New chapter time, and early compared to the rate I usually post at. Good news is we get to see Marril again! Bad news is it's not quite like normal. Normal's overrated anyways, plus we finally get to see Orthan in action. Plus more TschelxAlex scenes. What's not to like? 
Plus we get to see Wise Professor Tree again.
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Darkwood City was a beautiful place, made all the more beautiful because Alex was, after a long bout with depression, happy again.
They’d put off fighting the gym leaders for a while in order to, Marril might have put cynically had it been there, to enjoy their not so newfound, but newly admitted love.
Tschel couldn’t hide his smile as he saw for the first time Alex actually truly happy. The boy was surprisingly energetic, and not unlike a hormonal teenage girl in a lot of his actions. It didn’t, however, matter to Tschel. He was himself feeling that same sense of well being simply by being with Alex.
Darkwood City was a bit of a lie, they’d soon discovered. The city wasn’t dark at all, and in fact was quite sunny that day. The forests in the city were enough to take weeks if one went through them at a good, fast pace. Alex and Tschel were in no hurry.
There were information booths and plaques all around the forests, which taught the two quite a lot about the forest and the grass Pokémon that lived there. It was one of the very few places in the world where there were wild grass “starters”, as they were called. Bulbasaur, Chikorita, and Treecko were fairly uncommon, and were protected species as well.
Alex’s energy was, Tschel hoped, the result of too many pent-up feelings releasing themselves and not a common occurrence. While he loved him, he found Alex’s sheer energy at the moment hard to keep up with. The time the two were spending together, as well as Alex’s random acts of affection, was well liked by both, although Tschel noted again that Alex was better in the outdoors than he was and after a couple of hours was quite tired, physically.
In the end, however, Tschel wouldn’t have given it up for anything. It was a corny thought, he knew, but along a similar corny vein, he found Alex just too cute to tell to go on ahead.
Yeah, they were here all right, she’d been thinking to herself. Getting out of Rueni had been the easy part. She’d been around town all night trying to get information about a pretty boy with long blonde hair that traveled with a pale boy with white hair.
Despite the peculiarity of the two, not many people knew whom she was talking about. That had prompted some swearing on her part.
If they’re not around town, she’d thought, they’re probably in the forests. Good place to start, I guess. At least I know forests.
Her legs were burning with exhaustion. She wasn’t used to that.
Tschel thought it was like some form of badly written, genre-crossing novel. First he’d found love with a guy who genuinely loved him back, and then he’d found himself walking in the opposite direction that some tourists had just been quickly going. Alex went along to see what was causing the commotion.
The trail ended at the exit of the forest to the route beyond it that eventually brought the traveler to a small, out of the way farming town.
Neither Alex nor Tschel knew quite what to think of the exhausted, panting person standing on the route.
She looked up and surprise dawned on her face. “Tschel! Alex!!”
The woman, an odd-looking person in her late teens or early twenties, dressed in a dark blue half-shirt and knee-length navy blue pants, who seemed to have very fine blue fur which was white on the stomach, mouse like ears, and a tail that had an unsettling resemblance to a Marril’s, jumped up and engulfed Alex in a bear hug.
The enormous sweatdrops shared by both Tschel and Alex and the awkward silence that followed were broken by Alex’s tentative, unsure question.
“Eh?” Alex’s voice was shocked and didn’t sound very intelligent, but he figured it got his point across.
“It’s—it’s me, Marril,” she said.
Facefaults and more enormous sweatdrops were shared. Alex and Tschel were silent.
“I know I’m really different,” Marril said. Alex noticed that she was crying. “It’s just, well, that, Team Rocket took me, and they did this… surgery stuff to me, and I remember being in a lot of pain, and then waking up, and I was like this, and…”
Marril’s ramble was cut short by some more tears.
“You’re…?” Alex asked. It was impossible for this woman to be Marril, he knew it was.
“If it helps any, you know, to prove who I am or just make you feel better,” Marril said slowly, deliberately, “I’m really sorry for getting mad at you that day in the Pokémon Center, when you…”
The memory, Alex saw, was too much for this woman.
“They… they explained to me when they were done with me that I’d been a test subject for something called Orthan,” Marril continued, speaking very quickly. “It was… it was a way to increase a Pokémon’s power, but they also made us look more human, and… and…” Marril’s voice stuttered a bit, “They gave me some directions to find you, and some food so I wouldn't starve on the way.”
“Team Rocket releasing their own test subjects?” Tschel asked. “Not bloody likely.”
Marril shot a harsh glare at Tschel, which was dampened by her puffy eyes. “Well you’re the same as ever.”
Tschel shrugged. “Same me-hating Marril that I remember.”
“Look, I really am Marril!” Marril pleaded, crying.
Alex put his hand on Marril’s shoulder, getting her attention away from Tschel. “I really don’t know what to say. If you’re… if you’re really Marril, then I don’t really care if you’ve been… changed, but…”
“Thanks Alex,” Marril said, managing a smile. “I can’t prove myself in two seconds or anything, but I’ll show you I’m the same as ever, just bigger.”
“And more expensive to keep fed,” Tschel muttered, crossing his arms and looking idly at the sky.
Marril gave Tschel a very rude arm gesture—not the finger though—to Tschel for prodding her like that.
“Well,” Alex interjected, “I believe her.”
Marril hugged Alex again. “Thanks.”
“Now that just feels weird,” Alex said, to which Marril muttered a quick “sorry.”
Tschel took in a deep breath and let it out quickly. “Well, your call, Alex. Won’t think any less of you either way. Just… Marril… stop hugging him, okay?”
Alex laughed. Tschel’s jealous, he thought. No reason for Tschel to be, of course, since Marril was just a friend, and he already loved Tschel. Tschel looked cute when he was jealous, though, Alex thought.
A mischievous smile crept across Marril’s face, and Tschel’s face instantly turned to an undeniable “oh no” expression.
“Tschel’s jealous!” Marril declared. “I knew it! You two work so well together. And you make such a cute couple.”
Tschel sighed. “Yeah, now I believe it. You’re really Marril. Nobody else makes my life heck like that.”
Marril went to hug Tschel, but saw that that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do, so she merely clapped his shoulder. “You make my life heck too!”
Tschel took half a step backwards and blinked incredulously. “Wow. You’re more energetic than Alex is.”
Marril smiled and Alex laughed.
“Add a shot of bipolar and we’re set,” Tschel thought sourly. “Marril sure went from depressed to happy pretty fast.”
Professor Oak smiled and signalled for the Orthan-enhanced Dewgong to sit up.
“There, I’m done,” he said as he helped Dewgong to his feet.
Dewgong took Oak’s hand and took a step off the examining table. He stumbled from the Oak’s anaesthetic’s after-effects, but was otherwise fine as Oak helped him to his feet. Dewgong took a tentative step and, while slightly unsteady, would by human standards be perfectly able to walk on his own.
“Thanks again,” Oak said.
“T’weren’t nothing,” Dewgong muttered. To him, being poked and prodded at by one professor was the same as being poked and prodded at by any other, he’d expressed to Oak rather rudely. Oak’s procedures might have been less physically invasive than Sebastian’s, but Oak was still wincing from the sharp words Dewgong had given him.
Oak and Dewgong exchanged the requisite goodbye-and-thank-you formalities and Oak returned to his workstation to examine the test results.
The genome was incredible, Oak observed. The scientists working for Team Rocket were definitely something. They’d rewritten the entire Pokémon genetic structure to allow for increased resilience as well as enhanced mental capacities. Being able to speak English was one of the smaller effects—enhanced by Orthan, a Pokémon would be more competent in battle than any normal Pokémon under the direction of the average trainer.
Oak saw at once that a cure would be impossible. In rewriting the genetic code of the Pokémon, Team Rocket had also forced developmental changes in the Pokémons’ appearance, which caused irreparable damage to the Pokémons’ genetic structures.
“Team Rocket has achieved their goals,” Oak wrote in his formal write-up, “however reversal is impossible owing to too great of a strain to the genetics of the Pokémon in question. This evolution in Pokémon science…”
Oak was hit with a strong feeling of general wrongness as he wrote the word “evolution.” No, he decided, “evolution” was the wrong word altogether. “Evolution” would have implied a natural phenomenon or an unnatural phenomenon caused by natural causes. For example, evolving Eevee into an Espeon would be of the former category, while using a Fire Stone to evolve it into a Flareon would belong to the latter category.
Oak backspaced the word “evolution” and wrote “mutation” in its place. Alas, Oak decided, even that word was wrong. Mutations were generally less devastating than what Orthan had wrought.
Team Rocket had made countless breakthroughs in conventional science and biology, but their means and ends were sickening, Oak contemplated. Their mockery of natural order was a… was a…
“I have it,” Oak spoke quietly to himself.
Backspacing over “mutation in Pokémon science,” Oak wrote “perversion of Pokémon science.”
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Now that, folks, is what you call something that's either going to suck in the long run or else be a good spin on a lame plot device. Oh yeah, the "her legs were exhausted" line doesn't make a lot of sense until you realise that Marrils generally don't have very long legs and that this particular one was used to being carried. Next chapter goes up when it goes up folks. Until then, if a crazy person who looks like they're cosplaying as a Pokémon comes up to you and claims to be your Pokémon, believe them.
Plus we get to see Wise Professor Tree again.------------------------------------------------
Darkwood City was a beautiful place, made all the more beautiful because Alex was, after a long bout with depression, happy again.
They’d put off fighting the gym leaders for a while in order to, Marril might have put cynically had it been there, to enjoy their not so newfound, but newly admitted love.
Tschel couldn’t hide his smile as he saw for the first time Alex actually truly happy. The boy was surprisingly energetic, and not unlike a hormonal teenage girl in a lot of his actions. It didn’t, however, matter to Tschel. He was himself feeling that same sense of well being simply by being with Alex.
Darkwood City was a bit of a lie, they’d soon discovered. The city wasn’t dark at all, and in fact was quite sunny that day. The forests in the city were enough to take weeks if one went through them at a good, fast pace. Alex and Tschel were in no hurry.
There were information booths and plaques all around the forests, which taught the two quite a lot about the forest and the grass Pokémon that lived there. It was one of the very few places in the world where there were wild grass “starters”, as they were called. Bulbasaur, Chikorita, and Treecko were fairly uncommon, and were protected species as well.
Alex’s energy was, Tschel hoped, the result of too many pent-up feelings releasing themselves and not a common occurrence. While he loved him, he found Alex’s sheer energy at the moment hard to keep up with. The time the two were spending together, as well as Alex’s random acts of affection, was well liked by both, although Tschel noted again that Alex was better in the outdoors than he was and after a couple of hours was quite tired, physically.
In the end, however, Tschel wouldn’t have given it up for anything. It was a corny thought, he knew, but along a similar corny vein, he found Alex just too cute to tell to go on ahead.
Yeah, they were here all right, she’d been thinking to herself. Getting out of Rueni had been the easy part. She’d been around town all night trying to get information about a pretty boy with long blonde hair that traveled with a pale boy with white hair.
Despite the peculiarity of the two, not many people knew whom she was talking about. That had prompted some swearing on her part.
If they’re not around town, she’d thought, they’re probably in the forests. Good place to start, I guess. At least I know forests.
Her legs were burning with exhaustion. She wasn’t used to that.
Tschel thought it was like some form of badly written, genre-crossing novel. First he’d found love with a guy who genuinely loved him back, and then he’d found himself walking in the opposite direction that some tourists had just been quickly going. Alex went along to see what was causing the commotion.
The trail ended at the exit of the forest to the route beyond it that eventually brought the traveler to a small, out of the way farming town.
Neither Alex nor Tschel knew quite what to think of the exhausted, panting person standing on the route.
She looked up and surprise dawned on her face. “Tschel! Alex!!”
The woman, an odd-looking person in her late teens or early twenties, dressed in a dark blue half-shirt and knee-length navy blue pants, who seemed to have very fine blue fur which was white on the stomach, mouse like ears, and a tail that had an unsettling resemblance to a Marril’s, jumped up and engulfed Alex in a bear hug.
The enormous sweatdrops shared by both Tschel and Alex and the awkward silence that followed were broken by Alex’s tentative, unsure question.
“Eh?” Alex’s voice was shocked and didn’t sound very intelligent, but he figured it got his point across.
“It’s—it’s me, Marril,” she said.
Facefaults and more enormous sweatdrops were shared. Alex and Tschel were silent.
“I know I’m really different,” Marril said. Alex noticed that she was crying. “It’s just, well, that, Team Rocket took me, and they did this… surgery stuff to me, and I remember being in a lot of pain, and then waking up, and I was like this, and…”
Marril’s ramble was cut short by some more tears.
“You’re…?” Alex asked. It was impossible for this woman to be Marril, he knew it was.
“If it helps any, you know, to prove who I am or just make you feel better,” Marril said slowly, deliberately, “I’m really sorry for getting mad at you that day in the Pokémon Center, when you…”
The memory, Alex saw, was too much for this woman.
“They… they explained to me when they were done with me that I’d been a test subject for something called Orthan,” Marril continued, speaking very quickly. “It was… it was a way to increase a Pokémon’s power, but they also made us look more human, and… and…” Marril’s voice stuttered a bit, “They gave me some directions to find you, and some food so I wouldn't starve on the way.”
“Team Rocket releasing their own test subjects?” Tschel asked. “Not bloody likely.”
Marril shot a harsh glare at Tschel, which was dampened by her puffy eyes. “Well you’re the same as ever.”
Tschel shrugged. “Same me-hating Marril that I remember.”
“Look, I really am Marril!” Marril pleaded, crying.
Alex put his hand on Marril’s shoulder, getting her attention away from Tschel. “I really don’t know what to say. If you’re… if you’re really Marril, then I don’t really care if you’ve been… changed, but…”
“Thanks Alex,” Marril said, managing a smile. “I can’t prove myself in two seconds or anything, but I’ll show you I’m the same as ever, just bigger.”
“And more expensive to keep fed,” Tschel muttered, crossing his arms and looking idly at the sky.
Marril gave Tschel a very rude arm gesture—not the finger though—to Tschel for prodding her like that.
“Well,” Alex interjected, “I believe her.”
Marril hugged Alex again. “Thanks.”
“Now that just feels weird,” Alex said, to which Marril muttered a quick “sorry.”
Tschel took in a deep breath and let it out quickly. “Well, your call, Alex. Won’t think any less of you either way. Just… Marril… stop hugging him, okay?”
Alex laughed. Tschel’s jealous, he thought. No reason for Tschel to be, of course, since Marril was just a friend, and he already loved Tschel. Tschel looked cute when he was jealous, though, Alex thought.
A mischievous smile crept across Marril’s face, and Tschel’s face instantly turned to an undeniable “oh no” expression.
“Tschel’s jealous!” Marril declared. “I knew it! You two work so well together. And you make such a cute couple.”
Tschel sighed. “Yeah, now I believe it. You’re really Marril. Nobody else makes my life heck like that.”
Marril went to hug Tschel, but saw that that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do, so she merely clapped his shoulder. “You make my life heck too!”
Tschel took half a step backwards and blinked incredulously. “Wow. You’re more energetic than Alex is.”
Marril smiled and Alex laughed.
“Add a shot of bipolar and we’re set,” Tschel thought sourly. “Marril sure went from depressed to happy pretty fast.”
Professor Oak smiled and signalled for the Orthan-enhanced Dewgong to sit up.
“There, I’m done,” he said as he helped Dewgong to his feet.
Dewgong took Oak’s hand and took a step off the examining table. He stumbled from the Oak’s anaesthetic’s after-effects, but was otherwise fine as Oak helped him to his feet. Dewgong took a tentative step and, while slightly unsteady, would by human standards be perfectly able to walk on his own.
“Thanks again,” Oak said.
“T’weren’t nothing,” Dewgong muttered. To him, being poked and prodded at by one professor was the same as being poked and prodded at by any other, he’d expressed to Oak rather rudely. Oak’s procedures might have been less physically invasive than Sebastian’s, but Oak was still wincing from the sharp words Dewgong had given him.
Oak and Dewgong exchanged the requisite goodbye-and-thank-you formalities and Oak returned to his workstation to examine the test results.
The genome was incredible, Oak observed. The scientists working for Team Rocket were definitely something. They’d rewritten the entire Pokémon genetic structure to allow for increased resilience as well as enhanced mental capacities. Being able to speak English was one of the smaller effects—enhanced by Orthan, a Pokémon would be more competent in battle than any normal Pokémon under the direction of the average trainer.
Oak saw at once that a cure would be impossible. In rewriting the genetic code of the Pokémon, Team Rocket had also forced developmental changes in the Pokémons’ appearance, which caused irreparable damage to the Pokémons’ genetic structures.
“Team Rocket has achieved their goals,” Oak wrote in his formal write-up, “however reversal is impossible owing to too great of a strain to the genetics of the Pokémon in question. This evolution in Pokémon science…”
Oak was hit with a strong feeling of general wrongness as he wrote the word “evolution.” No, he decided, “evolution” was the wrong word altogether. “Evolution” would have implied a natural phenomenon or an unnatural phenomenon caused by natural causes. For example, evolving Eevee into an Espeon would be of the former category, while using a Fire Stone to evolve it into a Flareon would belong to the latter category.
Oak backspaced the word “evolution” and wrote “mutation” in its place. Alas, Oak decided, even that word was wrong. Mutations were generally less devastating than what Orthan had wrought.
Team Rocket had made countless breakthroughs in conventional science and biology, but their means and ends were sickening, Oak contemplated. Their mockery of natural order was a… was a…
“I have it,” Oak spoke quietly to himself.
Backspacing over “mutation in Pokémon science,” Oak wrote “perversion of Pokémon science.”
------------------------------------------------
Now that, folks, is what you call something that's either going to suck in the long run or else be a good spin on a lame plot device. Oh yeah, the "her legs were exhausted" line doesn't make a lot of sense until you realise that Marrils generally don't have very long legs and that this particular one was used to being carried. Next chapter goes up when it goes up folks. Until then, if a crazy person who looks like they're cosplaying as a Pokémon comes up to you and claims to be your Pokémon, believe them.
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