FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Good lord.." It was late in the night, and Dr. Laurel, one of Mauville City Pokemon Center's finest in the area of diagnostics, was part of the small group of workers still awake in the labs. He was the man who had been given the task of analyzing my DNA, but as time had gone on, more and more people had noticed what he was doing. The ones who weren't amazed beyond speech had offered him aid in his endeavor.

"Okay..", he said, breaking silence's grasp over the room once again, "Let.. Let me get this straight.. We know he's not completely human, yes?" Wearied heads nodded their agreement. "Look at this." He pointed to one of the many readouts around the room which they had all been occupied with. His finger was directed at a line of text that looked as though it bared no significance, just the same old gibberish.

"What am I supposed to be seeing, Jeff?", said a middle-aged man, face adorned with thick glasses, who sat nearby. He could understand my DNA no more than anyone else in the room, which was still a great deal more than most people, but apparently not as much as Dr. Laurel. "It's just some of the human part of his DNA. That's not what we should be focusing on, don't you think?"

"Exactly!", responded Laurel, his exclamation waking any who had nearly fallen asleep, "That's just what we've been doing; focusing on the pokemon part. That's our mistake! Look closely at this 'human' bit. I have a theory.." Many strained eyes stared blankly on at the readout, only a few displaying the slightest bit of comprehension. Frustrated, Dr. Laurel continued. "Can none of you see it? Really?.. Well, here's my idea: This young man is approximately half-human--"

"What are you talking about? Only five sixteenths of his genetic code is that of a pokemon." He had been cut off by another doctor; an old, brown haired woman this time. Even more frustrated, Dr. Laurel went on.

"If you would kindly let me get to that, Barbara.. Anyway, my hypothesis is that the 'human' DNA that I indicated earlier is, in fact, something else. Every test on the provided blood sample has proven to me that, without a doubt, the boy's mother was entirely human. However, his father seems to be something else; something so close to human that the differences between the genes are almost imperceptible. If you would all just look at the readout one more time.. right about... here."

_ _ _ _ _

"Sir! Sir! I think you should get up! The doctors in diagnostics made a lot of progress with the analysis last night!" The voice belonged to Nurse Joy, who stood yelling from outside my door. Happy to have news, but reluctant to leave my position atop Lapin's stomach, it took a few moments before I woke her up and got out of bed. When we stepped into the hallway, Nurse Joy seemed happier than usual, which is certainly saying something.

She led us into the next hall towards a large, red, black trimmed double-door. Inside was everything I had imagined; screens, scientists, and more screens. "Hello, young man, I take it you're the one who gave us all that hell of a night?" The speaker was a white-clad man, bald as a plucked chicken, with a friendly smile on his face. "I'm Dr. Geoffrey Laurel, the man in charge of the tests." The two of us shook hands.

"Christopher Stidolph. Nurse Joy tells me you made a few discoveries? I hope the news is good." Dr. Laurel seemed to grow a bit more serious when the findings were mentioned, and I hoped that was only his way of being professional about his work. Instead of answering right out, he showed me to one of the larger screens in the room. Luckily for me, the usual complicated green text was absent. In its place was what appeared to be a video.

"Mr. Stidolph, what I'm going to explain to you would be a bit difficult to understand without a bit of visual aid, so I took the liberty of preparing this film." He pressed his finger to the screen, starting the video. A blue, slowly spinning double helix, the shape generally used to represent a portion of DNA, was suddenly displayed on the screen. "This is what part your chromosomes looked like when you first came into the world, Christopher. We obtained this image from the hospital in which you were born, if you're wondering."

He pressed the screen again, and the shape split into two parts, the both of them floating off in two directions and stopping at opposite sides of the screen. "The bit on the left is the genetic code that you obtained from your mother. The bit on the right is what came from your father. And this..", Dr. Laurel explained, pressing the screen once again, "Is what your chromosomes look like now." The piece on the right, from my father, now had a few sections replaced with a red coloration instead of blue.

"As you can see, the DNA from your mother hasn't changed at all. Your father's, however, is being replaced with the pokemon DNA you've been acquiring, represented here in red." Upon being touched once again, the screen zoomed in on my father's portion. "I surmised that everything that's been happening to you has something to do with your father's genetic code. I focused entirely on the human part of it and found a few very, very small discrepancies between it and human DNA."

I was thankful that he hadn't gone into too much detail about the differences. I was on the verge of being lost, as is usually the case with my visits to the doctor as of late.. Still, I felt now was as good a time as any to ask the inevitable question: "Are you saying that my father isn't human?" Dr. Laurel merely shook his head.

"All I'm saying is that I can't be sure, Chris. I've never seen anything like this before, and I doubt anyone else has, either. The only person I think has any chance of being able to explain this to you correctly is your father himself. Furthermore, I believe that the sooner you speak with him, the better, considering the rate at which your chromosomes are being overwritten.."

"Is that all you can tell me, sir?" Laurel nodded. "Well, then I guess I will have a talk with my Dad. Do you have a videophone in this building?", I asked. Laurel informed me that one was in the lobby, and I made for it at once, Lapin right behind me. Luckily we weren't far from it, and reached it in no time. Judging from the light coming through the windows and glass doors, it was still quite early in the morning. This reminded me of just how tired I was, but I felt that sleep could certainly wait.

I found the videophone in the corner of the room, and after a bit of time trying to remember the B&B's number, never having had to dial it myself, I had my mother, mousy as ever, on the screen. "Hey, Mom, is Dad there?", I said into the receiver. She appeared to stare behind me for a moment before responding, visibly sleepy.

"Oh, hello, Chris. Sure, I think he's asleep, but he'd be waking up soon anyway.. But tell me, why's that Lopunny of yours clinging to you like that?" I hadn't noticed it, but Lapin had had her arms around me the entire time. Instead of explaining, I gave Mom a stern look, and she took the hint. She left, and in a few moments, my father came back in her place. He was a balding, corpulent man, with hair as black as mine, but nowhere near as long.

"Hey, kiddo. Um.. your mom told me to ask you about the Lopunny.. Subtly, she said, but whatever." The look in his eyes was one of wisdom. I'd never noticed it before; I had always thought of my father as a bit of an oaf. "Forget it. None of her business, in my opinion. So why did you call? I'm assuming it wasn't just to check up on us."

"No, I've just had a bit of interesting news from a doctor here.. Something I think you might know a thing or two about, Dad." He looked surprised for a moment, but then looked as though he remembered something which he'd forgotten in years passed. I proceeded to tell him everything that Dr. Laurel had told to me, and everything that had happened to me recently, including my relationship with Lapin. I'm sure that, were it anyone else, I wouldn't have mentioned her, but his eyes seemed to be drawing the words right out of me.

"It was only a matter of time, I suppose..", he said, "Son, there's something I've been meaning to tell you.. Bah! I can't lie to you; I never intended to tell you. Chris, like you, I'm not exactly a human being.." He paused, obviously waiting for some sign of surprise on my part. None came. All I did was motion for him to continue. "Really, that's the best you can give me, boy?"

"Well, after Dr. Laurel told me what he had found out, I sort of suspected that." We sat in silence for a moment or two, and when I saw that my father was, in fact, going to keep silent until I at least made the first move, I asked, "So what are you? Laurel's description of your DNA didn't sound at all like a pokemon."

"I'm not going to tell you", he answered. I grunted in frustration, and he continued. "I'll give you a hint, though; I'm just about the best learner on this planet. You're quite lucky to have me as a father, for that fact. You know how you're learning from and copying the beings around you? You being my son, that makes us the only two guys on this world with that power." He paused again.

This time it was Lapin who broke the silence. "Chris, ask him what will happen to you if your DNA keeps getting altered. I don't know what I'd do if something bad happened to you, and I'm sure it'd be hard for our kids without a father.." I was certain there was nothing to worry about, but Lapin seemed to be on the verge of tears. I was just about to convey her question to my Dad when he answered it anyway, surprising us somewhat.

"Oh, no need to worry, my dear", he said. "Eventually, the genetic code Chris got from me will be completely rewritten with that of the people and pokemon he interacts with, but unless he purposefully gives himself bad DNA, he'll be fine. You see, he can be selective about who he wants to copy from and who he doesn't. He can even pick what aspects of the person or pokemon he wants to mimic. Also the smaller and less physical the thing taken is, the less DNA it will replace."

I was in awe. This knowledge made me feel incredible, and it was all I could to to snap out of it and ask him how it was done. "Well, you said you can see aura because of what you took from Celeste, right? That will make the whole process easier. All you have to do is imagine the aura of your target in your mind, and as you do so, focus only on the qualities that appeal to you the most. When they're there in front of you, simply reach out and touch them."

"Dad, that sounds good and all, but up until now I've been getting pokemon DNA involuntarily. Is there a way I could prevent that? I don't want to accidentally overwrite my DNA with things I don't want to have." He explained that I couldn't stop this from happening, but I could remove the parts of me that I didn't want by reversing the process with my own aura. "One last question.. Would it be possible for me to actually.. become a pokemon? Inside and out?"

"You're wondering if you could be a Lopunny, aren't you?.. Sorry, son; your mother is all human, and you'll always look like one. However, you may well pick up a few physical traits of the pokemon who's DNA you absorb, though they will most likely be quite small and hardly noticeable to anyone but you, and you can pick up quite a bit of behavior if you so choose." My mind was busy sorting through everything I had learned today when he spoke again.

"Hmm.. actually.. becoming a full pokemon? I suppose if.." He seemed to be carrying on a conversation with himself. In a moment, he stopped, and suddenly had a large smile plastered on his face. "Son, all I can tell you is to expect the unexpected. If my theory is right, you may one day have your wish, if you want it badly enough. As for me, though, I'm still quite tired. I'll talk to you later, you two. Oh, and before I forget: Congratulations! I can't wait to see my grandkids!" Before I had a chance to say anything, he closed the connection, and I was left staring at a black screen.

Normally, I would have told Celeste, Nexus, Anne, and all her pokemon what I had found out today, but I had a feeling that they wanted to be awake no more than I. Lapin and I went back to our room, falling asleep in just about the same position that we had the night before. I had been told an awful lot about myself in the past hour, but nothing seemed to have changed.

_ _ _ _ _

It was amazing.. everything... I could hear it all so clearly.. I had woken up before Lapin, and I'd decided to test out what my father had explained to me. Where days before I had focused on her voice when I looked at her aura and wound up being able to understand her, this time I focused on Lapin's ears.. That light was there again, and I touched it..

The moment I did, it was like I was forcefully ejected from my own mind, being brought back, quite painfully, to the material world. My head was spinning, and my ears were ringing louder than they ever had before. It was so painful that I fell right out of the bed, slamming my elbow right into the marble floor. I was beginning to think that I might go deaf, but the sharp noise soon died down.

When it did, using my uninjured arm, I stood up. "Chris! Are you alright!? What happened!?", Lapin screamed. I'm sure now that she hadn't actually been screaming, but that's what I thought at the time. I made to go over and hug her, but after taking one step a thought entered my mind; 'Was my foot always that loud?' Indeed, I could hear my foot touching the ground as if it was happening not two feet in front of my face.

"Whoa.. Never knew you could hear like this, Lapin.. Now I get why you hate my alarm clock so much." I could tell she was a little confused, giving me an inquiring look through the half-light of the room. "I tried doing what Dad said", I explained, "And I copied your hearing ability." As if it needed further testing, I moved my hand slowly by my ear. The sound of the wind moving past it was almost as audible as my voice.

"Oh.. sorry for yelling, in that case. I'll try not to do that too much." I proceeded with my original plan, getting back into bed and hugging Lapin to me. I then noticed that I could her her breathing.. That sound easily became the biggest stress reliever in my life. "I wonder, though, how much do you suppose you could copy from me?" I thought for a moment.

"Well, my dad said I wouldn't really be able to copy much physical stuff.. Hold on, let me see something." I had decided to attempt viewing my own aura. I wanted to see what exactly I had copied involuntarily from Lapin, and maybe remove some of the things I didn't need so much. It was fairly easy; all I did was think about myself, and there I was, or at least, there was my aura.

At first, I was wondering how exactly I'd find out what I had copied from Celeste and Lapin, but soon, the knowledge just came to me, out of nowhere. I came to the conclusion that, somewhere in my subconscious, that information was kept at the ready for just such an occasion. This list of abilities I had gained was fairly small: There was my control of my subconscious during my sleep and the ability to see aura that I had gotten from Celeste, and Lopunny speech as well as my newly heightened sense of hearing from Lapin.

I surmised that the reason such a large chunk of my DNA was that of a Lopunny was because I had copied so much behavior. Getting the hang of this a bit, I tried taking away some of the behavior I didn't really need; I found that I had copied behavior regarding foraging, migration, and even the need to mate and form new colonies.. Things like that may be important for a wild pokemon, but they were all but useless to someone like me.

Removing them was as simple as my father had made it sound; I imagined the qualities as being separate from the rest of me, grabbed them, and yanked them away. The behavior I had left all dealt with things I thought Lapin would have wanted me to keep. For example, she seemed to like it whenever I let out a little noise here and there, so I left myself with the natural reactions a Lopunny would use. I also left any behavior having to do with attraction or shows of affection, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Satisfied with my tweaking, I opened my eyes once again. To any outside observer, Lapin hadn't changed a bit since I'd closed them, but I saw her in a new light. It wasn't that I felt she had gotten any more beautiful; it was that her figure seemed to be just what I wanted. Whereas another human might think her feet were too ssmall to be appealing, or that her ears almost comically large, she suddenly suited my own tastes perfectly. "Everything alright, Chris?", she asked.

"Mmm.. You have no idea.." I leaned in and gave her the longest kiss yet, taking my time, enjoying the touch of her fur against my lips and the sweet scent of her body. I broke it only to place my head upon Lapin's chest and listen to her heart beat. The thought of hearing its rhythmic pulsing along with her slow breathing was just as enticing to me as the thought of mating with her, but neither were to be.

"Mr. Stidolph? Dr. Laurel was wondering if you found anything out; you left all of us hanging." It was the voice of a man, no doubt one of the many scientists in the diagnostics department, coming through the door. I was almost angry, and when I made to get up I found it quite hard to let go of Lapin. Luckily, I didn't have to, as she readily got up and stood next to me as we left the room.

_ _ _ _ _

"Ah, Christopher! Was your father able to tell you anything?" Dr. Laurel had on a friendly smile. He was his same, kindly-seeming self. For some reason, though, I felt like hurting him. I supposed that it was one of those Lopunny reactions; my time with Lapin had been interrupted rather abruptly, after all. I think that my face must have been revealing the feeling, as Laurel certainly took notice. "..Did I send for you at a bad time, Mr. Stidolph?"

"Yes, sort of, but don't worry about it. As for my father; I was right in assuming that he wasn't human, but all he would tell me about what he was involved him being 'the world's best learner'. Here's what I know for sure, though.." I recounted what my Dad had said about our abilities, and Dr. Laurel was listening in what appeared to be a silent amazement the entire time. I also began to explain my testing of my abilities, but, as always, it was hard finding words for experiences like that.

"So you found that you really can control your DNA?", Laurel asked, after I was finished. I told him yes, to a point, and he continued. "You know, I'm having a thought here.. Your abilities are contained in your chromosomes, right? If we can isolate your father's DNA within your own and copy it, we might be able to give it to other people. A breakthrough like this could easily be implemented for the betterment of mankind, Chris. With your permission, I'd like to begin testing this hypothe--"

"No", I responded, shocking Dr. Laurel a bit, "Sir, with all due respect, this is the type of thing I want to keep in the family." Laurel was getting a bit frustrated. He probably thought that I was being selfish or something. I could tell that he wanted to try and convince me, or maybe even tell me off, but I continued before he could say anything. "Dr. Laurel, think about it; I can easily copy things as complicated as behavior and mental abilities from my pokemon. I'm sure their moves would be even simpler to duplicate for myself."

"What are you getting at? Wouldn't that be a good thing? Imagine it, you're a defenseless shopkeeper, and an armed robber comes through your front door. You have to options; give up your hard-earned money, or die, and lose everything. Now, imagine if you could use a move like Protect, and be impervious to bullets. You would easily have the upper hand." For a scientist, he wasn't thinking very logically. Or at least, not very humanely.

"And what would it do to the pokemon, Dr.? Right now, they're stronger than humans. If it weren't for our technology, any rampaging pokemon could overpower an entire town, if it so desired. Their abilities are all they have left, and if we take that from them, what will become of them? Where now they're our friends and allies, they would become no better than house pets, or worse. No, Geoffrey, I'll be keeping this power to myself; I have to much respect for pokemon to let that happen." Laurel silently mulled over my sentiments.

"..Yes.. Yes, you're right. I suppose it would be best to keep this all to yourself.. Oh! I have a present for you. Hold on a moment." Dr. Laurel got up and went over to a nearby counter-top. A metal container was atop it, and he searched through it for a few moments before pulling out a small, yet thick, brown disk with a small hole on one side and a screen on top. "Here we are. I think you'll find this quite useful, Mr. Stidolph; it's a blood tester. I made a few modifications on it to let you see how much of your DNA is made up of.. well.. whatever its made up of."

He handed it to me, and I noticed just how simple its design was. It had a button which I assumed turned it on, and next to that two arrow-shaped buttons, one pointing up and the other pointing down, no doubt for scrolling through whatever comes up on the screen. I pressed the button, and, to my surprise, a needle shot out of the hole and into my hand. It retracted back into the disk in the blink of an eye. "The hell?"

"It's based off of very old designs for diabetes testers, you know, before a cure was developed. I trust it was rather painless, though. Anyway, the results should come up on the screen any moment." Sure enough, a couple seconds later, a few percentages appeared on the screen. They read 'Human 75.54%', 'Lopunny 17.64%', and 'Riolu 6.82%'. "Hm, just as I'd suspected", said Laurel, "It isn't advanced enough to tell the difference between your human DNA and your father's. Oh well, just try to remember that your percentage of human DNA is actually 49.97%. That information might come in handy."

"Thank you for all of your help, Dr. Laurel. I think it's about time we get going, though. Anne probably won't want to wait much longer in getting to Fortree than she has to. Maybe we'll meet again someday." We shook hands, and Lapin and I made for the door. We stepped through, but not before Dr. Laurel said his goodbye.

"I'm sure we will, Mr. Stidolph. Farewell!" The instant the doors to the diagnostics department closed, Dr. Laurel's smile suddenly faded. He turned to his co-workers with a commanding air, and spoke. "Everyone, I want to see some progress on copying that DNA sequence. I'm not about to deny mankind more power just because some humane bastard thinks it'll be bad for a bunch of lesser beings!"

_ _ _ _ _

To be continued.

_ _ _ _ _

This chapter was mostly to build plot. The next will definitely have more action and, most likely, lovin'.