AN: I will try and keep future Author Notes to a minimum, but as this is the beginning of a new story, I wanted to make some things clear from the get-go. The rating on this story was tricky for me. I wanted to try and make my writing accessible to as large an audience as possible, but with some of the more adult themes being addressed, chiefly some descriptions of violence, I didn't quite feel comfortable with a 'T' rating. If you, the readers, feel that this writing would be acceptable in that rating bracket, please let me know so that I can make the appropriate changes. However, until then, this will remain a 'M' rating work due to the violence. Why am I being so explicit about the rating stemming from the violence? There are basically three things that will give a story a 'M' rating. Violence, swearing, and sex. I've decided to include violence in my story because I think it adds a weight to my story that benefits it, however, you are free to disagree and tell me so. It is a personal belief of mine that swearing is indicative of a limited vocabulary and unimaginative individual. I consider my vocabulary above average and my imagination quite active and as such, try to avoid swearing except where, again, my story benefits. You are, again, encouraged to share your thoughts on that. Lastly, sex. I will only say that often times, our individual imagination does a much better job than most writers will be able to manage on this website. I do not encourage discussion on this topic, at least not here and in the open. On to better things.

This story was born of a desire to have a more 'grown up' story that takes place in the Pokemon universe that doesn't revolve around Ash Ketchum and his decidedly 'not grown up' character. I mean, I've been watching the guy for near a decade now and he hasn't aged very much behaviorally or physically since the first day I saw him. There are great stories about Ash and it's undeniable he has his altruistic and grown up moments, but I wanted to have a fresh start and an OC is the best way to do that. I've also always had a thing for eevee and all the eeveelutions there are and wanted a story that helped explain some of the oddities that apply to my favorite pokemon. To my knowledge, the 'facts' presented in my story are not official and shouldn't be treated as such. It goes without saying that I do not represent any entity that owns Pokemon, so everything presented in this work shouldn't be taken as fact unless you feel like modeling your own head-canon after anything I present. This story will stick to first person narrative for its entirety, so if that isn't your jam, I'm sorry, but #dealwithit. That isn't to say that it will be a static perspective though...

Finally, before I let you loose on a story that has been in development for over a year and still isn't done at the time of this writing, I wish to thank you for any time you put in to my work. Whether you review or not, the time you spend reading over the words I've written means a lot to me and I appreciate any additional energy you expend in leaving a review or sending me a message or, for those of you bold enough to do it, telling your friends. Now, without further flowery introduction, I give you my story, Borrowed Heritage.

[CHAPTER 1: The Woman]

Cynic.

I sighed and uncrossed my arms as I leaned off the white wall I had been resting against. I took a quick glance towards the electronic display next to the door I had been waiting by for thirty minutes now.

LOCKED

I sighed again, though no one was around to hear my contemptuous heavy breaths, so I wasn't even sure why I was making the effort. I walked up to the large one-way window that looked down into the artificial habitation. From this level in the lab, I had a good view of the entire habitation space. Despite the distracting view, the five letter word popped back into my thoughts.

Cynic.

"Well, when you've seen what I have, maybe we can talk…" I muttered to myself as I watched a couple of pokemon dart through some foliage.

Our lab currently studies over a hundred different species of pokemon, all of them quadrupedal. As a rule, we try to have a male and female of each of those species to act as both a practical balance to our research projects and a physiological balance to the actual pokemon themselves. And then there are some species where pack or heard mentality is also a study point. Basically, there are a lot of pokemon at our facility, and well over a third of them are rescues. The situation or circumstances of those rescues may be just as varied as pokemon biodiversity, but the root cause of nearly every single one of them is identical.

A human.

Cynic? No. If labels must be handed out, then mine should be that of a realist. I took another glance back at the electronic display beside the door.

UNLOCKED

"About time," I muttered to myself, walking over to the door and entering the code. A pleasant chime sounded as it quickly slid open to let me into the sterile-smelling room.

"If you were as prompt at bringing the specimens here as you were with removing them, your evaluations from me just might shoot up a few points," a woman in a pristine lab coat remarked from a large stainless steel sink in a corner of the room. I pressed my lips firmly together to keep from replying, instead choosing to quickly scan the room for the two eevee the woman had been researching. I quickly spotted the couple, a sylveon and flareon, lying motionless in the cage I had been forced to bring them in.

"Relax, they're just sedated," the woman casually told me as she threw her long auburn hair over her shoulder. Regardless, I hurriedly made my way over to the cage, relaxing only once I saw the slight movement of breathing from the two pokemon. I lifted the cage gently from the counter and placed it onto the cart that was still in the room from when I had brought the eevee's up.

"You know," the woman began as she started walking toward me, her heels clacking loudly against the clean, white tiled floor, "that's easily over a hundred pounds. You must be pretty strong to handle it as deftly as you do."

"Occupational necessity," I replied tersely and professionally as I crouched down, making a point to focus on securing the cage to the cart and not look at the woman I knew was right behind me. "There's some things you just have to develop during the course of this job."

"Is a cold personality one of them?" the woman asked coquettishly. I stopped my fiddling with the securing straps, my ploy at trying to seem busy failing to keep me from a conversation I really didn't want to have. Especially with this particular person.

"No," I replied as I stood up and turned around. "Why do you do this, Yovana?"

"Is it so hard to believe that someone might find you-"

"I mean this," I reiterated, gesturing to the two eevee in the cage by my feet. "You're the only one who requests I bring the pokemon to your lab in a cage. The only one who sedates them every time. The only one who locks their door for every session." The woman was silent for a few moments, her previously flirtatious behavior gone.

"What are you implying?" she finally asked, her tone now one of cold professionalism.

"I'm implying nothing," I replied evenly, not breaking eye contact. We stared each other down for another couple of moments before the lab's paging system suddenly broke the silence in the room.

"Shinen Abe, your presence is requested in the Hab. Shinen Abe, to the Hab."

"Sounds like you're needed somewhere else," Yovana said at last, her voice still professional, but not as bone chilling cold as it had been only a few moments ago. "I'll let you get to it." With that, she walked away from me towards a computer terminal, her heels seeming to clack even louder in the silent room. I wasted no time pushing the cart with the two eevee's out of the room and through the halls, taking the shortest route to the artificial habitat I knew. Along the way, the sylveon, Yumi, and his flareon mate, Moeru, finally woke up from their drug induced sleep.

"Hey guys," I greeted as they sleepily took stock of their situation. "Just a little bit longer, you're almost home," I explained as Moeru gave a quiet mew, looking at the cage and then me. As soon as I was in the Hab, I opened the cage door and gave the two eevee a handful of berries. "Sorry about that," I said as I gave each of them a quick head rub and scratch behind the ears. "I've got to go and see what they need me for. Go find a quiet place to eat those berries," I encouraged, giving the sylveon a playful wink. I wasn't sure if the fairy type could even begin to understand my innuendo, but didn't stick around to see.

I began jogging through the trees and bushes to find where I was needed. It didn't take long before I found a group of people murmuring to each other.

"Hey, did you guys page for me?" I asked as I drew close to the group.

"Shin! Thank goodness! We were starting to worry you had gone home sick or something," Henry said as he ushered me forward.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked concernedly as I began looking around frantically.

"It's the new absol, Hanta," Henry began nervously. "It was getting near feeding time for him and Karie, but when Alyssa came out here to feed them, she found this," he finished, pointing over towards a clearing about ten meters away. I quickly and silently made my way towards the open area, the rest of the group sticking back as they tended to do whenever there was an issue with any of our dark types. Once I reached the small opening in the trees, I almost laughed once I realized what was going on.

Hanta was new to the Hab, though that didn't mean he was a baby. He, like Karie, our female absol, were both considered 'young adults'. However, the difference between the two wasn't their age but upbringing. While Hanta was what we liked to call a retiree, a pokemon a trainer no longer used but was too domesticated to be released into the wild, Karie was one of our rarer 'wild rescues'. She had been found after a particularly nasty storm, a broken tree branch impaled in her side that would've killed her if she hadn't been found and brought to our lab when she had been. She had long since made a full recovery and was currently on our list for eligible pokemon to be adopted, but not many trainers or families could handle her wild personality. In fact, not many at the lab could handle her personality either. We had tried releasing her to the wild numerous times, but she seemed intent on staying at the lab.

With their different histories, the two often were at odds with each other. Normal 'wild' behaviors Karie was used to were completely foreign to Hanta and the male was too ingrained in his trainer upbringing to learn. For instance, while bearing ones teeth and brandishing your scythe-like horn with a low growl, all while wagging ones tail are indications for a playful fight in the wild, they're easily misinterpreted threats to any trainer-raised pokemon. Hanta clearly knew who was the more experienced fighter and was lying low before Karie in a form of submission. But Karie wanted to play and wasn't going to stop until she got what she wanted.

"Well, if that's what you want," I chuckled softly to myself, unstrapping a six inch utility blade from my belt. It wouldn't be the first time I served as Karie's playmate, and as long as Hanta was around, it probably wouldn't be the last.

"Hey, Karie!" I called out to the absol, who quickly spun around to face me, immediately noticing the knife in my hand and taking up her challenging position again. My smile grew as I lowered myself to a fighting position and began to circle the absol who followed my every move with her bright red eyes. Hanta seized his opportunity and fled the clearing, leaving the two of us to face off undisturbed.

Just as she always would, Karie was the first to charge me, her horn glowing a dull white. I raised my blade and deflected her blow, giving her a solid shove with my shoulder as she barreled past me. We quickly faced each other again, the absol rearing on her hind legs to get up to my height and leverage her weight. Before she could tackle me with the full force of her controlled fall, I rushed forward and tackled her, causing her to unbalance and fall on her side. I tried to jump out of range of her before she recovered, but underestimated her speed and extra appendage, falling as she swept at my feet with her tail.

I lost the grip on my blade and fell to the ground with a solid thud. To add insult to injury, Karie quickly jumped up on top of me and refused to move despite my violent thrashing to try and get her off. After a few moments, I gave up and just stayed sandwiched between the absol and the ground, letting my mind wander and wonder about what Yovana was up to. She had only ever wanted to work with our eevee, and through my stonewalling, had only been able to work with Yumi and Moeru. I wasn't sure what she was researching or studying, but I didn't want the pair's single offspring involved in it. Not to be forgotten about or ignored, Karie gave a low growl, breaking me from my thoughts.

"You going to let me get up now?" I asked, giving the absol's head a quick rub. Placated, the pokemon got off and waited until I had re-sheathed my dropped blade before she came to my side and nudged my hand.

"Hungry now, huh?" I asked to which the absol gave a small nod. I smiled and began to make my way back to the group that had been waiting in the trees.

"Shin, what happ- Behind you!" Alex, one of the people who had waited in the shade, shouted as I approached with the absol behind me.

"It's fine," I said, waving away everyone's fears before giving Karie another quick head rub. "Where did Alyssa leave their food?" I asked Henry as everyone continued to give the absol weary glances.

"She, uh, w-went after Hanta with it after he fled," Vivian, a fellow handler stuttered as she glanced between Karie and I. Unfazed by the woman's irrational fear of the absol, I nodded my understanding and went in the direction Hanta had fled.

Once Karie and I were out of range of the others, I let out yet another sigh. It bugged me how many people had misconceptions about dark types and how many more acted out on those misconceptions.

"Am I cynical, Karie?" I asked the absol as we walked through the vegetation that Hanta had ran through. The absol made a noise, almost like a small whine, prompting me to glance down at the pokemon beside me to see it looking right back at me. "Right, food first, psychological introspection later."

"Shin?" a female voice suddenly called out. "Was that you?" I changed my heading towards where the voice had come from and after walking through some particularly thick plants, found Alyssa and Hanta.

"Ah, there's Karie," Alyssa said with a friendly smile as the female absol came over to where Alyssa had poured out some food for Hanta. Alyssa quickly poured some more food for Karie before the female absol challenged Hanta for what was left. Alyssa was one of the only other handlers who weren't afraid to at least interact with our few dark types, endearing her somewhat to many of them. "Thanks for dealing with Karie again," Alyssa said as we left the two Absol to eat. "I don't want to think what would've happened if you hadn't shown up."

"She probably would've just vented on some tree again," I replied, thinking back to an occasion where Karie hadn't had me to substitute as her dueling partner and had instead attacked one of our larger trees, resulting in one less tree in the Hab. "That was a good tree too…" I muttered.

"What was that?" Alyssa asked, not quite catching my muttering.

"Nothing," I quickly replied.

"Right, well, regardless, I'm glad you were able to save a tree today if nothing else," Alyssa laughed. She took a quick glance at her watch, causing her eyebrows to rise a little. "Wow, time sure flies when you're dealing with those two." I took a glance at my own wrist and saw it was about time for my shift to end, along with most of the other Hab caretakers. "Oh," Alyssa suddenly exclaimed, remembering something. "Before I forget again, Osborne said he'd like to see you before you head out for the day." I quirked my eye brow questioningly, but Alyssa just gave an unknowing shrug.

"Guess I should head over to him then," I replied giving a small sigh. It was probably in my best interest to visit the overseer of the lab if he had wanted to see me before I left today.

After saying goodby to Alyssa, I headed over to the male locker room and changed out of my work clothes, making sure to stop by Osborn's office before leaving.

"Sir, Alyssa said you wanted to see me?" I asked after knocking on the door frame of the open office.

"Ah, Shin! Yes, yes. Come in and have a seat. Grab the door on your way in if you wouldn't mind. Some tea?" the man asked as he got up from his chair and headed towards a coffee table he had set up in one of the corners of the room.

"No thanks," I declined as I shut the door behind me, making my way to a chair that was across from the man's desk. Osborn quickly finished making himself some herbal brew before coming back to sit behind his desk. After a quick sip of his steaming tea, the man steepled his fingers and took a long look at me.

"Let me start by saying that you aren't in any kind of trouble," the man said after noticing how worried my face appeared.

"The fact that has to even be said-"

"I know," Osborn nodded before repeating himself a little more softly, more to himself than anything. "I know." After another moment and another sip of tea, he resumed speaking. "She really doesn't like you, which makes all of this that much stranger. I've never had a single complaint about you until she showed up. In fact, over seventy percent of our employee review critiques were positive ones about you. Still are, by the way, but you've been getting a negative one weekly on the dot since she showed up. So whats up? Why is it that Yovana dislikes you so much?"

What could I say? That the woman and I had different viewpoints on how research should be conducted on pokemon? I may know the best way to calm down a frenzied tauros or nurse a newborn aron, but out of Yovana and I, she had a degree on pokemon research. Supposedly. For the billionth time, I sighed at my small dilemma.

"Well," I began, deciding to just spill it all. Osborn wasn't my psychiatrist, not that I had one anyways, but he was my boss. If I was out of line for the attitude I was giving Yovana, then maybe we could do something to make it so I didn't have to work with her. If, however, it was Yovana who was out of line…

So I spent the next half hour laying out my case against Yovana. All the things she did that I just didn't agree with, from her sedation of the eevee she worked with, to the secretive nature she maintained with her research, even bringing up the way she required me to bring the eevee to her in a cage. I could see that most of what I was telling Osborn was news to him, his eyebrows raising at some of the things that Yovana had me do or that she did herself. Once I had finished, the man took a deep breath and leaned back in his plush armchair.

"Well," the man said after a pregnant pause. "I can see why you two don't get along." After another moment of thinking, the man nodded to himself about something and turned back towards me. "Well, after everything you just shared, I don't think you have anything to worry about. I'm going to have a talk with Yovana tomorrow and see if we can't change some of her practices." I was doubtful that Yovana would listen to even Osborn, but I wasn't about to tell the man that. If he wanted to at least try diplomacy, I wasn't going to stop him. We exchanged good-bye's and after I double checked that the night crew was good, I left for home.

I wasn't even inside my house for three seconds before I was greeted with a happy 'kin' from Kogeta, the fennekin my ex-girlfriend had left behind after finding out the pokemon was more attached to me than herself, something that hadn't helped our already rocky relationship. After dropping off my bag near the door, I stepped into my kitchen and whipped up a quick meal for Kogeta and myself. That evening I fell asleep a little easier than I normally did, believing that Yovana would soon be gone from my life.

The next morning I woke up with Kogeta sleeping peacefully at the foot of my bed. I carefully got out to begin my day, being mindful not to disturb the Fennekin. When my morning routine was nearly complete, Kogeta wandered out of my room like clockwork to give me a quick departing 'kin' before I left for the lab.

Once I stepped through the doors of my workplace though, I could tell today would be a rough one. A strange quiet fell as I walked through the front lobby and then the male locker rooms to get changed. I noticed a few angry looks from some of the other guys and for the life of me I couldn't figure out the reason until I began my work, starting with refilling some of the golden hay in our stable area for the larger animals.

"Is it true?"Alyssa asked, stepping out from behind a pair of sawsbucks that had been eating from a freshly refilled trough.

"Is what true?" I asked, slightly confused yet hopeful that Alyssa might know what all the strange attitudes might've been caused by.

"They're saying that you got Yovana fired."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. I knew that Osborn would do something, he had always been a man of his word, but I definitely hadn't been expecting Yovana to get the sack in less than 12 hours. After my initial shock, I couldn't help but sport a little grin earning a slight frown from Alyssa.

"Are you really smiling about this? Someone's losing their job!"

"I know, and under normal circumstances, I'd be just as upset as I'm sure you are. But in this case, for this woman, I just can't help but feel like things will be better with her gone." For a moment, Alyssa looked like she was about to storm off and give me the same treatment that everyone else had been giving me since the start of the day. And I would've been fine with that. I didn't need anyone on my side for this. I wasn't getting this woman out of here because of some disagreement between the two of us, but because it was the best thing for the pokemon I worked with and cared for. But something either in my tone or face had been genuine enough for Alyssa to grow some doubt.

"What do you mean by that?" the woman asked hesitantly, lingering near the large deer pokemon, absently beginning to stroke the flank of the animal much to its delight. I began to explain everything that I had noted about the woman and her treatment of the pokemon we looked after. Slowly, Alyssa's look of skepticism was replaced by shock and then something of a righteous anger I hadn't ever really seen on her face before.

"I can't believe I've never noticed," the girl said as she finished giving the sawsbuck beside her its impromptu massage.

"You probably wouldn't have," I tried reassuring her as I began to move to my next task, Alyssa following my lead. "Yovana only really works with the eevee."

"Well then, it's no wonder you noticed when no one else had," Alyssa half laughed. "Those eevee only ever let you near them." I opened my mouth to tell my co-worker differently, but after a moment, I really couldn't recall the last time anyone besides me had handled any of the eevee.

"Huh," I muttered dumbly, realizing Alyssa was right.

"Seems like I'm not the only unobservant one," Alyssa giggled. We ended up doing most of our morning chores together, chatting about things as various pokemon watched us. There had been a moment where Yumi had come out of some bushes and walked around Alyssa and I. Alyssa had gone silent when she spotted the sylveon walking around us. I crouched down and took out a few berries I always carried with me, holding them out for the sylveon to take. Yumi carefully extended his feelers out, using two to take and carry his bounty and another to brush against my hand as a kind of thanks.

"Do you know the story behind Yumi's arrival?" Alyssa asked after a moment of extended silence once Yumi left. I shook my head indicating I hadn't. Yumi and Moeru had been here since I started working, their eevee offspring though, I had been there for that. Alyssa on the other hand, had been here a year or two before I arrived and knew some stories I still hadn't heard.

"Yumi, back when he was still an eevee, used to be owned by a young male trainer," Alyssa began as we continued to walk towards the 'arctic' area of the Hab, the temperature steadily dropping as we continued on. "The trainer knew that in order to evolve an eevee into an umbreon, you needed to befriend them and train them at night as often as possible." I nodded in understanding. It was pretty common for owners of an eevee to seek to evolve them to a specific type of the many different variations there were. I had always thought that if I had an eevee, I would've just trained it and be surprised by what it decided to evolve into, if anything. However, I was pulled from my personal musings by Alyssa continuing her story as we came up to a tree that had a concealed locker inside it for some winter coats so we wouldn't freeze in the cold environment we were entering.

"However, I guess the trainer did too good a job trying to become the eevee's friend," Alyssa said with a mirthless chuckle as she grabbed coats for the two of us. "His eevee ended up evolving into a sylveon. The trainer was pretty upset that his only eevee ended up looking like a 'doll' and abandoned it." Alyssa stopped walking for a moment and looked down at her feet. "Can you imagine," she almost whispered. "Being loved, and then once you show it, you're abandoned." I stopped walking and looked at Alyssa as she continued looking down at her feet. Suddenly she spun around and looked back at me.

"Did you know you're the only human Yumi's touched with his ribbons since then?" I raised my eyebrow at her sudden declaration. Alyssa seemed to suddenly become embarrassed at something she had said. "I'm sorry, I... I don't know why I even started going on about any of this," she stuttered, turning back around and walking off faster than she had been before.

"It's okay," I quickly replied, not sure what else to say to everything she had said. There was a lot to process without trying to understand why Alyssa had suddenly got all bashful. The woman in front of me gave a single, quick nod without turning back around. We finished up our work in the arctic area and separated for lunch, Alyssa saying she had made plans to eat with another one of her co-workers. I went back to the locker room, enduring some more resentful stares while I grabbed my lunch. Once I was back in the Hab, I went to my favorite secluded spot and began to eat my simple meal.

Technically, eating or otherwise 'hanging out' in the Hab was frowned upon. The lab wanted to keep the Hab as authentic and true to nature as possible to keep any tests accurate. But even trainers eat and sleep out in the open sometimes, so if anything, I was helping increase the realism with my small rule-breaking. However, eating in the Hab does present some challenges if you're not careful. In the middle of my meal, a rustling bush announced the arrival of Karie, who, as soon as she recognized me, began to playfully growl and lower herself for a quick tackle should I rise to her challenge. Almost any other time, I'd be pulling out my knife for a quick play break, but I was in the middle of eating and really didn't feel like interrupting the flow of my meal.

Answering my prayer for peace, Yumi showed up and as soon as Karie noticed the fairy type, settled back down and walked off. I let out a small sigh of relief and looked over at Yumi who I swore had a small smile with the way his two pointed teeth were showing.

"Thanks bud," I said with a gentle smile, reaching into my shirt pocket to pull out the rest of the berries I had been carrying around. But instead of coming to take them, the sylveon gave a soft call over his shoulder. Out from the bushes ran Hibiki, the eevee child of Yumi and Moeru. Hibiki came right up to my hand with the berries in it and was quickly trying to get to the treats just out of her reach. Just as I was getting ready to play with her however, my attention was once again pulled back to the bush she had just emerged from.

Out from the bush came the rarest sight I had ever seen, a silver haired eevee.

The small eevee gingerly made its way towards me, seemingly just as unsure of me as I was of them. Moeru closely followed her child before stopping to sit next to Yumi who was watching as his two children interacted with me. I felt afraid to move too much, and even if I hadn't been, my brain was shouting so many questions that I probably couldn't have done more than stare blankly as the silver eevee came up to my hand that was still being attacked by Hibiki.

"Well, hey there," I said once I finally got some of my faculties back. I finally lowered my hand, allowing the two eevee to get to the berries I was holding. I looked back up towards Yumi and Moeru who had both chosen to lay in the grass near by. Both parents were watching me, and I could feel the protective intent clearly from Moeru who was being stroked every so often by one of Yumi's ribbons. I looked back down at the two eevee busy snacking on the berries I had just given them. This was the first time I had seen the second young eevee and I was still trying to figure out how Yumi and Moeru had hidden their extremely rare child from everyone at the lab and why they were just now showing them off to me.

"What's your name?" I asked the silver eevee as they finished up their berry. I gingerly reached out and gave the small eevee a gentle rub. The initial touch made them jump at first, but once they realized I wasn't trying to harm them, the eevee leaned into my hand heavily. Not to be ignored, Hibiki quickly nuzzled her way into my other hand as well. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as the two eevee continued to nuzzle into my hands as I rubbed their heads.

"Guess I'll need to come up with one for you soon," I spoke gently as I stopped giving the two young eevee attention and began to pick up the remainder of my lunch. The two youngsters seemed somewhat discontent that their heads were no longer being rubbed, but Moeru quickly rounded up the two children and disappeared into the nearby growth, not dawdling now that my introduction to the silver haired eevee was complete. Yumi remained for a moment, watching me pack up.

"Don't worry bud," I said, noticing the sylveon's stare. "I'm not going to blab about your kid."

As if he had been waiting for me to say so, Yumi seemed to nod his head before jumping into the bushes after his family.

The rest of the day was touch and go, with a lot of people still giving me sidelong glances and whispers silencing themselves when I approached. I had never really been close to anyone I worked with, so the treatment didn't hurt me as much as it probably could have, especially since I knew that at least one other handler was on my side. Still, it was enough of a downer to cause me to not be as punctual with some of my tasks, forcing me to be caught staying later than most of the other employees. I was just finishing up one of my last tasks in the dimming light of the Hab as it began to shift to night cycle when I heard a loud, distressed mew from the far side of the expansive room.

It was well past quitting time, and with it being a Friday, most people had left even earlier to start their weekends with an extra couple of hours. I frowned as the sound came again, sounding more distressed this time, if that was even possible. It was rare, but sometimes small fights occurred between the different pokemon at the Hab. Deciding to break up whatever was happening before it got too serious, I quickly made my way towards where I had heard the noises coming from. As I got closer, the distressed cries became more frequent and recognizable, putting a real fear in my heart as I realized it was Moeru who was calling out. Just as my panic began to peak, the cries suddenly turned from distressed to angry. A split second later, a large ball of fire came from ten meters away, the heat and light so intense it caused me to dive down to the cool dirt. After a second, I lifted my head from the moist soil and looked back towards where the fire attack had come from. I quickly realized this was no small squabble between pokemon.

Standing in the middle of a smoldering circle of charred vegetation was a person wearing a full black suit of armor and helmet that, other than some slight smoldering, looked unaffected by the intense fire attack it had just been hit with. Quick as lightning, the figure pulled some kind of gun shaped weapon from a holster on their hip and began to train it on the flareon that had just attacked them.

"STOP!" I shouted, breaking from my stunned silence and leaping up from my prone position on the ground, simultaneously beginning to undo the strap that held my utility blade in place. The figure was thrown off by my shouting and when they discharged their weapon, the ground beside Moeru broke apart from whatever had been shot. The flareon hissed in pain, but quickly limped into some of the bushes that weren't burnt behind it. The figure quickly spun around to face me, wielding their gun shaped weapon, but I had my utility knife out now and was close enough to knock the weapon from their surprised grip. However, the suited figure wasn't caught off guard for long because they quickly followed up with their other hand and punched the side of my face hard enough for me to fall down to the ground. I tried to scramble back up to face the dangerous person, but found them already reaching for their weapon to quickly train it back on me. However, before they could fire, Moeru leapt out of the bushes she had retreated into, biting the arm of our attacker.

The person cried out in pain but maintained their grip on their gun and swung their arm like a club into the ground, further injuring the flareon. Wounded and winded, Moeru could barely try to stand up before the figure leveled their weapon to the fire type eevee.

"NO!" I shouted out, reaching towards the two as the weapon discharged, causing the pokemon to go limp and still. For a moment, the burnt out clearing was silent save for the slight crackle of still smoldering grass and bush.

I felt a great welling of anger and grief inside me at the sight of Moeru and gave a primal shout as I sprung up and charged the armored figure with my knife clenched tightly in my fist. Their weapon discharged twice as I ran towards them, pain erupting in my left arm and right thigh, but I continued charging, smacking the person right in the torso, flinging their weapon from their grip. I tried to lash out with my knife, but my hand was quickly smacked away before I could land any hits. I instead tried using my other hand to punch the person in their side. I heard the person give another grunt of pain, but before I could celebrate, I got kicked in the side feeling my bones give to the strong force. I fell to the ground, the knife I had clung to flying from my hands. I watched the metal blade land out of reach and skid to a halt before the pink and white slender feet of Yumi. The clearing once again became as silent as a tomb as the sylveon looked first at me, then my attacker, and finally, his fallen mate.

The only warning I had to avert my gaze was the slight twitch in Yumi's feelers. I quickly closed my eyes and turned my head as a sudden flash of light filled the dark evening clearing followed by a massive burst of force. I tried to get up and help Yumi take on our attacker, but the injury to my thigh caused me to wince and hiss painfully before I collapsed back to the ground. Yumi wasn't waiting for either me or the stumbling black suited figure to recover, following up his dazzle gleam with swift as a series of energetic bursts came from where he was standing and each one connecting cleanly with the black suited figure.

This attacker had prepared for this battle though. The same armor that had resisted Moeru's flamethrower seemed to also be resisting everything Yumi was throwing at it. Though the figure was stumbling about with each impact, they clearly weren't going to be taken out by it. During a lull in Yumi's assault, the figure lunged at their dropped weapon, quickly fiddling with the device. Before they could train it on either Yumi or I however, a small silver torpedo launched itself at the figures fumbling hands. There was a cry of pain as the silver eevee child bit the figures fingers, latching itself onto their hands even as the black armored figure desperately tried to fling them off as they had with Moeru.

Yumi broke out of his shock before I could and ran forward with a desperate cry I hadn't heard from him before, knowing that his child didn't stand a chance against this person. The sylveon deftly bounded towards the figures legs, tripping them up with a combination of his feelers and legs. Once his opponent was on the ground, he wasted no time trying to go for the persons neck. I broke myself from watching the desperate struggle and began to crawl towards my dropped knife, knowing I would hate myself if I didn't try and get back into this fight. However, once I reached the blade, I heard a sickening wooden smack and for the third time that night, the clearing descended into a deathly silence.

I turned back towards where the action had been and saw that Yumi was now looking at the base of a tree instead of the black armored figure who was limping towards their gun. I quickly noticed the still, silver body at the base of the tree, but was drawn away from the heart wrenching sight by the metallic click of the weapon the figure was pointing at Yumi.

"YUMI!" I yelled out, desperately hoping the sylveon would still be able to move out of the way. The fairy type was able to notice the danger he was in quick enough to begin to move, but wasn't fast enough to avoid being hurt by the weapon the figure was wielding. The sylveon now had a large wound on his side as he collapsed near his fallen mate. I gave another angry cry as I adjusted my grip on my large knife and gave it a solid throw at the armored figure. Apparently they had forgotten about me and the blade lodged itself cleanly in the figures leg as they let out a scream of pain, falling to their good knee and dropping their weapon to clutch their injured leg.

I smirked in satisfaction before they pulled out a syringe from a separate pocket on their holster. They grunted in pain as they removed the blade from their leg and then injected them self with whatever was in the injector. I felt my face grow clammy and cold with fear as they threw the used needle into the bushes before slowly standing back up and picking up their weapon yet again. They ejected something from the handle of the weapon before reaching towards their belt and inserting a similar looking object back in. Then they aimed the weapon slowly and deliberately at me before firing.

I winced my eyes shut expecting some kind of cold and dark end, but instead began to feel numb all over. I opened my eyes and saw the figure still pointing their weapon at me. I followed their pointed gun and saw a needle of some kind in my shoulder. I tried reaching to pull it out, but I couldn't feel or move my arm at all. My attention was pulled back towards the black clad figure as they began to remove their helmet, letting their long auburn hair come out of the black cover. Yovana looked around the burnt clearing in the light of the evening moon as if she had suddenly just came upon the scene and hadn't been fighting for the last couple of minutes.

"Well, I honestly didn't see my last day working here going down quite like this," the woman said casually as she turned to look back at me. "But when people force your hand, sometimes things don't work out so cleanly."

"Why?" I asked in anger, even as I felt my tongue begin to numb as well, making speech difficult. Despite the numbing that was progressively coming over my body, it did nothing to ease the pain of the wounds on my leg and arm. However, I wasn't going to let that show in what were probably going to be my final moments. Yovana continued to look at me from her position for a moment longer, a small satisfied smirk growing on her otherwise inexpressive face at my obvious discomfort and pain. After relishing in whatever glory she thought she had attained, she reached back towards her holster and pulled out another injector of some sort. She then made her way towards the tree that the silver Eevee was laying at the base of.

"Normally, you're so cold an impersonal, Shin," the woman said, her annoying, flirtatious voice she used that drove me crazy in the worst way, lacing her words. "Does it take a little violence to get you to open up?" she teased as she reached the base of the tree. "Normally, I don't share such large secrets, but…" The woman turned back towards the tree before speaking again.

"Did you know that eevee are a man-made pokemon?" Yovana said as she looked down at the still pokemon. "Some pioneering researchers were curious why some pokemon evolved and others didn't. Nearly every pokemon that evolves becomes more powerful, more intelligent…" she continued without looking back at me. She crouched down and gently pet the still body of the eevee. "If they could understand why and how pokemon evolve, what's to stop us from figuring out a way for humans to achieve a similar transformation?"

I wanted to yell and scream, kick and shout, anything that would stop the vile woman in front of me from touching the eevee she had murdered. However, she continued to speak as she stuck the injector she had been carrying into the silver eevee.

"Wild pokemon are just too varied and different for reliable data to be gathered from," Yovana said as she drew blood from the dead pokemon, turning to face me as the vial on her injector filled with the red liquid. "So we created something. A creature that would evolve to whatever the situation called for." The woman checked the vial she was filling and after a satisfied nod, removed the needle from the limp body.

"They were all male at first," the woman said as she began to stand up and walk towards me. "To control population and ensure consistent data. But I guess we made them too adaptable. Females began to appear and suddenly we had run-away population growth and escapes." The woman was in front of me now, holding up the syringe to the moonlight coming in through the glass ceiling of the Hab. "We had to cull the escaped population before our secret research became known, but everything became much more complicated when they were captured by trainers." Yovana stopped her inspection of the vial in her hand and looked back down at me. I had lost all feeling by now and could barely blink if I wanted to. The woman gave a rough kick to where she had broken my ribs earlier, managing to make me give a weak moan in pain.

"Oh, good, you're still alive. For a moment there, I was worried this sample might go to waste." The woman crouched in front of me and put the vial in front of my face. "You see, our research hasn't stopped just because some pesky test subjects escaped. We've been applying our findings towards what started this all, human evolution. Unfortunately, most of our tests have been…" Yovana got a sinister look as she stared me in the eyes. "Well, lets just say we know a lot of ways that do not work. Right now, we're focusing on the hybridization of the eevee genome with the human one. In practice though, the binding of the two usually results in multiple medical complications and ultimately, an agonizingly painful death as multiple organs fail." The woman suddenly put on a fake cheery smile.

"But, maybe you're different!"

Yovana pressed a button on the side of the injector, causing another liquid to mix with the blood, causing it to turn a caustic black color before slowly changing to a clear fluid.

"Hmm," the woman murmured as she looked intently at the clear serum. "A shiny eevee… I don't think this has ever been tried. Too bad I won't be around to make a detailed observation. Evidence to destroy and whatnot." The woman suddenly pressed the needle to the back of my neck. It felt worse than any kind of pain I had ever felt before, and that was before she began to slowly inject the substance into me. I swore I felt my teeth crack as my jaw clenched involuntarily, the only muscle in my body that seemed to be able to move at the moment. After what had to be an eternity, I was able to register the woman standing back up.

"I'm never too sure what to tell people after this point," the woman said thoughtfully as she looked down at me. "I guess… don't fight it? I mean, it's all inevitable at this point either way, right? I'll be sure to keep my eye on the papers to see if your obituary shows up. Expect a visit if it doesn't. Farewell, Shinen Abe." With that, Yovana began to walk off into the dark woods, the pain stemming from the base of my neck was becoming more and more intense by the second. As my vision began to tunnel, I saw a small amount of movement out of the corner of my eye.

Suddenly, the pain I had been dealing with lessened tenfold and I was able to move a small amount. I looked around and noticed a blue and pink feeler resting on my hand.

"Yumi!" I rasped out, crawling as best as I could manage towards the mortally wounded sylveon. I could see that the breaths of the wounded pokemon were becoming more erratic and labored and began to cry as I gently pet one of the first pokemon I had known since working at the lab.

'Friend'

It wasn't a spoken or thought word that came from the dying sylveon, but more of an intense collection of vibrant and powerful feelings that Yumi shared in his final moments.

'Friend'

I nodded solemnly at the sylveon as he took another heavy breath.

"Yes," I silently sobbed. "You're a friend. A dear friend." Yumi finally closed his eyes and as he let out his last breath, the pain returned a hundred times worse than anything it had been before the sylveon had lessened it for me. The sudden influx was enough to knock me into a dark abyss that was anything but peaceful.