<Accessing internet terminal. Dropping to text console. Please enter your commands now.> An inaudible computerized voice said.
 

 
“All levels normal. Finalizing test procedures.”

The flat, emotionless voice came from a room deep in the heart of an immense, tower-like building. While the building as a whole extended more then a mile into the sky, the room the voice came from was small and compact, the ceiling low and the space between walls narrow. The room was dimly lit with the large banks of computer equipment against one wall completely in shadows. The brightest light came from the opposite wall where, through a pane of thick glass, three bright lights shone down on the body within which was suspended in a tank of orange liquid. At a computer console in the middle of the room a woman, the source of the voice, stood, her eyes staring blankly at the glass while her hands flew across the keyboard, typing at an inhuman rate.

“Test subject appears to be at one-hundred percent health. Initializing termination sequence.”

No one could hear the woman, yet she spoke clearly as she was programmed to in case anyone were to be observing her. No one could hear her, however, as the security camera that watched her from the corner of the room could only relay video and there were no observers on hand. Other then for her voice the room was silent until a quiet hum began to grow, coming from the tank beyond the glass pane. Inside that tank the test subject began to stir; bubbles escaping from its mouth as, by instinct, it attempted to breathe normally; not realizing it was suspended in the orange liquid filled tank. If it weren’t for the numerous umbilical tubes that ran into its body it would have drowned.

“Subject is regaining consciousness. Termination sequence initialization at eighty percent and rising.”

The test subject’s eyes snapped open, taking in the watery world around it. Just as it began to look at where it was five rings of metal rose from the bottom of the tank and slid up around the test subject, it being positioned inside the rings. The subject’s eyes widened as the rings began to rotate, sparks of electricity leaping along the insides of them as they speeded up.

“Termination procedure started. T-minus twenty seconds until subject termination.”

Inside the tank the test subject began to howl, thrashing about and trying to free itself of the metal clamps that secured its feet and arms to the bottom and top of the tank respectively. Its efforts were futile, however; all it could do was watch as electricity leapt amongst the rings, building up a charge that could kill anything within a nanosecond. Dejectedly the test subject lowered its head and growled as it thought to itself. This wasn’t supposed to have happened.

 
BOOM!

 
The test subject snapped its head up to find that the room’s door had been blown away. A man dressed in a black, hooded, cloak with completely black clothes underneath ran through the smoldering remains of the door and over to the test operator, pulling a small device out from beneath his cloak and pressing it against the back of her neck. The woman’s eyes widened and her pupils contracted as her body spasmed, before slumping limply to the ground. Hurriedly the man retrieved the device from her neck and stepped over to the computer console, pulling back his hood and revealing a head topped with short, brown hair.

<It’s about damn time you got here. Why didn’t you tell me about this beforehand?!> The test subject mentally transmitted to the man through an implant in his brain.

“I didn’t know. Just be thankful I had the foresight to hack into some of their security cameras.”

 
The man’s hands flew over the keyboard as a small cable extended from up his left sleeve and connected to a port on the top of the console. His eyes narrowed as he stared at nothing in particular, until with a smile he relaxed.

“Termination procedure cancelled.” He nodded. “Releasing the test subject. My test subject.”

<Please. Spare me the flattery.> The former test subject rolled his eyes as the rings of metal suddenly stopped rotating, falling to the floor of the tank with a clatter. A mechanical clank and the claws that held him in place let go, the liquid in the tank draining as a hiss filled the room; the former test subject lay sprawled out on the floor of the tank as the man walked over to him. Finally the last of the liquid had drained from the tank and the glass pane slid into the floor silently as the umbilical tubes retracted, the small, insignificant wounds they left on the subject’s body lost among his fur. Shakily the former test subject climbed to his feet, orange liquid slicking his fur down.

“Well, then. Would you rather I call you Blaze? Or maybe Flame?” The man teased as he patted his ally on the back and helped him up.

<Havoc. It’s the name you gave me when we first met, so I’d rather you call me that. What if I were to call you ‘human’ instead of Shrike?>

“Ah, that gives me an idea; why not call you Typhlosion and get it over with?” The man, Shrike, teased as he led his Typhlosion, Havoc, over to the computer console.

Ignoring Shrike, Havoc looked at the remains of the door and frowned.

“Disabled the security beforehand, plus I have a Camera Disruption field activated around me so they won’t be suspicious with me just popping in and out of the elevator. The way I disabled the security was quite ingenious actually, anybody watching the security systems status will think everything is operating normally. See, just yesterday I discovered a new flaw in the security cameras, so I wrote this program that—” Shrike began as he typed a few more commands into the computer console, the cable once again running from his sleeve to the port on the computer, before Havoc interrupted him.

<Explosions are loud. Someone must have heard it and alerted security. How do you think they’ll respond when they find both me and the door missing, and that operator drone disabled?> Havoc growled as he looked out the door, glancing down the empty hallway in both directions.

“What do you think I’m doing? There!” Shrike yelled triumphantly as he shoved a black, spherical device into another of the ports on the console, unplugging his cable as he threw a cluster of similar looking, yet bigger, spheres into the room.

<Wait! Aren’t those—> Havoc began, dumbfounded.

“Yes, they are. If the whole room is gone, the administrators will just assume it was a malfunction with something and won’t get suspicious; this is a test chamber after all. We need to hurry now though as they only have a thirty second timer starting once I press this!” Shrike yelled behind him as he rushed out of the room, pressing a button on a small cylindrical object before tucking it back into a pocket on the inside of his cloak. Without hesitation Havoc followed, dropping to all fours and giving chase after Shrike.

 
“How’d it go?” Shrike finally asked.

<Mission successful.> Havoc grumbled. <Yet at a cost.>

“You knew the risks beforehand. I warned you and told you it didn’t have to be you, yet you insisted.”

Havoc merely grunted and rolled onto his side, exhausted after the near death experience.

 
Shrike frowned and walked over to Havoc, kneeling down beside him. Gently he ran his hand through the fur on Havoc’s neck above the red incendiary spots, parting it. Beneath lay the indistinguishable marks of Havoc’s previous experience. Situated in a hexagon on the back of Havoc’s neck were six circular computer ports, and in the middle of the hexagon a tattoo which read:

 
“It’s not like being part cybernetic is anything new to you; you’ve always had a couple implants. Besides, trust me, it isn’t all that bad. Just wait until you see the Cybernet.” Shrike grinned, trying to cheer Havoc up.

<There’s a difference between ‘a couple’ implants and having most of your body implemented with cybernetic parts. What did I have before? This brainwave communicator, a single bionic eye, and a prosthetic leg. Now nearly my entire body has been reinforced with cybernetic plating, electrical wiring, a supplementary electronic brain, and more; hell, I think I might even have a couple concealed weapons in here someplace.> Havoc sighed as he rolled over to face Shrike.

“You might want to look into those, they could be handy sometime. I’m still trying to figure out how I can get this old thing updated without CYPHER getting suspicious, or breaking the bank.” Shrike smiled as he pulled up his left sleeve, revealing an arm that looked to be more machine then man. The skin was oddly shiny and reflective, and the faint outline of rectangular shaped buttons could be easily seen over the arm; farther up there were a few small holes inside which cables like those from earlier sat flush with the surface of the arm. Casually Shrike pressed one of the buttons near his wrist and with a whir the arm and his hand snapped apart into quarters, revealing the messy inner workings of the cybernetic arm; inside which wires and red organic tissue formed a maze that made sense only to the original designer. What stuck out most prominently, however, was a black cylindrical barrel, the tip of it a gaping hole.

“See, this arm is so loud when I open it up, absolutely useless if I ever wanted to use this antique laser cannon undetected.” Shrike scoffed. “Actually, I doubt it even works anymore at all; damn bargains. Good thing I haven’t had to use it since the Cyber Crisis of 2503. Seems like it was just yesterday, but I look around me now and see what a change nine years can make.” Shrike reminisced, looking up at the elevator’s floor readout. They were almost at the dormitories now, their destination.

<You were only sixteen then, of course the world will look different from the eyes of a teenager then from an adult.>

“Maybe so.” Shrike mused, pressing the same button on his arm again, the arm shutting closed seamlessly with a hiss, no signs that it had ever opened up visible.

 
For the rest of the short trip to the dormitories Shrike and Havoc lay in silence on the floor of the elevator. Finally their ride ended and they were greeted with a ding from the elevator as the doors split open. Quickly human and Pokémon leapt to their feet and hurried out of the elevator and down the hall, following the maze of bleakly lit corridors until they came to a nondescript door among other nondescript doors. Shrike held out his left hand to a panel at the side of the door and, through a mental command processed by his subsidiary electronic brains, his index finger twisted apart, revealing a circular computer plug larger then those he used to connect to normal computers. Shrike jacked his finger-plug into the door panel and with a hiss the door was unlocked, sliding up into its framework. Havoc stumbled inside and Shrike shortly followed, pressing his finger into another data-port on the other side of the door, it shutting and locking again.