-31-
K-1 and William jumped back and screamed as Mack and Ramirez suddenly teleported into the room in a blinding flash of light.
"Must you do that?!" yelled K-1 in fury.
"Yeah! Do you HAVE to scare the heck out of us?!" thundered William.
"Are these your pets?" asked Ramirez as he pointed at K-1 and William.
"Not quite. That Pikachu, named William, is a pet. While that robot, named K-1, is my best friend. He's been traveling with me for…a long time," explained Mack.
"I see," said Ramirez, "Well, I won't keep you from your duties. Farewell, Mack." With that, Ramirez disappeared within a bright flash. K-1 and William were bewildered.
"Perhaps you care to explain where you've been for the last few weeks?" asked an irritated K-1. Mack then explained how he had rescued the Pokémon from Cipher, but had almost been captured. Mack then told them of a hidden city of Gardevoir where he had learned more about Aura and the reason why a Gardevoir had been watching over Gardev for so long.
"I see, but what are we going to do now? Central called me a few days ago and reported that she had picked up some powerful energy readings from that Cipher base you were at. Central said that someone in Cipher must have developed a teleportation device of some sort. At least that is what she could tell from the energy signatures," explained K-1 as he walked back over to the melted capture claw.
"Someone not only managed to copy the capture claw, but now we have someone who managed to reverse engineer the teleportation systems of the S-100? Who are we dealing with here?" asked Mack.
"Whoever they are, they must have copied your energy shielding technologies as well. Central detected the same energy signatures that your shield generators on the S-100 give off," said K-1.
"Okay," said Mack as he started pacing, "And what of this copied capture claw?"
"Whoever built this thing did not know what all the circuits and parts do. They copied everything down to the remote self-destruct systems that melt and fuse the delicate parts to prevent anyone from copying the technology should it be captured," said K-1.
"How about the remote tracking systems?" asked Mack.
"They copied that too, but it's no longer functioning now. When you shot this thing off that foot soldier, you damaged the tracking systems. From what I can tell, they are using the tracking systems on their other capture claws. Why when those soldiers came into Gardev to steal Pokémon, Central picked up the tracking signals from several capture claws. I would have contacted you, but you didn't bother to take a radio with you," said K-1, "The tracking signals from the other capture claws point directly to that base, so they must have other computers that are tracking the capture claws to keep a close eye on them."
"Could you try tapping into their signal and activate the self-destruct systems that way?" asked Mack.
"I already tried that. The signals are heavily encrypted and they keep changing their codes. By the time I figured out how to de-encrypt one code set, they had already gone through two others," said K-1 with frustration.
"So, the only way to destroy all the copies of my capture claw would be to go into the base and activate the self-destruct systems from one of their terminals," said Mack with enthusiasm.
"I don't think it would be wise to risk a full frontal assault. There is no telling what kind of…'precautions'…Cipher might have taken just incase you return to their base," said K-1 with concern.
"Ah. I certainly don't want to blindly run into a trap," said Mack as a nearby radio started beeping.
"I brought a radio with me, just in case," remarked K-1 as he answered the call, "Hello?"
"This is Central. I have finally located the S-100," reported Central through the radio.
"Excellent! Where is it?" asked K-1 with enthusiasm.
"Locked in a vault in a base just a few miles west of your location," said Central.
"Wonderful…we're going to have to get it back as soon as possible! What if they managed to copy the jamming array or the FIW-59 Type C Elemental Cannons?!" shouted Mack with fear. The FIW-59C was a smaller version of the FIW-59A that Mack usually carried as a sidearm. The FIW-59's could fire concentrated beams of energy of virtually any element. There was a hidden feature in the FIW-59's that also would mix all the elements at once, creating a field of extremely destructive energy. The S-100 itself could barely stand a direct hit from this kind of weapon.
"Um…so what would happen if they copied your elemental cannons anyway?" a confused William.
"They would have the power to level cities with the push of a button. I haven't had to use the full destructive power of those cannons for nearly a century, though. The last few worlds I've visited, including this one, have been quite peaceful compared to others," explained Mack as he held the pendant in his hands and stared into the jewel. Suddenly, Ramirez teleported into the room and scared K-1 and William out of their wits.
"Not again…" growled K-1 as he got back on his feet.
"I can't take much more of this…" grumbled William as he slowly emerged from a dresser drawer. Mack could sense that something was wrong.
"What's the problem, Ramirez?" asked Mack.
"It's Fredrick and Anna. They seem to have disappeared again…" said Ramirez with a scowl.
"They went on another 'Adventure,' didn't they?" asked Mack.
"Probably," answered Ramirez with a sigh. Mack stood up and grabbed his satchel from the desk.
"K-1, William, you two stay here," ordered Mack.
"Affirmative, Mack," replied K-1.
"If I have to," muttered William with disappointment.
"Let's go," said Mack as he and Ramirez ran out the bedroom door, through the hallways, almost through Warren and finally out the front door.
"How come Mack won't take me with him?" asked an irritated William.
"Don't feel bad. Mack rarely lets me go into the field, too. It's mostly because he doesn't want me to get damaged or destroyed. After all, I'm the only one who has stuck with Mack for his entire journey," explained K-1.
"How long has he been traveling to different worlds, then?" asked William with curiosity.
"I'm afraid that information is classified," said K-1 with a smirk.
-32-
Anna, Fredrick, Li and Sakura the Kirlia were walking through the woods. It seemed like a nice day. The sun was out; the Pidgeys, Tailow and Spearow were singing…or squawking. The forest seemed to be completely peaceful.
"I was hoping you two would come visit us again soon," said Sakura with a smile.
"Yeah, well, it gets boring at my home, and my big brother never lets us venture out much," said Anna with a frown.
"Speaking of which, Ramirez will probably have our heads for venturing out without him again," warned Fredrick.
"Let's just get this over with so we can get back and have a snack," muttered Li. He was hoping he could snag some of Makoto's cookies while no one was looking. Suddenly, they started hearing some strange humming, coming from somewhere deeper in the forest.
"What's that?" asked Anna.
"Sounds like some sort of monster!" chuckled Li as Sakura quaked with fear.
"Don't scare me, Li!" exclaimed Sakura as she threatened to pound Li into the ground with a Thunder Punch.
"Strange," remarked Fredrick, "That sounds more like some sort of machine."
"Let's check it out!" said Anna with excitement as she blindly ran off deeper into the woods.
"I guess we'd better go after her," said Fredrick with a sigh as he, Li and Sakura frantically ran after Anna.
"Anna! Come back here!" shouted Sakura.
"We don't know what's out there!" yelled Li. Anna suddenly came to a stop. The others soon caught up with her. They could not figure out why Anna was looking up towards the sky. They also looked upwards and to their shock, saw several steel towers looming over them.
"How long has this been here?" asked Sakura as Li took a closer look.
"Looks like some sort of military base, but I never heard of the army having a place like this so close to Gardev," said Li with amazement.
"Bah! It's just some stupid base where those idiots from Cipher live," said Anna smugly.
"I didn't think we run into this place again so soon," said Fredrick as he cautiously glanced left and right, "I really don't want to get captured again…not by these twerps."
"They won't catch us," said Anna with a grin, "They'll never see us if we go through our 'Secret' entrance."
"Not again…" grumbled Fredrick, "Didn't we get caught last time because you were trying to get at a fresh bag of chips that some loony had thrown into a dumpster?"
"We won't get caught! If we do get busted, it won't be because of me, so nyah!" said Anna with an attitude.
"Sure we won't…" muttered Fredrick to himself. Anna led them around to the back of the complex. Somehow, the guards didn't even notice them.
"Are they blind or something?" asked Li with surprise.
"Maybe it's because of my treasure!" said Anna with a smile. Sakura, Li and Fredrick suddenly noticed that Anna was holding a small, black box in her hands.
"What on earth is that thing?" asked Fredrick.
"This?" answered Anna as she held the small device higher into the air, "Oh! I found this under Aura's bed in a suitcase back in Gardev. I don't know what it is, but whenever I press this small green button, no one can see me! Best of all, if I play with these gray knobs a bit, I can make other stuff invisible too, like you guys!"
"That explains a lot," said Fredrick.
"Yeah, like what happened to Makoto's first batch of peanut butter cookies," said Li.
"How did you know about that?!" asked Anna with surprise.
"You just told us," said Sakura with soft laughter.
"Whatever," said Anna as she moved a piece of sheet metal on the wall to reveal a large hole.
"How did this get here?" asked Sakura as she gazed the hole in the 10 foot thick concrete wall.
"Simple," explained Anna, "I had Fredrick blast a hole in it about a month ago."
"I thought we were going to die…" grumbled Fredrick, "Those guards came right after us. If Ramirez had not shown up, we would have been captured for sure."
"But this time they can't see us!" snapped Anna.
"Aura won't like this. You stole one of her things!" said Fredrick with a scowl.
"Please…this little machine can't be Aura's. What would she want with something like this anyway?" asked Anna as she and the rest of the group started climbing through the hole in the massive wall.
"I guess it can't be Aura's," said Fredrick, "But who else could it belong to?"
"Maybe it belongs to that metal fox that came into town a few weeks ago," suggested Sakura.
"Could be," said Li with agreement, "No one has seen that guy for weeks now. Apparently, he went to Mt. Terror to go after those robbers. I hope he's alright." Soon, Anna led them to an access panel on the side of the largest building in the complex. After removing the panel, she and the rest of the group climbed through the ventilation shafts.
"Where are we going anyway?" asked Sakura.
"I wanted to thank that strange man for letting us escape," said Anna as she climbed through the shaft.
"What strange man?" asked Fredrick as Anna stopped while over a vent.
"That one!" said Anna with glee as she pointed at a man in a lab coat.
"Who is that?" asked Fredrick.
"That's Dr. Newman…" said Sakura softly as she glowed faintly with a blue aura, "He seems like a very nice person. One of the few in this place…"
"Reading his mind, eh? Good call," said Li as he looked around in the room. Soon, a strange sight caught his eye. There in a giant glass tube of some sort, there was a Lugia with a silver collar, lying at the bottom of the tube.
"How did he get here?" asked Li with surprise.
"Beats me," replied Fredrick, "I thought that Lugia lived under the sea. What is one doing way out here, over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean?" They soon heard another strange sound. It sounded like some metal was under too much strain and was starting to bend. They all realized to their horror that the vent they were standing on was about to break. Before they could react, the panel flew out from under them and they went crashing into the floor. Dr. Newman jumped back and was about to activate the alarms.
"Wait!" said Anna as she grabbed Dr. Newman's left leg. He stopped in his tracks and looked down.
"Did you just say something?" asked a perplexed Dr. Newman.
"Thank you for helping us," said Anna politely as she offered a curtsey.
"Huh?!" said a shocked Dr. Newman.
"Really! If you had thrown the alarms while we were trying to escape, we probably would not have made it out of here," explained Anna.
"So NOW Anna is all polite and friendly," thought Fredrick. Dr. Newman was stunned. He staggered back to his desk and sat down.
"You were the Kirlia that was caught behind a dumpster, weren't you?" asked Dr. Newman.
"Yes," replied Anna.
"Don't remind me…" said Fredrick out loud.
"Ah! You were with her, too, eh?" said Dr. Newman with a chuckle, "I'm glad you two were able to escape. If you hadn't, there was nothing I could have to done to stop Cecil from having you both turned into shadow Pokémon."
"What's a shadow Pokémon?" asked Anna. Sakura and Li knew all too well what shadow Pokémon were.
"Oh, dear…" said Dr. Newman. He soon recognized the Mawile and the other Kirlia in the room.
"What's wrong?" asked Anna as she faced Sakura and Li. They were cowering in a corner.
"You must have been with the Pokémon that were stolen from Gardev," said Dr. Newman, "I hope you can forgive me. There was nothing I could do to stop them." They stayed in the corner, shaking with fear.
"Well? What is a shadow Pokémon?!" demanded Anna. Dr. Newman regained his composure.
"A shadow Pokémon is a Pokémon who has had its heart closed off. Shadow Pokémon don't feel anything and are pretty much just mindless fighting machines. They have no emotions and just follow orders. They will even attack humans if ordered to do so by their trainers," explained Dr. Newman as he glanced at Sakura and Li, "From what I can gather, the process is also extremely painful." Dr. Newman slowly walked up to Sakura and Li, knelt down on his knees and then he gently stroked them on their heads.
"I told you he was a good man," said Sakura as she smiled and closed her eyes.
"I don't know why I'm not going to turn you guys in or why I'm going to tell you this," said Dr. Newman as he stood back up, "I'm not really sure why, but I don't think I belong here as a part of Cipher."
"You're nothing like your brother," said Fredrick.
"How do you know about my brother?!" asked a surprised Dr. Newman.
"I've seen him walking around outside this place before," answered Fredrick, "I didn't like what I sensed about him."
"There are a lot of rumors about him," said Dr. Newman with dread, "He's a lot like me, but uncaring, cold, devious and sometimes I think he's just evil. He almost makes Cecil look as harmless as a Jigglypuff."
"I think we'd better run along now," said Li as Sakura lifted them all back into the ventilation shaft using telekinesis.
"Farewell," said Dr. Newman. Soon, the group of Pokémon was crawling back to the exit of the ventilation shafts, leaving Dr. Newman alone. A radio suddenly crackled to life.
"Dr. Newman? Cecil? Is anyone there?" asked the voice. Dr. Newman picked up the radio.
"This is Dr. Newman. What's going on?" asked Dr. Newman.
"This is field team bravo. We've located the next target," said the voice.
"Next target?" asked a puzzled Dr. Newman.
"You haven't heard? Cecil sent us out here to track down a Mew. I assume the technicians are ready to teleport it into the holding chamber?" asked the voice. Dr. Newman knew nothing of this. Cecil had never mentioned to him that a field team had been deployed to search for a Mew. Dr. Newman's fear rose even more. He could barely imagine what would happen if Cipher had a shadow Mew. Cipher would be virtually unstoppable. Cecil suddenly ran into the room.
"I see the field team already has results! Brilliant!" shouted Cecil triumphantly.
"Why was I not notified about this?" demanded Dr. Newman.
"Because I was pretty sure that you would object," answered Cecil.
"Indeed," grumbled Dr. Newman.
"I hope you know where your loyalties are," warned Cecil, "You seem to be far too squeamish. It's a pity that you aren't more like your brother, Dr…"
"Don't say that…and do NOT mention my brother's 'Name' in my presence!" growled Dr. Newman with clenched fists.
"Dr. Newman, are you there?" asked the trooper through the radio.
"What is it?" said Dr. Newman as he started to regain his composure.
"I don't know what the problem is, but the computers in our visors say that the DNA signature of the target is a near-match. What does that mean?" asked the trooper.
"A near-match? Impossible! It would have to be a mutant or something," said a perplexed Dr. Newman.
"Shall we proceed anyway?" asked the trooper.
"Proceed," commanded Cecil as he ordered all the technicians to enter the room and get to their stations. Lugia awoke from all the noise and soon figured out what was up. Lugia could only imagine who the next unfortunate soul was going to be teleported into this prison.
"Everything is set," said one of the technicians.
"We have a lock on the target," said the trooper.
"Begin!" ordered Cecil. With that, the technicians started pressing buttons and throwing switches furiously. A white light soon started forming in another capsule.
"Shields are at full charge," said another technician as the light got brighter. Dr. Newman walked up to a control console and then threw the master switch. With a bright flash and a loud boom, the Pokémon was teleported from its home into the holding capsule at the base. The light subsided. Everyone in the room gasped at what they saw.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the Pokémon through telepathy.
"What on earth is that?" asked a shocked Cecil. Dr. Newman barely recognized the Pokémon that now stood before them.
"I think I might have a lead," said Dr. Newman as he sat down to a computer and feverishly started looking through files and other data. Finally, something of interest came up on the screen.
"Oh, dear…" stammered Dr. Newman as he let his glasses fall to the ground.
"What is it?" asked Cecil as he ran to Dr. Newman's side and stared at the screen, "Where did these records come from?"
"These must have been recovered from the headquarters of Team Rocket after the building was destroyed roughly…7 years ago!" said Dr. Newman with amazement.
"But what is this THING?!" demanded Cecil as he pointed at the strange Pokémon.
"Species number one hundred and fifty. Name: Mewtwo," said Dr. Newman as he read through the records, "A genetically altered clone created from a Mew fossil. Mewtwo is supposedly more powerful than Mew." Dr. Newman continued reading through the information.
"Incredible…" said Cecil as he closely eyed Mewtwo. Mewtwo glared back.
"According to this, Mewtwo completely destroyed Team Rocket headquarters in a matter of minutes. Considering these old blue prints, that Team Rocket facility was monstrous and he completely leveled it. Not just that, but Mewtwo was believed to have annihilated the scientists who created him and also destroyed the lab where he was…'Born' roughly 8 years ago," said Dr. Newman as he fearfully read the records.
"A major powerhouse and its mine," said Cecil with glee.
"I belong to no one," snapped Mewtwo.
"That's what you think. Once I'm through with you, you'll be obeying my every command," said Cecil.
"You won't succeed. I already know that you are going to fail miserably. I don't know how, but you will pay dearly for this mistake," said Mewtwo.
"Ha! We'll see about that, my little pet!" snapped Cecil as he shook his left fist at Mewtwo.
"If you had done this to me years ago, I would have destroyed you and everyone here without hesitation," said Mewtwo as his eyes glowed a bright red, "But someone, taught me something important years ago."
"And what was that?" demanded Cecil.
"I don't need to explain myself to a fool like you," scoffed Mewtwo. Cecil stomped out of the room with anger.
"Just wait…" grumbled Cecil as he left the room. The other technicians soon left as well.
"You have this situation under control, right, Dr. Newman?" asked a technician as he walked out of the room.
"He can't get out. Don't worry," replied Dr. Newman. After everyone had left, Mewtwo turned his gaze towards Dr. Newman.
"I know what he's planning, but it will never see the light of day," said Mewtwo as he calmly sat down.
"What makes you think you can escape? Why, I would let you and Lugia loose if I wasn't going to get in trouble, but still. There is no way out of those capsules except by being turned into a shadow Pokémon or by someone cracking the access code," explained Dr. Newman with some sadness in his voice.
"You've heard the stories about this place, have you not?" asked Mewtwo.
"Yes," answered Dr. Newman.
"I've heard a lot about these mountains and about Gardev from other Pokémon that I've come across over the years. Besides, your Alakazam already know at least who is going to stop him," explained Mewtwo calmly.
"They told you?" asked Dr. Newman as he Mewtwo nodded his head. Dr. Newman's Alakazam nodded at Mewtwo and stood behind their trainer.
"Yes. The Guardian of Gardev and an alien warrior are going to put a stop to this and they will deliver you to safety," said Mewtwo, "The image of the alien warrior intrigues me, though. I think I've seen him somewhere before…many years ago." Dr. Newman sat back down at a computer terminal and closely examined the records, trying to figure out who had found them. He gasped at the name he found: it was his brother who had discovered these records, Dr. Alvin Namwen.
