the coffee was set aside until it got room temperature—just the way she liked it.

instead, she went about arming a machine. meanwhile, a few porygon entered the room, somehow summoned.

”they’ll be doing their own analyses if you don’t mind.” porygon had proven helpful before in telling her a little about the origins of things.

at the mention of his dream, her brow quirked.

”oh? what about?”

a bright wall of red light passed over him suddenly, painless but totally without warning.

Killian Decker

☉

an eyebrow rose. conquering worlds? that didn’t sound like a nightmare at all.

”like deoxys’ memory, or your own?” or did they all blend together now, indiscernible from their original sources?

she didn’t detect the lie, but there was, of course, something off about it.

”that sounds like more of a good dream, but i suppose we can’t all handle power.” a jab at him, maybe. ripping a sink off the wall? she would perhaps never let him live that detail down.

she glared at his comment.

”i told you already, i’m taking an energy reading. i want to know what kind of radiation you might be exposed to by it being in your body. is it from our universe, or another dimension, like the ultra beasts? the porygon are here for the same reasons, really. they’re assessing any characteristics of your parasite that they can find.”

yes, she was hilarious.

porygon relayed their messages to a nearby computer. a hologram screen was navigated with the tip of her finger, assessing their findings.

”strong psychic energy—but we knew that, didn’t we?”

she scrolled a little more before slowing to a stop and staring. ”oh, that’s interesting.”

when she looked back up towards killian, her surprise and curiosity were visible. was this a pokemon who could simply travel to and from outer space as it pleased?

“it’s comprised of mostly organic materials found here on our planet.”

mostly.

”can you ask it if it’s from here?”

Killian Decker

☉

the porygon was grabbed and ragdolled before lulu could move to do anything about it.

”ahh! fuck!” she yelled in surprise, as it was slammed into the glass. jumping up, she pounded on it, horrified.

”killian, no! tell it to stop! let it gooo!”

Killian Decker

☉

this was certainly a turn of events. why did people insist on coming in here and fucking shit up?

the porygon struggled, too throttled to attack back. it was not trained in that way. it was an invaluable lab worker, thoroughly startled and taking on immense damage, short-circuiting. lulu watched in horror. a pokéball would not work through the glass.

when she met killian’s eyes, they were very much changed. this was not the admin decker she was dealing with. this was an extraterrestrial force whose power had not yet been fully analyzed, and here in her laboratory, it was a bull in a china shop.

hurrying back to her computer, she entered in several digits. soon, a pink dream mist, collected from her studies, began to fill the bubble he was kept in. if deoxys was susceptible to it, they would fall into pleasant slumber, soon whisked away by alakazam to the submarine, where lulu would locate other capable trainers to deal with deoxys’ rage—far away the labs.

with any luck, her porygon would still be salvageable at the end of it.

Killian Decker

☉

of course, they wouldn’t leave. nobody ever seemed to leave when they’d overstayed their welcome. killian was proving exceptionally difficult to dismiss.

finally summoned by the chaos, darkrai slowly rose from a shadowy corner of the floor. once it was fully there, it only stood, observing the exchange.

wide-eyed and rattled, the scientist shot her patron a quick look, muttering something incoherent before snatching a pokeball to return the strangled porygon in killian’s hand. the beam reached it easily with nothing between them.

”you are in my house.”

her teeth were gritted.

”apologize? i have given you nothing but what you’ve asked for!”

combustion.

”i warned you about the nightmares! i certainly never twisted your arm about contacting extraterrestrials! and now, i’ve welcomed you back into the privacy of my own lab to help you understand because you took it too far, not me!”

she took a heated breath, voice lowered, but no less harsh as she continued, ”i will not take responsibility for the consequences of your foolish desires and actions.”

Killian Decker

☉