Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Pokémon or any of its parent companies. I am merely a humble storyteller. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

Note: I am English, so some of the wording, spellings, and expressions will be those commonly used in England.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Secrets of the Mansion

Eerie. That would be a great word to describe the ambience Leaf found herself enshrouded by. Eevee whined by her feet. A sickly-sweet smell flowed into her nostrils, but was it real or was it her mind playing tricks on her?

She took a deep breath. No, this was simply another area in Kanto for her to explore, to hopefully further fill her Pokédex and satisfy her ever curious self.

Her eyes flickered quickly to the man beside her, the same man who found her after the incident with MissingNo. and Mew. He was an older gentleman, head bald and shiny, a white moustache upon his upper lip, donning a white lab coat over his shirt and tie. As he said before, his name was Blaine, host of the gameshow Blaine's Fiery Hot Quizzes.

Oh, and he was the Cinnabar Island Gym Leader. Yes, that should probably be mentioned too.

"You should find a few interesting Pokémon here," Blaine said. "It'll no doubt help fill up your Pokédex in no time. Just don't go into the basement, okay? Keep safe."

"Okay," Leaf said, suppressing a shudder. Honestly, what was with this place?

She would have a terrific time. At least, she hoped so. She never intended on exploring this derelict mansion, destroyed by something years prior. A fire perhaps? A collection of Hyper Beams from wild Gyarados? It could have been anything. Either way, she never planned on visiting, the volcano a more enticing prospect to her, but who was she to ignore a recommendation from a Gym Leader?

Besides, the Fossils were going to take a fair bit of time to be resurrected…

o~o~o~o~o

"Oho!" the scientist said, eyes gleaming. "A Helix Fossil and an Old Amber! This is only my second time getting to bring back the Pokémon from the latter!"

"Second?" Leaf echoed, turning to Blaine with raised eyebrows.

"Your Helix Fossil shouldn't take too long to bring back," the scientist said, Leaf's interruption not registering with him. "It should take the same amount of time as that Dome Fossil the Pewter Gym Leader brought to us. You see, this Fossil is quite big and that's because it contains most, if not all, of the Pokémon's ancient body, meaning all we're doing – in layman's terms – is waking it up. However, the Old Amber is different; it does not contain a single semblance of the Pokémon's original body but rather its DNA. We need to create a new body based on what we know of its skeletal remains. Still, it's not like we're trying to create an entirely new Pokémon from scratch."

Blaine's jaw clicked and he averted his gaze for half a second.

"So, I should just return later, then?" Leaf said. "When should that be?"

The scientist tapped his chin. "Hmm, your Helix Fossil could be done by tomorrow. The Old Amber took over a week last time, but we believe we can do it much quicker now. I think it's safe to assume you'll have both your Fossils revived within the week if we start this instant."

And that was that. Leaf ended up having an inadvertent vacation on Cinnabar Island, which resulted in her heading to an old, dilapidated mansion…

o~o~o~o~o

"I'd best be off, then," Blaine said. "The challengers just keep on coming and we have the next episodes of my show to shoot. No rest for the wicked."

"Okay," Leaf said. The mansion seemed to talk to her, telling her to go away, that she did not want to be here, its voice old and exhausted and haunted, the voice of someone who had lived too long and had seen too much. Was this that aura thing her cousin once told her about or was it simply an overactive imagination brought on by the fears of another encounter with a malevolent monster? It was probably the second in all honesty.

"I'll come by the lab when I can to check on you and the Fossils," Blaine said. "I'll be there to help with the regeneration process if they need me." He grinned. "It would be a waste of my previous career as a scientist not to assist when I can."

"Well, thank you for bringing me here," Leaf said. "I'm sure I'll catch a lot of Pokémon."

Blaine patted her on the head, shifting her hat slightly, before making his way back to his Gym. Yet, at the last second, he paused and turned back around. "Remember, don't go into –"

"– the basement," Leaf finished. "Don't worry, I won't."

Satisfied, the Gym Leader went off to go about his duties.

Now alone, Leaf treaded carefully across the ancient carpet, its former garnet dulled grey with dust. Eevee sneezed as Leaf's steps brought a cloud of dust into her face, making her Trainer jump.

Leaf scolded herself silently. Get a grip, she told herself. That MissingNo. incident was a one a million occurrence. She could not act so paranoid for the rest of her life. But its constant shrieking, its potentially fatal Hyper Beams, its incessant pursuit of her and her Pokémon were carved into her mind, a permanent souvenir of her time in Hell.

No, she had to get right back into the thick of it, capturing Pokémon and enjoying her life. And that started with exploring this creepy, derelict mansion that could contain one hundred MissingNos. within its shadows.

Oh, on second thought, that was not really comforting, was it?

Well, Blaine had already given her permission to delve into the mansion so she might as well take advantage of the opportunity.

And it did not take long for her to find something.

A familiar purple Pokémon spewing noxious gases floated around the corner, calling forth a grimace upon Leaf's visage as she recalled the previous two times she encountered one.

The Koffing noticed her and drifted over, its permanent grin never wavering.

"Okay, Leaf," she whispered to herself. "It's not a MissingNo. or whatever the heck that monster was. It's only a Koffing."

Yes, it was only a Koffing. A Koffing that would not attempt to devour her and her Pokémon in an uncanny, distorted world of its own creation. A Koffing that she would catch.

Baltoy would be absolutely perfect in weakening it, wouldn't it? Or how about using Butterfree with her Sleep Powder and a super effective Confusion?

Yes, either of them would work wonders.

Except, this time Leaf wanted to try something different, another way of catching a Pokémon. It was not something she was not fond of in theory, but maybe attempting it practically could warm her up to the idea. She recalled the tips Bill gave her during the time she spent learning from him:

"Catching Pokémon by weakening them first will always be the best option, nothing can compare to it at all, but there are other ways. Take these berries for example…"

Leaf took out a berry, one that had the appearance of many tiny spheres clustered together with a hat of green leaves on its head. This is known as a Razz Berry.

The Koffing closed in, its mouth agape. Perfect.

The Razz Berry sailed in an arc through the air and plopped into the Koffing's mouth. The Koffing chewed and swallowed, and its mien showed that it suddenly became, for lack of a better phrase, less on its guard.

"Hope this works," Leaf said, throwing an empty Poké Ball, flicking her wrist as she did.

It curved and knocked the Koffing between the eyes, absorbing it into its mechanical innards.

It shook once before lying motionless.

Leaf's Pokédex sang a celebratory jingle as Koffing was recorded into it.

"Was that a critical capture?" Leaf asked Eevee. "Wow, I've never gotten one before. I guess berries are useful in catching Pokémon."

The twisting in Leaf's stomach that formed upon entering the mansion eased. Yes, she still had it. That horrific episode had not taken anything away from her, her abilities, her confidence, nothing at all. Encouraged, Leaf headed further into the rundown mansion.

And there were plenty more Pokémon to be seen! Apart from more Koffing there were Rattata and Raticate, a den of Vulpix, and a Pokémon that was a literal pile of sludge with eyes and arms, the Poison-type Grimer.

Leaf caught one of each, excluding Koffing and Rattata for obvious reasons, and her Pokédex seemed to smack its lips as it relished its savoury meal. It might have also growled like MissingNo. but that was just ridiculous.

She and Eevee even came across a rather suspicious fellow, who it was safe to say did not have anyone's permission to enter the mansion, skulking about, eyeing up the remains within the mansion, and he appeared all set on challenging Leaf to battle when he fell through the rotten floor. Fortunately, he called back to Leaf's concerned shouts, saying he was all right as his head broke his fall. Or did he say he was not all right and the fall broke his head? It was one or the other.

"Today's been quite fruitful, hasn't it, Eevee?" Leaf said, slowly scrolling through her Pokédex, half ready to flinch and turn away in case it happened again. "I guess it did work out for us with Blaine letting us explore here. But I guess we're done for today, so let's leave."

Eevee gave a yap of agreement, immediately followed by a squeal as she was bowled over by a mess of orange and black fur.

"Ah, Eevee!" Leaf yelped, very nearly dropping her Pokédex. "Hey, leave her alone!"

The mess of fur ignored her, continuing its tussle with Eevee, and Leaf readied Poliwag's Poké Ball.

"I said…" Leaf started to say when her eyes sharpened and her brain grew less frantic. She frowned. Then she smiled. After which she said, "I think it wants to be your friend, Eevee."

Eevee whined, begging to be rescued, and scowled at the mess of fur who lightly bit and tugged on her ear.

Leaf knelt next to the Growlithe, simultaneously taking out a Pinap Berry from her pocket. "Aww, you're adorable. Here, take this."

The Growlithe relinquished its hold on Eevee's ear and sniffed the Pinap Berry. The next second it gobbled it up, leaving Leaf's palm slightly warm and wet.

"Aww, good Growlithe. Nice Growlithe," Leaf said, tickling its ears. It rolled on its back, exposing a tummy that desperately needed some petting, which Leaf was only too happy to oblige. "Does that feel good? Aww, do you enjoy that? Eevee likes this too."

As Leaf petted the Growlithe, inspiration struck her, which is probably one of the only things in the world that is acceptable to be struck by. To be honest, it should not have been inspiration, rather common sense and her duty.

"I'm going to catch you, Growlithe," Leaf said. "What do you say to that? Sounds like a grand idea, doesn't it? Okay, give me a sec." She ceased her puppy pampering and pulled out the future home of the Fire-type.

It should have been a simple capture, shouldn't it? The Growlithe seemed to like her and Eevee, so it should have been the next member of her party as easily as it was to fall off a log. But the Growlithe was not having that. Its fun as a wild Pokémon was not due to end so soon.

It yapped and jumped at Leaf, bundling her over. Her Pokédex and Poké Ball flew from her hands, the former of which found itself in the mouth of the fiery canine. The Growlithe wagged its tail fervently, growling playfully.

"Hey, Growlithe," Leaf said, speaking in a low, calm voice, inching towards it. "Can I have that back? It's not for Pokémon. Well, technically it is, but it's not for Pokémon themselves to use. Come on. Drop it."

Eevee barked something at the Growlithe and leapt forward, only to miss the nimble puppy. The Growlithe tossed Leaf's Pokédex upwards and caught it again, relishing its new toy.

"Hey, you're going to damage it!" Leaf said loudly, knowing full well the Pokédexes were pretty much everything-proof and the only risk was it being stolen or lost. But the Growlithe did not know that. "Come on, bring it back here. Now!"

If the Growlithe did not listen before, it was most certainly not going to listen now. Instead, it scampered away and rounded a corner, on the run with its new mechanical friend.

"No!" Leaf screamed. "Get back here!"

She and Eevee rushed after the Growlithe, deeper into the mansion.

However, oh no, the entire place was ginormous! That fluffy rapscallion could have gone anywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, on the roof, you name it! Eevee attempted to sniff out the Growlithe, which seemed like a good idea. It did come up with fair results. Except, while they did find a pack of Growlithe, none of them had a Pokédex acting as a chew toy with them. As a matter of fact, none of the Growlithe they found seemed as friendly as the thieving one, and they snarled and fired off flames at them, demanding they leave their lair. Leaf and Eevee were only too happy to oblige.

What could they do? Did Leaf have a Pokémon that would be useful to the cause and give them reason to believe they would acquire her Pokédex again? Okay, that may have been a rather tad dramatic, but did she? She scoured her Pokémon Box and a name and image jumped out at her. Not literally, of course, because that would have been silly.

Not even a minute later, a fuzzy, roundish, purple Pokémon with mandibles, stumpy paws and feet, red, bulbous compound eyes, and two antennae appeared before her.

"Okay, Venonat," Leaf said. "I want you to use the radar in your eyes to search for a Growlithe. It's got my Pokédex, so it should be easy for you to differentiate it from other Growlithe."

Venonat's drooping antennae stood to attention and its body brimmed with a subtle humming as it set about its task. Five whole minutes went by before its antennae fell again, where it hopped in place and darted off in a random direction.

"Did you find it?" Leaf asked. "Oh, please tell me you did."

Venonat guided them to a room, one they had not checked yet. It was dingy but not entirely dark, a sole window that hadn't had glass for a great number of years providing them with an adequate amount of light.

"So Growlithe's here, right?" Leaf asked Venonat. Venonat's hopping confirmed it.

"Great," Leaf said, taking out a Premier Ball. Jigglypuff materialised the next second, gazing around the room with a hint of disgust.

"Jigglypuff, I want you to use Sing on a Growlithe when we see it, okay? Seriously, the very second you catch sight of it just send it to sleep. Got it?"

Jigglypuff nodded, which was not so much a nod as it was simply tilting its entire body forward.

Thus, Leaf, Eevee, Venonat, and Jigglypuff scoured the room for the Growlithe. It was not the largest room, but it had a lot of potential hidey holes.

Leaf brushed past the ancient bookshelves, most of the books they should have contained either lying on the floor or charred and illegible, always a sickening sight.

"Poor books," Leaf whispered to herself.

Her eyes left the literary corpses and fell upon a table, the only furniture in the room that had not been totally destroyed. Lying next to one of its legs was another book.

Now, it must have been one of the few survivors of the devastation that rocked its kin, nothing special, right? Except, it looked like a journal as opposed to a book of academic text.

Curiosity pushed out thoughts of the Growlithe and her Pokédex and she picked it up.

It was a journal, thick and heavy with years of notes and writings, the spine damaged and leather worn. She opened it to the first page and, with the aid of sunlight, could barely make out the incomplete name of 'Dr. …ji'. It was obviously a short name, perhaps of four or five letters, but what those other letters were Leaf could not say.

She turned the page and came to more writing, elegant, calligraphic, writing that was, considering the date, two decades old.

July 5th: A new Pokémon was discovered deep in the densest part of the jungle. At least, we believe it to be new. If it is what I think it is, then this is of great significance to science, mythology, and history.

Leaf went on reading:

July 10th: It is! I can barely comprehend it! The Pokémon passed down in legends and myths, unnamed… until now. Henceforth, we shall call it Mew!

The weighty tome almost fell from Leaf's grip. Mew? Like the Mew she encountered, like the Mew who rescued her? Was this where information about Mew had come from? A random mansion on a random island that was now rotting away, to be forgotten? Was Mew only called 'Mew' twenty years ago? It boggled the mind, but Leaf could only think of continuing to read hungrily:

August 27th: We extended our stay in the jungle, searching for Mew, but we never saw it again. However, what we did find was the finest hairs we had ever seen, hairs that could only belong to Mew. This consolation prize must not be wasted.

Leaf skimmed through a whole chunk of the journal, knowing she would take it with her and could read it more thoroughly later, coming to another entry that caught her fancy:

April 22nd: It has been several years since we acquired Mew's hairs. There have been countless failed experiments in our efforts to create the most powerful Pokémon ever. However, we finally succeeded in creating something: Ditto, a name that perfectly encapsulates its one skill, namely the attack known as Transform. Mew is said to be the origin of all Pokémon and is theorised to be capable of using this technique too, which is how it and others have been able to avoid us for millennia. However, while this is a great step towards our goal, the Ditto are nowhere near to being the creation we crave. That said, they amuse us greatly!

May 08th: We might be in trouble. The Ditto have been multiplying wildly.

July 17th: A number of Ditto escaped. They befriended the various Flying-type Pokémon and Transformed into them and took flight in all directions. We can only hope they do not ruin the ecosystems of the regions they travel to.

July 20th: One of my fellows developed two items that can boost a Ditto's stats: Metal Powder (defence) and Quick Powder (speed). I personally don't see the point of them.

Leaf chuckled to herself as she imagined the mansion in its heyday, overrun with those amorphous pink blobs she knew so much, silently awestruck that a Pokémon was actually created in the building where she stood. Creating life! What an achievement!

The warm feeling of elation in her chest faded quickly. But what about their true goal to create the most powerful Pokémon ever? She needed to skip ahead, which she did, coming to near the end:

February 6th: It has been too long. The money and people both went, but our mysterious benefactor really came through for us when we struggled. And now here we are! We have done it! From Mew's genes is born the most powerful Pokémon in the world: Mewtwo!

Mewtwo. It was such a simple name, but Leaf found she could not say it out loud. So, they succeeded in their goal, did they?

April 4th: More must be done with Mewtwo. Its psychic power is immense and – I shudder to say it – frightening. But we must make it break its limits and that means continuing with the experiments. I have been studying some of the other Pokémon in the world, those who have broken their own limits, looked to the region of Kalos…

Kalos? Wasn't that the region just across the Channel from Galar? Well, that was what Red told Leaf anyway, and he would know.

August 15th: I am rapidly losing my hair, but I believe I can pull off the bald look! Jokes aside, Mewtwo continues to grow in power. Several of my top men and women have been hospitalised and institutionalised. But our benefactor (I dare not mention their name nor gender, even in my lifelong friend of a journal) wants more work done to it. They want it to grow in power until it can grow no more. They claim I don't have a choice anymore. But I'm scared. Mewtwo barely looks at me, but when it does it only glares. I want to leave, but I can't. Who am I more scared of? Is this my punishment? Has my lifelong dream always been unethical?

Leaf's breath caught in her throat, oblivious to the sounds of her Pokémon going about the search. She did not want to go on. She had to close the book. Read it later or abandon it entirely. Against her better judgement, her eyes drifted over to the very last page:

September 1st: Why am I writing? After what happened, why am I writing? Which sane person would do such a thing after what happened? Everything's gone. Seventeen years has just vanished. My work, my friends and colleagues, the mansion I stopped calling my own when our benefactor put it in their name. Mewtwo's gone and with it so too a lot of innocent lives, we foolish lot unable to curb its vicious tendencies. It grew powerful faster than we expected. Much too fast. However, is that success? We did as we intended after all. No, the cost was far too great. But why am I still alive? There must be a reason. Or should I forfeit my own life and avoid the guilt and trouble I know will come. I don't know what to do. Am I a bad person? My precious journal, you have been with me through thick and thin over the years, but you are filled with everything I did wrong. You will stay here and die with the mansion. Perhaps I will join you later. Goodbye.

Leaf felt queasy. She slammed the journal shut and laid it on the table. It should stay here. She did not need to read it anymore. But… she was a professor's assistant, wasn't she? She was part of the scientific community, so wasn't it in her best interests to relay all this information to Professor Oak? That was not a question: she NEEDED to. This Pokémon, Mew's child or clone or whatever it was, was possibly still out there, a danger to the world, perhaps much worse than MissingNo.

Making her decision, Leaf slotted the journal into the rucksack.

This was good, wasn't it? It was the right thing to do. It had to be.

Now, all she had to do was get her Pokédex back from that mischievous Growlithe. With an almighty mental tug, Leaf found herself back with her Pokémon, who, credit to them, continued searching, all ending at a specific spot with Venonat at the forefront.

Leaf wandered nearer, spying a dark crevice in the wall. "Growlithe's in there?"

Oh, indeed it was. As soon as Leaf spoke, the Growlithe burst out from its hiding spot and bowled Venonat and Eevee over. Jigglypuff, without missing a beat, opened her mouth to sing its lullaby only to be bounced away by the fuzzy Bug and Poison-type.

"Hey, give me back my Pokédex!" Leaf screamed.

Growlithe stood in the doorway, the Pokédex clamped in its mouth, and wagged its tail. It disappeared around the corner.

"Come on, guys," Leaf said through gritted teeth. "We'll get it this time."

o~o~o~o~o

The Growlithe took the quartet on another tour of the mansion, heading to places they had already explored and others they had not, ultimately taking them to a new area: the basement.

Now, Leaf was a responsible girl, a trustworthy girl, one who would not disobey others. Blaine's insistence on her not going into the basement had stayed with her, but did retrieving her Pokédex not take priority over keeping a promise? Did she not already make a promise to Professor Oak, that she would keep it safe and record as much information as possible? Furthermore, all she had to do was simply find Growlithe. If everything went according to plan, then it would not take long at all.

Thus, they descended the stairs.

Oh, did Leaf suddenly find herself in an entirely new place? For one horrifying moment, she considered the possibility that she was caught amidst another MissingNo. incident; her legs almost fell out from under her until she convinced herself she was definitely in the mansion's basement.

It did not look like any basement she had ever seen before. As a matter of fact, calling it a 'basement' would do it a disservice. It shared more in appearance with the Fossil Restoration Laboratory than anything, except destruction had rained down upon it: machines were burnt and broken; shards of glass littered the floor; there was a hole in ceiling, leading to a place Leaf must not have explored yet; different coloured patches stained the floor, some that might have been green and others that were old and brown, that might have been red once upon a time; and was that a tooth on the floor?

A sudden flash of pain struck Leaf's temple and she groaned, shutting her eyes, acidic bile bubbling in her tummy and working its way to her throat. Her Pokémon nudged her sympathetically.

"I'm okay, guys," she said. "No need to worry. Let's just find my Pokédex and we can get out of here."

The search took no longer than five minutes this time. The Growlithe had abandoned its game of Hide the Pokédex and was instead eying it warily, scolding it with the occasional bark.

When you think about it, that might have been course for alarm, or at least intrigue. But Leaf was fed up and eager to leave the mansion, so nothing out of the ordinary crossed her mind. Subsequently, a song from Jigglypuff and a Poké Ball later, the Growlithe was at last hers and her Pokédex was safely back in her possession.

"Finally," Leaf said to her Pokémon. "Thanks, you three. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you."

Was that it? Was this day's adventure over?

Yes, it was.

Okay, except for one more thing.

Something else caught Leaf's eye. It was a huge tank, the only glass that remained of its body being at the top and the bottom, still fixed into place, the rest of it having been reincarnated as the sparkling flesh-cutters on the floor. Murky green stains marked its immediate area and broken wires and pipes hung listlessly within it, their ends rusted and dead.

"What were they doing here?" Leaf turned to her Pokémon, who refused to get closer, standing as far back as they dared, shivering violently. Her attention found the tank again as she studied the glass. "It looks as if something's been beating on it over and over from the inside." Her eyes widened. "Was it… could it be…"

Her fingers grazed the glass, and she kept them there before common sense smacked her around the back of the head and told her to vamoose. She did as she was instructed and she, Eevee, Venonat, and Jigglypuff would later enjoy a well-deserved rest at the Pokémon Centre, after plainly informing Blaine they did in no way go down into the basement.

o~o~o~o~o

What is happening out there? There was this great power. It was only for a second, but it was there. So familiar, so like me, but not like me too. Was it you? The one from whom I was born? Why are you allowed to live and enjoy the world but I must stay hidden? Why?

Why can't you rescue me? Take me away to where you are, allow me to live and to be forgotten. You are out there.

This sensation upon my fingertips. So warm, so kind, so sympathetic. My imagination playing tricks on me. My cruellest foe, my own mind.

Mind. Do I mind? I mind much.

But why do I hide? I know this answer, but I keep forgetting.