Chapter 81:
We Are All Mad Here
The Gyarados filled the entire room with its body, smashing through furniture and tables as its body curled around the room, following the wall. It barely fitted inside and it could only raise its head slightly before bumping its head.
It should’ve been impossible to squeeze in a Pokémon this big into the dining area but whatever. There was one right now. Fucking huge and I was pretty sure that one Body Slam would be the end of not only me but also most likely everything inside this underground place. Not that Gyarados had a lot of room to move though. It even had crushed a few of the corpses lying around when it transformed, unfortunate collateral damage.
It was somewhat uncanny to see a Gyarados appear out of nowhere. However, It wasn't Gyarados, it was Project Z. The genetically modified Zorua that could shapeshift.
My mind was like a flashlight, flickering on and off, only to process what just happened in small increments.
No, I knew what had happened, I just refused to think about it. Of course, my mind doesn’t work that way and I kept thinking about the guy being eaten in front of me.
In the end, it was Project Z who got me out of that state. She began quietly talking to herself.
“Well, news flash: revenge tastes fucking awful.”
She was still facing away from us. Project Z began making choking noises, as if trying to puke out the Site Director. “Ugh, what are humans made of damnit! This does not taste sweet at all!”
Ever noticed how scary a big sea serpent is up close? Let me tell you, they are freakishly big, so any teeth they have are also freakishly big.
Luna had withdrawn back to my side and gave me a questioning look. {Was that part of the plan?}
Well, no it wasn’t. I thought it would’ve been funny to see that Charles guy squirm, after all, he was the one who was behind this hellhole but I didn’t expect Project Z to actually go through with it.
This was not my fault, right? How could I have known Project Z would turn this violent?
Despite all of this, a silent voice whispered back; but you did know, you just wanted to sacrifice Redburn for Project Z’s good grace.
It wasn’t a stupid choice, Redburn was clearly insane and dragging someone across an underground facility just in the hopes he might provide some answers seemed a little difficult. Especially with the escaped Pokémon roaming around.
Project Z was done making choking noises which was a weird thing to hear from a fully grown Gyarados. I nervously fiddled with the knife in my hand, wondering if I should’ve taken out the gun with Aura infused bullets I had ‘borrowed’ from Sabrina.
“Let’s hope she is friendly,” I murmured to Fay and Luna.
As if Project Z heard me she tilted her enormous head around and gazed down at us. She cracked a smile.
You know, the anime really makes those sea monsters look underwhelming. Up close, or closer than I ever was, I could see a set of razor-sharp teeth bent inwards, there was even blood on them.
"Well," She coughed for the final time. Her voice lowered in pitch until it became a scary hiss, "I think I still have room for dessert."
Fuck it! I could already see where this was going and I was not liking it at all.
Plan A, befriending the Zorua failed. Plan B it was.
I shouted my commands. "Luna, Psybeam her face! Fay, buffer a Counter!"
"Wha-" Before Project Z could finish her sentence Luna fired a rainbow-colored beam from her head and it blasted towards Gyarados' head which was quite a big target.
Project Z got hit in the face and shouted something which was muffled by the second laser striking her in the face as well.
Gyarados' body began trembling as the Pokémon was squirming in pain. Normally that would be a good thing but considering I was in close proximity to her it had to stop immediately.
"Luna, Spear of Judgement!" I pointed at Project Z.
The continuous assault with lasers stopped for a brief second and Project Z was allowed to breathe.
Luna stood in front of the sea serpent with her arms outstretched. Shattered wood and metal began twirling around her, all the rubbish started to spin around her like leaves dancing on the wind.
"Oh you fuck-" Project Z stared at the telekinetic storm that had formed around the small Kirlia. Again she was interrupted by Luna who turned around, exposing her back for a split second before she unleashed a hellish scream and was launched towards Project Z's face followed by the storm that had formed around her.
Her fist gleamed with power and Luna spearheaded across the room.
"Eeeeee!" Gyarados squirmed when she saw the massive attack coming her way. She responded by glowing herself. The serpent's body glowed a heavenly white, not too dissimilar from Luna's own fist. The shape of her body transformed into something much smaller. A second later a black-red fox Pokémon appeared mid-air.
Gravity took hold of her and she dropped through the ground just as Luna's attack spearheaded through where she had just been.
The Zorua narrowly avoided the attack. A jagged sheet of metal flew over her head and missed her by a hair. Above her Luna's momentum dissipated. All the stuff that had been caught in her telekinetic web shot forward without its wielder and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room with such force that some pieces got stuck in it. I heard multiple loud bangs and shattering noises as the ceiling was ripped open by Luna's attack and revealed a path of destruction.
The Destroyer landed a few meters behind Zorua. Her fist no longer glowing, yet a look of anger still present on her face. She was breathing heavily and was slightly slumped over, exhausted from the attack. Nonetheless, she glared at the now much smaller Project Z with fierce determination.
Zorua wasn't in good shape either. The small Pokémon was taking short abrupt breaths as if she was an asthma patient.
"Holy..." Project Z coughed, "Fuck, that could have killed me!" She said it like she was accusing me. "Can't take a joke, can you?"
{A joke?} Luna's expression completely changed, she tilted her head in confusion.
"Yeah duh!" Project Z spat at Luna before turning around to face me and Fay. "Call off your psychotic Pokémon, please!"
"You were joking?" I said flatly, "You were not about to eat us?"
"What?" Zorua looked genuinely shocked, "Of course not, why would I eat you after helping me? What are you, stupid?"
"She appears to speak the truth," Fay cautiously said, then quickly added. "About the eating thing! Not the stupid thing."
"Yes I am speaking the truth, damnit. Didn't even let me finish." Project Z murmured annoyed.
"I saw you eat a guy in front of me," I replied. "What did you think I would think?"
{Are we still fighting?} Luna asked.
"I dunno," Project Z's voice lowered, "Maybe let me finish my sentence?!"
"I thought you would fucking eat us as well," I shot back. Was it really that hard for Project Z to understand? Great, now I just realized I was in a serious conversation with an escaped experiment. God, what has my life come to?
"YOU ATE SOMEONE!" I cried out, distressed.
Both Fay and Luna seemed pretty relaxed about it. Was I the only one who thought that was fucked up?
"Mmm, you appear to be repeating yourself," Project Z said in the same flat tone I used before. "What do you want me to do? Apologize to him?"
"He is dead now," Fay said, looking at the spot Redburn got eaten. "I guess there's nothing to do about that."
"Well," The Zorua cast her red eyes down, "I do feel sorry, he tasted like garbage..."
I facepalmed. I felt tired and wanted to go home.
{Are we gonna fight her?} Luna asked again.
"No, just no." I shook my head. The image of the Gyarados' jaws closing in on Doctor Redburn was still frozen in my eyes. "Let's just keep going."
"You guys are leaving?" Project Z asked, her tone back to serious.
"Yup," I muttered a few curses. "This has been a fucking nightmare." Luna kicked a shattered chair out of the way and joined my side.
"I hate to break it to you three but the elevator," Zorua pointed to one of her legs in the south-entrance direction. "It's dead."
"Dead?"
She nodded smugly, or as smug as a Zorua could look which turns out, was pretty smug. "Part of Protocol level 5 is disabling all elevators. Good luck with that.”
“What do you mean?” Fay narrowed her eyes.
I sighed. “She means we are stuck down here, unless…”
{Unless?} Luna fearfully asked.
“You are looking at A2’s best escapist. I might know a way out and I could always use a meatshield.” Project Z smiled at me. “So, how about we team up?”
“Meat shield?” I repeated.
Project Z shrugged dismissively, “Buffer, tag-along, cannon fodder or whatever you want to call it. I already planned on escaping but I fear I lack the sufficient skills to make it on my own. An alliance would be beneficial for everyone.”
“You just devoured a guy, who says you won’t do the same thing to us?” Fay rightfully asked.
“Charles was a dick,” Zorua growled her response, immediately after being creepy her voice returned to a jovial tone. “But you three seem alright, well that one looks psychotic but besides that, I lack a clear motive, knowing humans taste like plastic anyway.”
{What does she mean by psychotic?} Luna looked up at me, her eyes adorably shining. I knelt and patted her on the head. “Nothing to worry about."
There was quite a bit to worry about. First off, we were still stuck down here. Second, I just saw someone get eaten alive and apparently I taste like plastic. My tired mind could not even decide which of the three was the worst.
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“Fine, but don’t try anything,” I said after carefully weighing my odds.
“Yes sir!” Project Z dramatically said. The shit-eating grin on her face told me she took a lot of joy in my misery.
Talking about misery.
When both Project Z and I stopped talking, I was starting to hear something.
A humming noise was coming from the northern entrance, the one I had come through. We all immediately became silent which made the sound all the more scarier. A creepy lullaby flowed into the room, soft and barely audible at first, but it grew and kept on growing until that hollow song echoed against all the walls.
Seriously fate?
There she was, the demon herself. She stood in the door opening. Floating above the floor, dripping blood on the linoleum. Her weird dress wavered on a non-existent wind while her eyes pierced across the room from behind her cold mask.
Nobody moved.
Maybe, I thought, she was blind and couldn’t see us if we did not move. A fragile hope I clung to. She was so fucking creepy, she literally made the temperature in the room drop to chilling cold.
As her eyes methodically scanned the room her expression remained unchanged. Corpses, shattered ceiling tiles, smashed through tables. She watched everything with a child-like yet flat curiosity.
That was until her eyes finally fell on me. The Froslass did not even spare the Pokémon a second glance but once her eyes connected to me they didn’t move on.
An eager smile split her mouth in two. With a soft, sweet voice she said, “Fros.”
Fay paled and her mouth curled up into a grimace.
Luna narrowed her eyes and fixed them on Froslass, every muscle in her body tensing.
Project Z stared aghast at Froslass, more fearful than I thought someone who ate a human should have the right to look.
I was apparently the only one left in the dark. Froslass kept looking at me and I was still none the wiser.
“Well,” my voice croaked. “What did she say?”
It was Project Z who spoke first, “Well, we have good news and bad news. What do you want to hear?”
“Bad news.” Being a pessimist I always wanted to hear the bad news first, just to be over with it.
“Wel, Froslass over there says she wants to add your frozen corpse to her collection, probably swallow your soul if you believe in that stuff.”
{I won’t let that happen.} Luna clenched her fist.
“What’s the good news?” I asked while shivering.
“Good news, you are going to be the pinnacle of her collection, the icing on the cake as she puts it.”
“How the hell is that good news?” I murmured back, not daring to take my eyes off Froslass.
“Silver lining,” Zorua kept staring at Froslass as well, “At least you won’t be an ordinary icicle.”
As I gazed back into Froslass’ eyes, I could see immediately what Project Z was talking about. She was giving me a lustful look but not in a sexual way. Her gaze said: I would love to see you with your guts open. Definitely the wrong lustful look and all the more creepy because I had seen what she did to those frozen victims.
I swallowed, “How about no?”
Froslass reacted immediately. She drew her two weird hand things together in front of her and an orb was summoned between them. It had an ice blue color but seemed to be made entirely out of light energy.
“NO YOU WON’T!!!” A voice screamed. Fay suddenly appeared high above Froslass. Her eyes were basically fire pits of Aura flames. She screamed while she brought down a meter-long glowing blade of Aura.
Froslass slid backward just in time, narrowingly avoiding the sword and instead the glowing blue blade cut deep into the floor.
“You should get her out of there," Zorua said abruptly, "you really should not fight that Froslass."
"What do you suggest we do then?" I snapped back.
"Run."
You know how people in movies always have this dramatic stare down when someone tells them to run? Not me. Once Project Z uttered the word I just bolted, fueled by the adrenaline and the desire to not become an icicle. I hastily shouted an order for Fay to retreat while running towards the west entrance. All the exits except the one we had come through were blocked by heavy blast doors.
Fay's sword disappeared into tiny fragments that flew off into thin air. She lashed out with her claws but she had not managed to land a single hit since entering into battle. The blue Riolu looked back at us and then started to disappear into the familiar haze of Quick Attack. A few seconds later she had crossed the entire room and reappeared behind me just when I slid the plastic keycard down the panel.
Froslass, no longer kept busy by Fay, turned her cold eyes back on me. The blast doors in front of me slipped open with a mechanical hiss.
Froslass narrowed her eyes when the doors started to open. At an agonizing pace, one part slid into the ground and one disappeared into the ceiling. The Zorua leaped through the small gap first. Thanks to her small size she managed to squirm her way through before anyone else.
"Luna, keep blasting her!" Immediately after giving that command, I stepped through the door and frantically started looking for a way to shut the door again.
"Here!" Fay and Project Z pointed to a small panel with an LCD screen that was built into the wall.
While I was figuring out how those shitty panels worked, Luna began firing attacks at the approaching Froslass. Lasers, purple rings and disjointed pieces of scrap that Luna managed to grasp with her telekinesis. Tables, chairs and glass. Everything was flung her way.
It did not matter much. Froslass floated on, tanking every projectile thrown her way without even being remotely fazed. Her eyes remained fixed on me as she stormed straight through a Disarming Voice.
I finally found an icon that looked like 2 doors shutting. I pressed it. My keycard was required. I slid it down and the familiar hissing sound returned. At a snail's pace, the doors started to emerge.
With one swift move, I stepped through, swung my arm around Luna and jumped back through the narrow gap in the middle.
I dropped Luna and turned around to face the doors again.
As I saw Froslass' 2 big cute eyes, two thoughts ran across my mind.
One: She kind of does look cute, sucks she's a total bitch.The second thought was: Holy shit get that thing away from me.
The monster was not even a full meter away from my face. I could hear her breathing through her mask. Froslass' two weird arms had wrenched themselves between the two closing blast doors and forced them to stay open, seemingly using her own strength to hold back the massive steel doors..
She leaned over in an attempt to move through. "Slas!" she spoke.
Luna fired a Disarming Voice but it had no effect. We all stumbled backward as Froslass had almost squirmed her body through the narrow gap. Luna fired more attacks but it failed to harm her. The doors were making a creaking noise as their pistons tried to force them shut but Froslass' absurd strength blocked them.
A bright glow came from underneath me. I briefly gazed down and saw Zorua was shifting again. Her shape began to grow in length until she became bigger than Luna.
The glow dissipated, Project Z had once again changed forms. She was much bigger now, almost reaching my chest. The newly formed Pokémon stood on two long red legs, her lower body was somewhat like a reversed turn-up with white petals acting much like a hoopskirt. She had grown long green leaves like hair that came from her head with a crown-shaped flower on top of it. Her face had changed from fox like to a spherical one with big red eyes and eyelashes, hidden by a ruff.
It took me a few seconds to recognize what she had exactly turned into. It was a Tsareena, the fruit Pokémon from Gen 7, the final evolution of Steenee.
While I was distracted I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. I stopped breathing.
The hand was ice cold. It felt like my blood had been replaced by cooling ice water. I turned around and saw Froslass'. Just as I was about to scream bloody murder, the newly transformed Tsareena jumped towards the door. Mid-air she stuck out her legs and hit Froslass square in the chest with both her legs. For a split second, they were both locked in that position.
"Find your own human," Project Z growled. She pushed away from Froslass with an explosive kick.
Froslass was blown out of the gap she had forced and back into the dining area where she skidded over the floor through glass and blood. Not that it seemed to harm her much, she casually got up.
I spared Froslass a final glance and our eyes met. Despite the newly created distance, I still felt terrified. I could almost feel her hand still lingering on my shoulder.
The doors snapped close behind her with a loud screeching sound. They locked together with an explosive snap that was so loud it made me flinch. Blinking green text on the panel read that it was successfully locked.
Thick layers of metal separated us from the Froslass. An eerie silence fell over us, including the newly transformed Project Z. We began catching our breath and stared at the blast doors.
Bam!
The door shook.
Like we were part of one big hive mind, we took a step away from the door.
Bam!
The door shook once more. More bangs followed but it did not look like the door was about to break. The metallic sound droned through the white hallways, following an interval of circa 3 seconds.
The knocking continued like the Pokémon on the other side did not care. She kept relentlessly thumping on the door.
"Nobody's home!" Project Z's low voice screamed. "And even if we were, you wouldn't be invited!"
The knocking stopped all of a sudden and the silence returned.
"Did that work?" Fay asked, flabbergasted.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The knocking returned right away, faster and more violently. This time more furious than ever, I could literally feel the ground underneath my feet shake.
"Um, let's not stick around." I coughed.
Project Z transformed back to her usual form, a small Zorua. "Yeah, let's get a move on before she realizes how doors function."
She began heading into the blood-stained hallway, not looking back if we were actually following her.
I shrugged. Somehow seeing Redburn eaten alive was no longer my worst experience down here.
The three of us started to follow Project Z. No one was talking about the bloody trails on the ground indicating Froslass had been moving bodies around. We took turns and twisted throughout the white hallways.
{Phew,} Luna said when the banging sound became more distant. {We got you out alive.}
"Yup," I said absently. I was trying to keep track of where we were going, the directions.
Project Z seemed nonsensical to me but at least we were moving forward. Project Z took another turn. The ceiling above us changed from the regular tiles to long pipes running across it. Some of them were small and not wider than a football while other pipes could easily fit a small child.
If my mental map was somewhat correct, we should've been somewhere on the edge of this complex.
We came across 2 more empty laboratories. One dubbed: Project 106 Imperfect Imposter and the other was named: Project 120 Crying Puppet.
It wasn't hard to guess who those cells belonged to.
Project Z hardly batted them an eye, in fact, Project Z did not seem to care about anything. Even when we passed a row of frozen bodies that had been lined up against the wall.
When I saw it I immediately recalled my 2 Pokémon back to their Pokéballs before they could see the true horror. I carefully eyed the frozen corpses, ready to stab them if necessary.
The Zorua stopped and raised an eyebrow, "Why'd you recall them?"
I silently pointed at the corpses, all stuck in a horrified motion yet I could almost believe they were asleep.
This time there were only 5 of them. Somehow blood had managed to get on the pipes that ran across the ceiling.
"What about them?" Project Z stared.
"You don't think that's horrifying?" I said.
"Oh bloody bastard!" Project Z gasped and made a small leap back, "That truly is horrifying." Project Z shook her head like that could erase the pained memories. "Look at that, they're not even placed in order."
"Order?" I asked monotonously.
"Yeah," Project Z nodded. "They're not even lined up from size or age or anything. Just random, my OCD is killing me."
When I saw the grin the Zorua was trying to hide I just felt sick.
"Seriously, what's wrong with you?"
"Lots of things." Project Z said cheerfully, “But you’re the one talking to me so the same could be said about you.”
"Urgh, keep walking."
"Yes sir!"
Once they were out of my view, I released both Fay and Luna from their Pokéballs. Luckily, they did not ask any questions.
After 2 more turns we finally reached a white door. Project Z stopped in front of it. Uncharacteristically she wore a serious expression for once. "I need to retrieve something really quick, one minute."
We were standing in a long hallway with a lot of doors, all of them equal in design with the only difference being the number designated to them. It kinda reminds me of a corridor in a cruise ship, minus the dead body lying across the hall.
With a simple push the door numbered 2545 opened and we were met with a small cabin. I peered inside and saw an empty bunker bed frame and closed closet. There was a sink to my right with a relatively clean mirror above it. There was not much to the room, it was really small, only 2 meters (6,5 feet) by 4 meters (13 feet) big.
There were no personal belongings, just the bare necessities. It was almost a prison cell with no windows and only lit by a simple lamp on the ceiling.
Project Z managed to work her way up the bunk bed with some effort. She stared up at the ceiling and transformed. An Aipom took her place.
Using her hand-tail the purple monkey pushed one of the ceiling plates up and shoved it aside. She stuck her hand up in the darkness and felt around before finally finding what she was looking for.
"Catch!" The purple Aipom suddenly said.
By a miracle, I managed not to cut myself while catching a heavy object. When I took a good look at it I noticed it was a book. It had a green hardcover but besides that was very simple in design. A white, empty sticker was plastered in the middle and with blue ink was written ‘Lyndis' diary’.
Project Z transformed back into a Zorua and jumped off the bed. I was about to open it when Project Z called. "It's mine, just hold onto it for me please."
“Sure?”
“You’ve led us around for a notebook?” Fay asked. “You said we needed a guide and you needed our help.”
“You do need a guide and I do need your help,” Project Z said dismissively, “This is just mine. Now we can head for the exit which will be quite harder to reach. Wanna know why?”
A teasing smile crept up on Zorua’s face.
“I am not gonna like this, am I?” I paled.
“The exit to the surface is on the highest floor,” Project Z walked past us. “Trust me, we are gonna have a blast.”