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Finding One's Place in the World

Another lab and nothing found… Cascade was part disappointed and part relieved. Pulling out her notebook, she drew a line through the location. It seemed that every lab she had visited was deserted. This one had mostly been caved in; most of it was not passable and the parts that were lay in ruins, She was unable to find any useful information. She couldn't help but wonder if it had suffered the same fate as the lab she had come from; did a powerful pokemon break free in there as well?

Other then what had happened in her own lab, she wasn’t even sure what the research was? Were they performing similar experiments? Were they doing something completely different? Regardless of what it was, she knew it had to stop. Based on what she had seen, so far, though. It appeared to be stopping; she had yet to see a working lab, not since she was an experiment herself. Though, she was convinced that that just meant her information was old; it was from the first lab she had been in, her lab. She was positive that whoever had experimented on her was still out there; that they were still a functioning organization. She didn’t have any proof, but it was a gut feeling.

Her leads though, her leads were running low; she was almost out of locations. There was one other thing she had to do. She didn’t know if she would wait till she had finished her current talk, or if she would find her way there before then. She had to find the pokemon that had broken her out. Since the escape, she had seen her, but she didn’t approach her. She didn’t know why she hadn’t then and she still wasn’t sure now. Like her, the other pokemon had been altered, changed into a humanoid form. When she had first changed, she was in the lab itself, she had her memories of the place intact after her change, but it wasn’t until she had spent some time in the lab, in her humanoid form, that she had fully understood what had happened to her. The other girl, Cascade was certain she had transformed after leaving. She had no reason to believe that the girl didn’t remember her past, but she deemed it likely that she wouldn’t understand them.

Cascade knew that she had to keep investigating. She had to better understand the experiments and, if she could, stop them. She also felt, though, that she had to meet the other pokemon again, the girl that had saved her. She had to see what she knew and, if possible, do something to help her.

That would not be today, though. She just wasn’t ready, not yet. Before she met her, though, she knew she would have to find her, see where she lived. That she could do. She wasn’t ready to meet the girl yet, but she felt she was ready to find her, so that when she was ready, she would know where she was.

Play Date 1

Link: [PD] A Flame in the Darkness (Tin/Cascade)
Participants: Tin/Cascade
Stage: Teen
Status: Finished

A Shrouded Past- A Solo

It was the day she waited for; it was the day she had been dreaded. She was going to finally visit her, the girl that shared so much in common with her. She had had her eye on Sasha for some time, watching from afar. The girl seemed happy; she was carefree and full of live. Part of her felt that she should stay way; that she should let Sasha live her life in ignorance. But another part of her knew that she deserved to know the truth, about the facility, about where they had both come from. They had been experiments; they had been designed to be weapons. For whatever reason, Sasha had blocked those memories. As she knocked on the door, Cascade hoped she was making the right decision.

Alexis answered the door. She was surprised to see another poketeen, one that she had never met, suddenly at her door. “Hello,” she stated with a smile.

“Hello, my name is Cascade. Is Sasha in? I need to talk to her.”

“Yep, she is here, one second,” turning back into the house, Lexi called out, “Sasha, someone’s at the door for you.”

Sasha, who had been napping, quickly got out of bed and hopped down the stairs. “Who is it?” she asked, as she made her way down the stairs.

“I don’t know, her name is Cascade though.”

Reaching the door, Sasha exclaimed, “Oh, its another pokemon that looks like us! Hello, I am Sasha.”

“Hello, Sasha, could we talk?”

“Sure, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, it is kind of serious, we should sit down.”

“Oh, ok, well come in.”

Sensing that something serious was about to happen, largely due to Cascade’s choice of words, Lexi offered to make tea, an offer that was accepted by the newcomer.

Sasha and Cascade went and sat on the couch, as Lexi ran to the kitchen to make some tea. Cascade didn’t say anything until Lexi returned a few minutes later. She poured cups for all three of them and added a large amount of sugar to both hers and Sasha’s cups. Cascade declined the offer of sugar.

After taking a sip, Cascade began, “Well, Sasha, am I correct in saying that you do not remember a large chunk of your life?”

Sasha nodded in response, curious as to where this was going.

“Well, you see, we both come from the same place; we were created at the same time.”

“Created?” Lexi asked, confused.

“Yes, created. All three of use are hybrid pokemon. You, Alexis, are different. You are, well, more natural. You are a hybrid because of some ancestor of yours. Sasha and myself, though, we were created as hybrids, in a lab.”

Sasha remained silent, she was still processing this and unsure what to say. Lexi, though, asked, “Why would someone create hybrid pokemon?”

“We were designed, as weapons.”

“Weapons?”

“Yes, your friend, Sasha, she was created for short range destruction; she was created to be a brute, strongly armor and packing a considerable punch, myself, I was meant for distance, to use pokemon moves that could attack from afar. Both of us were created for battle. What we are now, though, that was not intended. I do not fully understand the stars, and how we took this humanoid shape but, that, that was not a part of the project. Unlike Lexi here, that adopted the DNA of an ancestor after her transformation, we were created as hybrids, even as true pokemon.”

“Why don’t I remember any of this?” Sasha asked, confused.

“That… that I do not know. I was there when you broke free, when you freed us, but I was not there for your transformation. My only guess is that something had happened between your escape and finding the star, something that made you forget… Maybe it was finding the star itself.”

“How… how did it happen? The escape?” Sasha asked. She was uncharacteristically stoic.
“Well, I don’t know what it was that set you off; what they did to you… but something happened. All I know are the results. You broke through your cell, something that they thought was impossible. Apparently you were more powerful then they realized. But after that, you trashed the place, destroyed the controls, the electronics… the systems went offline, the personal fled. After your escape, all the doors opened, the electronic locks were disarmed. Myself.. myself and the others, we were all able to escape, thanks to you. For that… you have my thanks…”

“I…I don’t remember any of this… I… don’t know what to say… why are you thanking me? I can’t remember doing this…”

“Even if you don’t remember, I owe you my freedom…”

“Are there other places, other places where experiments like this take place?” Lexi asked, horrified.

“Yes…well, yes there were.. I don’t know if any currently exist… Before coming here, I searched out the locations. After I obtained this form, I scavenged what information I could. I visited every location I found mentioned. None of them still stood. All of them seemed to be destroyed, either recently, or long gone. There… there certainly could be more.. There likely is more, but I don’t have any information on them.”

“That's horrible,” Lexi remarked, “Why would people do that?”

“I..I don’t know.”

Suddenly, Sasha stood up, “I.,,, I need to get a drink of water.” Sasha stood up and quickly went into the kitchen. She poured herself a large cup of water and quickly drank it. Upon finishing it, she poured another and drank it as well. Lexi joined her in the kitchen as she poured a third cup.

“Are you alright Sasha?”

“I… I think so…. Its just a lot to take in.”

“Yeah..”

The two girls stayed in the kitchen a bit longer, standing in silence, before returning to the living room. As they entered, Cascade was standing up, preparing to leave. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have told you all of this… I should go.”

“No, its alright,” Sasha replied, “Its better that I know… its just going to take some time to get used to.”

“Where are you going to go?” Lexi asked.

“I don’t know; I tend to just travel around.”

“You could stay here,” Sasha added, “there is extra room.”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to be a burden.”

“Its fine, and well, if I have any more questions, I will know where you are so I can ask.”

“Thank you… I don’t know what to say… “

“C’mon” Lexi replied, “You have to meet everyone else.”

Move Solo - Giga Drain

Her eyes shut, Cascade sat cross-legged and inhaled deeply. She listened to everything around her, the sounds of nature. Nearby, she could hear the sound of a river. As the sounds of it entered her, she could see it flowing; she could feel the flow. In the distance kricketots were chirping. She could see flow of sound that they emitted; she could see them and were they were. They were distance, but she could feel the flow of energy through them, the flow of their life.

Reaching out with her mind, she meditated on the plant life surrounding her, both pokemon and non. She could feel the energy flowing through the plants: the grasses, the flowers, and the trees. She could feel several plant types in the area around her, calmly being plant types. It was amazing; she felt feel the life flowing all around her. Looking back at the river, she felt water types swimming through the stream.

The life energy was everywhere, she couldn’t feel it in the rocks themselves, but she could feel life crawling through it and deep underground. The rocks though, they were like blindspots, bits of darkness in the flow of energy. She wasn’t here to just sense her surroundings. She was here to pull some of it into herself; she was here to practice giga drain. She would rather not use it on another pokemon though, not unless she was already fighting it. For practice though, the non pokemon plant life would do. Setting her palms on the ground, she pulled the energy into herself. It was invigorating; she felt full of life.

“Umph,” Cascade muttered as something, something she hadn’t detected slammed its whole body against her back, knocking her forward. Quickly she hopped to her feet and turned to face the interloper. It was an unusually large golem. Wincing, she rubbed her back. That is going to leave a mark. Closing her eyes, she reached her senses out toward the golem. She sensed its presence with just enough time to feel it rushing towards her. Her eyes still shut, she jumped out of the way. The longer she concentrated, the easier it was for her to sense him. She had not detected him before because he was so different, constructed entirely of stone, not of flesh and blood. But now, she sensed him; she could feel his energy, his life force, flowing through him. He made one more clumsy attack, which she easily dodged; then she decided to test out Giga Drain. She latched onto his life force, his energy, and pulled it towards her. She could fill it feeling her, invigorating her; the injury to her back healed; she no longer felt pain. The golem was greatly weakened, but it was not incapacitated. She had drained the pokemon, but not completely. The move seemed more then super effective. Opening her eyes, she watched him flee. She didn’t give chase; she didn’t need to. Confident in her abilities, she headed back home. She was full of energy.