Decay

Episode 1: Midnight Murders

David Estok glanced at the bowl of popcorn on the couch next to him, the smell of butter drifting up from it blotting out his other senses. He would not eat it. The only reason it was there was because of his stupid sister.

He had diabetes. Plain and simple; that was how the doctor said it. David's health problems stem not from eating sweets, but rather from his father's genes. It didn't make his life too difficult, but it meant he could not eat as much of the sugar donuts and tarts he loved the taste of. The popcorn was probably caramel; his sister would do that.

Tomorrow was a big day for him. He was going into his second year at university, and he couldn't wait to get back to Professor Harper and the others. He longed to hold a scalpel in his hand and dissect a small animal, probably a frog.

He had one night to kill. It was too early to go to sleep, and he didn't have anything to do; the next best thing was sitting alone in his room, watching crappy B-rate movies until it was 8pm. The movies did take his mind off some things - particularly, the fact that the Medical Faculty had had its budget reduced for unknown reasons. Guess I'll find out soon enough, he thought.

Knock knock knock. The sound come from one of the windows in his house. He stood up, paused the image of the woman about to be eaten by a monster on the screen and walked over to the source of the noise. There was nothing there.

As he sat back down, there were the knocks again. This time it woke up his Furret, who was nestling by the sofa. The Furret stood straight up and looked around, alert. It then rushed to the window and made a squealing noise.

There was the sound of something hitting glass.

The window had a dark stain on it, one he could identified blindfolded. The bloodstain was in the shape of a handprint. He slid the window open, and in the dusk sky saw a limp body lying on the ground, covered in blood. It was a person - a woman, by her long hair, but he could not see what she looked like.

Her face had been sliced off.

Officer Hendricks wasn't pleased with David's angry protests about not having killed the woman, and so only let him go at 11pm. It was another hour before he fell asleep at his house. And now he was standing shakily in front of Professor Harper, who was rattling on about new lab rules.

The new set of students didn't look much. However, one boy caught David's eye: a lean boy with dark brown hair, the same colour dried blood would be. It was strange, blood being the first thing to come to mind.

The boy saw David looking at him, and turned away. David caught a glimpse of the name tag Professor Harper made everyone wear - his name was Eli Thomas.

"Professor," he said suddenly, cutting the older man off.

"What is it, Estok?" Professor Harper sounded annoyed, but he had known David for a year, and understood. The Professor's Hoothoot, however, seemed to glare at him.

"I heard we're going to get to take one of the students as an apprentice."

Harper's eyes lit up. "Ah, yes!" He rubbed his hands together, the lab rules forgotten. It didn't matter; they would go over it again anyway. "Thank you for reminding me, David. Would you like first pick?"

"No, thank you, Professor. I think Ellen would like to go first," he said. It was true. Ellen Mendel, David's friend of seven years (and his secret love interest) was itching to pick an apprentice. The second year was basically studying human anatomy, and the anatomy of a pokemon of your choice, so the students had a lot of free time on their hands.

Ellen bounced up and down like an excited kid. "I'll go with…I can't decide!" She paced up and down in front of the freshmen, who were lined up. Eventually she stopped at one boy with a blonde mop of hair. "What's your name?" she asked, somewhat aggressively. She wanted someone with confidence; David did not even have the guts to tell her about his feelings.

"Adam Hewitt, miss," he said.

Ellen smiled. The most perfect smile she was capable of. And David liked that. "Well, Adam, how would you like to be my new apprentice?"

Adam nodded eagerly. He took his place by Ellen's side, and now it was David's turn. "Let's see…" He walked up to Eli, and put a hand on the younger student's shoulder. "You." Eli didn't say a word, just stepped out of the line and with him.

The rest of the second-yearers took their time to choose their apprentice. David watched from a distance, but he was more focused on Eli. What was so special about the boy? He didn't know, but he intended to find out.

He was so lost in thought he didn't notice Ellen tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, want to go get ice cream?"

David froze. Had Ellen just asked him out? No, it wasn't; she had merely been asking as a friend. "Of-of course," he stammered. She just laughed.

There wasn't a lecture in another two hours, and he was now standing at the entrance to the Chemistry Faculty. For what reason? One of the professors had called on him. The meeting point was here, at the new KlingKlang-shaped fountain in front of the building.

"Ah, David!" said Professor Coolidge, stepping out from behind the double doors of the faculty. "I seem to be seventeen seconds late; sorry." He drew a device from his pocket. A PDA. "I'd like to ask for your help with the Starfish Project."

David raised an eyebrow. "And that is…"

"My team and I are trying to use Staryu and Starmie DNA to create a new drug, dubbed Regenerator, but we need your knowledge to be able to see if it works." Coolidge handed him the PDA. On it was a list of files related to the project. "If you could set up tests with Rattata, and hopefully humans, we can finish this in the next year."

"What's in it for me?"

"You get to go with us to pitch it to the World Council, and if it gets through, you'll be named as one of the creators of Regenerator. We can reduce death rates worldwide!"

David considered the idea. If he agreed, it would make him look better in everybody's eyes. But would he have as much time to spend with Ellen? And why would they choose a second-year student rather than someone close to graduating?

"Why me, Professor?"

Coolidge sat down on the fountain's edge. "What did you see last night, David?"

He froze. How did the Professor know about that? "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I believe the murderer is someone in the team. Now stop denying it and help me!" The last two words were almost a shout. " He smiled. "Sorry, got a bit too frustrated there. We need someone from an outside faculty to find this guy. I can't trust any of the team members."

"Deal, then." Truth was, David wanted to know who was responsible for the murders. But he still couldn't understand how some murderer would be related to Project Starfish.

"Follow me."

David walked after him into the Chemistry faculty. The interior was a clean, white space - almost too clean, and he found himself cringing at the lack of dirtiness.

"You first time here?" asked Coolidge, opening a door to the stairwell.

"Yes, actually. Where are we going?"

Instead of going up, Coolidge went behind the stairs. He rubbed a finger on the wall, and to David's surprise, a keyhole appeared. Coolidge held up two fingers, both stained with dust. "Gel developed from Swalot slime. My Swalot, to be exactly. It has a special property: it takes on the appearance of whatever is mixed with it."

Now David saw why Coolidge had so much faith in developing Regenerator. If his team could synthesise something like the Swalot gel, Regenerator wouldn't be far away. For decades scientists all over the world had struggled to create what Coolidge's team did.

"The gel turns into a solid powder when enough heat is applied, here being me rubbing my fingers." Coolidge took out a golden key, which fitted perfectly into the keyhole. There was a quiet hum, and the whole wall split in half.

Behind David and Coolidge the wall slid closed, and one of the team members of Project Starfish rushed in to refill the keyhole with Swalot gel. Coolidge led David down to a small circular hub, tables arranged around a tank of Staryu and Starmie. On some of these tables were lab Rattata being injected with prototype versions of David guessed was Regenerator and on others were test tubes full of boiling liquid.

As they passed, each team member turned to Coolidge and gave a polite hello. David himself received inquisitive looks from the assembled students. Coolidge clapped his hands loudly, and the students stopped what they were doing.

"Alright, everyone. This is our new team member: David Estok. As I promised, here's a student from Medical. He'll help you conduct all the tests as well as analyse the Regenerator samples to see if they're too dangerous for humans. Remember: treat him as if you would treat one another."

There was a moment of silence, and the students lapsed into their hubbub of activity again, having registered David to their memories.

"David, come here," said Coolidge, walking up a small set of stairs to a small round door, right beside another metal door labeled 'Chemical Storage'. "We permit pokemon in this lab. Since you can't enter the building with one, use this service tunnel. It leads to the back of the lecture hall. Please make sure your Furret's content with the fact that we're testing on Rattata here, before bring him, okay?"

"How did you know I had a-," David began, but Coolidge's smile prevented him from speaking.

"I've been aiming for you since last year. I knew you'd be perfect for the Starfish Project from the start; I actually intended to recruit you next year, but because of the current circumstances I'm forced to do so right now. I'm sorry for the reason you're here."

"Professor, you don't have to apologise." David gave him a wide smile. "What I've seen so far is amazing. I'd love to work for you. I promise, I'll find the murderer and bring him to you."

"Aren't you late for a date, David?"

The memory of accepting to go get ice cream with Ellen flashed in his mind. Within seconds his face was beet red. He still had no idea how much Professor Coolidge knew about him. "Erm...I'll just...go…"

"Estok, you're late." Ellen waved a cone of ice cream at him. "Where have you been? I've never known you to be ten minutes late. Five, yes, but ten? You've never done this before."

David could practically feel his ego shrink two, three times. Ellen had that effect on him. "I'm sorry. One of the professors needed my help with something."

"Well, at least you're here." She sat down at a table. David followed suit. "Hey," she said, and he looked up. "I've something to tell you."

"W-w-what?" He was sure he was blushing again, even if the ice cream in his mouth took away the heat. This was the moment. And he didn't even have to make the first move.

"I'm the new Tourney host this year!" She clasped her hands together, delighted. David's face dropped with disappointment, but she didn't notice. "It's going to be great! I'll try to do better than Johan last year, but it's difficult to top the best...so, will you be my co-host?"

The last words snapped David out of his thoughts. "I'd love to!" he said before he could stop himself. Okay. Maybe this crush on her wasn't so healthy. Where would he find the time to help Professor Coolidge now?

"Thanks, David!" She threw her arms around him.

But he couldn't be happy. Helping both the Professor and Ellen would take up a lot of his time. That meant even less sleep. "Anything for you, Ellen," he whispered.

It wasn't enough. The lab Rattata just kept dying. Humans, yes, that was the perfect solution. If Regenerator worked on humans, there would be no more testing required. But there was a problem. The drug wasn't perfect, and the humans died too. There had to be a solution. The new mixture of the drug - 50% more Starmie DNA - is done now. Alright...who's the next one?

He woke up early. 5:30, to be exact. It was a habit he obtained from high school, where he had to bike really far away to not be late. Today it was a curse. all his muscles ached, and he was blacking out occasionally as he walked to the shower.

The warm water refreshed him. It was like heaven, being awoken by the streams of water from the showerhead in the early morning, when the air was still chilly.

He put on a crisp white shirt with a silver necktie, and plain black trousers he'd had for years. They didn't seem to ever get too small for him. David drew the curtains of his dorm room aside, exposing himself to the warm orange light of the dawn. Every sunrise in Hoenn was beautiful, his mother had once said, and he couldn't disagree.

The cool morning air was quite fresh, despite the university being only aways from Lilycove city - maybe he'll go there sometime to get cooking supplies.

"Up so early, David?" Coolidge's voice came from down the corridor. David jumped, not expecting to see someone up this early. "I hope you're not going for your morning run, because Professors Hart and Frobisher are at it again."

"What are they doing?"

"They're trying to sneak a herd of wild Miltank into the campus. Last time I remembered that happened, someone had to catch, I don't know, half of them? The rest just ran away afterwards. It's not helping that they're getting it from the Safari Zone."

David just shook his head- nothing to say to that. "How's Project Starfish going?"

"We're making a lot of progress. Just yesterday, Ludlow discovered the presence of a strange enzyme in the Starmie core. We think it's what promotes the regeneration."

"I've a feeling that's not why you're here."

"Of course not. Follow me, please." He swung around on his right heel, lab coat blown by the wind.

The orange dawn finally elapsed into a blue morning, and he could hear the first students waking up in their dorms as he walked down the stairs. Coolidge was humming to himself a song David didn't recognise, and his steps made up a steady rhythm.

"Moo!" Miltank. Apparently one of the meddling professors had succeeded. David shook his head, following Coolidge back to the Chemistry building. The same procedures with the hidden doorway under the stairs were repeated, but this time the inside of the lab was dark and empty. Coolidge walked up to a large lever and pulled it down, causing the lights into the room to come on.

On one of the tables around the aquarium was a sheet of white cloth. And under the cloth was the distinctive shape of a body. Another victim.

With a flourish the sheet on the body was pulled off by Coolidge, and David came face-to-face with the ice cream shop clerk who had taken Ellen's orders yesterday. He didn't even know the man, but felt a pang of guilt, knowing he was probably one of the last people to see him alive. "Why aren't the police involved?"

"They are. But one of the officers told me that if they were to get involved, the killer would get away." He saw David's shocked face, and continued, "I know, it's stupid. They couldn't just send someone undercover, couldn't they? No matter. We can solve this ourselves."

"How did he die?" David asked, putting on a glove and running it over the body. It was still slightly warm. "There's no sign of trauma; it looks like he was alive one moment and dropped dead the next." He put on another glove and flipped the body over. There were two puncture wounds on the back. "Ah, sorry, jumped to conclusions too fast. Can you analyse this liquid?" he asked, pointing at the clear substance leaking out of the puncture wounds.

"Done. It's the enzymes Ludlow discovered; a concentrated solution's been injected into him."

"You work fast, professor. If you know how he was murdered, why would you need me?"

Coolidge pulled the sheet back over the body. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I brought you here now so you can see the potential of Regenerator."

"And that is…"

"This body was found seven hours ago."

He stood in stunned silence. David touched the corpse again. Yup, it was warm. Seven hours? No was… "How is that possible?"

"I've told you, David, we're coming close to creating Regenerator. The enzymes force the cells inside the body to keep on respiring even if its technically dead, hence the heat. But that little gap between success and failure is going to take a long time to cross. In that space of time, a hundred murders might occur, before we find the right formula. We're the only ones who can stop this."

"Is there no other way…?" he whispered. Who would be next? Ellen could be the next target, for all he knew. The killer had to be stopped. But how would he do that? One of the corpses was in police custody and the other had too little evidence to derive from. The horrible dawned on him: he would have to wait for the next murder in order to figure out a pattern. That meant allowing the killer to make another move.

Professor Coolidge pushed the table away from him. "We can't be certain yet, but if I'm right, there'll be another kill soon. He or she will probably make their move tonight, or the next night. coming so close to success will just motivate them."

David was lost in thought. A million things ran past his mind, none of them making sense. Still, he searched for a pattern. Something unique flashed by ,and he mentally grabbed it. Of course. How could he be so stupid? "Why wasn't he mutilated?" he asked suddenly, pointing to the corpse. "The woman had most of her facial features sliced off. He's relatively unharmed."

Coolidge's eyes widened more than Professor Harper's Hoothoot. "You're right. Why did the killer leave him unharmed?"

The truth was right there in front of him. "Who found the corpse?"

The hidden lab turned into a hub of activity once again, with more and more testing going on. Professor Coolidge had wheeled the table away an hour ago, to prevent the students from seeing it, and had told David to resume attending his lectures.

He had one exactly in a few minutes. He skimmed over the stone path to the lecture hall, constantly checking his watch. Almost running late, he burst into the hall, to find Ellen glaring at him.

"Where have you been this time? Sit down; we're about to start. And you really don't want to miss this one." She sauntered away, David still panting from running.

He took the seat next to her, his notebook out and ready. But he couldn't concentrate on the subject at hand. His mind was still prodding at the different possibilities of the murderer's identity. It was in the middle of the night, and the first person who found the body was, in fact, Adam Hewitt. There was simply no way Adam could have done it - he had hardly any medical experience, and wasn't even aware that Project Starfish existed.

"David?"

He snapped out of his thoughts. The lecturer was still going on about the bad habits of the students. "Sorry, Ellen, I was thinking about something."

"Well, if you don't stop, you're not going to pass second year." She opened her notebook and prepared to jot down the lightning-fast speech of the lecturing professor's.

Yet his mind drifted. If not Adam, then did Adam see someone? He made a mental note to ask Ellen's apprentice when he saw him. "Alright, I'll have to do this afterwards then," he wondered aloud, not realising the lecture had started.

The student sitting on the row behind him shushed him. David turned to say sorry to the golden-haired boy.

Ellen was now jotting down details, but David's notebook was empty. He could write it all down later - his memory was that good. For now, he had to find who the murderer was.

The afternoon was warm, to say the least. His Furret curled around his shoulders, purring softly as he walked through the park. David stopped at the edge of the lake in the middle of the park to look at his own reflection.

There was a sniffing sound, and suddenly Furret leapt from his shoulders and into the river, grabbing a Magikarp. He watched it sink its teeth into the fish, and slowly eat parts of the Magikarp, smiling with delight.

"Fur!" it purred again, climbing up his body and onto his shoulders. He rubbed its head. Once per week, Furret would do the same thing. Once the guys at the Lilycove Tech built a working translator, he'd be able to understand his pokemon better. It wasn't if Furret couldn't learn the human language, but it merely didn't have vocal chords to do so.

He picked up a stone and lobbed it into the lake. It made a small splash in the lake, near the centre where the bridge across was; the lake was in the shape of a pokeball.

David thought about his one and only crush, Ellen, and how she sparkled everything inside him, how she managed to subdue him anytime with just a smile, and her temper. "Soon, I'll be the luckiest guy on Earth," he said aloud.

"Yes, I hope you'll be," said someone from behind him. "And yes, I know who you're talking about. I can tell from the way you look at her." Adam, Ellen's apprentice, joined him at the lakeside. "That your pokemon?" he asked, indicating the Furret that was snoozing against David's shoulder.

"Yes. What's yours?" David asked. "Do you have a pokemon?"

Adam shook his head. "One day I will. Not this day. I don't think I'll have enough time to take care of it and study at the same time." He yawned. "You asked me here?" Adam smiled slyly...wait, was he gay?

"I don't swing that way, you know," David said, just in case. Adam just laughed. "Anyway, I know that Professor Coolidge told you to stay quiet about the body - I guess he's told you that you can tell me?"

"Yeah, he did. I found the body in the back of the Archeology building. Was the ice cream shop clerk - don't know why anyone would want to kill him."

"Did you see anyone else while you were there?"

"One of the Chem students were trying to get a fossil pokemon done for them, so he was up quite late. He walked out the back door minutes after I saw the clerk."

"Describe him to me, Adam," David said, looking into his eyes. That guy was from Chem. And possibly a part of Project Starfish as well. Not to mention that he might have come back to pretend to find the body. "I need to know exactly what he looks like."

"Well, he's got brown eyes and blonde hair, but it was dark and I couldn't see the rest of him."

"That's not helpf-" He froze. "Oh, shit."

Adam looked at him inquisitively. "What's the matter?"

Blonde hair. Brown eyes. He'd met him just an hour ago. "Thanks for the help, Adam. You can go now."

Adam shrugged and walked away without a word.

David headed for the Chemistry faculty. There was an hour to go until the next lecture, and it was more important anyway. He walked under the stairs, after dropping Furret off at the counter.

David put his finger on the part of the wall where the keyhole supposedly was, and rubbed. The friction from the rubbing and his body heat caused the Swalot slime to turn to a crumbly powder, and the keyhole appeared.

Problem was, he had no key.

Not knowing what else to do, he knocked three times. No response. He knocked again, three quick knocks, three slow knocks and another three quick knocks. SOS.

The wall split open, and he came face-to-face with Coolidge, who was grinning like an idiot. "We've nearly done it!"

"Sorry, not the time," he said, pushing the Professor aside. He could apologise for that later. David walked down the stairs to the hub, eyes scanning the room. He spotted the blond boy from the lecture standing idly, watching a centrifuge spin.

David walked up to him. "Can we talk?"

"I'm busy," the blonde boy said, looking bored. "Go away."

David leaned in closer. "I know you were the one who injected the ice cream shop guy with experimental Regenerator, so shut up and get into the chemicals room."

Having no desire for his intentions to be revealed, the blonde boy complied. He opened the door to the chemical storage and walked inside the chilly room.

"Tell me your name," demanded David.

"George Blunchuss." He looked totally innocent. Did he get the wrong person? It was unlikely, as there were no other blonde boys in Project Starfish.

"Why did you do it?"

Blunchuss responded by grabbing a chemical bottle and flinging it at David. He sucked and the bottle smashed into the wall behind him, spilling its deadly contents onto the floor.

When he looked up, George rammed into him, knocking him over, and opened the Chemical Storage door. He stood up and exited the cold room. Coolidge and the other students looked at him in awe. He looked at the professor. "I got him," he breathed. "Where did he go?"

Everyone pointed at the door to the exit tunnel.

David swore, and ran up the stairs the other way. He would have to intercept George. At the counter he picked up Furret, who was playing with the receptionist. "We have work to do," he told it, and rushed out the door.

Outside, the sky had gone gloomy and light drops of rain was drizzling around him. The lecture hall wasn't so far away, but as the tunnel was shorter, he had to hurry. Across the roads of the university campus he sprinted, his foot mshing grass, dirt, concrete.

He swung around the corner of the lecture hall, getting into the back. Furret leapt from his shoulder, a fierce expression on its face...but the backyard of the the lecture hall was empty. The door to the secret tunnel hung open.

Blunchuss had escaped.

Wait, no. He could still be around. The logical decision would be to head for the entrance to the university, only two kilometres away. David ran in the direction. As he neared the entrance, the rain stopped, but a mist shrouded the world, reducing his visibility to a few metres.

A ball of energy flew straight into him, knocking the breath out of him and sending him sprawling into the grass. A figure loomed over him. Blunchuss. "I thought you'd be better at this. Did Coolidge bring you in to catch us?"

George had said ""us". There was more than one of them. "You're not too good either, George."

"What are you talking about?" He looked angry.

"That!" David shouted, and rolled out of the way as Furret's thunderbolt streaked at Blunchuss. He yelped and dodged, earning only a small shock.

"Energy ball!" the killer shouted. His unseen pokemon unleashed a green orb that missed furret by millimetres.

"Furret, fire punch!" he had already guessed the grass typing of Blunchuss' pokemon, and Furret leapt, flaming paw outstretched, at the origin of the last attack.

A Gloom toppled out of the mist, dazed by Furret's fire punch. "Again!" David shouted, and furret crashed into the grass type, knocking it out.

George threw another pokeball, releasing a Tirtouga. "Aqua jet!"

The turtle sped at Furret at a high speed, knocking David's pokemon aside. "Use thunderbolt again!"

Furret's fur crackled with electricity, but Tirtouga slammed into it again, dissipating the charge and knocking Furret to the ground. "Use rock tomb!" Blunchuss practically screamed.

There was no escape. Furret was stunned, and there was no way he could save his pokemon. David drew out Furret's pokeball, ready to recall him and let George escape.

"Sludge bomb!" called someone from the mist. A ball of goo flew straight at Tirtouga and knocked it unconscious. "Swalot, use swallow!"

A massive purple blood rolled out of the mist and enveloped Blunchuss, who was staring in shock in the direction of the new voice. He struggled, but it was useless. The Swalot swallowed him whole.

Professor Coolidge walked into David's area of visibility. "One second too late and your Furret's done for." he said. "Swalot, spit him out, please."

The purple pokemon made a convulsing noise, and George Blunchuss tumbled out, clutching a strange pokeball. "You can't stop us, even if you tried," he croaked.

David knelt down beside him. "You said there were more of you. Who are they?"

Blunchuss laughed, and said, "Selfdestruct."

"Shit! Furret, get out of there!" Both trainer and pokemon ran as far away from George on the ground as possible, Swalot being recalled by Professor Coolidge. The "pokeball" David saw earlier spun around, revealing a face. It began to crackle with blue lightning, and when it reached its peak, the Voltorb exploded, taking Blunchuss with it.

"You okay, David?" Ellen asked, rushing to his side. He was lying in his bed. Apart from a few bruises inflicted by Gloom's energy ball he was relatively uninjured.

"I'm fine," he said, sitting up. His dorm room was colder than normal - the heater was broken, but it was fine.

"What happened out there?" She was so worried, and David appreciated that. Should he tell her about Project Starfish? There would be no harm, right? No - the people going after him would probably come for her if they knew. He had to keep it a secret. "I don't remember. I was knocked unconscious."

Ellen nodded and embraced him. The next ten seconds were the best and worst of his life at the same time. He was glad to be with Ellen, but at the same time, there were things he didn't tell her. That could be a problem later.

He looked over at Furret, snoring softly on the couch, and promptly fell asleep with Ellen in his arms.