Chapter 10 – Psychic: A Theme
It would take a long time for Saffron City to fully recover from Team Rocket's attack. The grunts stole the Pokémon of most of the city's inhabitants and took them out of Saffron. The police, not knowing where Team Rocket went in between their attacks, couldn't do anything for the Saffron citizens.
They could do even less for Silph Corporation. The president forgave the damage that his saviors did to his office, figuring that it was not the worst outcome. Reconstruction on it began within a week of the attack, and the president moved his office down a few floors. What was more important to him was Team Rocket's attack on his company. Not only had they terrorized him and his employees, they also made off with several important prototypes and stole important data and secret plans. Most of what was left was unusable.
The President could only give a sigh, and tell his employees that they would have to deal with it. They couldn't disappoint their investors or the trainers who used their products, right? Silph Corporation resumed operations the day after the attack, two days before the Saffron police ended the lockdown they had put the city under while arresting all of the Rocket grunts.
To pull off an occupation of a city the size of Saffron City required, the police thought, hundreds of grunts at the least. Saffron wasn't a small city. Yet they ended up arresting only 108 grunts, including the masked man who was leading them. Either Team Rocket was more powerful than they realized, or many of the grunts had escaped like they had from Celadon. They were one of first groups targeted in the Rocket invasion and were defeated then, so they had no idea what Team Rocket's actual aim was. When they learned that it was the Silph Tower again, the number of arrests began to make more sense. They gave thanks to the gym leaders and trainers who broke the siege for them.
So did Silph's president, also offering Red and Blue a gift. It was a Pokéball, but was differently colored – the top half was purple with two pink circles instead of red. There was also a white M printed on the top half. Red looked at it curiously while Blue pocketed it.
"Those are two of our prototype Master Balls. I feel that they will be safer with you. They are designed to catch any wild Pokémon, even if they are at full health! Please test them against a strong Pokémon and tell us how they work," said the Silph president. Blue and Red nodded.
The city gradually picked itself up. A few other buildings were damaged in the raid and were gradually repaired. Sabrina's gym and the Fighting Dojo re-opened.
"I'll be waiting for you, Red…" said Sabrina to him. She teleported away before he could retort.
"Thank you for your assistance, Blue. If you ever come by Fuchsia City again, I would like to see you. Red, I will also be waiting for your challenge. Don't disappoint me." Koga then disappeared like a ninja.
Brock and Lt. Surge simply said thanks and returned to their home cities.
"I better get going too!" added Blue. "Unlike some people, _I_ have to get to Cinnabar and get my seventh badge! Smell ya later, Red! Take care, Leaf!" Blue pulled out his bike and rode away before Red could defend himself. He seethed. One of these days, he'd catch back up to Blue! In fact, he'd go even further and become the Champion!
Leaf patted him on the head. "Aww, don't let him get to you!"
"But he's right! If I don't hurry, he'll reach the Indigo Plateau before me!" countered Red. "I have to challenge Sabrina." He started walking. Leaf followed him.
"You don't have to stick around me, you know? Your parents are probably worried about you." Red knew that his mom was worried too, but she trusted in his ability to defeat Team Rocket. Leaf, however, was not a trainer. Her parents were probably freaking out.
"Yeah, but I wanna see your match against Sabrina. Also, what about this?" Leaf pulled out the Pokéball that the mystery grunt gave to them. Red pulled out his PokéDex and pulled it at the Pokéball. It told him that it contained a Lapras with no Trainer ID. He pulled up the entry on Lapras.
"The 'Transport Pokémon', huh? I don't have any Water-types other than Magikarp. I'll need one to reach Cinnabar Island."
"Can you take care of it, then?"
Red nodded and accepted the Lapras. He registered it to his ID and sent it to Oak's Lab. Leaf left to show her parents that she was alright. Red dashed over to the Saffron Gym. That gym replicated the look of a haiden (Shinto hall of worship); only the sign in front gave a clue as to the building's true purpose. It was at least twice the size of the Fighting Dojo that sat right next to it, which made Red wonder if Sabrina was trying to imply something.
Red entered the building, stepping into a small room with no other exits. The walls were of thick wood, and he presumed Sabrina would mind if he decided to try and knock them down. It held two statues and a warp panel. "More warp panels?" Red stuck his tongue out at the panel.
It suddenly began glowing, and he stepped away from it. The familiar blue-shirted man appeared and walked over to Red. "Yo! Champ in the making! Thanks for taking care of Team Rocket! You didn't have any problems beating Erika, I take it?"
"Nope!" replied Red. The man gave Red a high five.
"Excellent! That's why I'm behind you 100%! Anyway, Sabrina's Pokémon use Psychic power! Fighting-types aren't any good here! They'll be KOed before they can even get a hit in! But you can still use other physical attacks on them! Got it?"
Red nodded. He was already planning to rely on Rei and Geselle here. He stepped onto the warp panel and began his Gym challenge. The man stayed behind.
He put a hand to his chin. "Psychic power, huh? I bet I'd make a killing at the slots if I had that."
Elsewhere, in one of Team Rocket's secret bases, Mewtwo was recovering from his battle with Sabrina. Although he could use the move Recover, the clone was too exhausted to expend any of his reserve energy on that. Sabrina had pushed him as far as he could go.
He just couldn't keep up.
He drifted in and out of consciousness. Several people in lab coats were constantly around him. He could feel himself floating and breathing in fluid. He must be in a stasis chamber.
Where was his Father?
"He'll be here soon, Mewtwo. You just focus on recovering. You strained yourself in Saffron, but some good rest will fix you right up!"
Is that so? Maybe Father could tell him why he couldn't win. And why he felt so empty…
Mewtwo fell back into the caress of gentle darkness.
The center chamber of the Saffron Gym resembled the Fighting Dojo. At the heart of the Gym was a large and raised wooden platform for trainers to battle against Sabrina. At the back of that chamber was a smaller purple platform where Sabrina sat and meditated while waiting for challengers. Her inner harmony could only be disturbed by either the buzzing of a warp panel alerting her that she had a guest or one of her Pokémon communicating with her.
There was a buzzing. She opened her eyes and saw Red warping into the room.
"I was wondering how much longer you would take. Are you ready?" she asked.
Red nodded.
"Very well then. I dislike battling, but I am obligated as the Saffron City Gym Leader to face you. If you defeat me, the Marsh Badge is yours." She summoned her Kadabra by teleporting it into the chamber. Red called out Rei.
"Do not think that I will be beaten so easily by a poisonous ghost. Kadabra, Psybeam." The Psi Pokémon's eyes glowed and it fired beams of psychic power from the air. Rei dodged them, but then the Kadabra generated another one behind Rei and struck her in the back, knocking her to the ground.
"Rei! Counter with Shadow Punch!"
"Understood." Rei's floating hands began to glow gray and she began pantomiming punches at the Kadabra. A shadowy fist came out of her hand each time she punched the air, and each one was headed straight for the Kadabra. The Kadabra knew from experience that it could not dodge these punches, so it tried to instead blast through them with a powerful Psybeam. The power-beam and most of the Shadow Punches met in between the two and reacted with an explosion, but the rest of the punches went around the blast and struck the Kadabra.
The Kadabra was knocked back but not out from the punches, so Red mentally commanded Rei to fire some more and then float over to the Kadabra. The Kadabra, seeing the attacks coming, put up a Reflect barrier to lessen the damage from the hits, but that barrier didn't stop him from falling asleep due to Rei's Hypnosis attack. A single Dream Eater was enough to knock out the Kadabra from there.
Sabrina sent her Kadabra away and brought in her Mr. Mime (and also the rest of her team). Seeing that it was fighting a Ghost-type, the mime immediately put up a Barrier around himself. Rei threw out Shadow Punches at the Barrier – most of them bounced off harmlessly. The few that hit did super-effective damage, but not enough for Red's liking. Red commanded Rei to use Hypnosis. In response, Mr. Mime switched out – using Baton Pass so that the Barrier would stay up – for Sabrina's Venomoth. The moth avoided Rei's gaze and fired a Supersonic blast of noise at the Ghost-type. Rei became confused.
Red called her back and brought out K2. K2 roared at the poison moth.
"K2, use Defense Curl and Rollout!" "Venomoth, Psybeam."
K2 curled up in a ball, boosting its Defense, and then rolled towards the Venomoth. The Venomoth fired a beam of psychic energy from her forehead at the rolling Graveler, which missed. She fired several more; K2 rolled past or around them. He then launched himself at the Venomoth, dealing massive damage and stunning her. She fell to the ground and was promptly run over by the Graveler, knocking her out. The Barrier broke.
Sabrina lifted the Venomoth off the platform using her psychic power and sent in her Alakazam. K2, still rolling, changed directions and headed straight at the Alakazam. In response, the Alakazam blasted K2 into a wall using Psychic. That wasn't enough to knock out the Graveler, but he had to step out. Red sent Geselle out. Her resistance to Psychic attacks and ability to use Bite, a Dark-type move, should be enough to favor her even though the Alakazam was more experienced.
"~espeon!~" |Leave it to me!|
They had planned this out beforehand, so Geselle was able to direct herself. The Alakazam assaulted her with Psychic power, but she was able to run around and dodge most of the invisible blasts by sensing them through her fur. At the same time, she sent out waves of Swift stars at the Psi Pokémon. All she had to do was wait out the attacks, because the Alakazam only had 25 powerful attacks in him – ten for Psychic and fifteen for Future Sight, a Psychic attack that countered future blows.
Once she felt a lull in the attacks, Geselle rushed at the Alakazam. He calmed his mind and focused on increasing his Special Defense, expecting a Psychic-type attack. He was not expecting a Cut to the face, followed by being receiving a Bite on the arm. Focus lost, the Alakazam could not use his mental powers to recover his health, so Geselle kept biting and cutting him until he fell over, knocked out.
Sabrina lifted her Alakazam off the platform and sent in her Mr. Mime, which had witnessed the brutal carnage. All Geselle had to do was show off her (psychically-sharpened) teeth at the mime for her to reconsider the battle and run off of the battle platform.
"Yes! Good job Geselle!" cheered Red. The Espeon beamed at her trainer and radiated warmth.
I lost this easily? asked Sabrina. What have I been doing while these children were training with all of their power? I must try harder, despite my inclinations. Maybe I should go to Koga for training… She put up a smiling front for Red, because he still won fairly. "A loss is a loss. Here is your Marsh Badge. And a TM as a gift – perhaps your Espeon will find it useful."
The Marsh Badge was plain and simple, much like Sabrina thought herself to be – it was a gold circle with a concentric black outline drawn inside of it. She handed that and a lavender colored CD to Red. Red thanked her. She wished him good luck on his journey and he left.
A journey… maybe she should go on one herself. It might do her some good.
The worst thing about the Saffron Gym, Red found, was the warp panels. Navigating them was a pain, even though he remembered the path he took to get to Sabrina's chamber. As he left the gym, he saw an odd sight – Leaf was running towards the gym and waving at him, followed by another Leaf. Red blinked, rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to make sure he was actually seeing this.
"Red! Did I miss your match?" asked Leaf #1. Red nodded.
"Boo! I wanted to see it!" yelled Leaf #2.
"Yeah! Me too!" added Leaf #1. Then she got an idea. "Hey, why don't you challenge Kiyo?"
"Please, Red! I want to see you in action!" added Leaf #2.
The two Leafs continued pressing him like this until he agreed to go along with them. They then escorted him into the Fighting Dojo – or rather, they dragged him in by the arm. They yelled into the Dojo as one, presenting Red as a challenger. The students in the Dojo immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to face their new opponent. Kiyo, upon realizing who their challenger was, told his students to stand down.
"Hmph! You again! We have no badge to offer you! I thank you for what you have done for this city, but have nothing to offer you!" He then put a hand to his chin. "Well, I suppose I could offer you a Fighting-type Pokémon, but I am told you already use one. May I see it?"
Red brought out Ao, his Primeape. Kiyo observed the Primeape.
"You are doing well enough in raising this Primeape," said Kiyo. Red recalled Ao.
"We just want to see Red battle!" The Leafs decided to finally speak up, starting with #1. Or it might have been #2, Red wasn't sure.
"Yeah! We missed him defeating Sabrina!" added the other Leaf.
"Oh! You've defeated Sabrina! Then I want to test myself against you!"
Red sighed. The battle itself was a total shutout. The match was a double battle – Kiyo's Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee against Kikka and Geselle. Red used a basic strategy of divide and conquer. Kikka conquered the Hitmonlee. Geselle defeated the Hitmonchan.
"Hwaa! I lost!" They both recalled their Pokémon. Red was getting the feeling that despite their Pokémon's strength, the leaders of Saffron weren't very good trainers. "My Pokémon and I must need more karate training!" continued Kiyo.
I don't think that's the problem here… thought Red.
"Whoa! Awesome!" "Not even Blue was that brutal!" commented the leaf duo. The three of them left the Fighting Dojo, leaving Kiyo to be consoled by his students. Red was finally allowed to go to the Pokémon Center and heal his team. While waiting on that, he had to do something about this confusing situation.
"Okay Leaf, why is there suddenly two of y…" He blinked. Instead of a second Leaf, he was staring at a copy of himself!
He blinked. So did the copy.
He raised his right hand. So did the copy.
He stuck his tongue out. So did the copy.
Red pointed at the copy. "Who are you!?"
The copy chuckled at Red, but didn't imitate him. "Hi! I'm the Copycat, Leaf's friend! Pleased to meet you!" The Copycat stuck her hand out for Red to shake. A hesitant Red shook hands with 'himself'.
Leaf smiled, amused by the whole situation. "I bet you had trouble telling us apart earlier!"
"…A little, yeah."
"My imitation skills are as good as a ninja's!" The Copycat then laughed like a ninja.
"Yeah! Remember how we tricked Sabrina into thinking I could teleport? Oh, Red doesn't know this story." Leaf then began telling Red about how she and the Copycat once tricked the very-much-a-mind-reader Sabrina into thinking that Leaf was also an esper. It reminded Red that his abilities had sealed themselves again. Maybe when his journey was over, he could ask Sabrina to teach him how to use them. Right now it was better for him not to have them.
Nurse Joy returned his Pokémon to him, and thanked him for coming. He went over to the public phone and called his mom to re-assure her that he was alright. He then went to the PC and swapped out Ao for the Lapras from the Rocket grunt. He named her Silph. According to the PokéDex, she was at Level 25 and knew 4 moves – Water Gun, Confuse Ray, Body Slam and Perish Song. It'll take some time before she's ready to help fight Blaine, he thought.
Done with the city of commerce, he said his goodbyes to Leaf and the Copycat and left the city. His destination: Fuchsia City. He could take the Cycling Road to get there quickly.
Most trainers had to ride a Surfing Pokémon to get from the mainland to Cinnabar Island. Dr. Sakaki, being a trainer of Ground-type Pokémon exclusively, used none of that classification. And he didn't want to go around with stolen Pokémon before he was able to discard his civilian identity, so he rented a boat from Vermillion to get that island so that he could reach one of his secret laboratories – the Pokémon Mansion. Mewtwo was recovering there, the place where he was created.
Mewtwo – the Project M. Team Rocket's secret genetics project, built on technology stolen from Silph Corporation. Now that Mewtwo was in the testing phase, there was little Silph could give them to improve the clone. However, Silph technology could be used a springboard for new technology. All for the future: a Japan dominated by Team Rocket. Many Pokémon common to Kanto and Johto were rare in other regions, so they were fine with smuggling those Pokémon, but that did not satisfy him. They would need to capture the rarest Pokémon they could.
This led to the formation of Project Triad. The capture of the titans – Articuno; Zapdos; Moltres.
All other species of so-called 'legendary' Pokémon escaped them, so these birds would have to do. Dr. Sakaki did not take these legends seriously, but expected that some specimens of the bird triad may yet survive. But those birds were not enough.
The true obstacle, despite recent interference from children, was the Elite Four, the so-called strongest of Kanto and Johto. They were too powerful to face in a Pokémon battle, even if he mustered their entire force. He needed Mewtwo and those birds to stand a chance. Otherwise, he may as well disband the group and go back to his day job. Yes, one of the Elite Four was neutralized – Lorelei, the Ice Queen – as they had taken over her home island, but he had the feeling that she was just biding her time and waiting to reclaim it from them. However, they had to answer for the other three yet. His hope for the moment was sheer overwhelming power.
For a moment, he considered that Lorelei might be the one directing those children against him. Perhaps she had even infiltrated their organization – it wasn't as though he could watch over every grunt they had. He might need to promote some grunts to administrators to check on this. The two he had ordered to handle Sevii Island business would be good candidates.
His boat landed at the harbor behind the Pokémon Mansion and he put on his mask. The mansion had the appearance of a Western-style beach mansion. A subtle Psychic influence emanated from the mansion, telling the island's dwellers to stay away from it. Team Rocket members were told to just ignore it, as he was. He took the stairs down inside the mansion to the laboratory, where several researchers were either observing computers or watching Mewtwo, who was lying on a patient's bed with various sensors attached to him.
'Giovanni' coughed. Everyone in the lab froze. The researchers saw that it was just their boss and calmed down. Mewtwo, however, grew more apprehensive.
"H-hello, Father-Giovanni. Are you well?" asked the clone.
"Am _I_ well? I ought to ask _you_ that," replied the Earth Doctor, walking up to the clone. "Sabrina was stronger than I calculated. It seems that she was hiding her true power."
"Y-yes, she was. I wasn't… I didn't… I…" Mewtwo froze. He was supposed to be the strongest Pokémon, and yet he fell before someone he had already defeated. He should have expected her to come back stronger. And that trainer… he could have taken that child out any time, yet he merely toyed with Red. And for all his arrogance, Red and his team put on a good fight.
"Mewtwo, you will have more opportunities to prove yourself in the future. Remember, you are still in the testing phase. You have to grow into your power. You're not yet at full strength. One day, you will be the most powerful Pokémon to have ever lived… but that day is not today. Understand?"
Mewtwo nodded. That wasn't the encouraging message he was expecting, but it was true. For him to lose in such a manner meant that he was not as powerful as he claimed. And each moment that he hesitated here was a moment where he could not claim that title. So there was not time to waste on sorrow. He had to close his heart of all emotions except the hunger for power.
Upon his thinking that, there was a subtle change in the air around him. Only a few of the researchers, including Giovanni noticed. Giovanni smiled under his mask. He had doubts about this project at first – he was even convinced that the procedure to create Mewtwo would not have worked! Despite his doubts, he saw that the project was going well. Mewtwo would be useful.
Mewtwo used Recover, and regained his full stamina. There was no time to sit around and mope. He had to continue training, and growing stronger. Then nothing would be able to stand before him, not even Red or Sabrina! The thought of victory warmed him up and caused him to unconsciously increase his power. He already felt stronger than before. He laughed with joy and power.
The next day, he began his training once more inside the Mansion. 'Giovanni' left for elsewhere. A key part of his plot was in motion; another had just begun to turn.
One way or another, a decisive battle was coming.