• Gunpowder sat on his bed, deep in thought. Porter had stopped by, earlier, to tell him CT would speak with him. He let out a heavy sigh. "CT". That's what they were calling him. They must not know what it stands for, or what his real name was. And Bruce was right. "Gunpowder" sounded cool, but it wasn't a name. Bruce was a name. Ferrovax was a name. Even Zero was a name. Why couldn't he have a name?

    Although he was a Ground type, he loved the water. He loved the ocean, the beach, swimming, fishing, even. He knew Water and Ice type moves. Moe loved mythology, and she would often talk to him about it. He remembered one name, very clearly: Ahti. Ahti was a god of the sea and fishing. That sounded like a nice name. If he was going to start a new life, he needed a new name. That's what his name shall be, now. Ahti.

    The intercom buzzed.

    "Traitorous b*****d." a very deep voice said. It was deeper than Gun-er, Ahti's, and had a very eerie tone. "You were going to have me murdered, and now you think we could simply talk things over?"

    Ahti sighed. "I'm sorry you think you were betrayed. I had to stop you. If you had killed the Champion's Pokemon, it could have ended even worse, for Moe."

    "I wasn't fighting, for her!" CT shouted. Ahti winced. "She fought, for you." he said, quietly. "We all did."

    "The only one who ever fought for me," CT growled. "was Lash. You...none of you...ever did anything, for me. You just sit there as your 'master' stuck me inside of a ball, until I was put down. You wouldn't have done a thing to stop it, and you know it."

    "I'm sorry you feel that way." Ahti said. "But why take the others? Why couldn't you have just had your revenge, on me? I'm the one who wronged you, not them. Especially Clementine. Why her? Why the others?"

    CT paused, for a moment. "Because you're not the only one. Your master and theirs. They were just as much a part of it. They're the ones who could have done something, but they didn't. By taking their team, they're suffering just as much as you are."

    Ahti growled. "You b*****d."

    CT grinned. It was sadistic and twisted. He enjoyed watching people suffer. Ahti knew that grin, he was just glad he couldn't see it. "Time's almost up, Gunpowder."

    He paused. "Ahti."

    CT raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

    "You have a name. Everybody has a real name. I was named after a human beverage. I deserve a real name, too. Call me Ahti." his voice was quiet, broken.

    "Very well." Nothing more was heard, from outside. CT had left it, at that.


    "Ahti, huh? Interesting name." Bruce said, cracking his neck.

    "I see you're already getting into the groove of our predicament, and little Ferro's done more than we would have liked. One thing's for sure, those who want to go back should be able to."

    The clacking of shoes came down the hallway as Blackstone walked up to the rooms.

    "Well well, renamed yourself have we, Nidoking? I must say I was expecting more than a pilot script for a soap opera when I was listening. How disappointing. Not worth a single note card of reporting." he said, wiping his glasses with a rag and pushing them back on with his middle finger.

    "Surely you could have given me something more than that. You wanted to talk to me as well, so speak."


    "Why?" Ahti spoke.

    "Hm?"

    "All of this. Why? Why us? Why CT? What's the purpose of all of this?"

    "For science, of course." Blackstone smirked. "This is the next step in Pokemon evolution, possibly even in human evolution. Imagine it. Pokemon no longer being forced to battle, for their trainer's pleasure. For money. You can live your life as a human, but still have the power of a Pokemon. You're no longer under human control. What do you have, as a Pokemon? You eat berries, you battle because that's what trainers tell you to do. You have so much more potential, now. You can become something greater. Something stronger. Are you not happier?"

    Ahti growled. "No. We didn't ask for this. Why us? Why were we so important?"

    "I've heard about you. Miss Hellbourne, and her friends. They demolished the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn Elite Four. You're strong. Stronger than the champions. The incident in Unova was...unfortunate, to say the least. But we needed somebody who could withstand the tests. We've done a few experiments on wild, regional Pokemon, and they were...less than successful."

    "You mean you killed them?"

    "Their deaths were not in vain. The knowledge gained from those experiments helped us improve. Your Hydreigon friend was the first successful test. Some of you handled it better than others, but you all survived. That's a good sign."

    There was a long silence. It probably wasn't terribly long, but to Ahti, it felt like an eternity. "Can it be reversed?" he finally said, barely loud enough to be heard.

    "No." Blackstone stated, simple and emotionless.

    Ahti bowed his head. He was stuck like this. All he wanted, was to wake up from this nightmare and go home.


    "Wait." Bruce showed some anger for the first time. "You changed the others against their will, and it can't be reversed?"

    "Please, don't be so irrationally simple. This is science, you can't simply build an undo button into every experiment. There is an old saying, to make an omelette you have to break a few eggs. Such is the same with any form of progress. If you think you can just undo any experiment, that makes you a fool not worth mentioning in my lab notes. Ever since the dawn of intelligence, there have always been necessary sacrifices. We all fall so that we can get up and learn how we can avoid such a tumble the next time." Blackstone replied, staring over his glasses at the two.

    "You all are the keys to the dawning of a new era. Too long have people been content with being stagnant, it's revolting. The time we stop progressing is the time we might as well just fall down and rot." he said, sounding like he was ready to spit with disgust.

    "Complacency is the doom of any intelligent species, so I suggest you learn to adapt and fulfill your roles in this new life." with that last sentence Blackstone walked away, the clacking of his shoes echoing down the hallway.

    And that was that.