indeed, she had hardly been slacking in terms of the asteroid. her devil-may-care attitude about the whole thing had been checked by Cillian Quinn , and she’d been reeled in the way only her older brother could, perhaps.

now, she was on the same mission as the rest of them, working tirelessly—not without her own interests in mind, but still.

it wasn’t lulu that opened the door, but darkrai.

its icy eyes regarded the admin as it stood there with its legs on full display, rarely seen, and surely a bit odd looking.

perhaps even more surprising was the growling, ’enter,’ as it stepped out of the way.

darkrai was not the doorman. it was a small god, after all, or something like that. but, it always seemed to be passing by at the right time.

lulu still remained hard at work in the bunker, a couple stories below. killian knew the one. below, he’d find her with a machine that she was carefully inspecting—one that looked very similar to a shiny machine.

Killian Decker

☉

it was easy to sneak up on her in these conditions. the world had a tendency to fade away when she worked, sounds and all—until he said something.

”ah!” she nearly squeaked, turning with a harsh glare in his direction. a screwdriver rattled across the floor, thrown in her surprise. after the incident with skyler dross , she had become a bit jumpy in the lab. her intensity soon faded, however. killian. deoxys. today. right.

darkrai had opened the door again? she blinked.

”yeah, i dunno. i guess it just does that sometimes.”

attention homed in on the cup of coffee in his hands and she reached for it. ”that’ll do.” it was perfect, actually. thanks, killian.

taking a light sip to test the temperature, she hissed. not cold enough, yet. let it sit for a couple of hours. she set it down.

”so.” she leaned in closer to killian to peer deep into his eyes—if only to see if they had changed. it might clear, suddenly, that he had become a specimen. ”tell me how you’re feeling.”

Killian Decker

☉

a heart? no. reflexes. trauma, in the form of her rocket blasted into the ocean and ten hyper beams into space.

she wrinkled her nose, glaring at him as she withdrew again. ”gross. i’m just trying to look at your eyes.”

reaching into her pocket, she pulled a penlight, clicking it on. it glowed at the end, and she was about to point it in his face when he spoke again.

he was talking to it? out loud.

was it concerned? would it attack?

“can you not communicate with it inside your own head?”

Killian Decker

☉

”definitely not.”

yes, she had the pen light on her nearly at all times—at least when working. which was all the time. and no, she did not have scalpels on her.

”oh.” weird, but considerate?

she shined the light in his eyes. one, then the other.

”let it know if it attacks me, it’s in for a long nap,” she warned, and the pen clicked off again. ”do you know where it came from? do you share any memories?”

Killian Decker

☉

”there you are,” she spied the alien with a grin, as it shifted under the light. 

it wouldn’t stay asleep for long? ”no? that’s an odd thing to assume.” was it deoxys speaking for him? or did killian not want a second coma?

months ago, she had done some deep personal research into psychology and neuroscience. a need to understand events in her life and new powers had then evolved into a research project on her shadow alakazam, and other psychic types. those studies had been (mostly) pushed aside to make time for more recently pressing problems. 

she knew that feelings came, in part, from memories—unless this was merely a strange human side effect; a defense or reaction to deoxys’ residence in the body, independent of whatever intelligence, emotional or otherwise, the pokémon possessed itself. there were many possibilities. things were rarely as they seemed.

“hm.”

there were to ways to proceed, but how far was killian willing to go to understand his new partnership, and the fate of his autonomy? could he even tell her, or was it deoxys bringing her coffee?

“are you alarmed by that?”

Killian Decker

☉

yes, she figured with a nod and a shrug, it was an odd thing to assume.

the thrill he described was familiar. she remembered when she’d first received her powers. while difficult to pick up at first, she’d taken to utilizing it at every opportunity. but she’d realized soon enough that it came with its taxes.

she wouldn’t burst his bubble just yet—not while she wanted to see what he could do.

”interesting,” she commented, eyes narrowing as more questions formed behind them. ”no, we don’t. as far as it being ’normal’, suppose i couldn’t tell you, really. hopefully it’s not parasitic, eh?” he certainly didn’t look any weaker. ”what changes to your body have you been experiencing?”

Killian Decker

☉

lulu would always be unhelpful when it came to questions about feelings. but, it was indeed the truth.

she leaned back a little at his defensiveness. as someone extremely paranoid, she was especially sensitive to the subtlest hints—and it was genetic, maybe. she came from a family of rigidly unreadable people. she was adapted.

”okay,” she responded. the word was round and teasing, accompanied with the smallest smirk. her eyes continued to gleam with curiosity and dangerous ideas.

they eyes at his reasoning.

”wha—how do you figure, why does that matter? it could just be taking over. becoming stronger itself.” a moment. ”you rip it off the wall hulk-style or something?”