The Shiro Saga Legacy of a Mewtwo

by Keili

Pokémon uncensored... what happens when life takes its toll on a Mewtwo who lived his life as a killer.

1. Default Chapter

The Shiro Saga

Story #1: The legacy of the one-eyed murderer.

Prologue

My name is none of your business. My age, you could say, is two. You could say it's 17. These would be the difference in human and Pokémon years.

One thing I will tell you, straight-out, is that I am a Mewtwo. That's right, a Mewtwo, meaning there are more than one.

After humans began to show their foolhardy arrogance, they created a clone of the Mew, the last pure-hearted Pokémon left. The only one to not share human emotion.

Until my species were made. A ruthless race we were, riddled with human thought… a sad, sorry beast, Mewtwo seemed to be. No respect from the creators that spliced genes for years to come up with it… no respect from the earthlings that walked the streets that only wanted to capture it.

Trainers were a curse to me. They were my burden, so I got rid of them. I am an assassin. A loner. One who keeps a low profile and kills for profit. Though I only work for myself. The world has broken me… now I shall break it.

My childhood was short and sweet, though I care not to remember it. My memories only remind me of what I once had… and what I gave up. My adolescent years were nothing but violence and bloodshed. My victims, every creature to cross my path. I was the black cat of the 20th century.

I have no friends. I have no enemies. Only those who make fun of my appearance are those I hold grudge against. I'll admit, I may seem a bit hideous upon first glance, but my haggard, torn skin and blood-soaked fur are only what I have gained from hate.

I calmed myself after taking my anger out on enough hapless prey-creatures. I suppose it was all thanks to my death…

The only reason I am talking to you now is because a person came along and spared me. Though this person seemed to be no ordinary lass. Not of this world, even. From what I know, being a very reliable source, no human could ever merge with a Pocket Monster before this one…

I was revived, in a sense, as a sort of spirit, sharing the shell of the human… or whatever she was, for that matter… as a separate entity entirely. Though she could assume my form upon will, as could I, when I took control.

Her life, I soon found out, was far from stressful, being only seven years of age in a house with twenty-eight sisters. I actually stopped and counted once or twice.

So naturally, it was a slow seven years before anything really interesting happened. That day, after the girl had turned fourteen, a genetic experiment gone wrong attacked the city in which she lived.

Being what the humans would consider a "Pokémon Master," she and a close friend of the family took on the beast with their own teams of monsters. Failing miserably seemed to trigger some sort of transformation within the girl, Kae's, small Charmander, and her companion, R-K's, Charizard.

The two gained gold and silver armor, finally destroying the being. I was intrigued by how two small monsters could generate such power so easily.

This plagued my thoughts for a short time, until it was decided that there would be a council of monsters to meet their creator. The being Archaeopteryx.

Being a lover of chaos, I decided I would go.

I arrived upon the scene, receiving stares by the shit-load. Of course, they most likely didn't know of my no-staring-or-I-kill-you-promptly policy. I joined the ranks of most creatures, though considered myself far above the commonplace monsters there. They knew not half of what I did.

The creator of these creatures gave me a peculiar glance upon first sight. As though he realized that I was no mere Pokémon. But a clone. Clones were the only beasts he had no control over, being that they were created by human hands, and not his own talons.

I'd merely come to stir up some mischief.

"YOU…" The voice of the great white-silver dragon exploded in my direction. "YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THE REAL MONSTERS. YOU ARE BUT A CLONE. WHAT BUSINESS HAVE YOU ON MY GROUNDS?"

"None." Came my response, simple and curt, as always my answers are… not to mention vague as one could get.

The giant, other-worldly being lowered one brow, raising the other, and stared at me with great, glowing eyes, bigger than myself in comparison. "THEN WHY HAVE YOU COME?" he inquires in suspicion.

"As a witness." I answered evasively.

"A WITNESS OF WHAT?" He queried further, growing less and less tolerant of me by the moment.

"A Pokémon council." I said quietly, the first completely true answer I'd given him thus far.

"STAY UNSEEN AND I WILL ALLOW YOU TO REMAIN." He forewarns in a hiss, much like a serpent's.

"Indeed, master." I mocked, laughing aloud.

With a swirl of his gleaming tail, he turned about and stood before the others.

"AS YOU ALL CLEARLY SEE, THERE IS A CLONE IN OUR MIDST." He sneers, emphasizing the word "clone," as though disgusted. "YOU SHALL TREAT IT AS IT WOULD TREAT YOU. THIS IS THE LAW OF THE LAND."

"I'm a male, you bastard!" I shouted, upon the fact he'd called me an "it."

His gruesome face coils in anger. "Bastard am I?" he asks in return, tensing considerably.

"Yes, I'm quite sure you don't know your father." I retorted. Join the club. I thought to myself.

He simply glowered down upon me with glowing eyes that reflected my image. "YOU'RE VERY ARROGANT FOR A CLONE." He snapped toward me. "YOU ARE THE VERY IMAGE OF YOUR SPECIES, BOY. A PROUD, NASTY SONOFABITCH JUST ASKING TO GET HIS ASS KICKED."

"Oh?" I responded unconcernedly. "Am I the one asking, or are you just tired of my 'attitude?'"

A few of the natural monsters sharply glared at me. Of course, no one could match my frightening façade, so I had naught to fear.

Eventually, they all tired of arguing with me, so the council continued.

I sat back, amusing myself by watching ants or some such thing, though all in all, I was bored. I figured 'twas time to wreak some havoc.

I unsheathed a katana I usually kept with me and prodded the nearest creature with the tip, causing them to jump and yelp.

Upon looking back, it seemed to have turned a few heads in my direction. One voice yelled out and the whole crowd went flying into different directions. One Arcanine, however, had not moved from her rank.

"Well, you've certainly done it now, Mewtwo." She muttered in my direction calmly. "Archaeopteryx never did like you, and he won't give you mercy."

"I don't believe I asked his mercy, did I, missy?" came my cold reply, as I began to draw in the dirt with its point. "You are, by the way?"

"Kasumi." She answered. "Surely you've heard of me."

"Of course." I added, sitting and still scribbling. "You're as famous as I am infamous."

"Well, what of yourself, troublemaker?" she inquired, not so much as turning back her head.

"I bear no name." I told her simply. "I have been cursed with a thousand lifetimes of misery, so I shan't reveal my title to you."

Thunderous footsteps approached slowly.

"Interesting though that is, I believe someone wishes to speak to you." She sneers, in a manner to rival my own overruling sarcasm.

"No, he wishes to crush me and feed my broken carcass to the dogs, Kasumi. I'd much rather converse with one not after my blood. You're the first creature to do so in years." I ended only half-truthfully. I'm not one to speak truths.

"'Twas a pleasure speaking to you, and I wish you well… you'll need it." She forewarns, stepping away from the giant dragon's path.

The last I saw of her, she had taken off, and the platinum dragon stood in my wake. "YOU HAVE BROKEN THE LAST STRAW, PUNY CLONE…" the roaring beast's voice exploded into the still air.

"I'm sure." Was all I muttered in return to his words, dripping with the utmost loathing toward me.

In the blink of an eye, the time-space continuum stopped dead, and all that was left was the Pokémon world, barren and lifeless but for the plant matter.

For several years, the dragon kept the planet this way, before finally replacing the beings, deciding on a penalty for my actions.

As soon as all time had returned to normal, a giant series of storms plagued the planet, one after another. First was an earthquake, from the down-step of his talon, next a hurricane from far in the west, followed by natural disasters aplenty.

In these massive outbreaks of disastrous weather, many were transported to other lands, other worlds, and sometimes other times entirely.

Though I remained in the same dimensions as before.

With all the confusion, many could help themselves getting back to the right placings, but others stayed astray in a vastly different surrounding than what they had become accustomed to.

How I know this? The human sharing my being aged rapidly in that span of only a few years, from fourteen years to almost twenty, though the actual span had been a mere passing of the twelve months.

Peculiar. I thought, as the beasts returned to their meaningless lives. The being possesses power enough to alter and conceive time…

From then on, I became slightly more wary of supernatural, otherworldly creatures… of course, this did not apply to the mass of the population.

Later on in the years, Kae and R-K did several other things not concerning myself, but their little 'teams' of obediently enslaved monsters. It was then that I learned… the Arcanine I'd met at the meeting shared a soul with Kae's friend.

This, I'll admit, surprised me. I never could've imagined that I would see Kasumi again, let alone that she would be sort of a neighbor. My hate of life slowly began to dim with every passing glance she paid me.

These are tales that didn't apply to Kasumi and me. Now begins the real tale.

Chapter #1: A Heart of Stone Crumbles

This may come as somewhat of a shock, but there shall be a change of narrator for the duration of most stories. Since my role becomes much more minor as the actual writing progresses, I am a full-time narrator as of now, unless stated otherwise. I'm Kae. The one the Mewtwo was talking about. And this is the saga of the life we live… get ready, because you may not believe what you hear.

Now, I'm sure you've met my pal, the Mewtwo, but you don't know the half of him. You just saw his good side. If someone gets on his nerves, he tends to lose all sense and becomes trigger-happy, swordsman-style. All this and he's never revealed his name. He said that uttering his name would only bring curses to those around him, but I'm not so sure he's quite certain of how to define: curse.

Well, I seem to know just a bit more about him than he does about himself. I could be wrong, but my Mewtwo, Lion, was told to be the little brat's father. This I find impossible, because for everything that's the same between them, there are about three differences. It puzzles me to no end, but I heard such from the very scientists that made him. He was a Team Rocket clone, but they lost all record of him in about 1987. It just… disappeared.

Knowing this, I'm sure you have more questions, but I couldn't answer you if I tried. I don't know, either.

As I pondered these things, as well as others, I sat outside on a warm, slightly windy day. Being a Pokémon master, I had nothing to worry about, even if I was challenged. My monsters alone could handle any competitor without the slightest fault. It tended to get really boring.

That's why I had R-K. She was the friend I'd had for the majority of my life, not to mention my career, because we'd met by accident as I was passing through. She saved my Crocanaw from being stolen, and from then on, we were the best of friends. Nutty, isn't it?

Speaking of, she was the one who approached as I lay stretched out on a chair, unconscious, yet able to think. Kind of like a state of semi-sleep.

She took one look at me and began to prod at my head. "Since when do you go outside?"

I batted at her hand lazily and grunted. "Today."

"I see…" She muttered, perking her Arcanine ears and cocking a brow.

I nearly collapsed from exhaustion afterwards, having been up for nearly two days. Having my house, you'd be awake all night, too.

She still insisted on prodding me. "Get up, lazy-ass."

My violet tail twitched in agitation and I rolled over, using my crossed arms as a pillow. "Now that you insist, no."

She steamed a minute and kicked my chair over promptly.

It landed on top of me and I had little trouble falling dead asleep, other than the fact that the ground was rather cold.

R-K kept at it, trying to wake me, but to little avail. I finally regained my senses when an inchworm crawled across my ear.

"Alright, alright… I'm awake." I paused. "I think."

"Well don't think!" she snapped. "I have an emergency situation."

"Like what?" I muttered, grinding at my black eyes with the side of my hand and wrist.

"I have to baby-sit." She grumbled, looking away, ears flat to her skull.

I yawned and scratched at my head. "What's so bad about that?"

"You'll see." Was all she said, before dragging me by the tail to the mainland where her house was. I lived on an island not far from shore.

Once we were in the house, a small child zipped by, surprisingly quickly for such a short person, screeching in a high-pitched and whining voice; saying things like: "Candycandysugarchocolateicecream!!!"

"Now I get it." I muttered to R-K, currently more awake than I once was.

After about a minute of the squeaking shrieks, both of us were at the brink of insanity trying to keep our sensitive ears from bursting.

"Oh, shut up!" the both of us chorused, meaninglessly so far as the child was concerned.

"Yes, hence her nickname, 'Annoyingness Maximus.'" R-K explained in a forced voice, so as to be heard.

"I can tell." I nearly shouted back.

Though with the small girl's footsteps pattering back and forth through the house, the noise was doubled from what it would've been had she simply stood still.

"This just gets better and better by the minute, eh, R-K?" I joked in sarcasm, watching Annoyingness reach one end of the house and turn around, running back to the next.

"You can say that again." She added, hands holding her canine ears flat onto her head, in her dark black hair. I had my own feline pinna burrowed into my dark brown locks.

"What-say we at least restrain the hyperactive thing?" I suggested. "Then maybe we can hopefully put her to sleep…"

"Yeah, let's try that." She agreed in a stressed tone. She took off after the small child, and I watched for a few minutes as she failed to keep the situation under control. "Mind lending a hand!?"

"Not at all." I told her, standing and slowly morphing into the state of the scar-covered Mewtwo that chose to live as my counterpart, rather than die. My nose and mouth melded together and my eyes altered considerably. The left grew white and the sight in it was completely lost, while the right narrowed and sharpened, gaining lavender tinge. A tube ran down from my head and connected with a hard plate that covered and broadened my shoulders somewhere between my shoulder blades. My hands became stout and incredibly stubby, even by Mewtwo's standards. The tips of the fingers I now possessed grew round fingertips and seemed to reek with an emanating power. As though even just the left hand of this Mewtwo could annihilate an entire civilization. Though, oddly, it was merely his dominant limb. My feet stretched and my thighs shortened, my knee now becoming a false knee and my heel now my hock. The point at which my toes bent became my real knee. In the middle of the transformation, my clothing melded into the skin of the Mewtwo I had become, scarred and torn apart in as many places as possible. You could say he was weathered by his experience.

He stepped slowly up to the area the youth was parading across, watching her approach with hawk's eyes. He caught her every movement, as cat's eyes were meant to do, and lashed out with his arm, lightning reflexes and timing exact down to the letter. His hand clenched the collar of the little girl in a fraction of the time it would take to blink an eye. He pulled her close to his almost gray pelt, crawling with parasites accumulated through the years where he'd lived outside, away from the society that had shunned him.

He paced toward the chair R-K had prepared and tied the young ball of energy to it with leeway enough so that she could breathe, but not much else.

"Much obliged." I thought, saying it to him because he shared my mind.

He only snorted, giving me a perturbed stare.

I morphed back, joining R-K in her kitchen where Annoyingness bounced around in the chair, still gleeful as ever. "Let's try hypnosis for starters. Got a Pokémon on you with the attack?" I questioned of her.

"Yes, it just happens to be that I do."

"Release it." I instructed, letting my Alakazam stand before Annoyingness. Immediately, he covered his 'ears' and ground his tiny fangs.

"Relax; Morty… it's only the equivalent of Screech." I assured, stroking his bald yellow head.

He nodded and lowered his hands.

R-K then let out a Gengar, and it looked to Morty, averting his sights to the girl momentarily after.

"Morty!" I commanded.

"Gengar!" R-K echoed.

"Hypnosis!" we instructed in unison.

Morty's eyes glowed off-purple and R-K's Gengar waved his hands, blue, gassy waves floating from his fingertips. Both attacks hit simultaneously, though did naught but stifle the child's energy for a moment.

Once she began to scream again, we returned the two and formed a new plan.

"We'll get some Pokémon with the Sing attack… that's guaranteed to work." R-K muttered, releasing a few Lapras and a Clefable.

I nodded, digging into my backpack in the other room and taking the ball of a few Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff, Lapras, Clefable, and a Jynx I just happened to have.

We started the chorus with the Jigglypuff, adding Wigglytuff, and then the Lapras joined, followed by the Clefable and the surprisingly musical Jynx.

Eventually, after about half-an-hour's-worth of them singing, Annoyingness fell dead asleep in the chair.

The Pokémon, all exhausted from the effort, collapsed and sighed.

"Well, that was quite the session…" I complimented, so used to hearing the sing attack that I wasn't fazed by it. "Good work, guys."

The lot were glad to return and the kitchen was empty again. Though the song they'd sung had reminded me just how tired I really was.

"Wimp." The Mewtwo sneered.

"Shut up, you."

R-K and I went back into the living room and I lie across one of the couches, head on my backpack, falling back to sleep.

One thing wrong with that, I soon found out. It turns out, Annoyingness Maximus screeches things in her sleep on occasion, and is rather loudly, at that.

"How do they put up with her!?" I demanded, wondering why she hadn't been abandoned yet.

"She's not as bad at her own house because they spoil her to death." R-K inputs in a mumble, playing her Game boy™.

"Ass-munch." I spat at her, rolling onto my side and scratching my arm. "If that were my child, I'll just not go there."

"Indeed." She mutters in return.

"So what now?" I asked, too tired to sleep.

"Don't know." She answered. "They'll be here to pick up AM any minute." She saves the game and turns it off. "Want to go outside?"

"Sure… why not?" I grumbled, standing and stretching drowsily.

We headed out her side-door and into the yard, the sun glaring warmly down upon us, with no trace of wind or any such thing wrong with the weather.

This usually meant bad news.

"Hmm… no one is ever supposed to suspect the sunny day. But we know better than that, right, R-K?"

She nodded and looked around into the endless yard she owned. "Wonder what's going on this time."

"Good question." I responded, beginning to walk forward and observe the surroundings. As once mentioned, I was a very inside person. I don't get out much.

"Hey, what's that?" she asked, pointing to a dot with wings in the distance.

I stared up at it, black eyes narrowing only slightly, even though it was considerably bright out. "Don't know… what do you think?"

She shrugs and we stared at it as it grew larger and gained a form.

A winged girl swooped in and landed next to us, resembling me in appearance, but size, not by far. She was miles taller than I was, but had the same face and half-Pokémon qualities as I did. Though she was a Golbat.

"Hey, R-K, little sis!" she greeted, smiling at us with a fanged grin. "Since when do you go outside?" she asked of me.

"Quiet." I snapped.

She shrugged and crossed her arms casually. "Well, what've you been up to?" she asked, attempting to start a conversation.

"Sleeping, mostly." I muttered.

"Baby-sitting." R-K grumbled.

"So I see." She added, flinching upon hearing one of the screeches from inside of the house. If you think cat or dog ears are sensitive, try being a bat.

As the other two began to converse, my hearing drowned out and became faint, as though I were near-deaf.

"Hello?" I could hear all of a sudden. "Is anyone there?"

"What?" I responded uncharacteristically kindly, seeing as the lad seemed scared shitless. "What is it? Who is this?"

"Oh, thank God! This is Jonathan, a resident of Pokémon London." He explained more calmly.

"London?" I repeated in curiosity. "Telepathy can reach this far?"

"Heheh. Apparently so." He answered, sounding more hopeful. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to know… if you're able to hear me, can you help me."

"This isn't the helpdesk, okay? If it requires a mercenary, then we're good, but nothing else, I'm afraid." I explained to him.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed. "A mercenary is just what I need."

"Alright, then we can help you." I assured. "What's the problem?"

"I live in a castle, one of the only left, and some strange person that I've never really even seen just moved into the lower floors one day and prevented my Pokémon and me from moving any lower than the topmost floor."

"I see." I told him, slightly unconcerned, being heartless as I am. "Though we can help if it's for the good of Pokémon. Humans we're not so concerned about, but if it's for the good of Pokémon."

He laughs. "Well, this is good, either way. But when would I expect you all to arrive?"

"Oh, I don't know… nightfall?"

"Nightfall!?" He repeated, in shock. "Where exactly are you guys coming from, anyway?"

"Japan." I answered.

"Ah. Well, see you then, I guess." He muttered, as my hearing faded back in.

"Why's she staring into the abyss like that?" R-K inquired.

My older sister shrugged. "Probably talking to that Mewtwo again. I don't see why though. He's rather inconsiderate."

"Guys, we've got a problem." I interrupted, turning around to face them.

"Such as?" my sister asked.

"There's a kid in London that needs our help. He and his monsters are being forced into the upper levels of his castle." I told them.

"In London?" she repeated skeptically. "This has to be a prank."

"No prank." I assured sternly, giving her a warning leer. "Do you honestly think someone would send us all the way to London to laugh at us?"

"Yes."

I paused, considering her point. "Okay, well, do you know anyone other than a Pokémorph that can speak telepathically?"

"Point proven." She looked back to R-K. "Why's your head on fire?"

Indeed, R-K-9e's head was aflame.

"She just doesn't like to be ignored." I pulled out a slice of cheese from my pocket, waving it in the air.

"Cheese!" she squealed, leaping forth and tackling me to get at the processed dairy product.

"Yes, R-K. It's cheese." I muttered shoving her off and returning to my feet.

"Well, we'd better be off, if we're to get to London by nightfall." Kai #2, the Golbat-anthro, suggested.

"Indeed." I added, looking to R-K.

"I have cheese!!!" she announced gleefully, unwrapping and inhaling the yellowed food.

"Right." I told her, nodding and morphing again, into the young male of the Mewtwo kind, covered in scars and shrouded in mystery.

My elder sister became an elder Golbat, missing a small chunk of flesh on the ear and with torn wings from ages of fighting. The light yellow eyes of the bat shone eerily, watching everything around him, though his expression suggested otherwise.

R-K transformed when through with her food, into a beauty of an Arcanine, a female with a scar running across her left eye, both her alluring orbs a dazzlingly deep and shining midnight blue.

"One question." The Mewtwo proposed, upon seeing Kasumi stand before him. "How are you to fly?" he sneered in a curious manner.

"You'll see, Mewtwo, with the only eye that can, no less." She returned the sarcastic grin and superior tone. She stepped forth and her fur turned black, with bloodred stripes across her finely curved spine. Two giant demonic wings burst from her shoulder blades and she stared back at him with gleaming scarlet eyes.

The Golbat rose into the air unsteadily, with such insufficient wings, and the peculiar Mewtwo rose using his levitational powers, despite how much he hated to do so.

With one great down swipe, Kasumi rose into midair and joined them, as we sent off for Poké-England.

Along the way, the Golbat accompanying us began to smile.

"What, Ganna?" the young lad snapped, as though insulted.

He shakes his head. "Nothing, nothing, young Mewtwo… just… we're not exactly what a person in need would consider a rescue team." He chortles. "Rather, it would look like the three of us had come to kill him."

"Surely." He spits unenthusiastically in return, batting his mismatched eyes.

Ganna seemed to quiet after that was said, and the three continued on toward their destination.

Though their next highlight seemed rather odd, indeed. As they passed, those paying attention would note a Dewgong shooting an Aurora Beam attack against an unknown opponent, the white seal wearing a black satin collar with flashing red-and-blue lights adorning it.

We had no time to stop, so we couldn't do much more than glance as we passed by. But that certainly was interesting, I should say.

We reached an area close to the castle we'd heard of. Close enough, in fact, that we could actually spot the stone towers from our current point.

Kasumi lead us forth, having morphed mostly back, though keeping the wings she possessed during the transformation.

The castle grew closer, but we wouldn't get there quite so easily, it seemed. A Moltres flew in front of us as we attempted to pass.

"Halt!" it commanded. "Be you trespassers or passersby?"

"Hmm…" my Mewtwo comrade began, holding his head in his hand. "Yeah, I think we'd count as trespassers." He muttered, shoving the bird aside and making his way past.

It darted back and flew into his line of passage. "Firstly, Mewtwo, why are you speaking? Should you not address me in telepathy?"

"Did I not imply that I wanted you to get the hell out of my way?" he asked in annoyance, grinding his yellowed fangs and glaring with his fiendish death stare.

He stared suspiciously towards the Mewtwo. "Secondly, if you want to get past me, brute, you'll have to fight me." He challenged, looking over the possible opponents. "What about you, Golbat?"

"Aye, I'll accept." He answered, floating forth on tatters of wings and indicating that Shiro should back away for now. "Though you may want to think about your choice after you've lost, Yorokku." He said strangely.

The Moltres recoiled in shock. "Master Ganna!?" he squawked, reconsidering making the choice for his opponent based upon power in appearance. "Y-you're dead!" he demanded.

The Golbat smiles serenely and flaps his wings to remain airborne.

"Fine, we'll see, Sensei." He agreed, flames dancing atop his head and upon his tail and wings. "I've always wanted to know if I would ever surpass you."

"Well, come on. Are we going to chat idly, or are we going to fight?" Ganna taunted, chuckling at his former student.

"Oh, we'll fight, old man." He assured.

Both dove and attacked one another briskly. Ganna swung in the air to gain momentum and solidly landed a kick into the Moltres's head.

As it fell to the Earth nearly ¼ of a mile down, Ganna stared seriously toward it. "You never learned anything, Yorokku. And now you pay for your foolishness. Surely, I was dead, but my soul was spared by a young girl I met… one with a particular love for bats."

He returned to the others and they continued on.

Next up, a Zapdos confronted them. The hot-headed Mewtwo boy seemed eager to make him pay for interrupting their quest.

"Stop!" it commanded, speaking Zapdos, as the Moltres before him had done. "You are trespassing, and I'll not allow it!"

"We are, are we?" the boy answered in riddle, looking back to Kasumi and Ganna. "Did you all know we were trespassing?" he inquired of them in a slow and mocking voice.

Kasumi sniggered and Ganna merely smiled, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I guess they knew." He continued in the curt implement of his real voice. "As did I. So what do you plan to do about it?" he questions of the electric bird.

"I plan to make you pay for your mouth, boy!" the Zapdos snapped at him.

"Go ahead." He challenged. "Make my day."

The Zapdos charged, ignorant of the others, and sent a shockwave toward the telekinetic cat that floated before him.

The psychic feline brushed away the attack with a hand, unfazed in the least. He, however, pulled back his fist as the hawk charged, and let loose a punch that would kill a horse, if given a chance.

The bird's beak shattered and it fell to the ground in a stupor, if not dead.

"Two down, one to go." He mumbled, cracking his knuckles and leading them forth to the next opponent.

This Articuno, like the others, stopped them and demanded that they not go further, lest they should "face the consequences."

The trio were not amused.

Kasumi flew forth and stepped up to battle. Though upon seeing the arctic falcon, she recoiled and her ravishing eyes narrowed harshly.

"So we meet again." Kasumi hissed through her gleaming fangs.

"Indeed." He answered, puffing his feathers and glaring with his own lavender eyes. His icy tail waved in one smooth motion. "This is for the anguish you caused me." He announced boldly, crown adorning his royal head well.

"And this is for your ignorance." She spat in return, charging forth.

In a flash, the Articuno fell, though the Arcanine seemed to want more than a simple victory. She took back one paw and lashed at the throat of the challenger, and he fell to the earth dead.

She watched proudly as he fell and rejoined the others, as if nothing had happened. The Mewtwo boy acted so as well. Ganna, though, was skeptical.

"I do not think he deserved to die, Kasumi." He protested indignantly, glancing from Kasumi to the youth to the bird.

She took back her lips and spat upon the falling falcon. "Yes he did." She growls, still through gritted fangs.

The young boy sat back and watched her amusedly. In fact, it'd been the first time I'd ever seen him smile. "Good show, Kasumi. Though I'm curious. What was his crime that damned his fate?"

"It's nothing of your concern." She replied evasively, though not as curtly as she would've had she been speaking to Ganna.

"I see." He responded quietly, still curious as a cat.

Ganna looked back and forth between them. "How can you both be so heartless?" he demanded.

The one-eyed Mewtwo stared directly at the old Golbat, hypnotizing eyes frightening and alluring in the same essence. "We're killers, old man." Came his response, sweet and simple as though he were asked a mere yes or no question.

Ganna shook his head, eyes widening and glittering with anxiety. "No…"

"Did I stutter?" the young boy snapped, flying forth.

As they approached the castle, they entered the window silently and landed inside. The boy kneeled onto his hands and knees, rising boldly upon his entrance and looking down at a boy no older than myself. Kasumi stepped out from behind him and folded her wings, allowing them to disappear. Ganna hung in the sky above their heads, none too impressive on his own.

The English lad I mentioned earlier stood in fear of the three that'd entered his window suddenly. Certainly, you wouldn't believe me if I told you your rescue team was a blind-eyed Mewtwo, an Arcanine with wings, and a beaten-up looking Golbat.

He stared from Kasumi to the Mewtwo boy, unsure of whether seeing one was worse than seeing the other.

"Y-y-y-y-you're wanted!!" he stutters, still double-taking and staring at both of them.

"Well, you think we'd be aware of that, seeing as our faces are on wanted posters around the globe, eh, Kasumi?" the boy asked lightly, glancing back to the Arcanine that stood behind him.

She smiles. "Yes, I believe we would."

Jonathan still glanced from monster to monster, hardly noticing the Golbat in the back, flying to a rafter and clinging upside-down to it.

I morphed back to my semi-human form and R-K followed suit.

Before his very eyes, the English child had witnessed a transformation from the two assassins he'd feared to two young women now standing before him. My elder sister flew lower to the ground and joined us, folding her wings softly.

"Well, well, Jonathan. I see you're not quite normal… just as the rest of us aren't." I looked back to Kai and R-K. "We, such as you, have morphing ability." I took hold of one of his light brown wings gingerly. "So it seems, you are a Pidgeot. Might I ask how this happened?"

He nodded and the cork-bottle glasses he wore drooped. "I came across a dying Pidgeot one day and we were fused as I was carrying it to my castle."

"And you've obviously learned how to at least keep the tail, the crown, and the wings of the bird, yes?"

He again nodded.

"Good. Now, one question."

"Yes?"

"Why did you not simply morph and escape this prison you're apparently living in?" I set his wing down. "You could very well fly if you were to become a Pidgeot."

"How?" he asked, tilting his head and furrowing his brow.

I sighed. "That answers that question."

He looked back as a Houndoom approached, followed by a Charmeleon and a Pidgeot female with a shattered wing in wraps. "I would've had Flyaway take us somewhere, but they broke her wing so we couldn't."

My anger was obvious, as Jonathan seemed to want to avoid me.

"Now, I could see why they would want to take this castle, but not allowing you to evacuate? Who does this guy think he is!?" I demanded, as Kai nodded and R-K's head slowly burned with fires of her hate to be ignored.

Jonathan points to her. "Why's her head on fire?"

I removed another slice of cheese from my pocket. "She doesn't like to be ignored. Cheese, R-K?"

"Cheese!!!" she shouted gleefully.

"Fetch." I told her, tossing it into another room.

She leapt after it and chased it into where it'd landed.

"That girl likes cheese a bit too much." I muttered, watching her devour the dairy process.

"I can see." He added, also staring intently as she ate the cheese.

I glanced out the window and watched the stars fade into view.

"Since you've come to help, you can stay the night here if you wish." He explains, watching me stare out the window.

"Sure, Johnny." I teased, looking around the cozy room.

"John, if anything… but not Johnny." He corrected, shaking his head, messy red-brown hair flying.

"Gotcha." I assured, walking over to another wall and leaning against it. "By the way, John, how did you say the Pidgeot died?"

"I didn't." he corrected. "But all I saw so far as a wound was a gash across the chest, straight and narrow, but quite deep."

"Odd. Not natural, eh?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Well, this is certainly going somewhere." The Mewtwo within my head sneered, chuckling heartily at his own joke.

"Quiet." I returned the sassy tone toward him and began to think.

"Hey, here's a hint: I KILLED IT." He further said, annoying me, but revealing less than he'd intended. I didn't trust him too well, but this is something he would parade around bragging about.

"It was him." I thought aloud, without realizing I'd done so.

"Him?" John repeats, eager to hear more.

I looked back at him. "The Mewtwo… he killed the Pidgeot you're fused with now." I explained simply.

He shook his head, devastated. "No… he couldn'tve… the cut was too straight and too deep. Some Mewtwo have claws, surely, but it's impossible to get that clean of a serration from a claw."

I shook my own head. "You misunderstand. He had no claws. Hence why he carried a sword."

"BINGO! We have a winner!" he announced aloud, so that all could hear.

"Murderer." Jonathan hissed, backing away from me and into the hall. "That Mewtwo is not welcome in this castle."

"'Not welcome?'" he repeated with fake concern. "Well, I can honestly say I've never heard that one before."

Jonathan's eyes flared and sparkled dangerously. "Reform him or I will not allow him to speak." He threatened, staring at me from behind his thin glasses.

"Really, I'm shaking." He taunted, holding a scabby hand to his ruptured chest. For not only could I hear what he was saying, but I could see what he was doing.

John turned away and sat upon his sofa, folding his wings over himself.

"Well, you've done it now, asshole. I'm on the brink of being kicked out all thanks to you." I snapped at him, though he did naught but smile sinisterly.

As the hours passed, I found myself wandering around to check the scenery I was in. Being curious as I was, I couldn't help it. Though when I was sure that the wretched child sitting inside my head was resting, I approached John, still sitting on his couch, head down and wings shielding him.

"You know, you're pretty brave to stand up to him." I complemented, crossing my arms and standing before him.

He glanced up and his eyewear shone with the moonlight entering from the outside. "What?"

"The guy's a pain in the ass. He's snide, arrogant, and he's got the brain to back it up. Most people just choose not to mess with him." I continued, pacing a few steps back and forth.

He watched as I walked. "Oh… well, he's all that you say, I'm sure, but this is my home. I'll defend it with my life."

I backed up, leaning against a nearby wall. "I now see why you never left."

He nodded. "I surprise alot of people that way."

I had lowered my head and lay it against my collarbone, when I was taken surprise by a voice addressing me.

"You seem bored." Came the sly words of my elder sister, sneered in a superior tone as she stared at me from the other side of the room.

"Of course." I answered, snorting a laugh.

She smiled and flared her wings. "You know, there is a way to see the Pokémon's past if you want to."

"What? Which Pokémon?" I asked, clearly intrigued by the idea.

"For you, the Mewtwo. For me, Ganna. For R-K, Kasumi." She explained, wearing a delightfully maniacal expression. "Them."

"Ooh, I see now." I responded, still awaiting the secret.

"Yes."

"Well, go on." I urged with a deadly curiosity.

"I'm still experimenting with it, so I'll be back with more details." She assured, looking to John, staring into a fire before him.

"Hey, John!" she called across the room. "You don't mind if we let our teams out in here, do you?"

He looked back and blinked questioningly. "Um, sure, why not?" he paused. "Well, if any of you have something bigger than Lugia, I can't allow it. Only so much room in here, you know."

"Oh, of course. I'm sure none of us have anything much bigger than a Mewtwo." She said, taking a few Pokéballs and releasing a Flareon, Houndoom, Scizor, Kabutops, Mew, and Raikou.

I released my own six, Morty, Lion, another Mewtwo female by name of Lionell, a Feraligator, a Tyranitar, and a black-and-silver Houndoom.

R-K also released her team, a Mewtwo, Gengar, Charizard, Articuno, Arcanine, and Ninetales. Oddly enough, her Mewtwo also bore a vertical scar down his own left eye, both of the startling orbs a silver coloration with a black ring surrounding it. Strangely, he resembled Lion and the young boy I affectionately called "asshole."

Lion wandered over to the elder, violet eyes wide and shining. "Dad?"

The old Mewtwo barked a laugh. "So, you remembered, did you?" he asked in a gruff and mocking voice, just as deep, if not darker than the assassin's. "Yes, Lion. I'm your father, and it's good to see that that brain of yours is working."

He looked away, blushing scarlet.

"You should be a genius, boy. Your mother and I were both quite brilliant." He sneered, smiling devilishly with fangs as long as daggers, him being ten feet or more in height.

"It's the alcohol, Shadow." Lionell input from the background. "You know he's been drinking since he was quite young."

"Li!" he begged, looking back with a pleading glance.

She smiled. "Come now, Lion. You know you've been an alcoholic since before we were married."

"Yes, I know, Li." He said, lowering his head innocently.

"Alcoholic?" John repeated. "A Mewtwo?"

Lion shrugged a shoulder. "We can get hooked just as easily as you humans, you know. If not moreso."

"That sympathetic moron, example of a fine-tuned bleeding heart, festering kind-hearted wimp." The small Mewtwo inside my head cursed. "Waffling imbecile, sorry excuse for a Mewtwo…"

"Well, you sure love him, don't you?" I asked, voice reeking of sarcasm.

"Oh, if you only knew." He forced to say in a disgusted tone, lip curled apathetically and nostrils flared in utter loathing.

"Come on, he's a good guy." I attempted to convince the youth, still watching him take shaking breaths from his gritted fangs and wide nostrils, staring hatefully at Lion from behind two bloodshot eyes.

"GOOD!?" he exploded, causing my head to throb. He seemed to calm only slightly after a few moments. "If only you knew the other side of him…"

"'Other side!?'" I repeated, suspicious of his intentions. "Never have I seen that Mewtwo do wrong. He is a character of pure heart, unlike yourself, always griping and complaining, putting down those you're *jealous* of!"

"Jealousy!?" He retorted, voice growing more powerful by the moment. "I know not the meaning of the word! If ever I was jealous of that ignorant buffoon, may lightning strike me dead!"

The conversation ended at that, for I chose not to reply. If the boy would only make insults about my Mewtwo all based on the fact that he was a decent monster, I would never pay him any mind again. Until I heard once more the voice of my kin.

"I say, my sister, that I've perfected the technique, and now wish to share it with thee, my fair sibling." She told me, perking her tiny green Golbat ears.

"Thy timing is impeccable." I assured. "Now do tell."

Shortly, she explained that we could look into the mind and the memories of the partnering Pokémon if so we desired. Though they could as well, prying into our private lives and secret thoughts. However, this is only when it is allowed.

Soon after, I ventured forth into the memories of the boy, expecting to see some explanation of why he hated Lion so passionately, and how he came to look the way he is.

Every thought I came across, every time I saw something, it was as flagrant as if it'd just happened. It was as though his memory could never be erased, and always was as easily accessible as the moment before.

Perfect memory… I thought, entering one of the windows showing a playing memory of the Mewtwo's youth before he died.

I fell in through the top and cursed when I landed, hiding inside a tree and watching the scene.

I could clearly tell this memory was recent. It was in the woods behind my house, and I saw Lion walking through the forest. His face was wrought in concentration and he wore a cast on his hind leg. I suddenly recalled when Lion had broken that leg, and it'd been only a few years or so from the date.

The young boy leisurely strolled through the woods and actually seemed happy for once in his short life. A smirk was splayed across his face and he had his hands behind his head, callously walking into the area Lion was.

Lion had his head lowered, violet eyes earthbound and moist from his tears. The boy had no inclination that the older cat would be any harm to him, hence why he approached with a demonic expression.

"Nice leg, old man." He sneered superiorly. "Very fluorescent."

Old!? I demanded silently. Though I only sat back and watched, wanting to see more. Truthfully, Lion was quite young.

"I don't have time for your sarcasm, rat!" Lion snapped in return, light, boyish voice shaken.

"Ah, a rat, am I?" he asked, his left side facing me, but his white eye normal, midnight blue, and bearing no scar.

"You've the size enough to be one." Lion muttered over his head through gritted fangs, casting a shadow onto the small boy.

Both the youth's dangerous eyes narrowed, his form much cleaner than I remembered it. In fact, he barely had a scar on his body. "I don't appreciate your commentary, old man." He snarled in his cold voice.

"Well I don't appreciate your actions, kid." Retorted the older Mewtwo, hands upon his hips and voice as harsh as the youth's own.

"Actions?" the child asked through a laugh. "What, pray tell, have I done to anger you, gangrene?"

"The death of the famous Kasumi was enough on its own, but now that I've met you, I've decided that I should end your miserable life." He spat, in a tone unrecognizable by even me, his owner for several years.

"Did I do this?" he asked, clearly not caring whether the answer be positive or negative.

"You, and only you, boy, could've done such a thing with no remorse." He continued in the voice I'd only heard from the young Mewtwo and Shadow before.

"Well, I suppose I did, then. An Arcanine, this 'Kasumi' was, right?" he inquired, pacing before Lion with his arms crossed behind his back.

"Aye." The older one answered.

He smiled. "Blue eyes, scar over the left one? Killed by a gun?"

Lion actually reached out and took the boy by the collar. "You're confessing it now! Oh, a real genius you are!" he roared in a frightening tone, as far from that which I knew him as possible.

"Temper, temper, old man." He sneered, cocking a brow and letting himself down from Lion's eye level. "Yes, I killed her. So what's it to you?"

"That's none of your concern." He uttered in a voice so dark I hardly knew it was my own Mewtwo standing before me.

"Ooh, so I've done something bad, have I?" the small youth mocked, in his naturally drawling voice.

At that point, Lion had become so furious with him that he lashed out at the boy, middle claw on his right hand slicing over his left eye.

The small boy's head flew back from the blow and he staggered to a standing position several steps back. He had his eyes clenched shut and his hands covered the left one further, as blood stained his fingers.

He lifted his hands from his eye and blinked them open. The now off-set eyes flared and he waved his hand in front of his face. He narrowed his mismatched orbs and raised his head further to look Lion in the eye. He took back a hand.

"You've blinded me, you wretched hassock!" he shouts, taking a swipe at Lion and missing.

Lion turned livid. "Hassock, am I!?" he shouts, tackling the boy and starting a vicious dogfight. Oi, even though they're cats, they're male, you know.

I knew not what the word had meant, but I was sure it was an insult of great magnitude. Otherwise, Lion would not have reacted in such a manner if his life depended on it. Of course… I was pretty unsure about my opinion of him at this point in time.

After a short while, Lion escaped the fight barely scathed, though the boy was torn apart, wounds everywhere leaking fluids from his system.

As I watched, I was shocked to see that he bled, my disgust of him reaching an all-time high.

The miniature Mewtwo turned and high-tailed from the clearing, his better judgment finally kicking in.

He reached the forest and sat nearby the tree I was in, taking shaken breaths and sitting with his head lowered. A droplet of sweat fell to the Earth and he collapsed.

That, I'll admit, changed my view a bit. I looked back to the scene where Lion had spoken to him, and couldn't help but feel sorry for the little shrimp. The older Mewtwo simply walked away with a few bruises, being that the Mewtwo below me bore no claws. It was a rather unfair fight, and Lion had had a definite advantage over the scrawny child that had called him out.

I removed myself from the memory and found another, stepping onto this scene and watching again as Lion approached from the forest. This time, though, the young Mewtwo was asleep.

The older male stepped up and took the sword from the young boy's back, unsheathing it and tossing the scabbard aside. He pointed the blade low, the tip at the youth's neck. "Get up." He barked.

The small one's eyes flashed open and he slowly lowered the one that could see to where the blade rested on his scraggly neck.

"I said get up!" he repeated, stabbing lightly into the side of the boy's throat, avoiding the vital organs purposely.

The boy stood upon his hind legs, Lion slowly moving the blade evenly with his Adam's apple. "Now walk." He hissed.

The small boy took a few hesitant steps, but obeyed. His life was on the line, and I knew he had too much pride to lose it.

About ten feet from the point they'd met, the youth looks back. "You're holding it in the wrong hand, old man."

Lion poked his back for speaking. "Keep moving, rat."

"It's a left-handed sword, numbskull." He continued, after turning his head back forward. "You're obviously not."

"Silence!" he roared, cutting across his lower back.

The boy staggered forth, clearly not used to taking this magnitude of abuse. Though this time, he held his tongue.

They reached a cliff, steep enough to be considered vertical, and deep enough to be considered a canyon. A river flowed calmly among the jagged rock floor.

The youth came to a halt at the edge and stood stubbornly. "What, you're going to push me off a cliff?" he demands defiantly.

Lion slashed his back again.

He ground his fangs and whipped around, the blade automatically heightened to his throat once more.

"Walk!" Lion commands.

"I'll die first." The boy snarled, knocking the sword away with his hand, sacrificing a bit of pain for his life.

A fight erupted once more, and the little boy was at twice the disadvantage as the last instance. The fight turned for the worst so far as the small boy was concerned, and he tried once again to run for his life.

This time didn't work.

He stoutly kicked Lion's broken leg, clearly severing it once more, and turned to run. Lion seemed blinded by pain, but grasped the blade in his hand and thrust it forth, using the skill of a professional swordsman.

Through the abdomen of the youth, the sword pierced, half in, half out of his torso. The front portion of the blade glowed vivid red with the blood covering it. It could be plainly seen, even from my distance, jutting out his front.

He seemed to cough, spit flying from his mouth, and he fell to his knees, catching his front half with his hands and shaking enough that he fell to the ground.

Lion strained to stand, face flushed red and cast an off-mahogany color, the neon blood mixing with his fluorescent green wraps. He limped over to the young male and took one look at him, lying soundly. His expression, a victorious smile.

Within seconds, though, the smirk faded and his eyes grew solemn, shining guiltily. He shakes his head, brow furrowed. "What have I done?" he whispers, walking over and wrenching the weapon from the boy's spine.

The youth was not dead yet, however, and tried once more to push himself to his feet. He used his violently shaking arms to hoist his upper half to a certain level and pulled his feet under him.

Lion watched him with a dumbfounded expression, his eyes wide as they'd ever gotten, and sweats. "You shouldn't do that!" he shouted, face clearly dripping concern.

"Quiet!!" the boy explodes, blood leaking more openly from his deep wound.

"You'll only die faster! Now lie down and don't talk! I might be able to help." he suggests, changing his viewpoint quite abruptly.

"I don't need you to help me!" he argues, pushing up his back end and falling back to the ground, in a puddle of his own blood. "It's too late for that."

"My… my old friend." Lion stuttered in a whisper, watching the boy bleed. Only I seemed to have caught the dialogue, because the boy still attempted to stand.

"Get out of my sight before I tear you apart, you damn bleeding-heart!!" the young male roared, actually managing to push himself to his short limbs, weakly approaching Lion, his blood dripping from his wound as well as the spot he lay in it.

The older male fled quickly as he could and the boy splattered into his bloody pool once again, eyes clenching shut upon his landing.

Next, my part came. I arrived into the memory, as a young child, and it seems that the boy had died, because the scene drew a blank.

I was shocked by this, not expecting any sort of event such as the one I'd seen before me. I'd seen the look in Lion's eyes just as he took the sword from the young boy's back, his pleading terror upon seeing the face of, apparently, an old friend.

I didn't know which one I was more sympathetic toward. The small one had to die, but Lion had to kill him.

I escaped and found myself staring into the hearth, watching the flames in the fireplace dance eerily. My expression seemed to have changed, because Jonathan was staring at me worriedly.

"Are you well?" he asked, brow furrowed and platinum eyes shining. "You seem to have been in pain for the last ten minutes."

I shook my head finally. "No, I'm alright, just thinking a bit too deeply." I answered in a bit more of a snap than I'd intended.

He looked down after his recoil, shoulders hunched and back in an arch.

"Yes, you've been unusually quiet for a long while." The Mewtwo told me accusingly, staring at me.

"I was thinking." I responded, using the same alibi every time as a smarter alternative than making up several.

"Indeed." He sneered.

I shook my head and set off into another room. My moments inside the mind of the killer would live with me till the end of my days, and haunt me for a good deal of them… what shocked me most, though, was the will the boy had had when he was dying… how he stood, even when he knew his life was over. That was truly inspiring, and I knew not what to think of him now. A courageous fool or an arrogant child…

Once everyone had gone to bed, I remained on the couch, lying longwise from head to foot, each end resting on the handles.

I lowered my eyelids, and as the blackness consumed my consciousness. My dreams that night were of what I saw the night before. The horrific death of the young killer still plagued my mind, and his sheer spirit amazed me. His will to live still surprised me, though I knew him well already.

As well as I ever would, anyway.

I sat up abruptly and looked around the room to find R-K and Kai staring at the same target, inside the doorway to the room, it seemed. I turned my attention to the thing they were watching with menacing glares, and morphed, allowing the boy assassin to leap back and face the Houou in the door.

Ganna and Kasumi now stood aside the killer, and the Houou took a glance down at him. "Quite the interesting choice of mercenaries." He muttered, cocking a brow at the boy. "Especially the deadbeat Mewtwo."

"Deadbeat!?" he repeated furiously. His toes and fingers rolled in preparation, and his tail swirled agitatedly.

"Calm yourself." Kasumi barked at him, turning back and curling a lip threateningly toward the hawk.

"Well, we certainly do have a lovely mistress for being a fighter." He complimented, flipping his brows. "I'm surprised you're hanging around with these riffraff…"

She backed toward the two boys. "These 'riffraff' as you call them, are my friends." She growled, fur rising. "And, I'll say, I've grown rather attached since our first meeting."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to die with them, then." He informed her.

"You sound as though you care." Kasumi sneered, siding with the boy and the old Golbat in any instance.

His feathers ruffed and he gave a bitter look to the cat that stood beside her. "You would prefer a one-eyed scratching post to a class act?"

His eyes flared dangerously. "What was that!?"

"You're obviously not a well-rounded fighter, boy. You appear to have lost every scrabble you've ever been in, and I would hate to have that obstructive mooneye of yours."

The expression crossed over the assassin's face could not have been more furious as he stood upon his hind limbs, drawing his weapon from the sheath on his back. He charged blindly and took back his blade, sweeping upward into the flesh of the bright hawk, sending a bloody gash up his front.

As the bird fell to the floor in a muddled heap, the boy re-sheathed his weapon quietly and stepped away. "No one calls me Mooneye and lives." Came his sleek voice, uttered in a quiet hiss.

Many stared upon him. His menacing aura seemed to ward off the others from him. The fire that made him famous as a killer burned wildly in his eyes, and appeared to emanate from within him as he returned to the other two fighters.

Jonathan had been watching the entire ordeal, and turned pale when the Houou was slaughtered. Sensitive to the harm of birds, he seemed.

Personally, I'm moreso a fan of felines.

He shuddered violently and leaned against his counter, looking to his Pidgeot with the broken wing that sat beside him. Suddenly, his expression grew harsh. "I want to learn to fight." He announced without warning.

"So, you do?" the killer questioned nonchalantly.

"More than anything!" he answered, with a sort of defiant plead to his voice. "I want to be able to defend myself for once… to not have to run away or stand back and watch someone fight my battles for me."

"Well, the kid has some spirit." The youth Mewtwo compliments, tail swirling in front of him. "So, you want to learn to fight, eh? That may take years. Though if you can improve on your own, all you need to do is transform."

"Could you tell me how?" John demanded, glasses falling down the bridge of his nose.

"Sure, whatever. I feel better now that I have my revenge." He explains, standing. "All you need to do is concentrate. Imagine being a Pidgeot, and you'll become one. Seeing as you're a Pidgeot anthro anyhow."

Jonathan nodded and began to morph, his glasses still left on his hooked beak after he was through. He set them atop the counter with a talon and flapped into the rest of the room, a born-natural at flying.

Ganna watched him as he flew and landed near the doorway, atop the corpse of the Houou. "We should be able to reach the lower levels now. We could head downstairs, if you wish."

He jettisoned into the hall and stopped using his massive wingspan. "Let's go! It's been ages since I've seen the outside!"

The others tailed him as he led the way down the stairs gladly. Ganna trailed him, Kasumi after Ganna, and the boy following up the rear. He didn't seem to mind the idea of being backup.

They entered the ground floor and to no surprise whatsoever, more henchmen awaited them.

"Quite the little army he's got, ne?" Kasumi questioned.

"Indeed." The small Mewtwo added upon catching a glance of the opponents inside the room.

A Raichu, Charizard, Lugia, and Tauros stood before them.

"You!" the boy commanded, pointing at the Pidgeot Jonathan now was. "Take out the Lugia. Kasumi, the Tauros. Ganna, the Charizard." He looked back to the Raichu. "I'm the only one agile enough to take you on."

They all approached their challengers and attacked, either leaping or rising into the air.

Ganna spent no time in dawdling, being the first to remove his opponent. All it had taken was a swift kick to the head and the Charizard blacked out.

Next, Kasumi and the Tauros circled each other, and the Tauros reared, attempting to stomp, being interrupted by the wild lass head-butting him over. He seemed to not want to stay down, though, and stood again, charging. Kasumi again intercepted his attack and leapt atop his back sinking her dagger fangs into his thickly furred neck. Death overcame the bull and it fell to the earth no longer living.

Jonathan seemed more troubled with his opponent, being six times his size, but he had the advantage of being able to move wherever he wanted. We'll say that the room wasn't fit to hold a Lugia and leave it at that.

A stray thunderbolt struck the giant white bird from the spitfire duel between the two smaller combatants. They both had their speed and dexterity, but neither could deliver a good hit. The electric mouse was missing the correct build to even attack well, and the youth, scrawny and skeletal, lacked proper muscle to make his hits count worth much.

Once the Lugia was down, the Raichu followed it.

"Well, that was certainly invigorating." The boy commented through a stretch. "Let's head out. I'm bored already."

John seemed ecstatic about the idea of going outside. We all gathered and returned to our half-human states, stepping outside for a bit.

A drizzle of rain fell upon our heads as we stepped into the yard.

"I hate rain." Kai #2 complained, covering her head with her bat-like wings.

John smirked. "It's not as bad as—" he was cut off as a bolt of lightning struck and the thunder rolled.

Kai froze and shuddered. "Lightning… yeah."

John lowered his head. "We flying-types are kind of… sensitive to lightning."

"Indeed." I sneered, arms crossed. "I rather like it. Of course, I control it."

Another bolt of lightning struck and the two—bird and bat—took off running.

I shrugged and the rain began to pour. "Cats hate rain." I explained, taking off after them.

R-K just followed, not having any real complaints.

John skidded to a halt just before a road and was knocked into by Kai. I tripped over her and took R-K's shirt, pulling her down with me.

Though next I knew, I wasn't in the world of reality. It was filled with bright colors and peace signs, flowers and positive subliminal messages.

I was in hell!!!

I waited out the dreaded horror, as "It's a Small World" played again and again in the background. If ever I went to hell, this would be it… small flashy penguins danced about and slowly stole my sanity.

Suddenly, it all went black… sweet, sweet silence.

"Kae!" R-K snapped, slapping me.

"What!? I'm awake!!" I told her, catching her hand and shoving it back at her. "What'd I miss?"

"Well, I don't know. You were unconscious for about six hours." She informed me annoyedly, giving me a perturbed glare.

I felt around on my head and noted a soft, warm spot that felt rather liquid and stung when I touched it. "Oh, I hit something, didn't I?"

"A rock." R-K added.

"I see." I muttered, looking around the cave I was evidently in. I noted the regulars, but another person sat nearby. She smiled and waved when I took note of her presence.

"You see, Aurora here was tying her shoe in the road and we all tripped. You hit your head on a rock, the Mewtwo kid took you here and well, we've been in this little cave waiting out the storm." Kai explained.

"Why'd you guys run away from the castle anyway?" I asked of them.

"See lightning, run real fast." John told me. "Doesn't matter which direction."

"Ah."

"So yeah, here we are." Aurora input, still smiling.

"And why were you tying your shoe in the road?" I asked her, as the first choice of words that came to mind.

"How was I supposed to know you guys were here? I just needed to tie my shoe and happened to be in the road." She said, looking outside as the rain died down at last.

"We can go back to the castle now…" I suggested indirectly, standing again.

"This guy needs to pay." John snarled, following suit.

"You've alot of spirit. Just don't ruin it." Kai input, walking out of the cave after us. Her wings flapped once to shake the water off.

R-K and Aurora trailed us, conversing casually with one another.

Once we returned to the inside of the ground floor, Jonathan directed us toward another descent of stairs.

"Great, more stairs." The boy whined, as we stepped into the narrow corridor.

"You sound ecstatic." I taunted.

"I hate stairs."

"You hate everything!"

"I know." He retorted, a demonic grin splayed across his young face.

Eventually, the lot of us tired from walking down stair after stair, and we morphed from human to the monsters that occupied a large space of our being.

Once we reached the basement floor, the ground stretched endlessly into the darkness, casting most of the room into heavy shadow. An eerie sense of foreboding overtook the lot of us, and the assassin boy snorted audibly.

"Well, this was worth the trip!" he sneered in his sleek, yet growling vocals, annunciating to any in the darkness and hearing his words echo from the cavernous space before him.

"Indeed, my young friend." A silky utterance cut through the silence returned to him as two Houndoom ventured forth from the shadow, and a pair of light brown eyes shimmered in the low light. "It was well worth your time and effort."

"Who are you!?" Kasumi demanded of the entity, in a harsh bark, contrasting her normally shockingly luring voice.

"I am but a mere opposition to all that is good, my lass." The answer came, as a few shuffling paw pads could be distinguished. "A force against righteousness and serenity. A destroyer of peace and tranquility."

"And what reason have you to do such a thing?" Ganna demanded in disgust.

"For what good has done to me, old man." His sneer answered, glittering fangs borne in warning. "'Tis a long story, though I will tell it if it is thy wish to hear."

The boy took a step forward. "We've no time for this! It's war we came here for, not some tea party!"

A figure approached from the shadow, and an exact replica of the boy approached him, upon two short, scarred legs, waving his mutilated tail. "Well, I'm terribly sorry to waste your time, Shiro, but this is a discussion, not idle chit-chat." He spat in the face of the young killer, stepping back and turning away, reassuming his niche in the shadows.

The boy's mismatched eyes flared. "How." Came his demand, in a tone of sheer loathing, a deep inclination of his already darkened words.

"How… what, exactly?" the villain inquired nonchalantly, in the calmest of response, I was sure enjoying every moment.

"You knew my name." he hissed, his heart beating almost in stopped time.

"Why of course, my boy. I know more than just your name." echoed the calm response from the insidious dark shadow.

Kasumi averted her attention to him, curious as she always was. "Shiro's your name?" she inquired in a soft mutter.

"Damnit! I've told you to never say my name!" he explodes. "My wretched title has been a curse upon all who speak it!"

"He speaks truth." The mysterious being added.

"You stay out of this!!" he demanded, bloodshot eyes proving their point.

"Temper, temper, little boy. You must learn to control that nasty habit you have of losing your patience."

"I told you to stay out of this!!!" he roared, charging blindly forth into the darkness and ramming the Houndoom aside as they obstructed his path.

Shiro was flung back, however, upon reaching the dark master. He landed squarely upon his broad shoulders, skidding back and dropping to the floor. He turns around and steps up to his four limbs, hobbling uncomfortably back to where he once stood.

"Well, child, you certainly have alot of bravery, you belligerent fool." The creature from the darkness announced, in the abnormally silken voice he possessed. "It will get you killed one day. You know this, ne?"

The boy, Shiro, gave him a murderous glare with his frightening façade, waving his tail in a smooth, fluid motion. His muscles tensed, though he didn't grow any, being scrawny and scraggly as he was.

"Well, then. I suppose I'll continue with my speech." The dark entity sneered. "I'll tell you why I'm a destroyer of lawfulness." There was a short pause before he continued. "I was a younger man, though still probably old compared to the lot of you with the exception of Ganna and Tobias."

"Tobias?" Kasumi repeated, her attention turning to the Pidgeot behind her. "Why is it that I never know anyone's name?"

"Though this includes several more of the members to this little force before I continue." He draws up a hand, still in the form of Shiro, and four Pokémon appear before us. A Charizard, Suicune, Houndoom, and Lugia.

The four looked around the dark room and saw the small force, noting the two Houndoom and the shadow from which the hand was shown.

Upon seeing Tobias and the Chansey that Aurora had become, the Suicune directed the others back toward them.

"Ah, yes. Tobias, Chance, Artemis, Raron, Venus, and Rhea." The ever familiar drawl greeted, gleaming fangs piercing the shadow. "My old friends."

"You again!?" Raron blared into the cavern of dark. "Show yourself, you bloody coward!!"

"Now, now, Raron. Aren't we a little old to be yelling like the boy who stands beside you?" the man questions.

Raron snaps his lizardian jaw toward Shiro, and notes the feline's hostility and anguish. He looks back to the foe. "You are a shapeshifter. Able to assume any form and remain unharmed once you do. Why have you chosen to take on the appearance of this boy?"

"He has a fighter's spirit, as well as a swordsman's. I found this very… assuring when I was choosing a form to reveal myself in." came his answer. "But now, since you mention it, away with this vulgar transformation. I would prefer a more refined feline to be." He waved an arm and his fur became beige-tinged, whiskers grew from the face of the oddly-tinted cat. He fell to four legs and his paws spread, now more like those of an actual cat. A stout Persian paced before them.

"You call this refined?" Shiro spat in disgust.

"Moreso than you, horrific beast." He growled. "Though as I was still attempting to say; I fought these six in a battle nearly four decades ago, and had it not been for a sniveling damn that got in my way, I would've killed the lot of you! But I'm officially dead, as are the lot of you." He paused. "In fact, most of the deaths here were caused by young Shiro. Isn't that right, lad?"

Shiro adamantly said naught in his defense or offense.

"Kasumi, Rhea, Raron, Ganna, Venus, and Tobias, yes?" he questioned offhandedly.

"I see you've done your research." Shiro complemented, waving a hand. "Yes, the weapon of choice differed, but I did kill all of them."

Many vicious glares directed toward him as he so casually announced this for all to hear without so much as a fretful tone.

"And I see you bear no remorse. A fine quality in an assassin, but a rare sentiment for a child to possess." He looked around, a sinister glare to his eye. "Their indignation is evident, however you act as though all is well, boy."

"I've no fear, no pain, no sorrow. no solace, no conscience, no heart." He said, rather poetically. "Too many a time have I been broken or let down. Never again will I let it destroy me as it has before!"

"How inspiring, little Shiro." The Dark Lord sneered unenthusiastically.

Kasumi's harsh expression faltered and she shook her head. "He's nothing but a fool!" she demanded to herself. She looked back toward him. "A pitiful fool…" she added. "The poor boy."

Venus chanced a glance in Kasumi's direction. "He certainly has a way with words, does he not?"

"Hush!" she hissed in return, rather defensively. Her muzzle glowed a pale rosy pink.

Oddly, he'd heard their conversation, and he seemed less adamant of his decision that he had no heart as he noted that it began to race.

"I've come for my revenge, the six of you!" the Dark Lord announced, drawing them all forth and creating a force-field around the fight.

The three left outside of the glassy blockade soon noted that they weren't included, as Ganna attempted to peer inside and the assassins stared puzzledly.

"What the hell?" Shiro inquires, flicking the wall and seeing nothing but blank pearly silver.

"We can't see…" Kasumi muttered. "Ganna, what about you?"

"I see the fight, but can't penetrate the shield." He told her, glancing back with his amber-yellow eyes. "I've heard of this before."

"You have, have you?" the Arcanine repeated, narrowing her soft brow. "Tell me, Golbat, what have you heard?"

He looks back into the crystalline orb and stares at the battlers within. "Only the Mewtwo's claw is an item of opposite force as this. The pure-hearted may fight, the un-pure may watch, and the black-hearted may not see inside."

"Guess that rules us out, eh Kasumi?" Shiro joked sarcastically.

"I hear that."

Ganna glanced back again. "Well, going to take a stab at it?"

"At what, might I ask?" Shiro queries.

Ganna raised a brow at him. "Why, breaking the orb, of course." He chuckled momentarily. "Did you not hear me when I clearly said only a Mewtwo's claw could pierce the shield?"

Shiro held up his hand, staring annoyedly at Ganna. "Naturally de-clawed, I am, try to slice it I shall not."

Ganna stares blankly at him. "De-clawed? You, of all Mewtwo out there?"

"Since I was cloned." He barked in response. "Hence the reason I wield a sword." He shook his head and crossed his arms, leaning against the translucent wall.

Ganna sighed and returned to staring inside the force field.

Several boring hours passed and the Golbat gave grave updates to the fight going on between the six and the Dark Lord.

Upon the announcement that the last fighter had fallen, Shiro could bear no more, taking his fist and ramming it into the shield, palm and fingers first. He pulled his hand back in front of his face and staring at his hand, as the blockade had begun to dissolve. He turned his hand delicately in front of him, examining the serrated skin, and from the tips of his balled fingers came diamond, dagger-like protrusions sharp enough to shave hairs. He fell backward and caught himself with his hands, standing on his forefeet and looking to the others. "Well, who would've guessed? Let's go."

"Who indeed?" Ganna added, following him in the air as Kasumi tailed the two.

"Now, now, now… whom shall I have the pleasure of killing first?" the Dark Lord murmured to himself, pacing about the battlefield. He glances back and notes the presence of his shield missing. He cursed under his breath and disappeared.

Shiro lead the three onward, advancing slowly; taking his time and watching the scene around him carefully. In the corner of his eye, a green flash of fur appeared for but a split second and dissipated again.

Disbelievingly, he shook his head and continued forth.

Along the ground was the only level on which his fierce eyes did focus, though this was not tactically, nor was it directionally intelligent.

I figured I should offer my advice.

"You might want to look up, Shiro." I hinted, warily keeping an eye out for anything and everything, myself.

"I told you not to utter my name, human!" he snarled, short pelt standing on end. "But as to your suggestion, I say this: what could possibly come from the ceiling?"

Again, a flash of different color glistened from within the shadows by light of a flame running down the back of the beast.

He was somewhat fascinated by the odd horse, and the moment he took to chance a curious stare at it was the moment he was brought to the cold floor.

He fell to the ground and rolled, snapping to his feet once more, and waved his tail in agitation. He growled into the darkness and noted a Persian sleekly stalking the area around him. He gave a dangerous glare as the small cat paced before him.

"You imposter!" he spat, noting a trickle of blood oozing down his brow. "You play the part of a Persian well as a Sunflora plays a Charizard!"

"Well, you seem to know that I'm not really a Persian." The Dark Lord sneered in return. "What gave you that indication, boy?"

"I read anatomy books, I study the creatures around me. Persians are the least tactical Pokémon I've seen, and that move you pulled would take the brain of a Dragonite, at least."

"A clever little hindrance you are." The shapeshifter complements, backing into the darkness again. "If you really think you can take me on, I have a few tests for you."

"Oh, grand, this'll be a hell of a trip." Shiro mocked, batting the lavender orb that could be distinguished as an actual eye. "Bring forth the challenger, then."

"Not just a challenger, Shiro." Came the menacing drifting of devastating dialogue.

He stood boldly upon his stout legs, and watched as his challenger approached.

An Umbreon stood before him, an Onix slithering in before Kasumi, and the electric-type Lionell, a massive creature evolving from Raikou, slowly strutted toward Ganna.

"Face; your enemy." The Dark Lord taunted from afar, hiding amongst the darkness that he always seemed to loom in.

"You call this," Shiro waved a hand in mockery at the small dog. "My enemy?" he demanded furiously. "I've killed literally hundreds of Umbreon in my time!"

"Indeed." Kasumi added, leering the Onix down.

"But that is not the point, young Shiro." The looming voice told him, as the Umbreon attacked.

With one swift claw swipe to the black dog's throat, it was killed, and Shiro sat, watching the others fight.

Kasumi soon took the Onix down, and joined Shiro with naught but a bit of frazzled fur out of line. She sat almost a foot from him, and noting that it seemed awfully close, she scooted a few inches away.

He appeared not to mind, however, and calmly watched the Lionell back Ganna into a corner. A tiny smirk played across his lashed face as the tiny Golbat began to shiver, almost awaiting his utter demise with no fight left in him.

Kasumi shoved the small boy forward. "Ganna's one of us, remember? Go help him."

Shiro snorted back at her, and though his expression remained in the near-constant perturbed state, he seemed teasing rather than angry.

The Lionell's ears perked and it looked back, whiskers in the shape of lightning bolts twitching at the scent of the boy. Instantly, its brow narrowed and its fangs were borne toward the young tom.

Automatically, he countered by his short fur ruffling and his claws seeping forth from the ball-shaped fingertips of a Mewtwo. He curled a lip threateningly as the larger cat strutted toward him, indicating a challenge.

Shiro never declines a challenge.

He coiled and the two leapt, clashing teeth and claws. Shiro being the smaller combatant, he was running circles about the large beast. From literally nowhere, the boy sprang forth and latched his knifelike claws into the back and neck of the oversized housecat.

A corruptive laugh echoed through the room. "Good show my boy, but we'll see if you can handle yet another challenge."

"Do your worst." He retorted in a low hiss.

"Alright, then." The Dark Lord said sportingly. "Now you face yourself."

Shiro's confidence silently wavered, though his emotions showed for naught upon his still maw.

A copy of the three warriors emerged from the shadow, and Ganna stared this one down fearlessly, knowing himself better than he could know another beast.

"I say, this should be interesting." The evil Lord muttered delightedly.

The two bats fought instantly, and both Kasumis charged head-on, but the Shiro merely stood, and drew his blade calmly.

The real Shiro reacted and mimicked the copy, unsheathing his loyal weapon and staring the fake down with a menacing gaze, empty and cold as a funeral drum.

The clone held his stance and charged, while the real one awaited his arrival, standing with his sword at rest. Though once he was within striking distance, the blade had been at the ready before you could blink.

A vicious swordfight erupted in the center of the two quarrelling fights between two bats and a cat…dog…cat…eh… well, it was a fight.

The copy Ganna was taken out quickly, as the original was endowed with experience, whilst his opponent was only given youth. The clones of the challengers seemed to be at their prime, while the real ones had nothing against them but experience. So more than likely, Ganna and Kasumi's clones were quite young. Though Shiro's copy seemed the exact age he was, down to the last second. Both existed in the same time, so he was faced with a tougher challenge.

Ganna sat near the wall, the efforts of the fight draining him, having always been an old Golbat even before he died, and watched as Shiro and Kasumi fought their clones.

Shiro clashed swords with the copy and shook with the force of holding it. Though he fought for only a moment before ducking and stabbing through the phony. He stood and glanced over to his left, meaning he had to turn his head.

One Kasumi held the other to the ground and seemed to press only harder, knowing she would win.

Shiro's brow narrowed and he practically leapt atop the Kasumi holding the other. With a stab in the back by the bloodstained sword he possessed, the Arcanine fell and the other stood sourly.

"I could've handled that, Shiro." Kasumi protested, shaking herself off and rubbing her throat sorely.

"I'm sure, the way you were 'handling' things a few seconds ago." He sneered in return, though not with his usual tone. He sheathed his trusted weapon.

She stepped toward him and glared, slowly raising a claw to his throat. He returned the alien sentiments by setting his blade at her neck. "You want to run that by me again?" she demanded.

"Yeah. I saved your life." He said, rather slowly.

"Why." Came her inquiry, not so much a question as it was a demand.

He lowers his blade. "Why let such a pretty face go to waste?"

She stepped back and her paw landed on the ground, her nose faint red.

He chuckled and set his sword in the case, sitting back where he'd fought his clone. "Now what, Mr. High-and-Mighty?" he shouted smugly into the darkness.

"Now, my boy, you face your worst fear." Came the sinister reply, as three figures approached from the shadow.

A Raizard approached Ganna, upon its hind limbs as always, lizard-like maw clenched together as it sniffed the air gently, staring down at the Golbat excitedly with its fierce violet eyes. The beast was a hybrid, bearing traits of both Raichu and Charizard, though looking the part of neither. Surely it had wings and a flaming tail that was very Charizard-like, and Raichu ears and stripes, but the entire beast by itself could never be said to be either.

Another clone of each fighter approached Shiro and Kasumi, each looking the exact same, though instead of injury, they bore a belligerent pride, a superior air surrounded them as they advanced toward the warriors.

"So you fear yourself?" Kasumi questioned edgily. "I see we have something in common, boy."

"Hold whatever thought you have, and we'll speak later." He responded warily, taking a cautious step back from the clone.

"How monotonous." The Dark ruler mumbled upon seeing the two challengers rise again. "Well, if one fears himself, there's nothing I can do."

All the fighters exploded into a furious fight, and a few moments passed before something was noticed. The clones this time not only fought like the original, but could think like the original.

Shiro's swordsmanship availed him not, as the clone could counter his every attack without fail. Less conventional methods soon dawned upon him.

"If I don't kill it, I'll be killed." He rushed to say, in the midst of the fight.

"Of course, but remember, that clone doesn't have the brainpower of two." I hinted, making the scene a bit more optimistic.

"No, more like the brainpower of three. Try: I'm a fucking genius, here!"

"Alright, we have the power of four, then! Think!! Or do I have to do that for you?"

He dodged the clone's attacks as we discussed this, and he formed a plan. "Alright, human. Obviously, sword fighting's getting me nowhere."

"When'd you figure that one out, Castillo!?" I retorted. "Use your battling attacks. You're a Mewtwo, you should have some!"

"Battling? You mean between two Pokémon?" he queried, taking a deep hit to the shoulder.

"Of course, you ninny!"

"Don't ever call me that again."

"Well, you get the idea, Shiro!"

He took focus upon the fight and shot flame at the copy of himself, catching it off-guard and causing it to singe.

The copy shook his head and the two both thought of the same attack, two pillars of fire joining and exploding, knocking them both backward.

The original Shiro groaned as he arose to his feet, and the copy snapped up with energy to spare.

"Shit." Shiro cursed, watching through his good eye as the clone approached. His stance remained adamant, because the boy is widely known as one to never back away from a fight. His stagnant motion became more and more obtrusive as the battle tarried on, and his will did not agree with his body as he chose to stand his ground at the very least, and his muscles ached stingily with his efforts.

The clone soon seemed to be showing signs of fatigue as well, though was as stubborn as the real one, and would not go down without someone royally flattening him to the earth.

To out-class this Mewtwo, one would need a K.O. punch.

The clone took another hit as the original swept upward with his diamond claws, and the pain caused was well-evident upon the agony-stricken air surrounding him. He fell to a three-point stance and struggled to rise again to his upright goal.

Taking advantage of his sluggish advances, the real Shiro fell to his four limbs and tackled the clone, stained claws sinking into the already blood-riddled skin. He lunged forth and bit the scrawny neck in his jaws, and the clone vanished, causing him to topple over and tumble forth.

Kasumi, who'd finished off her own opponent, hobbled over and sat nearby, overlooking the boy. "You alright, kiddo?"

His brow narrows warningly and he attempts feebly to roll over. "Don't call me that… if anything, call me by my name, now that you're all damned anyway."

"Okay, I'll do that." She assured with a nod as the two watched the Raizard approach Ganna, looming far over the tiny bat with a shadow cast into the farthest reaches of the room.

The two watch the great lizard charge electric sparks and approach from behind. They exchanged glances and sprang forth to slay the beast.

Once through with their shameless deed, they returned to the line of fire where the Dark Lord had awaited them. "I see you've mastered my challenges." He offered, pacing before them.

"You seem to like testing us." Shiro agreed, looking to the other two. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Kasumi nodded and Ganna input his own agreement.

"Well, it seemed to be hardly a challenge, the way you still stand before me with strength enough to remain arrogant as you are."

"Arrogant?" he repeated. "Or prideful?"

"No, my boy, you are quite arrogant, let me assure you." the Dark Lord muttered, shaking his head.

In the back of the room, though, a Houndoom was watching them slyly. The former bodyguard for the false Persian was listening in and all the time seemed to be studying the four.

"Arrogance is bragging, my dim-witted foe. Self-pride is simply being too haughty." He explained, smirking. "I dare not brag, lest I wish to gain more enemies."

"I hope you know, boy, that everyone you've ever met still holds you in contempt!"

"I hold myself in contempt." He hissed. "Why are they any different?"

The shapeshifter recoiled upon Shiro's response. "Interesting." Was all the Persian Lord could manage to mutter in response.

A silent moment passed and a moan echoed from the back of the room where the six competitors lay deadly still upon the cold floor.

All four heads of the fighters snapped around to the groaning voice, and Artemis coughed painfully. "You shan't win, Persian!"

"I've won against you, but these three shouldn't be a problem. What makes you think I won't succeed?" he sneered in return, curling his black lip and flicking his whiskers. His tail waved stiffly in agitation.

He raised his head in great anguish and his rose eyes flared open. "You didn't win the last time. She brought you to tears, you slug!"

"Bringing this up again, Artemis?" he growled. "I'm telling you, she's dead! She killed herself slaying me the first time!"

"She?" Shiro repeated, cocking a thick brow.

Artemis rose and quivered violently. "It was near forty years ago, and we had faced this same entity then as we are now. We clearly lost fruitlessly and were about to meet our doom when a great mare approached, a sky blue pelt lined with a gleaming underbelly approached from the dark shadows. A pair of steel gray eyes shone mysteriously as she spoke in verse:

"'Exuberant Nitro, this is my form. My title is Wildfire, Heart of the Storm.' She declared with the most enthusiasm ever heard from a warrior so true. 'Back away now, lest you suffer misjudgment, my immanent victory opposed to lament.'" The Suicune told them, quoting perfectly, as though he'd done nothing but memorize the sentences his every day living. "The Lord sent his minions to oppose her, but she tore them limb from limb. After taking out his henchmen, she approached the Dark Lord himself.

"'Prepare yourself, I am no fool, for I will make you see. The only way you'll ever rule is if you defeat me.' She announced, clearly enough that there would be no doubt of a challenge. The two entered a fierce battle as the six of us recovered." He continued. "After their extended fight, competing for their very lives, Wildfire had seen that she wouldn't win. She turned to us a moment. 'I'll never win, my time is short, and I must say goodbye. To Yosho, Dilandau, Surinam, as I prepare to die.'" Artemis bowed his head. "She charged into battle and reared, pounding her hooves into the ground, self-destructing and leaving us in the castle with the corpse of the shapeshifter."

The false Persian snarled and spat upon the ground. "I remember it precisely, Artemis, but I thank you for bringing it up!"

"My fondest pleasures, you leech." He hissed, teetering to one side and falling. He chuckled heartily as he landed with a dusty thud.

"I say, my boy you tell my tale as though you know the norm. One thing I know you realize, that Nitro is my form." Came a sweet voice, as a beauty of a horse entered, gray eyes shimmering sympathetically and tail, so black that it shone eerily in the low light, waving as she took a dainty step into the light. Shining gunmetal blades jutted from her slim ankles and slender hocks, one latched to the tip of her tail. Another resided upon her feminine muzzle and two hung in midair while attached to her leaf-like ears. Two dragon wings sat atop her broad back, of an orange hue scale. Her pelt, a sky tinge with a faded-into-white underside, glittered oddly and enhanced her rippling muscle.

"You again!?" the Dark Lord demanded, short, coarse fur standing on edge. "I thought I was rid of you when you destroyed the two of us forty years ago!"

"Never, fiend from times long past. You clearly misconceive. I am a goddess, so I'm told, and ne'er shall I deceive." She told them.

"Must you speak in verse?" Shiro queried, scratching at his ear.

"Aye, my raven, lonely one, a poem I always speak. And I commend your tendency to turn the other cheek." She smiled wryly at him saying such.

He approached the Dark Lord with one confident step and snorted his sarcastic huff. "So what-say ye, oh Dark Lord of terror? Shall you challenge the lot of us now, or save Wildfire as a last resort if we don't suffice?"

"Quite overconfident, aren't we, boy?" the Persian inquired. "I'll take you out and finish that wretched damn later."

"Confident, indeed, but overconfident, I think not." He snapped, yellowed fangs borne in warning.

The Persian hissed in a quite catlike manner, curling his nose in disgust. "Upstart is more like it." He snarled in a villainous inclination of voice, rolling his paws and puffing his chest uncertainly.

Shiro smiled devilishly and leapt, tumbling end-over-end with the Dark Persian and winding up in a ferocious brawl. Eventually, the Persian knocked the youth aside and took on Kasumi and Ganna while Wildfire assisted the six fighters in the back of the room.

In the heated match, the three warriors were slaughtered and all landed painfully on the stone floor.

"Now, now… which one shall I kill first?" the Persian snarled, pacing about with the knowledge that none could retaliate against him, let alone stop his reign. "I've nothing against the Arcanine… the Golbat has given me no spite." He paused. "One of the six? Too easy." He shook his head and suddenly halted in his tracks. "Ah, yes… the boy.

"You, my lad, have given me the most trouble in all my years, you sad, pathetic excuse for a fighter." He hissed in Shiro's face. "You, my unfortunate misfit, cursed with the life of the black widow, shall be put out of your misery." He ended with a raised claw. The entire paw glowed white and he suspended it in still animation, savoring every last second.

Until who should interrupt but the only battler at the moment that was un-incapacitated. Wildfire tackled him away from his target, but the Dark Lord would not let his chance slip away. He leapt back, and, right paw still shining an off-white color, he sank his claws into and down Shiro's chest with one of his oddly muscular forelimbs.

By this time, Wildfire had bashed him aside using her spikes that momentarily dribbled blood. Her fangs were borne in bloodlust and she tightened her stance. "You've crossed the line, my bitter foe, your victory is for naught, for I shall murder thee this night, allow your corpse to rot."

He coiled and leapt with not a word, and the two battled endearingly. Neither side would spare an inch of effort fighting for their right of way, and Wildfire was doing such to give Shiro as much time as possible. As she had seen his vicious pain upon receiving the slash down his torso, watched him writhe in agony a few moments fighting his organs that told him to die.

She erupted into a whirlwind of attacks, deciding the fate of the fight for but a moment, and chanced a worried gaze to the boy, struggling to breathe through the fluids leaking from as well as into his lungs. With her distraction, the Persian knocked her to the ground, stepping onto her throat.

"So, you thought you'd win, eh, Wildfire?" the cocky cat taunted, growing closer to her face by the moment.

She glared with a murderous glint to her once alluring eyes as she took in her hind legs and sent the small cat sailing into a nearby wall. She regained her four-hoofed stance and approached Shiro. By now, the other warriors had awoken and did the same as she had.

"Poor kid! This is my fault!" she muttered, turning him onto his back.

She received strange looks from several fighters.

"What, now I have to speak verse every time I open my stinking trap?" she demands of them.

A few shook their heads, but others just looked back to Shiro.

"We'll need someone to carry him out of here." She takes a quick look around. "Tobias can't… Ganna can't… Raron could, Rhea could, but I can't…" she glanced to Rhea. "You alright with taking him?"

She refuses gently. "I'm sensitive to blood." She explained, looking away the entire time.

"I'm taking Chance." Raron input, shaking his head. "There'd be no way for me to secure him."

"Tobias and Ganna are too small… My blades would only make his injuries worse…" she turned to Kasumi. "Ah, yes, the flighty Arcanine, I daresay. Would you take him back to where we're headed?"

She nodded quickly, sprouting wings and turning away from the others so they could set him upon her back.

"You don't have to do this…" Shiro's hoarse insert rumbled through his thick blood and cracking voice.

"Don't be stupid, Shiro. Yes, I do." She told him, looking back into his face.

He moaned. "I can take care of my—" he muttered, not finishing his last word.

"I'm sure you can." She sneered playfully.

"Now, we'll have to hurry to get out of here." Wildfire rushed to tell the others. "If I know that pyromaniac, he'll explode."

"Explosions aren't good." Ganna muttered in his hoarse voice.

"So let's get out of here!" Wildfire exclaims, bashing a hole through the side wall and evacuating the rest of them. The moment she'd stepped out of the hole, a massive detonation occurred, shoving her forth and giving her an easy lead of the team.

"Alright, the lot of you, follow me!" she commanded as they pierced through the night in the form of a flock of geese, Wildfire's massive downbeat lifting the others higher with less effort.

Jonathan watched anxiously as his castle was falling to the Earth below. The Pokémon that had been in the upper levels evacuated the building seemingly seconds before the entire building came crashing down. Our teams were smart enough to escape on their own, hence our reasoning that we need not worry about them. Shadow seemed to be the only one that leapt from the top floor to the ground and ran, rather than flying or getting a lift. The landing was easy, even for the older Mewtwo.

We momentarily returned to Japan, entering the closer of the two locations we could've gone, my facility. Underground were several chambers, one a Laboratory, having a scientist for a sister, another part of our Gym, and yet another, a medical sub-facility. There was our destination.

They lay Shiro atop the metal table in the front of the room, the very same one I'd used when I'd first found him to set him upon so I would be able to reach my partner, being that I was seven years old then.

All eyed him warily as several went to fetch gauze and various other wraps so they could mend the young boy.

"A few useful tips…" Wildfire input to assure them, "1. A Mewtwo has a rather slow heartbeat to begin with. 2. They are able to live a short while without a heartbeat at all. 3. He has a piercing line down each of his lungs and a much deeper one through his heart. The pain he feels now is probably worse than any of you have ever endured. 4. The last thing a Mewtwo ever does before it dies is use its last ounce of strength to hold up its tail. They are a highly prideful race, and will show their endurance to all before they really die."

"The warning signs are quite clear." Lion added quietly. "But Wildfire, how did you know that in the first place?"

She smiled. "I read master's documents. She's found out quite a bit more than people seem to realize."

"Still, we should get a heart monitor. He could slow at any time and all we have to wait for is him to fight it." Lion said still further, knowing the boy's spirit better than any there.

"But what if he dies?" Lionell inquired apprehensively, clearly concerned.

"He won't." the once silent Kasumi demanded. "I know he won't."

Alot of voices that had been murmuring before silenced and watched.

As they attached him to the machine, all were dead quiet and observed intently. The little beeps of the medical contraption echoed into the room as they all simply stared at Shiro, surveying him in sheer unease; it's very difficult to watch a person die.

Within a few hours of their uncomfortable examination as he simply proved to them that he could breathe, the beeping of the machine began to slow. Shiro's breaths hung in the air as he struggled to stay alive, nearly dead as is from internal bleeding.

Slowly, the beats of his wounded heart faded, until the point of maybe one per three minutes. His tail rose, the efforts straining him from the look of it, and they all followed it until it froze. With this decided, the tip of the long purple appendage dropped as the last of his sluggish breathing halted.

There was a startled silence within the room for a moment, before a few hung their heads and others turned away. Lion turned to his wife and even shed a tear, being uncannily sensitive for a Mewtwo. Soon though, she was the one comforting him as he sobbed into her shoulder.

Even Kasumi bowed her own elegant maw softly, clear that she was not one to cry; though also apparent that she cared. Her sigh broke as she slowly inhaled, and she shunned the scene away, the first to attempt exit. "I can't take this!" she demanded as she deserted the sorrowed crowd. Several steps out, she found herself watering at the eyes and a crystalline bead fell onto the cold floor.

At that moment, without warning, a quick beep took the lot by surprise, and silence filled the room.

"What?" came Kasumi's questioning as she turned back her head swiftly. "It can't be… he was dead."

Nothing but an earsplitting silence answered them as they awaited further notice. Several seconds later, they were all shocked to hear another mechanical bleep. Shiro had appeared still, though his breaths were at that point tangible.

"He's back!?" Lion exclaimed, not knowing whether to question or state.

Shiro's left foot gave a tiny twitch and he rolled his head to the other side.

"Back from the dead!" the older Mewtwo finished, shocked and assured, turning fully around and wiping away his tears.

"Impossible." Kasumi states blankly, watching as the boy coughed and exerted a mouthful of vivid blood.

"Kasumi!" he barked in a gruff intonation of his normal voice, sounding like the old Mewtwo, Shadow. "Nothing's impossible!" he ended painfully, cringing and pushing himself into an upright sitting position. His violently shuddering arms held him in place as he pried open his eyes, staring at her. His expression remained emotionless, but his heartbeats clearly increased for all to hear.

She shook her head disbelievingly and smiled, glancing momentarily at the machine.

Shiro promptly took care of it. A forceful punch rid him of the embarrassing noise; and he pulled away his right fist as sparks shorted the device. He clenched his small fingers and a smirk splayed across the unseen side of his face.

"He's a fighter, he is." Lion added quietly, mainly to himself.

Shiro wavered a bit and his arms gave way, slamming his upper back against the table. He muttered softly "Ow."

That night they rested easily, knowing Shiro was alive. He was given special treatment for awhile because he'd begun to heal in record timing. His exploits proved this, and not only, but that he was a very mysterious child indeed.

End Chapter #1