Rayne’s Story Chapter 1 By Salastoise ……PANT…..PANT….PANT… The sound of my heavy breathing echoed in my head as I ran down the dark forest trail. They can’t catch me….I won’t let them…I can still escape… Lights flashed behind me…Must run faster…they won’t catch me…can’t let them…I juped over a root and sped down the moonlit path. I heard a yell. Desperation filled me in the need to get away. I cut my bare foot on a small rock. …….PANT……PANT….PANT… I was running out of breath…getting tired…must rest…My mind screamed for me to keep running but my body slowed. Shouts came to my ears. A gunshot. Something sharp in my arm. Darkness overtook me as I fell to the ground. They must’ve shot me..with..a..dart. I drifted to dreamworld. ****************************** Bright lights brought me to consciousness. I squinted at a large bulb four feet above me. I was laying on some hard, cold surface. Then came the realization that I couldn’t move. Panicking, I turned my head and saw my arm was pinned to the steel table by a band. My other arm and legs were in the same predicament. I have to get out of here… A very loud noise, like a door being opened and thrust into the wall, came to my hearing. A sinking feeling came when I saw I was in a lab room. Oh crap…now I’m going to be their guinea pig? I heard a cold chuckle. "Look who’s awake." My gaze turned to a shadowed corner of the room, where there was a mess of wires and power cords. A man in a lab coat stepped out, but if he was going for a graceful entrance, it didn’t work. He tripped on some wires and fell to the floor. Under different circumstances, I would have snickered. But if you’re about to become a lab rat, that doesn’t come easy. The man got up and sheepishly dusted himself off. "Ahem. Er, what was I going to say?" (sweatdrops) "You were gloating," I said. He scratched his head. "Hmm. Oh yes, thank you." He took a more evil stance. " You were foolish to escape from us, Rayne. Things would have gone much easier for you. But, you force me to take desperate measures. Since you disrupted our experiment by escaping, I’m afraid I’ll have to be a little meaner." "In being a ‘little meaner’, you mean what punishment?" "I’ll combine the DNA of a pokemon with yours, making you mutate into one of them. And when we take over the world, you’re going to help us." I rolled my eyes. Could my life be any wierder? "Sure. Keep dreaming." He pulled out a sringe of blue liquid from his lab coat. "You might think differently, my dear, after you see yourself in the mirror." After that, he stabbed my arm with the needle and emptied the sringe into my blood. Of course, I don’t remember much after that, because the pain made me black out. **************************** Urgh…my..head..ow.. I groaned. What a nightmare. I really thought it was real. I opened one eye and discovered I wasn’t in my bed. I was in a glass canister filled with bubbling liquid. I saw there was a breathing mask on my face. Outside my confined space there were men in lab coat running around, shouting things, writing on clipboards. Staring at me. I managed to make out a couple words. They were garbled. "…condition stable!….xygen on….we did it..have finally…formula…get help…other victims." I didn’t understand. What were they talking about? I gazed around the room until a moniter with a pokemon on it caught my attention. It looked a bit like an Evee, in a canister like mine, a ring of white fur around its neck and its tail was white. It was about the size of a Suicune, although a bit smaller. It had light, sky-blue fur. Large, fluffy rabbit ears were planted on its head. Huge black eyes were on its face and a petite black nose was on its muzzle. Lastly, there was a white jewel in its forhead. It was beautiful. I never seen anything like it. It looked like it was staring intently at something. Then it hit me like a load of bricks. That creature was me. I brought my blue paws up to eye level and stared. I remembered the scientists words about me helping to take over the world. But me? Never. I sniffed in remembering what I used to be before it happened. I was only a thirteen year old girl when the fateful night came. My parents opened the door to some stranger and were shot. Turned out they only wanted kids for their experiments. I was almost caught before I jumped out my bed room window, the dead bodies of my parents outside the door. I ran along our forest path until I was caught. That was only last night. My thoughts were shattered when the man who turned me into this, tapped on the glass. My hackles went up, my ears went down, and I growled, pawing at the glass. "Well, you certainly look alive," he snickered. I wanted to make a snappy comeback, but all that came out was an infuriated, "Blizreon!" I stopped, puzzled at my lack of english. He snickered. "Oh, yes. Since you’re a pokemon, you can’t say anything but your name. I must say, you’re the first successful experiment we’ve had." I growled some more and kicked the glass. "So, do you want to speak?" I gave him a glare that said, "Duh." "Hrmph. All right. Now, I’m going to shut off your oxygen for a second and pour a formula down the tube. Drink it and you’ll be able to speak for a limited time." I took a deep breath before he shut my air supply off. He poured a purple liquid down the tube and I, having swallowed it, took deep gulps of oxygen. When I had stopped catching my breath, I glared at him. "You’re dispicable," I said through my teeth, which I was baring at him. He bowed. "Why thank you." I thought of all the possible questions to ask him before time ran out. The first came to me in a flash. "What do you want with me?" "To put it simply, you’re in the base of Team Rocket. We are going to use children as lab rats to help with our takeover. You were the first success." "Why children?" "Because adults do not have enough energy to withstand the transformation you went through. Therefore, I thought children would be better because of their energy." I trembled. "Why did you shoot my parents?" I whispered. He smirked. "Well, we wouldn’t want word of this to spread, now would we?" At that moment, a door opened and two rocket grunts came in carrying a boy about my age. They dragged him across the floor to the man I was speaking with. He gave a few terse words and the grunts carried the boy through another door. "Well, Rayne, you must excuse me. I’m about to perform another miracle," he said. "Oh and by the way. Your speaking time is almost up." He turned and walked away. Suddenly, the liquid in my canister started to drain. The oxygen mask was pulled through a hole in the ceiling. When it was completelty empty, I felt cramped. I was too big for this thing while it was drained. A hole opened under me and I slid down a pipe, yelling all the way. An opening at the end flung me into a metal cage. I surveyed my surroundings carefully. I was in a giant store room with lots of empty cages, but I knew what was going in them. I wobbled aroung my cage uncertainly. I had to get used to walking on four legs. Since I’m a pokemon, shouldn’t I be able to do some attacks? But I don’t know what type I am… "Er, I threon bliz blizreon." Darn! My time ran out. Well, since it would be easier not speaking, I guess I could translate for when I do. What I was trying to say was since my name has something like blizzard in it, I should try a powder snow attack. {Now, how do ya pull off an attack?} I asked. {Hmm…maybe I just think about it…} I sat down and concentrated on the words ‘powder snow’. After a while, I began to feel very cold inside. When I felt I couldn’t stand it any longer, I opened my mouth and a breath of snow came out in a flurry of snowflakes. It worked but I’d have to practice more. I was startled out of my training by a loud, {WOAH!} I turned to the cage beside me and saw a pipe very much like the one I came out of. It was open and the person that slid down it was on the floor of the cage, stunned for the time being. The stunned occupant of the cage was a male and by the looks of it, he’d gone through the same treatment as me. He was VERY srtangely mutated. His head, paws, and upper torso were all the brown color of an Evee. He even had the white ring of fur around his neck. What’s strange about him, you ask? Well, for starters, his hind legs were Charizard, but brown, and he had a Charizard’s wings and tail. All his Charizard body parts were brown, like his fur. "Charvee, char charvee,"he growled,sitting up. Translation: {Yeowch! Stupid scientist…I wish I could punch his face…} He didn’t seem to notice me. {You know, you’re not alone here.} I said. He jumped. {I was brought here before you. They shot my parents and kidnaped me.} {Who are you?} he asked. {My name’s Rayne.} I replied.{Right after I got captured, the doc you seem to loath pricked me with a needle. After I gained consciousness, I saw you brought in by Rocket grunts.} {I’m, um, Chris. Although my capture isn’t the same story, I was caught and brought here this morning. My mother asked me to go to the grocery store to get some bread. I was almost there when the crooks jumped me and conked me on the head.} Our conversation was interrupted when the lights went on. Four grunts came into the room, no doubt to gawk at us. "Oooo, just look what Larson did with the kids," the first said. "Hey, remember that cutie we brought in a while ago?" said the second. {Cutie?! I dare you to say that to my face!} I yelled, jumping up. The third started laughing. "Hey, look. She’s mad." The fourth, stupidly enough came up to my cage. "Here, kitty, kitty." That got a laugh from his companions. I trotted to the front where he was standing, to make it look like I was coming to get petted. When I was right by his face, I unleashed a powdersnow attack. He jumped away, sceaming that his eyelashes were stuck together. Chris snickered. The stricken grunt pulled out a pokeball and enlarged it. "Grrrr, somebody let her out! I’ll give her punishment!" One of the grunts unlocked the cage door and pushed me out. Instantly, I was everywhere, using walls as springboards. I finally came upon the grunt group and unleashed a bigger powder snow attack. Before leaving, they caught and beat me with barbed whips. I snarled and tried to bite, but one of the grunts held my jaws together with his hands. With a final kick, they locked the door and left. I was bleeding everywhere. {Rayne? Are you all right?} Chris’ voice asked. {Peachy.} I muttered. End chapter one.