Chapter 33: The Originals

"Am I dreaming?" Kohaku asked while the other spectators were slowly leaving their seats and sneaking away. "A living, breathing mew! It looks exactly the way the carvings depicted it in the shrine!"

Mew continued to give Mewtwo a piercing stare while emitting a muffled mix of mewing and growling.

Mewtwo squinted at him. "You say you came here to protect your friend?"

The pink pokémon nodded. "Mew!"

The ferocious charizard roared while flying around him.

"Listen, Mew … that charizard killed the human who freed him. Once Charizard found himself free, he went on a rampage, attacking random people. Do you expect me to let that slide? I wasn't going to kill your friend. I just didn't want to risk the lives of these humans and pokémon you see around us."

"Mew mew-mew me-me-mew mewww!" Mew said. "Mew me-mew mew mew mew! Mew mew mew-me!" He flew in an up-pointing triangle path, then put his left paw over his left eye.

"What is it saying?" Jessie asked.

Meowth told her, "He said that the 'mean humans' caused Charizard only pain. Then he said those 'mean humans' stole something Mew gifted to 'good humans' who had built him a shrine. His eyelash was the gift."

Mew turned around to glare at Kohaku. "Mewww!"

Kohaku gasped.

Mew formed a blue ball of light between his hands and threw it at him. The ball was intercepted by Mewtwo's shadow ball, making both of the attacks explode safely in the air.

"Mew! Enough!" Mewtwo said, teleporting in front of Mew. "That human isn't evil. He was only doing his job. He is fascinated by the legends humans have told about you."

"Mew meww mew-me-mew mew-mew!"

Mewtwo squinted at him. "You say that anyone associated with Team Rocket is not pure of heart?"

"Mew! Mew me-mew, mew-mew mee mew-me-me meww!" Mew said while pointing at Mewtwo.

"As their creation, even I am not pure of heart? Mew, everyone has flaws. But humans and pokémon can change. There is no pure good person, and some may be worse than others. That doesn't mean they do not deserve to live. Team Rocket has been disbanded. They will no longer cause trouble."

Mew pointed at Charles. "Me me-me-mew-mew mew me-mew meww me mew!"

"So what if we're clones built by Team Rocket for their nefarious plans? We refused our purpose and chose our own paths in life. Well, Ho-Oh kind of inspired me to become a pokémon master, but the journey shaped us. And it was because of us that Team Rocket got disbanded."

"Mew mew mew, me-me-me meww mew me-mew!"

"You say that we have no place in this world because we were created through unnatural means? But why does it have to be that way?"

Mew waved his arms up and down. "Mew-mew me mew me-mew-mew mewww mew meww! Mew-mew me me-me-mew-mew me me-me!"

"The world is crashing down because of humans' creations? We clones bring further imbalance? We are not tools! The humans are not using us! We are alive, and we deserve to live just as much as natural-born pokémon do!"

Charizard roared and flew at Charles. The latter flew out of the way and hit Charizard with a wing attack.

Mew pointed at Charles. "Mew me-me-mew-mew meww mew mew!"

Mewtwo chuckled. "Unnaturally fast reflexes? It took a lot of physical training for Charles to even become so agile! He used to be a fat slob."

"Zaaar!" Charles said, giving Mewtwo a nasty look.

"Hey, you know it's true, buddy. You couldn't even fly when you evolved."

Charles blushed and looked away.

Mew shook his head. "Mew mew me-me-mew mew mew-me-me mew mew mewww, mew-mew."

Mewtwo's eyes widened. "What do you mean you and Charizard have to 'do the responsible thing'? Hold on! Y-you guys want to … eliminate us?"

Mew nodded while closing his eyes.

"That's not fair!" Mewtwo said.

Mew opened his eyes and stared at Mewtwo again. "Meww mee mew mew mew-meww! Mew mew meww me-mewww!"

Mewtwo's mouth remained open after hearing that.

"Damn, that's harsh," Meowth said.

"What did Mew say?" James asked.

"Mew and Charizard were born in this world first, and they think they have won their places. They think their clones occupy places they neither deserve nor fit in."

Mew encased himself inside a pink ball of light and flew at Mewtwo, who teleported out of his way.

Mewtwo reappeared a bit further away. "Mew! Isn't there any other way for us to earn our stay in this world?"

Mew didn't even care about talking thinks out. He formed a blue ball of light and threw it at Mewtwo, who formed a blue sphere of light around himself to defend against the attack.

"That pokémon seems very powerful," Oak said. Omy was still on his head, looking at Mewtwo with concern.

"We should get out of here," Jessie said. She and James tried to slowly tiptoe away.

Meowth grabbed them by their shirts with his paws' claws. "Oh, no ya don't! We can't leave Mewtwo behind!"

"That pink furball could blast us to bits!" James said.

"Or send the charizard after us," Jessie added.

"If it weren't for Mewtwo, we wouldn't be gym leaders livin' the high life!" Meowth said, pulling them back.

Mewtwo used his psychic power to put his backpack in a corner of the arena so his weakened pokémon would remain safe. Then he encased himself inside the blue sphere of light again and tried to push Mew to the ground. Mew formed his own pink barrier sphere and pushed back at him.

"Mew! Please stop this pointless fighting!" Mewtwo said. "Innocent bystanders might get hurt!"

Charles was flying around, screaming while Charizard chomped down on Charles' tail.

Mew stopped emitting the pink barrier and brought his hands together to form a purple and black ball. "Mewww!" He threw it at Mewtwo and it broke through his blue barrier, hitting him in the face.

Mewtwo fell to the ground, exhausted. He partially opened his eyes to see Mew stare down at him.

Mew looked at Charizard and said, "Me-me-mew! Meww mew mew-mew!"

Charizard released Charles' tail and flew to the right of Mew.

"Please stop, guys," Mewtwo said.

Mew and Charizard teamed up and flew at Mewtwo. Mew prepared a shadow ball in his arms while Charizard glowed bright red.

Charles flew in front of them while his makings gained a blue glow. His body ended up glowing in that color too. He spread his wings out to their maximum wingspan and roared as he morphed. When the glow faded away, he revealed his new form. His skin was charcoal black, the underside of his now frilly wings became sapphire, and the back and front of each of his shoulders had a spike curved inward with a blue tip. His tail flame became blue, similar to the flames he had gained at the corners of his mouth. His irises turned red and became wider. Each of his horns split into a large, upward curved one with blue tip and a smaller, fully black one under it. An azure color covered his entire underside. He took both the shadow ball and the overheat attack and endured them.

"Another mega evolution!" Kohaku said.

"Charles!" Mewtwo yelled.

Charles took a glance at him, then focused on Mew and Charizard again. "Zaaar!"

Mew and Charizard flew at him. Mew surrounded himself in the pink barrier while Charizard went for a wing attack.

Charles dodged their attacks and tried to hit them by spitting out blue jets of flame. They dodged his attacks as well.

Mewtwo levitated until he was at Charles' side. "Thanks for shielding me, buddy! Neat evolution!"

Charles nodded at him. "Zar."

"I'll take Mew on. You deal with Charizard."

They flew at their opponents and faced them. Mew attacked Mewtwo with a shadow ball but missed. He dodged Mewtwo's shadow ball. Charizard hit Charles with his blue-glowing tail. The attack hurt Charles' back, leaving his skin sore.

Yan held onto a chair from the bleacher while his father kept trying to take him away by the left arm. "I'm not leaving, Dad! Mewtwo's my friend!"

"Yan! Don't be stupid!" his father said. "You don't have any strong pokémon to intervene!"

Nutcracker looked at Yan and at the battling pokémon. He really wanted to do something, but he needed Yan to give the order.

Yan's mother grabbed the youngster by the other arm. "We can't stay here!"

Both parents pulled so hard that Yan ended up tearing the chair away. Nutcracker followed them while giving side glances to the battle that still went on.

Mewtwo was hit by a shadow ball and got sent flying into the bowl of fire. When he landed, the flame got extinguished under his body. "What a bad day."

"Mewtwo!" Yan yelled. "Nutcracker! Scratch mom and dad!"

"What?!" his parents said.

The raticate jumped at them and scratched their arms, forcing them to let go of their son.

Now freed, Yan jumped over the chairs in an attempt to get to Mewtwo. Nutcracker followed him.

Mewtwo saw that Mew and Charizard were ganging up on Charles, so he flew high and called the thunder down on Charizard. The attack hurt the aggressive pokémon, but Charizard was still up for a fight.

Mew looked at his partner and said, "Me-me-mew! Mew me!"

Charizard nodded.

Charles tried to hit Charizard with a blue flamethrower, but missed as Mew and Charizard teamed up against Mewtwo.

"Can't you guys fight fair?" Mewtwo asked as he emitted a new barrier.

Mew threw another shadow ball at him, breaking the barrier and allowing Charizard to hit Mewtwo with a wing attack.

Mewtwo crashed near the arena's center. "Ow! My back!" He used recover to heal himself, but once he finished he realized that Mew and Charizard were preparing to fire hyper beams at him.

Charles flew behind the angry duo and smacked them both with his wings, distracting them. This caused Mew and Charizard to chase him above the arena. Mewtwo took advantage of the diversion and used psychic to pull Charizard away. When Mew saw what Mewtwo was doing, he focused on Charles and breathed a multicolored beam of light at him. The beam hurt Charles' right wing, causing him to crash into the ground.

"Leave Charles alone!" Mewtwo said, throwing Charizard at Mew with his telekinesis.

Mew used psychic to stop Charizard from hitting him. They both turned to face Mewtwo and charged up hyper beams together.

Mewtwo considered teleporting out of the way, but then realized that the beams would hit Charles instead. He formed a barrier around himself and endured the attacks, even though the barrier broke. Knowing that hyper beam exhausted pokémon after use, he took the opportunity to summon lightning to strike Charizard. His attack hit, angering Mew enough to throw a shadow ball at Mewtwo. The genetic pokémon teleported out of the way and reappeared behind Mew, firing his own shadow ball and hitting Mew.

Charles joined Mewtwo in the air. Mew and Charizard looked at each other and nodded.

"Charles! They're going for you! Watch out!" Mewtwo said.

Mew's body glowed bright white before he changed into a copy of Charles in mega evolution form. He and Charizard flew past Mewtwo and chased Charles around for a while before breathing multicolored beams of light from their mouths. The attacks hit Charles at the same time, sending him falling.

Mewtwo used his psychic power to slow down Charles' fall and gently place him on the ground. After glowing bright blue for a second, Charles' body returned to its old form and color.

Mew transformed himself into a honchkrow and squawked at Charizard. They flew up high and locked eyes with Mewtwo.

"You are such cowards," Mewtwo said. "Two against one proves nothing! Mew, if you want to prove you're better, then fight me alone!"

Mew returned to his original aspect. "Mew me-me mew mew meww mew me mew! Mew mew mew!"

Mewtwo tilted his head to the right. "You want us to battle without using special powers?" He pointed at Mew. "Alright. I accept your challenge. Join me on the battlefield!"

They landed on the ground while Charizard watched them from above.

Omy kept trying to escape from Oak's arms. "Om! Om! Omanyyyy!"

"No, Omy!" the professor said. "It's too dangerous to go there!"

Meowth looked at Mewtwo and Mew while frowning. "Is there really no other way to solve this?"

"Come on, Mew!" Mewtwo said while spreading his arms out. "Do your worst!"

Mew glared before charging toward him by running on all fours. He climbed over Mewtwo's legs and delivered an uppercut to the genetic pokémon's chin. Then he jumped away.

"For such a small pokémon, you sure hit hard," Mewtwo said while adjusting his lower jaw with his right hand.

Mew giggled at him.

Mewtwo prepared to sprint. "It's my turn now!" He ran on two legs and jumped on top of Mew, almost crushing him under his weight.

Mew scratched at him before slipping away and whipping Mewtwo's back with his tail once.

"I'll show you!" Mewtwo said. He used his right fist to punch Mew away, but he did not expect Mew to bite his fist. "Ow! You little ..."

Mew let him go and climbed onto Mewtwo's shoulders. Once there, he tried to wrap his tail around the genetic pokémon's neck. Mewtwo grabbed Mew by the tail and threw him onto the ground.

Meowth climbed on top of the chair in front of him and prepared to jump away.

"Meowth! Where are you going?" Jessie asked.

James added, "Are you nuts?!"

Meowth looked at them with a scowl. "These fools are gonna kill each other! Someone's gotta settle this for them. Even if that someone's just a measly meowth." He jumped over the chairs and headed for the arena.

Mewtwo and Mew were both panting, barely standing. They charged and punched each other in the face. Even as they fell to the ground, Mew bit Mewtwo's right arm and got dragged by Mewtwo, who managed to pin him down with his left hand. Mew released Mewtwo's arm from his jaws and proceeded to claw at Mewtwo's other arm with his feet. Mewtwo released him and ended up with Mew jumping at his face and scratching it. At that moment Mew succeeded in wrapping his tail around Mewtwo's neck, squeezing it tight. In response, Mewtwo put his right hand over Mew's chest, pressing him into the ground.

"Let go or we'll both suffocate!" Mewtwo said.

"Meww."

Mewtwo grimaced, trying hard to ignore Mew's kicking and scratching on his arm. "Please! I don't want to do this!"

Mew shook his head and glared at him while squeezing Mewtwo's neck tighter. He knew Mewtwo would be naive enough to free him first, so he considered that he already won.

A voice familiar to Mewtwo said, "Stop!"

Mewtwo and Mew looked to the right to see Meowth, who ran toward them with his hands held high. Mewtwo allowed Mew some breathing room while Mew loosened his tail.

"Stop beating the crap out of each other, you twerps!" Meowth said.

Charizard hovered above, growling.

Meowth swallowed audibly before taking a deep breath, still holding his hands up. "Nobody has to go. This world's big enough for all four of ya!"

Charizard made some nasty growls. Mewtwo freed Mew from under his palm and was freed in return from Mew's tail.

"It don't matter that Mewtwo and Charles weren't born from a mother and father like me, you, and Mew were," Meowth said.

"Yeah!" Yan joined in, followed by Nutcracker. "We, their friends, want them to stay."

The crobat from Nurse Joy's lap flew to the battlefield and landed in front of Mewtwo, protecting him. From a poké ball she had in her pink purse, another pokémon came out as a red light and materialized in front of Mewtwo. It was a three-headed houndoom.

"What? Hellhound? Crobat?" Mewtwo said.

Charles dragged himself over the ground and dropped next to his trainer, still exhausted from the fight.

Omy finally managed to slip away from the professor's arms and ended up in the arena, going to the left of Mewtwo.

Kohaku stumbled onto the battlefield, then ran toward the crowd that had gathered there. He turned to look at Mew while blocking the sides with his arms. "I may be a big fan of yours, Mew, but Mewtwo's my friend. I'll never let you harm him!"

Quirinus came down as well, accompanied by his latias and latios. He stared at Mew and Charizard. "If you want to kill Mewtwo and Charles, you'll have to get through us first." Smirking, he added, "I might even try to catch you."

Sabrina calmly joined the support group on the battlefield. "Just try to harm my student again. I dare you."

Blaine sent out his magmar and rhydon.

Mew and Charizard looked around, wondering if they should retreat since they were greatly outnumbered.

"Molt!" a hoarse voice cried out.

Everyone turned around to see who it was. They saw a birdlike pokémon with fiery wings, tail, and crest. Its body was bright yellow with dark orange legs and long beak. It landed on top of the metal bowl.

"It's the legendary pokémon Moltres!" Kohaku said.

"People usually report sightings of Moltres in this area around tournament times," Quirinus said. "The battling is rumored to be what attracts it here."

Mew and Charizard looked at the legendary creature, wondering what it wanted.

The fiery pokémon spread its wings and waved them while staying perched on the bowl. "Mooooolt! Tres molt moolt molt mol! Moltres mool molt mooolt tresmol molt!"

Meowth provided translation. "It's saying that its flame sensed Mewtwo's competitive spirit. Moltres considers Mewtwo worthy of a place in this world too."

Mew looked at Mewtwo while squinting. Then he looked at Charizard and said, "Mew!" He flew away, and Charizard followed, disappearing in the horizon together.

Moltress took one last look at the crowd below, then spread its wings, shouting, "Moooolt!" as it created a new flame in the metal bowl. The legendary pokémon took off and flew away, leaving sparks of fire trailing behind.

"Well, not many people stuck around for the tournament ending celebration," Yan said, looking at the mostly empty bleachers. The only people left other than the ones near Mewtwo were Yan's parents, the three nurses, Blaine, Oak, Ash, Jessie, James, and a short old man dressed in red, with a blue cap, bushy long hair, and long beard fused with a mustache.

Quirinus brought out a flat, rectangular device that had a screen on one side and a camera on the other. "Well, I'll take a photo then. Mewtwo? Can you summon your entire team?"

"Sure thing!" Mewtwo said. "Hey! All my pokémon, come out! We're taking a group photo!"

Vixie, Buzz, Eggs, and Golduck came out from the backpack and, in spite of being tired, joined Mewtwo. Charles got up and went next to him too, moving Vixie and Buzz a bit further to the right. Eggs and Golduck stood to Mewtwo's left. Omy hopped into Mewtwo's embrace.

Quirinus was about to push the snapshot button. "Ready? Say cheese!"

"Cheese!" Mewtwo said while he and his pokémon smiled in any way they could.

Their photo was taken, frozen in time to remind Mewtwo of this long, eventful day.

Almost four years had passed since the day Mewtwo became the Indigo League Champion. Pallet Town had developed over the years, gaining a few more houses and its own gym that had a symbol made of three gold-framed circles of different colors above its entrance. The green and blue ones were side by side at the bottom of the symbol, and the red one was at the top.

A teenage boy with short, brown hair, blue cap, black backpack, yellow shirt, and black shorts chased after his raticate. "Slow down, pal! I know you're eager to battle, but ya need to learn to conserve your energy!"

When the raticate reached the door of the gym, it scratched at it several times before it opened up.

"Hello?" The one opening the door was Mewtwo. He looked slightly older, and his telepathic voice was deeper. "Oh, Nutcracker! Where's your–"

"I'm here!" the teenager said as he arrived next to his raticate.

"Yan! Nice to see you again!" Mewtwo said. "How's the badge collecting going?"

Yan grinned. "I got seven of 'em! I'm here to earn my eighth."

"Then let's go battle. I hope you are prepared, because I have mastered training the pokémon of fire, water, and grass."

Yan smacked his own chest with his right fist. "My team and I are ready for whatever you throw at us!"

After taking their positions at the opposite sides of the arena, the trainers were about to choose their pokémon.

"Ya know who I'm starting with," Yan said. "It's gonna be just like old times. Go, Nutcracker!"

His raticate stepped onto the battlefield. "Rrrrat!"

"Just like old times," Mewtwo said, smiling. He looked at a glass case that was on a wooden table next to his Indigo League golden trophy. Telekinetically, he took a poké ball out of the case and aimed it at the battlefield. "I choose you, Charles!"

Hearing his trainer's call, Charles came out roaring, flying into battle.

THE END