send in the next duosion.”
Duosion? What that?
One of the people pushed a button. The first mechanical arm reappeared and extracted the cable from his head. The tube reopened, creating a powerful suction, and S-577 was sucked back into a winding tunnel. He shook as he travelled down a winding path. What had just happened? Was it good? Bad?
Fear turned to relief as he reached the end of the tube, splashing back into the tank filled with green fluid. Instantly, he felt sluggish. It was harder to move in the fluid. But his eyes lit up as he saw Bubble and Tiny rush towards him.
“You were gone for so long!” Bubble said as she crashed into him and nudged him affectionately. “What happened?”
“We thought you wouldn’t come back,” Tiny said, sounding scared.
“I sort blocks!” S-577 said.
Bubble and Tiny stared at him.
“Um… all right,” Bubble said. “Anything else you did other than… sort blocks?”
“Big zap. Scary.”
Tiny jumped. “Scary? Oh no, oh no…”
“It’s going to be all right,” Bubble said, optimism in her words. “Some of the others were taken shortly after you were. It’s not feeding time, so maybe they’re all going through the same thing. Have you noticed this new tank has some sort of current going on?”
S-577 looked around. Sure enough, even though they weren’t moving, the fluid was pushing them in a circle around the outside of the tank. He tried moving against it. It wasn’t easy.
“It’s forcing all of us to pass by that new tube,” Bubble said. “Whatever’s happening, I suspect we’re all going to be sorting blocks and big zapping sooner or later.”
“I don’t want to go,” Tiny said. “I want to stay.”
“Hey, look, S-577 survived,” Bubble reassured him. We’ll all get through this. Trust me.”
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Sure enough, everyone went through the ordeal one by one. They all came back unscathed, though S-577 noticed some of the duosion—that was the funny name the people had called them—had something in their blue gel bubbles, Tiny included. Little dark dots floated inches from their bodies, but they didn’t seem to be harmful in any way. When asked about it, Tiny just mumbled something about being injected once the block sorting had finished.
“It’s bad,” Tiny said. “Very bad.”
“Hey, look at it this way,” Bubble said. “It looks cool on you! Plus, we all finished the sorting, right? We have nothing to worry about. We’ll be done with this before you know it, and you’ll grow big and strong.”
The tests continued.
S-577 lost count of how many there were. Every few feeding days, instead of being transported to the feeding tube, he was brought to that empty chamber. Every time, there was something different to be done. Pick up a stack of heavy weights. Crush a can. Loop rings onto hooks. Stack objects in a specific order. Push buttons in predetermined patterns. Turn on lights with near-perfect timing and rhythm.
Each activity took him a while to get the hang of, resulting in being zapped several times when he was too slow, but he eventually managed to finish them all. Curiously, he never had any dots injected into him. Over time, he noticed that around half of the thirty-three duosion in the tank had dots in their bubbles, and some had far more than others. Bubble never accumulated any either, but Tiny had a fair amount floating within him.
Then, one day, as S-577 entered the empty chamber and waited as the mechanical arm hooked up the cable to the back of his head, he found a peculiar sight. The table from the first task with a disorganized pile of coloured blocks, and one of the heavy metal weights from the second task sitting on the ground not far away. Upon examining the table, he realized there were far more colours than before.
The people—scientists, Bubble called them—gathered around their desks and devices as usual. The one who usually delivered the instructions pushed his button and spoke.
“Sort the blocks by colour. Lift the weight all the way to the ceiling—”
Two tasks he had done before. This easy!
He concentrated on the blocks, lifting them into the air.
ZAP!
He dropped the blocks, confused. The mechanical arm was right behind him, ready to prod him again.
The man spoke again. “Sort the blocks by colour. Lift the weight all the way to the ceiling.”
He paused. “Do it at the same time.”
S-577 froze. “Same time?” He stared at the blocks, then at the weight. The realization hit him a moment later. “How?”
The arm prodded him, and he yelped. “How?”
Another prod. He moved away, trying to escape, but another arm emerged from the floor in front of him, waving its lightning-charged tip inches from his face.
“Do it at the same time,” the man repeated, speaking slower.
S-577 looked at the blocks and the weight. “Same time…”
He stared at the blocks and the weight, one with each eye. His thoughts raced from one to the other. For a moment, he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to do it. It felt like too much.
But then, he felt a tugging sensation. His thoughts diverged without ceasing, one part of him focused on the blocks, and another part focused on the weight. The white glow surrounded him again, and he yelled as he felt his power expand.
The blocks floated into the air. At the same time, the weight ascended slowly, rising with a steady pace. One part of S-577’s thoughts focused on the blocks, sorting them by colour into ten different clusters. The remaining thoughts fixated on lifting the weight as high as he could.
He let out a fierce yell. The weight touched the top of the tank just as he set the blocks back down on the table.
He closed his eyes, drifting backwards against the cable as the weight slammed into the ground, bouncing up and striking the glass. The blocks remained standing, perfectly organized into ten mini pyramids.
The scientists spoke among themselves once more. But this time, they didn’t send him back.
There was something new.
It seemed that another weird human appeared behind the glass. But this human radiated light.
The being slowly approached the window to take a look at S-577. It was still hard to decipher how the individual looked like, but one thing was certain: it was no human, but a Pokémon. Not a Pokémon like S-577, but a Pokémon nonetheless.
The Pokémon’s head was on fire and resembled long hair, or a warrior’s helmet. His body, on the other hand, was like fire and coal personified. In fact, his body might have been made out of actual coal and fire. Despite a slender build, he wore bulky light armour. Even with no clear look on the individual, his presence radiated strength and confidence.
image [https://imgur.com/8x5rDqE.jpg]
The humans stood and bowed to the new Pokémon, but the being simply raised his hand. The humans immediately returned to their desks and acted as if they weren’t there.
Greetings, S-577.
The being spoke, but there was no microphone. Instead, the words played inside S-577’s brains with a slight echo. Just hearing the voice made S-577 feel warmth inside his tiny body. Said warmth wasn’t harmful; in fact, it was comforting, in a weird way.
The Pokémon saw how S-577 was connected to the zapping device. It raised its hand, and the cable immediately let go of the small psychic type.
We won’t be needing this. I hope the humans here haven’t been treating you too badly, correct?
His head moved to look at the scientist closest to him. The man avoided eye contact with the Pokémon. The fire warrior then turned back towards S-577.
S-577 looked around, confused. The mechanical arm was gone. The weight he had been lifting lay on the ground, forgotten. He stared at the newcomer, tilting his head curiously. He had never seen someone who looked like that, and it was talking to him!
“Big zap gone,” he said. “You took big zap?”
Indeed—pardon, yes. The big zap was very bad. I don’t want it to hurt you. The fire Pokémon’s voice was confident, and each word felt as if it could melt away any kind of worry.
You have grown since the last time I have seen you. Do you remember who I am?
S-577 stared, trying to remember. For as far back as he could recall, he had never seen anything like this… creature. The only thing he felt different was the warmth. He wasn’t sure why it was comforting, and he couldn’t find the words to explain his feelings. It just was.
“You… Warmy,” he said. He liked that name. “Warmy! Hot, cozy. I like… I think.”
A chuckle played inside S-577’s brains. It lingered for few seconds, like a fading echo. That is right. I am your friend, ‘Warmy’. Warmy’s face wasn’t very expressive, but his eyes did smile at S-577’s response. You have got more friends that you will meet one day. Those friends give you food. Do you like the food that we give you?
“Food is...” The food wasn’t anything special. He didn’t really taste or feel anything when he was sent to the feeding tube. Except... “Food makes me strong! Change form. Think more. Evolve.” He remembered the word that Bubble used when they had first changed. “Though,” he added, “words still hard.”
The fire warrior waited a moment before speaking again. You will continue to grow strong S-577, I assure you. Me and my boss want only the best for you.
His eyes squinted at the mention of his problem with words. For a split second, the warmth inside S-577’s mind became just a tiny bit hotter, but it cooled down immediately. Yes, seems like it, but worry not my friend. I can understand you just fine. Say, S-577, how about you show me your powers? He spoke with a tiny bit more energy in his ‘voice’. Try moving the blocks again, but there are no rules this time! And no big zap! I just want you to create something new.
Boss? There was a bigger Warmy? S-577 tilted his head, wondering if he’d meet the boss one day. He looked at the blocks laying on the table where he had organized them earlier. Make something… Make what? Was he even allowed to mix them up? It felt strange, like it was wrong. Things had to be organized.
But then again, looking at the blocks, an idea began to form in his head. He began to visualize the blocks in a different way. Colours mixing together, combining, presented in a different order. He focused on that image, then looked at the blocked and pushed with his mind.
The blocks floated, separating from their organized piles and combining into a blocky cloud of colour. He pressed them together, forming a massive cube with the colours shuffled in random places. His eyes widened, satisfied yet surprised he could make such a thing.
But the ideas didn’t stop. He took the blocks apart again and reformed them into a tower with four block layers. He created a wheel. A tube. A cylinder. And then, to end it all, a shape that vaguely resembled a duosion. He placed it down on the table, holding it together with his mind, and smiled.
He suddenly heard clapping inside his head. However, Warmy wasn’t moving his hands. Good, very good S-577.
The clapping stopped as Warmy sent the message to S-577’s brains. His voice sounded pleased and supportive. You, like me, are a psychic Pokémon. And one with a bright future, to top it all off.
Warmy raised his hand. A container emerged from the ground in S-577’s tank. Many blocks of different colours flew out of it, glowing with psychic energy.
Psychic energy aims to control—
The blocks started to fly around with extreme speed, creating a miniature tornado. Inside the tornado, something was starting to form.
—it takes full advantage of what the world offers us—
The tornado vibrated with energy, then calmed down. In front of S-577 stood a statue of a large skyscraper. A seemingly simple creation, but the construction wasn’t made out of different blocks anymore. Instead, it was all red and a single object; somehow, the blocks had melded into one. Heat radiated from the construction.
—and creates a new reality, something entirely new, not bound by what others might think is impossible.
Warmy raised his hand again and closed his eyes. The tower started to shake, then spin around. The skyscraper disassembled, broken down again into individual blocks, though they remained a bright red, lacking any unique colours.
It can also take reality apart, one block at a time.
S-577 stared, transfixed by the display of power. The movement, the colours, the formation of shapes. Warmy was so strong! How many tests had he done?
He wanted to do that. He tried moving all the blocks on the ground—so many that he couldn’t even count—but he could barely move any of them when he tried controlling all of them at the same time. He focused back on a smaller group, half of them, and they barely twitched. “Too many,” he said. “Harder.”
He wasn’t sure what Warmy meant by “psychic energy”, but it sounded cool; things with big and complicated words had to be. Just like his own name.
Another chuckle, echoing strangely for a few seconds. Worry not, friend. It is all a matter of practice and, well energy, of course. A sigh followed. Now, I need you to be patient, S-577. I assure you, I will visit you again to see your progress, and maybe show you a few tricks as well. You will become extraordinary under my watch; you can trust my word.
Warmy turned around to move towards an elevator, but he stopped and turned back towards S-577.
I will have to get going now, duty calls. But friends are there to help one another. One day, I might be in need of your help. But for now, I want to help you. Is there anything that you need, S-577?
S-577 pressed against the glass. A part of him didn’t want Warmy to leave. He was the only one who had spoken to him, who had been friendly. He’d gotten rid of the big zap as well.
But he said he had other things to do. S-577 backed away, considering Warmy’s question.
“I… want… see my friends,” he said. It took a lot of effort to say so many words, but a small seed of pride welled up within him as he said the entire sentence. Bubble. Tiny. He wanted to go back to the tank. He wanted to see them.
It seemed as if Warmy’s fire eyes shone a bit brighter when S-577 spoke out.
Friend, you don’t have to ask me about this. Today’s testing session is over for you. You will go back to your kind right... now.
One of the scientists started to sweat when Warmy looked at him. The scientist leaned forward and pressed a few buttons on the console.
Immediately, a tube appeared that sucked S-577 back to his tank.