When I came to, I was still on my knees. I looked up and saw that my Pokémon were looking at me curiously. My vision blurred again as I sank closer to the ground with a sob.
"Lilly, what's wrong?" Ninetails asked, nudging her head under one of my arms.
I looked up at her.
"The Rockets . . ."
"What about them?" Ampharos called.
"They're coming for . . . they're gonna kill Mewtwo!" I bawled.
"You ssssssaw it?!" Arbok cried, aghast.
"That woman on the phone was . . . she must have been from T-Team Rocket," I suddenly realized.
"But you saw it, too?" Togekiss pressed.
"They're coming in a helicopter . . ."
I quickly got up and ran to the kitchen window, not wanting to believe myself. Night was beginning to fall over the neighborhood, and it looked just as the Scream described; humid and still cloudy.
I tried to stifle a sob with my hand. Ninetails accidentally knocked a chair over as she ran to my side again and allowed me to bury my face in her fur.
Suddenly, the front door banged open.
Arbok hissed and quickly slithered around us, baring her fangs. Ampharos growled and began to prepare an electrical attack, but she stopped as I heard another voice coming from the same direction.
"What's going on here? Why are you yelling, trainer?"
"Team . . . R-R . . ."
I was still crying too much to coherently explain what just happened. Arbok went ahead and relayed to Gyarados all that had come to pass within the last ten minutes.
"Well then we'll help him fight, won't we?" Gyarados growled from the front door, already getting fired up, "it's our job to protect him from these criminals."
"Yeah, let's kick some Rocket ass!"
"No!" I shouted, "I can't risk any of you guys getting killed if we try to help him!"
"Well we're not just going to stand by and do nothing, they must be on their way soon," Ninetails said calmly, though she was pawing at the ground nervously.
"Nobody is fighting Team Rocket," I said, my head still in her fur, "It's too dangerous, we have to get out of here."
"Sssshould we look for him?" Arbok asked.
"No, he can't come with us. It's the only way he can be safe, they know where I am now," I said into Ninetails' fur.
Ninetails nudged my back with her nose, encouraging me to raise my head. I was able to compose myself and walked back to the living room with her.
"Lilly, are you sure this is the best course of action? Wouldn't it be better to just explain the situation to Mewtwo?" Togekiss asked, looking at me intently.
"No, this is the only way to make sure they don't find him," I said curtly, "he can't stick around, he doesn't know when he's in danger when he's with me, and they won't stop following me."
"That wasn't what I—"
"Togekiss, she saw something we didn't. We should respect her wishes," Ninetails said, silencing him with a look.
Togekiss fell silent out of respect for Ninetails, but it was obvious that he did not agree with my decision. Ninetails gently nudged me toward the couch.
"Then we have to come up with a plan to make him leave. What shall we do?" Ninetails asked.
I sat on the couch with my head in my hands and said, "I have an idea, but . . . it's risky."
"What is it?" Ampharos asked eagerly.
I shook my head rapidly before replying, "I'm just gonna leave a note, but we need to be out of the house before he returns if this is going to work."
"What will it read?" Arbok asked.
"You really think he'll fall for it?" Togekiss asked doubtfully.
"I have a feeling he will, but we have to move quickly."
"You should go pack provisions. We shouldn't come back here for a while after this," Ampharos said.
"Right, I'll go do that now, but first . . ."
I ran and grabbed my duffel and began rifling through it as I continued, "I think it's best if you guys got in your Pokéballs now since we need to leave when I'm done packing."
"Don't you want us to help you make him leave? What if he doesn't listen to you?" Gyarados asked from the front doorway.
"I don't have to convince him because we're not going to be here when he comes back, didn't you listen to anything I just said?" I asked, exasperated.
"I was listening," she grumbled back.
"All of you, into your Pokéballs!"
They returned to their Pokéballs without another word, and I quickly grabbed a notepad and a pen to write the note before returning to the coffee table.
I have to lie . . . something that will make him leave immediately
Beep!
The sound of my Pokénav receiving a message made me fall off the couch.
I need to put that on silent, I groaned to myself.
I scrambled to my knees again and ran upstairs, stumbling into my room and grabbing the Pokénav off the nightstand to see the message which read:
Hey Lilly! Do you know where can I find Mr. Peko?
I need to get a ride to Dewford!
Still feeling quite panicked, I hastily typed back a response that read:
I'm a little busy right now,
I'll answer this later.
I threw the Pokénav back onto the mattress and hurried back downstairs. I was already lost in thought as I sat down again, trying and failing to come up with something convincing enough to trick even him.
He always catches me if I try to lie about something, I don't know how I can pull one over him…
It was then that I remembered something important about Mewtwo.
I just have to think of something that will make him angry, I thought as I tapped my pen nervously against the paper, if I can make him angry, he won't come looking for me with questions.
The more I thought about what I was about to do, the sadder I became. If I made him as angry as I needed to, there would be no going back. It took a long time for Mewtwo to trust me, and I was about to destroy all of our progress with this one lie.
But . . . this isn't about what you want, I reminded myself angrily, this is about keeping Mewtwo safe.
At that moment, the perfect lie finally came to me; without a second thought I quickly scrawled it down onto the paper, hastily folded it in half, and ran upstairs with my duffle to throw in some clothes and other important items.