AN: Here I am, posting that story I have been working on for so long and never had the courage to post. Before actually getting to the story, I would want to thank Fragmented Disillusionment for giving me the idea to write this in the first place, and letting me set my story in the same universe/timeline as his own TF story, Minor Miscalculations, which I encourage you to read if you didn't, it's good. I also want to thank Kirby Oak and Reeds for proof-reading it and K.A. for helping me to improve (thought I still have a long way to go). Since English is not my first language, you shouldn't expect the best use of the language you ever saw, but I did my best with the knowledge I have. I hope you enjoy a good reading anyway, and I will try to get better as the story progress. Oh, reviews would be appreciated and be free to flame me if you want.

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Chapter 1: Deceiving curiosity

Another few hours of hard work was done; it would be dinner time soon. As much as Rick wanted it, he could not simply rush to eat, for the computer he was currently working on was directly connected to the biggest and most essential database in Kanto: the famous digital pokemon storing system, commonly known as Bill's PC system. He wasn't working from just any computer either. The marvel of technology he controlled was one of the most powerful computers available, strategically located inside Bill own research laboratory north of Cerulean, with levels of control on the system that only the main database's computer could surpass. That link with it was crucial for him to execute some sensible tasks, but, like any special access, it came with a price. He had to deactivate nearly much of the system safety measures that protected it against most of frequent type of errors in the database, leaving Rick to manually solve any problem it could encounter while he was working on it. Any error from him, any lack of attention, if only just one second, and the system would crash, instantly cutting trainers of Kanto from their reserve Pokemon for a few hours, causing millions of dollars in lost to the pokemon industry. However, no matter how grim that premise seemed at first, it was nothing when compared to the inevitable death of the hundreds of pokemon being transferred at the moment of the crash, their data lost forever in the miles of optical cables around Kanto.

Giving that much power to one individual would have seem irresponsible, if it wasn't that the few allowed in the lab were personally chosen by Bill. As a 20 years old student on internship, Rick could consider himself privileged to be able to work at such an important position; not that he didn't deserved it. His papers on pokemon intelligence and his unmatched computer skills amazed even the most brilliant minds of Saffron University, including the world-renowned Professor Samuel Oak.

After entering what seemed to be a fleet of passwords and codes, the young man could finally get a well-deserved rest, if only giving him time to eat something before returning to the challenge of controlling such an important system. Rising from his seat, he put his trusty bag on his back and made his way to the restroom at a quick pace. As he entered the room, he set his eyes on the small table at the center of it. The layout of the small room was modest, with its plain white walls, the only furniture in it being a small counter with some essentials kitchen appliances, a fridge next to it and that cheap plastic table: simple and practical. If only Bill system could be like that, his job would be much easier, but it would also takes away a large part of the fun. Quickly, he threw his bag on the table, opened it and took a sandwich out, letting his mouth make quick work of it. Being so concentrated on eating his poorly made lunch, he didn't hear Bill enter the lab and make his way into the room doorway. The older man watched him eat for a few moments, before finally breaking the ice.

"I didn't know dinner was now at 3 pm." he said while laughing lightly, joking about the whole matter. Rick calmly turned his head to face Bill, raising an eyebrow. From all he would have expected from the imminent scientist, that sudden burst of joy was the very last thing he had in mind. Bill wasn't exactly the most expressive man in the scientific community. Far from the outgoing personality of his good friend Samuel Oak, who seemingly took more pleasure in being in front of a camera or a microphone than being in his lab, Bill usually stayed in shadow, only going out when he invented something new.

He wasn't a cold man, thought. He cared about human and pokemon alike, wanting to make the world a better place. He just didn't show it. Nevertheless, he would never display such a contented face if something important hadn't happened. In the past few months, Rick has been aware of some rumors, circulating among the scientific community, stating that Bill was working on a special project that would revolutionize the relations between humans and pokemon. Apparently, it was something about being able to enter one's pokemon mind. Most didn't believe it, but Rick was one of the few convinced it had some basis.

"Yeah... I didn't really had time to eat before." He paused, eating the rest of his sandwich. "You seem in a good mood today professor, have you been doing something special lately? I haven't seen you around a lot in the last week."

Bill's smile slightly fell, if only for a second, until he thought of a proper answer. "Well, you know me! I'm here and there, collecting new data about pokemon with professor Oak. In any case...I'm not there to talk about me, but rather about you and your work here while I'm gone."

The intern's face paled. Being naturally curious, he did not satisfy himself of the rumors about Bill project. He wanted to prove its existence; it was one of the main reason he accepted the job offer from Bill, even before the prestige of the job. Since his work restrained him from snooping around, he used his computer skills to access restricted zones of the system, searching every of its dark corner in hope of finding anything meaningful, if only a small file, pointing to this mysterious project. One month of failure in that department brought him only deception and confusion. The more he knew Bill, the more he was convinced he was hiding something, but lesser were the sections on the database still open to research. That nonsense left him depressed, and it was starting to show, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Bill finding out about his unauthorized search would be the last nail on the coffin. He would probably fire him, killing the last of his hope, for the few parts of it still remaining.

He stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking of the words that would, hopefully, unset the suspicions in Bill mind. "Did I... do something wrong? You know I try my best to be as efficient as humanly possible. I could always put even more efforts, if it can make something better in the end."

Nervousness could be felt in Rick's voice, his unusual lack of confidence plainly obvious, but Bill seemingly didn't think any bad of it. He couldn't blame his intern from doubting of the quality of his work, he was young and inexperienced after all. He even chuckled a bit. "There's no need to feel that way Rick, you did nothing wrong. In fact, it's quite the contrary. I want to congratulate you on that excellent work you did in the first month you were here. I knew you were good with databases, but after seeing how fast you cleaned and rearranged the files in preparation of the newest version of my storage system, I was impressed. So much, that I think that you are wasting your time in there. I have already employed someone else to do your job. Starting next week, we will build that newest version together. If we can finish it before you leave in 2 months, I swear I giving your name to one of the new mainframes!"

At first, he felt relieved; his secret was still safe. As he let the meaning of the words sink in his head, excitement quickly took over his worries. He would be able to follow Bill more closely! The old man didn't talk a lot about the next improvement on his system, but it was supposed to be something big. Maybe it was related to his secret project? Either way, he couldn't refuse an opportunity like that one. It was one of those rare offers that could propel one's career; and besides, having one of the mainframe using the name of the Tortoas family was something he simply couldn't ignore. However, he felt something wrong in all this. Why didn't he come at the end of the day to announce it to him? The man was most likely hiding something from him. "I would be honored to help you in a project so important. I love new challenges anyway. However, I don't want to sound rude, but... what will I do for the rest of the day? Can I go home?"

"I was coming to this. I would like you to prepare the computer for our new employee before you do so. I want all your things out of there and, I know this will take some time, but a last clean-up of the pokemon database would be appreciated. I would do it myself, but I have something to do on my side. Can I count on you?"

Rick growled slightly at this. Cleaning that database would take him a few hours, and usually nothing was wrong with those files, especially since he already checked them two days ago. If this wasn't the last time he had to do that, he would probably have snapped at Bill for making him do overtime. But he retained himself, forcing a smile. "Yeah... I will do it."

"Excellent! Then, I will see you Monday morning with more information about your new schedule." He turned to exit the room, stopping midway to face Rick one last time. "Oh, I almost forgot! If that database gives you any trouble, never forget that the solution is most likely inside of you."

Before Rick had time to reply to that cryptic comment, Bill was already walking through the hallway. Soon, the noise of the lab door opening and closing was heard, returning Rick to his usual solitude. Rapidly, he finished eating his lunch, packed everything in his bag and rushed to the computer, wanting to get the job done as soon as possible. First, he removed all of his personal files from the computer, putting them on an USB drive. Then, he set the connection to the pokemon database. It's the most important one, but also the safest, considering that the pokemon data wasn't to be corrupted and was, therefore, heavily protected. Each time he cleaned it, he found only 1 or 2 damaged files and they weren't really the most important ones.

The automatic cleaning process in itself wasn't complicated. The only thing he had to do was to start the cleaning utility and manually start a recovery procedure when it asked for it. In fact, it was nothing more than an advanced anti-virus program. However, the whole thing lasts five hours, during which the only activity he found entertaining was to read the hundreds of characters flashing on the screen; those indicating which folders the computer was currently analyzing and how many sub folders it has. He has seen it so many times before that he could guess the first numbers that would appear. "35, 28, 12, 23..."

Four hours of boredom later, during which Rick had cleaned the whole room from his stuff, ripped sheets of paper, putting the few things he wanted to keep in his bag and throwing the rest out. Eventually, the cleaning utility finally deigned to give him an error message, the screen flashing with an intense red light that he could not ignore. He ran to the computer, expecting one of those usual "Corrupted file" messages. Instead, he got a warning he had never seen before: "The folder F://…/Pkmn/PkmnStats/ProjectD couldn't be analyzed. Access authorization required."

Rick stared at the screen for a few seconds, searching for the meaning of this. Many facts didn't make sense in that. First, there was no locked folder on the pokemon database. The only protection was the one preventing anything from accessing it, but, once inside, there was no additional barrier, since the first one was said to be impassable. Also, every folder has the Pkmn prefix, but this one didn't. Finally, maybe the most disturbing fact, it was named ProjectD. He had never heard of such a project before. Suddenly, it struck him: this must be the famous secret project Bill was rumored to be working on! How this file made it in there, he couldn't know, but he would not let this unexpected chance to know the truth slip from his fingers. His hands shaking from the premise of finding the thing that eluded him for so long, he let the program ignore that folder, then, making his way through the database folder's hierarchy, he quickly found it. Trying to open it, he was confronted by the expected, but annoying, password prompt. Having a large knowledge of Bill's usual passwords from spying into his system, he tried everything he knew, repeatedly encountering failure prompts.

But Rick wasn't one to give up so easily. He opened his bag, taking out a disk containing a password cracking utility he made; if this could not get through, nothing could. He ran it, then waited… and waited… and waited. Minutes went by, becoming hours, but the folder still refused to reveal its mysterious contents. Becoming increasingly frustrated and tired, Bill's strange piece of advice drifted randomly through his mind. Inside of him… inside... this sparked yet another crazy idea. Calling up the prompt, he entered a short four letter word: "Rick".

Instantly, instead of that error prompt, the folder showed all of its content. To Rick's despair, all it contained was a small "readme" text file. If this was a joke, he didn't find it funny. Hanging on that last hope of finding anything, he opened the small file and found, to his amazement, some kind of letter.

I have been aware, in the last few weeks, of some unauthorized accesses to sensitive parts of my system. It didn't take me long to track down the culprit. We all know who did that, hey Rick?

He stopped right there; everything came together. That smile on the scientist's face, the hints he gave him, the new employee he talked about and his order to remove all his things from the lab. He wasn't promoted to a new project… he was being fired! Accessing that letter was the proof that, once again, he had gone too far. He nervously read the rest of it, expecting the dreadful news.

I should fire you for participating in such an immoral act; but, being the man of science that I am, I wanted to find out find why you are so interested in my research. I read all your previous essays on pokemon and it struck me: we share that same passion, that same curiosity about the deep mystery of the pokemon mind. That is why, instead of firing you, I give you the chance to participate in my most important and secret research project ever, codenamed: Project Ditto.

The words hit him like a bullet train. Could it be? The rumors were all true? Was he really proposing for him to work on the project he had hoped so much existed? No… it couldn't be true. He wasn't good enough to be graced by something so important. It must be a cruel joke. The last part of the letter will probably bring him back to Earth.

I cannot tell you anything about it right now. I would never let information about it on my public database. Under the computer, you will find a card giving you access to an underground facility on my property, the code that goes with it and a map to show you the way. You must destroy the paper containing the code and the location as soon as possible. Meet you in that lab Monday morning. Oh… and delete this file too.

A card? He turned his attention to the computer on his left. He would never have thought to look there, since Bill always said the computer couldn't be moved, since it was a fragile piece of equipment. Lifting it carefully, he found an envelope stuck underneath. Ripping the paper container apart, he saw a small blue rectangular plastic object and a folded piece of paper fall from it. The plastic object was indeed a magnetic card, complete with the logo of Bill's corporation he used for his inventions and his name. Putting it in his pocket, he opened the folded sheet. It contained an aerial photo of Bill's property, an "X" pointing to a small wooded area behind the lab. At the top of it, was written a five digit code: "68371". There was no doubt now: the letter said the truth. Rick was usually calm about everything, not letting anything reveal his feelings, but he couldn't contain himself this time. "YESSSSSSS!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!" he screamed, jumping from his chair and dancing like a maniac in the computer room.

Soon, he calmed himself, thinking about his next action. He wanted so much to visit that lab right now, but it was getting late, and the lab would still be there Monday, right? Finally, his sleepiness won over his excitement. He returned to the computer, deleted the file like asked to, and closed the computer for the weekend. He hastily put the map in his bag and made his way out of the lab. It was one of those calm nights, only the noise of some Kricketot and Hoothoot was heard from the surrounding forest. The town of Cerulean City, seen at distance from the lab, was surprisingly more silent, since most of the people were asleep at this time, except the nearby Pokecenter and Pokemart, open all-night to trainers.

Walking at a slow pace, he watched the beauty of the world around him, faintly illuminated by the light of the moon and the town. He stared at the forest and the ocean, like it was the first he had seen them. That sight always made him wonder about the complexity of the world and how humans and pokemon co-existed in that world. When seeing that city in front of him, he sometimes wondered how different the world would be without humans building cities and roads. He knew that human and pokemon were said to usually be best friends, but his theories had shown that pokemon seem to have a level of comprehension of their surrounding similar to those of humans. Do they really like that life with their human partner, or do they fake liking it because they have no other choice? That experiment, if it was really about entering a pokemon's mind, could give him the answer to that question he had asked himself for so long. More than a simple question to him, it was an obsession. He simply couldn't imagine living in a world where those creatures did something against their will, doing nothing to improve their life. They were too special, too powerful, to be simply controlled like that. If this came to be true, he could easily imagine the pokemon rebelling against humanity one day. Proving this, maybe he could convince the authority to change their views before it was too late.

His thoughts were soon interrupted as he made his way into his apartment building, situated at the border of the town. He navigated through the narrow corridors of that building, soon reaching his apartment. The truth be told, it looked more like a prison cell than an apartment. It was a single room, with no window, containing only a small bed, a short table, a miniature fridge and a closet. It was simple, but he liked it that way. He was so tired from the day's events that he threw his bag on the floor and jumped into his bed, keeping all his clothes on, and slowly drifted into a world of dream.

Later that night, his body was at rest, but the same couldn't be said about his mind. Like many nights before, he was having the same dream he had every night since he first heard the rumors about Bill. This time, however, it was slightly different. Like always, Rick was in a plain in the middle of nowhere. In the distance, he could see the remains of some town, obviously abandoned with time. Strangely, he didn't care about what happened to that town, because he was surrounded by a lot of friendly pokemon of all sizes. It was usually all kinds of pokemon, except there was always a pikachu in there. It was no surprise, since he always wanted to have one of those. However, unlike their real world counterparts, they were able to communicate with him in English. Some, who seemed happy, talked about how they loved their trainers, how they fed them and took care of them. Others, having scars and cuts, thought otherwise, groaning about how humans used them like slaves and how they were used for battles they didn't want to fight in. As for the rest of them, they were either silent or hugging him lovingly. That left the pikachu. He was sitting between the two groups, looking at them undecidedly, never taking a side.

It was now that his dream became different. The pikachu suddenly melted, becoming some kind of pink blob that Rick soon recognized as being a ditto. The ditto approached the man, looked into his pocket, taking the blue card out, then crawled back to a safe distance from Rick, who didn't appreciate this. "Hey! That's mine! I need it!" The ditto transformed again, getting bigger, taking the form of a familiar man in a lab coat: Bill. "You want this? Why is knowing about pokemon so important for you? You never had one to begin with! You don't deserve to know the truth!" With a quick movement of his hands, he ripped the card in two parts and threw them to the two pokemon groups, who destroyed them in even smaller parts.

"NOOOOOO!!!!!" he screamed, finding himself back in his bed, covered in sweat. He immediately looked into his jeans pocket, taking out the card, still in one piece. He felt relieved, but he looked more closely at the card. What if that dream was true? Nothing could stop Bill from locking his access to the lab if he suddenly changed his mind. He would never know about Project Ditto! That possibility scared him to the highest point. He looked at his alarm clock, which indicated 3:24 AM, then at the card again. Maybe the access was already granted? If this was the case, with Bill sleeping, he would have no problem to sneak in and discover what it's all about, but if he got caught, he could be in trouble. Thinking about it for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons, he finally decided to listen to his dream. He took the map out of his bag and put it in his jeans pocket, then took his flashlight from his closet and walked out of his room.

Half an hour later, he had returned in front of Bill's property. Since Bill's house was close, he advanced slowly toward the wood, the flashlight off, making as little noise as possible. Once he reached it, with the trees hiding his presence, he let light shine on the map, showing him the way. Fortunately, the spot was not far into the wood. Soon, he reached a ten foot high cliff, bare from anything except a large rock. At first sight, nothing looked strange, but he knew that, whatever Bill tried to hide, he must have put a lot of effort in keeping it a secret. Looking more carefully around the rock, he noticed a small crack hidden in the grass, looking like a track of some sort. It didn't take a genius to guess that there was a way to move it. He looked around, searching the bushes and long grasses, but he found no control panel, no piece of advanced technology laying in some crack. A crack! He took out his card and looked at the cliff… maybe… he examined the rocky surface more carefully, looking at every crack, until he found a small one that was too straight and perfectly cut to be natural. He put the magnetic band of the card in it, but nothing happened. He tried again, sliding the card in from every possible position, until he sensed a movement coming from the large rock next to him.

Slowly, it slid along the hidden track, with a silence that made one wonder how much it had cost Bill to make that, revealing a metal door with a control pad next to it. Rick cautiously approached the pad, examining it. It was fairly standard protection technology, featuring a numbered panel, a fingerprint scanner and a text display showing the message "Enter access code." which he did without wasting anymore time. It then asked him for fingerprint identification. Placing his hand on the scanner, he watched the scanner wash his hand with its green light. The door opened, almost as silently as the rock previously hiding it. Inside, lights were on, showing a totally different atmosphere than Bill's regular lab. The plain white walls made the old lab look like an office building when compared to the cold, metal, almost military base feel of that new place. He nervously went down a set of stairs, trying to guess what could await him at the other side. Was Bill working with the army on this project? Was he doing genetic experiments that needed a fully controlled workplace? Finally, he entered a large room. Looking around, he quickly noted everything in here: computers, big mainframes, freezers, some chemical products and many pieces of electronic components. All pretty standard material, except for one machine. It took up the entire surface of the wall in the back of the lab. In the middle of it, stood some kind of cylindrical pod and a computer screen next to it.

This machine was, without a doubt, the centerpiece of the enigmatic Project Ditto. Whatever it was, he would find out. He approached the computer panel, pressing the power button. The computer screen lit up, displaying the words "Project Ditto". That wasn't helping very much. Then a list of pokemon species appeared. Rick browsed through it, until he saw "Pikachu". He selected it; another submenu appeared. It was a list of pokemon nicknames, but most of them were filled with generic names like "Wild Pikachu # xx". It dawned on him now: this was a database of pokemon DNA. They were authorized to keep those samples for research purposes if the concerned pokemon were dead. He selected one of the chu, nicknamed "Sparktail". A detailed bio of it appeared. According to it, it was a 2 year old male pikachu, standing at 1' 4", with a global strength slightly above the average member of its species. It died while trying to protect his trainer from a thief. Tons of details about it completed the bio, but he didn't bother to read it; trying to find the purpose of that machine was much more important.

He left that computer screen and partly entered the pod. Its surface was smooth, leaving no opening, except something with the appearance of a small ventilation grid on its side. Wanting to see that grid from much closer, he completely entered the pod. This would soon prove to be a big mistake. When one of his feet hit the back of the pod, it signaled to the machine that someone was inside. Obviously, it was designed with the constraint of having only one person in the lab able to use it. The pod door swiftly closed, trapping the man inside. Startled by the strange sound, he turned around, realizing with horror that the machine trapped him like a rat. He pounded on the door, trying to make it open, but it didn't bulge. Soon, the machine made some strange and almost scary noises. It was too late. Whatever the role of this machine was, he would know soon enough. He found all of this ironic. His curiosity let him be part of this project, which was his ultimate goal, but it still found a way to make him go much farther than he should have. Now, he would literally be a guinea pig for the project. He sat at the bottom of the pod, waiting for something to happen. He didn't have to wait that long, as he felt tired all of a sudden, letting unconsciousness take over his body. He wasn't yet aware of this, but his life would never be the same from now on.