Chapter 10

Even without making an auditory sound, that speaker had a great way of inspiring confidence. Degenerate mutation. Yet curiosity kept him from trying to flee, along with an ample helping of fear.

There in that open doorway, several figures appeared, each one a little larger than himself, with fur in different shades of pink. They were Mew, though not like the tiny one that he was protecting.

These were larger, more developed. Their tails were several times the size of his body, with sharp eyes that jumped directly to where he floated and followed him as he struggled to stay airborne.

One vanished from the doorway, appearing a few inches away. It gripped his shoulder with one paw, somehow disciplined enough not to sink those claws into his skin. This one wore a silvery vest, made from flexible material that reached to her middle. The strange cut left her forelegs free to move, without reaching far enough down to actually cover anything.

"Your child is in distress," she said, directly into his mind. "This will be more difficult for you both if you resist."

"Resist what?" He didn't want to ask, but he wasn't speaking. In the domain of thoughts, the question came whether he wanted to or not.

He adjusted the kitten in his grip, who had already started squirming. She spun until she was facing right-side-up, transfixed by the speaker. No doubt that compared to this creature she was only a kitten, small enough for the newcomer to pick up in her mouth and carry off.

"Returning to Starfall. Many have made the process difficult for all of us, attempting to evade the recovery team so they may maintain a… derivative form, like yours. If you haven't been compromised, you should transform now. Your kitten should not be exposed to this."

And somehow at the same time, she spoke to Avery, in a way that they could both hear. Telepathy could be shared to a specific group of people, apparently.

"What are you doing so far from base camp, sweetheart? Did your father take you on a little field trip?"

Avery tilted her head to the side, looking up at the speaker. "Father?" The word filled her with such amusement she started giggling, and whatever else she might've said was completely lost in that energetic sound. Thanks to telepathy, she didn't even have to stop laughing. "You think he's my dad? You don't even know anything!"

By then, a second cat had flown her way over, levitating next to Quinn's other side. Ready to grab him if he tried to move, but keeping just far enough away that he wasn't being held. She wore a silvery vest and not a lot else.

Modesty was clearly not a value they cared about. But that was probably to his advantage in this case; they didn't think he was some kind of streaker.

"Will you come with us, terraformer?" asked the other cat. This one somehow felt older than the first, though he couldn't say what gave him that impression. "We could look the other way if it was just you who wanted to fight. But having a kitten changes things. She doesn't deserve to spend her life out in some… wilderness, surrounded by wild monsters. There are a few below us right now."

"Don't hurt them!" Avery said, so sudden and emotional she yelled out loud, instead of bothering with telepathy. Judging by the frowning watchers, that was not the way she was supposed to act. But this was Avery, who didn't care much how they were expected to act. "Please! We trained them. They're our friends. Quinn will tell you so too."

"Friends, huh?" The first cat waved, gesturing Quinn towards the open side of the hovering… something. Not any aircraft Quinn had ever seen, or even imagined. It lacked rotors, or the louder roaring engine that military planes sometimes used. Instead it parked in midair, as defiant of gravity as the ones who used it.

"Come willingly, please," she urged. "Whatever led you to think this was an appropriate parenting style is less important than your daughter's safety."

Quinn nodded weakly, floating towards the opening with Avery still tucked against his chest. He didn't need his Pokémon abilities very well developed to know he would never be able to fly away from these Pokémon.

Team Infinity hadn't said anything about Pokémon who wore clothes and flew around in helicopters shaped like little cylinders. If he ever got his humanity back, he would have to have a word with their representatives about all the errors they were spreading.

"We're not what you think," he thought to the two watching Pokémon, floating along with the two cats. He tried to send that message to all three of the nearby cats, including the one he was carrying. Despite what they all said, Avery wasn't a child. She deserved to be part of any decision they made.

"We're from the future. The best thing you can do is let us go back to when we came from."

Those words provoked an instant reaction. One cat flew in close to him, pressing one little paw against the back of his neck. The other remained in front, watching the kitten more than him. Maybe she intended to grab Avery if he tried using his powers?

"You will not attempt to flee with your powers, terraforming specialist. You will get into the landing craft, and you will not resist. Otherwise, you will be separated from the kitten and restrained."

His antennae folded backwards, little feet kicking out beneath him in frustration. What would happen to his friend if she didn't have him around to protect her?

"Do you think they'll hurt us?" he thought, as quietly as he could. Quinn had a few days of practice sending things directly to Avery, and knew her mind compared to others. Hopefully that meant he could keep his telepathy from leaking.

"I don't think so," Avery thought back. Whether she was as good about keeping her thoughts to herself, he couldn't say. If anything, he had his doubts of her success. Maybe they were all listening to every word. "I don't feel hostility. Just worry."

Speak for yourself, he thought. Though this time he made no effort to send what he was thinking. These mew hadn't attacked him outright, but they were afraid. And not willing to let him escape, since he had Avery.

If his best friend wasn't still suffering the effects of her own transformation, he would want to plan with her. He had this single chance to try and escape, before they got to wherever they were going. Could he jump them through time before they could stop him?

Not with a paw against the back of his neck. This Pokémon knew what he was, or at least thought she did. Instead of fleeing, she'd rushed towards him. She was there even now, despite whatever unknown powers a Celebi might wield.

She would probably have to kill me to stop me from time traveling. If she did, that would be one thing Quinn couldn't just jump back from and try again.

"If I cooperate with you, you don't hurt either of us?" he asked, to both of the cats. Through telepathy, there would be an undercurrent of emotion along with each word. They shouldn't be able to lie.

"Yes," said the one behind him. "Nice and easy… Quinn? We have people who can help you, Quinn. You can be yourself again, if you just come with us."

Quinn got into the aircraft.

The interior was much as it looked from outside, a comfortable space filled with soft white like moonlight. Much of its interior was inaccessible, separated by a thin metal barrier from where he guessed the cockpit would be. And probably some of its functional parts, because he didn't see anything mechanical.

There was little inside beyond raised cushion seats on the floor, and a few curved windows along either side. They recreated the view of the jungle canopy with incredible fidelity, better than any screen he'd ever seen.

There was no cell to throw him into, just an open cooler of shiny metal canisters, and another one with pieces of little plates of… food?

"Don't leave our Pokémon behind!" Avery said, as soon as they were inside. The other cats flew in just behind them, with one lingering near the doorway. She touched her paw against it, and the metal constricted itself like an aperture, sealing closed.

Avery floated away from Quinn, ignoring his pleading and crossing the room in a second. Apparently she could use some of her powers, when she was passionate enough. "Baast is my friend! And Quinn's Pokémon saved our lives! We can't just leave them behind!"

"Relax, child. If you befriended the wild Pokémon, they will be perfectly safe in their natural habitat. You will be able to return and visit them again."

Avery squirmed and fought against the creature, scratching in vain against the metal door. But it didn't do anything. If it would have, the adult probably wouldn't have stood there and let her struggle.

"Kitten, you can't go back there. I'm sorry, that's just not possible right now. We need to get you back to Starfall to get you checked out, okay?" She waved Quinn over. "Dad, you want to help explain this?"

"He's not my dad!" Avery squealed. Though her words were silent, she accompanied the telepathy with more of that shrill, high-pitched mewing. The Pokémon equivalent of a crying, frightened baby. "He's my friend, that's all! We were just supposed to be watching the accelerator!"

Quinn reached her, and none of the Pokémon interfered. One settled into a cushion, lifting up a bottle from the open cooler in her levitation and cracking it open. Another took a cushion near the door.

"I hope you thought it was a good idea to tell them all that," he thought. "At least if they thought we were a family, they wouldn't separate us."

"You should probably find a place to sit," said the nearest cat, spreading out on the cushion. "Autopilot is about to jump back to Starfall. Can be disorienting if you're flying when it happens."

Quinn settled onto one of the cushions, helping guide Avery down beside him. The interior of the craft wasn't large, but the space felt comfortable rather than cramped. The cushions were softer than anything he'd felt since transforming.

The cat nearest the door touched something Quinn couldn't see, and the craft shuddered. Not violently—more like the sensation of an elevator beginning to move. The jungle vanished from the windows, replaced by darkness and streaks of light.

"I'm Asha," said the older-seeming cat, gesturing with the bottle. "That's Maya by the door, and Ven keeping an eye on you two." She took another sip. "We don't get many rescue missions quite like this one."

"We're not what you think," Quinn said, wrapping one arm protectively around Avery. "We're researchers from—"

"From the terraforming team." Ven's tail swished. "We've dealt with contamination before. Though usually not quite so… extreme."

Avery had stopped fighting, curling up against Quinn's side. Her earlier intensity was gone, replaced with glum resolve. "We'll have to go back for them."

Then another voice spoke: not from any of the cats, but somehow coming from the ship itself, spoken flat and emotionless into his mind. "Landing craft transit clearance to Containment Hospital granted. Stand by for teleport."

Quinn felt almost nothing—a subtle shifting, a brief chill, and a sense of eyes watching him.

Then came the explosion of air, deafened by the thick walls into a distant rumble. The view outside was transformed again, far more dramatically this time.

They were near—something. Quinn had no words to describe a machine of such size—like Unity Tower, and somehow even vaster. It extended so high into the sky that it left his view from the window, then straight down again towards the earth.

Yet it was no tower as he'd ever seen—it was entirely windowless, covered with dense plates, protrusions, and strange cylinders and extrusions. It was less of a tower at all, and more of a vessel. Like a rocket about to launch, much wider at the bottom and narrowing towards a point out of his view.

Even through the screens instead of actual windows, looking down was blinding. Brilliant yellow light radiated from a crater in the earth, as though a second sun had been trapped down there, casting the jungle all around it in daylight even though it was full night on this side.

"Transit to interdiction zone successful," said that same voice, flat and mechanical. "Divergence detected aboard. Directing to isolation hangar. Please stand by."

That's me, Quinn realized. He sat up, pulling the kitten in his lap a little closer protectively. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"Not for much longer," Ven said. "We have the best doctors in the galaxy here. They'll get you back to normal in no time. Just have to—"

He was so distracted watching her that he wasn't following the motion on his other side. He felt the needle pierce his skin, followed by something cold.

Quinn reacted instantly, flinging it away from him with glass-shattering force. It spiraled through the air, before sinking down into the cushion on the opposite side of the room.

It didn't matter. He was already feeling so cold, so disoriented…

Quinn wobbled, reaching weakly for Avery. Her high-pitched squeals of protest were the last thing he heard as he drifted into waiting blackness.