Pleasure in Aether Paradise (Wicke TF)

One day, Aether Branch Chief Faba found himself standing outside of the glorious Aether Mansion, home of Aether President Lusamine and her two children. It was a hot, sunny day (although when wasn’t it such a day in a region like Alola?) and Faba was glad that he was wearing those large green glasses of his - not only was he able to recieve emails and reports from various Aether Houses, but he could also use them to scan for any potential Ultra Beast activity in a 4 mile radius… and of course, they counted as very good sunglasses. He knew some of the lower staff laughed about the design of his glasses, but Faba couldn’t have cared less about what they thought - the Aether Foundation would hardly suffer if a couple grunts were fired, but a man Faba’s genius? It needed someone like him! In many ways, he was the organisation’s last line of defence - barring Lusamine, of course.

“Chief Faba?”

Faba was snapped out of his little moment of self appreciation by the voices of one of the Aether Employees approaching him. Turning around, he saw two men clad in the pure white and gold Foundation attire standing in front of him.

“That’s Branch Chief Faba to you,” he responded, although the two guards hardly reacted to his correction or the smug tone it had.

“President Lusamine is ready to you see now,” said the left one.

The guard one the right simply gestured towards the mansion’s two white doors, which then conveniently opened inwards. “Please, follow us.”

Faba gave a simple nod in response and started to follow the guards inside as they escorted him inside the mansion. Although he didn’t like to admit it… Faba was getting more and more anxious with each and every step he took. It wasn’t the thought of talking to Lusamine that worried him; the two communicated regularly due to their shared interest in finding the Ultra Beasts… it was the fact that he was needing to talk to her face to face, inside her own mansion: Whatever the Aether President wanted to talk to him about, it was something only meant for their ears. Fortunately for Faba, he didn’t have to walk for long, as he soon found himself standing in front of two white curtains that the bodyguards parted aside, revealing a pad that emanated a mysterious blue glow. Once the guards were finished tying the two curtains up, they turned around and stared at Faba again.

“This is a teleporter,” explained the left one. “It’s been programmed to take to directly to take you directly to President Lusamine’s room.”

The right one gestured at the pad. “Please, step inside.”

Clearing his throat and dusting off his clinical white longcoat, Faba stepped onto the pad. There was a shrill hum of power, a flash of light that was so bright that even his glasses couldn’t block it out and then… The light started to fade away as quickly as it had appeared; Faba’s stomach danced and fluttered from the effects of the teleportation - steeling himself, he made a mental note to having some of the science and technology departments focus on teleportation devices for a while before standing up straight.

“Don’t worry,” said the voice of a mature, sophisticated woman. “You get used to it eventually.” It was a voice he had heard many times before, but to hear it so clearly now… Faba gulped and cleared his throat before bringing himself to look at Lusamine: She was standing a couple meters away from him, her back turned to him as she stared at a group of holographic computer screens. Looking around, Faba soon noticed that the floor didn’t actually cover the whole room - it was more accurate to call it a platform, the massive gaps covered by a layer of blue force field that he assumed was to stop any unwanted breezes or to stop anything from “accidentally” falling off the edge…

As he walked over to Lusamine, Faba also noticed several blocks of ice randomly positioned around the platform. At first he thought it was just some strange contemporary decor, but as he got closer he realised that there was… something inside each of them. Judging from the outlines, they appeared to Pokémon - he could see a Rowlett in one and a Pikachu in an other… squinting his eyes, Faba realised they weren’t fossils… they were actual living Pokémon that had been cryogenically frozen.

“Do you like them?”

Jumping slightly from hearing Lusamine’s voice again, Faba stuttered his respnse: “A-ah, y-yes, they’re quite… fascinating.” Lusamine had now turned around; her striking green eyes making Faba to immediately straighten his back and dust himself off once more. Placing a hand on her hip, she turned and headed over towards one of the ice blocks, containing a Slowpoke whose grimaced expression implied that the process wasn’t as painless or peaceful as Faba imagined it was…

“It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?” she murmured as she placed her palm against the block ice of ice, peering through at the Pokémon with a content smile on her face. “I think it’s the ultimate expression of love - you love someone so much that you just want them to stay with you, exactly as they are… forever.” Gulping again, Faba simply stayed silent and nodded. A couple moments later, Lusamine chuckled and said; “I’m sorry, I was sort of rambling for a moment there - let’s get down to business, shall we?”

Stepping back over to the console, she then pressed a button that caused the three floating holographic screens to enlarge to at least ten times their previous size, displaying what looked like multiple threads from an internet forum. Reading them, Faba noticed they all mentioned the Aether Foundation… but how they were mentioned wasn’t what he was expecting:

“Theory: Aether Foundation is working with Team Skull?”

“Aether Foundation to do with Ultra Beasts!!! - Timeline inside”

“Lusamine shows signs of being a Narcissist!”

“Do you know what these are?” asked Lusamine. Before he could answer, she added “They’re theories about us - theories about me. And I can’t have that.”

“Lusamine, with all due respect…” Faba said carefully. “These are just a group of people in a small corner of the internet, what threat can they pose to an organisation like us?”

“Don’t underestimate the power of the internet, Faba. If these people are determined enough, they could easily destroy the reputation Aether Foundation has taken years to build in a matter of days or weeks.”

“So what do you think we should do?”

“I’ve been thinking about that for past couple weeks and I’ve managed to come up with a plan - You’re the only person I wanted to talk about this with… and the only person I believe that can help.” Hearing those words come out of the Aether President’s mouth, Faba couldn’t help but allow a smug smirk stretch across his face.

“What did you have in mind?”

“I thought my frequent public announcements about how kind and charitable Aether Foundation is would be enough to convince people, but it seems that every CEO and leader nowadays has a friendly and outgoing personality - my point is, whilst the public knows I have that kind of personality… they don’t really believe that I am.”

“So what do you need me to do?”

“I need you to help me find the perfect PR - the perfect friendly face for this organisation; someone who works amongst the employees so that their praise and love of Aether Foundation and what it stands for seems completely genuine that these theories won’t ever see the button on a keyboard.”

“Ma'am, like you said yourself… surely this is more something for the PR Department to handle? They can always try to find new recruits or do a large survey-”

“No,” Lusamine snapped bluntly. “That will take too much time and I like I said; I wanted you to help me specifically. Allow me to explain…” She then pressed a button on the keyboard and a picture of six people came up: A blonde haired man wearing a long green coat with a proud smile on his face, a middle aged woman with a hand resting on the sunglasses nestled in her short purple hair, a teenage boy with short, sharply cut hair with a rather calculating look in his eyes, and what looked like a butler standing beside a young woman with long, flowing blonde hair. They were all staring at the very attractive woman standing in the center: She had long luscious black hair, tanned skin that glowed just as brilliantly as those sparkling blue eyes-

“Faba? Pay attention, please.” Lusamine gestured to the headline written above the photo: “SINNOH BATTLE FRONTIER UNVEILS NEW MEMBER!”. Clearing his throat and shifting a little, Faba asked; “It’s an newspaper article - but what does a Battle Frontier from a faraway region have to do with us?”

“Well, it’s not all of them exactly - I just want you to focus on this Frontier Brain in particular.” She then pointed at the teenage boy standing on the right of the statuesque woman. There was something about that calculating look in his eyes that Faba could relate with…

“I was actually in Sinnoh when this happened a couple years ago,” Lusamine began. “I even went to the opening of the Battle Arcade, where the new Frontier Brain fought against the Champion - I quite liked her style. Anyways, I’m starting to ramble again…” Tapping onto the screen, the photo zoomed in even further on the boy’s face. “This Frontier Brain’s name is Thorton - he runs the Battle Factory and was behind the creation of the Battle Arcade, especially when it came to the creation of the building’s iconic Game Screen and the machine used to power it.”

“But how will any of this help?”

“When I was there at the opening, I managed to get a tour of the facility and even managed to get a close look at the machine Thorton created. It was quite interesting how it could creature artificial weather and induce status effects… but there was an even more interesting feature hidden deep within its coding that definitely piqued my interest.”

Faba frowned. “How did… Lusamine, did you hack into a Battle Frontier?”

The smallest hint of a smile appeared on her face. “I have my ways… now, about that "interesting feature” I found: Did you know that Thorton actually programmed the machine to do more than just changing the weather? What if I told you it’s ability to induce status effects in Pokémon could also be applied to humans… that the machine was actually programmed to do more than just that to humans?“

"What are you implying, Lusamine?”

“The Game Screen can be used to transform people, Faba.” she stated. “And the reason I’m telling you this is because-”

“-You want me to build our own version of that machine,” Faba realised. “So that you can make the perfect friendly face for our organisation.”

“And the penny finally drops: Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do, Faba. With my money and your mind, it shouldn’t take too long for a man as clever as yourself to construct a similar device… right?”

“Of.. of course.” Faba said, his posture straightening slightly. “I shall start making blueprints for the device immediately.”

Lusamine smiled thinly. “Excellent. And don’t worry about the Sinnoh Battle Frontier suing us or anything - I have something in mind to keep them… indebted to the Aether Foundation, you could say. Anyways, I’ll let you get on with your work now: Like I said already, I’m sure a man like you can do what I need.”

Faba simply nodded and turned around, heading back towards the teleporter, but just before he stepped onto the pad he turned around. “Lusamine, if I may suggest that we do one thing after I complete the device…”

----

Two months had passed since Lusamine and Faba’s conversation and much had gone on in the Pokémon World: The Sinnoh Battle Frontier had unexpectedly received a massive donation of money from the Aether Foundation, giving them enough to easily open another Battle Frontier in a completely different region - although it was suggested by Palmer to open it in Alola, the distance was simply too far and they settled on the nearer region of Johto.

Meanwhile on Aether Paradise, the Foundation Employees had recently received news that their profiles and backgrounds were under surprise inspection - not for anything criminal or negative, but that the person with the right attitude would receive a secret promotion of sorts. This created a tense, yet excitable atmosphere around the island as the Employees began to wonder who would receive this promotion… and if it were secret, how?

One such employee was a young man named Wayne. He was only 20 years old and had joined the Aether Foundation less than half a month ago. Like many people in Alola, he loved what the Aether Foundation had done for Pokémon in the Alola Region - he’d wanted to be a Pokémon Ranger since he was a kid; joining this charitable organisation was likely the closest he would get to fulfilling that dream… but hey, as long as he could help and protect Pokémon in any way, that was all that mattered to him.

As he patrolled around the outside area of Aether Paradise, Wayne suddenly felt a rhythmic vibration on his right hip in one of the large pockets on his uniform. Unclasping it, he fished out his sleek white work phone - according to the notification on the screen, he’d just received a message from.. the Aether Branch Chief?! Curious and slightly worried, Wayne quickly thumbed in the unlock password and entered his messages - what he saw made his heart skip a beat:

Congratulations, Wayne! Out of all our employees, you have been chosen for our special promotion! We’ll announce this brilliant news at later date, so it’d be best if you just kept quiet and headed to Lab 3 on the 4th floor - Aether Branch Chief Faba

Wayne couldn’t believe it - this had to be some sort of joke, right? He’d hardly been with with Aether Foundation for even a month and he’d already received a promotion?! He was a little confused, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to question it! Moving away from his post, the young man quickened his pace as he briskly walked inside the massive building and swiftly headed to the 4th floor.

Arriving on the floor, Wayne found it to be… oddly quiet: Usually there was the sound of researchers typing away at computers or the sounds of Aether Employees as they patrolled the floor - he couldn’t even hear the footsteps of the people on the 5th floor above him. As he began to walk down the empty hallway, Wayne shivered slightly as he sensed a sort of… purity in the air. He couldn’t really describe it, but it wasn’t a sort of refreshing purity - it was more of a lifeless, sterilised cleanliness. Eventually arriving at the 3rd door in the hallway, Wayne raised a hand up to knock, but the second his hand touched against the cool metallic surface it opened suddenly and he jumped back slightly in surprise.

Stepping into the room, Wayne found… nothing: The room was just nothing but white tiled floor, walls and ceiling - although actually there was a sort of “one way mirror” to the left of him - the door behind Wayne suddenly slammed shut and caused him to jump again, leaving him in complete silence for a couple moments when a voice suddenly rang out over the tannoy:

“Aether Foundation Employee Wayne, if you could please stand in the center of the room.”

Wayne frowned as he heard the voice… It sounded familiar… He gasped as he finally recognised the man it belonged to - Branch Chief Faba was behind that mirror! Straightening himself, Wayne cleared his throat before saying; “I-is this for the promotion, sir? I’m so glad you chose me, you have no idea how happy I am-”

“Yes, that’s all very nice,” Faba interrupted. “Just stand there and wait to receive your… promotion.” Behind the mirror, he then turned to Lusamine, who was sitting on a curved white swivel chair with one leg over the other. “Shall I proceed, Ma'am?”

The Aether President simply nodded in response and Faba then immediately pressed a small glowing green button; a large humming noise began to rise in the room Wayne was in as the Promotion Machine activated. Looking around, Wayne gulped as he felt the floor beneath him vibrate - was this some kind of earthquake or something?

“F-Faba?” He called out over the noise, trying to peer into the mirror. “I-Is this supposed to be-”

Before Wayne could even react, large metallic cylinders burst out from under the tiles and slotted around his legs tightly, clunking heavily as they locked him into place. Just as he moved an arm to try and pry himself loose, another pair of cylinders popped out and wrapped around his hands before slowing extended up to his elbow and enforcing the same tightening grip as the one on his legs. A long, flat rectangular piece of metal came out from behind, tilting in the air slightly before Wayne felt himself being slowly pushed back onto it by the grips - no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop them from forcing him down onto it. The second he felt the coolness of the metal touch back, Wayne gulped as he realised that this all gave off the appearance of an operating table….

“F-Faba?! W-what’s going on?!” He shouted as he lay there. “What are you doing to me?!”

There was no response from behind the one way mirror. Instead, Faba pressed another button and the grips around Wayne’s arms hummed momentarily before something suddenly pierced into his skin and he cried out in a mixture of shock and pain. A tickling warmth started to spread out from them, gradually coating his entire body in it - although he was unsure what was happening to him, Wayne was just grateful that it he was’t in any kind of agony. Unbeknownst to him though, his tanned Alolan skin began to bleach out all over his body as years of living under the intense Alolan sun disappeared in a matter of seconds.

“Pigmentation augmentation complete,” said a computerised voice to Faba. “Now commencing retinal and larynx augmentations.”

Two more mechanical arms popped out of the floor, but the two of them were fitted with different endings: One reminded Wayne of those scanning guns typically found in Pokémarts and malls; the other simply looked like a large collar of sorts. The arm with the collar started to move towards Wayne and although he tried his best to move his neck out of the way, it eventually found its way onto him, connecting together with a satisfying little click. The collar was surprisingly heavy; Wayne found himself having no choice but to rest his head back on the table in order to feel any sort of comfort - although this comfort was soon disrupted when the scanner arm rose up to his face and-

Whrrr… Foom!

A blindingly bright light flashed into Wayne’s eyes; he cried out and screwed his eyes shut as a stinging pain prickled them for a couple seconds before fading away as quickly as the light that had caused it. Once it had gone, he opened his eyes and looked around - his vision was still blurry from the sheer power of the flash, but it seemed to be clearing up with every blink. Little did he know that with each of these blinks, his bland greyish irises started to gain a hint of a bright, almost neon shade of green. Eventually Wayne believed that his vision seemed to have cleared, but in fact he no longer had the eyes of a Spearow - if there were a poster on the mirror in front of him, he would have found that the words were slightly fuzzier than he would have expected.

“Faba, I do have to ask,” said Lusamine as she watched the transformations take place. “I can understand changing his eye colour… but his eyesight?”

“Many people assume people who wear glasses are smarter or wiser,” he answered. “So by giving our promoted employee here some glasses to wear, it’ll make anything he says about Aether Foundation seem more… honest, you could say.”

Lusamine nodded. “Continue.”

Faba nodded back and pressed yet another button. This time, Wayne felt the collar around his neck tighten considerably and he couldn’t help but let out a choked gasp. Just as it seemed like it was about to actually strange him, the collar stopped abruptly. A couple moments passed before a strange vibrating sensation started to appear around his neck, especially at the front. To Wayne, it felt like there were a million fingers nudging his neck every second - and his interpretation wasn’t far off: Inside the collar were thousands of little nubs that were rapidly pressing against his Adam’s apple; Wayne’s vocal cords slowly tensed up and became much shorter than before - eventually the adam’s apple melted away, leaving Wayne’s throat completely smooth. The vibrating eventually stopped, and the collar quietly popped off of Wayne’s neck, retreating back into the ground with the other arm.

As he lay there, Wayne frowned as he started to feel that there was something different with his throat - he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was a sort of slight… tightness to it, like someone had their hand lightly pressed against his throat. Almost instinctively, he started to cough and gulp to try and clear his throat; after a couple seconds of doing this he let out a forceful ahem which was quickly followed by a soft gasp - his voice… it sounded higher than it should have.

“What…what did you-?!” Wayne gasped again as he heard his voice properly: It still sounded like his own, just higher… softer… girlier. Once again, he attempted to break free from the grips, struggling and flailing futilely as he shouted “What the hell are you guys doing to me?!”

Lusamine sighed. “He’s starting to annoy me - can you shut him up?”

“There is one procedure I can do…” Faba muttered as he flipped a switch. Yet another arm came out of the floor, this time equipped with… an oxygen mask? Gulping as it ominously started to close in on his face, Wayne shouted “You can’t do this to me! This is si-mmmmph!” Now that it was actually on his face, Wayne realised the mask was quite bigger than he expected, fitting completely over his nose, up to bridge of his eyebrows and even stretching around to side of his cheeks and jaw.The second he heard a faint hissing, Wayne immediately took a big gulp of air and shut his mouth - he had to fight back somehow! But as every second passed, Wayne felt the urge to breath slowly overwhelm his desire to resist…

Eventually it was too much and Wayne took a large breath of air - and whatever chemical was being filtered into the mask. A strange clinical smell instantly invaded his lungs and Wayne waited for his vision to start darkening as the anaesthetic took hold of him… Except it didn’t: In fact, it seemed like the opposite was happening - a strange warmth was starting to pool around in the core of his chest, and it actually felt sort of… good? Whatever this stuff was, Wayne couldn’t help but start to want more.

A lustful haze starting to cloud his mind, Wayne was too high to even feel the next incoming changes - like the collar, the mask was filled with thousands of little nubs and they were starting to slowly shift and morph the structure of Wayne’s face: His nose slimmed down and had a more “cutesy” button shape whilst the angular jawline he had was slowly smoothed out into a rounder shape. All of this should have been rather painful, but whatever Wayne was being drugged simply made it feel sort of pleasurable, like his face was being given a thorough massage - he couldn’t help but let out a small satisfied moan and let out a sleepy smile underneath the mask. As his face was changing, a smaller arm popped up out of the floor and started to work on Wayne’s eyebrows, rapidly pecking at them like a bird to thin out the hairs and give them a softer, thinner look. A minute or so later, the small arm went away, but the arm with the gas mask remained - it would be needed to keep Wayne as relaxed as possible for the remaining transformations.

One of the transformations kickstarted a couple moments later when the grips on Wayne’s limbs started to violently vibrate; humming loudly as they started to work on the muscles there - much like the changes to his throat and face, the grips massaged and kneaded the flesh; making his arms lose the natural leanness he’d gained over the years and leaving them slimmer than they had ever been before. The same happened to his legs too, although as they became more graceful than athletic, the grips down there clamped down even harder on them before starting to slowly stretch in opposite directions - this process made Wayne’s legs longer and gave them a slender, elegant look as well as increasing his height a little. However, Wayne’s limbs weren’t the only things to be changed during all of this: His hands and feet were changed too; both becoming smaller and daintier in order to fit in with the previous changes.

As the grips on Wayne’s limbs stopped vibrating, another pair of arms came out, both of them equipped with rows and rows of needles filled with a strange pink liquid. They then moved onto each side of his waist before slowly pressing inwards, piercing through the soft white fabric of his Aether Uniform and injecting all of the strange contents deep into the marrow of his pelvis bone. A tingling appeared around Wayne’s hips seconds later, quickly followed by a sort of small pulling sensation as they started to stretch outwards; even forcing the arms to move back slightly as they widened with every passing second. A minute later and Wayne now had a pair of wide, womanly curves. However, the chemical that the arms had injected into him was not finished just yet - he felt the tingling sensation trickle from his newly formed curves and over to his flat rear - although it wouldn’t be flat for much longer as the same pulling sensation from before reappeared there: Just like his hips moments ago, the flesh on Wayne’s behind started to rapidly grow outwards and become a rather large, bubbly butt.

The arms on Wayne’s waist pulled away and slid underneath the floor to be replaced by the three final arms - arms that would bring about the last physical changes to Wayne’s body: Two of them were equipped with hand-like endings whilst the other simply had a thick “Y” shape that curved forwards - if Wayne’s mind wasn’t all drugged up, he would have thought that the shape looked quite a lot like pants… A couple moments later, the “palms” of the other two arms began to glow an ominous red as they positioned themselves at Wayne’s shoulders - moving downwards swiftly, they fired laser beams that made short work of his Aether Foundation uniform, the white fabric falling carelessly to the ground and exposing his chest and crotch. Once the palms had cooled down the arms slowly approached Wayne’s chest and groin, the first two placing themselves gently on his nipples whilst the other fitted tightly around his waist, creating a hole as it approached his manhood and forced it to slide inside - the insides of this device were surprisingly silky smooth and Wayne couldn’t help but grunt a little as both this and the slight warmth still emanating from the palms of the other arms sent trickles of pleasure through him.

Another hiss appeared as more of the strange chemical seeped into Wayne’s lungs to enhance the experience for what was about to happen - the three blocky fingers on the robotic hands currently on his chest latched onto his body before starting to flex and vibrate the flesh there, gradually softening it and making it baggier and squishier - as this happened the device wrapped around Wayne’s groin started to tug and pull at his penis, making it swell and harden to its full length within a matter seconds thanks to the chemical. Eyes rolling back into his head, Wayne moaned and bucked his hips instinctively as the pleasure he was receiving began to escalate quickly - he’d satisfied himself before, yes… but he’d never felt anything like this.

As the arms continued to knead and ply at Wayne’s chest, they found themselves being slowly pushed back as a pair of large breasts grew outwards, sending waves of pleasure through Wayne’s body. Although their task was complete, the arms didn’t retreat - they continued to play with the newly formed mammaries, squeezing the pillowy tissue as their warm palms kept the now perky nipples tingling. Meanwhile the lower arm continued to pulse and grip around Wayne’s erection; all kinds of images flooded into his mind as the rubbing sensation overwhelmed his senses and reminded him of something else that was tight, smooth and capable of surrounding his cock… A minute or so later and a massive tension had built around the base of Wayne’s crotch, and with a series of soft rhythmic grunts he finally went over the edge, releasing all of his seed deep into the device.

Once Wayne had finished spurting, the device took this opportunity to begin its work by resuming the tugging at his length - but instead of pulling upwards to milk out any more semen, it began to push down and the quickly relaxing muscle diminished even further than it should have. As his member began to push inside of his groin, Wayne felt a slight discomfort growing down there and groaned and wriggled a little in his restraints. In order to combat this, even more of the strange gas was pumped into him and in a matter of seconds he was back to his blissfully unaware state.

Eventually Wayne’s manhood slid inside of him, sending thrills through him - the side effects of the chemical he was inhaling combined with the bodily changes occurring to him resulted in a steamy warmth accumulating deep within his stomach just as his testicles started to get forcefully pushed in by the device as its hold around his waist tightened. Following Wayne’s length inside, the organs rapidly morphed into a pair of ovaries and a uterus; as an absolutely massive surge of ecstasy consumed him he let out a long, piercingly loud shriek of joy as he finished his transformation into a woman.

Having watched all of this occur, Lusamine shifted a little in her chair. “Well, that was certainly… interesting. What happens now?”

“Forgive me ma'am, but we’re not actually done just yet,” Faba chimed in. “There’s a couple adjustments we still need to make - and I’ll need your help.”

“…With what?”

Faba pressed another button - but this time, instead of something coming out of the floor, the ceiling opened directly above Wayne and a large dome shaped helmet fitted with wires and tubes slowly descended onto his head, which no longer held the white Aether Employee cap as it had fallen off sometime during his wriggles and thrusts. Although it fitted around his head rather tightly and the machinery contained inside it weighed it down, Wayne was so high from both the drugs and bliss he had experienced that he hardly felt it.

Faba turned to face Lusamine, gestured to a mic that was built into the console. “I need to you induce the mental changes into our employee’s mind - it’s said that people are more receptive to female’s voice, so it’s more likely that the changes will stick with your voice.” Hearing the explanation, Lusamine nodded and got out of her chair. Approaching the mic, Faba handed her a small note that had the words needed for the mental change. Skimming them over a couple times, Lusamine then pressed the small red button next to the mic and began to speak into it:

Wayne.

Wayne mumbled and rose her head slightly as the sound of Lusamine’s voice filled her ears - even with how clouded her mind was now, she could still recognise the voice of the Aether President.

You trust me, don’t you?

Wayne nodded instantly - of course she trusted Lusamine: She was the boss, after all…

Good. So if I were to say you loved Pokémon and working for the Aether Foundation, you’d be alright with that?

She nodded again.

Excellent. And if I said you were happy to be promoted to Assistant Branch Chief of the Aether Foundation?

A large, dreamy smile grew across Wayne’s face - that was right, she’d come to this room to be promoted… but something felt wrong somehow. Furrowing her brow, Wayne tried to think-

Don’t worry about how you got here, Wicke. You must feel very tired from all the excitement - have a little rest and we’ll talk to you later.

Immediately after Lusamine said that phrase, a dark purple fluid travelled down the thick transparent tubes and into the helmet. Before Wayne could get confused about why she’d been called Wicke, a warmth suddenly spread across her scalp as the fluid was poured onto her head, coating her all of short brown hair instantly. A couple moments later and a sensual tingling sensation bubbled on her skull as her hair absorbed the chemical, instantly dyeing it the same dark purple colour - but that wasn’t all that changed about Wayne’s hair - its volume and density increased, puffing out to the point where it was almost restrained by the helmet. The sensation felt extremely relaxing to Wi… to Wayne, who was starting to notice how heavy his eyelids felt now… Maybe Lusamine was right - and when wasn’t she? - maybe she should just… go… asleep

The second Wicke’s head bowed lazily, Lusamine looked at Faba. “It seems our employee’s "promotion” was a success - congratulations, Faba.“

Hearing these words come out of the Aether President’s mouth, Faba let another smug smile creep onto his face. "Thank you, ma'am. Anyways, we must get going now - two of my colleagues will prepare our new Assistant for us.”

----

A few minutes later; the Aether President and the Branch Chief were standing in the plain white hallway in front of the door leading into the Promotion Machine as they waited for the two scientists to finish clothing Wicke.

“I know the mental programming seemed to work,” said Lusamine as she stood there with her arms crossed. “But what if she starts to remember her past self?”

“Don’t worry about that, ma'am - if she shows any sign of relapsing…” Faba took out a Pokéball and pressed the button, releasing a short yellow pokémon with a long, pointed nose and a white fluffy collar. “…I already have a backup plan.” Looking curiously at the Pokemon, Lusamine noticed a small stone circle connected by a thin piece of string - as it carelessly spun and swung in the air, Lusamine couldn’t help but notice a sort of… hypnotic aura emanating from it. Before the urge to keep staring at the object crept into her mind, she was snapped out of her thoughts by the door in front of her opening abruptly.

Out stepped two Aether scientists wearing gold and white lab coats, although their faces were obscured by the large white helmets they were wearing, although it was sort of possible to see their face through the shiny gold visors - Lusamine quickly made a mental note to make the helmets look more scientific and less like biker hats.

“We’ve finished clothing her,” stated the scientist standing on the left.

The other then peered back into the room and said; “Please, come outside now.”

The click clack of heels echoed out into the hallway, and a couple moments later a woman stepped out: The first thing Lusamine noticed about her was that her hair was very, very puffy - it was like a group of purple clouds had drifted onto her head. But her hair wasn’t the only thing that stuck out - she carried a short white robe around her neck and shoulders that was kept together by two golden clasps around her neck - the way it rested on her shoulders that made Lusamine think she was wearing large white pauldrons. Underneath her standard gold and white Aether attire was a salmon pink sweater that looked rather comfy… and also highlighted the woman’s rather well-endowed chest area. It didn’t help that the tight white and gold dress she was wearing seemed to prop them up, as well as hugging around her tight hourglass figure… A pair of sleek knee high boots adorned her legs and served to emphasise the woman’s already slender, curvy frame-

“Ma'am?”

Lusamine blinked and look around: both Faba and the woman were looking expectantly at her - they must have been talking to each other as she… studied the woman’s appearance. Placing a hand on her hip, Lusamine said “I’m sorry?”

“I was just talking to Wicke here about how glad we are to have chosen her to be the Assistant Branch Chief.” answered Faba.

“Oh, yes!” Lusamine laughed. “Yes, we’re both very proud to have chosen you Wicke - I’m sure you’ll do very well in your new position.” Unfolding her arms, she stretched out a hand towards Wicke, who beamed brilliantly before eagerly placing one of her soft, dainty hands around Lusamine’s and shaking it enthusiastically.

“Thank you!” she squeaked, her mature yet high pitched voice bubbling with excitement. “You have no idea how much this means to me - I’ve enjoyed working for the Aether Foundation so much!”

Faba chuckled. “Oh, I think we might have an idea or two. Anyways-” he placed a hand on Wicke’s shoulder before gesturing down the hallway. “You should come with me now: After all, you need to see where in this building you’ll be working now.” Pulling her hand away, Wicke nodded excitedly.

“Yes, that’d be a great idea - please lead the way, Mr Faba!” The Branch Chief, his assistant and his Pokémon then passed Lusamine, who watched them walk down the hallway with the smallest of smiles on her face: She had a feeling that Aether Foundation’s reputation was finally in safe hands - and she was right…

…Until her daughter escaped with a Cosmog a month or so later.