Chapter #2: In the morning, Alice didn’t go home. The fact that the pokémon spoke with it’s... her attention focused solely on the young assistant, was all the confirmation Donovan had seemed to need that the creature had taken to her somehow. And so she’d stayed at the lab, stayed right through sunrise and into the morning, watching as the poor thing grow more and more confused. The pokémon didn’t know where she was, hell, she didn’t even know who she was, and apparently there were strict rules on what she could and couldn't be told, because Donovan took it upon himself to speak to the creature, in his thick German accent, and wouldn't let anyone interfere. The pokémon was of a race man created. Cloned from the DNA of the legendary phantom pokémon, Mew. The Mewtwo, as she was called, was supposed to be an enhanced, modernized version of her predecessor. She was designed with battle in mind, and had enhanced power, strength, and speed capabilities. Her purpose was to serve Cipher, and Donovan specifically, and it was a duty she was meant to uphold without complaint. They had given her life, after all. Alice felt herself growing slightly ill as she listened. How could anyone view another living creature this way, even if they had brought it into the world? A short time later, Alice found herself staring through a one-way window at her new charge. The pokémon had been moved to this room almost immediately. From what Alice understood, it was like a heavily protected armored truck. The only difference was, that the walls were reinforced not to keep people out, but the pokémon inside. They had fitted rings on the unfortunate experiment almost immediately, black mechanical hoops with small flashing red lights. They were on the poor creature’s wrists and ankles, as well as a dark collar around her neck. The pokémon sat examining these rings as one of the technicians told Alice exactly what they were, restraints. Right now, the creature was like an adolescent human child, young and not fully developed. As she grew, so would her powers. The restraints would take effect once her psychic energy reached a certain level, holding it there so that she would not be able to use her full strength, and could be contained. “Won’t that hurt her, though?” Alice asked. “I suppose there would be some discomfort, but not enough that the subject would really be aware of it. The point is, we can’t take any chances that this thing won't become unruly. It’s just too dangerous.” the technician replied. Alice wondered bitterly why they had gone to all this trouble if that was the case. “Now, the subject has been told that the rings are there to protect it from any energy surges it might experience, so it won’t hurt itself. It’s critical that it continues believing this. Is that understood?” Alice nodded an affirmative, and stood silent as a panel in the wall slid open, allowing her into the holding room. The pokémon looked up as she came in, watching her with wary eyes. The poor creature was nervous which in turn made her suspicious. Piercing, jade colored eyes followed the young woman’s every move. The tech walked over to a small bench running along the far side of the room and sat down, the green eyes following her the whole time. She shifted a little bit to get comfortable. “Um... hi.” Alice said. “Hullo.” The voice, for lack of a better term, was low, sullen, and most definitely feminine. Much like that of a moody teenage girl. The word wasn't actually spoken, either. The Mewtwo had raised her head to watch Alice just enough so that the woman could see the pokémon’s mouth, and it hadn’t opened or even moved in the slightest. Alice shifted just a little bit more. If the pokémon was speaking with a psychic voice, then didn’t that mean she could read peoples’ minds? Alice decided she’d better break the silence. “My name is Alice and it’s my job to keep an eye on you.” she said gently. “Do I really need to be kept an eye on?” the pokémon asked lowering her head slightly. The question was asked in a critical manner, and the young woman winced slightly at the tone. She quickly tried to salvage the situation. “Well, yes, but not in the way it sounds.” “I’m supposed to take care of you, see? Like, if you get hungry, I could bring you food, or if you didn’t understand something, I could help explain it to you.” she added quickly. “There are a lot of things I don’t understand. and I have a hard time thinking that a woman who hardly seems to know what she wants to say could explain much of it to me.” the pokémon stated matter-of-factly. Alice wasn't sure how to respond. Instead, she chose to remain silent and suddenly turned away, not wanting to see those exotic eyes staring at her anymore. Why was she here anyway? She didn’t want this at all. She still felt the green eyes boring into her even as she looked the other way. She said nothing, choosing instead to let the pokémon break the silence with another question. “So... Alice... now what?” For the life of her, Alice couldn’t answer. *************** It amazed her how conceited these people could be. Okay, maybe some of the humans, most of them really, weren’t all that conceited. Those were the ones that were afraid of her. The ones that weren’t afraid, though, were conceited. Conceited and condescending and stuck-up and a whole mess of other things, too. The pokémon quickly determined which humans fell into which categories, conceited or afraid or even neither, and dealt with them accordingly. She liked dealing with the frightened ones the best; those, she could scare a little and they would leave her alone. The more conceited humans wouldn’t be intimidated; they felt they had nothing to fear. Donovan was the worst by far. He made her feel small, insignificant, and unimportant. The main scientist, the one in charge of all the others, was just as bad. Sometimes she wondered if he even thought of her as alive. He sure didn’t act like it. Later they brought in another woman, and this one was almost as bad as Donovan, the way she would look down her pointed nose at the pokémon, sneering at her. She remembered the woman’s name, because they said that Mitsuki would be training her. It seemed important to remember at the time. The other, more frightened humans didn’t leave much of an impression. They mostly scurried about like Rattata’s, as they ran from one place to the other in the lab without looking at her. She wasn’t exactly sure how she knew what a Rattata was, or why it scurried, but she did, and left it at that. Then there were a couple of humans who didn’t really fit either category. They weren’t scared, and they weren’t conceited. The woman, Alice, was one of them. Every day, Alice would come to talk to her. At first, the pokémon could tell, the woman was afraid. But then the fear started to go away, just a little at a time, and after a week, the woman, Alice, was hardly afraid at all. In fact, she was actually rather nice, and the pokémon found herself waiting for the woman to come and speak to her. Although she'd never admit it, of course. Several other humans that didn’t quite fit either category were a man with shoulder length platinum colored hair and another man with short brown hair who always wore dark shades. The pokémon briefly pondered how she knew what that word meant before letting the thought go. If memory served, the brown haired man seemed to be a curiosity to her. The platinum haired man however, gave her the creeps. More so even then Donovan did. As she sat in the lab, warily watching the humans around her, the man with the shades stood nearby and was watching her now. Whenever they had her out of her little room for 'testing' she would see the same man leaning against a doorway, watching. He would stand there with his arms folded over his chest and watch her for a little while, then turn and leave. She never spoke to him. She stared at him, then shifted her gaze to the human who had, quite without her permission, just stuck a needle into her arm. He was drawing her blood. They kept taking her blood from her, at least once a day. She figured it had probably been about eight days now, but she couldn’t be sure. She never got to see the sun, all closed up, or the moon, or stars. Sun, moon, stars. Once again, she didn’t know how she knew what they were, but she did, and left it at that. The little human meanwhile, scurried off with the vial of her blood, and then they ushered her back into her enclosure. As she went, she heard the tech say something to his buddy about the "damned creepy two." That’s all they ever called her. It bothered her greatly, but she'd never admit it. After all, names were a luxury that they didn’t care to afford her. With a sigh, the pokémon turned and sat with her back to the glass wall. She didn't feel like looking at herself right now anyway. *************** It seemed strange to Alice that she’d never considered the idea of the pokémon having a personality. It just hadn't occurred to her, or to anyone else for that matter. But the creature did. Boy did she ever have a personality. It made Alice’s job all the harder, because the creature knew exactly what she did and didn’t like, and so far, she didn’t like much of anything. It made her temperamental. All too often, Alice would find her co-workers waiting for her arrival in the morning, because the creature simply refused to cooperate with certain people. She’d just sit and stare at them angrily, refusing to move. It could be very frustrating. Alice imagined it was just as frustrating for the pokémon, as well. *************** It had been a while since she’d awakened. Perhaps a week and a half, probably closer to two. She didn’t know how she knew what a week was, but she did, and left it at that. Anyway, she was enjoying a nice, peaceful nap when they came for her. Her body told her it was still far too early. She’d been able to develop a sort of sleep cycle based on when they took her out for tests, and it was still sleep time. So she ignored the people trying to coerce her awake, instead rolling away from them in an attempt to return to her slumber. She was soon rewarded, much to her own surprise, with a hard kick to her side. None of the humans had ever dared to strike at her before. Angered, the pokémon lashed back at the offending person with her tail, intending to knock them back, only to feel a sharp, burning sting across her back when she tried. The jerk had a whip! Scowling, the pokémon slowly sat up and then hissed slightly as the stinging pain in her back flared sharply before dulling again. *************** The pokémon wasn’t in her holding area when Alice arrived at work that morning. They told her that they'd started it's training, and that she wouldn’t be needed for it. So she sat around, and waited. She didn’t mind waiting. She had a good book to read, and she was still getting paid, even while she did nothing at all. It worked out well for her. She actually spent the whole morning and a good part of the day sitting in the break room, reading her book. When her mind was finally pulled back to her job, it was violently and unexpectedly. A door in the main complex opened, and immediately the room was filled with angry shouts. By the time Alice got a bookmark into her book and got out to see what was happening, they were already forcing the pokémon into her room. She wasn’t sure, but in the brief glimpse she got, the pokémon seemed redder than before. Mitsuki soon walked in, wiping a whip clean. Alice stared at it in horror. They hadn’t actually let her use that thing, had they? The assistant ran to the window and looked in. She then turned away quickly. She didn’t want to see, after all... Mitsuki meanwhile, casually looked up from her cleaning. “Don’t feed it.” she stated before turning and walking away. *************** It hurt to the point that she almost couldn’t stand the pain anymore. Huddling in a corner of her enclosure, the pokémon swore to herself that she'd never be used by anyone like that. She didn’t care how badly they beat her! She shifted a little to get more comfortable, then winced as one of the bigger cuts seemed to protest. Tucking her body tighter into its little ball, the pokémon heard the door open and glared suspiciously at the entry. Alice however, was the only one who came in. The woman, she noted, was carrying a white metal box with a red cross on the side. The item's name registered somewhere in her mind. 'First aid kit'. Yet another mysterious term. Something she hadn't yet encountered in her brief existence, but could identify anyway. First aid kits, she knew, were for getting rid of injuries like the ones she had now. Alice sat the first aid kit down next to her and took a seat. “Hiya kiddo,” the woman said softly. She didn’t come out of her ball. “Hullo.” “I know you’re probably not feeling very well right now, but I need to have a look at you.” Alice continued after a pause. “What for? She’s just going to do it again tomorrow.” The human actually seemed pained by the words. “Why do you say that?” “Because she said she would. She said this is what happens when I don’t do what she says.” Alice winced slightly before starting work on her arm, in one of the places where the whip had actually broke through flesh and fur. “Perhaps you should try listening, then. Just try a little bit, and things will get better.” she said. “What’s the point? I don’t want to live just to do what they tell me to. Sometimes I wonder why they even bothered to create me.” “I’m not important to any of them. I don’t even have a name, or an identity. I’m just a two...” she continued after a pause. The human continued working on her wounds, and the pokémon raised her head a little bit. “Would you want to keep trying, if you didn’t have an identity of your own? Would you want to keep trying, if they only called you two?” she continued mournfully. For a long moment, the human was still, studying the cut she was cleaning. Finally, she shook her head. “No, I don’t think I would...” Alice replied. Sighing, the pokémon rested her head again, glad that the human had at least been honest with her. None of the others around here valued honesty at all... *************** The pokémon didn’t say another word as Alice continued cleaning her. Finally, the young woman stood up, wiping her brow with one arm. “There we go. All done.” she exclaimed. The battered creature nodded but otherwise said nothing. Deep down, Alice was glad. The green eyed clone had expressed more emotion in those few brief moments of conversation than she had over the past two weeks. Alice packed up the first aid kit and quietly left the enclosure without getting so much as a goodbye or a thank you from the pokémon. She hadn’t really expected one, anyway. As she came out, Alice was somewhat surprised that Alan was waiting for her. She also noticed that a Bayleef was standing beside him. Somehow, the sight didn't seem out of the ordinary to her. She vaguely recalled seeing several other pokémon hanging around him in the past. Shrugging inwardly, she began walking away from the enclosure and toward a nearby locker. “Come on, I’ll buy you dinner.” He said, falling into step with her as she walked over to a nearby locker and put away the medical supplies. Alice blinked at the unexpected invitation. Behind them, she heard the Bayleef produce an amused snort before making soft kissing noises. She couldn't help a confused snort of her own as the sound prompted Alan to stop and glare at the creature. “You’re staying here.” he snapped. Alice couldn't help another snort as she saw the Bayleef roll its eyes and began pantomiming him before turning and wandering off. “Kids...” he stated as he rolled his own eyes. Giggling to herself, Alice shrugged as she gave in. “Sure, why not. It’s been a hell of a day anyway.”