Prologue

She woke up.

At first, she opened her eyes wide, but the initial glare of the harsh light that diffused through the tube burned at her eyes and she squeezed them tight, tears rolling down her cheeks and dissolving into the clear fluid that encased her. She noted that the stuff she floated around was warm and fluid, and thick tubes supported her body. One was snaking down her throat, enabling her to breathe in her chamber. She exhaled, and bubbles floated past her eyes, distorting her vision for a moment before the fluid returned to its smoothness. She would have inhaled but that wasn’t as interesting—the air came directly into her lungs from the tubes. She was never hungry or thirsty, or even in danger. Life was secure—but overall dull.

She moved one of her limbs to hover in front of her face—a little hand covered in light brown fur came into her line of vision, and she started to move it around in the fluid. She made the other one join it, and soon two brown shapes were waving around in the tank, the tubes attached to their backs dancing with her movements. This kept her interested for a few minutes, and then she retucked her hands close to her body. It was either observe herself or sleep; sleeping killed the hours between the observations from the faces.

"Well, it seems that Eevee Hybrid 22-19D is awake." The voice made her turn and she saw through the clear liquid a distorted face, starting at her with a flat object in its limbs. She squealed in a high pitched "VEEEEE" sound and pulled her arms and legs up to curl into the fetal position, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. "Oh, not in the mood to be observed today, 22-19D?" The face looked down at its flat object moved an item in its left limb on the flat object. She heard the voice continue as she kept her position. "Eevee hybrid near release stage in three days. Seems shy and anti social. This may change after release." Inwardly she smiled; she did this often, to see what the faces on the other side did. They didn’t know it, but she was observing them as well. They probably didn’t think she was that bright.

Another face came near the glass. "How’s she doing, Meredith?" She realized that Meredith was the face that looked at her often, and that was probably the face’s name. Meredith. Hmm…I like that. I think I’ll call myself that. I should have a name myself.

"Still as shy as ever. The only time I really get to observe her is when she doesn’t realize one of us is looking at her. The rest of the time she sees one of us she curls up into fetal position and hides her face."

"Well, is she developing appropriately? Are all her parts there?"

"Yes, she’s got both the anatomy of a Eevee and a human. It seems the splice didn’t have adverse affects this time, and that everything is in the appropriate places. We’ll keep this one on file—if she develops appropriately we can use her to breed more."

"Good, good. The boss will enjoy that information—he doesn’t like the technique we have now, it relies too much on outside genes."

"How’s Caterpie Hybrid 14-11J progressing?"

At this Meredith (she was going to think of herself with the name she had chosen) listened carefully. There was someone else around—a hybrid like her. She wanted to know whether it was like her.

"Fairly well, though not as aesthetic as 22-19D. Only two arms and two legs and a discernable mouth, thank Mew, but with the suction pads, segmentation, and antennae still there. And such a shade in her skin! I’m glad she’s not as active as this one—at least yours is easy on the eyes when she’s moving about."

"Caterpie aren’t attractive Pokémon, Regina, and you know this. She won’t be anything worth observing for a long time. We’re not creating them for looks, we’re creating them for power."

"True." There was an audible yawn heard. "It’s almost time for the second shift. Might as well turn off the lights and let the cameras do their job." The two faces moved away from the glass and Meredith saw the room go dark. She waited, then uncurled to look on the dimly lit room. The shapes around the room could not be made out as neatly as before, but they were still there. She waited a few seconds, then spoke out in soft clicks and whirrs. Though it was simply a soft sort of chirping that sounded like the same sound over and over to human ears, she knew any others like her would understand her clearly.

"Anyone there?"

She felt a force enter her mind, almost like a startle. ::Who’s there? Who are you?::

"I call myself Meredith. The faces call me 22-19D. Who are you?"

::You must not be the hybrid of a Psychic Pokémon. Otherwise you wouldn’t talk aloud like that.::

"Pokémon??" Meredith said, wondering to herself what a Pokémon was. But before she could ask, a flood of information hit Meredith’s brain, making her startle and waves ripple around her body. Images—two hundred and fifty-one of them—flowed into her mind. Moving purple blobs of toxicity; wide eyed pink sheep, their wool crackling with electric energy; bouncing pink balloons with luminous eyes; gallant horses, their manes aflame, galloping over the grassy plains; sleek, slim bodied rodents that seemed more tail than body—this and many other visions swam through her head, each with their own name. Two stuck out more than the others though—a green segmented worm with large yellow eyes, and a small creature that looked like a cross between a fox and a squirrel with a large white ruff around its neck and a fluffy brown tail.

There was a pause, as Meredith took all this in, then the voice spoke again. ::I’m the segmented worm—the Caterpie. You’re the brown creature—it’s called an Eevee.::

"How do you know all this?" Meredith said, her mind still organizing the information she’d been flooded with. "And how did you send it into me?"

She swore she felt a psychic smile, which was a weird sensation. ::I’m not a Psychic, but I have the ability to use the powers of one. I’ve been probing the minds of the scientists, without speaking back, and I got the information from them. I sent it to you—the first time I’ve been able to send information to someone else. We’re not quite Pokémon. We’re Anthropomorphic Pokémon, or Anthromon for short. A blend of the two, made to lean more towards the human than our Pokémon sides.::

"Do you have a name?"

::No. Do I need one?::

"Well to be honest, I don’t want to call you 14-11J."

::Then give me a name. Like yours—Meredith you say?::

Meredith thought. "How about Regina? That’s the name of one of the scientists that looked at me today."

She decided then that a psychic shrug was weirder than a psychic smile. ::Works for me. You may call me Regina. Oh, and Meredith?::

"Yes?"

::It would be best if you don’t let the scientists know about my powers or how smart you are. They might not look upon it favorably.::

Meredith nodded. "I won’t, Regina."

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