Act 1: Children of Silph
Author: Tiki Rocket
"I know my past. I can see it from someone else's perspective, because I've become someone else. And yet, at the same time, I'm the same person.
I'm two people in one, but I'm one person. I was someone else... But now I'm me.
But who is that, anyway?"
~ The Journal of Tikiata
Tessa Hart was dead when the Vortex opened in her room, when the team from Silph stepped in. When
her body was researched later, to see if there was something physically wrong that had killed her,
they found nothing.
They suspect she just didn't see a point in living.
Her real family still remains a mystery. As far as her parents know, she ran away from home, unable to deal with pressures from school, or maybe kidnapped. They might still be looking for her; or, as a member of the team reported later, it's suspected they didn't care. Monitors placed around the house showed that activity from the parents passed on as what was probably usual.
They used her blood and tissues for genetic research projects on level 8. It was about this time they were learning about genetic engineering, and the wonders of duplication.
Most were dubious about cloning, arguing that humans haven't the right to play God even if they had the technology, but a handful thought it was possible. This handful gathered together the money they could spare and used some funding to try.
And they succeeded.
Within a year, they had a thirteen year old adolescent to deal with.
She wasn't a perfect replication, though no one expected her to be. Her eyes were green instead of blue. She was slightly taller than she should have been. Her fingers were a little too long to look quite normal, despite her small hands. These details, however, were a few of the minor problems that had been expected; There were no serious physical deformities, no disorders of the brain. This alarming success caused some of the more careful scientists to suspect they had done something wrong; how often does the first experiment end up being the right one without some major flaw?
As time passed, though, she proved to act normal, if a little quiet. She was also, apparently, more prone to dyeing her hair black in the laboratory sinks.
"Dammit!" swore her caretaker, who was beginning to feel more and more like a zoo keeper every day. He scrubbed at the sink with a heavy bleach, feeling a chemical burn developing on his wrist. *And the other one had finally healed, too,* he thought sourly. *Tikiata's gonna regret this one...*
Sighing, he glanced at his watch.
*Assuming security finds her soon...* *
"Oh, he is cute...!" Tikiata - AKA Tiki - whispered to Lea, one of her best friends and few people she could socialize with safely in the building.
"Who, him?" Lea asked, motioning as casually as she could at someone across the cafeteria.
"Yeah!"
"Eh. A little too skinny and pale for my tastes." She glanced in another direction. "Ooh, but he's nice..."
Tiki followed Lea's line of vision. "Lea, for chrissakes, he's bleach blond, muscle-bound, and probably dumb as a box of rocks!" She made a face in his direction, even though he couldn't have seen her from her hiding spot. "I bet he's not supposed to really be here. I bet he was one of Silph's projects that they let out. Probably testing some kind of safer-than-steroids pill or something. They should put him back in his cage."
Lea laughed at her companions distaste for buff males. "Technically," she replied, "You should be put back in your cage, too."
"Ha! I think not!" Tiki shot, snorting. "It's boring in there. Hnh, I bet it was you who let him out of his cage, wasn't it?"
Lea's face shifted to the image of innocence. "Who, me? I would never!"
"Liar!" Tiki pulled her eyelid down at Lea and stuck her tongue out.
"Lab rat," Lea said, returning the gesture.
"Frizz for brains." She tugged Lea's long curls for effect.
"Good for nothing. You oughta go to the gym and work out, you're starting to get flabby."
"Ha, you should talk, you- Eep!"
"What kind of insult is that? Ack!"
Tiki pulled Lea around a corner as one of the Silph armed guards walked by, scanning the crowd.
"In case you've forgotten, you moron, some of those guards aren't just keeping an eye out for skeevy people, or heading to the cafeteria for their breaks. They're looking for ME," She hissed.
Lea grinned. "Don't you feel like an escaped convict or something, hiding from them?"
Tiki shot her a sarcastic smile. "Do you wonder if you'll be punished like one if Daddy dear were to find out you not only don't return the lab experiments when you find them running loose, but are actually usually the one who's set them free in the first place?" Tiki's voice raised higher in pitch as she spoke, using the fact that Lea's (adopted) father was the Silph President.
Lea sweatdropped profusely.
"Okay, okay, I'll get better about being a lookout!"
A hand clamped down on both girls' shoulders, scaring them witless.
"Eep!" Both shrieked, thinking despairing thoughts.
"Sh! Honestly, do you both want to get caught?" Came a mocking response from behind.
"StormChaser, you friggin' bastard!" Tiki snapped, whirling around and punching him on the shoulder.
StormChaser punched back. "I'm not the one who's gonna get in trouble if their found by a guard!"
Tiki sighed, wondering if she would ever get used to the forty-year old woman's voice coming from the body of a 13 year old, well built boy.
"Fem," Tiki said in a mock-tired voice.
"Whatever," her replied, mimicking her tone. "So what've you two done already today?"
"You mean done and gotten away with?" Lea corrected, smiling pleasantly.
Tiki tried to imitate Lea's expression, but could only manage a more evil looking version. "We were playing in the kitchen."
Lea nodded. "There was a frying pan left out in the open."
Tiki's expression changed to almost pass for wide- eyed innocence. "There was an open bottle of creme sherry dangerously close to it-"
"-So we decided to do a demonstration on why alcohol shouldn't be poured on a hot surface-"
"-and... well... Let's just say that the chef is down one mustache and half his unibrow..." The two girls turned to look at each other, and burst out laughing.
"I'd almost say I wish I could've been there, but I don't think I could help take the blame for that," SC said, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, you kids!"
The two troublemakers and almost innocent bystander froze in their tracks. "Shit," Tiki muttered. Despite the seriousness of the situation, SC made an annoyed face and elbowed her.
"Don't swear."
"Get away from that doorway! You shouldn't be anywhere near there!"
"Huh?"
The trio turned and looked at the door label. In perfect unison, they read: "Basement."
Lea looked at Tiki and StormChaser cluelessly. "What's wrong with this doorway?" They all knew it was the way to the basement; who's brilliant idea it was to put it on the second floor they had no idea, but they'd gone down there (against rules) a million times. They hadn't seen anything major...
"I dunno what's wrong with it," Tiki muttered, "But Lea, dear, PLEASE, let's not pick a fight with the armed guard about it!"
"Right." They turned their attention back to the guard.
"Sure thing! Wouldn't want to disobey Silph rules!" SC said, plastering on a smile. Tiki and Lea did the same, Lea muttering between her teeth "Even though I'M allowed to access every room in the building..."
"Not NOW, Lea, "Tiki hissed back. The guard focused on Tiki.
"Hey... Aren't you the-"
Tiki blanched, blue-blushing. "Nope! We get confused all the time, but whoever you think I am, I'm not! BAI!" That said, she grabbed her companions' wrists and bolted down the hall at a phenomenal speed. *
"That was close," Tiki muttered, breathing hard.
"No shit," SC replied sourly. Tiki elbowed him half-heartedly. "Don't swear." He rolled his eyes at her.
Lea, who'd been panting for air, froze suddenly. Tiki looked at her, mildly concerned.
"Lea?"
Lea's face broke into a wide grin, and she took off running down the hall. A moment later the sounds of
"CRASH" and papers scattering rent the air, shortly followed by "J-Babe!"
"Jeez, Lea, get offa me!"
Tiki and SC looked at each other, and burst into laughter.
"Ohdear!" SC gasped out, making it sound like one word. "Josh just got pounced!"
Tiki tried to compose herself. "Come on, let's go pry her off."
The pair turned the corner Lea had taken, and struggled hard not to lose their calm expressions.
Lea certainly had pounced Josh. Him, and everything he'd been carrying. They were both buried in papers, pens, and various bits of research equipment.
"Oh... dear..." Tiki said, biting her lip to try and contain herself. "Josh, are you all right? Anything broken? Bones? Cartilage? Equipment?"
Though she intended the last suggestion to be directed at the lab equipment, she'd said it with bad timing. Lea, StormChaser, and Josh's eyes widened, and all were taken by a fit of giggles.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Tiki cried, waving her arms frantically.
"Oh, so you mean you don't care if I broke 'it'?" Josh said accusingly, mock hurt expressed on his face.
"Why should I?" She said haughtily. "It's not like I'M going to use it."
Lea, who was already laughing hard, hit the floor, gasping for air through fits of giggles. SC's eyes, now bigger than saucers, stared at Tiki, hands covering his mouth. Tiki grinned like a jackal, pleased at the reactions.
Josh's laughter melted into a serious tone when he glanced at his watch. "Oh crap, you guys, help me!" he said, panicking. "I've got to be in one of the labs across the building in 10 minutes! MY PAPERS ARE EVERYWHERE!"
Without a word, the four began collecting the mess together.
"J, it's gonna take a while to get this organized..." Tiki mumbled.
"Not too difficult," he replied. "I've started numbering my pages since the first.... Incident."
Lea blushed faintly. The first time she'd pounced him and knocked everything into disarray, it'd taken nearly an hour to organize everything again. Thankfully, the meeting he had been going to was much later, but he'd since decided to be more careful.
"Here!" SC said, handing Josh the large stack of papers he'd collected from the floor. "I think that's the last of it."
"And here's your equipment," Lea added, smirking as she set the lab equipment on top of the papers.
"Lea, you shouldn't be touching that," Tiki said, snickering.
"All right, thanks!" Josh said, ignoring the last comment, "Bai!" And he was gone, down the hall.
StormChaser shook his head sadly. "This building is robbing that kid of his youth," he muttered, half scolding.
"It's not the building," Lea said, almost defensively. "The building's innocent. It's Daddy's closest underworkers, they're the ones in charge of employment."
"'S J-babe's fault, too," Tiki added. "He chose to use his amazing intelligence this way. And besides," She continued, half grinning. "The plus is that the pay is astronomical."
They all nodded their assent.
*
They spent the next two hours wandering around the Silph building, watching lab experiments through one- way windows or hiding Tiki while Lea socialized with half what seemed like half the building's staff.
Eventually, they wound through the halls to arrive at the meeting room Josh was in.
Just as Lea was about to get up and start making faces at him through the window in the door, the door flew open, and nearly smashed her face. Her indignance at such treatment (of both the building and herself) almost grew into a rage, and it took both Tiki and StormChaser to hold her mouth shut and hands down from the important looking businessman who'd rushed out. He turned back to look in the doorway, shouting "And what kind of business has a staff made up of children?! It's unprofessional!" before hurrying down the hall, face red.
Shortly following the decidedly annoyed business man came several more, and a few scientists of varying ages. As soon as the flow of people stopped, the trio bolted through the doorway.
"Josh!" Lea shrieked with joy.
"What?" he replied, obviously irritable.
"I found you!"
"Yes... you did..."
Tiki gave him a hard look. "The meeting sucked, didn't it?"
Josh looked at her in annoyance. "Yeah. What was your first clue?"
"Well, for starters the cranky looking business man who nearly sent Lea into next week with the door."
Josh rolled his eyes upward. "Giovanni... He's the guy who runs Rocket Co., Silph's competitor. He's trying to either get bigger than or buy Silph. He was annoyed because he couldn't get any information of the Silph Secret Projects out of us, so he up and left."
"Secret Projects?" Tiki said, blinking. "What secret projects?"
Josh couldn't help but smirk. "Like you. If he'd known there was one of our projects standing outside the door as he'd left, he probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry."
"God, he sounds like he's as bad as my sister on PMS," Lea muttered.
Josh grinned. "Worse. He makes your sister look like a saint." Lea's eyes widened in fear.
Tiki stared at the wall thoughtfully. StormChaser took the opportunity to make smart comments.
"It's not melting, if that's what you're waiting for."
Tiki snapped out of her daze. "Huh? Oh, just thinking."
"Whatcha thinking?" "Does it hurt?"
Tiki glared at Lea, then replied, "I'm thinking the roof sounds like a good place to calm our nerves for a while. What do you think?"
Thus began the search for the roof.
*
The Silph Company building was a maze of hallways, elevators, and stairways. Unless you were raised in the building, getting lost was the most common problem, and even those who had grown up there sometimes found it difficult to navigate.
In other words, to get to the roof from ground zero would take up to an hour.
The four had been to the roof once for science class. The teacher had gotten lost on the way.
Two hours whiled themselves away on the children jogging back and forth between stairways in the labyrinth known as Silph, with all it's dead ends and hidden stairs, secret rooms and constant back tracking.
Finally, gasping for air, they found the last doorway up to the roof, climbed up, stumbled out, and collapsed into the pebbles that covered it, basking in the feeling of sunlight on their skin.
Tiki closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. The rooftop held hundreds- maybe thousands- of plants, and closest to her at the moment were the delightfully intoxicating jasmine flowers. She sighed happily.
"Boo."
"EEP!"
Tiki's eyes flew open in surprise to see Lucky, the 'space cadet' of the circle of friends.
"Lucky! Hi!"
"Hiya!" Replied the beaming girl. "What brings you this high in the sky?"
"A need to get out of that restricting building, stop and smell the flowers. You?"
Lucky stepped back as Tiki and the others stood up. "Working on my tan." She grinned, striking a pose. She was wearing an aqua bikini, and a few feet away was a chair one would normally expect to see by a pool...
"Lucky?" Lea asked. "Did you borrow the chair from the water recreation room in the gym?"
"Yep!"
Jaws dropped all around.
"That's on the first floor," SC muttered.
"19 floors down, 20 if you include the roof," Josh added.
"Uh huh! It took a while to get it up here."
"No, really?" Tiki said sarcastically.
"Lucky flipped her light brown hair, not quite catching the sarcasm. "Yup! Good thing I knew where the
elevator was or it would have taken me longer."
The others facefaulted.
"Right..."
*
"We were so young and innocent, then. We didn't understand the purposes Silph had, or Rocket's intentions. We were trapped in our own world, having shut the door and locked the way out ourselves.
But everything has to change sometime, even if it's not for the better."
~ The Journal of Lea Marie
Lea yawned groggily. It'd been three months since that trip to the roof, one they repeated at least once a week. Now, school was in.
The classes were divided into a beehive of rooms, each room for a different grade level. The rooms were all big enough to fit 50 kids comfortably, and divided into six different sections. Each day, the kids would rotate one class over, clockwise: Math, English, history/geography, sciences, art, and a study hall. The sections had 7 foot dividers seperating them, though a well aimed spitball or eraser could make it over the top to hit fellow classmates in the head.
Today, it was four hours in the Math corner.
Lea's head slipped from her hand and slammed into the desk. *I hate Mondays SPECIFICALLY because of this class,* she thought. She felt someone poke her in the back. Trying to be discreet, she leaned back in her chair, and whispered between her teeth, "Hi Maggie, what's up?"
"Not much, other than watching you develop bruises," Maggie (Lea's close friend since coming to the Silph building) whispered back, grinning. Lea's hand flew to her forehead.
"Am I really getting a bruise? Oh no!"
"Sh!" Maggie hushed her before she could make a seen. "I'm just kidding, relax, you're still clear. But you probably shouldn't do that again, just to be safe. Remember that one time when you did that?..."
"and I had a blue-green spot for a week..." Lea shook her head, trying to shake off the lingering embarrassment. "Yeah, that memory still comes up pretty clear. No repeats of that." A large wad of paper suddenly smacked into the back of Maggie's head, and she turned to glare in the direction it'd come from. Through the doorway to the english corner, StormChaser was looking in her direction, face the depiction of mock "Hmm, gee, I wonder who did that?" She smiled at him, blushing faintly. Tiki, who was sitting on the other end of the Math corner, rolled her eyes at them; Lea just struggled to keep from giggling.
She turned back to her math notebook. It was only supposed to be used for class, but half of it was full of stories. The other evening, her older sister had caught her making up stories when she was supposed to be doing homework.
"LeaMarie, what are you doing?" She'd asked wearily.
"Nothing," Lea replied sweetly. "Absolutely nothing at all."
"Liar. You've got to finish your homework, Daddy's got high expectations of us, and so does everyone else. We're the daughters of Silph's leader."
"I'm just his adopted daughter," Lea said, smiling despite the sting it dealt her heart.
"You're still his child by law, you're still my sister, meaning I've still got to make sure you do what you're supposed to, and right now that's homework!" Big sister's flame-like hair was bristling with annoyance, and she looked fairly peeved.
"Okay," Lea replied in a small voice. Her sister's eyes softened, and she smoothed her hair out.
"I'm sorry," She said. "I'm just concerned about your well being. You know," she continued, raising an eyebrow, "I've noticed you slipping out at night to hang out with Tiki."
Lea blushed, and tried to play dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh yes you do! You let her out of the lab and run around wreaking havoc on poor defenseless Silph workers. I think I heard the Chef calling you 'ze twin terrors mucking up zis fine estableeshment'," she said, mimicking the French accent. Lea cringed, causing her sister to add hastily, "But I think he meant it affectionately! So... What do you two do when you're out?"
"She sometimes lets herself out, you know," Lea muttered in a pouty defense.
"I know. That was when Dad would lock you in the apartment and pandemonium would still break loose. Why do you think Dad gave up on thinking you were the one completely responsible?"
Lea shrugged, unsure of the right answer.
"Anyway, what do you two do when you aren't causing trouble?"
"Talk, gossip-"
"About boys?"
"Duh.- I help her with homework, we go find the others and play... Lotsa stuff."
"So she gets out a lot, huh?"
Lea blushed again. "Yeah..."
"Tell me, do both of you set the lab animals free, or is that entirely you?"
Lea looked up and said indignantly "So I feel sorry for the poor Growlithes, okay? And I think Tiki feels sorry for the Meowths..."
Her sister grinned. "Just be careful. You almost got caught last time."
Lea looked at her suspiciously. "Have you been following me?"
"Editing security tapes, too." She winked at her younger sister, who smiled back.
"Thanks, Sis."
"Lea Marie, PAY ATTENTION!" SCHMACK.
The ruler came down hard on her desk, snapping Lea out of her reverie.
"Ack! What?!"
"You are not allowed to ignore the teacher!"
Lea pulled out the class rules book and flipped through it. "There's nothing in the rulebook that says I can't."
Tiki began snickering from her end of the room. A sharp look from the teacher, however, found her studiously writing down notes from the board.
Lea sat back in her chair, ignoring the rant her teacher was giving her.
*I can't WAIT until tomorrow,* she thought. *At least the English teacher isn't this batty.*
*
As soon as class was out, Lea grabbed Tiki and Maggie by the wrists and dragged them through the building to her apartment. Because of how demanding Silph jobs could be, many of the workers lived in the apartments attatched to the building with their families. Lea, being daughter of Silph's leader, was no exception; however, her family's appartment was comparatively much bigger, and made a wonderful place to hang out.
Lea unlocked the door, fumbling a little, tumbled in, dashed for her room and grabbed some street clothes, then made for the bathroom.
"If there was any doubt before, this proves it: It's Monday," Tiki said, watching Lea's desperation to get out of the school uniform.
"Yup. She's only like this on Math days," Maggie replied. She grinned. "Good thing I know what I'm doing in that class, or both of you would be lost!"
Tiki pulled her eyelid down and stuck her tongue out at Maggie. "Bida!" She released her face and looked thoughtfully at the navy blue skirt. "Why do you suppose they make us wear these, anyway?"
"It's because sometimes other schools come into the building on field trips," Maggie said. "If an outside group of students were to come into our classroom to see how it is that Silph performs it's 'revolutionary teaching methods', we wouldn't want them to get mixed up in our class. This, and it also creates a level of uniformity and equality among the students. Besides," she added, grinning, "They're soo stylish!"
"Hah! Yeah, right. I'd rather wear the boys uniform. Skirts are so uncomfortable. I think some of the silph workers are perverts, the way they watch us walking down the hall! I'd swap uniforms with StormChaser any day!"
"I don't know how willing he'd be to wear a skirt to class..."
Lea listened to the present members of her study group discuss whether or not StormChaser would look good in a skirt. She sighed, removing the annoying uniform she was wearing in favor of loose black jeans and a blood red tank top. She folded her uniform, knowing she would like it better the next day, and opened the bathroom door.
"Mm, I dunno, I don't think he'd shave his legs willingly..."
"Well we could always try to get him to wear thigh high socks, which will hide most of the leg hair."
Lea sighed again. "Sorry to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but... the bathroom's free."
The pair looked at each other, then at the bathroom, and raced towards the door.
"DIBS!"
There was a 30 second push/shove contest through the bathroom door that Tiki won, and she changed into the street clothes she'd brought with her.
"Ready to set up for homework?" Lea asked Maggie.
"Not yet!" Maggie cried, sounding almost panicky.
"Ack! Why?"
"Because... I haven't changed yet! And SC's not here, and Josh isn't here-"
"Josh doesn't need to be here."
"Yeah, but sometimes he shows up to help! -Lucky's not here either."
"Right..."
The door to the bathroom opened just as the doorbell rang. Maggie bolted for the bathroom, and Lea thought she heard her say "he can't see me in my uniform!" before she went to open the door.
"How much you wanna bet that's at least one of the people Maggie listed?" Tiki called after Lea.
Tiki was right; There stood all three.
"Let's break out the books!" Lucky jubilated as she entered, beaming the whole way down the hall to the Lea's room. SC grinned.
"You shoulda seen her bouncing down the hall. The one thing she likes more than school is studying. At least, during the school year."
"I know, she comes with a whole new set of rules in the summer," Lea muttered, grinning back.
"I figured I'd stop in, see if I could help," Josh said, stepping inside.
"Stop making excuses, you were bored, weren't you?" Lea said accusingly.
"Well... Yeah..."
"Come in, maybe you can help a couple hopeless math cases. SC might need some help with his English."
"I'll help with that!" Tiki called out. "Math's not due till next week!"
"She's got good hearing," Josh muttered.
"I know, isn't it annoying?" Lea replied softly, then yelled back "You aren't putting off your math, you take care of that first THEN you help him with English!"
"Fine..." Tiki irritably replied.
Lea pulled Josh into the kitchen, forcing him to help her gather together some food to bring in. She dropped a case of Coca Cola in his arms, picked up a few bags of Doritos, and headed back to her room.
"Welcome to the world's most unhealthy study group," Josh muttered, grinning crookedly.
"Eh, so what?" Lea responded cheerfully. "We have fun, that's what matters."
"Ugh, I HATE math class!" Tiki was venting as they entered.
"Well, maybe not always fun..." Lea murmured, looking at Tiki. "What's wrong?"
"Math class sucks. I don't get any of it!"
"That's what we're here for."
"Correction: That's what everyone BUT you is here for. You suck as bad at it as I do."
Lea stuck her tongue out at the raging girl. "Well, if I get something before you, I can tell you, all right?"
"Yeah, yeah...." Tiki said irritably. "I hate math any way."
"Then you feel free to continue hating it."
"I will."
And so they set in- though somewhat reluctantly- on their math books.
*
Smoke.
The air was full of it. Fires burned around her, someone crying, someone trying to find her-
The crying was from the child in her arms; no more than 3 or 4 years old. Her hair was in curls around her head, curling tighter than the smoke surrounding them. It was herself, in a sense; herself, ten or so years ago. But now, she had to save herself instead of being saved-
"Hoi! Where are you?" She heard someone calling her, or maybe calling to the wailing child. But the voice seemed to come from three different places at once. When she moved towards one, it faded out, and was coming from somewhere behind her.
Lea suddenly remembered this was just a dream. She'd had it before. She knew she couldn't wake up yet, though, she still had to save the child-
*Put her in the fire...*
"What?!"
This wasn't part of the dream before. This wasn't supposed to happen. Let herself burn?
*Put her in the fire.*
Lea's mind spun. That would kill her! She couldn't- She wouldn't-
...She had to.
Unhappily, she set the child among the flames. Little LeaMarie stopped crying, and smiled.
"Bai bai!" she said, waving a small, chubby hand at her.
And suddenly, Lea was awake.
*How... disturbing...* she thought.
A moment later, she was asleep, and the dream wasn't remembered in the morning.