Alex Waters
Team Galactic Plasma
Outskirts of Pyrite Town, Orre
The fighting had only gotten worse. We disabled the van, but just when we thought we were getting things under control, reinforcements showed up, and the situation only got more frantic. I then checked to see Corporal X and his team had suddenly come back, probably noticing the fighting. I wasn't sure if this was part of his plan, or was something else.
"Theresa!" Chan exclaimed. "Alex! Are you guys okay?"
"Just peachy," I told her sarcastically, finding this rather embarrassing.
"Ooh, you're so big!" Chan remarked to Janine. "I wish I was that size, but I'm even smaller than Theresa."
Janine didn't seem too thrilled about this either. Our Pokémon were taking a beating, and here we were simply struggling not to reveal ourselves.
"Chan..." Janine sighed, looking like this really couldn't get any worse. "What the frick is going on?"
"X didn't allow this, but here," SLAG told me, handing me a extra set of clothes.
I quickly threw them on, a pair of gray cargo pants and a black tank top. I then tossed the jester uniform aside, knowing this really wasn't my grandest moment. Meanwhile, Janine also quickly got changed, also feeling a bit humiliated X's team caught us like this.
"The Corporal ruins all the fun," Chan pouted. "He was going to just leave you there, if it wasn't for me driving, we'd be well on our way to Gateon by now."
I debated if that might have actually been better, because I knew this had to be the most humiliating moment in my life.
"Alex, X may be rigid at times, but he means well," SLAG told me. "He is really trying to earn your respect after that attack at Gateon - we honestly didn't know you were there. Please believe us, we're not out to kill you."
He still killed plenty of my fellow allies and did a significant amount of damage to the place. Still, I had made the same mistake myself in the past. Blowing up the former Team Galactic moon base was probably the reason why they hadn't completed their mission years ago. Still, all that was in the past.
"If you ever change your mind, now that you're humans, I'm sure our commander would be able to accept Nemesis into the Special Ops," SLAG suggested. "He's managed to obscure the data that X, KaS and I were once Chimera's, so I'm sure he could do it with two more people."
"Thanks... but... no thanks," Janine told him, speaking for both of us. "Guys... really, for pete's sake, if you want to help us the most, just promise you'll let Galactic Plasma settle on the moon without any trouble. The only reason we even came here was to keep the UN busy and distracted here and not in Unova. If you toast our operation to the moon, the only thing that's probably going to happen is Black Alpha getting more support because TGP will have no other options to ensure Chimera survival. Some people... like me, just really like being a Chimera. I just don't think the UN really gets it."
She was right about that. I think most of the issues came from the UN's leaders having no idea what being a Chimera was really like. It almost tempted me to attempt to force it on them just to have them understand that it wasn't really that horrible of a thing.
"Try to stay safe now," SLAG told me, handing me a pistol. "The vermin in this region tend to be rather... deadly. Just don't get bitten."
Well, whatever that meant. It wasn't long until they were off, and I just sighed. I couldn't fight them after this, and I figured they had redeemed themselves.
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Janine Price
Team Galactic Plasma
Outskirts of Pyrite Town, Orre
We were approached by those morons again. I was tempted to start popping my pistol in their faces, but I figured they wanted to talk. Boy, this was going to be interesting.
"Don't shoot, please," One of them spoke, tossing his pistol aside. "I can explain: I'm a contact with X, and I know that you're friends with him. We followed him thinking you were prisoners, but we were confused when he let you guys go, so we fired, thinking that he had let you go because he had no chance against you..."
Beautiful. You know, they really could have bothered to verify that first. Still, I listened, figuring if this didn't get resolved, I could at least try to see if it could be amusing.
"We weren't here to kill you; we were here to test a strain that some...sources of ours developed," The guy explained. "We ran, not because we were afraid, but because we wanted to let you go; if we wanted to, we could have shot your Pokémon and the three of you after you turned back into humans..."
Run? I didn't get it, why didn't they try to capture us instead if that was the case? Eh, I dunno, maybe these peeps were just newbies at what they were doing. They kind of looked like they were a bit of a haphazard bunch, really. Kind of reminded me of myself when I was just starting off in science. Man, did I do some stupid things back then. Ha ha ha!
But eh, I wasn't happy about the fact he thought we'd make a great batch of guinea pigs to try out some syringes on. Those CRAs... I had to admit, they definitely weren't created by some rookie. I thought for sure I'd never get kicked out of my Seraphare form again.
"You need to believe me, I'm telling you the truth," He pleaded. "Put aside your anger for our mistake and listen! You can talk to X, he knows a guy with me named Jack Rover! He trusted us, you can ask him! He never told us about you, had we known it was you, we wouldn't have even tried following you in the first place! Please! Me coming out in the open and giving you my only weapon means something. X trusted us, now can you trust me?"
"You guys really need to get it together," Alex told him, looking like he was going to go easy on the guy. "We're part of Team Galactic Plasma, and we're not trying to help Black Alpha turn every last man, woman, and child into a Chimera 'just because.' The whole lunar operation is intended to let the UN have their Chimera-free world while Chimeras have another home away from the prejudice of this one. That's all. If you really want to help, then help us get the UN and Black Alpha off of our backs so we can at least do this."
Bravo, I couldn't have said that any better myself. To show we were willing to listen, I recalled my Pokémon and Alex did the same with his. I knew Lash and Crunch could destroy all of Orre and still not get tired, so letting them do their own thing without being watched was asking for trouble.
"He's right," I told the guy, adding in my own input. "Some people... like myself, just want to be a Chimera. Because... for some of us, being human is just ordinary. Being a Chimera is so much more, gets you closer to your Pokémon, lets you do the things they do, and lets you fly, breathe water, live in fire, and loads of other interesting and amazing things. And Chimeras... they're just like people and Pokémon. We still think like people, still breathe the same air, and yes... we still bleed and it still hurts. So really, just get a grip and let us see this whole thing through, okay? The UN just doesn't understand we're working for the same goal. One day this place will be Chimera-free when they have a new home on the moon, a place where it's okay for them to be there, and they won't have to worry about the UN hating them and hunting them down. It's just... not ready yet. All we need is the time the UN just doesn't let us have."
Hopefully I plucked a heartstring with that. If it brought Galactic Plasma more time, then heck, it was worth it.
"Well, we'd better get going," I told the guy, hoping he'd understand our side of the whole, crazy story. "Alex, you'd better call that evac. I figure X probably didn't betray us, but there's no telling who on the UN knows about the moon mission. Those guys... they'd better pick up the tempo, if you know what I mean."
"Already on it," Alex told me, using his radio communicator. "I gave them our global satellite position. An evac should be on the way."
Couldn't wait. I just wanted to get back home and get out of this chaotic sandbox of doom. And yeah, I really wanted to go back to being a Seraphare, and really make sure it was permanent this time. Being human was like going to an ice cream shop that had a thousand different flavors and toppings, and just picking a cup of ice cubes...
It was then that I heard Alex call out to Eric. It seemed like they were still fighting over there, and I knew we really just needed to get the frick out of here before the situation just got worse.
"Eric, we've got to get the hell out of here," Alex shouted to him, seeing he was still trying to fight band of operatives. "Evac is already on its way. Forget about them for now, we need to inform Galactic Plasma the UN is directing its attention to Unova. If things go to hell, they're going to need us to help defend the operation from the UN trying to sabotage it! We can't waste any more time here!"
Yeah, that was for sure. We spent way too much time and energy into researching teraforming technology... way too much for us to just hand it over to the UN and let them write it in the history books that they came up with it. If Chimeras didn't have a home, then they were doomed.