Here he was, in an out-of-the-way cave right next to Cerulean City, just like they said.
Red wasn't impressed.
So far as he'd travelled down the dreary but surprisingly well-lit tunnels that made up this cave, and he hadn't encountered much. Sure he'd encountered that persistent Chansey earlier and a somewhat violent Marowak, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. They were far stronger than most wild pokemon he'd seen, but Blue had been a lot harder to fight.
He could still remember the smirk on the face of his "friend" as he proudly announced his status as champion. He hated it. He hated Blue like that. Always claiming all the glory, his every win being a true reflection of his skill, but every defeat just a lucky stroke. As he climbed down yet another ladder, (who built these things in the first place?) he was jolted from his thoughts.
Someone or something else was near, and it was powerful. He could feel it.
Red was familiar with not being in control, but that was so long ago. Back when he had barely gotten his first pokemon. Now...The feeling was so alien to him, yet so...nostalgic? Although he appeared to walk through the cave with a confident stride and a stoic face, he was far from calm mentally. He pulled down the top of his red cap, making it harder for anyone to see his eyes.
The previous boredom was gone, now replaced by a tension that was so thick it seemed to actually exist physically. And then he saw it, the "strongest pokemon in existence." He knew that likely wasn't the case, Kanto was only one region after all, but in the tense environment of the Cerulean Cave, he knew why people were saying that. Why he was only allowed in the cave after he'd beaten the Elite Four and then Blue.
Mewtwo.
A pokemon that seemed suspiciously like it had refused to acknowledge his existence, as its back was turned. He was on the wrong side of the cave and would have to do a little more hiking to surpass the rugged terrain.
After some water travel (courtesy of his Lapras) he had made it. Face to face with the pokemon Oak had only informed him of after he was the strongest pokemon trainer in the Kanto region.
He held up the pokeball for his first pokemon in his left hand.
He used his right hand and lifted the tip of his hat just a little, enough for eye contact with Mewtwo.
And he threw his pokeball, opening with his starter (and secretly, his favourite, but don't go telling that to his other pokemon!). And the battle began.
Mewtwo didn't know what to think concerning the human that was just now descending to this level. He had been undisturbed for a long period of time. After the escape from that...abomination, he had only wanted to find a place to be alone, and this cave had been just right.
But now, it appeared the humans had decided to send someone.
From what he could glean from other pokemon, humans were vastly different in their desires. Some craved power, others knowledge, sometimes both, or sometimes other things entirely. But this Red was a mystery. He could feel so many different things in the head this one, and it perplexed him.
Why wasn't he angry? He was before. Before when he was locked up in the lab he hated the scientists, despised them with every fibre of his being every single time they walked through the door to his room. But anger that should've built up when he was escaping Cinnabar Island just...did not happen. As if the experience in this cave had drained it all away.
But, he knew that the humans wouldn't forget that anger. They would characterize him with it, even if was far from the truth now.
It was a perplexing situation, but with his challenger approaching him, he had little time to dwell further.
Only to stare into those red eyes that appeared to have wisdom far beyond their youth.
Red opened by commanding his Pikachu to use an Iron Tail. It only did mediocre damage, as it appeared that a sort of psychic barrier had shielded Mewtwo before the hit. He was about to go with a Volt Tackle, but before that Pikachu was thrown into a nearby rock through Psychic.
Well, at least that attack was expected.
He tensed as his pokemon got up, worry evident on his features.
One more hit and it would be curtains for the electric mouse.
"Quick Attack!" He urged, his tone clearly outlining something.
Don't kill yourself doing this.
It did less than the previous Iron Tail did, but with Pikachu in a weakened state like this, Red wasn't expecting much.
And once again, Pikachu was thrown into a wall as Mewtwo used Psychic against it. He returned the exhausted pokemon almost immediately, cringing at the amount of damage just from a glance. The mouse pokemon wasn't unconscious, but he knew that attempting to put Pikachu to battle in this state would be a waste both mentally and physically for all parties involved.
Without wasting a moment, he swiftly unclipped his second pokeball and threw it.
Out came the cry of his Snorlax as it flopped onto the battlefield.
He hadn't trained as much with Snorlax as he had with his Pikachu, but with the ridiculously high Special Defense of Snorlax, it was easily compensated for. He started with a Shadow Ball, hoping to exploit the psychic type weakness to ghost type moves, and it appeared to pay off.
The attack appeared to be very effective against Mewtwo as this time it actually left a significant bruise and made the legendary flinch.
Wait a second...is he...regenerating?
But unfortunately, Mewtwo knew a healing move.
Of course, Recover. All the best Psychic types have it. Figures.
Although healing moves infuriated Red, he knew how to counter them. Blue had exploited Recover a great deal as champion when his Alakazam was in play, and thus Red had come up with (more so forced to come up with, in Red's opinion) a strategy to deal with it.
Pulling out Snorlax's pokeball, he returned the lazy pokemon, before unclipping another pokeball and releasing his Venusaur. Although his Snorlax had type effective moves and high Special Defense, he still wasn't great at dealing special damage, not with that horrible Special Attack stat.
Red was jolted from his thoughts when the grass type he just released roared. His Venusaur was always the feistiest of his pokemon, and he loved the energy brought to the table that his Venusaur presented in all situations.
"Leech Speed." He commanded. Although he was thinking of doing away with the move and training a stronger one, he just hadn't gone the lengths yet. But in this situation, he didn't regret keeping it at all.
Can't heal if someone is constantly sapping your energy.
It had the intended effect. If Mewtwo used Recover now, it would waste both time that Red could use to form a plan, and would give valuable energy to sustain his Venusaur.
He cringed as Mewtwo threw out another Psychic, tossing the reasonably large pokemon like a ragdoll. The legendary had finished restoring its own dead cells and was going on the offensive. The fact that Psychic attacks were extraordinarily effective on poison types wasn't lost on Red either.
His heart pounded as his grass and poison type pokemon finally was given a rest from the barrage. He was close enough to feint, but just not close enough to justify an early withdrawal.
"Giga Drain" if there was one thing he could say he liked about grass types, it was the drain moves that always struck his fancy. Why solely heal when you could deal some damage as well? It had the desired effect, weakening Mewtwo and healing Venusaur. It wasn't very strong (as Giga Drain was only rated at a 60 for pokemon move power by the Indigo League) but the extra health provided may just be enough to keep Venusaur conscious just a little longer.
But Red had gotten his hopes up too high, the healing from Giga Drain wasn't enough. With another Psychic, Venusaur wasn't fit for battle. That poison type wasn't doing any good now, as a 2x weakness to Psychic-type attacks and an attack that clearly struck critically was just too much.
He returned his unconscious pokemon, trembling somewhat.
You've had multiple pokemon lose in one battle before.
Not against one pokemon!
Mewtwo was probably smug after that last knockout, Red was sure.
Red had been underestimated. Mewtwo had been surprised at how determined his pokemon were. Not only had they all resisted at least one of his attacks (which was something unseen before this) but Red himself had been cunning, using those green (and vile) weeds to sap his strength. He could feel them even now.
As the child released another one of his puppets, Mewtwo felt the curiosity to attempt communication with the draconic being before him overpower his lust for battle.
"What bides you? What makes you do this?" He asked tentatively to the orange dragon. It was psychic communication, Mewtwo didn't usually attempt speech vocally.
"He made me strong where I was weak. He picked me up when I was lost. He helped me when no one else would. He gave me and the other's purpose." The Charizard responded with a truth that was evident without the need of any extrasensory powers to confirm.
"Flare Blitz!" Red cried which ended the conversation before Mewtwo could continue. The pokemon flew, covered in flames as he tackled the legendary.
Even with a Barrier, Mewtwo could feel this one. This was a lot stronger than anything before. As Mewtwo blasted the pokemon with another psychic strike, he found himself wondering how long he could keep this up.
But did even want to? Their conviction was astonishing.
Conviction.
The human language was easy to learn and understand. (As was the case for most psychic pokemon.) But some of the words were a bit more abstract, like this one.
Purpose. Something to do. Something to drive you.
He had to find out what drove them.
Although the thought of a supposedly all power pokemon looking stumped had been disconcerting, Red jumped at the opportunity to do something. Taking out a green type spray, he released his Pikachu and quickly used the Full Restore to begin healing the wounds of his starter before returning him once again to his ball, letting the medicine do its work.
"Charizard use flamethrower!" He called if only to stall Mewtwo for a bit as he packed away his medicine. A burn would've been nice as well.
A burn should've happened, but it didn't. A nearly invisible blue veil confirmed the usage of Safeguard, protecting the legendary from all manners of debilitating conditions and thus removing all hope of a burn.
The damage was ok, but Red wasn't sure if it would be equal to the next Psychic attack.
Some star-shaped rays started moving from Mewtwo to Charizard.
Swift, a rare move to see used.
The star-shaped rays would always hit, but they wouldn't do much damage.
No same type attack bonus.
Low power.
Are they holding back?
His Charizard wasn't damaged nearly as much by the attack as he would've been if Psychic was used.
But what Red didn't realize was that one of the rays was homing in, right at him.
The force of the impact was enough to send him flying and the pain enough to make him groan as he was hit in the stomach.
Get up, you can't do anything like this. You know what happened last time.
He was hauled up to his feet by his Charizard. Normally, he'd be embarrassed by being assisted for a menial task (As many trainers believed you should train along with your pokemon and grow independent and/or strong along with them.) but in this case, he was more than pleased for the help.
"Thank you." He whispered gratefully. For him to express his gratitude with words rather than implication spoke (metaphorical) volumes, and the evolved flame pokemon knew this.
"Air Slash." Red got his head back in the game almost immediately. The slash was fast enough to prevent Mewtwo from attempting anything before it was hit.
And from the looks of it, Mewtwo hadn't expected the recovery so quickly and was taken aback by the sudden slash from a pokemon that was just previously helping a human.
And with a quickness that made it seem Red had been uninjured all along, he threw a pokeball that struck home with perfect accuracy. Looks like things were finally going his way!
...Only for Mewtwo to break out immediately and strike back with another Swift.
And once again, one of the stars was heading straight for him.
Run, idiot! Before it hits you!
You can't dodge this.
You can't lead when you're injured! Move it!
Red jumped to the left, the ray scraping his left thigh as it passed by him. He suppressed the pain and started running, knowing that the star would keep coming unless he managed to make it hit something else.
"Charizard, Dragon Pulse!" He shouted before once again dodging the ray as it came around for another attempt.
He didn't see anything happen as he was busy trying to move around the relentless psychic attack that kept him occupied, but he sure heard the cry of pain as Mewtwo took another hit. He ran again as it sped after him. But he didn't realize what he was getting himself into.
He had just ran right into the middle of the battlefield.
If there was one thing that he could come to the conclusion of, it was that his trainer had clearly gone insane. He was right there, running across the battlefield like nobody's business.
"Watch out!" He called, but Red would only hear a snarl.
He started forward, hoping to prevent an accident from happening, but alas, he was thrown into the wall by that invisible hand again, unable to do anything but watch as his trainer got ever so close to that psychic type.
Red ducked, and this time, the star ray hit a wall.
Thank goodness.
But that was before he realized where he was.
Right in front of Mewtwo.
He stared into the pupils that stared right back into his.
His Charizard was unable to help him, Mewtwo had him locked, but in this weakened stay, the legendary wouldn't be able to hold more than one thing down with its power.
Do it, help Charizard as he helped you.
Red took out a pokeball, one with a yellow U on top.
And at this range, he didn't need to aim.
He had done it. This "Red" had more than proven himself.
His conviction and unity with his team were far higher than Mewtwo had estimated, and thus, he had passed the test. This time, he didn't resist as the pokeball begun the sequence.
Wiggle
Wiggle
Wiggle
Click.
And now, he could finally join them. The unity and conviction they had were now with him, and with that, he was now joined with them.
Hopefully, they wouldn't classify him as "angry" now.
But he wasn't holding his breath.
Click.
He had done it. Well, rather he and his pokemon. He had captured a legendary. After such an intense match, the silence was deafening, matched only by the sound of his heart which was hammering in his chest. Hyperventilating, he walked over to the now unmoving ultra ball.
He picked it up.
Show me your unity, young one.
The thought was lost in the whirlwind that was Red's mind as he attempted to process what had just transpired. There was a scuffle behind him.
He turned, his Charizard was making his way over.
"You did well." Red found himself speaking without thinking.
His pokemon looked at him with a sense of surprise and awe.
Red seldom talked beyond battle commands.
"I think we'll take a break before doing anything else. Let's go home, Charizard."
He needed to give his pokemon more credit.
Author's note: I really liked the idea of novelizing the battles between trainers and legendary pokemon and decided to try my hand at it. It will remain a completed story for now, but if demand is high I might continue with the idea.