(25.1)
Sasha felt herself being placed down before the sack she'd been tossed in upended, sending her sprawling out of it.
She heard a rattling clang and whirled to see bars blocking her way out.
Frowning, she turned to take in her surroundings.
She was in a cage, in a room filled with many cages. Some were filled with pokémon, others were empty.
"Oh hey, it's a newbie," a female voice said from deeper in the room.
"Wha' kind is it?" came another voice, male, with a hint of an accent Sasha couldn't place.
"Oi, you! Come this way!" called a third voice.
Sasha warily crept closer to the bars and peered out into the room.
"Eevee," said a new voice, sounding disappointed. "How...quaint."
"Sasha, my name is Sasha," the eevee said.
"Oh, and it has the gall to give itself a name," the same voice sneered.
Sasha touched the bars carefully and found them cool to the touch, but otherwise normal.
"I wouldna' try biting those, girlie," the accented voice warned. "Team Rocket aren't slouches when it comes to designing hold-all cages."
Sasha chuckled and shook her head. "Wasn't planning on it."
"Could we get a light in here?" the third voice asked. "Nines?"
"Don't call me that," the first voice said with a sniff.
Nine wisps of fire popped into existence and Sasha blinked as her eyes adjusted to the glare.
A ninetales with a black coat and piercing yellow eyes occupied one cage, a golden pidgey occupied another and a seviper and zangoose sat in a third.
"My, my. Your coat is as lovely as you are, dearie," the seviper said, tail flicking idly.
"Just a shiny," the zangoose said, "Nothing special."
"Neither are you, ya skel," the pidgey replied.
"You wouldn't be so cocky without these bars between us, wormbrain," the zangoose growled, arms crossed.
"Oh, shut up, both of you," the ninetales said with a long-suffering sigh. "Nobody cares about your lover's spat."
"Welcome to your new home, Sasha," the seviper said. "Hope you like canned pokémon food."
Sasha made a face. "Processed?"
All four pokémon (and some others who had woken up from the commotion) nodded.
Sasha slumped against the bars and groaned. "I'd rather they'd killed me."
"Oh come now," the ninetales said sharply, "It's not so bad. Odds are, you'll be out of here in no time. Trainers love eevee."
"Breeders love eevee," the zangoose said. "She'll be highly prized for her coloration at the very least."
Sasha didn't like the way the zangoose was grinning and tried not to think about the implications of his words.
"What's going on?" asked a sleepy voice from Sasha's left.
She turned to see an absol with bright blue eyes and pale pink fur stretch and yawn before meeting the eevee's gaze. She blinked in greeting, dipping her head slightly before smiling at her.
"Hello, my name is Songbreeze. It's nice to meet you," she said.
Sasha introduced herself and noticed the zangoose's face morph into a deeper scowl before he pointedly turned his back.
"You'll have to forgive him," Song said mildly. "He seems to get upset whenever I talk to other pokémon."
"Uh...huh," Sasha said slowly. "Can't imagine why."
"I do believe he has a crush on me," Song said quietly, eyes sparkling in amusement. "It's actually quite charming. Were he a little nicer to everyone else, I might have even given him a chance."
Sasha made a gagging noise and Song chuckled musically, causing the zangoose's ears to twitch.
"So, where you from, girlie?" the pidgey asked.
"Unova," Sasha replied. "Around Bewilder Forest."
"Humans tend to call it Lostlorn," the pidgey said, voice going thoughtful. "Didn't know eevee lived there."
"My parents were from Castelia originally, but moved someplace less crowded once I came along," Sasha said, lying down, flexing her paws with a grimace.
"I didn't know Team Rocket went as far as Unova," Seviper said.
"They're worldwide," Ninetales pointed out. "Little gangs in all the regions who collect and send pokémon wherever they're needed."
"Who'd want a Unovan Eevee?" the zangoose snorted, before yelping as Seviper swatted him with her tail.
"Who'd want a Kalosian Zangoose?" Pidgey smirked.
"When I get out of here, you're dead," the zangoose hissed.
"Shut. Up." Ninetales growled, fire turning blue.
The two pokémon glared at one another and Sasha sighed, resting her head on her paws.
She hoped she wouldn't be here long.
(25.2)
Citlali hovered around the Tree of Beginning mew curiously.
"Do you have a name you call yourself or do you go by your species' name?"
"I've never really put much thought into it," she replied, turning lazy circles in midair. "But off the top of my head, I'd probably go with Aylen, Naira or Nayeli."
Citlali thought for a moment before nodding. "Very well. Aylen it is."
Aylen smiled and gazed around the Hall of Origin, watching the groups of legendaries work.
"Do you think we should give the others names as well?"
"Perhaps during a break we can go around and ask," Citlali said. "It'd be kinda rude to name someone Antiman only to realize they call themselves Patrick or something."
"Who would you name Antiman?" Aylen asked curiously.
"Despite the fact is sounds like someone who hates humans, it's actually tied to a bird of the sun, so...probably Moltres or Ho-Oh."
Aylen giggled. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun. It'll be nice to know more about everyone here, especially if we're gonna be with them for a while."
"Yeah," Citlali murmured. "If you'll excuse me, I want to go look for my friend again."
"If you see them, tell them I said hi!"
Citlali nodded and teleported away.
(25.3)
Mewtwo gazed down at Sasha, arms crossed.
"I suppose I might as well teach you the basics of fighting."
"I know how to fight," Sasha said, stung.
"Then show me," Mewtwo replied.
With a thought, he teleported Sasha and himself to an uninhabited stretch of plain.
Sasha stared around curiously and Mewtwo narrowed his eyes before tripping her with his telekinesis.
"No fair!" Sasha snarled as she scrambled to her paws.
"Of course it's fair," Mewtwo replied. "I am a psychic and I will use whatever is at my disposal to win."
"I suppose my best course of action would be to flee?" Sasha said.
"Correct."
Sasha emitted a bright flash of light, causing Mewtwo to shield his eyes. When he looked back, the eevee had vanished.
"Very good," Mewtwo said, switching to Aura vision. The eevee's unique signature blazed like a beacon underground and he let her get close before neatly side-stepping her lunge out of the dirt before he grabbed her by the neck and tossed her away. "Sloppy follow-up though."
Sasha landed on her paws and fired off a Shadow Ball. Mewtwo caught it in his hand and launched it back. Sasha flinched as it dissipated against her and Mewtwo used the moment to close the distance between them. He pressed his foot against her face lightly and pushed her back a few steps.
"Keep moving," he said, stepping back. "Use your small size to your advantage. Pepper me with Swift, blind me with Flash, throw mud at me. Confuse and irritate me then strike when my guard is down."
"But I'll tire long before you do," Sasha said as she split herself into several dozen copies via Double Team. The eevee horde then formed into two rings and started moving in opposite directions around the clone of mew.
"Your goal is escape," Mewtwo said, crossing his arms, watching carefully. "Find or create an opening to do so. Tunneling headfirst at your enemy is the last thing you should do."
"So you helpfully demonstrated," Sasha said dryly. Mewtwo was pleased to hear she had managed to make her voice directionless, making it harder to pinpoint her among the clones.
Then they started shooting Swift at him, interspersed with the occasional Shadow Ball and Flash.
Deflecting them with his hands and occasional Light Screen, Mewtwo waited.
A few eevee activated Flash simultaneously while some others proceeded to kick sand at him. He felt the ground tremble beneath his feet and he leaped back, only to be smacked upside the head with a fluffy tail from behind.
He snagged the tail and found himself holding a glowing umbreon, who grinned at him before it detonated.
"Well, against your average pokémon, such a strategy would likely work," he said, brushing the soot off his fur.
"I was showing off a bit," Sasha admitted. "I should've ran once they started blinding you. Although it's quite hard to outrun someone who has your signature memorized."
"True, but if one of those is after you...well, you must've done something quite reprehensible and you'd probably deserve your punishment," Mewtwo said.
Sasha nodded before frowning.
"What is it?" Mewtwo asked.
Sasha scratched her head. "Dunno, but...the feeling of having a psychic after me...feels...odd. Like it's happened before."
Mewtwo's tail flicked thoughtfully. "Let's get you clean and we can talk a little more about that, shall we?"
(25.4)
Lusamine sat in her office, watching a security camera track the movements of Gladion as he wandered around the labs underneath Aether Foundation.
He stopped outside the door to the Type: Null research laboratory and looked at the sign before opening the door and went in.
Lusamine switched cameras to an interior view of the lab and kept watching.
Gladion walked up to one of the three tubes holding the failed attempts at making a beast capable of fighting an Ultra Beast and rested his hand on the chilled glass.
Lusamine heard a soft knock on her door and she turned off the monitor. Whatever Gladion was doing wasn't important. If he wanted to play with corpses, that was his prerogative.
"Enter," she said.
The door opened to reveal a young girl with blonde hair, clad in a breezy white dress. A bag was slung over her shoulder.
Lusamine smiled as she got up to embrace her young daughter. "Hello, Lillie. How are you feeling?"
"Better," she said. "The sickness is gone."
"I'm glad to hear that. And how is...Nebby?"
Lillie's hands tightened on the bag strap. "Still recovering."
Lusamine frowned. "That is most unfortunate. Until it does, we cannot continue our research on Ultra Wormholes. Mohn will be ever so disappointed."
"He has plenty of information," Lillie said, idly stroking her bag. "For now, Nebby and I will be in the Conservatory."
"Very well. You may want to go pick up your brother on the way. He is in the Null Research Wing."
"That is acceptable. Goodbye, mother."
With a smile, Lillie curtsied and left the room.
Lusamine leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers, mind wandering.
Soon, their plans would come to fruition and she would be rid of this world and its problems.
Lusamine touched a series of switches that sealed the room from any potential eavesdroppers and opened a communications link.
A gaunt face surrounded by wiry white hair appeared and Lusamine did her best to keep the distaste out of her voice.
"Nascour, how goes your research?"
"We've gotten all we need out of HG001 and have sent the data to Faba. I hope it will be of use to you."
Lusamine hadn't understood any of the numbers that had caused Faba so much joy, but she nodded.
"Your hard work is appreciated by Aether Foundation."
"As was your...generous donation to our cause. Is Lillie doing alright?"
"She's over her sickness, which you told me would never be a problem," Lusamine said.
"She'll be stronger because of it, I promise you."
"For your sake, I hope so."
Lusamine killed the connection and smiled.
Everything was coming together.
(25.5)
Mewtwo placed his paws on the floor of Aether Foundation's artificial island and grimaced.
"I don't like it either," Sasha said, tapping her claws against it lightly.
"I haven't really needed to walk anywhere before. Usually I just float," Mewtwo replied.
"Hm, so I guess you won't be partaking in any sports then?" Sasha asked with a small grin.
"Absolutely not. One Pokéathalon was enough for me, thank you very much."
"Now there's a story you'll have to tell me later," Sasha giggled.
They followed Gladion as he walked toward an elevator leading up, although Sasha noticed there were buttons for lower floors.
"I noticed," Mewtwo said at her inquisitive glance. "Unfortunately, the psychic jammer makes it...difficult to sense what's down there."
"Hm...something to ask about later," Sasha murmured, leaping up onto Mewtwo's shoulders to spare her paws the cold floor, causing Mewtwo to hiss quietly as her cool paws touched his fur.
Gladion glanced at them curiously before sending the lift upwards.
The lift arrived at a wide open area. The ceiling was dotted with large windows, bathing the room in warm sunlight. A series of walkways meandered around small grassy areas where trainers and people wearing distinct uniforms were tending and playing with pokémon.
"The Conservatory," Gladion said absently, looking around. His face darkened briefly before he set out towards the back of the room.
"He's really worried about Null, isn't he?" Sasha said.
Mewtwo followed along, looking down at the various pokémon curiously. "It's a common trait for trainers and pokémon alike. I'd be worried if something happened to you."
Sasha's ears heated up and she looked away. "Yeah," she said, a pair of green eyes coming to mind. Shaking herself, she felt the fur on her back ripple uneasily. "I do not like it here."
"Agreed, but we're here because Arceus was curious about it, so..." Mewtwo pointed out.
"Right," Sasha said.
They caught up with Gladion, who was standing in front of a woman with a frankly absurd hair style that Mewtwo and Sasha privately agreed was a bit over-the-top. Beside and slightly behind her were two men - one thin, one not - who were deep in quiet discussion over a pair of tablets. Nearby, a woman wearing glasses was holding the hand of a young blonde-haired girl who watched the events curiously before her eyes moved to the two newcomers and went wide with wonder.
"Ah, Gladion, so nice of you to bring guests," Lusamine purred. "They're just in time for the experiment, which is also why we collected...Null."
The name fell from her lips with poorly-concealed disgust and she closed her eyes for a moment.
"Anyway, shall we-"
A sound tore through the air, one unlike any heard before and everyone in the room stopped and lifted their eyes skyward.
A glowing crack had appeared in midair, pulsing like a heart with a myriad of colors. After a few moments, it twisted, before coalescing into a hole radiating an unearthly power.
From the hole came a strange creature.
Its appearance was similar to that of a jellyfish, the tendrils that extended from its underside were oddly-shaped, looking more like human arms and legs. It made no sound as it hovered in front of the hole.
"Perfect," Lusamine said. "Now we can begin."
A/N
Aylen - Happiness (Mapuche)
Citlali - Star (Nahuatl)
Naira - Big eyes (Quechua/Aymara)
Nayeli - I love you (Zapotec)
Antiman - Condor of the Sun (Mapuche)