The pain is like a searing wave of fire moving across my head. A systematic inferno consuming my mind one piece at a time. All the while I feebly claw at my captor's grasp. It's not enough to choke me out, but enough to render me totally at its mercy.
"Alex! Hang on! We're coming!" Thunder screams. I see him dash down the hill in my peripheral vision with Growlithe hot on his tail. My aggressor notices them as well. And with the raise of a hand, the two of them are instantly halted. Telekinetically locked in a psychic field with no way of breaking free. I'm on my own.
The onslaught continues unabated, the pain growing worse every second. At this rate I'm almost convinced that what it's doing will kill me. Its expression holds no malice. Only a cold, calculated stare.
"S-s... st... s-st..." I barely manage to croak out. "o-o-op..." The pokemon loosens its grip, the stare giving way to mild surprise.
"You know our tongue?" It replies aloud.
"Y-yes. I do. P-please let me go. I-I'm not a t-threat." They hesitate for a moment before abiding. As it lets go I crumple to the ground in a heap, taking several sharp breaths and try to reorient myself as my head throbs with a dull pain. Slowly I bring myself back up.
"You are not like the others." They say bluntly, it's voice being neither masculine nor feminine. And nothing else about them portrays a gender.
"O-others? What others?"
"The other humans. In their fear they wished for my death. But you? You tried to hide away. As you said, you're not a threat. You lack the capacity to be a threat." Wait... I'm being called a coward?!
"I mean... What was I supposed to do? You tore apart a whole facility full of armed guards without effort. I sure as heck wouldn't have been able to take you down."
"Indeed. And you survived where the others perished. It is intriguing."
"So, wait." Thunder interjects. "You're not going to kill us?"
"Only if you force me to. It would be a waste of energy otherwise." The pokemon lowers its other hand, freeing the two of them from its grasp.
"Who are you?" I ask.
"I do not know. My memory is fragmented. The last thing I remember clearly is leaving this facility. And I remember them referring to me as... Mewtwo." Mewtwo... almost sounds like an evolution form of Mew. But Mew can't evolve, last I checked. But perhaps this links back to the Team Rocket's Mew kidnapping scheme. "You returned to investigate. I saw that during my probe.. It seems we have a goal in common."
"You're trying to piece together your past, I'm guessing?"
"Correct."
"Can we trust you?"
"So long as you do not attempt to harm me I will refrain from harming you or your companions."
"I think we can handle that."
"You sure about this, Alex?" Thunder asks. "They could be lying."
"Gonna have to agree with Thunder on this one." Growlithe adds. "They're dangerous. We step into that building with them, we might never come back out."
"If they wanted us dead we'd already be dead. Besides, I get the feeling that they're tied to whatever Rocket was doing here. They called it Mewtwo. I'd say they're worth having it around for a while."
"Well... If you're sure." His voice betrays fear and wariness. More so than I expect from him normally. I push that thought aside. Another time.
"Mewtwo, are there any points of interest that might have something useful?"
"Yes. The chamber from which I broke free." It replies.
"Can you lead us there?"
"I can. Follow me." Oddly cooperative. Figured they'd need some convincing. Not complaining, though.
We advance through the ruins of the complex. Most of the hallways are more or less intact. However the rooms tended to be collapsed and in complete disarray. The ones that were still intact were ransacked, probably by Rocket stripping out everything of value. We come across a wall section that is completely blown out. Not by fire, but explosives. I suppose they wanted to be thorough. Doesn't bode well for our finding anything.
Eventually we reach a room that is in the worst shape I've seen so far. The ceiling is almost non-existent, existing only as large chunks of concrete and steel on the floor. The walls are wholly blackened by charring and pieces of what look to be electronics and machinery litter the floor. On the north wall is the remains of what appears to be a giant glass cylinder judging by the circular base and abundance of glass shards everywhere.
"This is the room."
"Looks like we may be in the right place." I reply, scanning the room. "Mewtwo, mind moving all this debris out of the way?" With a nod they do so, telekinetically shoving the bigger chunks of debris off to the sides and into the corridor on the other side. All done without even hesitating or pausing to think.
The clearing reveals a few more of the circular bases as well as piping and even more broken glass. On the other side of the room are crushed tables and what appear to be computer terminals. What were they doing here?
"Let's spread out and search. Find anything that isn't broken." I say. Immediately everyone breaks away, scouring every inch of the room. I join in, heading to the walls of the computer terminal side. I notice chunks of a whiteboard strewn across the floor. Most of the chunks are blackened with soot and charring from whatever inferno they let loose in this place. I can make out a few words. "Project." "Trial #150." "Subject." And a couple of clinical-sounding words that are useless without context. This might have been some kind of lab. My gaze shifts back to Mewtwo for a second. They say his first coherent memories were here. Could that mean Rocket created it? Is that why they want so many Mew? To create and iterate on this new pokemon? For what? And how is a criminal organization funding all of this?
At this point any explanations are unsubstantiated. Speculation. I don't even know if Terranor has the kind of technology to create an organic being, let alone one with such lethal potential. But it's still something to keep in mind.
"Alex!" Thunder says. "Over here!" I peer over one of the smashed terminals to find him rummaging through the smaller bits of debris left there. In his hand is a small silver rectangle with a USB port on one end. Moderately damaged, but probably still functional. "Could this be important?"
"A flash drive! That's perfect!" I say, reaching down to pick it up. "Let's just hope they skimped on encryption security..."
"Encryp-what?"
"The information on this may be scrambled. And without the encryption key there's no way to unscramble it. Not a physical key, more of a..." How on earth do I explain coding to someone who only just discovered computers a week ago?
"It's a computer thing?"
"Yeah. We'd need an entire school course to explain. Long story short, if it's encrypted, this thing is useless to us. Still, better to check."
We continue our search, finding little else of value within the rubble. The story is true throughout the rest of the complex. A thorough purge of evidence by fire and explosives. This flash drive may well be the only thing that survived.
"That it." Growlithe affirms. "There's nothing else here."
"At least we got a flash drive. We should head back." I reply.
"What about Mewtwo?" Thunder adds, glancing at the pokemon in question. "Do we bring them back with us? I mean, I have my reservations but... it looks to me like this is just as much its mystery as it is ours."
I pause a moment to think. Indeed, Mewtwo has a stake in this too. Not to mention they could present us with clues down the line. But at the same time they're very obvious. And once word of them gets out, it may not be long before Rocket is pounding at our door. Or, more accurately, Jackson's door.
"If there's a place for them to hide, perhaps. We should ask Jackson. That is, if you want to join us, Mewtwo."
Their eyes narrow for a moment as they think. "We seem to be after a similar end goal, therefore our odds of success increase if we cooperate. Very well. I shall follow you."
"Great. This way." I lead the way back out into the forest. "It's not far. just please try to stay out of sight. We don't want to draw attention."
"I understand." They reply bluntly.
As we make our way back I think on this whole crazy situation. A third world, one with both humans and pokemon, a lethally powerful psychic type, a well funded criminal empire, the lost memories between Thunder and I. Here I thought I'd seen everything at this point. But no. The universe, or maybe even universes, seems to have no shortage of surprises and curveballs. Just the crazy fever dream that is my life, it would seem.