Chapter 1: Life Goals

Everything was dark. Why was everything so dull and silent? This wasn't how the world was supposed to be! His memories told him of clear, refreshing springs, green grass, blue sky, and gray, majestic mountains white at the tip. There should be birds chirping, and wind blowing, and …

Tap, tap, tap!

What could that be? He had never heard such a sound before.

"Who's a cute little mewtwo?" a high-pitched voice said. "You're a cute little mewtwo!"

I'm a ... 'cute little mewtwo'? he thought.

Then the tapping happened again.

"Kohaku, you idiot!" a baritone voice said. "Stop tapping the glass! You might break it!"

"Glass? What is glass? Who am I? What is this place?" the mewtwo asked himself in his mind. "Are those … humans?"

"Char!" another high-pitched voice with a slight growl said.

The mewtwo formed a representation of himself – a gray, bipedal feline with a purple tail – in the darkness, and looked around to see who said that. "Excuse me?"

"Charmander!"

"What do you mean 'Charmander!' ? That's not a word!"

At that moment, the mewtwo was met with a scary face with dark blue eyes and sharp fangs staring at him from the shadows to his left and making "Rrrrr!" noises.

"Okay, okay, you grouch! I'll leave you alone then."

The angry creature faded back into the blackness, leaving him in silence again.

"Bulba!" a hoarse voice said.

That startled him. He looked to his right and said, "What?"

"Bulbulbulba, bulbasaur!"

"You're not making any sense either!"

"Basaur, saur bulba. Bulbasaur!" There it goes again!

An even deeper voice joined in. "Squiiirtle!"

"Can any of you speak English? I do not understand these noises you're making!" the mewtwo said while putting his hands on his head.

The voices just yelled the same things to him, so there was his answer.

"Guess I'll go back to sleep then."

An explosion rudely brought him out of his slumber. Sounds of broken glass and screams followed, causing chills to run down his spine.

What is going on? His voice sounded a bit deeper than last time, kind of like those of human male teenagers from his memories. Or were those his dreams?

A soprano voice said, "They've escaped! They're here!"

He took form inside his mind again and looked around. Who are they? Looking at himself, he realized his body was slightly taller than last time.

"Ditto!" a squeaky voice said from the darkness.

The screaming started again.

Ditto? What does that mean? Why is everyone making so much noise?

More squeaky voices joined in. "Ditto, ditto, ditto!"

"They're transforming!" It was the voice of the one who scolded that Kohaku guy!

A rumbling chorus of "Gyaraaaaa!" was heard.

"Run! They're preparing to use hyper beam!" the same guy from earlier said.

Thunderous explosions shook the mewtwo's body. W-what is going on out there?!

The sound of glass shattering followed by a weak "Bulbaaaa ..." was definitely not good news. The human screams had been drowned out, and then there was total silence ...

Bubbly noises grabbed the mewtwo's attention and brought him back from the realm of rest.

What is this feeling? My entire body is weak, and my … My stomach? Is that where it's supposed to be? He put his right hand under his chest. Were my fingers supposed to look like this? There was a time, in my memories, when they were smaller and pointier, for some reason.

He used the extensions of his mind to feel around the area he was in, trying to communicate with any sentient being. There was a very weak sign of life coming from his left, but it did not respond to his attempt at connecting to it. His stomach was getting restless and was giving him too much stinging to remain comfortable any longer. It was time to make an effort to take control of his body for the first time.

Come on! Come on! I got this! he said as he focused on his eyelids' muscles. The second his eyes opened … Yes! His pupils contracted from the size of an olive to that of a vertical needle. Ouch! It burns! He quickly discovered he could control his arms too, as he put his hands over his eyes.

He could not keep staying like that; he needed to see. Alright, here it goes again … Slower this time. He removed one hand off his eye and carefully opened his eyelids. Everything was a blur for a moment, but then it became clear enough and he saw the collapsed tables, cracked flower pots, and destroyed tubes. When he opened his other eye, he had a better view once his depth perception kicked in.

Looking to his right, he saw a thing that was half brown, half yellow, and oval-shaped. "Hey!" He tried to reach out for it with his hands, but then got stopped by something. "Is this … the glass?" Turning around, he made a terrifying realization. "I'm trapped in glass! I-I'll run out of air! I got to get out of here!" He squirmed and hit the glass with whatever strength he had left after starving for so long, but it all seemed in vain. "No! I don't want to stay trapped like this! Someone get me out of here! Please! I'm suffocating!"

His fear turned into a powerful force that began to radiate out of his head. It then surrounded his body in a blue aura. The moment he screamed out loud, he caused a bubble of blue light to surround him and expand, cracking the glass tube open. Immediately, he found himself dropped hard onto the tube's floor as the liquid poured out.

Once he straightened his spine, he looked to his left. The other tube had a glass shard puncturing it, and it was leaking. Inside, there was an orange, slender, possibly bipedal creature with red stripes on its back, and a pointy tail. A blot of the same color as its stripes covered the being's head. Some thin cables were connected to the body.

"You do not look too well, little guy," the mewtwo said. Then he got off the tube's base and … fell on the floor, face first. He gritted his teeth and lifted his upper body off the blue tiled floor with his arms. For the moment, he would crawl. He'd still need some time to get the hang of using his limbs, but he really wanted to know what was in the other tube.

He stuck his face to the glass and peered into the holes from the side of the half yellow, half brown thing that was suspended in the liquid. Then, he saw bones. His eyes went wide and his mouth opened. "Did … did it …?" He looked at the cables on the floor of the tube. "Oh, no! What happened to you?" Turning around, his thoughts went to saving the poor orange creature that still seemed to have a chance at living.

It looked weak, but maybe with enough care it could regain its strength. "Don't worry, little guy! I'll get you out of there! Because I am … a cute little mewtwo!" He shifted his eyes and then added, "Or, well, you can just call me Mewtwo. That works too."

He grabbed the glass shard and used it to crack the glass further. The liquid and large shards of glass burst at him, soaking him up. But that did not keep him down; he got on his feet and smiled as he saw the orange creature start to wiggle.

"Are you okay? Can you speak?"

The tip of the orange creature's tail generated a small flame.

Mewtwo watched in awe. "Is that … fire?" Then, he received a tail to the face. "What the …?!"

"Char mander!" the critter said, getting up on its feet.

"Oh, so you were the one growling at me, huh?" Mewtwo said, a frown forming on his face.

"Char!"

"You could at least thank me for getting you out of that–"

The charmander creature snapped its jaws at Mewtwo's pointing hand, but missed.

"Why are you being like this? Look at you! You're half my height and you're trying to pick a fight with me!"

The charmander jumped at him, but Mewtwo managed to tumble out of the way.

"Charmander char!"

"I don't even know what that means!" Mewtwo said, swiftly getting back up to make eye contact with the nasty critter.

To his surprise, the charmander still had enough energy to jump at him a third time and even bite Mewtwo's tail.

Mewtwo shook his tail with charmander still hanging on to it and said, "Aaaah! Why would you do that?! It doesn't even fit properly in your mouth! That's the very literal example of biting off more than you can chew!"

The creature was not letting go, so Mewtwo had to figure out a way to save his tail. He thought a bit, and then he remembered something about a pink tail being chomped by a blue creature, and how the thing got sent flying off it. "That's it!" Then he began to spin while letting his tail and the charmander get pulled away from his body.

"Rrrr … mander!" the charmander said as he let go of Mewtwo and got sent flying, extremely dizzy, into a pile of cardboard boxes. It then got back up as its tail's tip set fire to the boxes. "Rrrrrr!"

"More fire," Mewtwo said. "This is definitely not good."

The charmander was glaring daggers at him while making "Rrrrrr!" noises again.

"Hey, I just remembered I got somewhere to go. See you around!" Mewtwo said as he began to back away. Before he could turn around, he received a blast of embers to the face. "Ow! Now listen here, you–" The moment Mewtwo pointed at the charmander, he received a stronger blast of flames that covered his skin in black blots. "Alright. We're doing this the hard way."

"Charrrrr!"

Mewtwo grabbed a chair and threw it at the little beast. A jet of fire burned through the chair's plastic and fabric, throwing back the heated metal pieces which Mewtwo barely dodged by jumping.

The charmander walked out of the fire that was spreading and glared at its adversary. "Char. Mander." It inhaled, clearly prepared to launch another scorching attack from its mouth.

Mewtwo grabbed a flower pot that had a palm tree half his size in it. "Let's see how you handle this!" He threw it at the orange creature, and, to his relief, the flame jet failed to destroy it. The pot hit the charmander straight in the chest while the remains of the palm tree slapped it in the face.

The flame on the charmander's tail tip doubled in size and began to burn fiercely. Taking in a deep breath, it launched an even stronger jet of flames at Mewtwo, who jumped away and hid behind a metal desk, not wanting to risk taking a hit from that extremely hot fire.

He was panting and looking around for anything he could grab. "How am I going to get away from this guy?" The desk's drawers! Maybe there was something in them that could help him. A thump coming from above the desk caused him to look up and see the furious charmander bearing its fangs at him.

Mewtwo grinned nervously. "Good charmander … Nice charmander … I'll just ..." In a swift motion, he pulled the top drawer and the flames were blocked from reaching his face. Then he opened the lowest drawer. "Please be something useful!" He found … "Marbles?" He turned one of them around and saw the button on it. After pushing it, the half red, half white ball split by a black stripe grew as big as his palm.

That angry face revealed itself from behind the top drawer. "Charmander!"

Mewtwo threw the ball straight at the charmander's wide-open mouth, and the creature chomped it.

"Mander?" It did not understand why its jaws were blocked, so it tried to check with its tongue, accidentally pressing the button on the ball. At that moment, the Charmander's body turned red and got absorbed into the ball, which shook once, twice, and then remained still after a third shake.

Mewtwo stared at the device, amazed by what he had just witnessed. "What did it do to him?" He approached the ball and tried to open it, but he did not have enough strength to pull it apart. Pushing the button only made it shrink back to its previous size. "Oh, no! What have I done?" He pushed it again, and the ball grew back. "How do I get him out? This isn't what I wanted! The poor little guy will starve to death in there!"

A booklet among the tiny balls caught his attention. "Poké ball user manual?" He opened it and read the instructions. "Pokémon? Is he a pokémon?" After grabbing the poké ball again, he said, "So, all I have to do is throw this onto the ground and say your name. Well, you say 'charmander' a lot, but that is not a real name. Let's see … How about … Charles? Yeah, that will do. Your name is Charles from now on." He swung his fist, and then said, "Charles, I choose you!" before gently throwing the poké ball on the floor.

Charles came out of the ball and then fell flat on the floor. "Chaaar ..."

"It says here that you are to follow my orders, because you are now assigned to me," Mewtwo said while pointing at the manual. Charles made quick work of the booklet by blowing some embers onto it and charring it. Mewtwo scowled at him.

"Mander."

"Anyway, I see you are also hungry. And skinny, might I add. Let's go check this place out!"

Charles turned his back at his master.

"Come on!" Mewtwo said while grabbing Charles by the tail.

"Chaaaar!"

Before he knew it, Mewtwo got more embers spat at him. "I'm beginning to wish I had just left you in that ball." Then he looked at the device. "Actually ..." He picked it up and said, "Charles, return!"

A red ray of light connected to Charles and brought him back into his poké ball.

"Now you're coming with me," Mewtwo said, cracking a smile at the ball. "Whether you like it or not."

He found and raided a refrigerator he had found in another room. There was plenty of food for him and his pokémon. Now it was time to get the little grouch out of the poké ball. "Charles, I choose you!" The moment Charles appeared, Mewtwo added, "Reluctantly."

Overwhelmed by hunger, Charles sank his teeth into a large piece of ham and cleaned the bone of its meat. His flame tripled in size and became brighter.

"Now you look better," Mewtwo said with glee.

Charles turned around and blew a jet of fire at his master. Trying to avoid the blast, Mewtwo jumped away and his hand accidentally hit a flat, gray device that was left on a counter by the humans that abandoned the place. A robotic voice from the device said, "Flamethrower. It is one of charmander's most powerful attacks. It may leave quite a burn on its target."

"So, you are a charmander," Mewtwo said. "You are one of those pokémon the manual mentioned. But … what is the purpose of a pokémon?"

Charles stared at him, confused. "Char?"

"Then again, what is my purpose?" He stared at the bulbous fingers on his hands. "What am I? I sound like a human, so … I must be human, right?"

"Ar ..."

Mewtwo grabbed the device. "What are pokémon used for?" There was no answer to his question. "Hmm, maybe there are more books about pokémon in the room we came from. Let's check it out, Charles!"

Charles crossed his arms, looked away, and said, "Char."

"Charles, return!"

Charles was hit with the red ray and absorbed into the poké ball that Mewtwo held.

In another drawer, Mewtwo found a book about rare pokémon. His eyes widened when he saw the beauty of a bird with red, green, and yellow feathers flying toward a rainbow. Then he read the information below. "Ho-Oh is an extremely rare pokémon said to have shown itself to many trainers who had the ambition of becoming pokémon masters. For some it was the reason for the beginning of their journey." Mewtwo stared at the azure sky through the holes in the ceiling and smiled. "This world really is full of wonders. Just like in my dreams."

He grabbed a purple backpack and carried it to the kitchen. There, he shoved all the fruit, cans, and ham he had found in the fridge. "If we are to leave this abandoned place, we're going to need all the food we can get." The talking device caught his attention. "Oh, I may need this thing too." He grabbed it and put it in a side pocket of his new accessory, alongside Charles' poké ball.

The backpack was a bit heavy, and he had barely gotten the hang of using his fragile legs, but he was sure he would not fall over. He munched on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he had prepared for himself, then he walked through the giant hole in the wall from the back of the room.

Outside, he was met with green grass, blue sky and water, and fluffy white clouds, all bathing in sunlight. The air was also fresh, and the wind felt exactly like his dreams told him it would. Then he saw something he did not expect. The rainbow bird itself! Ho-Oh! It flew above him and headed for the horizon.

With eyes wide open, Mewtwo said, "That means …" He pointed at the sky with confidence. "I must become a pokémon master!" He ran toward the edge of the island, trying to follow the bird's path, but then he was acquainted with the concept of cliff, gravity, and splashing into water. Soaked, Mewtwo swam back to the surface. "This won't stop me!" Then he realized something. "Aw, man! I forgot to pack the poké balls! What kind of a trainer leaves without his poké balls?"

▶ To be continued.