Marril
07/13/2004, 12:03 PM
25 is 1/4 of 100, which is 1/4 of the series! Ah, I'm kidding on that. 100 chapters would be just way too much, even for me. More shounen-ai scenes in this chapter, but that's part of what SS is all about, innit? :p Plus, we also see a bit character recur. What's not to love!
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“Hey, Sam,” Alex said, walking into Sam’s room on base. Its door was already open. As an afterthought, he knocked on the doorframe.
“Come in,” Sam said dryly, as Alex already had. She was lying on the bed in her usual outfit, staring at the ceiling blankly.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked, sitting on the swivel chair in the room backwards, so he was leaning forwards against the backrest.
“Oh, me?” Sam replied. “Playing a variety of musical instruments using only the power of my mind.”
“Dad says you’re being really harsh on him,” Alex said without any ado on the topic.
Sam rolled onto her side so she was facing her brother. “He suddenly appears without any warning after being gone my whole freaking life,” she said harshly. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Not damn him,” Alex shot back simply. “Honestly, how much did you talk to him? It was out of his hands, he wanted to come back but couldn’t.”
“He still could’ve,” Sam said flatly. “He’s our father, and I never even knew him before I turned 15. Now because of him I have to stay in a military base for Goddish knows how long—”
“Actually, that’s because Team Rocket’s after you, not because of him.”
“Whatever. My life’s upside down since he came back, and he’s suddenly begging forgiveness.”
“Sam,” Alex’s voice was strained with trying to remain patient; “I think you should just give it to him.”
“When Grumpigs fly,” Sam bit out.
“Fine, whatever,” Alex snapped. He didn’t like snapping at people, but when he was pushed far enough, he enjoyed it at the moment but regretted it later. “So then I’ll just leave you to yourself, then.”
Sam growled at her brother emphasising the word “leave”, gloating that he could go from the base freely, but said nothing as Alex walked out of the room.
David walked from the room in disgust. He’d tried to report to the military intelligence—what an oxymoron—people what he’d gotten about Team Rocket from his psychic episode, but they’d ignored him.
“With no substantiating evidence, an imagined premonition cannot be held as irrefutable fact,” the CO of the department had lorded large words over him in an illusion of superiority.
Without anything better to do—the rec room was anything but—he opted to try to clear the shakiness from his head once he’d gotten back to his room.
“Come on, Mr Amazing Psychic,” David told himself. “Get all shaken up when somebody else is psychic? You’re not gonna get depressed at all this, not with the new you, you’re going to just get over it.”
It’s not working, David thought to himself, frowning.
Satoru didn’t like the news he heard.
“You what?” He asked the Intelligence CO.
“You heard me, I dismissed him,” he said.
“’You heard me, sir’,” Satoru decided to pull rank. “And what you did was to blatantly ignore intelligence from a psychic that could prove valuable.”
“With all due respect, sir, Team Rocket isn’t really our concern,” the man said. “They are mainly business oriented and not of any military threat. Furthermore, your assuming such a high stature after only just arriving on base doesn’t speak well to your credit, sir.”
Satoru glared at the man with a look only a superior military officer can give. “I happen to be an expert in this, and I say get that man back in here and squeeze every drop of information you can out of him.”
The CO looked around at the other officers in the room. Each one was suddenly working very hard and had no time to say or do anything about Satoru’s intervention.
“If a sufficiently well-informed civilian such as Rei Megumi insists on keeping someone from Team Rocket based on information she has on a highly dangerous project, which we know is reliable information, and suddenly a psychic offers more information about what appears to be the exact same project, one does not ignore him,” Satoru lectured the CO. “Do I make myself clear?”
The CO stood stalk straight. “Yes, sir.”
Satoru left the room feeling a bit disgusted at the CO, but with a new idea in his head. Both trainers that beat him for a Neo League badge a few months back were on base. He could challenge them to a friendly Pokémon battle. Being a military officer was one thing, but it was a whole different experience being a co-gym leader.
“Thus, Tribo is officially born,” Sebastian said over his shoulder to Juliet. ”Cute little bugger ain’t he?”
Juliet looked at the baby genetic experiment. It was anything but cute. Its body was skeletally thin, enveloped in a slight, wispy shroud. Its limbs were similarly thin, and its “hands” consisted of four relatively long claws that looked like obsidian shards had been shoved into the creature’s hand. The creature itself was only about half a foot long.
“Yes, such a cute face that only a mother could love,” Juliet said dryly. “So, we should be glad that Tribo isn’t designed to be winning beauty contests.”
“Its powers are all intact,” Sebastian reminded her. The entire lab remembered, having gathered around the tank for Tribo’s hatching, the creature slashing apart the thin membrane serving as an “egg” and the fit the creature had thrown as it adjusted to being alive.
“How long will it take to mature?” Juliet asked.
“We decided to allow it a full maturation, so the better part of a year for it to reach full adulthood. It will be able to fight, although at a reduced rate, in about four months.”
Juliet hissed to herself. She reminded herself that progress was progress, and that Tribo was at least alive.
“We’ll have to move it,” Melanie piped up, worming her way through the crowd. “The military knows about that thing. It’s not safe here. I say we move the entire base, torch everything that was here. No evidence.”
A murmur worked through the crowd.
Juliet abruptly raised her right hand in a silencing motion. “Not here. Melanie, you’re the only combat-trained operative I have left, so your word does indeed have weight. Talk to me later about it, in private, though.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tribo sneezed, a high-pitched, hissing noise that drew attention to itself.
“Uh, ma’am,” a junior scientist asked. “If you don’t mind…”
Juliet became self-conscious of the document in her hand. “Right, sorry, I somehow let Tribo’s birthday get interrupted. The winners of the birthday pool are…”
Juliet opened up the folded papers in her hand and skimmed down to the list of people who had betted on that particular day for Tribo to be born.
“Jones, Chen, Wong, and myself,” Juliet read aloud, the actual spoken list being redundant because the winners already knew who they were. Sebastian stood half up so he could read the paper, so he could confirm for himself that Juliet was being truthful about her own name being in there. It was indeed the truth. Sebastian sat down again, muttering.
“Quite a sum in there, even divided by four,” Chen thought aloud.
Juliet rechecked the sheet. “Four million, seventy thousand and twenty yen. Yeah, about a million each.”
Half of the crowd clapped listlessly, having wanted to win, themselves.
Juliet waved most of the officers out. “Okay, show’s over, business to attend to.”
As the crowd dispersed, Juliet leaned over Sebastian’s shoulder and watched Tribo move about in its habitat. She’d just watch it a few moments longer before attending to business.
Alex knocked on the door to Rei’s room. He was met with a muffled “come in”.
“Just, uh, thought I’d, uh, let you know Sam’s not changing her mind,” Alex said apprehensively as he walked into the room.
“Oh, I didn’t expect her to,” Rei shrugged. “You really didn’t have to go try, you know.”
“Hey, dad, I don’t want to see her beating you up so badly in talk like that.”
Rei patted Alex’s shoulder. “It’s fine, really. She has the right to think whatever she will about me. It’s just something you learn from counselling, people react to situations differently. You’re supportive of me, while Sam doesn’t want to be around me. One isn’t any better of a reaction than the other; both are just how you’re each taking it. Sam won’t hate me forever, and no matter how cold she is to me, I’ll still keep loving her because she is, in the end, still my daughter.”
Alex didn’t know what to say to that, so he simply nodded. After a moment or two of silence, he said, “Guess I’m the one not willing to just accept things and move on, eh?”
Rei chuckled. “No, that’s still me. I just don’t have anything old to cling to. I’m just the type who can help people with their problems no matter what they are, I just can’t see them in myself.”
“Now who’s being too hard to who?” Alex asked.
“Whom,” Rei said absentmindedly. “Anyway, you really don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. You seem really distant sometimes. If you want to get back to the Neo League with that boyfriend of yours, go ahead. I don’t want to keep you here if you’d rather go.”
“It’s just a thing,” Alex replied. “It’s not going anywhere.”
It was Rei’s turn to be at a loss for an immediate response.
Alex smiled sadly at his father. “I know that look. It’s the same one you gave mom whenever she clung at you after a fight.”
Alex was just like his mother like that, Rei realised. Alex was a caring and steadfastly loyal person to the ones he loved, and though he hadn’t seen his son angry, he suspected quite unrelenting to those he disliked.
“You just remind me so much of your mother,” Rei told Alex. “You should get on with your life, really. I’ll still always be here whenever you need me.”
Alex turned to leave, but before he left, he said, “Thanks, dad.”
“No, wait, don’t tell me, let me guess,” Tschel said before Alex could say anything. “Your dad told you to not worry about him because he’s fine.”
“Yeah, something like that. Sam won’t let me borrow Gilgamesh again to get back to Idama though.”
Tschel scoffed lightly. He got up and slid his arms around Alex’s stomach from behind. “Oh well, no huge loss. Guess I can stand being with you for that much longer.”
Alex laughed. “What about Marril?”
Tschel’s expression turned from light and joking to slightly unhappy. “That, I might not be able to take so well.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t annoy you… more… than she already does.”
Tschel frowned.
“Ah, I’m kidding, I’ll make sure she doesn’t keep annoying you so much. Really.”
“You,” Tschel said, brushing some of Alex’s hair back with his right hand, his left still around Alex’s stomach, kissing his neck lightly, “are a lifesaver.”
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that Marrils don't like to be annoyed. They don't like it very much at all. (That's a hint at next week's chapter). Watch out for genetic experiements. They will come and beat you into the ground faster than old-school Haymaker beats.
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“Hey, Sam,” Alex said, walking into Sam’s room on base. Its door was already open. As an afterthought, he knocked on the doorframe.
“Come in,” Sam said dryly, as Alex already had. She was lying on the bed in her usual outfit, staring at the ceiling blankly.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked, sitting on the swivel chair in the room backwards, so he was leaning forwards against the backrest.
“Oh, me?” Sam replied. “Playing a variety of musical instruments using only the power of my mind.”
“Dad says you’re being really harsh on him,” Alex said without any ado on the topic.
Sam rolled onto her side so she was facing her brother. “He suddenly appears without any warning after being gone my whole freaking life,” she said harshly. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Not damn him,” Alex shot back simply. “Honestly, how much did you talk to him? It was out of his hands, he wanted to come back but couldn’t.”
“He still could’ve,” Sam said flatly. “He’s our father, and I never even knew him before I turned 15. Now because of him I have to stay in a military base for Goddish knows how long—”
“Actually, that’s because Team Rocket’s after you, not because of him.”
“Whatever. My life’s upside down since he came back, and he’s suddenly begging forgiveness.”
“Sam,” Alex’s voice was strained with trying to remain patient; “I think you should just give it to him.”
“When Grumpigs fly,” Sam bit out.
“Fine, whatever,” Alex snapped. He didn’t like snapping at people, but when he was pushed far enough, he enjoyed it at the moment but regretted it later. “So then I’ll just leave you to yourself, then.”
Sam growled at her brother emphasising the word “leave”, gloating that he could go from the base freely, but said nothing as Alex walked out of the room.
David walked from the room in disgust. He’d tried to report to the military intelligence—what an oxymoron—people what he’d gotten about Team Rocket from his psychic episode, but they’d ignored him.
“With no substantiating evidence, an imagined premonition cannot be held as irrefutable fact,” the CO of the department had lorded large words over him in an illusion of superiority.
Without anything better to do—the rec room was anything but—he opted to try to clear the shakiness from his head once he’d gotten back to his room.
“Come on, Mr Amazing Psychic,” David told himself. “Get all shaken up when somebody else is psychic? You’re not gonna get depressed at all this, not with the new you, you’re going to just get over it.”
It’s not working, David thought to himself, frowning.
Satoru didn’t like the news he heard.
“You what?” He asked the Intelligence CO.
“You heard me, I dismissed him,” he said.
“’You heard me, sir’,” Satoru decided to pull rank. “And what you did was to blatantly ignore intelligence from a psychic that could prove valuable.”
“With all due respect, sir, Team Rocket isn’t really our concern,” the man said. “They are mainly business oriented and not of any military threat. Furthermore, your assuming such a high stature after only just arriving on base doesn’t speak well to your credit, sir.”
Satoru glared at the man with a look only a superior military officer can give. “I happen to be an expert in this, and I say get that man back in here and squeeze every drop of information you can out of him.”
The CO looked around at the other officers in the room. Each one was suddenly working very hard and had no time to say or do anything about Satoru’s intervention.
“If a sufficiently well-informed civilian such as Rei Megumi insists on keeping someone from Team Rocket based on information she has on a highly dangerous project, which we know is reliable information, and suddenly a psychic offers more information about what appears to be the exact same project, one does not ignore him,” Satoru lectured the CO. “Do I make myself clear?”
The CO stood stalk straight. “Yes, sir.”
Satoru left the room feeling a bit disgusted at the CO, but with a new idea in his head. Both trainers that beat him for a Neo League badge a few months back were on base. He could challenge them to a friendly Pokémon battle. Being a military officer was one thing, but it was a whole different experience being a co-gym leader.
“Thus, Tribo is officially born,” Sebastian said over his shoulder to Juliet. ”Cute little bugger ain’t he?”
Juliet looked at the baby genetic experiment. It was anything but cute. Its body was skeletally thin, enveloped in a slight, wispy shroud. Its limbs were similarly thin, and its “hands” consisted of four relatively long claws that looked like obsidian shards had been shoved into the creature’s hand. The creature itself was only about half a foot long.
“Yes, such a cute face that only a mother could love,” Juliet said dryly. “So, we should be glad that Tribo isn’t designed to be winning beauty contests.”
“Its powers are all intact,” Sebastian reminded her. The entire lab remembered, having gathered around the tank for Tribo’s hatching, the creature slashing apart the thin membrane serving as an “egg” and the fit the creature had thrown as it adjusted to being alive.
“How long will it take to mature?” Juliet asked.
“We decided to allow it a full maturation, so the better part of a year for it to reach full adulthood. It will be able to fight, although at a reduced rate, in about four months.”
Juliet hissed to herself. She reminded herself that progress was progress, and that Tribo was at least alive.
“We’ll have to move it,” Melanie piped up, worming her way through the crowd. “The military knows about that thing. It’s not safe here. I say we move the entire base, torch everything that was here. No evidence.”
A murmur worked through the crowd.
Juliet abruptly raised her right hand in a silencing motion. “Not here. Melanie, you’re the only combat-trained operative I have left, so your word does indeed have weight. Talk to me later about it, in private, though.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tribo sneezed, a high-pitched, hissing noise that drew attention to itself.
“Uh, ma’am,” a junior scientist asked. “If you don’t mind…”
Juliet became self-conscious of the document in her hand. “Right, sorry, I somehow let Tribo’s birthday get interrupted. The winners of the birthday pool are…”
Juliet opened up the folded papers in her hand and skimmed down to the list of people who had betted on that particular day for Tribo to be born.
“Jones, Chen, Wong, and myself,” Juliet read aloud, the actual spoken list being redundant because the winners already knew who they were. Sebastian stood half up so he could read the paper, so he could confirm for himself that Juliet was being truthful about her own name being in there. It was indeed the truth. Sebastian sat down again, muttering.
“Quite a sum in there, even divided by four,” Chen thought aloud.
Juliet rechecked the sheet. “Four million, seventy thousand and twenty yen. Yeah, about a million each.”
Half of the crowd clapped listlessly, having wanted to win, themselves.
Juliet waved most of the officers out. “Okay, show’s over, business to attend to.”
As the crowd dispersed, Juliet leaned over Sebastian’s shoulder and watched Tribo move about in its habitat. She’d just watch it a few moments longer before attending to business.
Alex knocked on the door to Rei’s room. He was met with a muffled “come in”.
“Just, uh, thought I’d, uh, let you know Sam’s not changing her mind,” Alex said apprehensively as he walked into the room.
“Oh, I didn’t expect her to,” Rei shrugged. “You really didn’t have to go try, you know.”
“Hey, dad, I don’t want to see her beating you up so badly in talk like that.”
Rei patted Alex’s shoulder. “It’s fine, really. She has the right to think whatever she will about me. It’s just something you learn from counselling, people react to situations differently. You’re supportive of me, while Sam doesn’t want to be around me. One isn’t any better of a reaction than the other; both are just how you’re each taking it. Sam won’t hate me forever, and no matter how cold she is to me, I’ll still keep loving her because she is, in the end, still my daughter.”
Alex didn’t know what to say to that, so he simply nodded. After a moment or two of silence, he said, “Guess I’m the one not willing to just accept things and move on, eh?”
Rei chuckled. “No, that’s still me. I just don’t have anything old to cling to. I’m just the type who can help people with their problems no matter what they are, I just can’t see them in myself.”
“Now who’s being too hard to who?” Alex asked.
“Whom,” Rei said absentmindedly. “Anyway, you really don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. You seem really distant sometimes. If you want to get back to the Neo League with that boyfriend of yours, go ahead. I don’t want to keep you here if you’d rather go.”
“It’s just a thing,” Alex replied. “It’s not going anywhere.”
It was Rei’s turn to be at a loss for an immediate response.
Alex smiled sadly at his father. “I know that look. It’s the same one you gave mom whenever she clung at you after a fight.”
Alex was just like his mother like that, Rei realised. Alex was a caring and steadfastly loyal person to the ones he loved, and though he hadn’t seen his son angry, he suspected quite unrelenting to those he disliked.
“You just remind me so much of your mother,” Rei told Alex. “You should get on with your life, really. I’ll still always be here whenever you need me.”
Alex turned to leave, but before he left, he said, “Thanks, dad.”
“No, wait, don’t tell me, let me guess,” Tschel said before Alex could say anything. “Your dad told you to not worry about him because he’s fine.”
“Yeah, something like that. Sam won’t let me borrow Gilgamesh again to get back to Idama though.”
Tschel scoffed lightly. He got up and slid his arms around Alex’s stomach from behind. “Oh well, no huge loss. Guess I can stand being with you for that much longer.”
Alex laughed. “What about Marril?”
Tschel’s expression turned from light and joking to slightly unhappy. “That, I might not be able to take so well.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t annoy you… more… than she already does.”
Tschel frowned.
“Ah, I’m kidding, I’ll make sure she doesn’t keep annoying you so much. Really.”
“You,” Tschel said, brushing some of Alex’s hair back with his right hand, his left still around Alex’s stomach, kissing his neck lightly, “are a lifesaver.”
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that Marrils don't like to be annoyed. They don't like it very much at all. (That's a hint at next week's chapter). Watch out for genetic experiements. They will come and beat you into the ground faster than old-school Haymaker beats.