2.5. Just Right
The Souvenir Shop really did look like just a souvenir shop. There was an old lady at the front selling even older things and the place looked like an old Chinese restaurant and smelled like oregano. She asked the old lady if she had the entrance to a secret underground base in the building (Denise was already wanted by Team Rocket; there wasn't a point in secrecy) but the lady just looked at her with a crazy expression. She sighed and started looking again, which was when she noticed the peculiar golden cabinet. She was just about to take a closer look at it when she heard a Pokémon being released behind her.
"You're the intruder," the old lady said before pulling off her face. Denise almost had a panic attack before she realized that it was just a disguise; underneath, she was a regular Grunt. Her Gastly was floating in the air with its ghastly expression. "I'll get a promotion if I take you in! Gastly, go!" Her Gastly laughed before the head swelled and popped.
"There goes your Pokémon," Denise said. She became aware of a weird tingling feeling in her skin, then the smell of sulfur in the air. She looked at the Grunt again, who was smirking triumphantly, and realized the Gastly hadn't exploded, it just dissipated. It solidified again around her head, causing Denise to cough and choke. She became lightheaded from the Gastly's poisonous gas, then she heard the Grunt laughing before she passed out.
When she came to, she was in what looked like a magician's box; it was made of something clear, but it wasn't glass because no matter how much she punched or kicked it it didn't even crack. She pressed her hands to it and found herself staring into a rectangular concrete room full of Grunts, and at the end of it was the Team Rocket Executives and Boss Giovanni himself looking really worse for the wear. She pounded on the wall and shouted at him, but by their reactions the box was soundproofed.
"Archer, activate the output sound," Giovanni said to one of his Executives. The man nodded and took a small remote from his pocket, pressing the button; a deafening screech filled the box before it was silent again.
"Why am I in here?" she demanded as Giovanni crossed the space between them, a Marowak at his side.
"Did you not break into my HQ weeks ago, or was that my imagination?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. She gritted her teeth.
"Okay, yeah, whatever—let me out or you'll pay, Giovanni."
"Your threat is meaningless as long as you're within that," he said. "It's a specially-made containment unit that once held Deoxys, and with that sort of structural strength an eighteen-year-old human girl is nothing."
"I wouldn't say that."
"And what are you doing here unarmed? Did you forget that I have an entire team at my disposal?" he said, spreading his arms to indicate the Rocket members around him.
"Well I didn't plan on getting captured," she retorted.
"Yes, well you shouldn't have asked for the entrance to Team Rocket HQ then," one of the Executives, a redheaded female, snorted. Denise rolled her eyes.
"Where's your son, huh? Where's Silver?"
"He's no son of mine, not that that's your business."
"Wait, what?" She slammed her palms against the glass. "Let me
make it my business. I know Silver is a bastard—like father, like son, I guess—but he's still your son, Giovanni, your
only son if I'm right, and you can't mess with family like that."
"Family?" he snorted. "He was no more than a traitor to the corporation."
"Damn the corporation! What—about—the—
family?" She punctuated each word with a punch to the glass, but as Giovanni said, it was impossible to break; she sank to the ground, exhausted, and it felt like the box or container or whatever wasn't getting any fresh oxygen.
"I tire of you," he sighed, stepping back. He nodded to Archer, who pressed a different button on the remote; suddenly the walls of the box fell away, freeing her. She lurched forward, fully intent on slamming Giovanni's head into the wall, but his Marowak moved forward, using its bone to knock her legs out from under her and cause her to hit the ground. "I will ask you some questions involving your infiltration and I expect you to answer each of them truthfully," Giovanni said.
"You bastard, why should I?" she hissed, getting to her knees. He pretended to think for a moment.
"I see that something has to be at stake for you to comply; let's say for each question you refuse to answer, this can happen." He nodded at his Marowak; it swung its bone and it made contact with Denise's right arm, creating a loud crack. She fell back on her butt, feeling pain surge in her arm as the injury swelled. "Are you willing to comply now?" Giovanni asked.
"Damn you," she snapped, feeling tears prick at her eyes.
"I'll start: How did you know where to find the entry warp panel?"
"I've no damn idea," she said. His Marowak hit her again, this time her right hand, and this time she saw her fingers bend backwards as the bones cracked.
"I want an answer," he said. "Or would you rather Marowak hit your skull?"
"You could smash me into bits now; I won't rat out my friends, not for anything," she said. Giovanni pressed his lips in a thin line.
"Archer, hand me the DNA Machine," he said, holding his hand back; Archer placed a small device shaped like a PokéDex in his palm. "Now, Marowak." His Marowak nodded and swung again, hitting Denise in the nose; it broke immediately, blood spurting on her hands and the ground. While she reeled Giovanni knelt down and used a cotton swab to get some of her blood and insert it into a port on the machine; it beeped once, then twice after a while.
"The hell is that?" Denise asked, hands over her nose. Her voice came out stupidly nasal.
"Hm…" He ignored her, which just made her angrier. "I see… Denise, born and raised in Pewter City, daughter of Dennis and Deborah and has brothers Demetrius and Derrick. I wonder if you'd be more willing to talk if… Ariana," he said to the redheaded Executive, "take a few Grunts with you and go to Pewter City, 2821 West—"
"Stop!" she yelled, her anger subsiding and terror rising in her instead. Giovanni smirked, as pleased as the proverbial Persian that caught the Pichu. "Don't hurt them!"
"Now may I ask you some questions, Denise?"
"…Yes," she conceded, feeling completely beat.
——————
I wonder if Aries is alright, Mew thought worriedly before shaking its head.
No, now's not the time to worry—especially when he's most likely not worrying about me in return. Instead, it put its focus into moving faster across the ocean instead, creating waves in its wake from Extremespeed.
Although it was all for getting rid of Team Rocket, Silver, and Deoxys, Mewtwo was a different story. They regarded it with fear, which was the source of their need to get rid of it, but Mew knew that that wasn't entirely correct; Mewtwo was scary—extremely so—and was created by Team Rocket, but when it really thought about it, Mewtwo had never hurt or endangered any of them. That didn't warrant complete amnesty, but it did at least warrant another chat with its facsimile.
It watched as the Cinnabar Islands loomed into view and was struck by a powerful and strange feeling, so powerful that it nearly plummeted into the ocean that moment. It felt a strong pull from the island to itself, something it never felt before. Against its common sense, Mew decided to fly around it, circling the Gym and the Pokémon Laboratory until it found the burnt skeleton of a large home. Curious, it lowered itself and was again struck by that strange pull, this time from the manor; it flew through a shattered window and into the building.
The place was strange; it resembled a mansion, but at the same time a laboratory. Several wild Pokémon milled around and it appeared to have been ransacked by burglars more than a few times. It looked around and spotted a loose sheet of paper; picking it up psychically, it brought the sheet to its face to read. It was burned and torn, but it could still make out the words: "
July 5th, Guyana, South America—A new Pokémon was discovered deep in the jungle." That was Mew; it remembered finding the researchers and, intrigued by the humans, lost focus and dropped its invisibility for a moment. It moved on, finding more, but the pulling sensation was growing stronger the further it went into the mansion. The strange feeling led Mew up the stairs and past rows of broken, ajar doors to a highly-dented metal one that appeared to have held in some sort of behemoth at some point. Mew sipped through a large crack between the door and doorframe and gasped.
The door had once hidden the contents of a laboratory, and not just any laboratory either; the place was full of overturned desks and broken flasks that had once held Pokémon DNA, it sensed. There were several old Fossils too, broken into crumbs from age, and even the remnants of what seemed to be Pokémon burned to a crisps. It raised its head to the ground and found something worse: cloning capsules lining the far wall of the room. There were six in total; five had fallen apart with age, tubes and monitors hanging uselessly, but the sixth was different. The sixth was shattered, ripped apart by brute force. It crept closer and placed its paws on the thick glass, checking for any sort of remaining energy; even a small amount could clear the mysterious monster's identity. It focused harder, finding nothing, and harder still, scanning the entire capsule until it knew it inside and—
"What's wrong, Amber? What's happening?"
Mew pulled away, shocked by the terror coursing through its body. That was… That was Mewtwo, it thought, tentatively moving closer. Then it was here that Mewtwo was created. It stared at the capsule for a few seconds before touching its paw to it once more.
"It feels like it's time to say goodbye," the girl—Amber—said, smiling sadly as her body faded away.
"…Goodbye?" Mewtwo repeated, perplexed. "I feel…something…" He touched his face and his paw came back sparkling with something. "What are…these…?"
"They're tears; you're crying."
"Crying?" It was crying for the first time, and it was a wonderfully sad feeling.
"My daddy used to tell me a bedtime story," Amber said. "That when Pokémon are sad and they cry, their tears are filled with life.
"I'm so…" Mewtwo cried, "…sad."
"…I have to go," Amber said, her eyes sad but still bright.
"Why?" it pleaded.
"I don't know," she admitted, "but it's alright. Thank you for caring about me, and don't cry, Mewtwo—you should be happy. You're alive—" it could barely hear her now; she was almost gone, "—and life is…wonderful…"
"Oh," it murmured as the last of her body faded away. "These tears…what good are they? Please, Amber, come back, don't go—please! AMBER?" It searched for her but couldn't find her or the other clones, then a strange calmness fell over it; its thoughts began to blur until it forgot the source of its panic and instead curled up, falling into a deep sleep of strange dreams.
Mew pulled away again, rubbing its paws together. That shed a bit more light on where Mewtwo was from and a bit on why it seemed so apathetic, but there were still some mysteries. It had to look a little harder—
"Pray tell, what are you doing here?"
Mew turned around, fully expecting to see Mewtwo there, but instead there was a Charmeleon, arms crossed over his chest. It looked between him and the capsule worriedly.
I was pulled here for some reason, it finally said, deeming him trustworthy.
Now I know it was because of Mewtwo's presence.
"Mewtwo? I haven't heard that name in how long. Come." He led Mew to another less-damaged room full of burnt bookshelves and books, although most of them were still readable. Curiously, Mew couldn't read his mind, although it sensed he was a good guy. "I'm Leon," he said, pulling a book from the shelf and flipping it open. "I've been here since the beginning."
The beginning? It caught the book in its paws when Leon threw it over; a quick scan of the pages revealed it was a record of Team Rocket's cloning experiments.
"Yup, since back when Team Rocket started all of this. It's funny; thirty years of experimentation instantly became crap when there was just the possibility of recreating the great Mew, whose DNA was still quite mysterious and perplexing."
It isn't really, it said absently, checking the records. It appeared that the Amber that Mewtwo encountered was the clone of a scientist's daughter who had passed, but that was the most it could glean on her. Then it came to the section on Mewtwo; there was plenty of medical information, but there wasn't much on what happened after Amber.
There isn't anything more recent?
"Who would've been here to record it?" Leon spread his arms. Mew shrugged, finding no argument. "One day, Mewtwo just lost it and forced its way out of here, burning the place with its scientists and clones down to the ground; I don't know where it went after that."
But Mew knew; it went to the Arctic where it met Mew and Aries.
What else do you know about Mewtwo?
"You're Mew; you're the original. Don't you know all of this already?" he snorted. Mew shook its head sadly; Leon's expression softened a fraction. "Well, Team Rocket made it as the perfect Pokémon from Mew—your—DNA, and it's because of the immortality in your DNA that actually made that dream plausible. Mewtwo is like you but genetically made with that sort of cruelty that only Team Rocket has—a special ingredient, so to speak. They made it to be a Grunt, a lackey, an underling, a puppet."
Mewtwo can't be a puppet; Mewtwo is too freelance, Mew said, which was true. Leon nodded in response.
"Which is why Mewtwo made its escape eleven years ago." He gestured at the ruined mansion. "Personally, I don't think it's a bad guy; it does his own thing all the time but it never stepped over the line."
Leon, Mew started,
how do you know all of this? I thought that all of the Pokémon here died.
Leon shrugged, smirking. "We did." Mew suddenly realized why it couldn't read his mind.
You're just a soul, it said, amazed. Leon's energy faded away then, leaving it alone. It sighed as it let the book hit the floor; the others probably wouldn't like it—again—but it had to go through with this. It stretched its mind as far as it could go across Kanto, eventually finding its target.
Fancy meeting you up here, Mew, Mewtwo mused.
Mewtwo, I know everything, Mew said, skipping pleasantries. Mewtwo's mind was quiet for a few heartbeats.
Everything, it repeated bitterly.
That's a lot to know.
I also know that unlike Team Rocket, you're not intrinsically depraved. A long while ago I asked if you're the antagonist; now, I'm asking if you want to be
the pro
tagonist.
Interesting offer, Mewtwo said after a moment of deliberation.
What do I have to do?
——————
Aries' teleportation skills needed some work; Theo's legs hit the ground, then the rest of his body did a second later, but thankfully they came back together with no blood or anything, but he did feel his second and third claws on his left paw change places. He shook the weird psychic residue from his fur, and when he was sure his fur wasn't changing colors or anything he looked up.
"Help! Help!" a short redheaded boy cried as two Galactic Grunts worked to hold him back. Ahead, Cyrus stood with two of his Admins, hands behind his back and appearing macabre as ever.
"Be careful with him," Cyrus said as they threw him into the back of a black van. Theo growled, bristling; he started to wonder why nobody cared, but it was damn Jubilife, a city too big for anybody to care.
Hey, let him go! Theo shouted, leaping at Cyrus; his Admin stepped forward, her Golbat taking the lead.
"Golbat, use Air Cutter!"
"Got'cha!" her Golbat said to Theo, beating her wings violently to create sharp gusts of wind; Theo raised his arms but the wind knocked him backward onto his behind. She swooped in on him and, before he could react, sunk her monstrous teeth into his arm. He swatted and kicked at her, finally breaking a wing and throwing her away, but her teeth left big circular wounds that bled through his fur, and they also had the rotting smell of poison.
"What, they're sending Pokémon with no Trainers after me now?" Cyrus asked nobody in particular, taking a PokéDex out of his pocket and holding it up to Theo.
"Zoroark," the PokéDex said. "The Illusion Fox Pokémon. Stories say those who tried to catch Zoroark were trapped in an illusion and punished."
You hear that, you bastard? he yelled at Cyrus.
Anytime I want to, I can—
The van's doors slammed shut just as Cyrus took out a PokeBall and released a Weavile. "X-Scissor," he commanded, unfazed by it all. His Weavile jumped and slashed at Theo's chest, creating dual gashes in his fur and shearing most of it away in the process. The move was supereffective, and it really didn't help that his Weavile was ultra-strong too.
"Sir, will we just leave him?" one of the Admins asked Cyrus. "He's a Unova Pokémon; he might be beneficial to us with a little brainwashing."
"…Perhaps," he decided. "Restrain him and put him in the van with the psychic."
Theo groaned as somebody pulled his arms behind his back and snapped a Macho Brace around his wrists and opened the vans doors, unceremoniously throwing him in the back and slamming them shut, putting him in darkness. He blinked to let his eyes adjust and saw the boy from earlier trembling in the corner. "He's just a damn kid," Theo muttered, struggling against the Macho Brace.
"…I'm not a kid," he said, surprising Theo. "I'm fourteen…"
Well, I'm sure I wasn't using telepathy, he thought, confused. "You could…can understand me?"
"O…of course," he said. "I could understand Pokémon since I was a little kid."
"You… Wait, Cyrus called you a psychic. That's true?" He nodded. "Then… Oh, damn. He's going to try to use you to summon Dialga and Palkia."
"What?" he exclaimed, grey eyes wide. "That's impossible!"
"Maybe not so impossible," Theo muttered, thinking of all of the so-called impossibilities that had recently happened to him. He heard the van start up and start moving. "They'll take us to Mt. Coronet; we have to get out before then."
"How? Cyrus took my Umbreon."
"I can…oof…" He pushed himself to his feet and sat down with his back to the van's cab, then he started chipping at the wall with his claws. "So, uh…what's your name again?"
"Jenson," he answered.
"Jenson, you a Trainer?"
"Uh-huh."
"Why were you in Jubilife?"
"I was visiting my parents…Arceus, I hope they're okay," he whispered, his face going white.
"For now, Jenson, you'd be better off worrying about yourself." He felt his claw go through and twisted around, pressing his eye to the hole he made. He had a small view of the driver's seat and the voices from the cab carried into the back.
"We can finally get Dialga and Palkia with this guy," the driver said; the driver also smelled like human female hormones, so Theo assumed that the driver was female.
"And Team Rocket's DNA technology, don't forget about that," the passenger said.
"Right, right; Giovanni's a bastard, but he makes good tech."
"Jeez," Theo muttered. "Jenson, you might want to hold onto something."
"What, the air?" he said sarcastically; Theo decided not to kill him for that since he was in a pretty stressful situation. "What are you going to do?"
"Nothing…directly, anyway." He bent lower, angling his head down until…yeah, he could see the rearview mirror—consequently, he could see the driver's eyes. He created an illusion, nothing too special, really, but enough to—
The van jerked to the right and slammed into something, causing Theo and Jenson to fly into the wall bodily. Almost immediately the van stopped and the doors came open, revealing a red-haired Admin and a magenta-haired Admin. "I said I got this, Jupiter," the redheaded one snapped.
"And I said that I have this, Mars," she snapped back, letting a big white ugly feline Pokémon into the van. It stared at Theo with wide yellow and bloodshot eyes until it gave him a head ache.
"If you think I'm gonna fall for you, you're real mistaken," he said dryly. The feline meowed angrily and turned away.
"It's a Dark-type," Mars complained. Jupiter laughed and took a blue rag from her pocket.
"You have to always be prepared, Mars," she sneered before shoving it in Theo's face. Arms still bound, he kicked and shouted into it, but whatever it was drenched in made him fatigued and sluggish, and eventually he fell asleep.
——————
The world slowly spun back into view—literally; Henry opened his eyes and saw that he was in a spiraling freefall down the side of Mt. Silver. His first instinct was to panic of course, but years of training kept him from doing so and he instead used Rock Smash to lodge his fist in the rocky cliff, slowing his fall until he came to a stop a few feet above a ledge full of Cacnea. He sighed in relief; they did too, for whatever reason. Now his conundrum was getting back up.
"Move!" one of the Cacnea suddenly shouted, and the whole swarm of them attacked his butt with a very explosive Pin Missile. The force (and pain) of it launched him up a few ledges and he crashed at the grassy entrance of a cave. He made sure his tail was still attached to his body before getting up and checking the cave out.
For some reason, even though there were a lot of holes that led to the outside, the interior was scalding hot; Henry was barely in there for three seconds before he was drenched in his sweat. He noticed small puddles of what looked like liquid fire on the gritty floor; he grabbed a handful of grass outside and tossed it on top of a puddle to be sure. As soon as the grass made contact the puddle burst into a bright gold and orange conflagration that didn't even leave ashes behind. He made a mental note to avoid touching them as he crept forward.
*LEGENDARY---MOKENOP| LEGENDARY POKÉMON* Deoxys said, manifesting with a pink aura near the end of the cave. Something about it seemed familiar but Henry couldn't place it immediately. It looked unaffected by the heat, and it was in a different form from before; its original one, Henry assumed, was the regular one with an oblong head, two tentacles on each shoulder, and straight orange and team skin, but this one had a sharper head, one tentacle on each shoulder, and grey legs, and he could feel the power it emitted even from across the room. *DESTROYED---MUST BE*
"The Legendary Pokémon are less destructive than you," Henry pointed out, getting into a fighting position. Deoxys cocked its head to the left side then the right.
*RAYQUAZA* it said, and if it could speak matter-of-factly it just did.
"You're a funny guy, aren't ya?" He tried attacking it with Focus Blast but it just went into that defensive form and blocked it. From what Aries said, Deoxys had multiple forms: Normal Form, Speed Form, and Defense Form. He was wrung from his thoughts when Deoxys rammed into him, throwing him backward with Superpower; Henry spun around and landed on all fours, just barely dodging a fire puddle. (Or is fire puddle an oxymoron? The thought didn't occur to him.) "—Attack Form," he groaned.
Henry spun to his feet and ran up to Deoxys, dealing a punch to its face; it just batted him away and struck him with Thunder, undeterred. Henry gritted his teeth at the electricity in his body until it was over, which was when Deoxys picked him up with Psychic and slammed him against the wall. *NUISANCE* it said to him, tightening its grip until it felt like a giant fist was squeezing the life out of him.
"I—" He gritted his teeth until he was practically grinding them together, straining his muscles until they felt like they'd rip apart. "I'd laugh—at the irony—but I'm a little—preoccupied." Deoxys got within breathing space of him, looking him up and down like it could see straight through him.
*YOU CAN STILL MOVE| WHY YOU CAN STILL MOVE?* Deoxys asked, perplexed.
"Maybe I'm just that great." Henry managed to pull his left hand free, striking Deoxys with Shadow Claw; like he expected, it went back into Defense Form and moved backwards afterwards, but this time he actually left scratches in its tentacles. "Ghost-type is supereffective, so that means it's either a Ghost-type or a Psychic-type. Let me…" He struggled some more before Deoxys lost its grip and he went free, hitting the ground. Henry rushed forward and dodged Deoxys' swinging tentacles and—with Deoxys still in Defense Form—struck it in its belly with Poison Jab. Deoxys skidded backwards before catching itself at the edge of a fire puddle; when it straightened Henry could see the purplish imprints of his fist on its center.
Psychic-type, great, Henry thought, bashing his fists together. That makes this a lot easier.
Deoxys went into Speed Form, vanishing as it raced around the room; Henry could barely follow the blur of its body until it came back at him, whipping him with its tentacles and bringing him down on one knee. He tried to stand up but it came back again in the blink of an eye, nearly knocking him into a fire puddle. It's too fast, he thought, gripping his ears in frustration. Damn, if only I could sense it—if only—
Suddenly there was a different type of energy coursing through his veins. It was really weird; Henry was looking at the ground and yet he could still see the cave walls and the entrance and, hell, even the stupid Cacnea below them. He just as suddenly knew—not realized, knew—that he wasn't seeing it all, but he was seeing it, as cheesy as that sounded, seeing their auras. Granted, it wasn't as great as Mew or Deoxys' level of psychic mastery, but it was damn good enough since he could now see Deoxys' movements a lot better. He waited until it was close enough and struck it with Shadow Claw; Deoxys slowed instantly, deep scores left in its chest from his attack. Henry cracked his neck.
"Well damn, call me Johnny, 'cause you're about to get Caged."
——————
"Hey, wake up."
"Nngh?" Theo groaned, opening his eyes; Mars' face swam into view as she smirked, pulling him to his feet by his ponytail.
"You'll miss the show, Zoroark," she said, gesturing to the scene ahead of them. He tried to clear his mind as he looked around; it seemed that they had made it to Mt. Coronet—damn it, he was out of time. Team Galactic was herded into a semicircle around Cyrus, who was holding up two orbs, one bluish and one pinkish. He was saying something too, but it was an ancient language, ancient even for Pokémon. Jenson was ahead of him, down on all fours on the gritty earth; Theo could literally smell his fear, and he was screaming too, loud and shrill. The sound of it made his heart ache.
"Mars, get over here! It's starting!" Jupiter called. Mars pranced over to her side, leaving Theo to fall on his face; he tried standing up but there was still too much poison in his veins for him to even see straight. He looked around at the temple's ruins and started to detect an odd energy that made his skin tingle; when he looked at Cyrus again, twin blue and pink lights were forming ahead of him at the center of the ruined temple. Very suddenly, Jenson's screaming ceased and he fell flat on the ground; Team Galactic went quiet too, but it was an awed sort of silence.
"Finally," Cyrus whispered. Theo watched through his blurring vision as the blue and pink lights began to form into the Dialga and Palkia from storybooks. It's over, he thought. Then he realized there was another scent in the area—a familiar scent too, one he had started to liken with death and general depression.
Team Rocket!
It wasn't the entire team, but it was a good fourth of it, all led by that Executive Ariana—no Silver. "Team Galactic, you're under attack by Team Galactic!" she said to Cyrus. "For dabbling in things you have no business being in, 'specially considering what's already happened to you…"
"You lot are some people to speak about this," Cyrus retorted. "Mewtwo? Deoxys?"
"Old projects," Ariana replied.
"I hardly call eleven years ago
old, especially with Deoxys still remaining as a threat to us all."
"Well, okay, let me rephrase: you're under attack by orders of Team Rocket Boss Giovanni's son, Silver."
Silver, what? Theo thought. Why would he want Cyrus gone? He realized that that was sort of a dumb thought; anybody would want Cyrus gone, what with him trying to rip apart the space-time continuum and all, but Silver didn't seem like the kind of person to care until it was actually at his boots.
"Giovanni's no-good son wanted you all to stop me?" Cyrus said, laughing sarcastically. Okay, so Theo wasn't the only dubious one.
"He seems no good, okay, but he's actually a deep person," Ariana said in a way that made Theo think she wanted to mate with Silver at some point. "Rocket Grunts, get the Orbs away from Cyrus!"
"Galactic Grunts, keep them away from Dialga and Palkia!" Cyrus commanded in turn. Pokémon were summoned in hordes, moves flying back and forth and almost killing Theo in the process. He couldn't tell if Jenson was okay, but he didn't think it mattered much anyway, considering…well…
He looked up and saw that while Team Rocket and Team Galactic were messing around with each other, Dialga and Palkia were taking more form, and he was still out of it and Mew and everyone else was nowhere to be found. "Don't tell me it's really over," he muttered, covering his nose with his claws. Valentine and the pack would…
It never is, Theophilus.
A black portal appeared between the other two lights, twisting and swelling until it was the same size as them; red eyes appeared at the top and Theo could feel more than hear the growl it emitted. Cyrus looked at it and stepped back, scowling slightly, and the rest of Team Galactic and Team Rocket took about fifteen steps away, which was when Theo noticed Cyrus' Pokémon, a Houndoom and Honchkrow. "I should have expected you."
The darkness suddenly disappeared and something huge that kind of feels like a Pokémon is left floating there. In a second it began glowing and all of a sudden it changed into a six-legged Dragon-type with golden jaws, grey skin, and spiked black wings. On its back was—holy crap—Mew, and floating next to Mew was some purple Pokémon that looked a lot like it.
I'd say it's nice seeing you again, but really, you've wasted my time years ago and now you're wasting it again, the Dragon-type Ghost-type Legendary Pokémon of the Distortion World and antimatter, Giratina, snorted. Theo wondered if the poison had corroded his eyesight or something.
Theophilus! Mew exclaimed, hopping off of Giratina and latching onto him in excitement. Soft fur, he thought.
I'm sorry that we couldn't travel fast enough.
Me too, he muttered.
The Legendaries are here how?
Mewtwo and I worked together to accomplish that, it said, gesturing at its better-looking friend. Mewtwo snorted in response, and with a wave of its hand dozens of Team Galactic and Rocket Grunts and their Pokémon went flying, crashing to the ground in moaning and groaning heaps and throwing up clouds of dust.
"Mewtwo!" Ariana exclaimed, sitting up with her hair in a wild and tangled mess. Mewtwo smirked, waggling its fingers at her.
Nice to see you again, although you were prettier when you were asphyxiating.
"Honchkrow, Night Slash," Cyrus commanded. His Honchkrow attacked Giratina, who stumbled, apparently still weak. The other lights started to flicker and fade; Cyrus gritted his teeth, repeating his words from earlier in a louder voice. Theo could hear Dialga and Palkia's cries as the lights actually formed portals.
He's gonna kill himself trying to summon all these Legendaries, Theo said as Mew used Heal Bell, cleansing his bloodstream of poison.
A dead man can't die again, Mewtwo said, hitting the ground. It was a lot taller than Mew, about six feet, and bulkier too.
A dead man? What?
We'll explain all of it later, Mew said, looking at Giratina worriedly.
For now, we have to stop Cyrus before he— It was cut off as Palkia's portal suddenly ripped wide across the sky like somebody clawed it or stretched it out, then Dialga's portal ripped too and they formed a cross. The center part that they both mixed at was blacked out and full of pink and blue stars.
A space-time portal, Mew said, awed. The Grunts all got to their feet and started running in various directions; most of the Rocket ones, apparently, were already prepared, using Flying-types to get away quicker. (Apparently, Silver was more clairvoyant than he looked.)
This is no time for appreciation, Mew, Mewtwo snapped, raising a hand and grabbing hold of Cyrus' Houndoom and Honchkrow psychically; they cried out in surprise and went quiet as it began squeezing them until they crumpled in heaps on the dirt. Cyrus turned to fully face them, alone without his Pokémon as Giratina, Mew, Mewtwo, and the almighty Theophilus stared him down.
Where will you run now, Cyrus? Giratina taunted, its jaws opening. Cyrus clenched his fists; his eyes shifted from them to the space-time portal. Mew gasped; Mewtwo rolled its eyes.
Cyrus— Mew started, but Cyrus ran forward and jumped inside anyway; apparently, he didn't learn his lesson from the first time he did it. As soon as he disappeared into the blackness a field of energy was emitted that knocked all of them backwards; Theo got a mouthful of dirt and twice as much in his fur that he just knew would be killer to get out. He was starting to get up when he suddenly felt Giratina bite down on his ponytail; a weird tingly feeling ran through him like cold chills as they became intangible and quickly sunk through Mt. Coronet.
Why are we running? he hissed, kicking and flailing in the dark and rocky interior of the mountain. As soon as they solidified at the base—him, Giratina, Mew, and Mewtwo—the entire peak of Mt. Coronet vanished. There wasn't any noise or debris or anything, but it all just disappeared.
There's your answer, Mewtwo said. There was a sudden and sharp pain in Theo's head as he hit the ground, but it quickly passed, leaving him a little dizzy and nauseous.
That's the end of Team Galactic, in any case.
Team Galactic…what's that? Theophilus asked. Mewtwo looks amused while Mew sighed.
They are…were…one of the prominent troublemaking groups in the Pokémon world, namely Sinnoh, Mew explained, but because of Dialga and Palkia's space-time portal, they've been wiped completely out of existence. That spells peace for the Sinnoh region at least, and it ticks off one target on our list. Counting Mewtwo, that only leaves two: Giovanni and Silver.
You forgot to explain big guy here. Theo gestured at Giratina, who snorted in response.
Mew fiddled with its paws.
I came to the conclusion that while Mewtwo has a very belligerent disposition and aura, despite its fear-inducing appearance—
Wow, my self-respect has been so easily trampled, Mewtwo said.
—it actually never posed a threat to myself or the others directly, so I instead implored its help in a different task: speeding up the revival process of the Legendaries. That requires a very fair amount of energy and willpower, which we both possess in abundance; we set aside our differences to call on the shreds of their beings remaining in this world and psychically brought them together to form solid bodies more quickly. It gestured at Giratina. It has only worked on a few however—Arceus, Giratina, Celebi, and Groudon—but with those burdens off of my shoulders I can be of more help now.
And with me we can't be stopped, Mewtwo said. Mew looked up at Giratina and said something in private to it; it nodded back and created a swirling black portal.
I will work on bringing back Dialga and Palkia, it said. Good luck you all. Giratina went inside of its portal and the portal vanished behind it.
Come on, Mew said, psychically lifting Theo up. The feel of it made him even dizzier, then he had the strange missing-limbs feeling of teleportation. When he could see again he realized that they were all in some building's basement office. Mew looked around, confused.
I was sure I felt Denise's energy here…
Theo looked around at all of the electrical machines and saw two in particular that stuck out; they were taller than the rest and had a beam of electricity passing between their antennas. He looked closely at the left one's metal base and saw an arm sticking out from behind it; he moved over to get a better look and gasped.
Hey, Mew. Mew! He pulled Denise's out from behind it and set her on the ground; there were still little sparks dancing across her burnt skin and clothes, and her hair was more frizzed than normal. Mew hovered around her before landing on her stomach.
She has no thoughts, Mewtwo said. Mew pressed its paws against her chest for a long time, then it exhaled.
Denise isn't breathing.
——————
"Is that all?" Giovanni asked, writing down the last of what she told him. Denise nodded, her face buried in her hands. "You and Silver would be good together," he commented offhandedly. "Those that betray their allies."
I didn't want to, she thought. But Aries is—well, Aries—and it's him against my family and—well—it was the—the right thing to do—right? She tried not to think about him, but she did; he could be detached at times, and optimistic, and mischievous, but she was certain that he would never betray her…yet… But he would've if it was Mew and the Legendaries at stake, right?
…Right?
…
They're my family…but Aries is my best friend!
She lurched to her feet, using her good hand to attempt to take the papers from Giovanni's hands and tackle him to the ground; instead, two of the Grunts grabbed her arms, pulling her back and slamming her down on the ground. "What's done is done, Denise," Giovanni said, folding the paper into his blazer's pocket.
"You filthy, conniving, blackmailing rat," Denise growled. "No wonder Silver is trash; he was rotted before he was even born."
"This job isn't about being nice, however," Giovanni said. "In any case, you are no longer useful. Archer, take her down to the generator room."
"The generator room?" Archer repeated, paling a little. "The Pikachu down there are extremely powerful; just putting a human being, which is made up of mostly water, in the vicinity would cause instant—"
"I said—" Giovanni cut off, breaking into a serious coughing fit.
"Karma always comes around," Denise hissed as the Grunts hoisted her to her feet. "If you hurt me—well, you already did, but hell, if you kill me, Aries is gonna have your head." She actually wasn't sure how true that was, since she'd never seen Aries angry other than the thing with Mew, but she was sure he'd get some sort of revenge, and even if he wasn't that kind of person he would still have to come if Giovanni remained as Rocket Boss.
"We'll be prepared if Aristotle comes," he said passively, waving them away. Archer led the Grunts down the corridor to a warp panel that took them down to a long hall that ended in a wooden door.
"I know that Team Rocket steals Pokémon," Denise said to him, "but do you really want to steal lives too?"
He didn't say anything, only opened the door and let the Grunts shove her in; she unceremoniously tumbled down some stairs before landing in a heap of limbs on the ground. She shook her head out and looked up just as the door shut and the wary Pikachu began sparking.
