S-577 plopped back into the tank, his mind racing with a million thoughts despite his exhaustion. The meeting with Warmy kept running through his head, repeating over and over again. What did he mean by all of that? He seemed like a friend. He had gotten rid of the big zap. Why, then, was he working with the scientists? They even seemed to do as he said.
One by one, the other duosion underwent their tests. Bubble and several others came back without any blemishes in their bubbles. Some had only one, added after the most recent ordeal. Some had three or four. Others—Tiny included—were peppered with them.
“That was hard,” Bubble said. “Two tests at the same time? Not fair at all. Tiny, how are you feeling?”
This time, Tiny didn’t say anything. He kept his eyes half closed, shaking uncontrollably.
“Tiny?”
“I couldn’t do it… Bad, bad…” Tiny mumbled, his voice barely audible. “Bad…”
Something shook the tank. A slit along the center of the tank’s floor folded opened, and a semi-transparent curtain rose up, splitting the tank in half. The current within the tank increased, pushing everyone against the curtain.
The duosion panicked. They swam up and down, screaming, trying and failing to escape the current. S-577 stayed as close to Bubble and Tiny as possible. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew it was wrong.
The current pressed them against the barrier. S-577 felt like he was being squished. Bubble and several others were also crammed against the curtain, unable to pass through.
Every other duosion with a blemish in its bubble phased right through the curtain as if it were not there.
Tiny included.
The current stopped. S-577 shook his head, the panicked voices of all the other duosion around him overloading his hearing. But loudest of all—
“Tiny!” Bubble pushed against the curtain with as much might as she could muster, but it would not let her through. The marked duosion could be seen on the other side, trying to rejoin the unmarked. But the curtain didn’t let them pass.
“Bad!” Tiny swam up and down, panicking. He tried passing through to rejoin the unmarked duosion, but it was no use. “This is bad! So, so bad!”
“Stay calm!” Bubble sounded like she was trying not to panic. “It’s going to be all right. Tiny, look at me. Look at me!”
Their eyes met, and Tiny slowed.
“We’re going to get through this.” She looked back at S-577 and the rest of the unmarked duosion. “All of us.”
“Why wall?” S-577 approached, staring at the veil that separated half of the duosion from the other half.
“I don’t know,” Bubble said. She stared back and forth between the two groups. Her eyes widened in realization. “Tiny,” she said, “did you get one of those dots today after your test?”
Tiny nodded, his body shaking.
Bubble gasped, drifting back.
“Why veil?” S-577 repeated.
Bubble looked at him with despair.
“They’re sorting us. The ones who do well… and the ones who don’t.”
The tests continued.
The marked duosion were separated into an area of the tank that was cut off from the tubes. That meant only the unmarked duosion continued testing.
Every test was now a double task, a random combination of any two of the previous tasks they had undergone. Each time, S-577 felt like he was straining his power to the limit. Despite the difficulty, he always managed to pull through, somehow. Even Bubble persisted, completing each test without gaining a mark.
The other weren’t so lucky. Every testing session resulted in at least one duosion gaining a new mark. When the tank current activated, the marked duosion were pushed through the veil, joining the others with marks. Every day, the numbers of the unmarked duosion dwindled one by one.
“Stay strong,” Bubble told the unmarked duosion. “We don’t know what will happen, but do your best to pull through! These tests must mean something! We must persevere!”
“And what about us?” Tiny said. He kept to himself mostly, staring at the unmarked duosion yet rarely speaking. “We all failed. It’s the end for us.”
“No, Tiny.” Bubble swam closer to cheer him up. “If you were a failure, you would’ve been gone by now. You’re still here for a reason. You have to be.”
S-577 drifted aimlessly around the tank. He was… confused. Why were his friends being separated? They had to stay together. And where was Warmy? He hadn’t seen Warmy ever since their first and only meeting. Every test, he looked forward to seeing him again, but he never showed up. Did he lie? Were they actually friends?
“Warmy friend,” S-577 said to himself. Though at this point, he wasn’t sure if he knew what was true and what wasn’t.
“S-577!” Bubble drifted towards him. “You look sad. What’s going on?”
“Warmy friend,” he repeated.
Bubble nodded. She knew about Warmy, and she believed everything that S-577 had said, but she had apparently never seen the strange fiery individual. No one had. “I know he said he’s your friend,” Bubble said, “but he hasn’t shown up in a long time. Friends never leave each other.” She put on a smile. “I’m your friend, S-577. Tiny is your friend. Everyone here is your friend.”
“Wheeeee!” Bouncy drifted past and bumped against the veil, unable to pass through due to being unmarked.
“Even Bouncy is your friend,” Bubble said. “Together, we’ll get through this.”
Her words lifted S-577’s spirits. He nodded. “Bubble friend. Tiny friend.”
“That’s right!” Bubble did a little spin. “We’ll be reunited before you know it.”
Bouncy was the next to be marked.
“Wheee!” he said as he was ejected into the tank after his test, a single dot within his bubble. The unmarked duosion—only three left, including Bubble and S-577—gasped. The current intensified, and Bouncy phased right through the veil, oblivious to what was happening as he bumped into Tiny.
“H-hey!” Tiny yelped.
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“Sorry! Wheee!”
It was S-577’s turn to test. He closed his eyes as the tube sucked him away and spit him out into the familiar testing chamber. But this time, there weren’t two tests.
Four objects lay in front of him. A table covered with coloured blocks. A stack of various sized rings piled at random. A large weight. A metal can.
His heart stopped.
“Sort the blocks by colour,” the scientist’s voice said through the speaker. “Stack the rings from largest to smallest. Lift the weight to the ceiling. Crush the can flat.” He paused. “Do all four of them at the same time.”
S-577 stared at the array of objects in front of him, stunned. He couldn’t do that! It was hard enough to do two at the same time. How was he supposed to do four?
He jumped as something clicked behind him. Two big zaps, their ends crackling with electricity, waiting for him to make a mistake.
Turning his attention back to the tasks, he took a deep breath. He thought about Bubble, trying to keep things positive. He thought about Tiny, small and scared and separated from his friends. He thought of the other duosion, half scared to death as their future remained uncertain.
I… I do this! I… have to!
He focused his mind, trying to imagine four tasks at once. A white glow enveloped him. He paired the blocks and the rings together as one thought, both related to sorting and organizing. He imagined the can and the weight as another thought: one to push up, the other to push down. Complimentary actions.
But Warmy. Warmy not here…
His thoughts wavered. The tasks crashed together, becoming fuzzy and indistinct. The white glow that surrounded him blinked. The big zaps inched closer.
No! Bubble and Tiny… friends.
He didn’t know what Warmy really wanted, or why he disappeared. But he did know one thing. His friends would always be there.
Friends!
His thoughts diverged.
The blocks hovered in the air, organizing by colour as the rings shuffled in order of increasing size. The weight went up, and the can crumpled. S-577 screamed once more as he set down the blocks and the rings, and the weight touched the roof of the tank.
Finally, he released his powers. The weight crashed down with a loud thunk. S-577 sank to the ground, exhausted.
The scientists seemed to be pleased. After a few moments—moments which Warmy did not show up again—the tube opened, and he was sent back to the growth tank.
S-577 didn’t even try to fight the current. Bubble checked to see if he was doing all right. No signs of blemishes.
The second unmarked duosion got sucked into the tube, only to return with a singular mark. The current activated, and he was pushed through the veil to join the group of marked Pokémon.
That left S-577 and Bubble as the only unmarked duosion left.
Bubble looked at S-577, then at the others. “It’s my turn,” she said solemnly. The tube opened, and without another word she was sucked through.
The wait felt like an eternity. S-577 drifted. He was worried. Worried about what was going to happen. Worried that Bubble wouldn’t be able to pass the four-part test. No one else could.
He drifted closer to the veil, where Tiny waited, staring out as he always did. “She’s not going to make it…” he whispered. “No one did.”
“Wheee…” Even Bouncy sounded less enthusiastic than before.
Bubble will do it, S-577 thought. Bubble strong.
The tube opened. Bubble fell back into the tank.
“Bubble!” S-577 said.
Bubble turned to look at him. Her expression was sad.
A singular mark floated above her head.
“I’m sorry…” she said softly. “S-577, I’m sorry. I couldn’t do it…”
The current activated. Both Bubble and S-577 were pushed against the veil. Bubble passed through.
“No!” S-577 threw himself against the veil, but it didn’t budge an inch. Tiny swam over to Bubble, pressing against her. The other duosion began to raise their voices and panic, swimming around frantically as they tried searching for a way out. “Bubble come back! Tiny come back!”
“It’ll be all right!” Bubble said, raising her voice over the other duosion. “J-just stay calm!”
A low hum vibrated the tank. The veil shifted, then moved, rotating along a central axis like a revolving door. S-577 swam along the veil, trying to reach the others, but he knew it was hopeless.
The veil continued to turn, then stopped. They were now on opposite sides of the tank than when they had started. The marked duosion lay fully exposed to the network of pipes that led out to other tanks.
“Bubble! Tiny!” S-577 pressed against the veil, trying to reach his friends.
Bubble looked at him, but she didn’t look scared. She looked… sad.
“Stay strong,” she whispered.
The tubes opened all at once.
Immediately, multiple duosion were sucked away, screaming in fear as they were caught in an inescapable current. The others swam against it, doing their best to resist the pull. One by one, the current snatched them away, the tubes swallowing them whole.
“Stay!” S-577 cried. “Bubble! Tiny! Stay!”
Tiny looked at S-577, straining against the current as hard as he could. His eyes were filled with fear and sadness.
He closed his eyes, exhausted. The current swept him away, and he vanished into the tube.
“Bubble!”
“I’m… trying!” She was the only one left, swimming against the current with as much energy as she could muster. For a moment, she remained in the same spot, unable to move forward yet resisting the current.
Then, slowly, she began inching backwards. The current was claiming her.
“No!” All of S-577’s thoughts converged into a singular point. He wasn’t going to lose Bubble. He had to save her. A faint white glow began surrounding him.
“Wait!” Bubble called. “Don’t hurt yourself! S-577!”
The glow intensified. S-577 screamed, and a jolt of blue energy shot out from him and pierced through the veil, slamming into Bubble. A glowing blue aura surrounded her, one that seemed to crackle with electricity. The veil ripped apart, torn away as the strength of the current sucked it into the tubes.
It took all of S-577’s strength to resist the current. Bubble, her body crackling with power, surged forward, running against the power of the tubes. “I feel… stronger!” She looked at S-577, amazement in her eyes. “What did you do? Where did you learn that?”
“Swim!” S-577 shouted over the current. “Swim, Bubble!”
A determined look filled her face as she drew nearer and nearer to him. No other duosion remained, only the two of them struggling to remain in the tank.
“Swim!” S-577 repeated. They were going to make it! They were almost together—
A second tube opened, and the current intensified. Bubble remained stationary, then slowly began to be dragged backwards. She struggled, but it was no use. The current was too strong.
“Swim! Swim!” S-577 reached the far end of the tank, where the tubes couldn’t reach him. “Bubble!”
The blue aura around her faded, and she looked him in the eye.
“I…” She sounded exhausted. “I’m sorry…”
She reached the tube.
S-577’s vision turned red. All his thoughts, his fears, his emotions, they congregated into a singular objective.
“Protect Bubble!”
A blinding white light, exponentially brighter than anything he had seen during the tests, exploded from his body. He latched onto Bubble, grabbing on with all the mental power available to him, holding her against the raging current. His mind felt like it was expanding outwards: hundreds of thoughts and emotions streamed through his head at once, pooling into a never-ending ocean of information. He reached out to Bubble both with his mind and with hands that began to grow outwards from his body, forming two massive fists that clawed at the air. With every passing second, he felt his power grow and grow, like a lightning bolt of power had struck him.
Psychic energy aims to control—
Amidst S-577’s maelstrom of thoughts, Warmy’s words cleaved through the chaos, loud and clear.
—it takes full advantage of what the world offers us—
He kept his grip on Bubble, grasping her with his psychic powers, tugging against the furious current. Trying to keep control. Trying to save her.
—and creates a new reality, something entirely new, not bound by what others might think is impossible.
“PROTECT BUBBLE—”
A big zap emerged from the ground behind him and stabbed him in the back.
His eyes widened. Fear replaced hope. Anger replaced determination.
He screamed, his psychic powers thrusting outwards as his body convulsed with electricity.
And the growth tank exploded.
Glass cracked like crashing thunder, shards bursting out in all directions. The big zap crumpled like a tin can under an immense invisible force. The metal top of the tank flung upwards, smashing into thousands of pieces against the ceiling. Beyond the tank, scientists screamed as monitors and tables and chairs flew back and crumpled against the wall. Glass tanks disintegrated. The smooth white tile floor bucked and shattered. Ceiling lamps and fans ripped from their bolts and slammed into the ground. Gallons upon gallons of liquid from the tank rushed outwards like a tsunami.
And S-577 continued to scream.
image [https://imgur.com/PQZ5sgn.jpg]
◓ ◓ ◓
Silence.
Exhaustion.
Destruction.
S-577 felt nothing. He lay on the ground, surrounded by carnage. Glass shards. Metal shrapnel. Pieces of machinery. Pools of green liquid. Pools of red liquid.
His vision cleared slightly, still blurry. His mind, once a raging flood of emotion, was now empty. His heart, a black void.
Gone.
They were all gone.
“Protect…”
He couldn’t find the words.