Glitched

10 - Conspiracy Vs Reality

Vector continued to stare at the wall, his eyes glazed over as his mind went back to some hidden traumatic event. The look on Switch's face contrasted with the pokemon's drastically as he folded his arms behind his head and leant back against the wall, eyeing Pixel as she looked between them both, desperate for an explanation. The room had fallen into silence when Vector refused to give any information. The only vocalisation she had expressed was a long, drawn out 'huh?!' of such a high note it had hurt N00b's sensitive ears.

"You saw it?" Her heart was still racing. The reaction from the meowstic had made Switch's statement seem more concrete, and she really didn't like it. "It's not just a conspiracy? You were both there?!"

Switch closed his eyes. "I was flying overhead. I never saw any other pokemon in the vicinity. I wasn't really looking for anyone."

"But it happened at the Fracture. Right?" She shook her head in disbelief. "What were you doing there?"

"I was trying to find scrap machine parts for Connor, and the abandoned towns and cities seemed like a good place to look." He opened one eye and fixed it on Vector. "I can't speak for him, however."

Pixel looked down at N00b who avoided eye contact as he silently sank down beside the wall.

"Did you know about this?" she asked.

He nodded sullenly and stared down at his paws.

"I'm not angry with you," she said. "I'm just confused. Why has this been dismissed as a conspiracy theory if three of you here witnessed it?"

N00b raised a paw. "I didn't witness it. Switch told us about it, and I believe him."

She looked back up at Switch and he shrugged.

"You know as well as I do that there are no inhabitants living within a forty mile radius around the Fracture," he said. "Witnesses are so small in number that the government believe we've formed together to come up with some far-fetched story that's been dismissed as nonsense."

Pixel rubbed her paws together. "But... the virus and the cracks. Surely they must believe it now, if they're linked?"

"Of course they're linked." Vector's voice startled Pixel and she span in her seat to face him. He continued to stare at the wall, but his eyes looked more focused now. "That explosion, or flash, whatever you want to call it... I was only conscious for a short time. It almost blinded me, but I saw what happened to the world as it came into contact with it – and with me. My appearance should be enough clarification that the virus is linked to that 'flash'."

Switch quickly looked him up and down. "But you're not infected."

Vector struck his lap with both paws, the sudden movement causing Pixel to scoot backwards into the arm of the chair. "But I must have been! Look at me! I don't even have my own abilities any more! I don't even have a type... not psychic, or normal... nothing..." He placed his head in his paws and hunched forwards, letting out a low groan. "They scanned me, and it came back with nothing. If I don't have the virus, then what happened to me?"

The other three exchanged confused glances. Whatever had happened to him, they were no wiser than the doctors who'd checked over him.

N00b cleared his throat and looked up at him. "Maybe it cured itself."

"That's what they think," said Vector. "Or that I have antibodies that can fight it."

"And that's why they wanted to run tests on you," said Switch. "They saw you as a potential cure."