EPISODE 3: 20+ Questions

In the vast Horizon Ocean, there are many small islands scattered around the tropical regions. One was Crest Island, an extinct volcano with sheer cliffs and a lavish jungle. On the highest plateau sat a grand and sprawling castle. It was made of local stones, dark and rough, which made the castle look as if it had always been there. Remote and inaccessible, yet with its own power supply and means to spy on the outside world: this was a place that any supervillain would love to inhabit.

This was the secret laboratory of Mewtwo.

A tropical bird sang his song, sounding remarkably like a cell phone with a Macarena ringtone. The jungle trees rustled outside of the window that the transformed virus lay by. The sun was shining brilliantly on the warm day; the gentle breeze smelled like vanilla vines and the vast ocean. This was what he was aware of when he first woke up.

One of the things he was missing was a proper set of eyes. What he had instead was a band of skin that was sensitive to light and color. Looking through this, he saw a blank empty room of dark gray stones inside and the brilliant blue sky outside. When he sat up, he could also see a wave of green leaves cascading down the old volcano, with the dark blue ocean beyond. And there was another Pokemon in the room.

"You're awake," the other said. "Good."

He turned towards him. While he didn't have proper eyes, his ears still directed him to 'look' at other people when speaking. "Mother?"

"I am not your mother," he said pointedly. "But I can understand your mistake, as you are most likely imprinting information as you are so young."

"What?"

"Never mind. You don't have parents in the sense that other Pokemon do, as a graft between the cells of a Ditto and that of a Dedrias Disinathine Runaria virus."

"That sounds complicated."

"I will call you Deoxys for now. Does that name suit you?"

"Deoxys. I think so. What's your name, mother?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not your mother. I am Mewtwo. I am the greatest Psychic in the world, as well as the most intelligent."

"Wow."

"Now, come with me. I'd like to run some tests on you when alert." He teleported into the hallway beyond the door.

Deoxys got up and discovered that he could hover through the air. Uncertain of how Mewtwo had spontaneously moved from one spot to another, he floated his way into the hall. Mewtwo then teleported again, further down the hall. He chased after him, never quite making it to where he was. Then he turned a corner and bumped into a dusty cabinet. The dust made him sneeze so hard that his body shifted shapes, becoming more compact, yet lighter.

This time when he chased after Mewtwo, he went so fast that he nearly crashed into him. "Oh, hey, look, now I'm really fast, and," his nose tickled and he sneezed again. His body abruptly became thicker and more solid. "Ooo, now I'm not so fast."

"Can you change back to the other form and stay that way?"

"Um, I'm not sure how to."

"Still unstable," Mewtwo muttered. "Come on, not much further." He teleported.

Deoxys came after him as fast as he could manage. "Hey, what'd you do there? You spoke different."

"I was speaking the human language."

"Human?"

"They're... not like us. Here we are."

They had come to another room with a large window, this time facing out over the cliffs onto the ocean below. There were several odd machines, with levers and pulleys, discs and wheels. Many of them looked dusty. "What is this?"

"Fitness equipment. It was here when I took over and I've only used it to train my telekinesis. You should be more capable of using it and it's a good way to measure your strength. Try using one of them."

"Okay." He picked one machine that had a large pulley attached to a stack of weights. Hooking his arms around the bar, he pulled it down and lifted the weights. "It's pretty easy."

"I predicted this was one of your more physical forms. Try again."

"Okay." But the weights had stirred up more dust, making him sneeze and shift form again. This one gave him two whip like appendages replacing one arm, but the other now had a hand with fingers. He put that on the bar and twisted the other to secure it. He pulled, but the weights wouldn't budge. His thinner arms began to hurt. "Did you do something with it? Cause it's impossibly heavy now."

"Hmm." He closed his eyes and tapped his cheek. "So your stats can vary by a wide range with your different forms."

Deoxys kept trying to lift the weights until his nose tickled again. When he shifted, the bar came crashing down, jerking the weights into the machinery violently enough to turn the weight machine into a pile of broken metal and plastic.

He jumped back. "I, I didn't mean to destroy it! It just happened."

"There's other machines to work with."

Through one mishap or another, the only fitness machine to survive that day was a stationary bike.

(From Mewtwo's recordings)

Deoxys have four different forms, each emphasizing a different strength.

The first I call his Normal form. It is what he awakened as and naturally shifts to in periods of stability. It leans towards stronger offenses than defenses.

The second I call his Attack form. It is very strong, enabling him to physically lift more weight than the gym equipment could handle. It appears to make him weaker elsewhere, which is how the rest of his forms run. There is the Defense form, which increases his endurance, and the Speed form, which allows him to move quickly.

He can barely manage to make something quiver by telekinesis unless he is in Normal or Attack form, which allows him to crush things mentally. He hasn't yet figured out how to lift. Normal form also increases his telepathic sensitivity. So far, he can't do much in that way, but as he develops, I will have to take caution to defend against him in that way.

He has a problem of developing whip-like appendages instead of one arm. His Normal form has one hand on an arm, Attack has both arms as twin-whips, Defense has two sturdy arms but no hands, and Speed has a single whip for each arm. Once he is able to manage telekinesis and teleporting in all forms, this shouldn't be a problem, but for now it is a handicap.

His legs also change with form, in Speed's case disappearing almost entirely. But that is no problem, since he has a natural anti-gravity psychic power that allows him to hover and fly in a limited fashion.

What is more of a problem is his mind. I estimated that he would be in the high range of Pokemon, comparable with humans. His behaviors and questions, though, indicate something on level with a four year old human. He asks questions on everything, but doesn't stay on one subject for long. He doesn't think on much more than the present and himself, having a limited capacity to see things as other do. He may outgrow this. However, since he is unlike either of his genetic donors, it is difficult to tell when and even if he will mature mentally.

If this is his full maturity, that could turn into an annoyance.

Deoxys was exploring rooms in the castle. He stopped by a watercolor painting of a sailboat on a lake. "Mewtwo, what's this?"

"A painting of a sailboat on a lake."

"Where's the lake?"

"I'm not sure."

"Why is it here?"

"It was there when I got here and I haven't moved it."

"Why not?"

"It's not in the way."

"Who made this?"

"I don't know... look, I'm busy with this. Could you go somewhere and find something else to occupy yourself with?"

Deoxys floated over to the table Mewtwo was working at. "What are you doing?"

He turned from the computer. "Trying to find a way to blackmail the leader of the Sinnoh League."

"Why?"

"He has the secret to a special artifact connected to Giratina, and if I can get a hold of that artifact, I can use that to further my plans."

"Plans for what?"

"I'm going to take over the world."

"Why?"

"Because it's currently ruled by those idiotic and thoughtless humans. I can do a much better job than they can. And didn't I ask you to go do something else?"

"I guess. What should I do?"

"I don't care so long as you keep out of my hair."

Deoxys tilted his head. "Do you have hair?"

Mewtwo waved him off. "Just go."

"Okay mother."

As he left the room, he heard, "I am not your mother."

Despite there being many rooms, most of them were dreary and dusty. Mewtwo only took care of the few rooms he used. Whoever had been here last had left a number of things behind. Besides the fitness equipment, there were eight fully decorated bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, several computers, and a large flat screen TV. Deoxys went to the TV room and pressed the buttons.

Blaring electric guitars screamed out of the speakers. "And now for the biggest heavy metal concert of the year!" an announcer yelled. "Heeeeere's the Wailing Electrodes!"

"Ack!" Deoxys squealed, hitting the channel search quickly. "That was scary."

"Today, on Dreaming at the Daycare," another announcer started to speak on a soap opera when the channel shifted again.

"So what contenders are up for the Johto Championship this weekend, Bob?"

"What we have here today is simply the most amazing utensil you have never seen, the..."

"Hi, it's Glitter Glameow, the super sweet pop star! Today, I'm..."

"Your Pokemon will look their prettiest if you take them to Sweetie's Beauty Parlor today!"

"Hey kids, it's time to play with Plusle and Minun at the Super Secret Base!"

"Buy Holly's Toothpaste! Buy Holly's Toothpaste!"

"Hang on." Deoxys pressed several more buttons until he got it back on the colorful Plusle and Minun show. "This looks interesting."

The screen now showed a pair of bright yellow rodent Pokemon hopping gleefully in a grassy room. One had red tips with a cross on them, and the other had blue tips with a single line on them. "Hi everybody!" the red one said. "It's Plusle!"

"And Minun," the blue one added.

"And we're in.."

"Our Super Secret Base!" they cheered together.

"Huh?" Deoxys tilted his head at the oddity. Their body language and mental signals were clearly understandable as all Pokemon knew each other, but on top of that, they somehow managed to say the exact same things in the human language. Mewtwo could speak both ways, but only ever spoke one at a time.

"We've got our special friend here today, Nancy the Shuppet."

"Nancy was once known as the Naughty Shuppet, but we're helping her to become a nice and friendly person, like all of you should be."

Nancy wandered on-screen shyly. She looked like a black cloth tied over a balloon; a bright red ribbon had been tied around her head. Her Pokemon speech was nervous, but her human speech was cheerful. "Hi Plusle, hi Minun! I'm working hard to learn."

"We're gonna make you into Nancy the Nice Shuppet," Minun said.

"And today, we're going to learn about polite words that everybody should use. They are 'please', 'thank you', 'you're welcome', and 'sorry'."

"That sounds useful," Deoxys said, so he watched.

(From a voice-recording of Mewtwo)

Deoxys learns quickly; he's a month old and already can speak the human language partially. He learned that through watching television. I let him to keep him out of my labs, and thus out of trouble, but I'm not sure that helped. He likes to sing commercial jingles, even when he doesn't understand what the product does. Earlier today, he asked me what tampons are for.

That would have been an uncomfortable conversation, but fortunately I was able to make him forget about the question.

He does a lot of mimicry to learn things as well. He's imprinted onto me, so he tries to imitate me as much as possible. In some ways, I'm flattered that someone would want to copy me. But I also realize that this is a genetic behavior and not a recognition of greatness. He believes that I'm his parental figure solely because he saw me first. I've been testing his mental cognition, hoping for some indication of a maturity point, and...

(Minor blast interrupts recording)

Deoxys!

(Faintly) I'm sorry! I didn't mean for it to blow up.

What are you doing with these chemicals? I had them in a locked closet for a reason.

(Faintly) I was just playing around like you do.

I'm not playing around. Go take a shower; I'll clean this up.

Mewtwo stood in front of a large chalkboard, standing still and observing it intently. Some difficult problem seemed to be on his mind. The board was covered in all sorts of numbers and symbols. It was complex and made little sense to Deoxys.

Still, he hovered nearby, hoping to be of some help. His TV shows had taught him all about numbers. At least, he thought it had been all about numbers. There seemed to be a lot more going on with the chalkboard than just being able to count to a hundred. He flicked his twin-whips to point out one symbol among the many. "That's a triangle."

Wincing, Mewtwo turned to him. "That's a delta. It means the summation of all parts."

Deoxys tilted his head and looked at it again. "I didn't learn about a d... delta. Triangles have three sides and three corners, like this." He put one of his whips against two fingers to form a triangle.

He muttered something in annoyance, then took a deep breath. "By that definition, then yes, it is a triangle. But it is also a delta because this is calculus, not basic mathematics like you've been learning."

"I don't know calculus."

"You hardly know about addition and subtraction. There's not much you can help with here."

"Oh. Well, what is this calculus about?"

"Many many things." Mewtwo turned back to his numbers. "This particular group of equations is helping me solve a problem with getting the Giratina artifact from Lucien. Lucien is a powerful Psychic himself; it would take a massive effort for me to take the object directly from him. That is, unless he has something else distracting him."

"Like calculus?"

"Maybe. No, that's not what I have in mind." He began pointing out parts of the equations, mentally running through the plot. "I read an article a while ago on how falling coconuts kill more people every year than bolts of lightning from storms. I mean to use that against him. Even if it's not deadly, his mind won't be in any state to sense me taking the artifact. He's attending a conference in a few days, but getting a coconut to fall on his head then is still a tricky thing to propose."

"Maybe they'll hold the conference in a coconut grove?" Deoxys asked hopefully.

"I doubt that. I don't want to use telekinesis on the coconut, as Lucien would sense that. No, what I have in mind is to get a small bird to carry the coconut over his head and drop it. That could be reasonably explained as a freak accident and I know how to convince a small bird to do a simple task like that. However, they'd need to get in and out fairly quick. I'm trying to decide if a Starly or a Spearow would be better to carry the coconut. Or maybe a Hoothoot if there's a night meeting..." he rubbed his chin.

"Is flying complicated enough to need all these numbers?"

"Yes, even though they do it naturally. Heck, even your hovering capability can only be explained by a complex Gravity vs. Psychic willpower equation."

"How are the birds going to carry the coconuts if they're small? The coconuts aren't that big, yeah, but they would be to a small bird Pokemon."

Mewtwo stilled, not even swishing his tail. "I, I was going to address that problem, in a bit," he said. "Then again, it is a bit too strange to be called off as just a freak accident. I may have to put getting Lucien's artifact on hold. Human psychics, ugh."

"I could throw a coconut! I think."

"No, you'd attract too much attention. Anyhow, you've been speaking better. Have you learned how to read yet?"

"I can read letters and numbers."

"Hm. I seem to think there was a video around here somewhere that taught reading. We should find that and have you follow it. It'll make you more useful."

Deoxys twirled his arm. "Okay! Except, I can't read the video titles to know what they are."

"Come on, let's go look." He took the younger Pokemon's arm and teleported him to the TV room.

(From a voice-recording of Deoxys)

..this do? Hey, there's light on now. 'Recording?' Oops; I don't think I was supposed to touch that.

(Break in recording)

Cool, it recorded my voice! I wonder what Mewtwo uses this for. That could be why he was talking to himself the other day, cause he was actually recording something. He does like to talk a lot. Um, uh, what would I want to record?

Oh, I know! My favorite show, Super Secret Base, was telling a list of things that every child needs to remember in order to be a good boy or girl, and not be a naughty Shuppet. The things they said in the first show I watched were: always say 'please' when you ask for something, don't get mad if you don't get it, always say 'thank you' when you do get it, and say 'sorry' when you make a mistake. Only, they add to this list every day, so I had to watch the entire season to know more. The TV had it on the recorded catalog list, and that's how I watched it all.

And watching the entirety of both seasons taught me how to use the human language! Isn't that cool? I watch a lot of TV. Mewtwo seems busy all the time, although sometimes he comes and gets me for some analysis and tests. I'm not sure what we're doing, but he says that he's learning a lot from them. I guess I should pay better attention.

But the tests are kinda boring, just pick up something, or sit still while I have wires attached to me, or run around. That one was kinda fun, but not as fun as dancing! On TV, I kept hearing stuff about this Glitter Glameow, so I watched a music video of her the other day, and it was so cool. She sings fun songs, like this one that goes, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray." That one is fun.

Mewtwo thinks she's annoying though. When I asked him why, he said, "She just is," and then went on about misused talents and lack of creativity. There was also something about how no one over the mental age of thirteen should like her music, but I'm not sure about that. I still like her music, though I should listen to Mewtwo more often. He knows just about everything and besides that, he's my mother, so...

(Faintly) I'm not your mother, Deoxys. And what are you doing with my recorder?

This thing is lots of fun! It records your voice and plays it back whenever you press play. No wonder you like playing with it.

(Faintly) It's not a toy, it's a tool. Put it back where you found it.

Oh, okay. Sorry.

EXTRA: What they're really saying

Plusle: "I love you..."

Minun: "You love me..."

Shuppet: "Oh Giratina, please take me back! I can't take this manners and good will garbage anymore."

Director: "Cut! Nancy!"

A/N: Deoxys isn't so much dumb as he is childish, since, as seen here, he's mentally immature and learned a lot from television. Anyhow, this and the next few chapters are all in flashback mode, prior to Chapter 1 and the first part of Chapter 2. You'll know when it hits the present when Mewtwo shows up sick again.

Also, is the italics for Pokemon speech okay? I had a different signal in the original posting, but it doesn't work on . But there's several points where it's important to make the difference.