After a great deal of work the Lapras population has been brought back from near extinction. Unfortunately, with increased numbers brings more poachers out of the wood work to attempt to hunt the gentle sea creatures for their highly valuable shells. This is how we meet our main character, Simon and witness his part in what is hoped to be a groundbreaking experiment to discover the true genetic connection between humans and Pokemon.

This is going to be multiple parts/chapters due to the eventual TF being multiple parts/stages. This first part is (unfortunately) TF-less, but the following chapters will have a multi-stage TF. Ideally, I would like to build an AU Pokemon universe around the plot of this story with other criminals (and maybe innocents and volunteers?) getting a chance to offer their bodies up for the the sake of science.

Of course, full credit for Pokemon and the elements of this story that draw from the Pokemon world goes to Nintendo and I do not claim them as my own.

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The last thing Simon remembered was a blast of sleep powder being shot into his secret base like a smoke bomb. The room erupted into an explosion of shimmering pink powder and within moments, he had fallen asleep. It was as simple as that. If he had known his eventual capture by police was going to be so anti-climactic, he might have attempted a bigger, more high stakes heist, but as they say, “Hindsight is… not a move that can be learned by Pokemon. You’re thinking of Foresight.” A good helping of that as well might have done Simon some good as well. Perhaps he would acquire some (foresight that is) in his next life.

Surely the sleep powder had not been so powerful that it had robbed Simon of his life. Never in all of recorded Pokemon history had Sleep Powder been known to do anything to its intended victim but trigger a deep sleep, and perhaps a short-lived sneeze right before they fell unconscious. After all, even Pokemon were not immune to the bane that is a pollen allergy.

Simon had not died. At least he didn’t think so. The place he woke up didn’t look like what he imagined death or the land where the dead resided would look like. He was in a small, dark room and hand cuffed to a chair. Like any sensible person who was chained to a piece of furniture would do, Simon wrestled against the object he was bound to. It was just a chair after all. How hard would it really be to break the armrest off?

Quite hard, it turned out.

The effort left Simon tuckered out, sweating, and sulking over a very sore wrist. In the following moments that used to catch his breath, a light above him illuminated, giving him a better view of the room around him. It looked like your run of the mill interrogation room. Right down to the smartly dressed woman closing a heavy door behind her and sauntering towards him with a manila folder in hand.

“Simon Bateur,” the woman said flatly as she opened the folder in her hands and quickly skimmed its contents. “It says here you were found in possession of some pretty illegal goods. Namely, freshly harvested Lapras shell.” Her eyes moved from the contents of the folder to the man cuffed to the chair before her. He didn’t look the least but guilty. More so, annoyed.
Simon Bateur was, what the woman was discovering in her folder, an old hand at Pokemon poaching. Especially the endangered ones. He had harpooned Wailords for their bones, blubber, and ambergris, Arcanines for their sought after stripped coats… You name it, he had most likely hunted at least one of any Pokemon with something of value to their being.

“You don’t appear concerned,” the woman said with a shade of surprise in her voice. “Are you not aware of the consequences of poaching Lapras?” Simon shrugged and looked at her with a bored look. “I ain’t the one who should be concerned here, lady—” Before he could finish his response, the woman interjected. “My name is Mira Leone. Officer Mira Leone, not lady.” Simon rolled his eyes and shot Mira a tired glare. “I got buyers who are gonna be lookin’ for me, ya know,” he replied, almost as if he was attempting to explain his situation to a child. “Anyone who can afford to buy Lapras shell ain’t someone you want huntin’ you down lookin’ for their order.” It was now Mira’s turn to appear unimpressed. “I’ve taken care of that,” she said simply. “Or more specifically, the team who will be enacting your punishment have.”

Simon was quiet for a moment before speaking up again. “They’re gonna know if you gave them a fake shell,” he hissed at the woman. “They’re professionals. They know what to look for.” Mira chuckled and shook her head, letting her long, dark, wavy locks sway in the air around her face. “They have been paid for their trouble,” she responded. “I don’t think they will mind forgetting about the items they requested from you.”

It was never an enjoyable day when Mira had to assist with the brokerage of what was essentially “shut up” money with scum lords of the black market, but it wasn’t her money. In the end, everyone would be getting what they truly wanted, except Simon, of course.

Before the criminal before her could start mouthing off again, Mira spoke up. “I am sure I do not have to educate you on who Silph Co. and Cinnabar Labs are,” she said dryly. Simon narrowed his eyes at her. “What about ‘em?” he hissed. Mira smirked softly. Although there was no easy way of explaining how and why the two companies were involved in Simon’s current situation, it never made it any less fun.

“They paid off your debt,” the woman said simply. “To your previous… commissioners interested in the lapras shell and to us, law enforcement, in the form of bail… in a sense.” The brewing confusion on the criminal’s face continued to deepen. He was not appearing to follow any of this.

“Cinnabar Labs burnt down,” Simon stated with a furrowed brow. “Just like everything else on Cinnabar Island.” It was so secret that the island that was once the home of Cinnabar Labs, the Pokemon Mansion, and the seventh of the eight Pokemon gyms in Kanto. There was no reason to keep the information of the volcano eruption that decimated the majority of the island from the general public, especially since it was a needed stop for anyone attempting the gym challenge.

“Blaine and his gym relocated,” Mira said casually. “Why would an esteemed laboratory not do the same?”

She had a point. Labs had funding and investors. People who wanted quite badly to see the lab and its workers succeed. They wouldn’t just give up due to a natural disaster.

“So Cinnabar Labs reforms after the volcano eruption and what? They start buying the freedom of people you lot lock up?” Simon asked, still terribly lost as to how all of the seemingly random dots at play connected. Were they running some sort of work release program to replace staff lost after the eruption? Surely, he would have known someone who had been a brought onto staff under this program. After all, he wasn’t the only Pokemon poacher in the game.

A sadistic smirk twitched at the edge of Mira’s lips. “Not quite,” she said. “You’re the first.” Simon was not sure what to think of this. Being the first had to offer him some sort of wiggle room, but it also meant that whatever Cinnabar Labs and Silph Co. were planning was brand new.

“The first what?” Simon barked back. “Cut the ominous shit and just tell me what’s happening next.” If no one had even known that Cinnabar Labs was still in operation and they were allowing someone outside of their staff know, it had to be for something big. Maybe they needed someone disposable to test out some sort of new medicine or explore a dangerous location where it was too risky to send one of their own.

Mira didn’t reply. At least not right away. Instead, she opened the folder she had entered the room with and pulled out a form. “You are aware of the punishment one receives for poaching a lapras, correct?” she asked. Simon scowled. “Death,” she continued, not wishing to allow him the brooding silence he clearly was fishing for. “Perhaps extreme, but after the near extinction of the species nearly two decades ago it was decided that extreme measures would need to be put into place to protect them.”

Although Mira did not want to admit it, she found the punishment more harsh than the crime required. She loved Pokemon as much as the next woman and wished no harm to befall them, but ending a poacher’s life over killing a Pokemon taught the poacher nothing. There was no chance of reform. A dead man couldn’t pay back the blood he shed or learn the errors in his actions. Luckily, Simon had the potential to be a possible stepping stone to a better future. A future where the poacher was removed from the board completely, but not killed. Simply… repurposed for the betterment of science and possibly human and pokemon-kind.

“You are being offered another option,” Mira said as she placed the sheet of paper on the table between them and slid it towards Simon. “A chance to leave the world a better, smarter, more informed place than it would have been if you were simply sentenced to death.”

Simon looked down at the paper suspiciously. Across the top in bold, black lettering it said “Operation Genesis.” He began to scan the contents of the paper, but quickly found himself lost in the legal and scientific jargon of its contents. “Care to translate?” he said flatly as he looked up from the paper to the police woman. The man wondered how much she really knew and how much she was just the little messenger woman for whoever was really pulling the strings here.

“I’m going to be honest, I can’t explain it as well as the actual researchers from Cinnabar Labs and Silph Co. can, but to put it in a way even you can understand,” Mira began as she pulled a pen out of her jacket pocket and placed it on the table before Simon. “Pokemon and humans are believed to have evolved from a common ancestor. There has been a great amount of research that has gone into attempting to find that ancestor and discover how and what sets humans apart from Pokemon…” Mira trailed off as she saw Simon’s eyes begin to gloss over. She couldn’t tell if he was a complete asshole or just an idiot.

“Am I boring you?” Mira snapped at the criminal before her. Simon turned his gaze to look at her with a bored expression. “What does any of this history lesson have to do with me or why I’m not getting the death penalty?” he asked, taking the pen from the table, and scribbling his name at the bottom of the page. If Mira had not been as expertly trained as she was she might have let on that Simon was pissing her off. That would be a rookie mistake though.

“I was getting to it, but perhaps this is better left to the researchers,” she said, taking the paper and confirming that the man had signed his name where it was needed. The complete dolt had actually signed the waiver. Part of her felt a bit bad that Simon had signed the paperwork without knowing what his signature entailed, but she had tried to tell him. Criminals never wanted to listen, even when it was in their best interest.

A bright white light came from a pokeball Mira had detached from her belt. As the light faded, a large Gogoat could be seen at the officer’s side. The pokemon stood just a few inches shy of its partner’s 5’6 height with its large horns making up a good portion of its stature. “Gogoat, prepare for transport,” she said to the creature before placing a hand on its forehead and giving it a loving stroke. “Gooo~” the Pokemon lowed happily at her touch. There were some that saw their pokemon partner as nothing more than a tool or a weapon, but not Mira. Gogoat was her friend. One of her best friends in truth. She had raised it from a Skiddo into the powerful evolved form it was in today. The love and kinship she felt with Gogoat only fueled the rage she felt towards poachers like Simon. Pokemon weren’t mindless beasts or blood thirsty monsters. They were intelligent and caring creatures. If everything went according to plan today, Simon would be discovering this fact firsthand.

“I’m not riding on that filthy thing!” Simon hissed as Gogoat approached him. The pokemon let out a soft, almost self-conscious bleat at the words. One could tell by looking in its eyes that he understood Simon completely. “That’s fine,” Mira said, striding up beside Gogoat to give him a loving scratch at his cheek. “Gooaa…” the pokemon cried out, appearing to be comforted by the affection of his partner. “I had no intention of allowing you to ride him. He’s not some country fair pontya ride,” she barked back. “Gogoat, use vine whip. Let’s not keep the boys in the lab waiting any longer.”

Twin vines extended from Gogoat’s verdant fur and for a moment Simon thought he was going to be attacked. He braced for the sting of the vine whip against his skin, but it never came. What he did feel was the vines wrapping snuggly around his body and lifting him to his feet. Simon glowered down at the Gogoat, who looked up at him with adamant, but mild eyes. The Pokemon seemed to have little desire to do any form of harm toward Simon. It almost looked too innocent to do so now that he was observing it up close.

A soft bleat was followed by a light tug at the vines that were wrapped around Simon. “Walk,” Mira hissed at the bound criminal. “Gogoat’s trying to be polite, but if you don’t walk with him, he has full permission to drag you.” Gogoat released a small snort of air from his nose, as if trying to convince the man in his vines that he meant business and would do as his partner directed. Simon rolled his eyes, but ultimately complied. It was better than being dragged and even if he didn’t see Pokemon as highly as Mira did, he knew enough to know that a Gogoat was plenty powerful enough to pull, drag, or yank him anywhere it wanted him to go.

Mira, Simon, and Gogoat walked, for the most part, in silence down what seemed like an endless labyrinth of hallways. Wherever they were, the place was devoid of much decoration and instead looked eerily sterile. The way one might imagine the walkways of a military base or secret bunker might be. It was all smooth white walls with the occasional grey door or minimalist sign with a number, letter, or both. Beneath them, nothing more ordinate than a simple tile floor. Simon was silently wishing that they could at least start walking on carpet or down a hall with something decorating its lengths to dampen the rhythmic clopping of Gogoat’s hooves against the tile floor. He looked at Mira, trying to see if she found the sound as annoying as he did, but the officer looked completely unfazed. Likely she was so used to the sound of her partner’s hoof falls that she didn’t even register the clopping as sound at all.

It felt nearly impossible to tell how time had passed while being cooped up in this place. Simon had yet to see a single clock since he woke up here. He had not seen any windows either. It led him to wonder if they were deep beneath the ground or simply just somewhere holding something the staff wanted to keep secret.

In time, Simon had come to count the passage of time by the count of Gogoat’s hooves clopping across the floor. Its pace probably amounted to the rate of half a second per clopping hoof fall. One hundered and twenty clops… one minute, more or less. Even that began to become impossible to keep track of and just when Simon was about to begin complaining about how long the walk was taking, Mira, Gogoat, and himself had stopped outside of a large set of double doors. Beside them, there was a pad with a button which Mira pushed an expertly manicured finger against.

“Office Mira Leone and Gogoat, awaiting entry with Subject, Code Name: Adam,” she stated before pulling back and letting the button move back into its original placement. What had she meant “Adam”? Mira knew Simon’s name. She had stated it when they first met.

“You sure you don’t have the wrong guy, Officer?” Simon purred in an attempt to get a rise out of Mira. “I know you know my name.” Mira simply raised an eyebrow but neglected to fully turn her head to look at him. “Get it out of your system now,” she said ominously. “Once we get started, that grating mouth of yours might just be the first to go.”

The three waited outside the double doors with Simon staring at Mira in confusion. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he hissed. “You planning on ripping my tongue out or sewing my lips shut?” Mira’s eyes narrowed as she kept them trained on the doors. It appeared as though her patience, which she had been quite good at keeping thus so far, was starting to wear thin. “Not in so many words,” she replied simply. “I don’t rightfully know what will happen. This has never been done before.”

More ominous talk. Simon felt as though he should try to coax the woman to keep talking and see if he could get her to slip up and tell him what was awaiting him on the other side of the double doors. If he had asked, she would have told him what was coming, but Simon was so used to working with shady individuals that his method of information collection always came from a position of attempted manipulation or trickery. Luckily for both of them the doors before them began to part and it seemed they would not have to wait much longer.

Beyond the double doors was a large, circular laboratory. Like the rest of building where Simon was being held, the room was completely devoid of windows. Instead, the large room appeared to be lined with flickering machines and computers around its edges with a what looked like a circular stage right at its center. The human would have completely neglected to actually step forward into the lab if not for Gogoat’s vines tugging at him as the pokemon walked past him.

“Finally,” a soft voice spoke in a hopeful tone. “I presume this is our Adam.” Simon’s eyes scanned the room for the origin of the voice, stopping only when they fell upon a figure clad in a lab coat. Another woman stood before him, although nearly half a foot taller than Mira. Her long, red hair was pulled back in a braid giving a full view of her freckled skin and light brown eyes.
“You presume correctly, Professor Rafflesia,” Mira said cordially. The professor’s eyes widened, happily taking in what she hoped would be the catalyst of her decade or so of research. “Tall… not too much excess body fat, but not skin and bones either,” Rafflesia muttered to herself as she paced around Simon in a fashion not too unlike a predatory wildcat sizing up its prey. “A little more body fat would have been preferable, but a perfect specimen rarely exists.” Simon raised an eyebrow and attempted to wriggle free of Gogoat’s vines. He had resigned to being toted around by the oversized barn animal, but the way Rafflesia was looking at him and commenting on his body… It made him terribly uneasy.

“Can I help you, lady?” the man finally barked, tired of being ogled at. Rafflesia paid him no mind. At least not in the form of deigning to reply to him. “If I may ask,” Mira spoke up. “Why would you be looking for a specimen with more fat? I ask simply out of curiosity, of course.” The officer offered a small smile to the professor. She hoped she had to offended her, but after all this time preparing for this case, tracking Simon down, getting the paperwork together, so had grown quite invested in the study that would be the culmination of her assistance.

“Specimen? I have a na—” Simon’s words were cut off as Professor Rafflesia spoke up. “His lack of body fat won’t affect the study negatively. At least I do not predict that it will,” she said, still completely ignoring Simon’s words. “This would just be easier for him… less painful, I predict, if he had some more fat or muscle to burn, but…” Her words trailed off and it appeared she was trying to remember something. “The paperwork!” she squeaked, turning her attention toward Mira. The shorter woman nodded her head politely and passed her the folder in her hands. “It’s all complete and signed,” Mira said warmly. “Your payment was delivered this morning, a few hours before we collected the specimen. Operation Genesis is clear to begin at your convenience.”
The news appeared to delight the professor greatly, although she mostly showed it with her eyes. The honey brown color of them seemed to nearly glisten as she took the folder from Mira. “Let’s not waste a second more then,” she purred before placing the folder upon a nearby desk. “History isn’t made every day, of course.”

The vines around Simon’s body were tugged again and he noticed that Gogoat was attempting to pull him towards the stage in the center of the room. “Can you get this thing to let go of me?” Simon yelled over his shoulder at Mira. “I don’t need to be shepherded around like a child. If you want me on the… thing in the middle of the room, I can get there without the hand holding, for Arceus’ sake.” Mira raised an eyebrow and looked at Gogoat. The pokemon appeared indifferent to Simon’s wants or needs. “Seal the room,” Mira stated to one of the lab assistants that had been fiddling with one of the computers since she entered the lab. “I’ll have Gogoat release him once the area is secure.”

The assistant did as he was told, and the laboratory was sealed. There was way out. At least not unless one could pry the metal doors open.

“We want this to be as natural of an experiment as it can be which is why you are not being sedated,” Mira said. She motioned to Gogoat to let Simon free. “You can be though, and you will if you attempt to run or damage any of the equipment in this lab. Understood?” Gogoat slowly released the criminal wrapped in his vines and trotted to Mira’s side. Simon simply scowled and walked over to the area in the center of the lab.

“Mira, you can stand with me while the experiment is underway,” Professor Rafflesia stated, beckoning the officer to her side behind a glass panel. “I do not suspect the effects of my machine will reach further than the platform where Adam is standing, but I do not wish to press our luck or my deductions.” Mira nodded and began to head to where the professor was. Gogoat trailed behind her, appearing much more like a loyal puppy than a large goat-creature. “Gogoat, honey,” she spoke sweetly. “Thank you for all of your help, but I am going to have you return to your pokeball for now.” Her eyes turned to Simon who stood impatiently on the platform. “Just in case,” she added. “I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.” The pokemon let out a sad bleat, but lowered its head all the same, awaiting his return to his pokeball.

Once Mira took her place beside Professor Rafflesia and the rest of the lab assistants had situated themselves behind their own panes of protective glass, the experiment was ready to be underway.

A buzzing noise echoed through the laboratory before Professor Rafflesia’s voice could be heard booming over the speakers scattered about the area.