Not until the Leviathan Seed was close did its size really sink in. Samus had seen buildings this large, but she doubted that Tom ever had. The great mass of brown and grey leaned heavily to one side; its pointed top was even more crooked than the body. A few blue circles added some color to the body, as did some external veins of Phazon. Not only was its size clearer close up, but so was its grotesqueness. It was jagged and flaky all over, as if its skin were about to shed, and lumps of all sizes covered its surface. This was one huge, hideous thing we were about to enter.
Samus looked for an entry point as close to the ground as possible. She found one about a third of the way to the Seed's top – which was still pretty high, but as good as we were going to get. Even with the Seed right in front of us, the hole she pointed to didn't look any larger than a freckle. Not until the Seed had become an endless, flaky wall did the hole actually look large enough to fit Charlie and the two people he carried. And only when it was right in front of us did it appear to be much larger than we needed; Charlie would have plenty of room.
Charlie entered the hole and the light from the Milky Way disappeared. Only the flame on Charlie's tail lit his way through the colossal tunnel. He flew slowly, cautiously, forward, but the tunnel was so wide that there was little chance he would crash into its walls. The path curved more and more downward the further Charlie flew.
Charlie flew toward a dim, blue light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel opened up into a large, wide, dome-shaped room. The blue, glowing stuff was everywhere. Gooey-looking blue circles glowed all over the floor. Glowing blue crystals, some of them human-sized, poked out of the walls and floor. And thin, blue, chord-like veins lined the walls. The blue glow of the room was even eerier than if it had just been completely dark.
Charlie landed in a clearing that contained none of this blue stuff. A narrow path cut through the blue; this was our only way forward. Tom pet Charlie on the head in praise of his efforts and then withdrew him. He then released Manny.
"Listen," said Samus, "if it's blue, and if it glows, don't touch it. It will eat through your suit instantly. The same goes for your Pokémon."
"Right," said Tom, who grew increasingly tense. Samus walked forward, through the only path available to us; Tom and Manny followed behind her.
Looking around, Tom saw that the blue glow was not the only eerie thing about this place. Being inside of Oscelon was one thing – that was not like any organism humans had ever discovered. You wouldn't know that you were inside anything alive. In here, that wasn't so. Perhaps it was the sense of disorganization. Everything was too uneven, too randomly placed, to be artificial. There was something about the way all the veins and protrusions moved around in place, without reason; the way that waves of glimmer kept moving along the blue circles in pulse-like phases; the little holes in the ground and ceiling here and there… we were clearly inside a living being. And it gave Tom the creeps.
"There's something else you should know," Samus said as they walked. "I just thought of it when we got here; I wish I'd thought of it earlier. Arceus said that Mewtwo merged with this Leviathan's core. But he would never have just left this place core-less and unguarded. I'm not even sure a Leviathan Seed can hold up without a core… unless… he made some sort of temporary replacement. But he's even less likely to leave something like that unguarded. And each time I've destroyed a Leviathan Seed, there's always been something guarding it. What I'm trying to say is… Mewtwo might not be the only one we'll have to fight in here. There might be someone else helping him."
"Hm," Tom grunted.
"Eh, should be a piece of cake," said Manny. But for once, he did not sound very confident.
At the end of the path was another tunnel, narrower than the tunnel we had entered the Seed through. This place was even more freakishly organic than the room behind it. The reddish walls oozed and glistened. Thick blood veins ran from the wall to the ceiling, or from one wall to the other, sometimes almost blocking our path. Some large blue spots reflected light, like glass. The tunnel spiraled downward. Tom walked onward tensely, although there did not appear to be any other living beings in sight. Samus was a bit nervous to leave the boy behind her, but she knew that what lay ahead was far more dangerous than anything that might sneak up from behind.
The end of the tunnel came into view. As they walked closer, Samus saw that it opened into a very large, very wide room. She noticed a substantial drop at the end of the hallway – the floor of this new room was many yards below us. A platform extended from the end of the hallway, obscuring her view. She instructed Tom and Manny to back up against the wall to remain unseen. They obliged. Samus carefully stepped forward to try to look around the platform and see what waited below. She was in for a shock.
Mewtwo was sitting near the center of the room, his hands on his knees. Meditating. But that wasn't the shocking part. Samus was right: Mewtwo had brought something else here to guard the Seed. It was worse than Samus imagined. Something was suspended from the ceiling, held up by a number of thin, red strands. Something huge and black. It was all curled up, but Samus recognized it, and she knew exactly what it would be once uncurled.
Samus had been under the impression that the Metroid Prime was the Metroid Prime, not a Metroid Prime; in other words, the creature she had fought on Tallon IV, and ultimately killed on Phaaze, was unique. Not so, apparently. Not if her scans – confirming what she already suspected – were true. The thing suspended from the ceiling was identical to the creature Samus had found on Tallon IV. How could that be? Samus didn't know. She wasn't sure if she'd ever know. And right now, that wasn't the important question; the important question was what to do next.
"Damn," said Samus. "This'll be even harder than I thought. Before we do anything, we need to come up with a plan."
Before Samus even hit the ground, Mewtwo was on his feet and readying an attack. He flicked a small wad of Phazon at her; the split second she landed, she jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding it.
"I'm glad you made it," Mewtwo said, calmly. "It's been a while. I was starting to worry you'd never come."
"I'm here," said Samus. "And I've brought some friends."
On cue, out came the Pokémon. All nine of them jumped, or flew, down from the tunnel's end. Tom clung to Manny's back as the Machamp dropped about twenty feet, easily absorbing the fall.
Mewtwo seemed amused. "Is that so? What a lucky coincidence. I brought a friend as well."
The giant black mass that hung from the ceiling started to move. It unfolded, revealing a creepy set of long, segmented limbs. There were five legs in total, but they were oddly distributed. To Tom, the creature must've seemed like a massive collection of spikes – not just the contorted legs, but the long, conical head as well, not to mention the two short, limb-like stubs sticking uselessly out of where its shoulder should be, were its anatomy even remotely normal. Strange yellow markings covered its body. In the thin space between its pointed head and round body, two glowing, menacing red eyes flickered into existence.
The Metroid Prime dropped to the ground. It was about thirty feet away from Tom, although it must have felt like less to him. Tom stared into its eyes; it stared back. Strangely, I didn't feel even a spark of fear in the boy. I suppose he'd been through too much that day – come close to death too many times, fought too many strange creatures – for this to make much of an impact. Manny, however, seemed more concerned – Tom was still on his back, and since his fighting-type moves wouldn't do much against the Metroid Prime, it was his job to keep his master safe. He stepped backward, increasing the distance between Tom and the Metroid Prime. The Metroid Prime crouched in anticipation of a charge forward; in that split second, Tom cried out "JEFFREY!"
Jeffrey did not need any instruction – he jumped between them, blocking the Metroid Prime's path. The Metroid Prime ran forward, but Jeffrey grabbed hold of it and stopped the charge. The two huge Metroids pushed against each other with all their strength while Tom called out attacks for the other Pokémon.
Meanwhile, Mewtwo drifted away from the battle scene. "Why don't we let them have their fun while we have ours?" he said. Samus walked away from Tom and his Pokémon, but made sure not to stray too far. Unbeknownst to Mewtwo, three Pokémon – Gengar, Umanda, and Weavile – were to remain on the outer rim of Tom's fight.
Samus entered Hyper Mode. With a flick of his arm, Mewtwo whipped several balls of Phazon at Samus. She dodged them and shot her own Phazon attacks at Mewtwo; he dodged these, too. Samus charged an attack. Mewtwo caught her by surprise with a Psychic attack to her legs. She stumbled for a moment, and Mewtwo took that opportunity to hit her with a psychic/Phazon hybrid attack. Samus fired back with a fully-charged beam of Phazon; Mewtwo dodged it, but Samus swerved her Arm Cannon to hit him with the tail end of the beam. Then she exited Hyper Mode. If she hadn't, she would either lose more energy or become dangerously corrupted. It was a thing she could only do in short bursts.
They stood still for a moment, Mewtwo floating far above Samus. "So you've obtained some Phazon of your own," noted Mewtwo. "Good – that ought to make things a little more interesting. But remember: we're fighting on my home turf."
A rushing stream of Phazon hit Samus, and she jumped out of the way as soon as she could. Now she saw that the Phazon had come out of the wall. Of course: having essentially merged with this Leviathan Seed, Mewtwo must have a lot of control over it. Mewtwo summoned more Phazon streams from the walls. Samus jumped over them and ducked under them, all the while trying to find time to counterattack. Finally, she found a safe spot between three Phazon streams; from there, she entered Hyper Mode and fired away at Mewtwo. He dodged all of her attacks, but it broke his concentration, and the walls ceased attacking her.
Samus had told Tom all about the Metroid Prime, so he knew what those yellow markings meant. If this was anything like the Metroid Prime on Tallon IV – something Samus herself wasn't certain about – then as long as they were yellow, the Metroid would be vulnerable to most non-elemental attacks. Apparently, this included Jeffrey's venomous spit. As they pushed against each other, Jeffrey continuously spat on the Metroid Prime. Weavile slashed at it with her claws, Charlie flew into it, and Manny threw rocks at it. Albert set up a Reflect barrier around everyone. The Metroid Prime focused solely on Jeffrey. It opened its jaw, suddenly creating a gaping hole below its body. Out of this mouth it shot a bright, yellow beam of light that struck Jeffrey on the chest. Jeffrey hopped back, hurt.
Then the Metroid Prime's markings changed from yellow to bluish-white. Thanks to Samus, Tom knew that it was now weak against ice-type attacks. But it would also be using ice-type attacks. Which put Jeffrey in danger. "Jeffrey, get back!"
Jeffrey did not get back. Instead, he ran directly toward the Metroid Prime. That took Tom by surprise. For a moment, his fingers reached toward Jeffrey's Pokéball, and I thought he was going to withdraw him. But apparently, he decided against it. Instead, he told Kim and Weavile to use Ice Beam and Blizzard, respectively. The two Pokémon had to attack around Jeffrey. Strangely, the Metroid Prime ignored them and attacked only Jeffrey. It was as if the two Metroids didn't realize they weren't the only ones in this fight. In one way, this was advantageous to Tom, since Kim and Weavile were free to attack without fear of retaliation. But it was very disadvantageous to Jeffrey. The Metroid Prime fired its beam at Jeffrey again – but this time, the beam was blue-white. And this time, it nearly froze Jeffrey on the spot. The Metroid Prime then shot missiles out of its back that quickly homed in on the almost-frozen Jeffrey.
As the fight went on, Jeffrey did manage to hit the Metroid Prime some. But all the ice made him slow and weak, so the Metroid Prime's attacks were much more plentiful and powerful. Jeffrey looked more and more hurt, but never less determined.
Samus knew, from experience, that Mewtwo would not concentrate as well if he were in a chattier mood. So she asked a question. "Mewtwo, why are you doing this? Why can't you just leave Oscelon alone? What's your motive?"
Mewtwo chuckled. "What an odd question! I'm not sure whether it's ridiculously simple or absurdly complex." He blasted a huge wave of Phazon at Samus. Even sprinting at top speed, she barely dodged it in time.
Samus entered Hyper Mode and opened fire. Mewtwo swerved to dodge her Phazon shots. "I want to tell you that it's very simple," he said as he swerved. "I'm doing all this because I want to. I like power; it makes me happy. What isn't there to understand?" A shot of Phazon finally hit him; he countered with a psychic/Phazon blast that Samus couldn't dodge in time. She had to exit Hyper Mode again.
Streams of Phazon shot out of the walls once more. Samus dodged them, but she now also had to dodge Mewtwo's Psychic attacks as well. "But that's not the answer you're looking for, is it?" Mewtwo said while he attacked. "Power isn't an end in itself. There must be something else I'm after. Maybe so. But what? I like fighting, yes, but I could do that without conquering the universe. Sometimes I do wonder: what compels me to think so big and to want so much?"
Samus found the safe spot once more, and from there, fired a charged-up beam of Phazon at Mewtwo. The beam pummeled his chest for a second before he flew away as fast as he could. Once again, breaking Mewtwo's concentration caused the Phazon streams to disappear.
As Samus and Mewtwo attacked and dodged, Mewtwo continued his rant. "Now that I think about it, though, maybe I do have an answer for you. Unlike you and your teenage friend, I am not content living my life following the rules that have been set for me. I'm not fond of limits. But the only way to escape that fate is to make the rules myself. You're either a rule follower or a rule maker – that's just how things are. I believe that's what I'm after, Hunter: freedom. I will be faced with all the challenges I can enjoy, they will be however difficult I want them to be, and I will always be victorious… and this will all happen under my rules, not someone else's. That's what freedom is."
A wall of tiny, blue Phazon beads enclosed on Samus. Many of these beads damaged her suit, but many others were absorbed into Samus's Charge Beam. This allowed her to fire a huge ball of Phazon at Mewtwo that smacked against his tail before he could dodge.
"Well?" Mewtwo said as a blue glow surrounded him with increasing intensity. "Don't you have some response?"
"I do," said Samus, and she meant it. Everything he said, and everything she had heard and seen that day, and that month, was finally merging to produce a clear picture of what Mewtwo meant – and why he was wrong. "You're an idiot."
"Really? The one who nearly had the entire universe in his palm is an idiot?"
"In all the important ways, yes."
"We'll see about that." And then he fired a wide, powerful beam of Phazon.
Finally, Kim and Weavile did enough damage to the Metroid Prime to make it change color again. It stepped back and shook around in pain while its form changed against its will. Now its markings were purple. Electricity. "Ralph, Static Battlefield!" Tom shouted.
The Metroid Prime ignored Ralph as it fired more missiles at Jeffrey, who dodged them. But Jeffrey knew what was coming next, and this time, he was smart enough to step back. It began as soon as Ralph jumped onto the Metroid Prime. Sparks appeared all over the Metroid Prime's body, lighting it up. The Metroid Prime moved around every which way, unsure of how to attack something clinging into its carapace. Finally, the sparks disappeared – but only because the Metroid Prime had changed again. Now its markings were blue-white, so once again, only ice could harm it.
Ralph jumped off and scurried away, but the Metroid Prime did not take note; Jeffrey was still the center of its attention. Jeffrey swiped his claws at it. The Metroid Prime fired a beam from its mouth, encasing Jeffrey in ice. Right as he broke free, the Metroid Prime rammed into Jeffrey, knocking him into the ground. In an instant, the Metroid Prime was on top of him. The Metroid Prime had two short, sharp limbs at the front of its body. It stuck both of these limbs deep into Jeffrey's eye sockets.
The Metroid Prime got off of Jeffrey, who didn't get up. It took Tom a moment to put together what had happened. Jeffrey hadn't fainted – otherwise, his Pokéball would have lit up. Tom looked at the unlit Pokéball in his hand, and I could tell he understood. Those sharp limbs had sliced through Jeffrey's brain. Jeffrey was dead.
It was as if nothing significant had happened. Beyond Jeffrey, everything continued as before; Kim and Weavile kept attacking the Metroid Prime, and the Metroid Prime moved away from Jeffrey's corpse to attack Kim. It was the Metroid Prime's indifference, I think, that hurt Tom the most. If the Metroid Prime had stopped to celebrate Jeffrey's death, at least it would seem as though it meant something. Instead, it didn't even stop for a moment. As if Jeffrey were worthless, and his death, meaningless. Tom stared at the Metroid Prime in a state of pure fury. "You're not going to get away with that," he whispered.
Fortunately, Tom didn't let his anger get in the way of the battle. Thanks to his direction, Kim and Weavile only suffered minimal damage before forcing the Metroid Prime to change forms once again. It was now red. Fire. Now it was Charlie's turn. First he used Smokescreen so he could evade the Metroid Prime more easily. Then he assaulted the thing with Fire Blast and Flamethrower. Whenever the Metroid Prime tried to fight back, Charlie used ExtremeSpeed to quickly escape. The whole thing went very smoothly – Charlie barely got hurt at all.
Samus had been charging up a Phazon beam of her own; now she fired it. Her beam and Mewtwo's beam met in the middle, creating a mild explosion. Both Samus and Mewtwo held steady. But Mewtwo's beam was much stronger, and it threatened to consume Samus's beam until there was nothing left of it.
"UMANDA, NOW!" Samus shouted.
This outburst seemed to confuse Mewtwo. He turned his head, but it was too late. The Dark Pulse grazed his back. This gave Samus the distraction she needed to jump out of the way while both of their Phazon beams disappeared. Samus rapidly fired away her remaining Phazon at Mewtwo, hitting him with the first few shots before he came to his senses and began dodging. His focus had shifted to the lone Umbreon standing beneath him, halfway between Tom's fight and Samus's. Samus ran out of Phazon, which automatically brought her out of Hyper Mode. Mewtwo stared at Umanda furiously. "How dare you!"
Suddenly, Mewtwo was right in front of Umanda. Mewtwo swiped his arm, releasing a Phazon explosion that blasted Umanda all the way to the distant wall. Mewtwo pursued her. Samus shot at him with her Plasma Beam; many of her shots hit Mewtwo, but he didn't seem interested in avoiding them. He was too focused on Umanda. "This is a one-on-one battle. Don't you dare interfere!"
A Phazon barrier now blocked Samus's attacks. But Samus was attacking Mewtwo's left side. Right before he attacked Umanda, he received an unexpected attack from his right. A Shadow Ball. Mewtwo turned his head to find Gengar pointing at him, laughing.
Gengar flew across the room, crashing into the wall. Mewtwo's Psychic was very effective against Gengar, a poison-type. But while Mewtwo attacked, Umanda and Samus teamed up behind him. And then they both attacked. Samus's Phazon shots were effective, but when Umanda used Dark Revenge, it put them to shame. The darkness enveloped Mewtwo and everything around him. For a moment, at least. After that he was near Gengar once more, eager to finish him off. Another Psychic attack sent Gengar tumbling across the ground. Tom saw that Gengar had fainted and promptly withdrew him. Then Mewtwo flew over to Umanda and finished her off with another Phazon blast; Tom withdrew her as well. Samus fired missiles at Mewtwo on the off-chance that they wouldn't disintegrate before reaching him; they did, of course.
Mewtwo flew further away from the other Pokémon. "This is between you and me, Hunter," he said. "From now on, no more outside help!" Samus could only wonder why she was supposed to care about what he wanted.
Tom and the Pokémon became more acquainted with the Metroid Prime's moves and fighting style, and thus, more able to fight against it. Tom made sure to keep Umanda, Gengar, and Weavile safe – they were to stick to the sidelines and attack only as needed. Of the remainder, Ralph, Charlie, and Kim were the only ones able to attack the Metroid Prime's electric, fire, and ice forms, respectively. And Manny was still protecting Tom. That left Albert the task of guarding the others. He was a natural at this. And not just because of his Reflect ability – he was also a born distracter. He convinced the Metroid Prime that his psychic attacks were doing damage to it even though they weren't; he also acted extra-annoying for good measure. The Metroid Prime targeted him, but he simply kept Teleporting away from its reach. After Umanda fainted, Tom got off of Manny to let him join the fight. Manny grabbed the Metroid Prime's legs to immobilize it while other Pokémon attacked.
The fight raged on. Mewtwo knocked Umanda and Gengar out of the battle. But the Metroid Prime had yet to take down anyone other than Jeffrey. It never targeted a single Pokémon long enough to make it faint – it kept switching between them. All of Tom's Pokémon got hurt in the battle against the Metroid Prime, some of them quite badly, but none of them fainted. It was really Tom's team at their very best.
"Hunter, you do remember why your attacks are worthless, right?" said Mewtwo. "Just in case you don't, here's a reminder."
A moment later, Mewtwo was hidden behind a bright, blue, opaque shell of Phazon. Samus fired at the shell, but nothing penetrated it. Several seconds later, the Phazon shell disappeared, revealing a Mewtwo who appeared to have never experienced the past few minutes. "Good as new," Mewtwo said. "But you're not. No matter how much you hurt me, I can always use Recover – but you can't. How does that make you feel?"
It made her feel exactly how she already felt throughout this whole battle: desire to kill this monster. She fired both her Plasma Beam and Ice Beam at him, but he swatted them away with his bare hand. So Samus entered Hyper Mode again. Now Mewtwo was creating a ball of Phazon above him. Samus fired at him, and he dodged her fire as the Phazon ball grew larger. Then, to Samus's surprise, Mewtwo stopped dodging at all. Instead, he used the Phazon ball to block all of Samus's fire. Samus soon realized that this ball was absorbing her shots, growing even larger with each one. She stopped firing and exited Hyper Mode, uncertain of what to do next. Phazon from the ground, the walls, and the ceiling seeped out to help this ball grow. Before Samus knew it, the Phazon ball was enormous; Mewtwo, below it, was tiny in comparison. Samus had no idea how much it could hurt her, but she wasn't eager to find out. "WEAVILE, NOW!"
"Don't tell me…" Mewtwo began, but a Dark Pulse to his face interrupted him. The Phazon ball shrunk dramatically, although it did not disappear. Furious, Mewtwo looked at Weavile below him; she had come to the scene as fast as she could, which happened to be very fast. Suddenly, the fluid ball above Mewtwo turned into a group of solid, blue rocks. The rocks flew at Weavile. They knocked her down and pierced her skin, and when she got up, she was covered in blood – but still conscious. Mewtwo and Weavile got ready to attack again.
That's when Tom gave the signal. "SAMUS, SWITCH!" he yelled.
The Metroid Prime crashed into a wall, fell down, and stopped moving. Tom knew what was coming next; Samus had told him about the core. But that didn't stop him from being taken by surprise when something popped out of the Metroid Prime's black shell. Its red eyes were the only similarity it had to the creature Tom's Pokémon had just fought against. It looked like a large, solitary red brain with long, thin tentacles, and surrounded by a blue liquid. Tom's Pokémon had no chance against this thing – only Phazon-based attacks could harm it. That's why he and Samus had planned ahead. "SAMUS, SWITCH!" he yelled as loudly as he could.
Weavile was joined by the five other remaining Pokémon – all of Tom's team except Umanda – to surround Mewtwo and attack him all at once. Meanwhile, Samus ran away from Mewtwo to confront the core of the Metroid Prime.
Mewtwo was furious when he realized what was going on. "Get back here, Hunter! This was our fight!" he shouted. He flew toward Samus, but that allowed a barrage of elemental attacks to hit his back. He turned around and picked a target: Weavile, whom he'd been battling before the others attacked. A few more blue rocks to the face and she was out of the fight.
This Metroid Prime was really no different from the one Samus had fought on Tallon IV. So the fight was more or less the same: she'd fire on it with Phazon while it would try to attack her with its tentacles. This time, however, she had a new advantage: she could enter Hyper Mode at will. Last time, she could only gather Phazon from the shallow pools that the Metroid Prime occasionally spat out. This time, however, she could use those pools to regain some of her lost energy. And thanks to Hyper Mode, she didn't need them at all to attack.
Albert was a particularly big nuisance for Mewtwo; whenever Mewtwo chose a target to attack, Albert would appear and quickly Teleport said target away. So Mewtwo targeted Albert. It took a few tries, but then Mewtwo ensnared Albert in a rope of Phazon. Trapped, Albert could do nothing while Mewtwo attacked and attacked until Tom was forced to withdraw him.
By this point, Mewtwo had taken a lot of damage. He'd used his speed and Phazon barriers to avoid as many attacks as possible, but he couldn't avoid all of them. That wasn't much of a problem for Mewtwo, though. He merely entered his shell for a few moments, used Recover, and emerged from it free of damage.
Now only three Pokémon fought Mewtwo – Manny had decided to stand back in order to protect Tom. At Tom's orders, Kim used Outrage; she became enveloped in golden flames and tackled Mewtwo with incredible speed and strength. Mewtwo was actually put on the defensive for once; all Charlie and Ralph had to do was watch. The first wave of Outrage ended, and Mewtwo had an opportunity to attack. But he never used it, because at that moment, Ralph did what may be the gutsiest thing I'd ever seen him do: he jumped onto Mewtwo's back, held onto it, and used Static Battlefield. The attack's power was intense, but it didn't last long before Mewtwo managed to shake him off. Ignoring Kim and Charlie, Mewtwo angrily pummeled Ralph without holding back. Soon, Tom had to withdraw him, too.
Kim came at Mewtwo again, and Charlie backed her up. Mewtwo blocked Kim's attacks with his fists while simultaneously trying to dodge Charlie's fire. When Kim's second wave ended, Mewtwo didn't hold back. He ignored Charlie and blasted Kim with all varieties of Phazon and psychic attacks until she was no longer conscious. Tom withdrew her, leaving only Charlie to face Mewtwo.
The goal was not to defeat Mewtwo, but to delay him so that Samus had time to kill the Metroid Prime. So rather than attacking Mewtwo, Tom made Charlie annoy him with half-hearted attacks while using most of his energy to dodge. At this, Charlie was very effective, and within a minute Mewtwo was shaking with rage at his inability to bring down this speedy Charizard. Finally, he managed to get a rope on Charlie, similar to the one that had immobilized Albert. But while Albert possessed great psychic power, Charlie was more physically powerful, and more agile as well. He flew in circles around Mewtwo despite being essentially tethered to him. It took almost another minute before Mewtwo knocked Charlie out.
Mewtwo disappeared behind a blue shell to Recover once more. Tom, who was standing behind Manny, looked at him nervously. "It's just you now," he whispered. Without taking his eyes off of Mewtwo, Manny nodded.
"Hurry up, Samus," Tom whispered to himself. He turned his head to take a peek at her battle with the Metroid Prime. Joy flowed through him when he saw that she had won – the Metroid Prime was no longer there. However, this joy turned into confusion when he saw that, while the Metroid Prime wasn't there, something else was.
The fight was so easy that Samus was almost bored. On Tallon IV, the hard part had been getting to the Phazon deposits in time, but that was no longer an issue. Samus fired away almost nonstop at the Metroid Prime, and it couldn't do much to defend itself. It did turn invisible sometimes, but thanks to Samus's variety of visor settings, this wasn't a problem for her.
When the Metroid Prime lost control of its own body and began flailing its tentacles all over the place, Samus knew she had won. But what came next took her by surprise. The core of the Metroid Prime was transforming. It was so fast that Samus barely had time to process this fact. Before her there now floated a large, bluish, spiky orb. The orb was mostly transparent, and Samus could see the amoeba-like blob inside. "An X Parasite!" Samus gasped.
Samus didn't have time to wonder what the hell this was all about; she only had time to attack. Missiles were her weapon of choice, and she had plenty to spare. The spiky orb attempted to ram into Samus, but she was too fast. Once Samus had hit it with enough missiles, the orb shattered, leaving the yellow-green blob inside unprotected. Samus ran towards it.
Mewtwo finished Recovering just in time to see, through the corner of his eye, the X Parasite seeping into Samus's armor. He turned around. As he realized what was going on, his eyes widened. "No!" he gasped.
Actually, yes. Samus completely absorbed the X Parasite. For a moment, Mewtwo stared, and Samus stared back. Then all of the crevices in Samus's armor shone with a powerfully bright, blue glow. She had become the brightest thing in the room. Samus felt like she was about to burst; she couldn't contain this much energy. She aimed her Arm Cannon at Mewtwo. Mewtwo stretched both arms in front of him. Then they both attacked.
Samus was awestruck by the constant, powerful beam of Phazon that rushed out of her Arm Cannon. She could barely control it; the energy was forcing itself out, like water out of a hole in a pipe. From Mewtwo's arms came a beam of equal size. The two beams met in the middle – and that's when things really started to escalate. The two beams pushed against each other, creating a ball of Phazon in the middle. The ball got bigger and bigger. Samus tried to release Phazon faster; so, apparently, did Mewtwo. Soon, the size of the two forces pushing against each other was so incredible that the whole room began shaking. Manny led Tom further away from the scene to stay safe.
Neither Samus nor Mewtwo budged. But soon they had to back away, for the huge blue sphere between them kept growing, threatening to consume the entire room. Both of them stopped moving, and the sphere stopped growing, but the two forces continued pushing against each other with more power than ever. Mewtwo's eyes were wide with panic; clearly, he hadn't expected anything like this. His panic became more pronounced when tiny bits of Phazon began leaving his body and floating behind him. Slowly, these particles accumulated to create a large, spherical form. Eventually the sphere developed a fluid look and, as more tiny particles came to it, grew many tentacles. Despite this, Mewtwo held his ground against Samus. Neither of them had gained an advantage. And then it all exploded.
I can't say for sure what had happened. Maybe it was the result of two extremely powerful Phazon forces pushing against each other for too long; maybe both fighters had run out of energy. Whatever the case, the giant ball of Phazon between Samus and Mewtwo exploded, and both fighters felt the impact. Samus flew backward until she hit a wall; Mewtwo skid against the ground as if something was dragging him. Tom and Manny were safe – but had Tom been any closer, there'd be a hole in his suit, and possibly one in his body.
The ensuing silence was uncanny. Mewtwo stood up. Samus stood up too, but it took longer – her armor wasn't cooperating with her. It was vibrating fiercely. Samus was struck with panic when she realized that her suit was slowly crumbling, No, she realized, only parts of it were crumbling – which wasn't really that relieving. The PED-related parts of her armor were falling apart. Little pieces of blue-grey metal from her back and chest fell to the ground. Soon, she wore her old Gravity Suit again. Apparently, that last attack had overloaded her system – her PED Suit wasn't meant to process that much Phazon. Now she wouldn't be able to use Phazon as a weapon any longer.
But Mewtwo wasn't looking at Samus. He was looking at the blue, fluid sphere with terror on his face. The sphere was getting bigger. After a moment, Samus recognized it… sort of. It was a Phazon Core… sort of. It had been stripped of its shell and almost all of its features, probably so that Mewtwo could merge with it. And now that it had been forcefully separated from Mewtwo, it seemed ready to explode. The sphere expanded and expanded; its many tentacles stretched to great lengths, seeking something unknown. "No you don't!" said Mewtwo, and he thrust his open palm in the core's direction. All of the tentacles stopped squirming, rapidly stretched to reach the wall or ceiling, and then became still and rigid.
"That'll hold it for now," said Mewtwo. "But not forever." He looked at Samus. "I can't even express how much I hate you right now." His eyes quickly shifted from Samus to the scrap metal on the floor around her, then back. His glare grew slightly less spiteful. "Oh, I see. You've lost your ability to use Phazon too, haven't you?" Samus didn't answer – she tended not to – but Mewtwo took that as a yes. "Well, at least this battle just got a little more interesting. Honestly, that's not much of a consolation… bu it's pointless to stay angry at you, so instead I'll just be happy that you're about to die."
They both attacked simultaneously, as if they had agreed upon the instant to begin. Samus fired her missiles and Mewtwo used Psychic. Mewtwo tried to dodge the missiles, but they homed in on him; Samus felt the psychic force squeezing her armor, but she stood firm.
After a short while, Mewtwo learned how to use his psychic powers to redirect Samus's missiles off to the side. Samus always tried to dodge Mewtwo's psychic-type attacks, but despite her agility, she rarely succeeded. More often, they knocked her every which way and chipped away at her armor, after making it glow purple for a moment. Yet she kept fighting as if nothing had happened.
Tom and Manny could only watch – from a safe distance, of course. This time, the fight was straightforward – neither fighter had any tricks up their sleeves. Mewtwo didn't dare use Recover, since that would require standing still for many crucial seconds. He simply brain-blasted away at Samus, who rotated between weapons. Eventually, she settled on the Wave Beam and Ice Beam, since these would slow Mewtwo down for a moment. Surprisingly, Mewtwo didn't talk. Perhaps he was too angry to; Samus had not only killed the fake Metroid Prime and absorbed the real X Parasite, but had pushed the Phazon Core out of Mewtwo's body and may have mortally wounded it. He wanted her dead, fast.
But it wasn't fast. The battle dragged on. For a while, they seemed equally matched. But I could feel Tom's disturbance when he noticed an unfortunate pattern. Samus's movements were getting subtly slower; she stood still for longer. She was getting tired. Mewtwo, however, was not. He'd recovered all of his energy after his previous fights. The same was not true with Samus, and she had much less to lose. What she did have, she put to use magnificently – but it might not be enough.
"Getting exhausted, Hunter?" said Mewtwo, and now he didn't sound angry. He was really enjoying himself. He tried using Psycho Cut, which sent psychic blades flying toward his opponent, once more; Samus dodged it by jumping left. Mewtwo got ready to do it again; Samus saw, from his movements, that the attack would be just a hair to her right, so she jumped left again and dodged it. He tried attacking slightly to her right again, and she jumped left again. As she jumped, a thought hit her: either she had finally found a hole in Mewtwo's fighting style, or it was a trap.
It was a trap.
Right after she landed, Samus realized that she couldn't move. Every limb was being held in place, tightly, by some blue tentacles. Something squishy pushed against her back. She couldn't see it, but this thing was the bloated Phazon Core. Mewtwo had lured her beside it, and then he'd unstuck some of its tentacles from the wall and made them wrap around Samus. She could feel her energy slowly depleting. The Core was literally sucking the life out of her.
Samus struggled with all her might, but it did no good. "Please, struggle as hard as you can," Mewtwo said calmly. "I want to make sure those bonds are tight enough to hold you forever. Go ahead – give it all you've got!" She did give it all she had, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, knowing it was pointless to resist, and that she needed to preserve her remaining energy, Samus gave up and stopped struggling. In the back of her mind, she dared to wonder: was this really the end?
Mewtwo laughed and laughed. It wasn't really a maniacal, villainous laugh, though; it was more of a hearty giggle, the kind of laugh you might expect from a schoolyard prankster after his victim sits on a whoopee cushion. Once he finished laughing, Mewtwo sighed with satisfaction. "Oh, that was good. THAT was a battle! I must admit it, Hunter, you gave me more of a fight than I expected. Even though you've set all of my plans back by at least a year – and that's an optimistic estimate – it may have been worth it just for this fight. And I mean all of it – even the part when those pesky Pokémon got in my way. I can't believe you came so close to beating me – what a rush! Honestly, I'm very glad you came.
"But the victory is mine, and you're not off the hook. This Core might explode if it isn't given enough energy… but I think your energy will do just fine. Sorry, but I'll have to keep you here for a little while as you slowly die. You don't have that much time left, so if you have anything to say, now's the time to say it."
"Hey, bud! Aren't you forgettin' about something?" said Manny.
Mewtwo turned around to see Manny in a fighting stance, fists clenched. Tom was standing right behind him. The blood drained from the boy's face. "Manny…" he whispered, and it was not the tone of a trainer talking to his Pokémon; it was the tone of a teenage boy whose best friend, perhaps even his brother, was about to make a hopeless last stand. Because Manny had virtually no chance of making a difference here. Yet Tom understood that, as long as the odds weren't precisely zero, Manny had to try. So Tom slowly backed away to give his Machamp more room to fight.
Mewtwo looked disappointed. "Really? This is how it ends? How anticlimactic. I thought that last fight had ended this whole thing with a bang, and now you have to go and ruin that."
"Shut up!" snapped Manny, and he sprinted toward Mewtwo. Mewtwo knocked him back with a Psychic attack, then with another; he then sliced Manny's chest with a pair of Psycho Cuts. Manny was bleeding, but still ran. Mewtwo quickly flew to the other side of the room. He kept attacking while Manny ran toward him.
"This is sad," said Mewtwo as he attacked. "A common fighting-type really thinks he has a chance against a legendary psychic-type. How pathetic."
Manny almost caught up with Mewtwo. But before he could punch him, Mewtwo disappeared and then reappeared far away. "Why didn't you just run away?" Mewtwo asked. "You might have made it. In fact, if you run away now, I might give you a head start."
"Forget it!" said Manny. "No way in hell am I leaving this room until I'm a hundred percent sure that Tom'll be safe!"
Mewtwo rolled his eyes. "How adorable," he said. Then he attacked. Manny did the best he could to dodge, rolling to the side and jumping every which way. Most of the attacks still hit his sides, blowing the skin away from his body. Still, he went faster than Mewtwo expected, and as a result came very close to punching Mewtwo in the face. Without any time to spare, Mewtwo disappeared and reappeared somewhere behind Manny.
Manny now knew where the attacks would come from. When Mewtwo lifted his arms, before he even attacked, Manny shuffled sideways. Then he sprinted toward Mewtwo, whose Psychic attack missed. This time, Manny actually did punch Mewtwo in the face. Mewtwo Teleported away. Manny was bleeding all over, but he stood upright and didn't look exhausted, even after all of Mewtwo's attacks. Mewtwo looked down on Manny, surprised, and perhaps a little impressed.
"Interesting," Mewtwo said, tonelessly. "No mere fighting-type should be holding up this well against me."
"Oh yeah?" Manny shouted back. "And who told you that, huh? The instruction manual?"
He ran toward Mewtwo. Mewtwo attacked him and flew around the room. Manny tried to dodge the psychic-type attacks; sometimes he could, sometimes not. As he chased Mewtwo and jumped away from the attacks, Manny continued talking.
"What do you think this is, some kind of video game? Like we've all been programmed to follow these neat little rules of yours? Too bad, bud. I only got one rule: that my master will be safe, no matter what. Even if it means I gotta die. But I won't die until I know he's safe! That's the only rule I'll ever have to follow!"
That's when Manny got knocked back by a particularly powerful, head-on Psychic attack. He got on his hands (all four of them) and knees, panting. He was badly wounded and covered in blood. No Machamp should have been able to take this many psychic-type attacks from Mewtwo and still be conscious, or even alive. But Manny wasn't invincible, and now he looked close to his limit, if not already there. Tom, looking on at the fight from a distance, was shivering. His eyes were dry, but I could feel the tears pushing at the edges, just waiting to come out at any moment.
Mewtwo floated above Manny. "Idiot," said Mewtwo. I think he was about to say something else, but Tom interrupted him.
"Don't give up, Manny!" Tom shouted. "You can beat him! I know you can do it!"
"Another idiot," Mewtwo sighed. He held his arms out for another attack. "Let's just get this over with."
And then Manny pounced. He must have been exaggerating how little energy he had, because it was an extremely powerful, fast pounce. Manny jumped all the way up to Mewtwo in an instant. In mid-air, Manny grabbed Mewtwo's legs and threw Mewtwo downward with all his might. Mewtwo crashed into the ground. Manny fell onto him fists-first.
The moment Mewtwo hit the ground, Samus felt her restraints slacken. She struggled against them. Sadly, they were still too tight to escape from. But they were just loose enough to aim her Arm Cannon.
Mewtwo stood up and stepped back. "Oh, you little…" he growled, and he prepared to finish Manny off.
But before Mewtwo could attack, a string of shots from Samus's Wave Beam hit him and paralyzed him. "Manny, now!" yelled Samus.
Manny ran toward Mewtwo. The electricity wouldn't keep him still forever, so this moment was vital. This single second was our only hope.
And in that single second, something strange happened. I received information that Manny had just learned a new move. However, every one of my self-regulating processes told me that it was a glitch and should be ignored. Yet I found it hard to ignore. I couldn't tell what move it was, or even what type of move it was.
Manny stood in front of Mewtwo and pulled back his right fists. "Falcon… PUNCH!"
It was the most powerful punch I'd ever seen Manny throw – and then the tips of his fists exploded. Mewtwo flew across the room, hit the ground with a thud, and rolled for a bit. Meanwhile, Samus felt the tentacles lose their grip on her completely. She and Manny ran toward Mewtwo.
Mewtwo, lying face-up on the ground, tried to stand up. Samus stopped him with a charged Ice Beam attack. Manny furiously, and repeatedly, punched Mewtwo in the face. Samus hit him with a few missiles for good measure. Samus and Manny stopped attacking and stood over Mewtwo. He no longer tried to get back up. He barely looked like he'd be able to.
"It's over, Mewtwo," said Samus, who kept her Arm Cannon aimed at him. "You lost."
She looked into Mewtwo's eyes and noticed that they no longer looked a hundredth as menacing as before. These were the eyes of a battered, defeated Pokémon. "I… lost," he said. There was real pain in his voice.
Behind them, the Phazon Core was acting up again. It expanded and then contracted in an erratic, unpredictable cycle. But it was slowly getting bigger. And given its increasingly unpredictable behavior, there was no telling what it might do. It could blow up at any moment, Samus realized. They had to get out of here.
Tom ran over to the others. "Tom…" Samus began, but then he was already there, standing above Mewtwo alongside Samus and Manny. Tom looked down at Mewtwo's face. Mewtwo looked back.
"There's something I'd been wondering about," said Tom. "I didn't understand why Oscelon and the Ancient Ones allowed you to be created. The Ancient Ones could have made the game developers remove you, or even if they couldn't, Oscelon could have refused to bring you to life. Anything to stop you from doing what you did. I didn't get why they let you live when you almost destroyed the universe that Oscelon was built to protect.
"But I think I get it now. Nobody foresaw any of this – because it didn't have to happen. You didn't have to use your power to try to take over Oscelon. You could have used it to help Oscelon, or to help anyone else other than yourself. Maybe that's what the Ancient Ones hoped you would do. They couldn't make you, though. Nobody can decide who you are inside. Only you can do that."
Mewtwo looked up at Tom, Manny, and Samus. "…I lost," he repeated. "I lost… and you won. Winning… losing… that is all that ever matters. And you won. Even if you die now, you still will have won. So… you… might as well live." He raised his arms.
The whole room shook violently, as if there were an earthquake. Manny held on to Tom. Samus instinctively looked around for any sign of danger. Then a huge section of wall came crumbling to the ground. When the quaking ceased, there was a great big hole in the Leviathan Seed, and we could all see the world outside through it.
Mewtwo shifted his eyes toward the Phazon Core. "I… won't be able to hold it back much longer," he said. "You must leave now. Or else you will die."
"And just how do we know this isn't a trap?" Manny asked suspiciously.
Tom put a hand on Manny's shoulder. "Let's go," he said. "It isn't a trap."
Samus wondered what made him so sure. Then she looked behind her and saw that the Phazon Core was expanding faster than ever. "Go!" she yelled. She, Tom, and Manny all ran toward the new exit.
It wasn't a trap. Mewtwo had really let us live. Everyone ran out of the Seed just in time. The rubbly remains of the wall formed a steep slide downward; Manny grabbed ahold of Tom and then slid down with Samus. When they reached the ground, Manny let go of Tom, and all three of them ran away from the Seed. While they ran, Samus allowed herself to look back for a moment. The growing blue ball had consumed nearly everything in the room – including, presumably, Mewtwo. The Core was getting ready to blow up, and without it, everything else would fall. The Seed relied on a Core to hold it together.
There were loud explosions behind us now, but no time to look back. The three of them ran and ran. Finally, Samus decided that they'd covered enough distance and slowed down. They all stopped, and then they turned around to face the destruction they had wrought.
The Leviathan Seed was lying sideways on the ground. Chunks of it had been blown off completely. There were no more blue patches, although we could see many geyser-like eruptions of Phazon – thankfully, it was far away from us now, because these eruptions looked powerful. Soon, the Seed would be completely dead.
"Is it really over?" Tom asked. He sounded exhausted, not that I could blame him.
"Mewtwo couldn't possibly have survived that," said Samus. "Yes, it's over. It's all over."
For the second time that day, her left arm acted on its own will and put itself around Tom. Standing behind the two of them, Manny wrapped all four of his arms around them. Tom, Manny, and Samus stood like that for a while, watching the Leviathan Seed fall apart.