Chapter VIII
Search

Cerulean City was bright, cheerfully loud and sweltering under the singeing sun above. The unfamiliar cry of the Pidgey soaring in the brilliant blue skies above echoed in Phonos' sensitive Abra ears as she checked that Craig and Annie had arrived unharmed. Whilst Craig seemed contemplative but generally calm, Annie looked slightly spaced-out and bemused, but the young girl quickly shook it off and returned to her usual state. Phonos felt a slight, unusual tingle of pride at having accomplished something a normal Abra could not, and Craig looked at her in surprise, a broad smirk cracking across his bony features. Embarrassed, Phonos attempted to push back the feelings of arrogant pleasure swelling in her chest and Craig frowned, raising an eyebrow but shrugging and turning away from the flustered Abra.

"Alright, where is this all happening?" he asked, clapping and rubbing his hands together eagerly. Annie scowled disapprovingly at him.

"You don't even know that much?" she said wearily, clearly still unhappy with her father's arrangements for the mission.

"Not at all!" Craig responded chirpily, his stance proud and his hands on his hips. Annie sighed in a way that reminded Phonos very strongly of Dad and indicated an unusual outcrop of rock and stone jutting out of the water up near the bridge.

Craig whistled appreciatively.

"Cerulean Cave? Lots of strong Pokemon in there," he said, "You got Kanto badges to get yourself in with?"

"Of course I do," Annie snapped.

"Alright, alright, chill. Women, eh?" he said, looking down at Phonos, nudging the waiting Abra gently with his foot. Phonos wasn't at all amused by the bizarre banter. She could not understand what on earth the boy was doing, talking to her sister in such an impertinent, tactless voice. Phonos didn't think she would ever get used to the lenient way in which Craig addressed everybody, neither when his voice was normal nor in that low, mystical tone he used to coerce and induce others into doing what he wanted them to do. Both of the ways he spoke were fearless and so very uninhibited that she was very sure it would always remain an enigma to her.

"Hmph. Fine. Both of you, follow me," she said huffily. They both complied, Phonos transforming into a Raticate for ease, as anybody who noticed would simply presume she was a Ditto that belonged to either Annie or Craig.

"She has no idea what she's getting into. I can only hope she's not an arse on that battlefield as well," Craig commented with an enigmatic grin. Of course, this comment was completely lost on Phonos, who was far too preoccupied with trying to figure out what an 'arse' was to be angry at Craig insulting her big sister yet again. At this, Craig simply smiled and ruffled the fur on her head, which only served to make her even more confused.

Even in the light of Phonos' Flash attack, Cerulean Cave remained dark and forbidding. Golbat of a monstrous size hung from the ceiling, their thick, leathery wings wrapped around their flat bodies. Flashes of electricity and what Phonos recognized as psychic energy occasionally illuminated their path better than Phonos had, but other than that, the cave was still; silent except for the sound of running water and the soft breathing of the three explorers.

As Phonos walked alongside Craig, she noticed something. His breathing was strange and irregular and he was grasping at the air with his hands, as if trying to seize a hold of something. Something intangible – was it the psychic energy in this cave? Phonos could feel the energy buzzing against her mind, but it was faint and almost completely inaudible – she guessed the fact she was in the form of a Volbeat was stifling her extrasensory abilities.

"Damnit!" he barked suddenly, prompting both Annie and Phonos to jump and stare at him. His usual arrogantly calm expression had become one of enraged frustration, his eyes dark and narrowed behind his sunglasses, which were slipping unchecked down his nose.

"What?" Annie said, not looking at all impressed with Craig's unexplained outburst. The boy walked unsteadily towards the cave wall, placing both his palms on the rock, fingers sprawled and open. An almost unnoticeable webbing of pale blue light appeared between his fingers, pushing through the rock face and trickling between the stones like water. Phonos raised an eyebrow, mystified as Craig screwed up his face in concentration, an uncharacteristic look of vexation evident on his face.

"It's hard to focus here," Craig said through gritted teeth, pulling his hands away from the rock, his palms sweaty and fingers shaking, "There's so much energy bouncing about, I can't tell what energy signature belongs to Mewtwo. Phonos!" He said suddenly, his eyes suddenly wide as an epiphany swept over him, "Transform into Mewtwo."

Annie was staring with contempt at Craig's use of her chosen name and Phonos shifted uncomfortably, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. She certainly didn't want Annie thinking she was foolish – it was already hard enough to prove herself to the girl, and if she wanted to be worthy of calling herself Annie's little sister she needed to be ideal…and without this worrisome embarrassment.

"It's…rather difficult to transform into a Pokemon categorised as a legendary, sir," she replied, aware that both Annie and Craig were staring at her intently, "And I will still have my own energy signature even after transforming, sir. Sir, I don't mean to be rude, sir, but…I think this flaw is planned – wait no…that's not right - I'm sorry sir!"

"Hey you spoke! Good for you," Craig said with a very high level of amusement in his voice, smirking at Phonos' nervous stuttering as she tried to get her own opinions across, which was something she did incredibly rarely and Phonos found, to her shame, that was shaking from even trying it, "Just do it, please. Trust me. And don't call me sir."

"Alright, I'm sorry to have questioned you si – it was foolish and I apologise for my immaturity," she said incredibly quickly, only just catching herself in time to stop another sir slipping out of her mouth. Craig sniggered, the corner of his lip twitching as she apologised. Annie rolled her eyes and leaned against a wall, putting both hands behind her head.

Phonos breathed in deeply and gently stretched her Volbeat body out, feeling the familiar tug on her skin as her body transformed, her insides pumping furiously to keep up with the sudden, drastic change. As her mind became sharper, she felt the cave all around her. She felt the pulses of energy coming from Craig, and then the indistinguishable noise of power and energy all around her, radiating from every direction with the force of a Rhyhorn slamming into her stomach. Her knees almost buckled beneath her at the sheer for of all the psychic energy around her, and it was small wonder that Mewtwo's energy signature was lost to Craig.

"Pretty painful, isn't it?" Craig asked grimly, and only then did Phonos notice the odd change in his voice; it had become hoarse like a person speaking through gritted teeth, the voice of somebody trying not shriek in agony. Phonos could only nod as her body finished transforming into the tall, imposing form of Mewtwo.

Craig looked her up and down appraisingly, looking thoughtfully before he reached up with his skinny arms and placed his bony fingers on her forehead, having to stretch his body and stand on his tip-toes to reach.

"Alright, try to relax and block it all out," he said, his voice suddenly gaining that low, hypnotic quality that made Phonos very aware that she couldn't disobey if she tried, "I can get a rough idea from this at least. Maybe not your energy signature, but your energy levels should be reminiscent of Mewtwo and maybe I can try something new…yes…Ditto change their DNA with each reconstruction - I know that much. A long shot…yeah."

A strange entity pushed into her mind as Craig spoke, and everything Phonos was seeing with her eyes suddenly slipped away from her view, as if there had been nothing there to begin with. Instead, she could feel everything around her tenfold. The cave around her was alive with thoughts and voices; the emotions of plenty of different Pokemon shrieked around her, like static from a television, only sharp and painful – more so than she had experienced as Mewtwo.

Annie's energy was low and jumping around with impatience and then…she could feel her own energy. Powerful, but quiet and frightened, like she was a Dialga hiding in a Sentret's warren. What was Phonos so afraid of? She didn't understand…but then there was a lot she didn't understand all of a sudden. It was like a consciousness she had lost, something that had slipped into an afterlife and became forgotten, a distant dream where she was somebody else. Somebody scared, somebody lonely, somebody weak.

What was happening? Her knees shook unsteadily as her mind tried to take in all the emotions around her, the impatience, the joy, the elation, the exhaustion, the contentment, the anger, the sorrow, the fury, the jealousy…a million different things from a million different sources. The breadth of the emotions of all the creatures in the cave was almost amazing, breathtaking even. Beautiful.

But then she steadied, and she tried to think, still uneasy.

Craig? Where was Craig? In fact, where and who was she? She wanted to go home…wherever that may be.

Well. That didn't work.

Huh?

Suddenly, everything burst into colour and light around her and she was staring at Craig, who had pulled his hands away from her head and had them folded across his chest.

"I made a mistake," he said briefly, sounding slightly exasperated, "I seemed to have pulled you into my own mind for a bit there."

Phonos looked down at her body mutely, as it slowly dawned on her. She was Phonos and for a minute…she hadn't been. But she had seen herself; she had seen her own power and her own obvious, desperate fear. She has seen more about herself than she'd really wanted to know through his eyes. The eyes that couldn't even see. She looked up at Craig, and noticed the way he treaded so slowly, the way all the psychic energy was making him visibly on edge, making him reach out with his hands whilst he walked and feel the ground beneath his feet more carefully with each passing step. But from the usual way he walked, with his long, confident strides and inelegant slouching swagger, Phonos never would have guessed…

"But, still, the same effect!" Craig said cheerfully, his voice high and melodic again and he clapped his hands together as a smile broke across his face, "I at least have an idea of what I'm looking for now."

"Fabulous," Annie commented sardonically, looking about ready to start screaming and stomping the ground out of sheer impatience, "Can we get a move on now? We've wasted far too much time. If you two keep doing these things, Mewtwo may very well become aware we're here and teleport out, or worse, get the jump on us. We have to be stealthy."

Phonos glared at Craig as he moved his mouth along mockingly to Annie's words, tongue lolling about in an exaggerated manner in his mouth – Annie was making a lot of sense. Who was to say that Mewtwo, as powerful psychic as he was, wasn't able to tell of new intruders through telekinesis? They were just relying on the psychic noise to block them out but Phonos didn't think Craig's power or her own mimicry could match up to Mewtwo's full abilities.

Craig suddenly sighed and held his hands up defensively in surrender.

"Alright, alright. I wish you two would be less serious. I mean jeez. Bet you guys are fun at parties," he said, walking past Annie and feeling through the air with his hands, looking like a somewhat bizarre mime. Annie tutted and walked along after him.

Phonos could understand what was going on with Craig right then, and she almost opened her mouth to question him about it, but she decided to just take the passive route and focus on her mission. After all, it was none of her business.

Without another word, she transformed back into a Volbeat and illuminated the cave again, following the other two in her team obediently.

The tunnels seemed to stretch on for eternity, and the lack of natural light didn't help. Phonos could only see so far before the grey stone and rubble disappeared into sheer blackness again, so when they reached an open, area section of the cave, Phonos just had to breathe a sigh of relief. The deep crevices of murky water were a welcome change from the barren landscape, and Phonos could see various fish Pokemon darting around in the water, scattering as their shadows slashed across the surface of the pools. For some odd reason, this calmed her.

"Mewtwo's deeper underground," Craig said, who had crouched down to feel the rock beneath him with his hands, stroking his fingertips across the jagged stone in wide circles. Phonos nodded, looking around the cave. The Pokemon were keeping their distance, but the Repels they had used couldn't last much longer and soon they'd have to start fighting if they couldn't find Mewtwo fast.

"How do we get down then?" Annie said, sounding business-like and austere – she no longer cared for either of her partners, positively or negatively, and just wanted to get her job done. Or at least, that was what Phonos could understand from the young woman.

Craig only got to his feet, shrugging and acting as if she had never asked the question to begin with.

"We swim, I suppose," he said, gesturing vaguely towards the body of water nearby. Annie nodded and folded her arms across her chest, a thoughtfully expression passing over her face.

"This cave was originally a tourist spot for trainers – it got disbanded when a few idiots with only one or two gym badges to their name were charging in here and getting themselves killed by the wild Pokemon. So, it's been split into floors through unnatural means, hence the presence of water on multiple floors," she said swiftly, her tone become more and more reminiscent of Dad's as she continued, "The waters been coming in over time and has spread to the lower floors so there must be fissures or holes under the water. Something to that effect anyway."

Annie suddenly look at Phonos, as if she had never seen the other girl before, and Craig slowly turned to her as well.

"So!" Craig said, rubbing his hands together and grinning eagerly, "What's your favourite water-type Pokemon, Pho?"

Phonos looked across at the water and nodded, understanding what they were implying but she was hardly going to do anything with direct orders.

"I prefer taking on the form of a Lanturn for a water form, sir," she said, not able to catch herself before the sir slipped from between her lips that time. Craig howled with laughter and Annie clicked her tongue with irritation.

"You!" Craig said between barking laughs, shaking his head in disbelief, "You are an absolute legend."

Annie clicked her fingers to catch Craig's attention, looking as if she'd want nothing more than to throw the vociferous boy into the water and be done with it.

"V-Twenty, transform into a Pokemon that can breathe underwater, dive under the water and find a way to the lower floors," she instructed, her voice clear and loud, "Go to the lower floors and find an appropriate place where we could fit Mewtwo from safely. Then teleport back here to report it back to me. Understood?"

"Yes madam," Phonos said, fluttering above the water whilst still in her Volbeat form and beginning to transform. Craig made a small noise of disgust, and Annie mumbled something angrily to him, sounding quite frustrated.

Phonos, quite irritated at herself for eavesdropping, ignored this and transformed as quickly as she could push herself, before she dropped and landed in the cold water with a splash.

The water surged through her newly formed gills and the bobbing, yellow light hanging in front of her eyes cleared the water. Beneath the surface, Phonos could feel the push and pull of the water around her, gentle but definitely present. As she swum lower, there was an increase in the strength of the unidentified forces – there was definitely somewhere where the water was being drained away. She couldn't tell where it was, but she decided to be diplomatic and simply swim deeper in, to any areas the other Pokemon were deliberately avoiding. They wouldn't want to be sucked under.

Without warning, a powerful blue body surged through the water towards her and Phonos darted aside as the long, strong form of a Gyarados streaked past, all the beast's jagged fins clinging to it's snake-like body. The Pokemon gnashed its vicious looking fangs in frustration and took another dive for the small lantern, jaws reaching wide and trying to snap up the smaller Pokemon.

Phonos spun out the water and slammed into the Gyarados' side, hardly making any impact against the gigantic Pokemon, before she let loose a surge of electricity from her body that crashed into the Gyarados and sent all he Pokemon around her scattering, leaving a huge, empty radius of water about her.

Swimming lower and faster, being able to go at a more efficient rate without interruption, the underwater tides grew strong and Phonos swum along the currents to a long, thin fissure in the ground, stretching across the rocks and being draining the area around it steadily of water. She hovered in the water near it, not wanting to be pulled in and stuck.

She transformed into a Luvdisc as a sudden idea came over her and allowed herself to be pulled in by the water, pulling in all her breath. Luvdisc were almost completely flat as is, and perhaps she could find a part of the fissure that wasn't too jagged as to stop her.

She was suddenly surrounded by moving, crashing water as she slipped through the crack and into the floor below. It was colder down here, and the frigid air suddenly striking her wet scales made Phonos want to transform again, but with a surge of effort, she controlled herself.

The psychic energy…it was stronger here. As she fell into the water below, she saw a glance of a figure sitting further across, on a rocky island surrounded by the murky water. A mighty grey creature sat on a platform of land, eyes closed and violet tail wound around his thin body. Phonos almost milled about to be awed by the awesome psychic power radiating from the creature. Amongst all that power, there seemed to be a trace of something else. Sadness, frustration, loneliness?

She didn't have time to question it.

Still bobbing in the water, she transformed into an Abra and vanished to the above floor.