Chapter 3
A nice touch of fate, or coincidence, or both..

Teyber was not a person who had any real care for anything.

Not herself, and not the Team. She just sided with them because she got to order people around and kill things. At least, that's what -she- said.

It was believable. She was not some average lackey scientist wussyvee, that much was obvious. The flareon - for that is what she was - was this 6'7 whitely clad monster. And white really was the colour, for her fur was more cream, like a Ninetales. But, unlike all the subordinates and peers she'd wander past in the base where TR did all their evil stuff, she didn't wear black, she wore white. Her attitude spoke for itself, though.
Teyber had yellow wiry hair that stretched down to mid-back and a crown of thorns she'd added just for show. Looked fine against her white clothing, a full-length narrow dress that didn't show all that much. Oh, and she wore a spiked collar and a skull belt which had pins dotted through all the unused holes. Oh yeah, just a ray of sunshine, this one.

The flareon was pretty sweet to look at, but anybody that was in this place knew she wasn't here to be pretty, she was here to be sociopathic. This is exactly what she did.

"Shift yourself!" she commanded to a smaller morph - which to her meant almost everyone - although in this case it was a young adult Rattata. And Rattata shift to loud noises; he almost left an impression of himself in the wall with the speed. "Good boy."

The only other thing.. and perhaps Teyber's only sentimental possession.. was a red jewel on a necklace, which she kept around her neck. This was -her- fire stone. It was the reason she was standing so prudently, right here, right now. And downright nasty, but.. such things do not go noticed after the event happens.

Not surprisingly, the firevee moved into the Elite controlled section of the base. This was the place where people moved out of respect.. and the few seasoned Firsts they had down here expected even her to move. And she did. Sociopathic, pretty tough.. but a Second that wasn't stupid. Those morphs were very fitting to be around, she thought. They don't look like much.. but sooner they'd take your head off than you could possibly blink. And Teyber admired this. Which is why she shared a room with one. The only roomshare on the base that involved two different generations. All the other shared rooms that had first gens in.. well, they were now empty. We'll leave it to your imagination.

"Teyber." said the older female as the firevee bent her head and stepped through the door. This was just a sign of acknowledgement; the first, who was a fairly tall grey Midoqueen morph, was busy, reading, and didn't wish to look up.
"Yo Floss.." she called out, wandering over to her bed, a shambled bunk arrangement. Floss got top; nobody in the world questioned this. "I miss anything while out today..?"
"Nope." called Floss. "We're still in reclusion, our leader is still a vegetable, the missing disk that those scientist people keep worrying about keeps changing hands and yet nobody out there knows where it is.."
"Same old." Teyber said. "Data means too much to these people."
"Remember that we were reborn from the scientists and their data. We could kill them all if we so desired, but that wouldn't be all that fair." Floss looked up; one of her eyes was missing, but Teyber had gotten used to the sight of the socket. Generally it would be hidden by the dark green hair that she wore down about her face, but.. she didn't mind. It looked like a trophy, in a sense. I fought the great War and all I got was this lousy eye socket..
"I was looking through records the other day, lass. Your old ones, right back from when you were but a 'vee. And I have to admit that what I see now.. and you know I can still see; I see something and I don't think it could possibly have been the wasted Eevee I read about. You were confused and toed the line because you had to, that much is clear, but.. look at you now! You thrive on making the soldiers feel their rank."

Teyber shrugged. So Floss had records access. She felt privileged she was enough of a landmark for a First to go finding her info out. "So I evolved. Evolution makes things happen."
"Not this big, lass. I've seen people turn into total opposites, but I did never see a sec-gen getting themselves the attitude of a First, and the mood to go with it. That's not the sort of thing evolution teaches you. So tell me a story, Teyber. Of being Eevee, and being on the island, and being you."
"You flatter me, Floss. I'm not a first and I don't pretend to be."
"You don't have to pretend! You're the only combat-ready Elite Second in this whole damned base and you're going to pretend you don't know why. C'mon, tell me a story. I read this book already."

Floss was one of those first generation morphs that took everything in their stride. She avoided the beatings because she was loyal, and she avoided the dying because she was damn good. Now she was trying to beg an autobiography off a second gen, and.. she didn't know why. But the files had said she was predicted to flee within months, and Floss didn't ever see nobody on the marked for flee list change their mind just cause of a stone...
"Fine, Floss. I'll tell you. But I don't want you mocking how I was when I was a 'vee." Teyber said, defiantly, lying on her own, bottom, bunk.. and speaking into the mattress.
"Once upon a time, I was a Nidoran female. I was probably cute, cuddly, green as heck, and wouldn't have stood up to a Caterpie. What happened past doesn't plague me; it just serves as a footnote. And I'm curious." Floss said. Teyber had her similar experiences, she gathered.. and so, she began the story.

--

"I'm not an old morph. In fact, I'm downright young. So young I can remember being an Eevee, damn it. And I lived somewhere on the mainland, too. Like everybody else. You didn't pay attention to location back then.. you were just happy..."

-

Smarmy as the female Eevee was, she was busy in long grass just minding her business along one of the Routes. As generally happens. Somewhere else along the route, a large brown road.. were stood a couple of plain-clothes Rocket humans. Not of the 'bozo' type, they were both male, and they were just talking. She wasn't interested in what.. just she was here, an off-orange fur colour, and some really neat pink eyes. The sort of thing that you notice through long grass.
"Uhh.. You see something in there?" went the first one.
".. Yeah, I do. Think we should go take a look?"
The first one pulled out a gun and a Pokeball. "Perhaps."

-

"...Well, the obvious happened. I had my leg shot out, and I was caught. And I was waken here, and morphed. Painful operation, not as bad as you had it.. but still, not very fun. I was awake the whole time. There is nothing on this earth like watching yourself become something totally different..."
Floss looked over the end. "They keep seconds awake? There's a new one on me.."
Teyber shrugged. "Well, either they kept me awake, or I kept me awake. Not sure which. Either way.. when I came out of that I was just a scared nine year old..."

-

"Five three.. low weight.. Low aggression.. high spaz factor.. Wow, you're really not suited to this, are you?" noted the scientist, as the young Teyber tested out her new two-legged gait. Her tail was just a mass, which sat behind the orange-furred like a ballast. Teyber vee'd some form of reply, and then instantly got shocked. The scientist, a closely eyed Murkrow, was doing the 'quick and humane' way of teaching speech. There was nothing humane about it, but what was quick is that the minimal shock had her screaming, before she passed out. To which the bird.. threw his clipboard aside, and just walked out. You can't -do- anything here.
"If she even survives out there, she'll run at the first opportunity. But that's not my concern.. I don't make the rules.." he told the first morph he walked past. "Wait until she's awake, and then.. do something with her. I don't care."

-

"That's what the records have." Floss said. "So what the heck is such a morph doing even sitting here?"
"I'm getting to it." Teyber said. "It was a couple of years ago. I was outside, on my own.. and I was just walking. It was daylight, but it was quite quiet..."

The sun lit up her path. Teyber would not forget how to be happy, although the frail veemorph was not liking her daily events, because she had to report to base daily, and nobody really liked her. She had bruises, head to toe, and that was because she got pushed, shoved, beaten, and generally abused. Though, thankfully, not to the most severe that it could be. Though she didn't surmise that as long in coming.

She had heard footsteps, which only drew her because they had.. stopped, all at once. This was the stone area of the city, a place for a few of the more affluent morph types, of which she was none. She was just.. normal. And a pretty weak normal, at that.

The area had a cool breeze track through the centre of it, and Teyber's perpetual blinking had tears carried away in it, though they were for no real purpose. She just stared about.. attempting to find something, and then.. she almost walked into it.

On the floor, just in the middle of the pavement.. were a stuffed toy, and a stone. And both of them looked pretty benign as she bent down, and looked at them. The plush was some animal she had never seen before, and the stone was red.
.. Red? Red was, of course..

She moved away from the stone, which had latched onto the idea of it being fire and she being an eevee, and just glowed, invitingly. She didn't, however, shy from the plush.. she liked plush toys, they were fuzzy. And this one was, indeed, fuzzy, and even if she didn't know what it was, it still felt neat.

The world spun. Teyber, still clasping the plushie, lost her balance, and fell over - right onto the stone. What had that been? Mild vertigo? Either way, the 'vee went side first into it, her hands taken and unable to stop herself from actually touching the red object.

She was burning! It hurt, a fiery pain that reached deep within her being, and flooded her very soul with searing warmth. And her world was this pain, for a while. On reflex, she reached behind herself, and gripped the stone, and brought it arond to her face..

--
"And I swear, something jumped out at me."
It did. Something traversed the gap between her stone and her head, and then the whole of her body was pain, and she collapsed into a sobbing heap, stone clasped incredibly hard. So much heat, so painful..
"It was tearing me up, it was. Just a building, right here, and I'm sure other things were going on. I could almost feel it.. my nerves had a lot to deal with, the fact of my growth in height and the changes to my face weren't noticed almost made it not quite as worthwhile.."
Floss shrugged. "You're entranced by your own change? I've seen that happen.. the guy was distraught when he reached the end of the evolution chain. Threw himself off a bridge."
Teyber coughed. "Anyway.."
Eventually the heat reached a predefined critical point.. and she threw her head back and screeched - but, it was more than that, it was an outpouring of fire, pure fire, into the air. It felt good to do, all of a sudden.. the heat refined her own passages so that they would be able to do such a move always, and forever. She also had a headache, and.. she was still clutching the plushie. But.. something in that head of hers made itself pretty clear, as she threw it into a pile of bushes somewhere, and.. hissed a little.

The height difference took her by surprise, and caused her to become quite light headed.. a hand to her temple, and the other in front of her. Which was still clasping the stone.. the object that had caused all of this. It had also caused her clothes to become ill-fitting quite quickly.. so she was just there, in her true and revealing form, taller than life.. reborn, in a sense.

"I dunno.. it's like you've woken up and realised precisely how you're meant to be and precisely what you're meant to do. From there, I was always meant to get to the point I was at. And at that point.. I felt the need to kill something, for the sole reason that I could. I'm not sure what surprised me more, the fact I thought about it.. the fact I did it.. or the fact I enjoyed it." Teyber said, a sly grin creeping over her firetype face..

Floss got off the bed. "Well, I think yours goes down as the most profound change I'm ever likely to see. I don't get the 'something jumped at you' part.. that's not anything that comes with evolution, that I've seen."
"Well, it's what I saw." Teyber said. Black piercing eyes, hammering her point down. Twirling her tail lightly, she stood up. "Maybe it's something else, or I was just seeing things, but.. it's what it was."

The Nidoqueen shuffled things about. "The Boss had a profound experience, though. Just not from evolution. I read her files, too. Beforehand, she was just a grunt freeborn.. and now she runs this place."
"She used to run this place, but now she just sits in that oversized hall of hers." Teyber said, blandly. "I should tell her as such, too." And she made for the door, feeling supremely confident now.
"Teyber, no." Floss said. "There's a reason she's the Boss, and I'd hate for you to find such a reason out."
"I have the word of a number of psychic Firsts that the sizeable presence of power she used to possess all but disappeared quite a long time ago. I think it's time someone called her bluff; and besides, I just want to hear what she's got to say." said Teyber, who left the room defiantly. That retelling of her history had given her an appetite for some hotheaded remarks.

Or maybe she just wanted to check this 'Hope' character out a little. She felt like she should know this morph.

Floss attempted to locate another book. And shrugged. "She was a good kid, I guess." was the admittance. "Hope she doesn't come out of that room in a box."