The sirens blared through the halls of the Galactic Warehouse, accompanied by the shrieks of the team's grunts and a loudspeaker announcement by Cyrus:

"Attention, Commanders. Experiments 97 and 25 have escaped. I repeat, Experiments 97 and 25 have escaped."

The mention of my number made my heart beat even faster, to the point where it felt like it was trying to break out of my chest. Ninety-seven. That was what everyone called me. It was the sort of cold truth that hit you hard, like the first time you were ever told that life isn't fair.

It wasn't. We knew that firsthand. 25 always told me when we got out, everything would be fair.

"If we get out," I would say back.

We rushed through the halls of the warehouse, the cold, clinical laboratories and the cheaply furnished break rooms. I recognized the tube where I had awoken a few months earlier in one of the labs, but as 25 heard footsteps gaining on us, he urged me on.

"Come on. We're almost there, 97."

When we reached the end of the hallway, a heavy steel door slammed down and blocked off our escape. I stared at it for a second before I realized what I had to do.

"Go stand in front of the door," I told 25.

He looked up at me with a sort of wide-eyed fear that I would have found cute in any other circumstance, then rushed over to the door. His Pikachu ears twitched as the sound of the footsteps grew closer.

I pulled my pendulum from the makeshift tool belt around my waist and began to swing it in a slow rhythm. As I concentrated on the door, it began to rise, slowly, then high enough to fit 25 under it. He looked at me again. The silence between us was almost enough to drown out the shouts of the Galactic grunts that were quickly approaching.

My brain felt like it was going to explode from the exertion, but I sent 25 a single message which I hoped was enough:

GO.

He ran through the door, and it dropped as soon as his tail cleared it.

I collapsed, my heart pounding and breathing heavy. The grunts converged on me, along with a woman who I recognized as Mars, one of the commanders. She pulled out a radio transmitter and spoke, and I heard the words booming through the loudspeaker:

"Experiment 97 recaptured. Experiment 25 lost. Presumably he escaped through the door somehow. All grunts in the Veilstone City area organize and search for him."

Several of the grunts shackled my wrists together, picked me up and began walking me back to the lab. Mars escorted them, speaking quietly into the radio transmitter.

"97 is not struggling. Even with the loss of 25, we would be foolish not to start phase 2."

"Right." Cyrus's voice came crackling through the radio. "Return her to the lab immediately. Phase 2 begins in a month."

I was walked back to the lab and placed in a chamber to be examined. Scientists flocked around me, monitoring my condition. I was poked at with metal objects and injected with colored liquids, and I remember being fine with all of it.

I think the day 25 escaped was the day I gave up.





"Pokeballs?"

"Check."

"Pokedex?"

"Check."

"Pendulum?"

I looked up at Mars. "Name one time I've ever forgotten my pendulum."

She grinned. "Juuuuust checking."

The command room was crowded, with grunts going every which way to prepare for the next step of the operation. Saturn lounged on the couch, eating a Poffin, yelling orders at the grunts who circled around the central pedestal of the room like synchronized swimmers.

I was sitting on the central pedestal. For once, I was the star.

Jupiter came up to me, carrying a white beanie. "This should cover your ears," she said.

I took the hat and slipped it on over my pointed Hypno ears. "Thanks."

She cocked her head to one side. "Well, it does help hide your white hair, too. Good choice, Mars."

Mars nodded at Jupiter. "We almost ready?"

"Charon will be here with the helicopter shortly," Jupiter said.

"One last thing," Mars said, gesturing to me. "She needs a codename. 97 won't do."

I opened my mouth to answer, but Saturn got there first, yelling across the room. "How about Io?"

Mars smiled at me. "That'll do. Ready to head to Twinleaf, Io?"

I bit my lip and nodded. Well, at least I had a proper name now.

The chopping sound of the helicopter landing on the roof penetrated the walls of the warehouse. Mars took my hand and led me up several flights of stairs to the landing pad, where Charon was waiting in an unmarked helicopter.

"Next stop, Lake Verity," he shouted over the helicopter blades.

I stepped into the seat beside him, closed the door, and watched as the ground disappeared from sight.

Phase 2 had begun.