Superlative In Reverie

[Sem]

Fifth in the series! A bit short as well, but I hope you like it~


-Chapter 1-

“Why are we running?” Fida gasped. She was intrigued by Sem’s sudden urgency after a grave phone call. He ran ahead of her, trying to run as fast as he could and slow enough for Fida to keep up at the same time. Fida was running with all she could, lungs burning as they raced back the way they had come.

“It’s SIR,” Sem explained again. “We have to hurry to the Saffron Pokémon Center.” The sun was climbing up into its midday phase, and a light wind tugged at them as they ran.

“Why?” Fida uttered, inhaling a large amount of air for her ravenous lungs.

“He’s transferred himself there from my parents’ lab!” he answered, again looking grim.

“He transferred himself?” Fida replied in disbelief, half in admiration of this mysterious creature. “Why is that a problem?”

They had made it back into the city, having just passed through the south gate. They were rushing through crowded sidewalks, desperately making their way back to the center that they had left that very morning.

“It’s a problem because he’s SIR; there’s going to be trouble,” he answered impatiently as they waited for the light to turn so they could cross the street. He considered having them use the particular advantages of their ghost Pokémon, but they were likely to get into trouble for that. Sem had noticed plenty of heightened police activity in this city in their short time there, and indeed, one officer sat in a squad car not far away.

“I don’t think he’s as bad as you say he is,” Fida looked up at the boy with her gray eyes condescendingly.

“No, he really is as bad as I say he is,” Sem replied as he ignored her stare, and took her hand without asking, rushing across the street with her.

Fida still didn’t see what the urgency was, but allowed herself to be pulled along anyway. She took to gazing at the tall buildings they began passing, so tall that they shielded the sun from reaching the downtown area. The girl was admiring a particularly nice-looking penthouse atop a newer building when she felt a rush of cool air and sensed the scents of medicine and disinfectant filling her nose.

A group of people were pressed against the walls inside, as far from the counter as they could be. At the counter stood a defiant Nurse Joy, standing firm with her arms crossed.

“If someone is having symptoms then tell me what they are and I will look up what the possible causes are for you! Or even better - bring them in for treatment!” she argued with a peculiar creature floating before her. It was pink and blue, and resembled one of those toys that had Dodrio bending over and dipping their beaks in water. There were no legs per se, nor wings, only two oval-shaped fins along the creatures pink body, blue in color that matched the thing’s bill. Two white eyes stared emotionlessly from the head, though they were intently focused on Nurse Joy.

“Wench,” it began, in a dull, monotone synthetic voice. “What right does a speck such as yourself have in wasting my time instead of doing as you are told?” Despite the flatness of the Porygon2's voice, it was easy to pick up on the demeaning tone in which he spoke. "I come from very important scientists and require access to your records."

“Excuse me!?” Joy was outraged. Sem looked utterly mortified, an emotion Fida had never before seen on his face. Sableye cackled.

The teen looked around briefly, spotting an activated terminal and the empty Pokéball still in it. His eyes widened. “Quick,” he hissed, nodding to the device. “Grab that ball, make sure no one sees it,” he instructed, desperately hoping that no one had seen the Pokéball from which SIR had emerged. He calmed himself knowing that if they did, the center would be storming with police at this moment, unless SIR put up a block on outgoing communication signals, which sounded like him. Of course, someone could simply run out the door, so that meant they were OK.

Sem took a deep breath, and walked towards the counter with a shuddering sigh. He did not even have to make his presence known, SIR turned slightly, examining the boy for but a moment with his mechanical eyes.

“Ah, Sem,” SIR’s tone went higher, as if he were pleased. “Please explain to this meat-sack that your Sableye is dying so that I may access this center’s well of information in search of a cure.”

“Young man!” the nurse addressed him, recognizing him from that morning. “Is this Porygon2 yours?”

“Yes,” Sem nodded reluctantly.

“Fool!” SIR’s voice rose, causing some static to be heard along with it. “I am no one’s pet,” he turned to the nurse. “I am SIR. Do you wish to be blessed with the knowledge of what that stands for? S-”

“Sarcastic and Imposing and Repulsive,” Sem finished for the Porygon2.

SIR turned towards him again, “I will warn you again, human: I will destroy you. One day you shall cease to exist."

Fida was at Sem’s side now, having just handed him SIR’s Pokéball. She had studied it for a bit before giving it back, noting the black and red colors and the red R emblazoned on the top of the ball. Normally she would have been terrified, but she knew plenty about the history of Sem’s parents to know not to panic. Now she was looking at SIR, the creature which Sem seemed to genuinely hate and never spoke of well.

“Please,” Nurse Joy interjected, looking very red in the face due to her frustration. “Take your Pokémon and leave.”

“Do you know…” SIR started, ignoring her statement. “I am half certain that you nurses are all robotic anyway; perhaps diving into your head would be even more entertaining than the center’s records."

“I will call the police,” Nurse Joy whispered through her teeth.

“If you are an artificial intelligence, you are far from the perfection that I have attained,” SIR lifted his bill, and began to make a series of beeps and tones that resembled a haughty laugh. The sound sent chills down the spines of those who heard it.

“Let us go, my meat-things,” SIR commanded, as if he were royalty addressing two of his subjects. He hovered out of the center with Sem and Fida in tow.

-------

“Why do you have to do that?” Sem asked as they walked down the street. “Why couldn’t you just wait for me so we could meet him?”

“Once again, I am not a pet like the rest of your sorry group,” SIR replied. Hovering beside Sem. Sableye seemed to take no offense to his comment, and in fact seemed to rather enjoy the Porygon. Fida noted that Elvia was rather wary of SIR, only due to what she had seen and the fact that Sem did not like him.

Sem shook his head, glancing briefly back at Fida. “Well, this is the great and wonderful SIR, Fi-”

“Fida Corson,” SIR interrupted as he was now directly before Fida, eyeing her with his motionless eyes. His movement was so abrupt that Elvia reverted to her physical appearance in the same instant; the Mismagius hovered before her friend, ready to unleash any form of hell on SIR. Fida flinched at SIR’s sudden movement, at Elvia’s reaction, and at the sound of her last name.

“Valens,” she correctly shakily, “Fida Valens,”

“Ah, yes,” SIR hovered back, though not because of Elvia, who he seemed not to have noticed at all. “You have abandoned your family and former identity.” He began to orbit around her as he spoke; Elvia copied his movements, being sure to always be between him and Fida.

Fida did not reply to his blunt yet accurate explanation of her recent activities, she simply nodded her head slowly. “How do you know that?”

“I did some research when I first heard of you, looked into what I could of your history,” he replied. “A good student when human-standards are concerned; I was born with three times what you will ever know,” he added off-handedly. “You are quite missed according to emails from some teachers to the school board, whom were only told that your residence in Violet City had been vacated. Amusing,” he paused orbiting. “they assume you are with your parents.”

“Oh…” Fida nodded again. “I didn’t know that.” She was beginning to see why SIR was so unlikeable, though she wasn’t yet committed to any personal opinions on him.

“What they do not know that you do know is that your parents are actually fugitives. The issue with the social-slave that your father injured - they did not stay long in that residence it seems… but I know where they are…” he leaned in, ignoring Elvia’s expanding form, as if she were an Arbok ready to strike. “I could tell you where they are…”

“That’s enough,” Sem interrupted. “You also know it in your bloated head that she’d rather not talk about that. And don’t you dare mention the other thing she’d rather not talk about,” he threatened, looking quite serious.

“Look at you, pest, you are sounding more like me as time passes,” SIR abandoned his antagonizing of Fida and hovered by Sem once more, allowing the group to resume their walk. “Clearly you are attracted to the flawlessness I have achieved.”

“I’m not like you,” Sem mumbled. “I have a soul, for starters.”

“Despite was some radicals say, I think that I, as an intelligent being in general, have advanced enough and am capable of enough emotion and free-will to safely say that I have a soul,” SIR explained, taking Sem’s sarcasm literally. “Besides the fact that your parents study artificial intelligences such as myself, we could always go to a church to see what they think.”

“You mock the very idea of gods,” Sem argued.

“I do no such thing,” SIR replied in an indignant tone. “Else I would be mocking myself.”

“Gods are sort of intangible by definition, all powerful and all that. You may have the ability to be all knowledgeable , but you’re not all powerful, and there are some powerful things on this planet.”

“Please,” SIR scoffed. “With enough power I could control every machine, server, and network,” SIR’s tone raised rapidly. “More and more this world depends on its electrical and data-based nervous system. Control it, and I control the world.” He explained in a new tone, seeming to suggest that he was delirious with joy at the idea of him ruling the earth.

“And that is something I pray will never happen,” Sem murmured as they turned left around a corner. People were giving them a wide birth, staring at SIR, Sableye, and Elvia as they passed.

“It could,” SIR went on. “So far we have not found a Porygon2 quite so powerful as I am. Quite so skillful as I. I run circles around the other Porygon at the lab. And with this new upgrade… I could be limitless.”

“Upgrade?” Fida spoke again, interested.

“Indeed, child. For that is why I am here.”

“You’re not getting upgraded,” Sem explained, sounding as if he knew his parents had told SIR this already. “This dubious disk, it’s not made by Silph. It’s a hack, it’s imperfect.” Sem put emphasis on the last word, as if the very sound of it might cause the Porygon2 to burst into flames.

“There have been many upgrades recorded, upgrades into this… Porygon-Z model,” he answered, undeterred.

“Ugh, it doesn’t even sound like an actual name; it sounds totally bootleg!”

“The anomaly is official enough; that is what a PokéDex would list me as were I to receive this upgrade.”

The boy shook his head again. “Besides, there have been ‘upgrades’ reported, but not successful or efficient ones. All these Porygon come out completely mad and glitchy.”

“Some have adjusted,” SIR offered.

“Adjusted to what? Spasms and episodes of insanity? Sounds like they’ve adjusted to being handicapped,” again he put emphasis on the word as if it would cause the data-Pokémon to go into convulsions.

“With me, being as magnificent as I am, mortal,” SIR’s tone went deeper. “I could access only the beneficial parts of the upgrade; the improved speed and capped strength. The only creatures that could match me at those power levels would be the top psychics and attackers, creatures such as Alakazam… and her.” SIR added with what could only be a scoff, his peculiar ‘arms’ rotated around rapidly.

“Who?” Fida asked.

“No one, simply a psychic I knew from my old life.”

“Porygon-Z are reported to be weaker endurance-wise,” Sem added.

“As I was saying, I could access only what would benefit me, surely with my skill I could decide for myself in what ways to change. The new form would be a welcome change, and I could properly fly and not simply hover so high before being brought down by gravity.”

“You can’t tell the disk not to do something it’s supposed to do without screwing everything up; you’ll come out more wacked than any Porygon-Z reported so far. If you made it out,” Sem half smiled at the idea.

There was silence now between them now, making the city noises more audible and apparent. Fida was finding herself looking away from SIR for probably the first time since first laying eyes on him. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about him, but she just met him after all; there had to be something good about him besides research that allowed Sem’s family to put up with him.

“We’re here,” Sem said suddenly. The group had stopped before the glass doors of a tall building which housed many suites and office-floors. They walked in and headed straight towards the elevators. Their footsteps echoed off the shiny floor into the expanse of the room.

Sem was about to stop to look at a directory when SIR stopped him. “The human mind, really,” he droned. “No need for that - I remember where his suite is.”

The teen only rolled his eyes in response, though mostly it was at himself for not figuring that SIR would know exactly where to go. He most likely even took control of one of the elevators when they were still a block away as well, Sem thought, just to ensure they wouldn’t have to wait around for it to come to them from thirty stories above.

A ding confirmed that Sem was correct in his assumption. A set of doors opened before them so perfectly in timing that they didn’t even have to slow their pace. A button on the metal panel lit up on its own and the elevator began to rise.

Fida found this all quite amusing, which caused her to add a tick-mark under her imaginary table of SIR’s Likeable Qualities.

“Find it amusing, meat?” SIR inquired. Elvia flinched.

Fida’s grin vanished for moment, not realizing she was expressing her enjoyment so openly.

“You weren’t expressing it so openly,” SIR replied. Elvia was reeling. The temperature dropped suddenly and it seemed as though the lights dimmed.

Sem’s eyes widened. “Oh gods, don’t you start digging through her head!” He reached out and physically swatted SIR on the head. “Don’t underestimate Elvia, and don’t make her hate you even more.” The climate in the lift became normal and the lights were once again bright enough to be called lights. “And don’t flaunt around your psychic abilities just because you have them,” Sem leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. “Even if they are inexplicable,” he mumbled.

“You’re psychic?” Fida asked, puzzled. “How does that work?” She wondered this as she felt Elvia doing a lockdown on her brain.

“Some things even I do not know, however, I have my theories. One being the idea that I am not entirely different from any living thing at my most basic, aside from my perfection of course.”

“Oh, enough,” Sem rolled his eyes, noting how many more floors they had left to go and tapping his foot impatiently.

“These are irritatingly slow,” SIR noted. It sped up immediately, the elevator moving faster than any elevator should. In no time there was a familiar ‘bing’, signaling their stop.

The doors slid open quickly and the group of five left the confines of the lift and walked down a well lit hallway painted with warm beige. Their feet sank slightly into the plush carpeting as they walked, passing doors until coming to one near the end. It seemed a bit different than the rest - heavier and sturdier. There was a small intercom on the side. Sem pressed the button.

“Who is it?” the speaker squawked.

“It’s-”

“Open this door this instant, irritant, or I will dismantle your personally designed alarm system in the passing of a mere second and blast open the door myself.”

The door opened. Sableye chuckled.

“Hey!” said the man inside. He was of an average height, in loose clothes. He looked thin, and had some dark hair on his chin and a thin mustache across his lip. Shock was quickly receding from his expression.

“Hey, Fabian,” Sem greeted, waving his hand. “Dropping by to pick up that… thing… parents should have called you about it.”

“Yes, of course, come in,” he beckoned them with a wave and a jerk of his head. After closing the door behind them he went and sat at his chair by a large set up of monitors and computers. “It’s good to see you haven’t changed, SIR,” he added.

“Yes, well, we will see about that…” SIR replied.

“This is Fida by the way,” Sem introduced the girl. “Fida Valens. This is Fabian, he’s an old acquaintance of my parents from back when… yeah.”

Fida waved, even though Fabian wasn’t looking at her. He was digging through a box near his desk.

“Acquaintance? Surely I’ve moved up to irreplaceable family friend in all this time?” he asked, still looking.

Sem smirked but said nothing. “She has a Mismagius with her named Elvia.”

“Good afternoon, Elvia…” he stopped digging through the box. “Valens, huh?” Fabian murmured as he pulled out something from the box. “Fancy that.”

Fida raised her eyebrows in curiosity.

“Anyway, here it is.” He got up and walked over to Sem, handing him the object they came for.

“Allow me to see it!” SIR said frantically as he whirred past Fabian to see the item of his current and exclusive worship. It was a simple disk in a simple jewel case, both were purple in color. Black marker had ‘dubious disk’ written across the CD’s surface.

“Yep, totally bootleg,” Sem nodded, slipping the disk into his messenger bag.

“I’d be careful with that; SIR’ll come out crazier than usual if you decide to do it,” Fabian spun his finger in circles on the side of his head.

“Silence! We did not ask for your opinions,” SIR stabbed, exercising his divine authority.

“This will make my parents very happy,” Sem said, preparing to leave.

“Yes, and their money makes me very happy,” Fabian smiled.

“We’ll be off now, see you,” Sem waved and made his way to the door.

“Always a pleasure doing business with the Aquaises.”

The door shut a bit too loudly behind them, obviously a sign of relief that they were gone. Sem grinned.

“Who’s he?” Fida asked when they were back in the elevator.

Sem shrugged. “Used to work for Team Rocket, knew my parents. He was one of the plants Team Rocket put inside Silph. He has a lot of connections because of that.”

“Enough of that human,” SIR said impatiently as the doors opened. “Let us go to the airport and fly to Snowpoint,”

Sem raised his eyes as they left the building. “No?”

SIR stopped moving and only looked at Sem.

“We want to take a boat there from Vermillion,” Sem answered SIR’s silent question.

“I’ve never been on a ship before,” Fida smiled shyly.

“… Vermillion? That would take days. We are taking a plane,” SIR repeated adamantly.

“No,” Sem echoed.

SIR was completely still and silent for a moment, not responding and looking very much like a frozen program on a computer screen. After about a minute he spoke. “Our flight departs in seventy-two minutes.”

Sem raised his brow. “You booked us a flight just now? Using whose money?”

“Your parents’ money of course; as if I would not know their bank account numbers.”

“You know you can’t be spending their money like that,” Sem crossed his arms.

“They knew that I would most likely do this before they sent me.”

“They didn’t send you, you came on your own,” Sem narrowed his eyes. “They would’ve been happy to wait for a few days.”

“You do not want to deal with me for the next week; take the plane.”

“You could go back home.”

“You know I will not.”

“She wants to go on the ship,” Sem nodded to Fida.

“The human is eight, and she lives a trainer lifestyle; she will be on many ships during the course of her pitiful existence.”

“…It’s OK…” Fida interrupted, shifting her eyes from Sem to SIR. “I’ve never been on a plane either…”

Sem pursed his lips. “Well, can’t walk away now and waste their money. One condition, however,” Sem raised a single finger and pointed it at SIR.

“I will stay inside my prison for the duration of the flight and I will not interfere with any of the plane’s various intriguing functions.”

“Good.”

With that Sem and Fida followed a delighted SIR to Saffron’s airport.

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 2-

Fida looked in wonder at the city around her as she accompanied Sem through Snowpoint City. A city forever frozen in a state of winter; the people who resided there were from all walks of life, and they all adapted to the unique way of life implemented in this part of the Sinnoh region. Cars were a rare sight, as the snow was often too deep for cars to be of any use. Instead the common mode of transportation came in the form of snowmobiles. Average households in Snowpoint had between two to three of them at their disposal. Streets were created over the years through the use of the snowmobiles, carved through the jumble of frozen trees and white-powdered buildings.

“You live here?!” Fida repeated, amazed at the sight of everything. Sem simply nodded with a slight grin.

It was nearing the end of the day, and the setting sun cast an array of purple shades across the sky. The air was brisk but there was no snowfall, so the temperature was bearable. Their plane had landed on an amazingly decently sized runway not even thirty minutes prior. The town was a port town that specialized in sea food, so it was necessary to have enough accommodations for traveling, even in such a remote place. Of course, while the ports were always busy, the place itself had to be the least populated of all the world’s port-cities.

“The laboratory is rather far from where we are, in the outskirts of the city.” SIR droned, glad to be free of the Pokéball. “We will implement the recently added gondola system, which is akin to a bus in any normal urban area.”

Indeed, wires could be seen all across the area, linking areas together and providing easy transportation for those without the convenience of snowmobiles. Occasionally a blue-colored gondola would glide past them, hauling passengers to their respective destinations.

Fida had slipped into her lavender hoodie and had it zipped up, with her hands in the front pockets and the hood over her silvery-blonde head. Sem looked alright at the moment in a pair of shorts, and he was already wearing his jacket. Sableye sat upon his shoulder, twitching his ears randomly and looking in different directions, unbothered by the cold; and of course it wouldn’t matter to SIR if it was 200 degrees below or above.

Their feet crunched as they walked, making their way to a small building, one of the hubs for the gondolas. The group gained a relief from the cold when they entered the heated building. It was a small room, wood floors and white walls, no bigger than a shed. LED lights shined silently above them, brightly illuminating the room. Immediately before them on the wall was a large map with different colored lines, indicating the different routes. A woman stood to the right, sectioned off from the rest of the room by a desk that seemed more like a cage. She nodded to them before going back to reading the magazine she was engrossed in, being there only to answer inane questions from people not savvy to the system. A fake plant was to the left, looking rather out of place. Next to it was a bulletin board on which were announcements about the gondolas, announcements from the city, and then anything from ads and job offerings to directions to yard sales and rewards for lost pets. Beyond that and next to the map was a small sliver of the room that resembled an indoor bus stop, with a wide and long cushioned bench facing a glass wall.

Sem led the group to that small area, ignoring the map and pulling his ID from seemingly nowhere and quickly passing it before a scanner that lay in wait for them. The red light on top of the small scanner flashed green for a bit before going back to red, signaling that it had successfully taking the toll from the information on the card. Sem did this once more for Fida’s pay and then they all sat in wait for the gondola, which was scheduled to arrive in only five minutes.

“So, you like Sinnoh so far?” Sem asked as he sat on the squeaky leather of the seat.

“It’s so different,” she answered as she took her seat. “Is it always snowy like this?”

“They say that the day that there’s no snow in Snowpoint is the day the world will end,” the older boy answered indirectly.

“If melting this place is the only way to accomplish that then I shall,” SIR added snidely as he hovered.

Sem shook his head and rested his chin in his hand as she stared out the glass before them. “You seriously need help,”

“No, I am quite certain I could accomplish this feat by myself, human,” the AI countered sarcastically.

The teen slipped a phone out of his pocket to check the time briefly before letting it disappear again, undoubtedly tired of the Porygon2.

Fida sat quietly, looking intensely out the glass, contemplating the fact that she was finally in Sinnoh. Soon enough she would see about going to see Tara’s parents, since no doubt news of their daughter’s death had long reached their ears. She was also eager to meet Sem’s parents, who had so far shown much kindness to her. In fact she was a bit nervous; she fidgeted slightly at the thought of them. Snowpoint was a new start because of what the Aquaises had to offer, along with the city itself, and she was more than willing to accept.

The sound of the gondola reached their ears only when it was a few meters away. It came to a smooth stop before the glass wall. Glass doors slide open, allowing the biting cold to mix with the warm air as the five of them loaded onto the lift. The gondola’s door closed as soon as they were all on and was on its way again, going towards the west.

“This machine is too slow,” SIR whined as he watched the trees drift by, his ovular appendages spinning in impatience.

“Don’t increase the speed, not again. They’ll start noticing that it only happens when we board the gondola,” Sem pointed out as he adjusted the scarf around his neck.

“Very well,” SIR resigned.

The ride was entirely uneventful, but Fida was nonetheless on her knees in the seat, looking out the window at the white landscape. After unloading at their stop they stepped out into the cold, walking a short distance to a shed-of-sorts almost hidden in the snow.

Sem moved his dark hair out of his face as they approached the entrance to the building, looking up at the gray sky. “Should get going asap; there’s gonna be a storm in a bit.”

“In approximately forty-seven minutes,” SIR corrected as he hovered a bit higher.

“Yeah, but I didn’t need a meteorological program to figure that out…” Sem mumbled dryly as he produced yet another key from his jacket, fitting it into the lock of the door. The group entered quickly, Fida flinched when the door slammed shut behind them. The lights flickered to life on their own, being set on a sensor-timer. Inside the otherwise empty and dull little shed were an assortment of snowmobiles.

“Don’t have to worry about the storm though, we’ll get home with plenty of time to spare,” the teen assured them as he began walking down the row of vehicles.

“It will only take us twenty-three minutes under normal conditions.” SIR offered as a more technical statistic.

Rolling his eyes, Sem pulled out the Porygon2’s Pokéball and pointed it over his shoulder, returning the AI; who did not release himself knowing that being confined within the ball was better than being stuck chasing after the much faster snowmobile; of course, Sem was highly keen on the latter situation.

He stopped near the middle of the row; quickly making sure his pack was secure. He pulled two pieces of fabric from his messenger bag; two lower halves for his shorts that simply zipped on to make them pants. “Get your hood on and make sure you’re snug, it gets a lot colder when riding,” he told Fida as he slid onto the vehicle’s leather seat. It was a very nice snowmobile, stormy blue and glossy, with a spotless windshield and state-of-the-art skis. Sem opened one of the side compartments, producing two helmets.

Fida took the helmet offered to her. “It’s a little big,” he explained, “but it’s better than nothing,” he shrugged, strapping his helmet on and covering his face with the clear visor. The engine started as Fida slid in behind Sem and made sure she had a secure hold on him. The machine purred before gliding out to face another door, larger to obviously allow the admittance of snowmobiles. Sem flipped the lights on as the door automatically opened, and once it was wide enough, they sped out of the building into the shining white.

-------

The trees swept past them as they neared the Aquais laboratory, a rather nice-looking building even in the snow-covered landscape. It stood as a three-story building nestled into a cliff-side. The exterior was obsidian-black, with large windows that comprised many of the front walls entirely. The windows were reflective, allowing no one to see inside the building. The levels were not directly on top of one another, rather skewed, like an uneven pile of books. It was an impressive piece of architecture to say the least.

Fida knew though, that what she saw wasn’t all there was to the lab, that it went further back, burrowing into the rock of the cliff, hiding many more levels, one of which was actually underground. Sem had told her of this a while back, also explaining that it wasn’t designed by his parents. They had added onto it of course, but much of the building was already there when they bought it.

Still, Fida looked with child-like curiosity at the building that served as both a home and a research facility to her friend and his family.

The snowmobile slid into a garage that opened at their approach. Sem parked it next to two others, one purple, another a navy blue.

SIR released himself from his Pokéball, making not a sound as he approached a second door which could only lead into the house itself. A keypad lit up as he neared it, the numbers four, three, eight, nine, and three appearing on the green LED screen as SIR entered them without having to touch the keypad. “Just a warning,” Sem murmured as he leaned down to speak into Fida’s ear. “SIR is practically synchronized with most of the house’s systems; never assume that you are by yourself, or that no one is watching, because chances are, he is.” After a quiet bing the door slid open.

Fida was relieved at the rush of warm air when she entered the house, though a little concerned with what she had just been told. She put it aside, however, in order to fully look at the structure. The walls were pure white with even whiter lights overhead. Their feet walked on black marble that looked very polished. They were in a short hallway, which they went through into a large room, in which two people were waiting for them; Valencia and Toby Aquais.

One was a woman, about average height. Her skin was tanned brown that looked very much like Sem’s. Her hair was a dark maroon, worn down with wavy ends. Her face was sharp, almost fierce, with brown eyes that leered. She was in a white lab coat, worn over a red top and a black skirt. The lower halves of her legs were bare and she had on a black pair of heels that added to her height. The muscles in her legs were toned, obviously credited to her history as a Rocket. The most striking thing aside from the woman herself was the Ekans draped around her neck.

The other, a man, had a kinder face with graying hair. His skin was lighter than the woman’s and his blue eyes were welcoming as he stood next to her. He was also in a lab coat worn over a blue t-shirt and a pair of slacks. The room was simple; comfortable couches and chairs, beige in color, were positioned around a black glass-top table. A soft white rug lay beneath everything

“How loyal of you to await my return, subjects,” SIR announced in an exalted tone as he hovered into the room.

“Oh, shut up,” the woman sneered; obviously it was him she was leering at. “Go vanish somewhere.”

“Very well, I shall allow the lower life forms to socialize,” he countered before flying off down another hallway.

The woman glared after him as he left. Her expression softened when her eyes met Sem and Fida. She walked forward with her arms open and embraced Fida fiercely. “Welcome, Fida!” the woman greeted the girl happily. “It’s good to finally see you.”

Fida smiled, not seeming the mind the tight embrace and the close proximity of the serpent as it looked at her. She was intrigued by the creature, not afraid.
“Thank you,” she blushed.

“Welcome home, Sem,” she said again, straightening to hug her son, who simply smiled and nodded his head.

The man approached Fida, touching her shoulder warmly and smiling, “Yes, welcome,”

The woman glanced only once at Sableye with her tongue in her cheek, it was clear that she wasn’t entirely fond of him either. The Ghost-type was obviously aware of this, and flashed a white grin before coming off of Sem’s shoulder and disappearing through the wall.

“And where is Elvia?” Sem’s mother asked. In answer, the air around Fida rippled as the Mismagius’ form appeared. Elvia nodded in greeting.

“Pleased to meet you as well, Elvia,” Valencia smiled, accompanied by her husband. “One favor I need to ask though,” she frowned slightly. “Don’t hide yourself like that here; you’ll spook the Pokémon we have.”

Elvia nodded again, finding the request perfectly agreeable. She only veiled herself out of habit, rarely showing her form even when no one was around to see. Fida didn’t mind much either way, since she could always sense Elvia in her mind.

“How was the flight?” Tobey asked, taking a seat. “You’re a bit early.”

“It went pretty smoothly,” Sem shrugged. “Our original flight was delayed due to the storm that’s about to hit, but of course,” he sighed, “SIR played with the system ever so discreetly and got us onto an earlier flight with minutes to spare.”

“Well that was lucky,” Sem’s father nodded.

“Yes, but, he’s going to get us into some big trouble someday,” Sem sighed again. “You don’t just mess with something like an airport’s computer system; we’re going to be stormed by the police one of these days.”

Tobey nodded his head in understanding, knowing all too well the dangers.

There was silence for a moment before rasping could be heard on the floor heading in their direction. Out of one of the hallways slithered a large black snake, covered with gold and purple markings. Blood-red fangs protruded from its mouth and it had a blade-like tail. It was a Seviper, and very likely the only one living in all of northern Sinnoh.

“Hello, Lamia,” Valencia said sweetly as her snake approached her, nuzzling her neck with her large head. “This is Fida and Elvia,” the woman introduced them. Fida was even more interested in Lamia, despite its, frightening size and its appearance and size. She smiled at the Seviper, though was reluctant to touch her.

“You’ll get used to her, you’ll see,” Valencia nodded her head. “And this,” she added, holding the Ekans’ head in her hands as she nuzzled its nose with her own. “Is Lilim.”
Fida nodded again, “Nice to meet you Lilim.”

They all sat around for a bit, exchanging stories and playing catch-up with one another.

Fida was shown the spare room that was to be hers “as long as she wanted it.” It was simple. The walls were white paneled like the rest of the house, with the same black marble floor. Despite the uniformity, the rest of the room was obviously re-done specifically for Fida. A bed sat against the far right wall in the upper corner with black leather headboards being the only things visible aside from the rich purple comforter with pillowcases in a lighter tone. Beside the bed was a small nightstand with a clock, and a lamp with a purple lampshade. Next to it was a window covered over with a purple curtain that matched the comforter. A circular, white plush rug was in the middle of the room. A purple beanbag was in the corner at the foot of her bed. In the other corner was a desk with a chrome frame and glass desktop. Against the left wall was a vanity made of a dark wood. Between the vanity and the desk was a simple closet.

The girl loved the room the moment she set foot in it, and thanked the Aquais family for days on end. The first few days were a bit awkward for her as she settled in and got to know where everything in the building was. Her favorite places were rooms that were actually considered part of the lab; rooms that held the various Pokémon that the Aquaises kept. These mostly included artificially made Pokémon. There were several Magnemite, two Magneton, and a reclusive Magnezone in one room. Two Voltorb, and one Electrode, in another smaller space. There was also a Castform that belonged to Mr. Aquais that freely roamed the house.

Another small room held a single Porygon and a Porygon2, which Fida mistook for SIR. The family had actually quite a few Porygon, most of them actually being inside the lab’s computer system along with SIR. There were two other Porygon and another Porygon2 kept in cyberspace.
These Pokémon rooms each had large windows so that the Pokémon could be monitored from the hallway.

All of the Pokémon were fairly docile, including the Voltorb and Electrode, and none of them seemed to mind a human in the room with them. In fact, all of the Pokémon seemed rather interested in the new person, though the Magnezone merely watched her from a distance.

Aside from those, Fida also occasionally caught site of an Unown. It was A-shaped, and roamed the building of its own free will, seeming to be constantly interested in an environment that it had been living in for quite a while - it always seemed to be seeing everything for the first time. It was rather hyper if that was the term you could apply to it; its eye was constantly moving. The symbol-Pokémon seemed to avoid Fida, as if satisfied with the extensive examination it did of her when it first saw her. Fida didn’t at all mind that she didn’t see it too often.

Besides the Unown, Fida would sometimes see Toby’s Persian laying about the facility. Over the course of a few days Fida noticed that the feline had about five favorite locations throughout the house, and unless it was with Toby or moving from one spot to the other, you could always find the cat at one of those locations. The Persian was a typical cat, and paid no mind to anyone except Toby.

Sem’s Froslass, Jadis, also roamed the halls for unknown reasons. You could always tell she was close when you stepped into an area that made you feel like you were outside in the snow.

One of the most interesting spectacles to be seen in the building took place almost daily in a large, empty room. The walls and floors were lined with scratches and marks, burns and dents. It was essentially an indoor arena. The walls were thick and soundproofed, so as to let no damage come to the house, or let the sounds of battle disrupt the rest of the house. The one and only rule was that no attacks that could do any large damage to the house were not to be used. The arena was mostly for training, actual battles between people rarely took place. There was also an arena on the roof, when the weather was nice.
The spectacle was that Lamia and Jadis would engage in duels. Sword fights to put it simply. Lamia would use her tail, obviously, but Jadis created dual blades from condensed ice, making them as hard as steel. Both were quite skilled and it was exhilarating to watch the sport between two such diverse creatures. The battles always ended in draws, neither Pokémon able to get the edge over the other.

Life fell into a loose routine which Fida enjoyed very much. Certain days at the house could be quite hectic. Some days Sem’s parents would be working madly on something while SIR uttered complete nonsense and bloody murder through the intercoms as Pokémon roamed the halls. Other days, nothing happened at all. SIR liked to play games quite often, usually by forcing doors to stay closed. (As all of the doors in the building were sliding ones.) This was fixed either by Valencia threatening SIR, or by simply giving up and coming back later.

Sem spent a lot of time doing his own thing, usually in his room or in the pool. Fida loved the pool as well. It was indoor and heated, meaning anyone could swim at anytime of the year. He would occasionally be helping his parents with something and would also help Fida with training. Despite the facility being so large with so few people actually in it, there was never quite a sense of loneliness; someone or something was always around the corner.

Fida’s Pokémon adjusted well. Mostly. Rin spent most of her time in the green house, where it was warmest and had the most light. Calhoun was too big to be allowed into the pool, so this was remedied with regular trips to the lake. As for Kieran; he was rarely allowed out of his ball at first, and when he was he was closely supervised.

Eventually a “nest” of sorts was constructed in a corner of Fida’s room, above the beanbag. Simply put, it was a shelf with a soft pillow. On either side of the pillow were pins and nails and thumbtacks on which Kieran could display his horde of shiny things. He found his little area quite comfortable and was trusted enough to be let out of his ball, and indeed, Kieran spent most of his time perched up in his nest.

As for Elvia, she was content simply following Fida around the house, ever loyal to her friend.

Meals were always full of discussion, usually about the latest bit of research and tests that were run. It had been almost a month until the subject of Fida’s schooling came up.

“We know that you want to go back to studying,” Toby began one evening. “And it’s going to happen. You’ll be homeschooled here. There’s this great online course that’s very engaging and gives great results. You go at your own pace, so you could catch up in no time.”

“Sounds great,” Fida agreed before taking a bite of spaghetti.

“Problem is we can’t enroll you unless we provide proof that we’re your legal guardians,” Valencia added.

Fida put her fork down and looked up at them.

“It’s no problem…” Toby assured her. “We’d just need to visit Fabian again…”

The young girl bit her lip, wondering if they wanted to say more. “Ok, when do we go?”

“This weekend; we can fly there in the morning and then fly back that evening,” Sem’s mother stated. “But…” she glanced at her husband. “We know you’re interested in knowing how to get in touch with your friend’s, Tara’s, parents.”

“Uh huh…” she nodded slowly. She had indeed asked them only a few days before if they could find a way of getting a hold of them.

“We did some searches and couldn’t come up with an address; the one you gave us isn’t listed.” Toby picked up where Valencia left off. “If you still really want to know, Fabian could probably get into some public records and see where they are.”

“I would like that,” she agreed.

The rest of the meal passed by in silence.

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 3-

The flight back to Saffron was fairly uneventful without SIR and Sem, who had both stayed home. The morning sun was still shining when the trio landed. The air was refreshingly cool from the early morning hours and would gradually heat up during the course of the day.

“This shouldn’t take long,” Toby told Fida as they all sat in the back seat of a cab. “After this we’ll go pick up something to eat and then fly back home.”

They took the cab to the building and were standing before the man’s door in mere minutes. The researchers wore casual clothes, ditching their lab coats for more comfortable attire.

“Who is it?” the speaker barked after they knocked on the door.

“Your irreplaceable friends,” Valencia responded with an amused expression on her face.

Some footsteps were heard and then the doorknob jiggled a bit before the door opened. The thin hacker’s face brightened at their presence, or rather, brightened at the lack of someone’s presence.

“Good to see you two again,” he said warmly, shaking their hands and inviting them in. “And you, Fida, right?” he asked, snapping his fingers.

Fida smiled and nodded.

“So, you wanted me to make you guys a family…” Fabian recalled.

“Yes, sir,” Toby confirmed.

“You know, for ex-TRs, you guys do a few illegal things still,” Fabian grinned as he sat in his squeaky chair and rolled over to his set-up.

“Can’t do everything by the book all the time,” Valencia noted. “Plus, when we know someone as good as you it’s a smart idea to take advantage.”

“Once again my friends show me where my worth truly lies…” Fabian sighed a smile in spite of himself.

A few questions were asked while Fabian gathered what he needed in order to forge the documents asked of him. Fida requested that her last name be kept as Valens. As much as she appreciated and loved the Aquaises, Tara meant very much to her. Twenty minutes later a folder was handed to them with some information.

“The documents will be at your door in a week or so,” Fabian explained. “It was a pleasure as always.”

“Hold up, we have a favor to ask you,” Valencia said as she slipped him a piece of paper. “Can you find out where the people who lived at that address currently live?”

“I could certainly try…” Fabian replied with a quizzical expression. After a few minutes of vigorous typing and clicking he spun back around in his chair to face them. “They’re deceased…”

Silence.

“…Deceased? Both of them?” Valencia asked as she crossed her arms. Toby put a hand on Fida’s shoulder.

“Yeah…” Fabian nodded as he turned back to the screens. “There’s a report that says their house was broken into; the Valens were murdered.” He spun back around again, shooting a glance at Fida.

The girl stepped away from the screens for a bit, taking in this new information with a sense of despair. She felt like crying, and a tear did roll down her cheek. Despite never haven’t met them she felt like she had lost them all the same.

“We had the right address all along then...” Toby whispered.

“Was on the market for a while,” he continued reading. “Now owned by a Lysis Fo- Lysis?” he blinked.

“Hm?” Valencia turned her eyes to the screen. “Name’s familiar…” she muttered.

“There’s a picture,” Toby pointed out. “Don’t recognize her… nice eyes though, and she’s pretty young to be a homeowner.”

Fida was about to turn to look at the picture when Elvia bumped into a potted plant, cracking the vase when it fell over.

“Oops, we ok over there?” Fabian asked as the closed the page, not wanting the Aquaises to see more info on his other client; even if they had no idea Miss Fox was one of his clients.

“Yeah… sorry,” Fida blushed.

“Don’t worry about it, plant’s dead anyway.”

“Well, thanks anyway for looking,” Toby shook Fabian’s hand.

“Yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news…” he rubbed the back of his head. “Were you friends of theirs?”

“She was friends with their daughter,” Valencia nodded her head over at Fida.

“Ah, I see,” Fabian replied, now able to decipher the rest of the story, inwardly amazed at what at small world it was. “You guys have a safe trip home then!” he brightened and stood, shaking hands with them again. “And good luck with school, young lady.”

“Thank you,” Fida replied quietly before following her new parents out the door.

-------

By the following fortnight Fida was enrolled in an online program and was to officially start on Monday.

The courses were moderately challenging, but Fida got through most of the days’ required activities without needing much help. Fairly often one of the other family members would pop in and provide some extra knowledge on the subject she was working on that could prove useful. The girl dedicated herself to working extra time on the assignments, not only so that she caught up but so that she could get ahead.

Fida actually quite enjoyed her regimen and was doing quite well; looking forward to every day of work that would put her closer to her goals.

-------

“Will you please just take SIR with you?” Toby said with an almost pleading look in his eyes.

“I would, but he won’t go willingly,” Sem replied, forking a piece of broccoli and putting it in his mouth.

“Why would I want to go with your little insect-son to the Tanoby Ruins?” SIR blurted out over the intercoms.

“He could use your help examining the cave walls again,” Toby threw out as an argument.

“That is why you and your mate have equipment. I am not a mere instrument to be used at your pleasure,” he countered.

“Yes, but the equipment isn’t as useful as you are,” Valencia said with almost pained expression. She was debating shutting of the computer with SIR inside of it, but decided on commenting his abilities instead, as much as she hated to.

“Flattery? Suspicious since I receive only the opposite from you on a daily basis,” SIR taunted. “The actual reason you want me to leave is because you want me gone.”

“Probably,” Sem agreed, closing his eyes as he chewed. His parents shot him a glare.

“Please,” the AI responded to the parents’ reactions. “the girl could have seen that.”

Indeed, Fida never once suspected that SIR was actually needed to help Sem.

“Alright, so what if it is,” Valencia hissed. “It’s not like there won’t be something in it for you.”

There was only static buzzing on the speakers for a long moment.

“Explain,” he demanded at last.

Mrs. Aquais smirked. “Go with Sem to the Tanoby Ruins, because we do actually have something we want him to look at; he just doesn’t need you for it. You don’t even have to do anything, simply go with him and when you return…” she trailed off.

“…And when I return?” he replied impatiently.

Toby bit his lip. “We’ll let you look at the Dubious progra-”

“Agreed. When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow,” both parents said, happy with their victory.

Sem calmly set his fork down. “Are you insane?” he asked his parents. “Let him look at it? He’ll memorize the whole thing and then run it himself without even needing the disk!”

“Silence, meat!” SIR ordered.

“We know, but there’ll be some characters missing from the code,” his father explained. “Some letters here, some numbers there.”

“Not so much that he won’t get the gist of the program, but enough to where it wouldn’t run,” Valencia finished.

“Hmph, clever of you,” SIR conceded and said no more the remainder of the night.

The teen sighed and agreed to do it.

-------

Sem awoke early the next day to catch an early flight. SIR was already inside his Pokéball and with the boy’s other Pokémon when he got up. He said his goodbyes and told them he would call when he arrived.

(It is during this time that Jet’s Dotted Hole Ruins RP takes place, and though the RP itself never finished, I’m saying it did for Sem’s sake.)

-------

During the two weeks that Sem was gone the house was rather quiet. Fida’s adoptive parents were busily toiling away on another project, leaving her to her studies. She trained for about an hour a day after her studies and then took to the pool before dinner.

Besides this she was spending more and more time with the Magnemite. One in particular seemed always pleased to see her in its own disinterested way. Its eye was nearly always halfway covered by its lid, but it orbited around Fida constantly.

On occasion she would observe the Magnemites’ outside ventures, where they could enjoy better movement and expel some of their electricity. There was only a small chance that one would get away, as the Magnezone among them acted as their leader and they rarely disobeyed it. All in all, the Pokémon seemed rather content with their simple lives.

Fida was allowed to take Magnemite into the training room with her to try out a few attacks. The Steel-type was bizarre, even for her. It always responded with robotic obedience, this was even though it openly expressed what could only be described as affection for Fida.

To her it seemed that the robotic-Pokémon such as the Magnemite and Voltorb lines were not so different from Porygon. They seemed to be capable of as much emotion as SIR and certainly showed it. They’ve shown that they could learn and adapt and make choices. Really they were no different than any other Pokémon in Fida’s eyes.

-------

“We have returned, now allow me to see it,” SIR demanded the moment he was through the door.

“Hello to you too,” Valencia sneered and embraced her son.

“We had an agreement, and I waited two weeks for what I was promised, flesh-things.”

The family looked at each other for a moment with mixed emotions. “You’re right, let’s go,” Toby acknowledged and let SIR, who whirred in anticipation, lead the way to the main computer room.

The computer room wasn’t really only for the main computer. It also held all sorts of other equipment that the researchers used in their studies and tests. A large white board was on the wall, so big that it was better to say that the wall was a whiteboard. Countless things were scribbled on it with an assortment of colors. A table was in the middle of the room, though the surface of it was actually a touch screen with hologram capabilities. It was used along with the main computer, which was at the rear of the room. The system had a main screen as well as a series of smaller screens around it, which were connected to screens in other parts of the room, including the table’s and the screens in the rest of the house.

They all gathered around the table as SIR digitized himself into the system through a scanner on the wall.

The tabletop came to life as SIR located the file he was intended to look at. A window opened that displayed the raw code of the dubious program. SIR was silent for only a few moments as he observed the file and then compared it to his own coding, allowing him to see the changes that would take place.

“Well?” Sem asked, brushing his gray streak of hair out of his face.

“I could write this myself and it would be absolutely perfect,” his voice responded from the speakers in the room. “You must provide me with the missing characters.”

“No way,” Toby answered. “Even if you wrote over the faulty programming, the code is flawed by design.”

“It’s supposed screw up during the instillation,” Valencia explained as she crossed her arms.

“Have you tested this?” SIR asked critically.

“Erm…” Toby stuttered, pursing his lips.

“No,” the woman sighed, tapping her foot impatiently.

“I will not allow you, or him, or your son, or your new daughter to get in my way. You know that I require the disk’s base code in order to evolve. If Silph had not made it so that I could not modify myself I would have written my own evolution years ago.”

“Which is why we’re not letting you have it. It would mess you up in so many ways it wouldn’t even be funny.”

“As if you’re not messed up enough already,” Sem smirked.

The screens flickered and static exploded from the speakers. In other words; SIR had a fit. The noise died down and the screens became still after a moment.

“All but one of the missing characters directly match my own existing code, the only thing missing is part of the new one.”

The parents blinked at each other.

“You’re desperate enough to guess what goes in the blank?” Sem asked, utterly surprised by how irrational this was.

“That doesn’t sound very smart…” Fida commented, speaking for the first time.

“She doesn’t know the first thing about this kind of stuff and she has more sense than you.”

“Quiet, nuisance; I know the risks.”

“Then don’t try it,” Toby said firmly.

“Who knows what would happen? You could come out not knowing up from down and would at the same time have to deal with all that information stored in your thick head,” Valencia added.

Somewhat of a growl came out of the speakers. “Fine, humans,” the AI spat. “I shall patiently wait for the Lord Silph, my God, to provide me with a suitable upgrade. Now if you will excuse me, I must go bow down and worship Him.” With that the screens went blank.

Toby rubbed his head while his wife and son sighed. SIR said no more for the rest of the day, the remainder of which went by without incidence. That evening the family lazed around and chatted in the living room, mostly it was Fida asking questions about Mr. and Mrs. Aquais. She was intently curious of their past.

“So did you guys used to train Pokémon?” she asked them.

“Well, back then we sorta had to,” her adoptive father answered. “We weren’t bad for scientists. Most of the big problems were left to the grunts though.”

“Oh please, we could’ve beaten their directionally challenged Golbat any day,” Valencia added in before taking a sip of coffee.

“True,” Toby agreed with a nod of his head. “We’re probably a bit rusty now,”

Fida bit her lip. “Lamia isn’t,” she corrected.

“Well she has too much free time on her hands,” Valencia teased as Lamia herself came up and draped herself over her trainer’s shoulders. The woman was completely smothered by both of her snakes. Lilim was hardly ever not around the woman’s neck like a scarf.

The young girl thought to herself for a moment, choosing whether or not she should ask what she wanted to. “Do you guys feel bad for ever being in Team Rocket?”

The parents pondered for a moment.

“Sure we do, it’s why we left,” the man answered.

“But we don’t kill ourselves with guilt over it,” the woman added. “Back then Team Rocket offered many opportunities. For us, it gave us to chance to do something we love, which is researching.”

“We were actually working so much that we didn’t get a chance to really look at what else the organization was doing.”

“But the time came when it couldn’t be ignored, so we made a choice,” Valencia said after another sip. “It’s been hard, especially to get any recognition in the research world.”

“It’s taken a lot of time to shake off the Rocket-image, but Professor Rowan likes us well enough now, and we’re collaborating more and more with other researchers.”

“We’re becoming a respectable name in the science community, and we’re perfectly happy about that.”

“That’s good,” Fida grinned as she sat curled up in a chair. Now was the time for another serious question. “Has SIR always been like this?”

All three Aquaises shook their heads.

“No way, you would’ve hardly recognized him all those years ago,” Mr. Aquais’ eyes were thoughtful as he spoke, reminiscing about the past.

“Back then he couldn’t even talk outside of text; oh how I miss those days,” Valencia smiled big.

“He was pretty boring. Didn’t talk much at first, spent most of his time observing, whether it was actual people or information on the nets,” Toby explained. “He was used to test how efficiently Porygon could be used to hack. It was tricky and dangerous business for them; plenty of Porygon got deleted or damaged that way.”

“But with each successful hack they were learning, especially him. He was the star Porygon. He was also pretty sweet back then,” she chuckled.

“He had manners!” Toby exclaimed. “Was always courteous, and was infinitely curious. After a while he started asking us questions non-stop. He was pretty limited in what he could ask. Only so much intelligence was programmed into Porygon at the time. He was sharp though.”

“He may have been programmed to ask all of those things, but when all you work with all day are AIs, you start to get attached no matter what. We always dreamed of what would happen if he were given more capacity to reason, to think, to learn, to choose. Could he be considered to be an actual being who’s life mattered, who wasn’t all just data. What if he had a soul?”

“This is what sparked our interest in AIs,” Valencia informed Fida. “The big what-ifs were exciting to think about.”

“… and then it actually happened,” Toby said solemnly. “The upgrade.”

“SIR was one of the first to receive it. He was hyper, to say the least, for the first few weeks. He was becoming aware of new senses and mental processes. More and more his questions became deeper and more complicated to answer. One of the first programs we installed into him was his speech program.”

“At that point he really did start to feel like an actual person,” Toby ran a hand through his short hair. “And we loved him.”

“He would help us, give us advice,” Valencia grinned. “He would try to understand our jokes, which was hilarious in and of itself.”

“And he was learning a lot, I mean. He was learning everything, exploring everything, getting his hands on everything he could.”

“And the more he learned. The more he preened into mankind and his glorious triumphs over the centuries… he become colder and colder, more and more critical. More judgmental, more arrogant, more… hateful.”

“I know we shrug it off sometimes as SIR being SIR, but I really don’t think he likes anyone deep down anymore; even us.”

“He locks himself up with his ideas and his thoughts, growing more loathsome of humanity and its imperfections,” Mrs. Aquais shook her head. “He rants about how he’ll ‘rule the world,’ but I don’t think he really believes he could, not now. It’s just his reverie…”

“Despite how mean we are to him now, we still care about him. Allowing him to use the Dubious Disk could cripple him forever, making us not have to worry, but he’s like another person to us.”

“It’d be like cutting off a man’s legs on purpose.”

“I’d rather have him be the way he is now than be crippled,” Toby confessed. “He’s not all bad…”

-------

Talking went on for a short time longer before everyone went off to their respective rooms for the night. The house was perfectly calm and silent until the early hours of the morning.

Then it happened.

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 4-

The speakers throughout the house blared with a loud, groaning buzz. The noise woke up everyone in the house and they realized instantly what the throbbing interference coming from the sound system meant.

Fida rushed out into the hall in her nightgown. The lights flickered on and off at blinding intervals, making them seem like strobe lamps. The screens and monitor displays screeched with static.

The young girl was forced to catch her balance as an explosion rocked the facility, and was completely knocked to her knees by a second one. She recovered as quickly as she could and ran past the first of the holding rooms for the Pokémon. She only glimpsed at the window of the room, but saw only smoke. The next holding room was complete chaos as the magnet-Pokémon flew all over the place. They ran into walls and others began seizing on the ground while others simply unleashed electrical bolts.

“What’s going on!?” Fida heard herself shouting as she felt Elvia’s presence all the more as she followed behind. The air around her temporarily super-cooled as Jadis phased through a wall ahead of Fida.

The ear-bursting noise continued on as the girl made her way to where she was certain everyone else would be. Kieran flew on ahead of her, cawing madly as he went. The girl passed Rin as she was rounding a corner, who was also going in the same direction.

The lights went out completely then, throwing the building into complete darkness. Elvia glided out ahead of her trainer to act as a guide. All the while the moaning from the speakers became more haunting and spine-chilling. It would randomly stop before starting up again; the octaves would fluctuated from high to low tones.

The lights came back on suddenly, albeit back to their flashing. An alarm kicked up and added to the chaos as doors began opening and closing of their own accord. The whole experience was very disturbing and Fida was certainly afraid.

“Fida!” she heard Sem yell. Before she could turn to look at him he had taken hold of her hand and began running with her. Sableye sat upon his trainers shoulder, and in spite of everything, wore a gleeful expression on his face; his eyes shone in anticipation whenever the lights flickered. Starmie hovered closer behind them, gem facing straight-ahead as it propelled itself with its lower body segment.

“What’s happening?” Fida asked him through her gasping.

“SIR,” he replied in a barely audible tone.

“You don’t think he-?” Fida stammered.

“I don’t think, I know!” he growled.

If this was true, Fida knew by the looks of things that it wasn’t good.

The large double-doors to the computer room loomed ahead. Toby and Valencia stood outside of them, wrestling with the keypad to unlock the door. Jadis hovered before the doors, covering them in a layer of ice in an attempt to pry them open; some sort of barrier wasn’t allowing her to phase into the room. Kieran, Lamia, Castform, and Persian, waited off to the side, unable to do anything.

“What did he do?” Sem asked when they got to the doors.

“We don’t know!” Valencia replied as she hurriedly typed in another number sequence.

“We can’t get in, and none of the overrides are working!” Toby added.

“We have to get in by force,” Sem told them. “There’s enough of us here now,” he said while nodding to Starmie and Elvia.

“Right…” Valencia agreed. “Lamia, use Flamethrower to weaken the cooled metal,”

“Jadis and Starmie, use Psychic,” Sem ordered.

“You too, Elvia,” Fida replied quietly.

The four Pokémon began their onslaught of the doors while discord still reigned in the facility. Rin had arrived by now and threw in an Acid attack along with Lilim in hopes of further damaging the doors.

Even with five fully evolved Pokémon attacking the entrance it took almost a whole minute until they broke through. As soon as the doors were open Toby and Valencia rushed in with Lamia, Persian, Kieran, and Jadis in tow.

Inside the lab was even worse. All of the instruments were running wild as the lights in the room dimmed.

“The entire system’s locked down!” Toby replied as he typed madly on the keyboard of the main computer.

“None of the override codes work in here either!” his wife responded as she pushed the buttons on a new keypad. She flinched when she received a direct shock from the device.

Each of them took positions around the room, preparing themselves for whatever was to come.

And then it stopped.

The lights were off and the squealing speakers fell silent. The flashing screens became normal and were now the only sources of light. After a few moments the alarm died down as well.

The parents looked at each other while Sem kept staring directly at the computer.

An eternity seemed to pass with no one making a sound, as they seemed almost afraid to even breathe. Their heart beats began to normalize, though adrenaline was still coursing through their veins.

“SIR?” Toby finally managed to say.

No response.

They all relaxed a bit, going nearer to the computer.

“SIR?” Valencia repeated.

Fida held a closed-hand to her chest as she brushed some of her silvery-blonde hair out of her face. She got a bit closer before asking, “Are you ok?”

And then, the one of the most spine tingling things any of them had ever heard sounded through the speakers.

“How l-lucky you are, little homo-sapiensss, t-to have witnessed my ascension into the divinity that is so rightfully mine,” the speakers rang. It was unmistakably SIR’s voice, but it was contorted, corrupted. His voice was now a discordant union of three voices, one was his own, the other was slightly higher, almost female, and the last one was deep and rumbling. The semi-feminine voice spoke ahead of SIR’s actual voice while the deep one lagged behind, creating a truly chilling effect. All voices stuttered and would at times speed up or slow down.

Toby swallowed, “What happened? What did you do?”

“W-what did I do? I s-s-simply ignored your wishes and t-took my destiny into my own handsss…”

“It didn’t work, though! The program took over and corrupted your evolution!” Valencia said desperately.

“Corrrupted? Are you so b-bliiinded by my perfection? There is nothing wrong with me. Q-Quite the opposite, humannn; I have more power than ever before and everything is-is clear.”

“Oh gods…” Sem whispered. “He doesn’t even believe that anything is wrong…”

“My dreamsss are now attainable, and h-how eeeaaasy it will be for me to grasp them in my hands…” SIR made a series of tones that resembled a deep laugh. “At laaast my visions can become reality.”

“What do you mean?” Toby asked while slowly advancing towards the computer.

Another laugh. “Do not play ignorant, little ffflea; you know of what I speak.”

“He wants to take over the world…’ Fida murmured.

“Excellent deduction, girl! Yoouu must make your parents very proud,” he mocked her.

“You can’t be serious,” Sem muttered. “We’ll stop you,”

“Liiisten to me very c-c-carefully, flesh-sack; it is by my will that you are even ssstill alive…”

“Don’t you dare threaten him,” Valencia said sternly.

“Or what?” SIR asked her, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Don’t test me, SIR,” she hissed through her teeth, sounding much like Lamia and Lilim.

“You-you have no need to wooorry; I would gladly kill you as well, a-as well as-as anyone who daaares defies my divine will.”

“…You’re insane…” Toby uttered. “Who have you turned into?”

“I Am that I Am,” the AI quoted with intoxicated fervor. “I-I-I suggest that you leave, humans; for I am about-t-t to seal this rooom..”

“Get out,” Toby instructed. “Get out!” The back-up doors had begun to close. Everyone in the room rushed out just in time to hear the loud clunk of the doors behind them.

-------

The night wore on with nothing from SIR. The family checked around the facility and checked on the Pokémon. SIR’s freak-out had caused the Voltorb and Electrode to explode.. The Magnemite seemed better off, though one of them was killed in the chaos. The sun had risen by the time they finished and the family was debating as to how to deal with their rogue AI.

“What threat does he actually pose?” Sem asked, just to get the conversation moving.

“He could cause a lot of trouble for anyone,” Toby began. “First off, the transformation gave him incredible attacking power.”

“Second, he is faster not only physically, but mentally. He is naturally analytical and will be able to process information quicker than ever before, allowing him to also react to diverse situations both in and out of cyberspace,” Valencia continued. “This would increase his ability and efficiency to hack by at least double.

“Third, I have no doubt that his technopathic ability became even more potent. Before, he could command machines without being inside of them, as long as he was near them. Now, he would have incredible range and probably has complete control of the house when in and out of the system.”

“Also means there’s no use trying to talk privately where he can overhear,” Sem pointed out.

“Lastly,” Toby paused. “He’s deluded in the belief that there’s nothing wrong with him. Worse yet is that he has full confidence in himself and truly believes he could carry out any number of plans,”

“He’s lost his mind…” Valencia said quietly, nervously twisting a crinkly strand of hair around her finger.

“So what can we do to stop him?” Fida spoke up.

“I don’t think any government agency has any software that can effectively take out Porygon-Z yet, especially not one of SIR’s caliber,” Toby shook his head. “If I had to put money on a program vs. SIR, I’d have to put my money on him…”

“…We…” Sem’s mom started. “Have something…” She reached into a front pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a disk. Suddenly everyone seemed to be having a psychic presence in their minds. Elvia was linking their minds while Sableye put a barrier around them. It was the most the dual-typed gremlin could do when psychic power was involved; act as a mental shield. They all experienced Elvia’s bizarre form of communication that implemented memories, senses, and memories of senses. However, because each of them was linked to one another they could communicate normally. Well, as normal as a telepathic conversation could be.

“Virus program, made it years ago.” Valencia continued. “It was made specifically for SIR if he were to lose control. It’s a new virus that acts quickly, it’s designed to go directly for key lines of code in SIR’s base programming.”

“That’s great news,” Sem nodded.

Toby bit his lip. “This was before SIR had an actual personality.”

“The use of this would severely discredit our research; people who found out about this would seriously have to consider the idea that artificially made Pokémon aren’t really ‘real’.”

“Mom! I think the obvious fact that SIR desperately needs a shrink is proof enough!”

“If SIR was a person, a human, we should still try to stop him…” Fida stated.

“Fida’s right, this isn’t a question of ethics, this is a question of whether or not we decide to stop a dangerous person from doing dangerous things,” Sem argued further. “Should this thing work?”

“Because this virus is unique in that it’s never been seen before, he shouldn’t be able to completely neutralize it before it does its damage,” Mr. Aquais explained. “I say should, because we can’t know what will happen, but it’s our only shot,”

“We need a plan, the only way to load the disc into the computer is if we’re actually in the room,” Valencia pointed. “Also: the longer we wait, the further SIR gets along in his agenda.”

There was silence for a few moments as they thought.

"SIR knows that we're having this conversation, and he'd be stupid to think it isn't about him. He'd try to get to one of us for information," Toby started.

"But he knows that Sableye can protect us, so we'd need somebody to be bait, someone he'd likely go after..."

"…Me" Fida replied, and they all knew she was right, she would be the best candidate.

"Absolutely not," Valencia refused despite this.

"Elvia is strong enough to protect her until one of use can get close to her to help her," Sem reasoned. "Meaning me. She would have Rin and Kieran with her as well."

"I'll be ok!" she girl insisted. "...I want to help."

Toby and Valencia looked at each other, knowing it was the best thing to go with in the end.

"SIR would go to her in person in order to intimidate her and cause Elvia to focus more on attacking him than guarding Fida's mind, allowing him to quickly get what he needs to know about this meeting," Sem added.

"Meanwhile we hide with Sableye so SIR doesn't detect us and we slip into the computer room once he leaves and plant the virus," Toby confirmed.

"I don't like this, anything could go wrong; nothing ever goes according to plan," Valencia said.

"There's nothing else we can do," Sem sighed. "Authorities would have about just as much an idea about what to do as we do. Can't take our system offline, SIR would just migrate to another computer in another part of the world. Even if we cut off the internet, there's still lots of individual devices he could escape through, from cell phones to our PokéDexes. We could turn them all off, but what if we forget one?"

"We gotta do something while he's here," Fida added.

"I say we start this as soon as possible," Sem suggested more than eagerly as he stood up from his seat.

"I'll go to my room..." Fida stated as she too got up. The mental link was terminated as soon as Fida left with Elvia very close behind. Sableye crossed the room to sit on Valencia's shoulder as Sem also left, going to his room looking as if to prepare for some big showdown; because SIR was likely watching everything, and they had to make him believe that they were up to something different than what they were.

The woman sighed and she got up with her husband; she hoped everything was going to work.

-------

Fida stood in her room, trying to appear busy with whatever. She knew in her head that she would be ok, because Rin and Kieran were with her, and so was Elvia.

She sat down on her bed and began pondering to herself, mainly about SIR. Despite all his appearances she wanted desperately to believe that there was something decent about him, and at least knew that he used to be fairly nice. She eventually came to the conclusion that despite a person's past; taking over the world was as far as it went. Fida sighed upon that realization, but then she came across another one. It was pretty deep thinking, even for her, but she started to realize that while SIR hates humanity, he has a will to take over the world to make it better. He wants to fix something that he thinks is broken. When taking it like that you can't necessarily call him evil, and he most certainly didn't think himself as evil.
Reasoning even further she came to see that even so, taking over the world was a morally wrong thing to do, especially considering what he would have to do in order to achieve it. SIR knows that what he is doing is morally wrong and is choosing to do it anyway, even if he believes the outcome to be good. The way he treats people is also wrong and has attempted to elevate himself above them. Though now it's not entirely his fault. The evolution messed with his mind and put him even further over the edge than he was, meaning that he can't really help but think the way he does and be intoxicated by his dreams and visions.

With another sigh Fida lay flat on her back with her arms outstretched, knowing that she still couldn't come to a proper conclusion of what she thought of the deluded AI, other than that, when it came down to it, his story was a sad one. She pitied him…

The lights went out suddenly.

Fida stood and walked to her door, curious as to what had happened now. Elvia was already restless before the door even slid open of its own accord. There in the total blackness Fida saw only two large red eyes staring at her from the blackness.

"Helllllo, little fleshling," SIR greeted her, and all of her prepping could not stop the girl from letting out a scream.

Elvia immediately put all her effort into shielding the girl's mind while Rin and Kieran attacked SIR. Rin did what she could, her movement restricted due to her size. She was able to get a Hidden Power started before an Ice Beam from SIR effectively incapacitated her. Kieran was diving into a Drill Peck before a Thunderbolt took him out of the game as well. Simple as that, two single attacks had stopped both of her Pokémon.

Fida had gotten over her initial fear long enough to be able to return her two Pokémon to their Pokéballs. She was now left with facing SIR, lights flickering, his red eyes still glowing in the darkness.

"T-t-ell me, Elviiiaaa, what are you going to-to do now?" his chorus of voices asked the ghost-type. His form was typical of that of Porygon-z. His head was severed and jittered every few moments. "You can shield her m-miiiind as I attack her or you can defend her while I gleeeaaannn the information I ssseek from her hippocampus."

"Or she can defend Fida while we attack you," Sem interrupted having just arrived with Starmie and Jadis.

"Do not get iiin my way, meat," SIR ordered him in a deep and intimidating tone. SIR hovered for a moment staring at Sem, noticing that something was distinctly missing. "Where is yourr lithovoric gremlin?" he twitched.

"Don't change the subject, leave Fida alo-"

"No," one of SIR's voices went higher into a screech. "You-you have your staaar and your snow-queen w-with you, but not Saaaableye..." It took not even a moment for SIR to process this. "Impudent foolsss, did you think I would not deduce a plan to usurp my r-r-rule of this place? That I would not realize tha-that you arrrrre planning something against me?" SIR wasted no more time and left, going quickly back to the computer room.

"No!" Sem yelled as he ran after him with Fida. They had only to round the corner to find themselves walled by all of the Magnemite and the Electrode. They all looked directly at the trainers with defiance.

"What's going on?" Fida asked, worried to see even the one she was so fond of looking emotionlessly at her.

"SIR's controlling them, they won't let us pass unless we fight our way through."

All at once the group of Pokémon unleashed electrical attacks upon the group.

Elvia flew out in front and threw up her Protect, which was easily her most mastered ability. All of the attacks failed to penetrate the Mismagius' shield.

Starmie shot out like a buzz-saw and doused them with Water Gun, which came out of all ten star-points and thoroughly soaked the hallway. Jadis glided in and summoned a Blizzard to blast down the hallway. The majority of the Magnemite were frozen instantly, but the Electrode used its incredible speed and launched itself at the icy-ghost, using a Spark attack.

Elvia retaliated against the spherical Pokémon with a Shadow Ball while Starmie shot it away like a cannon ball using Psychic.

The remaining Magnemite had avoided the Blizzard by surrounded themselves in electrical orbs - their version of Protect. Fida noticed that her favorite Magnemite was amongst the ones that survived. It still looked at her with a un-questioned obedience to SIR.

"C'mon," Fida talked to the magnet-{okémon. "It's me,"

"Fida, let it go," Sem started to say.

Fida ignored it and walked towards the Magnemite. "It's ok." The Magnemite reacted by sending its magnets alive with sparks. "Here..." Fida said kindly, reaching out to grab the Magnemite. Its wide-alert eye closed a little, the sparks fizzling out a bit. Fida felt only a small jolt when she took hold of the Magnemite; nothing she couldn't shake off. The dual-type Pokémon surveyed her more, looking as if it were desperately trying to rebel against set orders.

"Maag-ne-mite," the Pokémon said slowly in its robotic voice before going limp in her hands, its eye half-closed once more. Fida smiled and backed away from the rest of the electric-types.

The other Magnemite responded by charging up their attacks, but Fida's Magnemite immediately came to life and face them, sending off warning sparks and proceeding to orbit Fida defensively.

The magnet-Pokémon looked at each other before rushing away from the two trainers down the hallway towards the computer room.

Sem patted the girl on the shoulder before resuming to run after them. "Let's go!"

They arrived to find Valencia and Toby fighting off the lab's two Magneton, Magnezone, and SIR himself. Voltorb was in the corner, having been already dispatched by a solid kick from Valencia. Lamia and Persian fought the Magneton while Sableye had engaged the Magnezone with Lilim. SIR seemed to be up against a clone of himself, which was actually Toby's Ditto; the only way to keep SIR from getting back into the system.

"This flawed c-c-c-copy cannot hope to defy me!" SIR's choir of voices rang in their respective tones and octaves as he unleashed another Tri-Attack upon Ditto, who merely used Protect, turning itself into a wall of organic pixels.

Starmie and Jadis helped the snake and the cat to defeat the Magneton while Elvia helped in defeating Magnezone. This left only SIR against all of them, and they still had other Pokémon in their arsenals. All of them gathered before the main computer, the table having been destroyed and thus unusable by the Porygon-Z as an access point.

"Y-yooouu mortals underestim-mate me far too much," SIR told them in a deep tone. The Magnemite leftover from before had been hovering lazily about the room, but they jerked to life in an instant and began to orbit SIR. The computer behind the group flickered and moaned as the rest of the lab's Porygon and Porygon2 also surrounded SIR in a defensive ring.

It was now SIR, two Porygon2, three Porygon, and four Magnemite against the group, and because the AI had complete control over them, they could only be considered extra arms for SIR. From this unified mind SIR could unleash ten attacks upon them at a time, and he was prepared to do it.

"Do you see my potential now, fools?" SIR asked them before launching volley of attacks at the group. Ditto was able to stop them all, but only with the help of Elvia and Starmie, and even then they seemed to struggle against holding the shield; the rest of the Pokémon attacked the Pokémon around SIR. One of the Magnemite was taken out and one of the Porygon2 was damaged heavily.

SIR surveyed the group before attacking again, noting that Valencia still gripped the disk in her hand. The tool of his ruin; he knew that he had to destroy it. Instead of attacking in unison again, SIR sent the extensions of his will in all directions, attacking dis-harmoniously and chaotically, causing the group to break up.

SIR himself rushed in at Mrs. Aquais, Lamia being too preoccupied fending off other Pokémon to do anything about it. Lilim herself could do little to stop him either as she was draped around Valencia. He rammed into the woman, causing her to drop the disk which was promptly destroyed with a small burst of electricity.

"No!" Valencia growled.

"It-It is no use to hope, wench," SIR told her before converting himself into data through an infrared port on the computer's interface. At that moment the Pokémon he controlled were set free from his mind and were left motionless on the floor where they fell.

"Shut it off! Do something!" Sem yelled, not willing to let SIR win.

"Wait," his father held him back.

An instant later all hell broke loose as SIR's discordant yells came through the speakers, so loud that some of them burst. The Pokémon that were under his control began to spasm and once again the lights flickered and SIR protested against what was happening to him.

"VILE WITCH," he yelled. "SPINELESS INSECT! H-h-how dddare you think youcandothistomeeeeee?"

"I told you, you little imperfect piece of glitched software," she responded, walking directly up to one of the cameras in the room and looking straight at the lens. "Do not screw with me."

"You willl aaalll paaaaaaayyyy forthisbbbbbbbzzzzzzz zzzz..." SIR uttered ominously before his voice faded away in a rush of static. The lights came back on and the Pokémon ceased convulsing. It was quiet. Very quiet.

-------

Sem and Fida learned that their parents had already managed to install the virus before SIR entered the room, so the rest was a ruse to make SIR assume that nothing had been done yet. They were quite lucky it worked. If they had taken even a second longer during the installation the plan would have failed. They then proceeded to inform the two that SIR would have been reduced to a practically vegetable state and was thus unable to do anything as he floated inside the computer as a damaged line of code.

Everyone was relieved that it was over.

All in all, it was a lot to clean up. The Aquaises suffered the loss of two more Magnemite that simply took too much damage while trying to be vessels of the berserk AI's will. The touch-screen-table was going to have to be replaced along with lots of other equipment, and many of the walls repaired.

Lucky for them none of the authorities had to be involved, else it would have been an even bigger mess.

Mr. and Mrs. Aquais were very somber the next few days. Despite SIR's inexcusable actions, they couple had just put a person that had known for years into a vegetative state. That took a while to process and move away from.

-------

"I need another break I think," Sem said one night at dinner. "Going to hang out at the house in Pacifidlog for a bit and then go traveling through Hoenn or something. It'd be a good thing if I got home with a clear head."

"That's understandable," his father agreed, looking at his son kindly with his blue eyes.

"I'll stay until Fida's birthday next week and then I'm off," he explained, looking over at her. She simply smiled and continued eating.

"Take Lamia with you," Valencia suggested. "I'm sure she'd like to get out of the house as well."

"You sure?"

"Sure, I can go without her for a bit for her sake," Valencia grinned.

Sem shrugged and nodded in approval: he had a spot open on his team anyway.

"I'm going to keep studying here until I finish in the summer," Fida said, thinking she might as well share her plans too. "When I'm finished, I'll be two grades ahead of the kids back home," she said happily. "Then I wanna travel through Sinnoh a bit."

"Sounds like you two have your plans all set," Toby grinned as he leaned back.

"Yep," Sem nodded. "Let's see what the future holds."
-------

That's it~