Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Recovering Memories

Chapter 25: Secrets Unveiled, Decisions Made

Miobach Badlands, Abandoned Silph Co R&D Lab

The hard drive in the computer tower beneath the desk whirred to life as the data of the video was called to the screen. Then, the playback began.

The video started on a shot of a woman in a labcoat who appeared to be in her mid-thirties, pulling her hand away from the camera. Behind her, a klink floated idly, one of the sentient gears rotating around the other. She cleared her throat.

"Today is June 19th of the year 2072. I'm Rebecca Stanley, a Silph Co scientist working at their Miobach Badlands laboratory. Today, I have finished developing an extremely important substance. If you saw the title of the video, you may be thinking, 'Hey Rebecca, what is this thing you're talking about and how will it end all wars forever?' Well, to all you naysayers, I say to be patient, because I'll get to that when I get to it, okay?

"Anyways, it was about a year ago that I began on this project. The reason I didn't talk about it in a video diary is because I wasn't sure it would actually work. That said, we tested it on an inmate with a lifetime prison sentence the other day and it worked exactly as I hoped it would. Now, we have a full tank of the stuff outside, freshly produced.

"Now, you may be wondering, what is this 'stuff?' It's a gas that I have decided to call 'Transmogrium.' It is an extremely potent gas that, in significant amounts, can blanket itself over massive areas." Rebecca raised a finger. "But you may be wondering, what does it do? Well, as you may be able to guess from the name, it can transform any human being into a pokemon simply by having them breathe it in, all without causing any other form of harm. It also will not effect anything other than a human, whether it's a pokemon or otherwise. As for the criminal we tested it on?" She lifted a cage with a wimpod inside; it was cowering in fear. "This is him right here. Here, I'll even play the video of the transformation."

The four pokemon looked away from the screen during this part of the video, wincing at the screams of the man as he was rapidly transformed from a human into a wimpod upon the gas' release into the chamber he had been placed in.

"Isn't science amazing?" Rebecca noted as she closed the video and lowered the caged wimpod back to the floor. "Now, you may be wondering, how could this possibly bring an end to a war? You see, all any given combatant nation would have to do in a war is drop a small canister of the stuff, only about a liter, onto the enemy nation from their plane. Then, every human in a seven-hundred-kilometer radius would be transformed into a pokemon. The amount of chaos that would result would rapidly cause the country to collapse, winning the war for the other side. And, it will linger for thousands of years with no currently known way of expunging it!"

"Eesh," Ryan commented while cringing, "that doesn't sound fun..."

"You might now be worried about the tank of Transmogrium we have. I mean, if a small canister can affect an entire country, then surely a full tank of the stuff could potentially transform the entire human race, bringing about the downfall of civilization as we know it?"
She threw her head back in laughter.

"Oh, relax, you worrywarts. Not only will the IEF and their faraway colonists carry on our civilization even if something goes wrong, the tank has a one in five-hundred-million failure rate. We have nothing to worry about.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to need to contact the president of Silph Co about that bonus for completing the development of Project Transmogrify... Rebecca, out!"

After she reached for the webcam again, the video stops. Ryan sighed.

"Wow, that woman..." Terry said. "She seems awfully sure of herself..."

"Tell me about it," Ryan replied, then hesitated. "Wait a minute... she said something about a large tank, right?"

"Yeah," Lena affirmed, as Ben and Terry both nodded.