FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The large van kept rolling down the gravelly road, its occupants shifting around inside. The sound of chains rattling and the coughing and shaking of a dozen men were the only things that broke the silence inside the prison vehicle. Soldiers knew the dangers of war. They could be shot dead or, worse yet, captured by the enemy troops. Unfortunately for Daniel Marrick and the rest of his squad, the later was the fate that befell them. Daniel's normally healthy complexion was now a ghastly white, standing out especially against his dark hair. Looking around the van, the others were in similar conditions, some appearing as though they were porcelain.

The soldier looked closer to his comrades. All of them were still dressed in their Kanto Alliance uniforms, though the three long days of cramped conditions had the olive drab cloth caked in muck and sweat. Some of his allies were doing better than others, but none of them were doing well. Not that one could expect them to be doing well after being ambushed by the Shadow Team Syndicate's troops. One way or another, either through surrendering or just being subdued, they were captured. Dan's own capture was the direct result of an enemy's Gengar catching him off guard. The last thing he remembered before waking up was a horrible pain that filled him to his very core.

He sighed, looking down. His wrists and ankles were firmly chained to the bolt at his feet, the same condition the others were in too. A soldier next to him coughed, his wheezing breath riddled with pain. Dan looked up, finding the hacking coming from one of his best friends, Joel Shepherd. Joel was cradling his bald head between his hands, shaking. He'd never really had a chance to recover from the attack of a Ghost-Type Pokemon, which were always legendarily traumatic. Finally, Dan spoke up, "Joel... Joel...!" He whispered, watching his friend. Joel only shakily looked up.

"Be strong, soldier...." Another voice spoke up, this one harsh and gravely. George Tanner, their squad leader, just so happened to be sitting next to Joel. Joel looked between the eyes of his commander, and his friend, and nodded.

"I...I'm trying... I just feel so sick... I..." He trailed off, seeing the pained look in everyone's faces. Everyone felt sick. Joel gulped down the lump in his throat, hanging his head a little. Now that the silence had been broken, others started speaking up.

"What do you think they'll do to us?" One man asked, looking for George for an answer. George shook his head, obviously not knowing.

Another spoke his mind, "Well they're not gonna kill us fast, that's for sure... And I don't know what they expect us to know..."

Finally, a calmer voice spoke up, "Y'know guys, worrying about it and guessin' ain't gonna help us any." Everyone looked at the offender, who was Jim Cassidy, one of the team's snipers.

"Well what do you expect us to do?" Joel asked, woozily.

Jim shrugged, "Sit tight I guess... we'll figure out what they want when we get pushed outta here." The other soldiers started grumbling, some of them quite annoyed at Jim's relaxed and almost cheery demeanor.

Dan just shook his head. "Jim, you can't fucking fault for panicking now can you?" He asked. "None of have eaten in three days, and we've only been treated like the dirt under a pile of shit..." Another soldier voiced his agreement.

"So shut the hell up!" Another soldier yelled.

Jim just shrugged again, apologetically. "Sorry, just tryin' to keep spirits up, guys..."

"We know Jim... No one's in the mood for it though." George said, looking down again. This had been going on in the back of that Shadow Team Syndicate prison van for days, their level of conversation coming and going like the tide. After George's statement, everything went silent again.

Lines of light started forming in the back of the van along the doors. It was morning again... Dan sighed, once again not having slept much at all. It was another few hours until the van stopped again, most likely for a pit stop for the guards to eat or switch off. But to their surprise, the back doors to the van swung open. All of the soldiers instantly recoiled at the flood of light that entered the van, as the armed guards went about their duties of dragging the weakened men out of the van. Several of the men struggled against the enemy troops, only to be beaten into submission once they left the van.

Dan was pulled from the van half-blinded by the light, and instantly stumbled and fell onto his face, hardly able to support his own weight. He coughed and sputtered as dust filled his lungs, and he was quickly dragged to his feet by the STS soldiers. He soon found himself marching in a line with the other Alliance POWs. As his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the outside world, he found that they were all in a strangely different environment. The place where they were captured was a dense jungle area, bordered by nothing but swamps. But now, they were in a grassland area, a small city just within sight. If Dan had cared much, he would've pondered on the fact that it seemed this used to be part of the jungle, now cultivated into a more domestic area, but at the time it wasn't really important to him.

"Quiet" One of the soldiers shouted at the POWs, once they had started chatting amongst themselves. Dan's expression soured when he saw where they were marching. It looked like a cross between a prison and a research facility. He looked at all the darkly-dressed soldiers marching them on, and the thought of suddenly fleeing crossed his mind. However, the chains connecting his wrists to his ankles would make that hard, as would the fact that the soldiers were all armed and each had several Pokeballs lining their belts.

It felt like a five-mile hike to the inside of the building. Dan, and everyone else for that matter, were amazed at the clean-looking environment which they found themselves in. It appeared more like a hospital than an actual prison camp. They were all marched one-by-by one into different rooms, until suddenly George interrupted them with his booming voice. "Where are you taking m-" He was quickly interrupted, however, with a rifle butt planted squarely into his face, busting his nose. Dan stopped, wanting to help his commander, but was dragged off into a separated room down the hallway.

The soldier accompanying Daniel forced him to his seat. "Wait here." He ordered. Dan knew he really didn't have a choice, and the guard stepped out. He sighed, hanging his head again. His dark hair blocked the top portion of his view. He needed a haircut... He didn't know why his mind went to that, but it did. He wasn't sure how long he was supposed to wait, nor would he ever find out. His sense of time passage was absolutely shot from the trip to wherever this was. His mind wandered back to his hometown of Cherrygrove City, so far away from... wherever this was. He was captured somewhere in the Hoenn region, but there was no telling where he was then.

Being alone with his thoughts for far too long, Dan just looked around the white, sterile room. The only thing in there was a table and two chairs, one of which he was occupying. Eventually the door behind him opened, making him snap his head backwards. It was another Shadow Team soldier, dressed in a long, black coat. He walked over to the other chair and sat down, nodding politely. "Good morning." He said, once again, very politely.

Dan growled in frustration at the man's obvious mocking tone. "What the fuck do you want?" he asked.

"Your name." the other man stated, bluntly. Dan looked at him confused. "It's very hard to address you when I don't know your name, soldier." The man eyed Dan's dog-tags, but didn't go for them.

Dan just stared at him a moment. "Daniel... Marrick..."

"Well Mr. Marrick, or, Daniel, if you prefer- ... What do you prefer?" He asked. Dan just glared at him. "Well I prefer Daniel, so if you have no preference, I'll use that." He put a clipboard down on the table, writing his name down. "Well you can call me Jason." He said. "Like you, I am a soldier. It's too bad we found ourselves on opposite sides, isn't it...?"

Dan just huffed in disapproval. "Not really... And you haven't told me what the hell you want..."

Jason just looked at him, looking insulted. "Strait to the point I see... I was hoping to get to know you better. But I guess we'll have time for that later. Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning...." Jason leaned back in his chair a little, trying to get comfortable. Dan just kept staring at him with nothing but disdain.

"Well, we here on Team Shadow have been looking into scientific processes for quite some time... And, actually, we have achieved some breakthroughs in the fields of medical and-"

Dan stood up, suddenly shocked. "You're going to experiment on us!?" He yelled. Jason lifted his hands, passively.

"Well if you're not going to let me finish, then yes, short version is we need some live, human subjects to effectively test a few... things." He said.

The color in Dan's face drained just that much more, and he sat back down. He knew he couldn't fight them, not in his condition.

Jason thought for a moment. "Tell me, Daniel, how much do you know about Pokemorphs..?"

Dan looked at him, glaring a little. "It's when... a Pokemon gives birth to a part-human Pokemon... No one really knows why it happens, and it's only started happening within the past 20 years..." Dan said, looking at his captor. Jason motioned for him to continue. "... There's also a big debate going on... In the Kanto Alliance regions they're treated as humans for the most part, and in other places you treat them like pokemon, or worse..." He glared at them, angrily.

Jason nodded, confirming him. "That's absolutely right."

"AND you've been selling any Pokemorph KA soldiers you catch over to other regions as slaves." His anger only increased as they spoke.

"Again, right. I was hoping you were up to date on these current events." Jason sneered a little, picking up his clipboard again. Dan spat on the ground at his boot, angrily.

"How could I not be? You're no better than the other Team Fucktard groups that've popped up wanting to control Pokemon. Only you guys have a damn army..." Dave's patience was only wearing thinner. If his legs didn't feel like they were made of rubber, he would've hopped over the table and punched that son of a bitch right in the face by then.

"Now now, let's be civil about this. I have another question for you." Jason flipped a few pages on his board while Dan stared at him. "Are you familiar with a particular person named Bill? You should be."

"Of course I am."

"Good, Just making sure. Are you familiar with his full-scale teleportation incident...?"

Dan jus t stared at him. "Full-scale teleportation? Like what, the Transfer system he built or-"

Jason interrupted him, "No, he once tried to make a teleportation device that sent full-blown organic matter... but it malfunctioned. Most people link this kind of garble to bad sci-fi movies, which I just love by the way, but Bill almost succeeded. However, that malfunction prompted him to drop the project entirely, and in your precious Alliance, no other such experiments are even permitted."

Dan just stopped and thought for a moment. He glared at the Team Shadow officer. What was his plan? What did he want? He prattles off several unrelated topics, one of which served to only remind him of the blaringly obvious reason to hate these people as much as he does. Selling Pokemorphs into slavery, stealing Pokemon and dominating entire regions through their criminal activity. He just glared at his captor but sat still. His mind wandered back to the thoughts on the teleportation system.

"Can I hazard a guess?" Dan asked. Jason nodded as to permit him to speak. "You've got yourselves a working set of those fucking things and you're gonna put your POWs through it and see if we don't turn inside-out..." Jason just smiled.

"Very GOOD Daniel. Now you know why we need to get to know you... So we know what kind of mental effects that this might have, should it work. But, we've had a lot of previous experience with this sort of thing. So, we're sure you , and your comrades, are going to work out just fine."

Dan just sat there, shaking a little. Jason jotted down a few notes. "You'll be escorted to your cell now. Have a good night. Tomorrow we start the process." With that, Jason got up and headed out the door, quickly replaced by a few guards who dragged Dan up to his feet. Dan kicked and squirmed a little, but in his weakened and delirious state he was no match for the able-bodied men. They dragged him, quite literally, through the hallways, the heels of his boots leaving nice scuff-marks on the shiny floor. After a short elevator ride, Dan found himself in a place that he more recognized. A prison cell...

The guard looked at him. "Any friends around here?" He asked. Dan was a bit shocked, but he looked around the cellblock. The only person he could see was Jim, who was sitting dejectedly on one of the beds.

"Him...!" Dan pointed out. The guard nodded and dragged him over to the same cell, opening it up and tossing him inside. Jim looked up, ecstatic to see his friend.

"Dan! Oh thank the Lord!" Jim said. Dan just squirmed off of the floor, sitting on the bed next to him.

"Nice to see you too Jim... They talk to you too..?" Dan asked.

"Sure did. Talked to me about that crazy teleporter shit..." Dan nodded.

"Same here..." He said. "What the hell do you think is going on, man..?"

Jim just shrugged. "Well if I had to guess, we're just gonna be guinea pigs for a revolutionary new war tool. Think of what you could do by sending troops instantly." Dan looked down, dejectedly. "Well, anyway... I call the top bunk." Jim said. Dan couldn't help but crack a little bit of a smile. "HA! There we go. C'mon, we'll make it out of here if it kills us, buddy."

Jim and Dan's conversation was cut short, suddenly, but the arrival of meal-time. Dan almost leapt out of his skin, smelling something edible. He didn't know what it was nor did he care. The guard delivered their trays and they both started downing it immediately. Turkey sandwiches and a bag of vending machine chips was all they got, but the hungry POWs wolfed it down immediately. Jim was especially happy with this turn of events. It wasn't nearly enough food to finally renourish them, but it was a good start. They also each got a liter bottle of apple juice, which didn't last long either as they gulped it down, finally able to rehydrate themselves.

As the food settled in his belly, Dan started to feel sleepy. He slouched a bit as Jim climbed into the bunk above him. "This is the worst most hideous bed I've ever seen in my life." Jim noted. "And it still looks like I'm sleeping in a damn mansion, heheheh!"

"Whatever..." Dan said, trying to repress a faint smile. He laid down on his barely-cushioned bed, and, to his surprise, sleep took the exhausted soldier immediately. And it was a wonderful, dreamless, deep sleep.

When Dan awoke, he couldn't tell what time of day it was or when it was. All he knew is that he and Jim were both being dragged out of their cell, roughly. As Dan shook the sleep from his head he realized that they were traveling quite a distance, loading onto the elevator again and going even deeper down into the facility. Both he and Jim were dead silent the entire trip, as were the two STS guards. They shoved them out of the elevator, and into what they could only guess was the R&D section of the lab.

They passed by numerous rooms, all curiously labeled with random technobabble they couldn't quite discern. "So where's Q work at?" Jim asked, getting a quick smack to the back of the head. This punishment didn't stop him from chuckling at his own antics though. They were promptly pushed into another room before they had a chance to read the sign above it.

Inside, they found Jason at a computer panel, standing in a large room dominated by two phone-booth sized chambers. Dan felt his stomach sink into his body when he saw the jury-rigged apparatus, wires and cables crisscrossing the room, along with exposed circuit boards and bits of machinery that he couldn't even identify. They were stopped and Jim was quickly escorted into the first chamber. He struggled a little, "Wait, don't you need to know my blood type or anything!?" He asked, shuffling into the booth.

"I don't think it particularly matters." Jason responded. The guards unlocked Jim's chains as another one held onto Dan's shoulder, making sure he doesn't go anywhere. Jim flexed his wrists for the first time in what seemed like months. Jim looked up before they slammed the door on him. Dan shivered. They couldn't see Jim, but he was sure his friend was panicking in there. Hell, he was starting to panic.

Jason pushed a button next to his keyboard, "Subject: Jim Cassidy. Caucasian, male, blonde hair... B Blood Type." He spoke into a microphone, and Dan could only guess that it was being recorded somewhere. "DNA Type: Croconaw. The date is May 13th. The process is starting... now."

Before Dan could question him, Jason and the other Team Shadow members shielded their e yes with the goggles they wore around their necks. A bright flash illuminated the entire room, making Dan cringe in pain. It only lasted a brief moment before the sound of the machine venting its excess energy could be heard. The guards walked over to the other booth and unsealed the door, pulling it open. Dan's stomach was churning already, barely able to see but trying desperately to see how Jim fared. Much to his relief, they pulled the shaking and shivering man from the other pod, seemingly without a scratch on him.

Jason walked over to him as he hit the ground, covering his head a little. "Jim?" He asked, prodding him a bit. Jim recoiled, startled.

"What!?" He jumped, startled. "Am I okay!? What happened!?"

"You're just fine." Jason said, smiling. "From the readouts the transfer was a complete success, as normal these past few runs."

"And I've still got all my bits..?" Jim asked, hesitantly. Jason nodded. They picked Jim up off the ground, his entire body shaking terribly. "A-are you sure...? I'm burning up... I... feel awful..." The guards ignored Jim's complaints and started dragging him away. The other two guards picked Dan up as well, man-handling him towards the first pod. Dan noticed them taking a small tube from the side of the machine, only to replace it with another one.

"What's going on, Jason!? What's wrong with Jim!?" He asked, desperately. "What about WHAT Crocanaw!?" They ignored him and undid his chains. The first thing Dan tried to do was throw a punch at the first guard he could see. In his weakened state, however, Daniel's punch was easily intercepted and returned, knocking him back into the pod as they slammed the door on him. His heart was racing, looking around the smooth, blank interior of the pod. He could hear Jason's voice muttering off in the background, but couldn't discern anything intelligible.

Dan could hear the machine warming up, and could feel his stomach sinking into his body cavity. He just clenched his fists, nervously, prepared for the worst to happen. He almost yelled when suddenly a bright light blinded him once again, but this time it seemed it was a thousand times more intense now that he was inside the machine. His skin felt like it was peeling off his body but he couldn't muster the breath to scream. He suddenly felt a sharp jab to his side as well, but in his condition he couldn't bring himself to really care. He felt it again, realizing that the burning in his body was starting to subside.

Dan's eyes were clearing somewhat, finding himself in a horribly blurry version of the room he had been in before. He was on the ground looking up at Jason, whose boot found its way into his side again, prodding him. "Mr. Marrick? Can you hear me?" Dan nodded and coughed in response, groaning.

"Did... did it work?" He asked, woozily. He could only share Jim's sentiment of feeling like shit at the time. Jason, however, looked quite pleased with himself.

"It certainly did. Thank you for your cooperation, Daniel. Escort him back to his cell if you would." With that, Jason stepped aside and the guards near him hoisted him up off the ground. His body was shaking and burned more at being touched, but he was too exhausted to complain. He kept passing in and out of consciousness on the way back to his new home. Eventually when he opened his eyes he was on the floor of his cell, staring under his bunk. He groaned, shifting a little, before looking up and seeing Jim's right leg and arm just dangling off the side of his bed. He mustered his strength and crawled to his bed, barely able to push himself up enough to get into it.

He got situated in his bunk, painfully, before just staring at the ceiling. This was the best of teleportation technology? Dan couldn't believe it. Anyone sent through that thing would wind up in an awful lot of pain, sickness, and only God knows what else. And what was the significance of a Crocanaw? Jim hadn't even owned one of those. Jim's only pokemon was an Electabuzz he left at home. Dan, shuddered, feeling ill again. He rested his head on his pillow, willing sleep to finally come and get him. He didn't need to wait long, and it'd be a while before he'd wake again.