Location:
Fuschia City, Kanto
Mewtwo stands aside in the dark office as Nicholas, with his helmet removed to reveal his young facial features, hands a small SD card to Giovanni. Giovanni, clad in black apparel, gently takes the sufficient piece of evidence from his follower. A frown from the powerful businessman follows as he leans back in his comfortable seat behind his desk. Giovanni's cold gaze directs to Mewtwo, and the hybrid tenses underneath his bulk of armor. Giovanni holds up the SD card.
"First, you fail to capture Jirachi, or even discover its whereabouts… but you leave my jet to get vandalized?" Giovanni's words are colder than Sheer Cold.
Pushing past the minor fear he has of this wealthy businessman, Mewtwo states, It was a young trainer. I sensed the essence of a boy and another Pokémon.
Nicholas nods toward the SD card in Giovanni's hand. "That belongs to the interior camera by the spare compartment, sir. It survived, so it should definitely have picked up our intruders."
Giovanni tightens his lips into a thin line. "You think I do not know the layout of my jet?" He waves the SD card and Nicholas looks at the ground. "But very well. I will look this over." Giovanni stands and pushes back his leather spinning chair in the process. He looks at Mewtwo. "Mewtwo, I want you to look this over with me. Nicholas, you are dismissed."
Nicholas nods as he turns. "Yes, sir." Nicholas passes Mewtwo without any eye contact and shuts the office door behind him. Mewtwo keeps his bold stance as he stares at the angered team leader. Giovanni drops the SD card into his palm and holds it tightly as he glares at Mewtwo.
Giovanni upturns his chin and exhales. "So… Mewtwo. Tell me why you weren't able to capture Jirachi? You're able to sense a mere boy and his Pokémon by my expensive jet… but not a simple Mythical Pokémon?" Giovanni speaks through clenched teeth and suppressed anger.
Mewtwo shifts and flicks his tail. I know the smell of human, young or old. As for Pokémon, I do not know every single smell, given that there's over hundreds of species out there. I have not seen every one of them, therefore, I do not know their scents. Mewtwo lifts his armored head. But… I remember a Charmander I met a while ago… an old friend told me a Charmander's final evolution is called a Charizard, correct? Giovanni nods, but keeps his frown. Well, I distinctly remember a Charmander's scent. The boy has a Pokémon that closely matches the distinct smell of a Charmander. Therefore, given the damage done to your… expensive jet, I conclude it must be a Charizard. Jirachi's smell… I never smelled a Jirachi before. I cannot track it. "Somewhere in Viridian City" does not narrow it down.
Giovanni crosses his arms and furrows his brows. He seems to frown even more. "You were designed to track your enemies, Mewtwo, so don't give me that excuse. If you tried, you'd be able to sense every presence in a certain radius… try that next time," he sneers.
Mewtwo narrows his eyes behind the screen of his mask. You mean you want me to go out again?
Giovanni grumbles to himself as he turns and faces a couple flatscreens attached to the wall to his left. He lifts a card reader and inserts the SD card inside with a light push. He sets the card reader down and pulls up his desktop. Mewtwo watches a red "R" with a black background fill the screen along with a timestamp to the screen's left. Giovanni pulls out a keyboard and clicks the screen with his mouse.
As he logs in, Giovanni confirms, "Yes… alone. Once I see who they are, I will assign my surveillance analytics to observe every camera in Viridian City until we find where they are. In the meantime, Dr. Howel has prepared your new armor… it'll be a better fit, I hope. And once you're given your new apparel, and once I've pinpointed the intruders' location, I will want you to go personally find them. Terminate them and bring me back my stolen files. Understood?"
Mewtwo nods as he watches Giovanni bring up the surveillance files. Giovanni pulls up the feed from yesterday and fast forwards into a specific timestamp. He immediately stops once what visible part of the door is melted. Giovanni lets the feed play as he steps back with arms crossed. Mewtwo glances at the determined businessman and then to the camera feed.
A Charizard places a young boy in traditional clothes inside the jet. It shields the boy from the dripping fire of the door as the boy looks around in the jet.
Oblivious to the camera, aren't you, boy? Mewtwo thinks to himself.
Giovanni frowns as the boy tries to log into the jet's desktops and then busts into a cabinet beside it. He rushes over to his Charizard with a handful of files. The Charizard grabs them and then pulls him out… and then they are gone. Giovanni scowls and pauses the feed. Giovanni places his hands on his desk and sighs with exasperation. He lowers his head and lifts his hands - only to slam them back on his desk. Mewtwo jumps a hair. Mewtwo's heart suddenly drops as Giovanni slowly turns to face him.
"My equipment," he growls, "busted by a brat and his Charizard… After you get your new armor, Mewtwo, I order you to kill him and everyone he may have told about us."
Mewtwo's stomach tightens, but he nods.
Giovanni sneers as he turns his back to the Pokémon hybrid. "You've already disappointed me today… do not disappoint me again. Go on to Dr. Howel. You are dismissed."
Mewtwo nods as something inside him heavies. It's another feeling he couldn't pinpoint, but it was one he hated. Mewtwo turns with his mouth shut and closes his eyes. He thinks of Lilith's laboratory and then he feels his body momentarily lighten as he passes through inter-dimensions, and finds himself in a large, bright lab. Many nearby scientists in white coats spring from their place from the unexpected intruder.
Lilith stands ten feet away, and her green eyes sparkle in his direction with her silky, blond hair beautifully braided and draped over her right shoulder. Mewtwo lifts his head as he relishes her healthy physique. Lilith turns her eyes back to the table in front of her. Mewtwo can see polished pieces of metal aligned on the table. He smiles behind his helmet as Lilith glances a quick smile at him. She was a woman he greatly revered.
Mewtwo grabs his bulky helmet and removes it. He sets it on the desk as he relishes fresh air. Lilith stares at the armor in front of her and Mewtwo approaches with ease. Mewtwo's violet eyes peer at the new shell.
As he studiously examines the new armor, he notices the helmet is sleeker and covers more of his head and less of his face, like an upper delm. The new armor only contains sleek pauldrons, back scutes, serrated cuisse, poleyns, and serrated plates that loop around the armor for his tail. Mewtwo's eyes fall at the weapon designed for the larger ending of his tail; a fanged, four-edge blade nearly two feet long and as shiny as diamonds. The steel within its craft looks stronger than the armor itself.
Mewtwo grins and fights the urge to trace his fingers over one of the sharp edges of the blade. Color me impressed.
Lilith moves to the table beside the armor with a grin. She lifts a thin-screen iPad and begins tapping on some key commands. Mewtwo cranes his neck to see her other work. Wires connect to a thin, metal rod that connects with a small piece of red glass. Mewtwo frowns; the red glass looks a lot like the screen on his previous helmet, only much smaller. He watches as the binary alphabet washes and glitches over the red screen and then stops. Lilith shuts off her iPad and then unplugs the technical device.
She grabs the device by the rod and then shifts over to the armor. Mewtwo moves for her. She slips the rod into a small, crafted pocket on the left side of the delm. It clicks into place and Lilith pulls back. She smiles at the new work of art. Then, she turns to Mewtwo.
"Your new armor is done," she grins. "Your armor is state-of-the-art titanium-chromium forged by dragonfire, giving it a semi-impermeability to gunfire, and your weapon -" Lilith points at the blade - "is tungsten coated with platinum coating. Tungsten is a rare, earthly metal forged by the celestial dragons and coated by Registeel, capable of turning away gunfire and after a few attempts, piercing even one of the gods' hides." Her grin is almost heinous, but Mewtwo ignores it by relishing her description of his brand new coat. Lilith suddenly softens. "Giovanni's sending you on a new mission, huh?"
Mewtwo nods and glances at her. Alone, yes.
Lilith purses her lips. "I heard the jet was broken into."
Mewtwo faces her. Word spreads quick, huh?
Lilith chuckles and shakes her head. She looks at the floor as her cheeks flush. "You'd be surprised. Word can travel quicker than the speed of light and farther than the cosmos can reach in the open world."
Surely you jest. Mewtwo's soft smile turns into a frown. The culprits are a young trainer and his Pokémon. A Charizard. Giovanni wants me to target them and retrieve the stolen goods.
Lilith recoils. "Target? You're going to kill a child?"
Mewtwo sighs softly and looks at his armor. He gently brushes his right hand over one of the shiny cuisses. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Lilith loses the tension in her shoulders and sighs. She looks at the armor. "We'll remove your armor so we can don your new armor."
Mewtwo nods and then stands straight. Lilith snaps her fingers, and so, on command, a few researchers approach Mewtwo. Two middle-aged men use a drill and unscrew his joint armor as Lilith and another young woman untie his binds on his front and back. Once his bulky chestplate is unscrewed from behind, Lilith cracks it open. Mewtwo feels his weight lighten immediately and feels free once the bulky armor is loose. As they remove the pieces, they set it aside, until they finally strip him of his outer skin. Mewtwo shivers as he stands naked, having been days since his entire body has felt the atmosphere.
He still stands as Lilith and the woman are left to add his new shell. They snap the cuisses and poleyns first, and then the back scutes. The back scutes are all one piece, Mewtwo notices, and a leather strap that connects the scutes wrap over his shoulders and snaps together with a red "R". Mewtwo frowns to himself. The woman works on his tail scutes, since they were all individual, and she uses leather lining to bind them around his tail. Mewtwo glances behind him to see the scutes, and stills his tail for the woman. Lilith pulls a stool and steps on it, which now she stands slightly taller than the hybrid before her. Mewtwo smirks at her as she pulls the eyepiece up and then slides the delm onto his head. His horns slide through the slit holes of the delm, and cups around his secondary neck. Lilith pulls the eyepiece down again, bringing the small screen over his left eye.
Lilith steps down and the other woman finally snaps on the blade carefully, evading to cut herself open with the deadly weapon. The scientists step away as Mewtwo curls his tail into view. He grins at the weapon on his tail… he knows it'll come in handy. Lilith grins. Mewtwo flicks his tail and he shivers as the serrated metal atop his tail clinks and clutters satisfyingly with his movements. He feels more free, lighter, and badass with his new armor compared to the old. Even better - it doesn't irritate his skin. He feels the soft paddings underneath the armor to comfort his porous skin, and he is grateful.
"How does it feel?" Lilith smiles.
Not worse. Mewtwo hides his gratitude.
Lilith tilts her head. "That's something, at least."
Mewtwo taps the red eyepiece over his left eye. He feels the smooth, hard texture, and concludes it is glass. What is the point of this visual nuisance?
Lilith nods. "That is a visual technical device much like from your former helmet… just minimized. An microphone is connected to the rod, so I can talk to you; on big missions, I can be your guide. But is your armor lighter? Less irritable on the skin?" Lilith's friendly tone makes her sound like a typical office doctor to Mewtwo.
Yes, and yes. Thank you, Lilith.
Lilith smiles and nods. Mewtwo begins to turn away, but then freezes and holds up a finger.
One more thing… He looks at Lilith and the doctor tilts her head. A Charizard's breath can melt anything, can't it? Won't the boy's Charizard melt my armor?
Lilith purses her lips. "Not the blade on your tail. Tungsten cannot be harmed from the fire of a Fire-type or a traditional dragon. It takes a celestial dragon to melt tungsten. As for the titanium-chromium on your skin, well, it may smolder from the heat of a Charizard. Charizards have the hottest fire of all the Fire-Types, and it matches the heat of traditional dragons like Garchomps and Salamances. So, your armor may smolder, but not melt."
Mewtwo nods. Okay… It wasn't what he was hoping for. Thank you. He turns away and then instantaneously teleports into his chosen location.
Mewtwo finds himself in Giovanni's office once again. The businessman's eyes flick to the hybrid, his cellphone pressed to his right ear. He doesn't startle, and he maintains the same condescending expression as always. Mewtwo inhales deeply to calm his sudden stress as Giovanni nods and speaks into the phone.
"Okay, thank you," he states. The devilish man looks at his phone and ends the call. His darkened eyes leer at the hybrid. An evil grin follows, which tightens Mewtwo's throat. "The new armor suits you." Giovanni gestures to his phone. "That was my surveillance analytical team. We found a location." Giovanni calmly beams. "The Viridian Inn. Turns out, the boy's name is Adrian Reynolds, and he has an older sister named Ruby Reynolds. They have a couple of friends over in the Inn, paying for their rent. I want you to kill the boy and take back my files, and terminate anyone who stands in your way. Understood?" Giovanni narrows his eyes.
Mewtwo only nods as his eyes never leave Giovanni's.
"Good," Giovanni states as he clasps his hands together. "Now go." He waves Mewtwo toward the door. "Oh, one more thing!" Mewtwo doesn't budge as Giovanni holds up a finger. "One of their friends goes by the name Seán Worden, and he shares a room with Adrian. Kill him, too. He's related to a wealthy bunch that's in league with the Princess of Sinnoh."
Mewtwo tightens his lips into a line, but nods.
Giovanni straightens. "And don't come back until they're both dead."
Sorry for the slow updates!
I got extremely busy, plus, I had a bit of writer's block on this story for a bit. It may be slow again, but hopefully, not as slow as last time!