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Part 7: Stable Ground...

"Welcome."
The word was transmitted straight into everyone's head. Adrian even heard it. Alen's eyes grew wide and he started to tremble.
"You... you are the one who taught me how to stop my aging! I remember now! Adrian, he is a very old, and extremely powerful pokémon! He..." Alen was silenced. He tried to speak through his mind, but he could not penetrate Adrian's mind. The boat continued to float toward the pier. The swimmers, except for the dragonair, were in awe, as they could not move a muscle. Alen's barrier collapsed, and Adrian stood up.
"Why? Why the storm? We could have been seriously hurt and worse yet we could have died! I know you wanted to meet me, but why like this?" Adrian's mother looked up at her son and gasped: his hair had grown a foot longer! Before Mewtwo could answer, Adrian looked over and saw this himself. It was a few inches above his shoulders before the trip, and now it was down to the middle of his back. "What's going on!?!"
"All in do time... Please, come into my house so that you may be more comfortable and dry off. Everything will be clear then." The boat dings the pier and is then roped by an unseen force. Adrian steps onto the pier, then assists his mother and Alen. The swimmers are psychically lifted from the water and set on the ground a few feet from the pier. They are given back control of movement. As Mewtwo walks toward a structure in the distance, Alen taps on Adrian's shoulder. He then points to the pokéballs that were inside his pocket. Adrian unzips the pocket and calls out the ones that were inside. They all walk toward the giant structure that stands before them and awe at the strange yet symmetrical architecture. Mewtwo is standing before giant gates. "So you have others? You are welcome here as well." Mewtwo's eyes light up and the doors open to reveal a large room with a large, round table in the middle. Waterfalls filled the corners of the building and a high, winding staircase leads to the top. "Sit at the table and we will begin."
"Can we trust him?" Charla whispers to Alen. Alen shakes his head no. A psychic message enters Charla's mind from Mewtwo. 'For now you must trust me.' Charla gulped a very frightened gulp. Duckman began to tremble at the psychic presence probing his mind. The place was bigger than it seemed, since it took nearly a minute to walk to the table. Adrian was the first to sit in a chair. His mother sat next, then Duckman, Lucy, Maro, and Glen. Ollie jumped into Adrian's lap. Charla and Cannon were too big for the chairs, but the table was low enough for them to just sit on the floor. The dragonair simply floated in the air above them. Mewtwo sat on what appeared to be a short stool. He released Alen from his psychic bond as he crossed his legs and leaned back on something unseen..
"Alright, now ask your questions." Mewtwo looked in Adrian's direction; everyone else was as well. Adrian's hair was back to normal. Adrian looked at everyone and then back to Mewtwo.
"Where did the storm come from?" Mewtwo immediately threw up his hand. A storm cloud formed above his hand and dumped rain and lightning on the ground below. He then lowered his hand and the storm disappeared. All looked surprised, except the dragonair. "Why?" Mewtwo thought a second and spoke, psychically.
"Because it was the perfect time to get you here. You have the abilities of every pokémon in existence and likely more all inside you. You are beginning to show some of these abilities. The physical and elemental barriers are the first. One day you could be shocked by Lucy and the next you cannot be shocked or burned and now you cannot be cut by shrapnel. You also show the signs of a mental barrier, but it is not strong enough to block me yet. I can also sense a primal urge inside you. You ate raw meat and suddenly went savage for a few stray minutes. Your digestive system is already suited for such consumption. If your power is not tamed then this whole planet will be your feasting ground." All at the table held their breath, except the dragonair. Adrian was stunned, sitting motionless as Ollie jumped up on top of the table. Mewtwo continued. "You also were able to take something from a dream. No pokémon I know of has this ability. Hmm... I will have to retrieve it from your ship." Mewtwo's eyes glowed and the card Adrian took from a dream suddenly appeared in his hand. A few books and some extra clothes were also transported and were in a neat, dry pile on the ground behind him. "You will be here a while, so I took some of your clothes that were still in your ship and cleaned them up. By the way, your ship is now docked at the ship dock on the opposite side of the door you came through. All damage is now repaired." Alen's jaw nearly hit the table!
"How!? How... how did you...?! Ah, I forget who I'm talking to..." Alen put his hand on his head and closed his eyes.
"Nothing is impossible, Alen. And yes, I was the one that taught you the secret to stop aging." Adrian was puzzled.
"Well, if you have existed for so long, than why is it that some of the reports I had to read in school had you created only a few decades ago? It was a very terrible thing that-"
"It was a very terrible thing those idiots tried to do! They never created me!" His hands were on the table, and he was filled with anger. Before continuing he sat back down and looked like he did before the question was asked. "I was created before any humans you have ever read about. They tried to enslave me, that was what they tried to do! I simply retaliated. Those humans had power, yes, enough to capture me, since I didn't want to harm them! I was curious, I did not know the human's language, so I let them take me. When their purpose was clear, I destroyed them. They were all lies, though I learned how to speak your language from a human female that wanted to make my trip as painless as possible. She was one of your pokémon nurses, a Nurse Tiki; she was the nicest one and had no foul intent whatsoever. I wish they could have been like her, and not so full of deceit....."
".....It disgusts me."
Adrian looked down at Ollie, who was now in a small ball of fur, sleeping. Mewtwo noticed this as well. "Hmm... I suppose all of you did have a rough ride. You should get some sleep in the rooms that are now prepared for you. Each room is tailored to fit your needs, and there will be food when you awake tomorrow." Mewtwo's eyes glowed again, and a door opened to the left. Adrian picked up Ollie and was about to leave when Mewtwo said something to him. "I would like to talk to this stray meowth for a while. Alen, Glen, we need to talk as well." Adrian was puzzled as to why Mewtwo asked for Ollie, but he didn't argue. He placed Ollie back on the table and left for his room after picking up his clothes. Upon reaching the hallway of the rooms, he noticed something kind of odd: there weren't any doors where the openings were. There were also names placed at the foot of each opening. Charla and Dasher in one, Cannon and Duckman in another. Black and Maro in one, and Lucy and Adrian's mother Tiff in another. Adrian had one with Ollie. Adrian thought a second as he walked to his room. "Black? Who is-"
"That would be me," the dragonair said with a very old and deep voice that seemed to resonate. "I will tell you why I am named so after a few more days..." Adrian was a little puzzled: it was the first time he had ever heard the dragonair speak. He continued to float his way to his room, as the rest walked. They all entered their rooms and were delighted with what was in them.
In Charla and Dasher's room, the sight was that of medieval masonry and a small lava pool. "I haven't taken a lava bath in ages!" Charla shouted upon seeing it. Dasher was getting situated on a stack of soft fire proof wool as Charla slid into the pool of lava. "Aahhhh...... nothin' like it..." A big grin was now on her face as she closed her eyes and swished the lava between her toes. Dasher was fast asleep when Charla finally fell asleep while floating on top of the lava.
Duckman went nuts when he saw the discoball in the middle of his half of the room. Cannon was not very pleased, until he saw a button to set up a sound proof barrier in the middle. On Cannon's side, there was nothing but a simple shallow pool of water with a couple lily pads in it. The entire side was white and blue. On Duckman's side, there was everything but a pool of water with lily pads! Duckman immediately jumped onto the various sorts of physical and DJ equipment and started fumbling through the various music selections already there and..... Cannon happily pressed the button for the barrier and enjoyed his little pool.
Maro and the dragonair Black saw the two sides of the room and smirked. Their room was more different than anyone else's. One side had some light while the other had none and was pitch black. The lighter side had a small, stone cot and looked like the dungeon of a castle. The dark side had what could have been a large pole with many rods poking out, but was so dark that it couldn't really be seen as anything. Maro walked toward the cot while Black flew toward the darkness.
Lucy's face lit up when she saw their room. It was the woman's dream! A large dresser with five-way mirrors and drawers stuffed with various products for Adrian's mother and Lucy to use and use up. Two large beds filled the other half. Both beds had all sorts of little cute, stuffed pokémon toys, as well as satin throw pillows and queen-size contouring pillows! A small doorway led to a bathroom with a spa and a large sink with plenty of towels. "You know what this means!" Adrian's mother shouted as she dropped the clothes she took back from Mewtwo. They both ran for the various products in the drawers.
"MAKEOVERS!!!"
Upon entering his room, Adrian turned on a light switch. A bed was situated in one corner and a strangely lit ball was on a table in front of it. Adrian touched the ball, but nothing happened. He then sat on the bed, which could be felt as an air-bed. He looked to his left and saw a bathroom with a faucet and shower. Since he had the clothes with him, he figured he may as well take a soothing hot bath.
One by one, each went to sleep, and the doors that were supposed to be there appeared and shut them in. Alen and Glen do not sleep, but Ollie already had a lot while on board the ship, so they were all up discussing things with Mewtwo. Alen is given back his memories from the time he met Mewtwo. They learn of Mew and of how she has been gone for sometime. They are taught the importance of Adrian, and of how he could be the planet's destroyer. Glen begins to frown.
"I laugh with BIG boy and he might cause Earth's dest-rrr-ruction? Why would he do dat? It not make sense."
"Yes. He can and he will, if I do not prevent it. But, I fear that I will not be enough." Mewtwo looks away for a moment. "This is not the first time this sort of thing occured. It has happened before, but I was very young, only a few hundred. It has been so long.... Humans have existed longer than you think. I WAS born a pokémon, but this one was not. His code-name was Ryu. He was created by humans all those millennia ago. You see, human evolution is much like a sine wave. There are peaks and there are troughs, but some peaks are very high. At this point in time, humans had reached their highest peak. So advanced was their technology that they tried to create a pokémon out of nothing but raw DNA, completely from scratch. They succeeded when Ryu was born, but they had no idea what they just unleashed upon the world. They programmed him to obey humans, but he was flawed, so instead he began to destroy everything. The mew of the time summoned all their powers and finally destroyed Ryu before he destroyed the planet. I was there, with my mother, sending power to aid in his destruction. It was much like a nuclear explosion, but of pure energy and not earth destructive. Most of the mew that sent their power died soon after Ryu was destroyed. They sent to the point of losing touch with life. I survived it, but my mother did not. Since I was a young mew, I had to help in disposing of the dead. It is customary for the young to bury the dead of the mew. We put the shells of bodies in the mantle of the earth, not the crust. Since we come from the earth, we must be given back to the earth. It was during this time that I under went a strange transformation that made me who I am. It was in the mantle when I changed, but no one else did."
Alen looks at Glen, who then look at Ollie. They are speechless. Glen thinks of something and his big grin returns.
"So who was the mew that left ya, huh?" Mewtwo turns and looks at Glen. He almost smiled.
"She was sent to help me through the human's brainwashing those decades ago. She said she had some kind of business she needed to take care of before she left, but I have not been in contact with her for quite some time. Mew are the only pokémon I cannot read the minds of, so she could be anywhere as anything, but only female. She is a newborn compared to me, though, so she may just be playing a trick of time." Ollie begins curling himself into a ball, and somehow captures everyone's attention. "It is late for the little one here; do you wish to be taken to your room?" Ollie nods. "Well then, I wish you pleasant dreams." Ollie is then teleported to Adrian's room. A downy pillow on an antique type chair was created for Ollie to sleep on. Alen begins to talk.
"What was this card you spoke of that Adrian took from a dream?" Glen now wondered the same thing. Mewtwo reproduced it in his hand and presented it to Alen.
"This card has a special type of function. That is all I know so far. The patterns on it give indication of human bar-coding or television broadcast static. I can only guess as to its meaning." Alen begins to ponder.
"What if it does not really have a meaning by itself... What if it is not a complete picture!"
"But picture of what? Pretty girl? Big smile? Planet? Dream? It too vague. Me need more picture to make big picture." Mewtwo looks at the card's other side and shows it to the other two.
"But how do you explain this?" The side IS covered with non-intelligible static. Alen and Glen are both puzzled.
"Perhaps other side is key to fixing static." Glen finally says. Mewtwo smiles.
"That is about as much as I could come up with when I first saw it." They begin discussing other things as the moon slowly sets and the sun begins to rise.
All begin to awaken and the doors are opened. One by one they leave their rooms and walk to the table where the others had been talking. Duckman falls over laughing when he sees Lucy's new look.
"It too much for me! HAH HAH HAH!!! Someone -HAH heh- please! I've -HAH- fallen over HAHAH-ing an' I can't -heh- ge-heh-et UP-PPbb-PHAH HAH!!" Lucy was infuriated! She walked over and promptly thunderbolted the duck. He stopped laughing after that. "...dat hurt...."
"I see all of you had a good night's rest. Now, it is time for you to eat." Mewtwo produced a lavish breakfast on the table at the wave of his hand. Each plate was specially selected for everyone. Charla had the juiciest chunk of meat she had ever eaten. Lucy, Cannon, Maro, and Dasher had some of the ripest fruit any of them had ever tasted. Duckman did not know what was on his plate, but it tasted better than anything he had ever fished up. Alen and Black had a glass of something, what it was could not be distinguished. Ollie had some fish-meat that made him purr loudly as he ate. Adrian and his mother had a large omelet with toast, milk and orange juice. Glen is a ghost, and like Mewtwo, does not need to eat.
Mewtwo watches Adrian closely. He notices that Adrian's eyes flash a red color for a fraction of a second as he was eating. He almost flinches, but decides not to. He also noticed that Adrian's mental barrier was growing stronger, as it was harder to enter his mind, but not yet impossible. He extracts more information, but still not enough. He knew exactly how the others were in nature, but he could not fully access all of Adrian's mind. He then looks at the others. They are still enjoying their food. His mind taking any extra information that he may have overlooked. He then compiles the extra data into a mental database. Adrian's eyes flash again. Mewtwo then notices something else; Adrian's mental barrier has suddenly shut him out! He tries his hardest, but is unable to penetrate his mind.
"So, what are we going to do today?" Adrian asked, looking up at Mewtwo. He looks a little bewildered, but answers, physically.
"I am going to help you better your powers. In order to do this, I will need everyone's cooperation." The others at the table shrugged. 'Okay, why are you asking, we know that you can control us whether we like or not,' he heard Charla say to herself in her mind. She was right, he did not have to ask. "You will begin with a simple telepathic message. Concentrate on Alen and try to speak using your mind." Adrian concentrated as the others were finishing their food. Adrian's eyes flashed a light blue this time. Alen started to hear something.
"That's it Adrian! Keep trying and your message will be clearer," Alen encouraged. After a few more seconds, Alen heard a message in his mind. 'Hello? Can you hear me?' Alen's eyes light up with happiness! "Yes! Yes I can hear you Adrian! Good job." Mewtwo also felt Adrian's message finally becoming strong enough to be heard telepathically. The others' eyes grew big as Adrian said something to each of them as he smiled. They were equally as impressed.
"Now, you will continue by trying to lift your plate with your mind. Go on, try it." Adrian looked at his plate and concentrated. His eyes flashed green this time. The plate began to wobble, and then finally it was lifted off the table. Everyone clapped, that is except for Mewtwo. After Adrian placed the plate down, he felt a little dizzy. Mewtwo sensed this dizziness but nothing farther. "Take a break, Adrian. You have used parts of your mind that have not been stretched before, so do not over work it. You shall continue in two hours, so walk around and look at the different things this island has to clear your mind." Adrian nods, then smiles as he gets up and walks to his room. Ollie followed. Charla started to flap her wings to fly when she remembered something.
"Are there any forests with prey on this island?" she asked.
"...Yes, there are. Exit by using the sky light." Mewtwo quickly created a forest. He then transported some pokémon from Charla's old hunting ground to that location. Cannon walked to his room, as did Black.
"Are there any other people here on this island besides us? I'm just wondering," Adrian's mother asked.
"No, you are my only guests besides Charla's prey. I can, if you want, bring someone else here...." Mewtwo answered. Adrian's mother shook her head.
"Naw, that's fine. Oh, is there any way a TV could be placed next to my bed? I just love morning soaps!" His eyes rolled. 'Humans and their 'conveniences,' he thought. One was created and placed on a table next to her bed. "Thank you!" She then walked to her room with Lucy. Duckman finally got over how good what-was-on-his-plate tasted, and went to his room to jam. Adrian came out of his room, followed by Ollie. They walked to the nearest door to the outside and it opened as they approached. He walked outside and was in awe as to how different it looked from the first time he saw it last night. He began to walk until he could not be seen through the thick forest. Maro began tapping his bone club on the plate. He thought a minute and decided to go outside also. Dasher walked to his room to try out the lava bath. Alen and Glen are left with Mewtwo.
"So, I noticed you talked physically, why didn't you just-" Alen was cut off.
"His mental barrier has become stronger than anything I have ever encountered. That is why." Glen looked at Alen and grinned a big grin.
"Why you choose him for expa.. AH!.... ex-pear-a-min-tay-shawn?" He laughed when he finished saying that word.
"I wanted to make sure that he would not try something. I saw his eyes flash when he began to concentrate. Since I cannot look into his mind anymore, I needed some insurance. I can sense his mental strength, but not when it is me that he is concentrating on. You see, last night, he was there, listening to us." Alen's eyes grew wide.
"How?! He was asleep! He must have.... No... Wait I... No.... Hmmm... Yes. He was there. It is the mark of a true psychic to be able to do this sort of thing while asleep. But how come you didn't sense it? Or did you, but kept it from us."
"Actually, I never did sense it; I grabbed it before Adrian's mind shut itself from me. It also appears that he has found another square card. He does not know about this one, though that may have changed since then." Mewtwo tried to transport it from Adrian's room, but he could not grab it with his mind. "It seems that I cannot teleport it. It must be a card that holds properties beyond physical. Or, perhaps the cards are somehow a pure element. The first card could be moved psychically, but this cannot. So maybe the first was a 'psychic' card and this second is a 'ghost' card." Alen and Glen thought this over a minute.
"Then dat mean you or Alen cain't touch it, but ME can?! Well, let's try dis!" Glen runs over to Adrian's room and looks around. "Me no see!" Mewtwo then shows a bright light where the card should be. The card was transparent and very hard to see. Glen picked it up and rushed back. "HERE FUNNY CARD!!" Alen tries to touch it, but his finger moves right through it. He gasps and takes a step back. Mewtwo concentrates for a second, glows, then tries to touch it. He succeeds, and takes it from Glen's hand. "How you do dat?"
"I have used the art of conversion. I have, in a fashion, become a ghost like you Glen." Just then the card slides through Mewtwo hand and begins sliding through the floor. Glen quickly reaches down and picks it back up. "Hmmm.... It has been ages since I last used that technique. Perhaps this card can tell if I am a real ghost or not."
"Conversion? I have never heard of this sort of ability. What is it exactly?" Mewtwo looks in Alen's direction.
"Conversion is the ability to change your type. It was first created by humans when they made porygon, a virtual pokémon that was made to diagnose computer problems as well as to test certain environments. It is not a real pokémon, so the humans that made it did not care what happened to it. When the humans had me in there lab, they had a porygon on stand-by, since it has the conversion ability and can become immune to certain attacks. They never needed it, since I did not give them a chance to use it. I probed its mind and found this knowledge, as well as instructions for different emulated attacks. Other than that it did not have free thought; it was just a mindless puppet."
"Wow, a man-made pokémon that is mindless... It seems that those scientists did not make the mistake of making a real one this time."
"Yes, but they have tried, with failure as a result." Glen is staring at the two. He gets a little frustrated and starts waving his arms around.
"WHAT TO DO WITH CARD?!? It have weird markings like other."
"Keep it with you. It seems that it can sink through the ground since it is like a ghost." Glen thinks of something smart to say, and smiles with big teeth.
"How it stay in one spot when I go get it? It was not moving when me there, so why should I not put it back? I HAVE NO POCKETS!!!" Mewtwo thinks on this a second.
"A point well taken; this is a very odd thing. Try to put it back in the exact spot it was before you took it." Glen waddles off back to Adrian's room and proceeds to find the exact spot. He places the card on that spot.... and it stays!
"WILD!!!" Glen walks back and tells the other two about the 'wildness'.
"Hmmm.... I wonder what powers these cards possess when they are all found?"
"We can only wait."


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