Destiny Village ~ Chip's Lab

[TheGOAT]

In hindsight, it had been brief. Very brief. But, like many of the fights she’d been in, it felt much longer. Like many of those fights, her heart pounded and pounded.

Astrid swallowed, facial expression morphing in slow motion from shock to intrigue to stoicism, not without a hint of worry in the way her lip curled back to reveal her fangs.

“What…?” she recoiled with bated breath, unwilling to make contact again. “Wh-why did—?”

"You see that?"

“Yeah.” A long moment passed; she glanced tentatively back at Chip, then leaned down by Nate’s ear and whispered, “…We saw the same thing right? A few seconds at most. It reached out. Its chest was glowing and we couldn’t move. But that was it.”

‘Why the whispering? I can literally hear your thoughts,’ Myles touted.

Astrid didn’t answer.

 

[Negrek]

The ninetales leaned in to whisper to Nate, which only made this all feel more freaky, somehow. He tensed, listening closely while keeping his eyes trained on the motionless mewtwo."

"Yeah," Nate said after a moment, keeping his voice low. "And whatever that weird bit was with Diyem showing up to attack the guy. What... do you think that was? I mean, it didn't really happen, did it? But it can't have been nothing like... the future. Right?" He paused. "Or, hell. I mean, the guy wouldn't be trying to tell us nothing, would he?"

"What are you two whispering about?" Rocky whispered, loudly.

 

[Namohysip]

"No, I didn't sense anything on this side, but your vitals shot up for a little bit, kind of like you were watching a scary movie," Chip remarked. "Are you guys okay?"

As usual, Blacklight Mewtwo didn't move. It was probably unwise to touch the body.

 

[TheGOAT]

“What do we do with this information?” Astrid hummed, partly to herself. “That could’ve been a projection of its thoughts, or it could’ve been… the future or the past or something, yeah. Clearly something to do with Diyem.”

Time was running short; Rocky was onto them. Not really, but he sure was loud about it.

“Uhhm, quick, can we trust Chip?” Astrid said in a low voice. “I… this is my first time meeting him.” Good grief, this spy business was something else.

“He’s cool,” Myles commented, extending his explanation no further. He turned around to face the viewing glass and shrugged at Chip. “We’re not dying, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Y—uh, yeah, we’re okay!” Astrid called.

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah. I reckon Diyem's who we ought to talk to about this. Got a hunch he might recognize that swirly vortex place, if nothing else."

"Helllooooo?" Rocky stuck his head down right next to Nate, and the mudkip shoved him back.

"Yeah, we're fine, Chip," he called without turning to look. "I dunno about Chip," he muttered to Astrid. "Dude's fucking weird at minimum. But he ain't what I'm most worried about right now."

"What happened?" Rocky whined, then turned to Myles. "Do you--?"

"Rocky," Nate said. "I think the mewtwo's a familiar like Sword. Think you can see if he has a core? I want to see if it's damaged. If you're both familiars, you can like, uh. Kinda squish through him, right?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Rocky grinned, his tail standing straight up. "Umm, I can try!"

"Be careful. Felt kinda weird when I poked him before," Nate said. He had to hope that Rocky wouldn't be affected the same way he had. Rocky didn't have anything to do with Diyem, at least. Even if the mewtwo gave him another psychic fuck-off, maybe it'd play out a bit different.

While Rocky sized the mewtwo up, Nate glanced reluctantly back at the ninetales. "Did you two want to take a closer look at the mark on that guy's chest?" he asked. "I can't really get up there, but Rocky can take a picture or something if you want."

"So that's why you told me I had to come!" Rocky beamed. "You're too short!"

"Just get on with it already."

Rocky turned back to the mewtwo, still smiling to himself. If the mewtwo had a core, it was probably in his chest like Rocky's was, maybe right under the star thing. But he didn't really want to try sticking his hand right in there, especially if the mewtwo wasn't really a familiar. "Sorry," Rocky said, reaching out to try and press his hand through the mewtwo's shoulder. "I hope this doesn't make you feel weird or anything..."

 

[TheGOAT]

Myles tapped the badge a few more times. “Lemme just zoom in and… there,” he said. “Got some good-looking snaps of that glowing chest.”

“I’m good,” Astrid answered Nate, opting instead to observe Rocky. She was still unfamiliar with this… ‘familiar’ business, but the implications behind those markings on its chest were more than enough to leave her feeling restless. She’d gotten much closer to the Blacklight Mewtwo during their only encounter on the battlefield, but there had been no time to focus on it—they were busy with more important targets. Now, without the chaos of battle to hide behind, Astrid could appreciate how menacing and bizarre this creature was.

“Do you think it might be Giovanni’s familiar?”

 

[Negrek]

"Might be. I think he ain't a normal familiar at all, though, so maybe he don't need to be nobody's. Seems more like Sword than any of the other familiars, and there was something real funky about her core." Nate sighed. "Honestly, we don't even know what's up with the normal familiars. Or what shades really are or why Joule was spraying them all over the place. Who the fuck knows?"

He watched Astrid's familiar snap some more pictures. "So, uh, what were you planning to do with these pictures you're taking? Anything in particular you're expecting to see?"

 

[Namohysip]

There was no reaction. Additionally, Mewtwo's skin did not have any 'give' that Rocky could push through. The body was solid. Any place that Rocky tried to make contact with the body, however, made his ectoplasmic fingers sizzle and partially evaporate, losing its form, like there was still a local, small aura of some kind there that Chip's current tech could not observe.

 

[Negrek]

Rocky yelped the first time his fingers made contact with the mewtwo's skin, yanking them back while they fizzed and fumed away at the tips. Once he realized what would happen, though, he seemed to find the whole thing entertaining, poking experimentally around the Mewtwo's arms and chest. "That's tingly!" he giggled. "I don't think I can stick my hand through him, though."

"What the fuck," Nate muttered. So perhaps he wasn't a familiar at all? Or... did Giovanni maybe stick an ultra stone inside an actual body or some fucked-up shit like that? "If there's a stone in there... Well, Jesus. I don't want to fucking cut him open to find it." He tapped his foot against the floor, scowling. "Any ideas?" he asked the ninetales.

 

[TheGOAT]

“Sword is a familiar too, right?” Myles wondered out loud. “So if you took this thing and Sword and then combined them, would that make… I dunno, Blacklight Mewthree?

“Oh, and that would be Red,” he continued, “since he’s the one who stuffed this guy in the dirt. Pics are for him.”

Astrid’s frown deepened. “How do we test if something is a familiar when we don’t even know what our own familiars are?” Staring at the Blacklight Mewtwo didn’t help, yet it was really all she could do. It really didn’t seem to want to move or… or articulate itself, for that matter. Was it missing something? Or was it more aware of itself than that and simply biding its time?

If so, it wouldn’t make sense for it to attack right now. Giovanni wasn’t stupid; even if one of them could get free, they would only make it so far—

“Could try that Cola kid?”

There was Myles’ voice again, but hang on…

“…Cola?” Astrid’s ears perked up. “The other Arceus? What about him?”

“He can take over the bodies of familiars,” Myles answered matter-of-factly. “What if we had him try to inhabit this one? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Umm.” Oh, the things that could go wrong with that. “Let’s… let’s table that one. For now. We should probably speak to Diyem like Nate said, see what he thinks and all that.”

 

[Negrek]

"For Red?" Nate considered. Well, it might make it easier to communicate with the guy, yeah, to be able to point to something and ask him about it instead of having to describe it. And they should... they needed to follow up with him. Shit. And Silver. Nate hadn't seen him when they came in--so probably he was out flying around somewhere, doing bat shit?

"Yeah, that's a good idea. And you're right, ain't much we can do when we don't know dick about familiars neither." Nate sighed, staring blankly up at the mewtwo.

Until Myles made his suggestion, anyway. "Yes!" Rocky exclaimed, eyes and flames glowing brilliantly. "Oh, man, that would be so great! Can you imagine Cola flying around in a mewtwo body, shooting lasers with his mind? It would be awesome. He'd love it!"

Nate couldn't help but smile. Yeah, Cola would love that, and the thought of the little guy taking a mewtwo for a spin was hilarious--well, okay, yeah, it wasn't a good idea, but Nate almost wanted to try it, just to see what would happen. Almost. "I think Astrid's got the right idea there. The last thing we want to do is put one of the arceus into something that might be controlled by Giovanni. So... talk to Diyem, I guess. Maybe Chip can do some more scans or something, see if the guy seems similar to one of those shades he's got." Nate shook his head. "Whatever. I ain't got no more ideas."

Rocky gave the mewtwo another poke, giggling when the tip of his finger evaporated into dark haze. "Knock it off, Rocky. We're done here."

The familiar pouted, but followed after Nate as he headed to the door of the chamber. Then nearly tripped over Nate when he paused, looking back at the mewtwo. "Take care, huh? If you can hear us... I dunno what's going on with you, or with Giovanni, or anything, really. But if we can find some way to get you out of that bastard's hands, we will.

 

[Namohysip]

Mewtwo, as usual, did not respond, and as the sealed chamber closed, no matter how long they tried to watch Mewtwo as the door shut, they would see no movement. Chip asked several questions, but whether they answered him or not, it was not like Chip had seen much at all, and he seemed more spooked by Mewtwo than anything else.

There was definitely something strange about it, and Maple's 'life sense' was not wrong. That Mewtwo was alive. But whatever it was doing... they did not seem to have the resources on-hand to probe further.

"Er, so... nothing else?" Chip asked.

 

[Negrek]

"Nothing else that I can think of for now, at least," Nate said. He looked back at the mewtwo again, who was staring blankly ahead, same as always. "Dunno that I like that guy being here of all places, though. If something goes wrong, this place is one of the last places I'd want one of Giovanni's units running around, you know, or listening in. Any particular reason he's out here instead of back in the holding cells with Giovanni?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Giovanni we were able to contain. We have no idea if we can contain him, so we're using a new, experimental layer of containment on this guy." Chip buzzed. "Even worse than being here is being right next to Giovanni who might give it... commands, or something..."

 

[Negrek]

Nate winced. So on top of everything else, they were using some kind of tech nobody'd even tried yet to stop the mewtwo from getting away? "Yeah, I don't think we really want the two of them together. But is there maybe, uh, somewhere else you could try to put him up? Somewhere like that bunker under the colosseum, maybe?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Relocate him someplace else?" Chip repeated. "Hmmm... We'll think about how to do that safely. But it can't be anywhere public... and it has to be somewhere we can still observe him, too. And not a place e could do damage. It's not exactly an easy lace to find that satisfies everything..."

 

[Negrek]

"For sure. It's tough when we don't even know what the guy can do." Nate rubbed at his head and glanced at the mewtwo again. Jesus, he was going to be getting that stare in his fucking nightmares. "You do what you can, I guess. I just really don't like him being here, of all places." He regarded the mewtwo for another long moment, then said, "But thanks, anyway, for letting us see him. Just one other thing I wanted to ask you while I was here. Have you still got some shades around here for studying? Would you mind if I took one of them?"

"Ooh, are you going to get another familiar?" Rocky asked, then paused for a moment. "Wait, can you even do that?"

"Yeah, no. I got more than enough fucking familiars already."

Rocky stuck out his tongue at Nate.

 

[Namohysip]

"Sure," Chip said. "I still have a few. They're all really docile now, though. Took a few risks and opened up their cages to let them explore the whole room. Some of them are even starting to float around!" He buzzed and briefly sounded like some kind of mutated mother Pidgeot. "I only have a few left, though. Maybe soon I can start talking to them... Wouldn't that be amazing?"

 

[Negrek]

"Float around, huh? That's weird. Can't remember seeing any of them do that before." At least they weren't turning into fucking smiling charmander or nothing. Nate had had way more than enough of that shit by now. "Thanks, Chip. Rocky, can you go grab one of them?"

"Yeah!" The familiar bounded off enthusiastically. "Let's see... Who would make the best new friend?"

Nate watched him go. "You ever wanted to go to outer space, Chip?" he asked idly.

 

[Namohysip]

"Always!" Chip said immediately. "You know, I heard from one of the humans that my kind were once designed for space. Never worked, apparently, but I think that would be an amazing feat! ...Would you be able to vouch for me to go to space? I have the schematics for a few possible ways, and only a few of them require the Tree of Life this time!"

He had come up with the request far too readily.