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inspiring me and letting me write this, TheHeartGallery21 for proofing and editing and all three for letting me use their characters\n\nThe group explores Vault 22 and uncovers its horrifying experiment", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Thanks to my friends \n\t\t\t\t\tD-6alaxy and \n\t\t\t\t\tDuhad for inspiring me and letting me write this, TheHeartGallery21 for proofing and editing and all three for letting me use their characters

The group explores Vault 22 and uncovers its horrifying experiment", "writing": "[u][center]Chapter 40: There Stands the Grass[/center][/u]\n\nThe entrance to Vault 22 was overgrown, so much so that it was hard to see the open entrance behind all the greenery.\n\n“I’ve never seen so many plants,” Frankie was in awe of the sight.\n\n“Me either,” Crafty rubbed her eyes to make sure it was real.\n\nHolly scratched her chin, “It’s only four days walk from Camp Silverman, why haven’t they sent more people?”\n\n“They did,” Alex pulled a note out of a pocket in his newly repaired heavily reinforced combat armor, “A few mercenaries were sent in after Keely but never came back. Thomas Hildern hired them under the table so no one but him knew.”\n\n“Are we sure Keely’s alive?” Helios turned to Alex.\n\n“Technically no, she’s a Gourgeist, but she’s been around long enough that they don’t think this would kill her,” Alex put the note back in his armor.\n\n“I’ve never met a Ghost-type before,” Crafty folded her arms, “I guess this Vault’s experiment was botany related.”\n\n“What Vault experiment?” Frankie turned to Crafty.\n\nIt was Helios who answered, “The Vaults were made by Silph Co. They were part of – or partners with – the Aether Enclave and used the Vaults to test all the humans and Pokemon inside. Our Vault 18 was a test to see how well we could get along without Pokemon at all, right Dee?” Helios turned and saw that Dee was a few meters ahead of them.\n\n“Something feels wrong here,” Dee’s voice sounded far away, “The aura in there feels awful, like its in pain.”\n\nA skittering sound drew her attention as several RadParas emerged from the greenery and charged at her. Dee didn’t even bat an eye and kicked them away as they came close which splattered them on the terrain, save for one that ran past her to the rest of the group.\n\nHolly was the fastest and stabbed the little creature with her katana then held up the corpse for everyone to see.\n\nCrafty leaned over, “I thought Paras were smaller and had mushrooms on their backs.”\n\nHolly shook her head, “This is a Radparas. Mutated to twice the size of their old selves after the radiation killed their mushrooms. They’re free but angry at everything, but no real threat,” she flicked the body off then cleaned the blade.\n\n“It wasn’t them,” Dee looked as the small bodies on the ground, “there’s something else in there.”\n\n“We won’t find anything standing out here, let’s go,” Alex walked past Dee towards the entrance and everyone else followed.\n\nThe cog-shaped Vault door was jammed halfway open by the plant life that had overrun the exterior. Dead foliage crunched under Dee’s feet and she shuddered at the sensation as she led them towards the stairs.\n\nCrafty stopped to examine the elevator at the top landing and pushed the control panel, only to hear straining noises from within, “Sounds like the plants jammed it. Dee, Helios, help me open this.”\n\nIt didn’t take much effort for the Lucario-woman and Charizard-man to force the elevator door open and they were greeted with a tangle of vines and other plant life choking the elevator cables.\n\nHelios glanced back at Crafty, “Want me to burn them?”\n\nCrafty nodded, “Yes, please.”\n\nHelios grinned then unleashed a Flamethrower into the elevator shaft until the plants inside were nothing but ash. “Done!”\n\n“Thanks,” Crafty clapped Helios on the shoulder then pushed him aside to get a better look at the mechanism. After a minute she gave her evaluation, “Still looks functional but the car is all the way at the bottom and there’s more plant life in the way. I’ll have to get to the top of the car on the second to last floor to get this working again.”\n\n“Want me to burn the rest?” Helios stepped forwards again.\n\n“Please do,” Crafty stepped aside and fanned herself as Helios leaned over the edge while holding the elevator doors then shot a Fire Spin down the elevator shaft. The spiraling flames wiped the entire shaft clean of plants and Helios stepped back with a feeling of satisfaction. Crafty and Dee closed the door and Crafty did some preliminary repair work on the door.\n\n“If we can’t use it, then stairs it is,” Alex turned and led them down to the first level.\n\nThe first floor was labeled as “Oxygen Recycling” and was overrun with plant life, most growing from small and large planters but also from soil that had spilled onto the floor and somehow had taken root. Ultraviolet lights shone on most of the plants, save for a few spots full of yellow-spotted purple mushrooms.\n\nDee shuddered, “Something feels wrong. An aura of pain and death.” She tried to use her aura vision to find the source but couldn’t find it.\n\nFrankie leaned up against a wall and held his head, “I feel it too, a hunger all around us.”\n\nThe rest had already drawn their weapons, Crafty annoyed that her sniper rifle was useless here as she checked her sidearm.\n\n“Maybe we should just burn everything to be safe,” fire flickered from Helios’ mouth.\n\nHolly shook her head, “Most of us would burn alive with all these plants,” she glanced at Alex, “And that’s if they even caught fire.”\n\nAlex examined one of the UV lamps, “How are these plants growing under this kind of light?”\n\nHolly shrugged, “I’m trained in computer science, not botany.”\n\n“Sssssseeeeeect”\n\nA hiss sound made all of them jump and start looking around for the source. Something stirred among the mushrooms.\n\n“Sssssseeeeeect!”\n\nA big mushroom stirred and lunged at Alex! The Ninetales-man turned on reflex and fired, his shot striking the mushroom and blowing a chunk off as the thing crashed into him and tried to bite with its teeth and slash with red claws, striking his face.\n\nCrafty turned and fired, emptying her clip into the thing’s face. Helios saw the danger and shot a flamethrower at the two as they struggled on the ground. The creature let out a shrill cry of pain and Alex kicked it off before shooting his own flamethrower at it which silenced it.\n\nAlex’s fur stopped glowing as he stood up, “Thanks again, Helios.”\n\nHelios kept his eye on the fallen creature, “You’re welcome, but what is that… thing?”\n\nDee had recovered enough to get close and examine it along with Holly. Even through the charred body she saw what it was and had to suppress a shout of shock. “It’s a Parasect-person!”\n\n“I don’t think that’s exactly it,” Holly shook her head, “the mushroom is the same kind of tochukaso that parasitizes the species but the body’s all human. Crafty, Frankie can you two autopsy the body?”\n\nCrafty was helping Frankie stay upright as his head cleared, “We can try, Frankie you alright?”\n\n“Not really, but I’ll manage. Thank you,” Frankie stabilized on his feet then joined Crafty by the side of the dead creature, borrowing Holly’s Cosmic Knife to slice the body open.\n\nNone of them watched too intently until Crafty gave her report, “The body was already dead, just being puppeted by the mushroom. Most of the organs were inoperable.”\n\nFrankie took a deep breath, “There were also other plants inside the body to make it work, there were broken bones just held in place by vines inside the body.”\n\n“And this,” Crafty pulled a scrap of blue fabric off the thing’s shoulder and held it up, “Recognize this?”\n\nDee and Helios recognized the color immediately, “This was one of the Vault’s inhabitants?” Helios couldn’t help but shudder.\n\n“Maybe we should burn the place down and forget their ‘research’.” Alex pawed the flask of fuel at his side.\n\nDee shook her head, “We need to find out why this happened and rescue Keely.”\n\n“If she’s still alive and not Parasected.” Alex just stared at the dead body.\n\n“She’s already a ghost, I don’t think she can be infected, I hope…” Holly also looked at the body then up at Frankie, “Any of you can stay behind if you want.”\n\nFrankie shook his head, “I’m not going to leave any of you to dive into here without me.” He grasped Crafty and Holly’s hands, “even if I don’t like what I’m feeling down there.”\n\n“We should still burn this place on the way out, keep whatever this is contained,” Alex said. “And keep an eye on the greenery, incase more of these Parasected are hiding in there.”\n\nCrafty panted and pulled off her tank top, which left her breasts exposed as steam rose from her body. “Ugg, it’s like a jungle in here!”\n\nAlex rolled his eyes and Crafty noticed, “Got a problem?” she folded her arms under her breasts.\n\nAlex sighed, “Not at all, are you going to stay that way?”\n\nCrafty’s rolled her eyes, “I can barely stand the heat, especially if you two keep blasting fire everywhere,” the Glaceon-woman fanned her face then breathed a burst of Icy Wind up and let the snowflakes fall over here, “Unless you want me to freeze everything.”\n\n“That would probably be more effective than your gun,” Helios said.\n\n“You’re making it hotter,” Holly couldn’t help but tease.\n\nCrafty smirked, “Thanks, but save it for when we get out of this nightmare.” She turned to Frankie, who had sat down on the floor after the atopsy. He was looking up at her but looked too disturbed to be flirty. “You gonna be ok?” she offered a hand to him.\n\nFrankie let himself be pulled up, “As long as you’re here, tits out or not,” he gave Crafty a kiss on the cheek.\n\n“Then let’s find Keely, the research and get out of here.” Alex turned to lead them back to the stairwell.\n\n“Refresh my memory, what kind of research are we looking for again?” Helios turned to Alex as they headed down the stairs.\n\n“Food production and ways to make plant life flourish in the wasteland with, as that hungry Heracross-man put it, ‘only a few drops of precious water’.” Alex shuddered, “Thomas Hildern sounded like he was about to cream his pants when he described how much the plants would grow and get all sappy, just uggg. I don’t judge but he was way too into it and I swear the way he talked I wonder where he got his degree from. Dr. Williams seems to be more concerned about Keely than the research but that Jigglypuff-woman seems to be more on the ball than he was.”\n\nThe next floor was called “Food Production” and was just as overrun with plants as the previous one, maybe even more. The floor surrounded one large garden farm and as soon as they stepped inside they heard the shriek of something and blasts of seed and acid flew at them. Crafty spotted the yellow heads and fired Ice Beams at the attackers even as she was struck by Bullet Seeds and Acid. Then the Parasected attacked. Dee leapt to the front, taking a blast of acid without even a flinch as she Blaze Kicked the first Parasected that came in range. The battle was a flurry of fire, ice and even Psybeams from Frankie as he targeted the acid spitting plants in the room.\n\nWhen the fight ended the whole room was a mess of fire and rapidly melting ice with charred and frozen plants everywhere. Frankie and Dee treated their friends as Holly, who had managed to avoid injury, examined the room.\n\n“Giant Bellsprout,” she tugged at the legs and uprooted the dead Pokemon, “but they were planted, not mobile. Possibly a form of organic pest control.”\n\n“I thought you said you didn’t study botany,” Alex winced as Dee used Heal Pulse on a small acid burn on his cheek.\n\nHolly turned back, “I still know the basics but I couldn’t tell you how they were made like this.”\n\nDee finished healing Alex’s face, “There might be some records on this level, let’s go see.” She motioned for Alex and Helios to follow her to another room.\n\nFrankie had finished healing Crafty, “There, all better.”\n\nCrafty giggled, “You didn’t have to spend extra times on my acid burns.”\n\nFrankie blushed, “I couldn’t let your lovely breasts be scarred.”\n\n“You’re sweet,” Crafty gave the Gardevoir-man a kiss, “But like I told Holly, save it for when we finish.”\n\nDee had found a computer terminal in a power room that was devoid of plant life and looked like it had recently been converted into a makeshift lab. The computer wasn’t secured and Dee stared at the screen as she paged through over a dozen pages of notes and text.\n\nHelios leaned over her shoulder, “What did you find?”\n\n“Keely was here, she made her own notes after the Vault’s own research team,” Dee pointed to a section of text on the screen, “They were experimenting on various ways to grow plants underground, Keely even repaired the Ultraviolet lights they used to give the plants sustenance. Looks like they were experimenting on the spores from Paras and Parasect mushrooms and trying to apply them to a form of pest control and… one of the research team got an infection in his lungs and died… but then he grew mushrooms on his head and his body got back up and attacked them before they could put it down. Then more people got infect and… that’s where the Parasected came from.” Dee shuddered and turned away from the computer, “No real research notes and the connections were damaged and… what if we’re infected now? What if we carry this outside and die from it?!”\n\nHelios pulled Dee out of the chair into a hug, “I’m here, don’t worry. I won’t let you die.”\n\nDee sniffed and nuzzled his neck scales, “Thank you.”\n\n“We should keep moving then, find this research data and see if they got any sort of cure worked on before they died,” Alex had searched the room while Dee was at the terminal and came up with a few stimpacks and a sack with some grenades inside, “Here, Dee, you’re good with these.”\n\nDee took the sack and checked inside, “Four incendiary grenades, thanks Alex.” She took a minute to attach them to her belt, then they joined up with the rest of their friends and headed down the stairs again.\n\nThe next floor was comparatively peaceful, with only a few batches of mushrooms and plants scattered across the floor. Dee and Helios recognized it as the main living area of the Vault as they entered the atrium that overlooked the dining hall.\n\nFrankie shuddered as he saw the floor below, overgrown with giant plants, mushrooms and the giant Bellsprout. Frankie had to cover his mouth as he saw movement among the plants, then more. He could feel the angry hunger among them, dozens of Parasected all convened below. Dee carefully drew two incendiary grenades from her belt then nodded to everyone as she readied to pull the pins. They all nodded in response as Alex took a mouthful from his fuel flask.\n\nCrafty leaned over and took a huge breath as Dee quickly pulled the pins and dropped the grenades into the atrium right before Crafty unleashed multiple icy winds down at the plants followed by Ice Beams that swept the area and coated the floor with ice. Amid the shrieks from the Parasected and opening barrages from the Bellsprout the two incendiary grenades exploded into fiery blasts as Helios and Alex unleashed red and blue flamethrowers to set the whole dining area ablaze.\n\n“SEEEEEEEECT!” Several Parasected had escaped the conflagration and were running towards them. Dee rounded on the stairs and threw one more incendiary grenade down the stairs. The fiery explosion finished off four of the Parasected and Holly jumped out in front to slice off the head of the first one that ran up the stairs with her katana the stabbed a second with her Cosmic knife. The second was still standing and slashed at her arm.\n\nCrafty spun around and fired an Ice Beam at the Parasected before it could strike again and the sub-zero beam froze it to death. Dee intercepted the last one as it pounced and killed the still flaming Parasected with a Blaze Kick.\n\nOnce she was sure there was nothing else coming for them, Crafty slid down to the floor drenched in sweat, her huge breasts heaving as she panted. “Arceusdamnit… could ya… make it…any hotter?” She looked up shakily at the rest of the group.\n\nFrankie helped the Glaceon woman to her feet, “Can you make it?”\n\n“I’ll live,” Crafty took a deep breath and blew Icy Wind up only for the frost to melt in mid-air, “Just get me… to the…elevator.”\n\nHolly helped Crafty stay upright and the three headed for the elevator. Dee, Helios and Alex stayed to keep an eye on the fire. Thankfully the vault was mostly made of steel and concrete so it took less than an hour for the fire to finally die down.\n\nDee fanned herself and pulled the top of her scrubs down to let steam escape, “Whew! Almost too hot for me.” She looked at the two Fire-types, who weren’t even phased by the heat. “I can’t feel anything alive down there, can you see anything?”\n\nAlex shook his head, “No, the fire’s almost out too. Let’s see if we can find that research data Hildern sent us for.”\n\nDee looked down and saw the flames burning lower and the ashes of the plants and Parasected littering the floor, then she and Helios followed Alex down to the lower floor.\n\nThere wasn’t much on the floor, even before the fire they had started. Dee scoured each terminal they came across but mostly found either personal entries or the disturbing accounts of what led up to the outbreak of the Parasected. Finally, after an hour of searching, Dee found a terminal with the agricultural research data on it, locked behind an encryption that she was able to break.\n\n“Interesting stuff, I just wish they hadn’t tried to expand their pest control,” Alex commented as Dee copied the information to her Rotom-boy, “but still no sign of Keely.”\n\n“Maybe she’s on the bottom floor,” Dee stood up as she finished the download, “We should check before we go.”\n\n“Sorry, can’t do it,” Holly’s voice came from the room’s entrance and the three turned to face her. “The elevator’s mostly fixed but we’d have to go down to the bottom floor to finish the job but the stairs are blocked by a collapsed ceiling.”\n\nHelios and Dee shared a look, then grinned. “Show us the way,” Helios said.\n\nThe stairs were indeed blocked by collapsed concrete and steel, wedged into place so it was nearly impossible to move. Dee examined the debris, tapped it then looked up at the ceiling. “It’s not load bearing, but stand back just in case.” She picked her first target then slashed at a chunk of concrete with her hand spike which split it in half. Dee conjured an aura bone and used it to pry the chunk out and then passed it to Helios, who carried it down into the common area and dropped it in the ash-filled dining area. Dee smashed her aura bone into a beam that was wedged in place and smashed it into a bend that she easily removed then punched through a big concrete slab which cracked into four chunks she levered and yanked out, again passing them to Helios who carried them down to the dining area.\n\nFinally, the way was cleared and they saw the stairs leading down. On the landing the found a dead Litleo-woman in chewed up leather armor who had been leaning up against the debris until Dee removed it. Clutched in the body’s hands was an odd-looking laser rifle.\n\nAlex claimed the weapon, it looked similar to his own rifle although it was a lighter gray scheme with an orange-red trim and two integrated circuit chips housed inside its stock, which were connected to the rest of the weapon via wires. “AER14,” Alex read the number off the side, “looks like either an experimental upgrade or protype of the standard AER9 rifle.” He checked the ammo then turned to face down the way they had come and fired, a bright green beam lancing out from the weapon. He fired twice more before the microfusion cell was drained and he replaced it, “Uses twice the energy, but should have more punch.” He slung the weapon onto his back.\n\n“Barely used the first one and already replacing it?” Crafty rolled her eyes. Alex just glared at the topless Glaceon-woman then walked out in front of the group down the stairs.\n\nAs soon as the door to the bottom floor, pest control, opened Alex immediately had a chance to test his new weapon on five giant Bellsprout planted in the floor that turned to attack. It only took one shot of the AER14 to vaporize their head and leave the stems lifeless on the ground.\n\n“Hey! Over here!” a hollow voice drew everyone’s attention to a female Gourgeist that poked her head out from behind a nearby door. “Finally, I was wondering if anyone would make it down here.” She sounded annoyed as she floated towards them.\n\nAlex shouldered the AER14, “Are you Keely? Angela sent us to find you.”\n\n“That’s me, I knew Angela would send someone. Sweet girl, unlike that ass Hildern. How’d you get down here?” Keely looked over the group.\n\n“Cleared the debris from the stairs and Crafty’s fixing the elevator,” Dee motioned over her shoulder to where the Glaceon-woman had stopped to work on the elevator.\n\n“And it’s done!” Crafty stood up and closed the panel as they heard the elevator whirr to life.\n\nKeely floated over to observe Crafty’s work, “That’s pretty good. I got trapped down here when it broke after I rode it down. But enough small-talk, we need to get to my lab on floor three and keep these spores from spreading!” she entered the elevator followed by Crafty and Holly. The rest were forced to walk back up the way they came.\n\nThey found Keely in the lab on the third floor along with Crafty and Holly. Keely was working on the main terminal while Crafty and Holly stood by. Keely looked up as the last four entered, “Good. Two fire-types with you, that’ll make things go faster. I’ll cut to the chase: you fought those Parasected things, well the spores from this research could leak out if any of them escape so we need to burn out every part of this Vault to keep them from infecting anyone else.” She sighed, “It’s sad really. All these wonderful minds undone by their own irresponsibility.”\n\n“So what do we need to do?” Alex folded his arms.\n\n“You need to burn out every part of this vault, or at least all the plants in here. I can purge this place if you get all the big deposits using a flammable gas I’ve managed to concoct from their leftover chemical,” Keely pointed to a set of gas canisters sitting nearby, “once you’ve burned all the big plants I can flood this place with it and blow out everything else. You’re lucky, the spores can’t survive the body of Fire or Ice types so half of you are just fine.”\n\n“What about the rest of us?” Frankie pointed to himself, feeling nervous.\n\n“You’ll be fine in a couple days once you leave, but if you want to speed things up then get blasted by one of your friends’ fire or ice moves to kill the excess on your body and endure the pain and I have some inhaled medicine to clear out your lungs.” Keely was working on her computer, “Now I just need to delete all the research notes so no one ever repeats these mistakes… hmm… seems like a backup was downloaded,” she turned to face the group, focusing on the Rotom-boys on Dee and Helios’ arms, “Do you know anything about this?”\n\nDee nodded, “I downloaded all their research data to my Rotom-boy.”\n\nKeely nodded, “Alright, just hold out your hand and I’ll delete it. Can’t risk this happening again.”\n\nDee stepped back and covered her Rotom-boy with a hand, “No, we can’t just delete all of this.”\n\n“Don’t be stupid,” Keely glowered, “Letting idiots mess with this could create another disaster that isn’t contained within a Vault.”\n\n“If we delete it then it just risks happening again,” Dee countered, “Better to learn from the mistakes than risk them being repeated by people trying to explore unfamiliar research again.”\n\nKeely gave Dee a skeptical look, “I suppose that makes sense. Alright but I need to have a word with Hildern and Zade, since I know that ass hired you and others without proper paperwork.”\n\nDee sighed in relief as Helios and Alex left the lab to start hosing every room they could find with Flamethrowers.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Chapter 40: There Stands the Grass


The entrance to Vault 22 was overgrown, so much so that it was hard to see the open entrance behind all the greenery.

“I’ve never seen so many plants,” Frankie was in awe of the sight.

“Me either,” Crafty rubbed her eyes to make sure it was real.

Holly scratched her chin, “It’s only four days walk from Camp Silverman, why haven’t they sent more people?”

“They did,” Alex pulled a note out of a pocket in his newly repaired heavily reinforced combat armor, “A few mercenaries were sent in after Keely but never came back. Thomas Hildern hired them under the table so no one but him knew.”

“Are we sure Keely’s alive?” Helios turned to Alex.

“Technically no, she’s a Gourgeist, but she’s been around long enough that they don’t think this would kill her,” Alex put the note back in his armor.

“I’ve never met a Ghost-type before,” Crafty folded her arms, “I guess this Vault’s experiment was botany related.”

“What Vault experiment?” Frankie turned to Crafty.

It was Helios who answered, “The Vaults were made by Silph Co. They were part of – or partners with – the Aether Enclave and used the Vaults to test all the humans and Pokemon inside. Our Vault 18 was a test to see how well we could get along without Pokemon at all, right Dee?” Helios turned and saw that Dee was a few meters ahead of them.

“Something feels wrong here,” Dee’s voice sounded far away, “The aura in there feels awful, like its in pain.”

A skittering sound drew her attention as several RadParas emerged from the greenery and charged at her. Dee didn’t even bat an eye and kicked them away as they came close which splattered them on the terrain, save for one that ran past her to the rest of the group.

Holly was the fastest and stabbed the little creature with her katana then held up the corpse for everyone to see.

Crafty leaned over, “I thought Paras were smaller and had mushrooms on their backs.”

Holly shook her head, “This is a Radparas. Mutated to twice the size of their old selves after the radiation killed their mushrooms. They’re free but angry at everything, but no real threat,” she flicked the body off then cleaned the blade.

“It wasn’t them,” Dee looked as the small bodies on the ground, “there’s something else in there.”

“We won’t find anything standing out here, let’s go,” Alex walked past Dee towards the entrance and everyone else followed.

The cog-shaped Vault door was jammed halfway open by the plant life that had overrun the exterior. Dead foliage crunched under Dee’s feet and she shuddered at the sensation as she led them towards the stairs.

Crafty stopped to examine the elevator at the top landing and pushed the control panel, only to hear straining noises from within, “Sounds like the plants jammed it. Dee, Helios, help me open this.”

It didn’t take much effort for the Lucario-woman and Charizard-man to force the elevator door open and they were greeted with a tangle of vines and other plant life choking the elevator cables.

Helios glanced back at Crafty, “Want me to burn them?”

Crafty nodded, “Yes, please.”

Helios grinned then unleashed a Flamethrower into the elevator shaft until the plants inside were nothing but ash. “Done!”

“Thanks,” Crafty clapped Helios on the shoulder then pushed him aside to get a better look at the mechanism. After a minute she gave her evaluation, “Still looks functional but the car is all the way at the bottom and there’s more plant life in the way. I’ll have to get to the top of the car on the second to last floor to get this working again.”

“Want me to burn the rest?” Helios stepped forwards again.

“Please do,” Crafty stepped aside and fanned herself as Helios leaned over the edge while holding the elevator doors then shot a Fire Spin down the elevator shaft. The spiraling flames wiped the entire shaft clean of plants and Helios stepped back with a feeling of satisfaction. Crafty and Dee closed the door and Crafty did some preliminary repair work on the door.

“If we can’t use it, then stairs it is,” Alex turned and led them down to the first level.

The first floor was labeled as “Oxygen Recycling” and was overrun with plant life, most growing from small and large planters but also from soil that had spilled onto the floor and somehow had taken root. Ultraviolet lights shone on most of the plants, save for a few spots full of yellow-spotted purple mushrooms.

Dee shuddered, “Something feels wrong. An aura of pain and death.” She tried to use her aura vision to find the source but couldn’t find it.

Frankie leaned up against a wall and held his head, “I feel it too, a hunger all around us.”

The rest had already drawn their weapons, Crafty annoyed that her sniper rifle was useless here as she checked her sidearm.

“Maybe we should just burn everything to be safe,” fire flickered from Helios’ mouth.

Holly shook her head, “Most of us would burn alive with all these plants,” she glanced at Alex, “And that’s if they even caught fire.”

Alex examined one of the UV lamps, “How are these plants growing under this kind of light?”

Holly shrugged, “I’m trained in computer science, not botany.”

“Sssssseeeeeect”

A hiss sound made all of them jump and start looking around for the source. Something stirred among the mushrooms.

“Sssssseeeeeect!”

A big mushroom stirred and lunged at Alex! The Ninetales-man turned on reflex and fired, his shot striking the mushroom and blowing a chunk off as the thing crashed into him and tried to bite with its teeth and slash with red claws, striking his face.

Crafty turned and fired, emptying her clip into the thing’s face. Helios saw the danger and shot a flamethrower at the two as they struggled on the ground. The creature let out a shrill cry of pain and Alex kicked it off before shooting his own flamethrower at it which silenced it.

Alex’s fur stopped glowing as he stood up, “Thanks again, Helios.”

Helios kept his eye on the fallen creature, “You’re welcome, but what is that… thing?”

Dee had recovered enough to get close and examine it along with Holly. Even through the charred body she saw what it was and had to suppress a shout of shock. “It’s a Parasect-person!”

“I don’t think that’s exactly it,” Holly shook her head, “the mushroom is the same kind of tochukaso that parasitizes the species but the body’s all human. Crafty, Frankie can you two autopsy the body?”

Crafty was helping Frankie stay upright as his head cleared, “We can try, Frankie you alright?”

“Not really, but I’ll manage. Thank you,” Frankie stabilized on his feet then joined Crafty by the side of the dead creature, borrowing Holly’s Cosmic Knife to slice the body open.

None of them watched too intently until Crafty gave her report, “The body was already dead, just being puppeted by the mushroom. Most of the organs were inoperable.”

Frankie took a deep breath, “There were also other plants inside the body to make it work, there were broken bones just held in place by vines inside the body.”

“And this,” Crafty pulled a scrap of blue fabric off the thing’s shoulder and held it up, “Recognize this?”

Dee and Helios recognized the color immediately, “This was one of the Vault’s inhabitants?” Helios couldn’t help but shudder.

“Maybe we should burn the place down and forget their ‘research’.” Alex pawed the flask of fuel at his side.

Dee shook her head, “We need to find out why this happened and rescue Keely.”

“If she’s still alive and not Parasected.” Alex just stared at the dead body.

“She’s already a ghost, I don’t think she can be infected, I hope…” Holly also looked at the body then up at Frankie, “Any of you can stay behind if you want.”

Frankie shook his head, “I’m not going to leave any of you to dive into here without me.” He grasped Crafty and Holly’s hands, “even if I don’t like what I’m feeling down there.”

“We should still burn this place on the way out, keep whatever this is contained,” Alex said. “And keep an eye on the greenery, incase more of these Parasected are hiding in there.”

Crafty panted and pulled off her tank top, which left her breasts exposed as steam rose from her body. “Ugg, it’s like a jungle in here!”

Alex rolled his eyes and Crafty noticed, “Got a problem?” she folded her arms under her breasts.

Alex sighed, “Not at all, are you going to stay that way?”

Crafty’s rolled her eyes, “I can barely stand the heat, especially if you two keep blasting fire everywhere,” the Glaceon-woman fanned her face then breathed a burst of Icy Wind up and let the snowflakes fall over here, “Unless you want me to freeze everything.”

“That would probably be more effective than your gun,” Helios said.

“You’re making it hotter,” Holly couldn’t help but tease.

Crafty smirked, “Thanks, but save it for when we get out of this nightmare.” She turned to Frankie, who had sat down on the floor after the atopsy. He was looking up at her but looked too disturbed to be flirty. “You gonna be ok?” she offered a hand to him.

Frankie let himself be pulled up, “As long as you’re here, tits out or not,” he gave Crafty a kiss on the cheek.

“Then let’s find Keely, the research and get out of here.” Alex turned to lead them back to the stairwell.

“Refresh my memory, what kind of research are we looking for again?” Helios turned to Alex as they headed down the stairs.

“Food production and ways to make plant life flourish in the wasteland with, as that hungry Heracross-man put it, ‘only a few drops of precious water’.” Alex shuddered, “Thomas Hildern sounded like he was about to cream his pants when he described how much the plants would grow and get all sappy, just uggg. I don’t judge but he was way too into it and I swear the way he talked I wonder where he got his degree from. Dr. Williams seems to be more concerned about Keely than the research but that Jigglypuff-woman seems to be more on the ball than he was.”

The next floor was called “Food Production” and was just as overrun with plants as the previous one, maybe even more. The floor surrounded one large garden farm and as soon as they stepped inside they heard the shriek of something and blasts of seed and acid flew at them. Crafty spotted the yellow heads and fired Ice Beams at the attackers even as she was struck by Bullet Seeds and Acid. Then the Parasected attacked. Dee leapt to the front, taking a blast of acid without even a flinch as she Blaze Kicked the first Parasected that came in range. The battle was a flurry of fire, ice and even Psybeams from Frankie as he targeted the acid spitting plants in the room.

When the fight ended the whole room was a mess of fire and rapidly melting ice with charred and frozen plants everywhere. Frankie and Dee treated their friends as Holly, who had managed to avoid injury, examined the room.

“Giant Bellsprout,” she tugged at the legs and uprooted the dead Pokemon, “but they were planted, not mobile. Possibly a form of organic pest control.”

“I thought you said you didn’t study botany,” Alex winced as Dee used Heal Pulse on a small acid burn on his cheek.

Holly turned back, “I still know the basics but I couldn’t tell you how they were made like this.”

Dee finished healing Alex’s face, “There might be some records on this level, let’s go see.” She motioned for Alex and Helios to follow her to another room.

Frankie had finished healing Crafty, “There, all better.”

Crafty giggled, “You didn’t have to spend extra times on my acid burns.”

Frankie blushed, “I couldn’t let your lovely breasts be scarred.”

“You’re sweet,” Crafty gave the Gardevoir-man a kiss, “But like I told Holly, save it for when we finish.”

Dee had found a computer terminal in a power room that was devoid of plant life and looked like it had recently been converted into a makeshift lab. The computer wasn’t secured and Dee stared at the screen as she paged through over a dozen pages of notes and text.

Helios leaned over her shoulder, “What did you find?”

“Keely was here, she made her own notes after the Vault’s own research team,” Dee pointed to a section of text on the screen, “They were experimenting on various ways to grow plants underground, Keely even repaired the Ultraviolet lights they used to give the plants sustenance. Looks like they were experimenting on the spores from Paras and Parasect mushrooms and trying to apply them to a form of pest control and… one of the research team got an infection in his lungs and died… but then he grew mushrooms on his head and his body got back up and attacked them before they could put it down. Then more people got infect and… that’s where the Parasected came from.” Dee shuddered and turned away from the computer, “No real research notes and the connections were damaged and… what if we’re infected now? What if we carry this outside and die from it?!”

Helios pulled Dee out of the chair into a hug, “I’m here, don’t worry. I won’t let you die.”

Dee sniffed and nuzzled his neck scales, “Thank you.”

“We should keep moving then, find this research data and see if they got any sort of cure worked on before they died,” Alex had searched the room while Dee was at the terminal and came up with a few stimpacks and a sack with some grenades inside, “Here, Dee, you’re good with these.”

Dee took the sack and checked inside, “Four incendiary grenades, thanks Alex.” She took a minute to attach them to her belt, then they joined up with the rest of their friends and headed down the stairs again.

The next floor was comparatively peaceful, with only a few batches of mushrooms and plants scattered across the floor. Dee and Helios recognized it as the main living area of the Vault as they entered the atrium that overlooked the dining hall.

Frankie shuddered as he saw the floor below, overgrown with giant plants, mushrooms and the giant Bellsprout. Frankie had to cover his mouth as he saw movement among the plants, then more. He could feel the angry hunger among them, dozens of Parasected all convened below. Dee carefully drew two incendiary grenades from her belt then nodded to everyone as she readied to pull the pins. They all nodded in response as Alex took a mouthful from his fuel flask.

Crafty leaned over and took a huge breath as Dee quickly pulled the pins and dropped the grenades into the atrium right before Crafty unleashed multiple icy winds down at the plants followed by Ice Beams that swept the area and coated the floor with ice. Amid the shrieks from the Parasected and opening barrages from the Bellsprout the two incendiary grenades exploded into fiery blasts as Helios and Alex unleashed red and blue flamethrowers to set the whole dining area ablaze.

“SEEEEEEEECT!” Several Parasected had escaped the conflagration and were running towards them. Dee rounded on the stairs and threw one more incendiary grenade down the stairs. The fiery explosion finished off four of the Parasected and Holly jumped out in front to slice off the head of the first one that ran up the stairs with her katana the stabbed a second with her Cosmic knife. The second was still standing and slashed at her arm.

Crafty spun around and fired an Ice Beam at the Parasected before it could strike again and the sub-zero beam froze it to death. Dee intercepted the last one as it pounced and killed the still flaming Parasected with a Blaze Kick.

Once she was sure there was nothing else coming for them, Crafty slid down to the floor drenched in sweat, her huge breasts heaving as she panted. “Arceusdamnit… could ya… make it…any hotter?” She looked up shakily at the rest of the group.

Frankie helped the Glaceon woman to her feet, “Can you make it?”

“I’ll live,” Crafty took a deep breath and blew Icy Wind up only for the frost to melt in mid-air, “Just get me… to the…elevator.”

Holly helped Crafty stay upright and the three headed for the elevator. Dee, Helios and Alex stayed to keep an eye on the fire. Thankfully the vault was mostly made of steel and concrete so it took less than an hour for the fire to finally die down.

Dee fanned herself and pulled the top of her scrubs down to let steam escape, “Whew! Almost too hot for me.” She looked at the two Fire-types, who weren’t even phased by the heat. “I can’t feel anything alive down there, can you see anything?”

Alex shook his head, “No, the fire’s almost out too. Let’s see if we can find that research data Hildern sent us for.”

Dee looked down and saw the flames burning lower and the ashes of the plants and Parasected littering the floor, then she and Helios followed Alex down to the lower floor.

There wasn’t much on the floor, even before the fire they had started. Dee scoured each terminal they came across but mostly found either personal entries or the disturbing accounts of what led up to the outbreak of the Parasected. Finally, after an hour of searching, Dee found a terminal with the agricultural research data on it, locked behind an encryption that she was able to break.

“Interesting stuff, I just wish they hadn’t tried to expand their pest control,” Alex commented as Dee copied the information to her Rotom-boy, “but still no sign of Keely.”

“Maybe she’s on the bottom floor,” Dee stood up as she finished the download, “We should check before we go.”

“Sorry, can’t do it,” Holly’s voice came from the room’s entrance and the three turned to face her. “The elevator’s mostly fixed but we’d have to go down to the bottom floor to finish the job but the stairs are blocked by a collapsed ceiling.”

Helios and Dee shared a look, then grinned. “Show us the way,” Helios said.

The stairs were indeed blocked by collapsed concrete and steel, wedged into place so it was nearly impossible to move. Dee examined the debris, tapped it then looked up at the ceiling. “It’s not load bearing, but stand back just in case.” She picked her first target then slashed at a chunk of concrete with her hand spike which split it in half. Dee conjured an aura bone and used it to pry the chunk out and then passed it to Helios, who carried it down into the common area and dropped it in the ash-filled dining area. Dee smashed her aura bone into a beam that was wedged in place and smashed it into a bend that she easily removed then punched through a big concrete slab which cracked into four chunks she levered and yanked out, again passing them to Helios who carried them down to the dining area.

Finally, the way was cleared and they saw the stairs leading down. On the landing the found a dead Litleo-woman in chewed up leather armor who had been leaning up against the debris until Dee removed it. Clutched in the body’s hands was an odd-looking laser rifle.

Alex claimed the weapon, it looked similar to his own rifle although it was a lighter gray scheme with an orange-red trim and two integrated circuit chips housed inside its stock, which were connected to the rest of the weapon via wires. “AER14,” Alex read the number off the side, “looks like either an experimental upgrade or protype of the standard AER9 rifle.” He checked the ammo then turned to face down the way they had come and fired, a bright green beam lancing out from the weapon. He fired twice more before the microfusion cell was drained and he replaced it, “Uses twice the energy, but should have more punch.” He slung the weapon onto his back.

“Barely used the first one and already replacing it?” Crafty rolled her eyes. Alex just glared at the topless Glaceon-woman then walked out in front of the group down the stairs.

As soon as the door to the bottom floor, pest control, opened Alex immediately had a chance to test his new weapon on five giant Bellsprout planted in the floor that turned to attack. It only took one shot of the AER14 to vaporize their head and leave the stems lifeless on the ground.

“Hey! Over here!” a hollow voice drew everyone’s attention to a female Gourgeist that poked her head out from behind a nearby door. “Finally, I was wondering if anyone would make it down here.” She sounded annoyed as she floated towards them.

Alex shouldered the AER14, “Are you Keely? Angela sent us to find you.”

“That’s me, I knew Angela would send someone. Sweet girl, unlike that ass Hildern. How’d you get down here?” Keely looked over the group.

“Cleared the debris from the stairs and Crafty’s fixing the elevator,” Dee motioned over her shoulder to where the Glaceon-woman had stopped to work on the elevator.

“And it’s done!” Crafty stood up and closed the panel as they heard the elevator whirr to life.

Keely floated over to observe Crafty’s work, “That’s pretty good. I got trapped down here when it broke after I rode it down. But enough small-talk, we need to get to my lab on floor three and keep these spores from spreading!” she entered the elevator followed by Crafty and Holly. The rest were forced to walk back up the way they came.

They found Keely in the lab on the third floor along with Crafty and Holly. Keely was working on the main terminal while Crafty and Holly stood by. Keely looked up as the last four entered, “Good. Two fire-types with you, that’ll make things go faster. I’ll cut to the chase: you fought those Parasected things, well the spores from this research could leak out if any of them escape so we need to burn out every part of this Vault to keep them from infecting anyone else.” She sighed, “It’s sad really. All these wonderful minds undone by their own irresponsibility.”

“So what do we need to do?” Alex folded his arms.

“You need to burn out every part of this vault, or at least all the plants in here. I can purge this place if you get all the big deposits using a flammable gas I’ve managed to concoct from their leftover chemical,” Keely pointed to a set of gas canisters sitting nearby, “once you’ve burned all the big plants I can flood this place with it and blow out everything else. You’re lucky, the spores can’t survive the body of Fire or Ice types so half of you are just fine.”

“What about the rest of us?” Frankie pointed to himself, feeling nervous.

“You’ll be fine in a couple days once you leave, but if you want to speed things up then get blasted by one of your friends’ fire or ice moves to kill the excess on your body and endure the pain and I have some inhaled medicine to clear out your lungs.” Keely was working on her computer, “Now I just need to delete all the research notes so no one ever repeats these mistakes… hmm… seems like a backup was downloaded,” she turned to face the group, focusing on the Rotom-boys on Dee and Helios’ arms, “Do you know anything about this?”

Dee nodded, “I downloaded all their research data to my Rotom-boy.”

Keely nodded, “Alright, just hold out your hand and I’ll delete it. Can’t risk this happening again.”

Dee stepped back and covered her Rotom-boy with a hand, “No, we can’t just delete all of this.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Keely glowered, “Letting idiots mess with this could create another disaster that isn’t contained within a Vault.”

“If we delete it then it just risks happening again,” Dee countered, “Better to learn from the mistakes than risk them being repeated by people trying to explore unfamiliar research again.”

Keely gave Dee a skeptical look, “I suppose that makes sense. Alright but I need to have a word with Hildern and Zade, since I know that ass hired you and others without proper paperwork.”

Dee sighed in relief as Helios and Alex left the lab to start hosing every room they could find with Flamethrowers.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Fallout New Lumiose chapter 40", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "image/png", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "6" }