Chapter 30
"Intersection"

"Where are we now?"
"I don't know..." Colt cautiously looked down the next corridor, ducking back quickly. "I don't think we're any closer to Ella E though..."
"What was that explosion? Did anyone else hear that gunshot?" Atelli looked around cautiously. "I hope nothing bad has happened to anyone."
"I don't know what the explosion was..." Colt gestured for the others to follow him, signaling that the coast was clear. Since the explosion that had rocked the structure, they had expressed the utmost caution in moving about the laboratory. It reminded them rather painfully that they weren't supposed to be free and moving about. "But the gunshot is a definite bad sign."
Caleb kept his pencil pressed to the walls automatically, having gotten used to his hand in that position. The steady trail of grey that followed was a comfort to everyone.
Ashstar had opened so many doors she was getting rather proficient at it. She refused to answer any questions regarding it and when she had to open a door, she would do it as quickly and quietly as possible.
"Do you think that explosion came from where Ella E is?" Ashstar mused outloud. The others looked at her.
"Why would there be an explosion?"
"I don't know...but we don't have anywhere else to go, really...there has to be something there that can help us find her."
"No way, I don't want to get any closer to an explosion if possible." Monty smirked to himself. "Those things can kill you, you know."
"Well, what other option do we have? We've been wandering around for what feels like hours and we haven't gotten any closer! We don't really have a choice! It feels like we're just going down deeper and deeper!"
Colt sighed. "She is right, we don't really have a choice. But where did it come from? It faded long ago."
"Maybe..." Ashstar pressed her hand against the wall. Her eyes widened briefly.
"What is it?"
"That wasn't an ordinary explosion..." she mumbled. "It was from something powerful...like Mewtwo or something."
"That's not possible! Mewtwo wouldn't blow up anything..." Colt paused, reconsidering his statement. "Well, why would he?"
"Maybe he found Drak." Nick said softly. Everyone was surprised to hear the quiet boy speak. He had barely spoken a word since they're journey began. The others thought on his words.
"I can track this though..." Ashstar began walking back the way they had came. "We can make it there, I think."
Colt shrugged and followed. Monty was the last to go, but in the end he reluctantly sighed and ran slightly to join with the others.
They hadn't walked very far when they heard someone coming up behind them.
Colt swore momentarily. "I thought this would happen!" his eyes darted back and forth, finally resting on a nearby door. He shoved Ashstar to it roughly. He hissed urgently. "Open it!"
Ashstar tried to remember the words she should say and found that she couldn't. She could hear footsteps and a faint voice coming up quickly from behind them.
"Come on, Ashstar! What's taking so long!?" Atelli almost struck the door herself, but realized the noise that would make.
"I'm trying! I'm trying!" The words came to her in a flash and she mumbled the few words as quickly as possible. The door slid jerkily open. Instantly there was a scramble to get inside.
As soon as they were within the room, Ashstar tried to close the door. It screeched angrily in protest and stopped within an inch closing. She was trying to get the door to close fully when Colt grabbed her hands and pulled them back roughly, gesturing with his head towards the hallway. The footsteps and voice were only a few feet away. She stopped struggling as the group clung together, hoping that whoever it was that was passing by would not notice the open door.
"Listen to that!" An angry female voice said. "The doors are all malfunctioning, no doubt to what happened upstairs...ergh, curse the day that M-2 Specimen C ever walked out of here alive!"
There was a strange rumbling sound, as if in assent. As the sounds came closer, it became more apparent that only one sounded as if it came from a human. The other sounded like something with scales and claws was walking along next to her.
"I can't let them leave this place alive...that would cost me my job...I'm not going to lose MY position over this stupid experiment!" The female voice sounded furious. "I am assigned to this project until it's completion! There is no other option."
The female voice was much closer now. The footsteps stopped and it seemed to sound as if the female had turned to her companion. They were directly in front of the door now and the blockage of light from their feet caused flickering patterns to be thrown on those closest to the door.
"Do you hear me? I won't get fired because of this! I will complete this project, no matter what the cost!"
"What of the girl?" the second finally spoke, it's voice sounding hollow and emotionless, echoing about the huddled groups ears. There seemed almost to be collective shudder throughout the hidden. The female paused.
"She's still a hostage...I'm sure we can use her to get him out of hiding."
Colt looked alarmed for a moment and mouthed "Ella E" to the rest of his group, who nodded. There was a rustling from the second figure, as if something leathery was moving around. Since there seemed to be no response, the angry female voice began again.
"I NEED that boy, Gabriella! There is no room for failure in this experiment...not only would it prove bad for my career, but the consequences should the subject's injections be imperfect are terrifying...It could mean the end of this lab, of this island...perhaps of this world."
There seemed to be a slight sound of surprise from the person known as Gabriella.
"That thing's power is incredible and we need to keep it under control...under no circumstances should anything happen to it! I MUST have those two! You MUST bring them to me, Gabriella. I need you to do this."
"What of the girl?" Gabriella asked again, her tone the exact same as before. The female again paused.
"You may store her where E is."
"What of Michelle?" The same emotionless tone. Another pause.
"If you find her with them, feel free to take her with you. You may only look for her, however, after you find the two and bring them to me."
"Do you need all those with them?"
"No. Dr. Dowasure...bring Dr. Dowasure to Prof. Denka. Make up some story about some stupid thing he's done...Prof. Denka will make sure that Dr. Dowasure won't do anything for a long time." The voice laughed harshly. "I've seen him lecture that stupid man for hours on end. Teishi, however...Teishi can be killed. I just need C and..." there was a slight pause before she spoke. "Drak." There was a collective glance by the group. "Feel free to do whatever you like to Teishi, just make sure he's dead and his body is hidden before continuing."
Ashstar gasped involuntarily at the thought of murder, turning slightly pale.
The two paused and the group could hear them turning towards the door. They glared at Ashstar, who was looking incredibly uncomfortable.
"What was that?" Gabriella's voice spoke.
"I didn't hear anything."
"I heard a gasp."
"You're not imagining things, are you?"
"The door is open."
There was a slight pause and group hidden in the door way held their breath. Monty stood silently and pressed himself against the wall, trying to get as far away from the door as possible. Atelli soon followed suit, allowing the others a chance to back further away from the opening. There were slight scuffling noises as Nick, panicked, scrambled backwards, his sneakers scraping gently against the floor.
"Hmm..."
"I heard movement."
"Fine, if you want to look so badly, I'll open the door." The female voice said irritably and came closer. The terrified group could see slender fingers wrap around the edge of the door. There was a slight sound of effort and the fingers left.
"The door's stuck."
"Let me try."
Nick closed his eyes, trying to keep from crying out. The group pressed as closely together as possible, collectively trembling and holding their breath in hopes they wouldn't be found. The terror they felt seemed mainly to come at the prospect of seeing Gabriella, although Ashstar felt hatred instead of fear, but this did not reduce the rate of her trembling.
Thin, claw like fingers wrapped around the door, sharp claws shining from the tips.
"Give me a moment. I do not wish to remove the door if possible, but rather slide it back. I need to think as to how I can do this with the minimal amount of damage." Gabriella's voice echoed into the room. The other voice sighed in exasperation.
"We've wasted enough time as it is...It was probably some things shifting from the aftermath of the explosion."
"I heard-"
"I don't care!" The female voice said angrily. "Come with me and take the girl with you. You can leave her in the lab and then you can get the boy and C."
There was a slight pause. "Yes, Doctor Kagakusha. I will do as you ask."
There was a silence among the group until the two walked away. Then Monty was the first to speak.
"That scared about five years of my life out of me." He stretched, speaking softly. "I can't believe we weren't just caught."
"That's her!" Colt did not look out, worried that the two may spot him. "That's the woman that was conducting the experiment, isn't it?"
Monty finished stretching, rubbing his arms. "Yup, Dr. Kagakusha. She's the one who did that to Kame."
"And she's going to do something to Drak and Ella E if we don't stop her! And someone could DIE!" Nick sounded frightened. "We have to do something!"
"Monty!" Atelli looked at the boy. "I just...I just remembered. Some of those files we saw were those names. Don't you remember?"
"Um..." Monty scratched his head.
"Dowasure was one of them! Teishi was too, and so was Gabriella! We could have known about this before, if we only looked..." Atelli sounded very frustrated at herself. "Why didn't we look? Things could have been different..."
"Well, what can we do?" Caleb tried to pull the door open, but it was lodged firmly shut. The only opening that was readily available to the hallway was the gap between the door and the wall. "We certainly can't follow Dr. Kagakusha...Gabriella would know we were there in a second."
"Maybe she was headed from the explosion."
Ashstar sighed. "Well...now, there's no time to waste. We have to find the others as fast as possible." She placed her hand on the wall. "I think there's a door on the other side of this room..."
Nick gasped momentarily. "The others! We left the others in the lab!"
Before this could sink in properly, there were more footsteps, these faint, but fast. Instantly the group retreated to their previous positions, waiting for them to pass by.
There were more footsteps now...It seemed as though there were three. One sounded as if they weren't wearing shoes, one seemed to have a limp, and the other shuffled slightly. Closing their eyes in hopes that reinforcements hadn't come to find them, the group remained silent.
Monty kept his eyes on the bottom of the door as the three passed by.
One shadow flickered through the bottom light, then two. Three...four? Monty shook his head and held his breath. The footsteps did not halt however and continued down the hall, running frantically.
There was no movement until the steps were gone completly.
"Thank goodness...I can't take much more of this." Ashstar brushed a hand across her forehead. "We need to get out of here before someone else comes."
"That's...I could have sworn I saw..." Monty mumbled to himself. He shook his head. "No...I would have heard something..."
"What are you talking about, Monty?" Colt looked at him curiously. Monty shrugged and kept silent. Ashstar trailed her hand on the wall as she walked towards the end of the small room, another door awaiting them. She sighed, placed her hand against the door, and mumbled. The door slid easily and in a few moments the journey was resumed, the group heading for where the explosion had came from.

~~~
There weren't many places to hide where Reimia, Tashi, Indigo, and Kotake waited. The only place where they could really stay out of sight was between the tubes that were placed on the wall, and no one wanted to get near those tubes unless they absolutly had to. There was something that felt very wrong about the tubes and some inner sense of preservation kept them away from them.
It had quickly become boring waiting in the room, although Kotake never seemed to be bored with constantly pleading with her sister to wake up and weeping copiously, but Reimia and Tashi were prepared. They had both brought out a deck of cards, one red, one blue, at the exact same moment. Shuffling the two decks together, they had dealt them out according to the rules of "Fork", a popular card game, using one of Indigo's hairclips as a replacement for the fork they needed. Of course, Reimia and Tashi both used a rigged deck and much confusion ensued when both Reimia, Tashi, and Indigo got the exact same hand. Also, it was slightly difficult for Reimia to play with only one functioning hand, but the simple game managed to amuse them while they waited.
There wasn't much talking. Indigo was, by nature, a rather quiet person. Reimia and Tashi weren't about to tell their life story to anyone in hopes of starting a conversation, which at the moment seemed like the only way to keep a conversation from turning into a repitition of mono-syllabic words, and Kotake was far too busy conversing with her sister and crying to be talked to. As it was, the four were generally loners to begin with, with the exception of Reimia and Tashi, who felt the most comfortable talking to eachother, and the lack of speech or laughter did not overly bother them.
The eerie green light still remained the only illumination, but after spending so much time in the room, the four got used to it. At least, they got used to it as much as possible. The room still remained mainly dark to them. And the fact they could see did not lessen the frightening affect of the solitary green glow that permeated everything.
Reimia was about to declare that he had a "optimist's lucky hand" and swipe the "fork" when there were sounds of footsteps. The game was immediatly put on hold as the three players stopped what they were doing.
"You don't think that's..." Indigo looked towards the corner of the room. The room bent at an 'L' shaped angle, so the door they had come in through was not visible in the least. Kotake sniffed away some of her tears and looked at the others, confused.
"Someone's coming...we have to hide." Reimia stood quickly, grabbing the cards and the fork. He ushered the others into one of the gaps between the tubes, this one between Kame and the tube to her right. As soon as they had squeezed in as much as possible, Tashi glared angrily at her brother.
"I would have won that round, you know."
"That's not really important right now." Indigo rolled her eyes. Reimia kept trying to find a suitable place to put his hand, but found the stone limb was being incredibly annoying. No matter where he seemed to put it, it was poking someone. No one was happy with this.
"Sure. I had an...um...Optimist's lucky hand. You can't beat that."
Reimia kept the debate going in whispers. Tashi looked angry.
"Oh yeah? Well I had...uh...the Pessimist's depression hand." Tashi met her brother's lie with as much ease as he had to create it. Reimia rolled his eyes.
"You just made that up."
"Like the 'Optimist's lucky hand' is any more believable?"
"Shh! Someone's coming in!" Indigo put a finger to her lips.
Sure enough, there was the sound of the door swishing open. The group instantly became silent, realizing at once the urgency of the situation. Someone in sneakers, or at least, that's what it sounded like, walked about. There were some noises, as if someone was rifling through some papers, then the sound of a computer starting was heard.
"Where should I put the girl?" The voice was faint and far away, but it still had it's effect, and a shudder ran through the four. They could not explain why.
"Just put her anywhere, it doesn't matter. As long as she doesn't go anywhere." The other voice was more commanding.
"Should I place her in one of the capsules?"
There was a slight pause. "Say, there's an idea. Go ahead. They're all empty anyway, it shouldn't be hard to find one. I'll open a new file for her and see if she's got anything interesting to contribute to the project."
Although the four were used to the lighting of the room, the figure that walked around the corner was still too shadowy to make out clearly, which was most likely for the better. There was one unsettling feature about the shadowy figure, which were the large lumps near it's shoulders, but other then that, the figure was too far away to discern clearly. Indigo was struck with a vague sense of Deja Vu and found that both Reimia and Tashi were suffering similiarly. The only one who didn't seem to suffer from the feeling was Kotake. No one could completely explain why.
The larger figure were dragging along another figure behind them, this one smaller. The larger figure went to one of the tubes in the wall, touched it, then placed the smaller person inside.
"That person got it open! Do you think they'll let Kame out?" Kotake whispered. The spell of silence over the group was broken suddenly.
"Shh!" Reimia hissed. The shadowy figure turned towards their hiding place, where the four quickly ducked their heads.
"Think it saw us?"
"Stop talking!"
There were sounds as if the figure was walking towards them. The four waited in fear, not sure of whether or not the figure would get close enough to find them.
"Gabriella, come here! I need you to do something for me."
The figure reluctantly turned and went around the corner again. The four softly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hmm...Let's see, I think we've got her connected to the database...ah! Here we go..."
The other was obviously not interested. "What do you wish of me?"
"Hmm...Find those two I need. This is getting more and more urgent...I can't keep E under stasis for much longer."
"Yes, Doctor Kagakusha."
There was the sound of the door again.
"It's that horrible...woman! She did this to my sister!" Kotake could barely control her rage. Reimia refused to let Kotake free of their hiding place, although she desperatly wanted to go and confront Dr. Kagakusha of exactly what she thought of her experiment.
"You can't do anything to her now! Remember, if she dies, Kame could die too. We have to wait and see what happens."
The woman was, at the time, talking to herself. She sighed sadly at first.
"Hmm...sometimes, even I have my doubts." Her voice was barely audible to the four. "I don't know if we're really doing the right thing sometimes...it's one thing to create hybrids of Pokémon and humans...but to rob them of their free will..."
There was an angry noise and the sound of a fist hitting something. Her voice took on a angrier edge.
"What are you talking about? We don't ask questions...Pokémon have always been there for the use of humans...why should we feel guilty? We just do our job, and we do it well. You've never questioned your orders before, not even when he told us to..." the woman's voice seemed to quaver, as if she was shuddering. Her voice again changed tone, becoming quieter. "told us to...to..." The voice became angry again. "I hate C! I hate him now and I'll always hate him, but..." again the softer voice. "But even doing that to him...I think that was...too cruel..."
Then there was the sound of resolution again, the harsher voice coming again. "I can't...I don't question my orders. I just follow them. Remember that, Hana. You aren't here for morals or ethics anymore, you knew that when you took this job."
The group shared a glance. It was apparent that the woman was having some kind of inner struggle, but they could not understand what she was talking about. Or who she was talking to.
"There are no more 'ethics' and 'morals' for me....It doesn't matter whether it's right or not....I only have to keep my job. That's all I can do and all I HAVE to do...there's no time for regrets now, Hana. No, there's no chance. Regrets are for the weak, but we're not weak, are we? No, we're strong...but..." The voice softened again. "But when we had to...had to..."
There was a choke in the woman's voice which was quickly swallowed, the angry voice speaking again. This time it was slightly shivery. "Look at us now. Heh, no regrets, Hana. No regrets at all. You start regretting all we've done wrong and you won't stop crying until you die. I've done far too much wrong to feel bad about it now. I may as well try and forget about it. Just focus on the experiments, nothing else." The voice softened. "But is that really it, Namida? Is it...I don't know anymore...maybe this isn't the right thing to do at all..." The voice abruptly grew harsher, but this time more confused. "There is no more right and wrong! There never was! This's what we're here for, Kagakusha Namida Hana, and that's what we're going to do! No more questions. Let's see...maybe some music can clear our thoughts..."
There were vague sounds of someone moving about, then muffled music began to play.
"Kagakusha..." Indigo looked towards where the music was coming from.
"If there's any chance we can get out of this room, it would be now." Reimia made a fist with his flesh hand. "She wouldn't notice us leaving with those headphones on."
"How do you know she's wearing headphones?"
"Remember how loud it was when Atelli set off the music before? This is a lot more muffled...I bet she has on headphones really loud. This is the chance to get out of here!"
"We can't leave Kame alone...and that other girl too! We can't just leave them here! We have to get them out!"
"But how? There's no way to open these things!" Tashi slapped the side of the tube as if emphasizing her point. "We can't do anything!"
"Can we make Dr. Kagakusha open the tubes?"
"I doubt it...I don't think we can make her do anything. I mean, she had that thing with her." Tashi shivered. "What if it comes back?"
"Maybe we should just wait here and see what happens. Maybe when Kame is released, we can help her. We can't do anything if we're captured again or running away." Indigo looked around. "We might as well stay put."
"I won't leave my sister..." Kotake had a look of grim determination on her face. "I won't leave her ever again. This is my fault...even if Kame isn't Kame anymore, I won't leave her behind. I'm going to help her! I'm going to get my sister back, I swear. I promise you..."
Kotake looked at those sitting around her. "That by the end of this whole thing, Kame will be back to normal and we'll be Gym leaders again. Kame and Kotake, Pewter City Gym Leaders! I promise you!"
"Kotake..." Indigo stared at the girl in surprise. She had never heard her speak with such a definitive tone. It was unlike the silent, submissive girl. For once, Kotake's eyes were dry.
They could barely hear the swishing of the door over the music. There was a slight shout of shock, then heavy breathing.
"Gabriella, don't sneak up on me when I have my headphones on!"
"I have them."
"You do? This is gr-...wait a minute...what are the other two doing here?"
"I could not find Professor Denka, Doctor Kagakusha. The boy would not let me touch Teishi. I decided I would come to you."
"This complicates things..."
"I'm not doing anything!" An angry voice came, this one male. "I'm not going along with your sick plans!"
"Yes you are." The female voice sounded bored. It was the harsh voice that had spoken before. "And so are you, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Bite me, %$&$#." Another voice spoke, this one even rougher then the others. There was a tutting noise.
"There's that language again."
"Where's Ella E? We followed you here, you must have her somewhere! Release her this instant!" The younger male voice spoke again. The hidden group exchanged glances. Although only Reimia and Tashi knew Drak, it was obvious that it had to be him.
"If you want her, she's over there." There was a slight pause, then an angry gasp.
"Let her out of that thing right now right now!"
"Hmm...I'm the only one who can let her out. I could select a number of chemicals to inject into her from my computer...I could kill her right now. But I'm willing to let her go, if you'll just do this quietly.."
"You *%#%in' %$&$#! *%#% you!" The other voice spoke.
"I'm tired of this meaningless argument. You don't realize how important the two of you are. I need you to co-operate or else the results would be..." She paused.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I've said too much already." Kagakusha seemed to try and change the subject. "I don't ask that much of the two of you. Simply step into those two capsules on the wall. I will release her after I have got what I need."
"Why do you want me so badly?" Drak's voice rang clearly. There was a slight laugh and the cruel edge was back in Kagakusha's voice. She seemed to ignore his question.
"Are you going to comply without a struggle? It would be a lot easier. You could save all of your friends some pain."
There was a slight pause, and then Drak spoke again. "You must promise to not harm Teishi or Ella E."
This time there was a long pause.
"Do you think she's going to do it?" Tashi barely whispered to her brother. He sighed softly.
"I don't know...I don't know whether we want her to, considering what it could mean for Kame..."
"Doctor Kagakusha..." Gabriella's voice came again. "I have brought you what you asked. May I search for Michelle?"
"Hmm...stay here for a while, Gabriella. I just need you to watch them all for me...what about you, C? Will you go?"
"Give me one good *%#%in' reason not to kill you right now." The angrier voice spoke slowly, the words laced with hate.
"You try and I'll kill Ella E. Your friend would never recover. Do you really want a death on your conscious?"
"If it's yers, I don't *%#%in' give a $#^@."
"Are you going to do it? I need to know as soon as possible. You have to decide."
"I'm not deciding until you tell me whether or not Teishi and Ella E are going to be safe!" Drak's voice came again.
Another pause. Finally Kagakusha replied, her voice softer. "Fine. If you'll go along with this, they won't be harmed."
"Kid..."
"Cyrus, we have to do this." Reimia could see a figure turning the corner, walking forward. It was a woman. He could not see her quite clearly, however. "We can't let anyone get hurt...and it probably won't hurt us at all."
Following the woman came five more figures, one of them the one they had seen previously, Gabriella. The tallest turned to one of the smaller.
"&%*# you kid, if you didn't care so *%#%in' much..."
"I'm sorry, Cyrus." Drak, the smaller figure replied. "But I can't let anything happen to Ella E."
"Here." The woman, Kagakusha, stopped in front of the wall, placing her hands on two tubes. "Just step into these."
Drak was the first to enter. He gingerly stepped into the tube and the hissing sound of the glass closing was audible. Kagakusha then turned to the one identified as Cyrus, who paused for a few moments. Then, swearing the whole time, he entered one of the tubes as well.
"What about these two?" Gabriella still held the other two figures by their wrists. Reimia could see light glinting off of one of the figures' glasses.
"Well, I suppose we can't hurt them now...just watch them for a moment. I need to access the computer so we can finally finish the project."
Gabriella released the two figures. The smallest of them instantly moved in front of where they had seen Drak disappear, while the other backed away against the wall.
"They're going to destroy Kame's mind!" Kotake whispered fearfully. "They're going to finish her! What do we do? What CAN we do?"
"I don't know..." Reimia ducked his head as he saw Gabriella glancing in their direction again. "I don't know what we CAN do...on one hand, if we let her finish the experiment, then Kame's mind is completely gone. However..."
"What?"
"You heard her mention Kame's instability...if it doesn't finish, what if Kame just goes insane and begins destroying everything? What if Kame just DIES?"
"What can we do?"
"Let's wait until Gabriella leaves before trying anything..." Tashi peeked around the tube again, finding Gabriella was nowhere to be seen. "Maybe we can convince Kagakusha to do something to stop this."
"Do you hear something?" Kotake looked frightened. "Anyone else hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"It sounded like...almost like wings..."
The four looked up at the same moment.
"Doctor Kagakusha, there are intruders." Gabriella's strange voice called, her wings blocking the way out of their hiding place.