The chopper slowly approached base camp. In the distance, the fire in the center of camp could be seen. People started to get out of their tents at the approaching chopper’s noise. Gabriel sighed, he was in shock. He lost Brock, and for sure his son probably won’t be happy to see him. Especially, when he finds out it was Gabriel who masterminded Project Euphoria. He prayed as hard as he could that his son would still accept him. All he had to himself was his daughter. He gently stroked her hair as she slept, her head against his shoulder. The chopper started to lower and touch ground right next to the main tent. As soon as the ground had touched the chopper, the pilot turned off the blades. Slowly a man approached the chopper, he had khaki pants on, a brown shirt and a white lab coat. His already graying hair waved in the slight breeze that flowed through the camp. Gabriel woke up Krysta as the pilot opened the door to the chopper. Krysta hopped out of the chopper and helped Gabriel out. Gabriel stood straight out of the chopper and brushed a strand of gray hair out of his face. “Professor Oak,”

“Gabriel..” Oak sighed as his gaze went from Krysta to Gabriel. “Ash! Get over here! There’s someone you should meet!” Slowly, the tent flap from the main tent opened. Ash walked out, he seemed preoccupied. He was helping a girl walk out of the tent. She looked fine, except she seemed a bit disoriented. Quickly, another person brought a chair for the girl. She sat down in the chair, looking at Gabriel questioningly.

“Yeah, Professor?” Ash asked. Oak motioned towards Gabriel. Gabriel stood in awe, staring at his son. He began to cry, he was proud of his son. He had gotten so big, he hadn’t imagined him looking so fit, in some way, Gabriel expected a slob out of Ash. Ash looked uncomfortable around Gabriel, for one, he had no idea who he was, and why he was crying. Gabriel wiped his eyes with a kerchief and limped towards Ash.

“My.. son,” Gabriel said through tears.

“Dad?” Ash questioned. Gabriel nodded and embraced Ash. Ash too, began to sob, quietly.

“Well, erm, there’s probably a lot you two have to catch up on. You three can go to the main tent and have something to eat.”

“Thank you, Oak,” Gabriel said.

“Ash, go with your father, I’ll look after Misty.” Ash reluctantly left Misty and helped his father to the main tent. Gabriel stopped midway towards the tent and turned around. He motioned for a girl standing by the chopper to follow.

“Son, I want you to meet your sister, Krysta.”

Hawk chuckled at the family. Well, Ash was happy, his father and sister came. Although, what seems weird was that Gabriel is the leader of Team Rocket, at least that was the rumor going around time. When Jessy and James saw the chopper they ran into the main tent immediately. Hawk shuffled around the camp. He really had no idea what to do. He just thought he’d walk around and relax, although with two Matarae on the loose, and Brock missing, relaxation was a goal that wasn’t going to be reached any time soon. Hawk casually lit a cigarette and walked around the camp, looking for anyone to talk to. A little bit ahead of him, he saw Sereena. She was sitting around a small fire. She seemed to be thinking about something, very deeply. She held a wine glass in one hand, her other hand held a stick which she poked the fire with. She put the stick down and started to sip the wine. “Uhh, mind if I join ya?” Hawk asked. Sereena looked up from the fire, she smiled.

“Sure, take a seat. I was starting to feel a bit lonely.”

“Sereena, you’re not wearing your makeup..”

“You noticed? Heh, I’m trying to be normal, emphasis on trying. Hell, lately it seems like we’re all gonna die.”

“Yeah.”

“Might as well go out with a bang eh?”

“Hell yeah.”

“I’m doing things I wouldn’t normally do, like not be Goth,” Sereena forced a chuckle.

“Heh. That’s the spirit.” The two sat there in silence, staring at the fire. Slowly, Hawk started to put his arm around Sereena. A shot echoed through the air, one of the logs in the fire jumped. Hawk moved his arm back quickly.

“No, no. Don’t do that Hawkie-kins.”

“Dammit Talon! Just because you don’t have a boyfriend doesn’t mean that I can’t have some fun!”

“It’s ok, I understand,” Sereena said as she started to leave.

“Sereena don’t. Stay here,” Hawk tried to comfort Sereena. He glared at Talon. Talon chuckled and walked off to her tent.

“Wow... this is a lot to take in at once.”

“I know, I’m sorry son.”

“No, it’s ok. It’s just that, well, knowing your father is the leader of Team Rocket is well, surprising.”

“Well, I hate to tell you the rest of this story. There’s a real reason why I’m here. Of course, I wanted to see you, but this matter meant life and death. Several years ago, I funded a dig somewhere near the ruins of Tenochitlan. There, we found the body of a creature. It was totally encased in sand, which was deep in a temple. We took the creature out and examined it. We discovered a new species, Matarae. Well, that Matarae was dead, there was no way on earth we could get it back to life. Anyway, I put in more funding to create an exact duplicate of it, in a robotic form. So, the scientists made it, and gave it its deadliest weapon. A special gas that secretes from its palms. That gas causes hallucination and causes the victim to go on a rampage often killing itself. So, we decided to take it out into the wilderness and test it. It worked like a miracle. We then wanted to see if we could reintroduce it into the wild. Well, we did, along with the original, we gave it a smaller companion. So, we released two Matarae.” Everyone in the tent was quiet.

“But, it’s a robot. Can’t you just turn it ov?” Ragen asked.

“No. What we did, was create a living creature, in essence we cloned it. It just has robotic features to it. The gas tanks are the major robotic feature of it, the gas tanks are located beneath each shoulder blade they are impossible to see, unless you have it cut open.”

“Vell then, how the hell does it keep on regenerating itself?”

“It regenerates? That was never built into it, or even thought of! It could be possible that it‘s adapting to it‘s environment..”

“Or, this bastard could be real!” Rhino plowed into the tent and threw a heap of metal on the table. “Take a look at what I found. I think I found your supposed cyborg Matarae. From the looks of it, it’s been dead for a while. The little one wasn’t too far from it neither.”

“What the hell?” Gabriel gasped. He jumped up and inspected the carcass, sure enough it had his logo on it. On both of them. Gabriel held his head and stumbled back. Immediately Jessy and James helped him stand straight. He pushed them off and ran outside the tent gagging. Ash went outside and started to rub his dad’s back. Gabriel threw up some more and pulled out a handkerchief. He wiped his mouth and limped back in. “Sorry about that,” he said while clearing his throat. “Umm, Ash, everyone, I have a confession. I met this boy a while ago, I taught him how to train Pokemon, showed him the ropes. Well, he soon achieved status of Gym Leader, and I hired him to look after you Ash. He was Brock. Brock worked for me, for a couple years. Last night he was checking the Matarae robots and was killed. I heard it all over the walkie-talkie.”

“Oh my..” Misty gasped. She clasped her hand over her mouth. A small cry escaped and she started to sob on a shocked Ash’s shoulder. Gabriel shook his head tapping his cane on the floor.

“Well, it’s getting late. I suggest that you go get some sleep. We have people posted around the camp to warn us just in case,” Oak said clearing his throat. Several people shuffled back to their tents. Rhino uncrossed his arms and snorted in frustration, he stormed out of the tent.

“Krysta, Ash. I want you two to take the chopper back to town. I don‘t want you around here anymore. It‘s too dangerous.”

“Dad, you know I can’t! I was the one that was contacted to go on this thing in the first place!”

“You and Krysta are the only family I have! To your mother I might as well be dead!” he snapped. Ash and Krysta looked at each other.

“Dad, I’m sorry, but I have some unfinished business to do here, I must stay.”

“Krysta, will you at least listen to me?” Gabriel pleaded. Krysta nodded her head and walked out to the chopper.

“What about you dad?”

“I’m going to stay. I probably started this. I’m sure as hell gonna finish it.” Gabriel stood up and limped out of the tent. Ash put his arm around Misty and kissed her head. The two sat there in silence.

“Misty, you don’t know how glad I am you are alive. You’re the one that kept me living.”

“Thank you Ash..” she said as she buried her face in his shoulder. Oak took a seat in front of the two.

“Guys, I suggest you two get rest. I have a bad feeling tomorrow will be very bad. With Gabriel’s presence there seems to be a hostile aura around this place. Matarae, seems to be in fact, real. Not the Euphoria Project your dad worked on.”

“Yes, it does look like that.”

“Well, good night Ash, Misty. Sleep well.”

“Good night Oak.” Oak grinned and shuffled out of the tent.

“Dammit! Project Euphoria is a wreck! What the hell is killing those people!?” Gabriel yelled. He swung his cane at a nearby tree, it impacted with a loud thwak. Bits of bark flew in the air. Gabriel was breathing heavily from his adrenaline rush. He just couldn’t understand. It appeared that the robots were dead. But, what killed them? People still reported Matarae sightings after they were dead. After testing them, it showed that they were dead for a good 3 months. Gabriel didn’t think it could be left over gas from the tanks, the gas showed to have a maximum half-life of 4 hours. After that, the gas was basically useless.

“Boss, could it be a possibility that there is still a Matarae living and breathing?” Cassidy asked.

“Shut up! Don’t even think that! There has to be a logical explanation. Matarae has been dead for over 78 million years!”

“Boss, it was just a suggestion,” A soft bang shattered the silence. Cassidy clutched her chest, slowly a trickle of blood ran through her fingers. Gabriel stood holding the gun in his hand.

“Shut.. up,” he whispered as he put his gun back in his holster.