Disclaimer: I own Loren, Dr. Mason, John, Jou-san, etc. Tom and Elin own themselves. Mewtwo, Giovanni and other such characters are property of some big people. I don't own Mewtwo. Sniff.

Author's note: Due to trouble with computers, Mewtwo's telepathic speech now looks like this. Hopefully I can get it fixed by the next chapter...... But, hey, I'm lucky to finally be able to actually post the thing.....

Chapter 10 (Whoa!)

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"Hey, Johnny-boy." Tom paused for a few seconds. "Who exactly are you?"

"I was sent by one Jou-san. He wants to meet you." He looked around at each of us. "All of you."

There was a general pause, then: "Why?" came from Elin.

John hesitated. "He knows much. He has his sources. He has followed your actions for a while. He also knows much of the portal stones."

"Ah!" I shouted. I turned to Tom. "Do you have my things?"

"Yes," Tom said and handed over Castor, Pollux, and the portal stone. I saw that Tom and Elin were already fully equipped. I strapped on the blades and pocketed the portal stone. Tom, Elin and John indulged in conversation, but I didn't pay attention. I felt the usual presence returning.

I walked away from the group as I saw the spirit of Mewtwo coming round the building of TRHQ. He came close, and as he did, he saw the ankle device on my ankle. He looked at me. "Can you hear me?" I asked, not knowing what to expect.

Yes. I can hear you in spirit form when in hearing range if you speak out loud.

He came up close so that I had to look up at him. Tall as I was, I wasn't nearly as tall as Mewtwo, especially since he wasn't standing on the ground, but levitating just above it. "Well as you can see," I looked down at the containment collar and lifted my foot up slightly, showing it to Mewtwo, "you can't return right now. Not until I can remove this thing." It was a fact, and an annoying one, too. If he returned now, he couldn't leave while I had the containment collar on, and we couldn't use any power. Also, if we were caught, that power would not be in our hands anymore.

"I can take care of myself, but getting the collar off may be a problem. It's an improved version of the previous one, probably more difficult to remove." I paused, thinking for a while. Then I continued. "John there," I gestured to John, Mewtwo taking a look at him, then I turned back to him, "helped me out. He says he was sent by one Jou-san. Familiar?"

I have heard of the man.

"Well, quite. Anyway. John says he wants to see us. I thought we could check it out. D'you think you could hang around here and see if you could find out how to get this blasted thing off. Also, when you return, make sure we take your form. By then there'll be a dangerous amount of energy stored up."

Yes. When will you return?

"I dunno for sure. Stay close, and don't come searching for us. Can't take the risk of not being able to find each other when the time comes. For now, I'll see you later." I said as I started walking to the group. I looked over my shoulder as Mewtwo flew head first through the wall of the building.

"John!" I yelled to him to get his attention as I returned to the group.

He turned to face me: "Yeah?"

"Take us to Jou-san. We should hurry. I'd like to come back before they've gotten organised."

"Yeah, okay." He said; "Follow me."

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Mewtwo levitated through the dimly lit corridors of Team Rocket Headquarters. He had started off going through the walls, but after finding himself wandering abound blind and ending up outside, he decided he would rather move in the hallways and be able to see what he was doing.

He made his way to the third floor and started peeking through the doors to see what was inside, in the hope of finding something useful, like two or more TR members discussing classified information. As he peeked through the tenth and last door of that particular hallway, he decided he should find some laboratory or Giovanni's office, instead of these private quarters. He tried hard to forget what he had seen behind door number 4.....

A few corridors later he came to a pair of double-doors marked "The Boss". He decided this was it and levitated in through the doors. Surely enough, there was a room with walls of metal and a wall-size screen on the back wall. There were two chairs, both large, both comfortable looking, and both exceedingly expensive.

On the forementioned chairs were two men. One, dressed in an orange suit, well built, with vodka-glass-smashing hand muscles and an evil smirk on his face. Giovanni... thought Mewtwo. The other was dressed in a white labcoat, the frail body of a human who never did anything but research, and eyes that dream of fame and glory. ...And Dr. Mason, finished Mewtwo.

They were discussing Loren and Mewtwo, and formulating a plan to recapture them. They were, however, ingorant of the fact that one of the subjects of their discussion was sitting down on an insubstancial chair next to them, listening to all that they said.

Finally the stood up and headed for the door. Mewtwo listened to their final words before they exited.

"And what of this containment collar?" asked Giovanni.

"It is an upgrade of the old one. Neither of them know how to remove it, and the only way to find out is to hack into our database and find the information. Which, of course, is impossible. Firstly, they cannot penetrate your defenses, and secondly, I know as a fact that neither Loren,Tom, nor Mewtwo knows how to use computers well enough to find it."

"I do. I assume it requires a password?"

"Yes, it does. The password is 'drowssap'"

"Drowssap?" Giovanni asked, then they both left the room.

Mewtwo snorted at the typical human imagination, as he derived that 'drowssap' was 'password' backwards. He turned to the great computer screen and the large console before it. He levitated to it, then tried to type, but his fingers simply sailed through the keys.

My kingdom for substance.

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"This is it."

We beheld the old shack in front a steep uphill that was our destination. The walls were covered in flora and the roof looked like it was about to cave in. There were two windows on the front wall, but I couldn't see in. The door was made of wood, also hosting a floral growth.

"This?" I asked, eyeing the plants that were growing out of a hole in the wall of the shack.

"This," John answered, looking at the shack as if it were a palace.

"Charming," Tom butted into the conversation.

"Shall we?" John headed for the door, and Tom, Elin and I looked at each other hesitantly. Then I stepped forward, and Tom and Elin followed after. John opened the door for us, holding it open and standing next to it, allowing us to go first.

We stepped into complete darkness, with the only light being that coming through the door from the outside. Even this light showed nothing inside, and it too disappeard when John stepped in, closing the door behind him.

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Silence and darkness. No light, no sound, nothing.

I cleared my throat, expecting someone to do something. No-one did anything. Then Tom lit his Zippo, creating a small light, but even it didn't help. I remembered the windows and turned around, but there was no light coming from windows. It was almost as if there were none. I turned back, and noticed that, in the light of Tom's Zippo, I couldn't even see any walls, even though they should be only a few meters apart.

There were two loud cracks, that seemed deafening after the silence, that turned out to be John's claps, and suddenly there was light. Too much light, it seemed, after the dark. After my eyes had gotten used to the light, I looked up at the sight that the light had made possible to see.

What we saw was unbelievable. Inside the tiny one-person shack was a great hall, elegantly carved out of marble. There was a great, white fountain in the middle of the room, depicting an old man with a walking stick with water spewing out of his mouth. There were more carvings and decorations on the walls, but describing them would take till the end of the fic.

There were old men and women walking around, looking as if they didn't have a care in the world. I recognized a few as The Oracle from The Matrix, Amanda Krueger from the 'A nightmare on Elm Street' series and.... Latrine from Robin Hood: Men in Tights?!?!

"What is this place?" I asked John as I watched Yoda do a cannonball into the fountain.

"This is a resting place for oracles, sages, and wise people from different dimensions to come and rest. The shack was a portal here, and there are many more, but they are kept secret, for we don't want unwanted company here."

"I see."

"Let's go. Jou-san is this way." He started heading toward the left side of the round hall, toward a large, elegantly carved pair of wooden doors.

"Nice fountain," Elin commented, looking at the endless stream of water spewing from the statue's mouth.

"Yes. It was made according to the wishes of the person who had this place made many decades ago. He was a humorous man. Hence the fountain."

"Cool," Tom commented just as we reached the doors. We stood in front, and John clapped his hands twice again. The doors opened slowly, but didn't make a sound, which was quite odd, considering their age. Something so old should have made a horrible creaking sound, but there was no such thing.

Beyond the wooden doors was a counter with a young woman behind it, looking at us with a typical clerk's smile. We walked up to the counter.

"Who would you like to see?" She asked, sounding disturbingly overjoyed.

"Jou-san," replied John.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked, still smiling.

"Yes," John answered patiently.

"Okay," she wrote something into a large book before her. "First door on your right. Room 150"

"Thank you," John said and we headed for the door. I smirked at the irony of room number 150.

John opened the door, and introduced us to the sight of what seemed to be an infinite hallway of doors. All the doors were alike, and had numbers written on them in big, bold numbers.

"Door number 150...." I said, looking at the long, long hallway. "How long is it gonna take us to get there?"

"Not long," John said. "Follow me." He stepped forward and we followed. As we stepped forward, everything seemed to jolt backward. I stopped, looking around me in amazement. I had taken one step, but advanced three meters.

"Cool," I said and started walking again. We reached door number 150 in about half a minute, and looked at the door. It was exactly identical to all the other doors, and if one were to remove the signs, no-one would be able to find anything here. We stopped and looked at John. "I can only show you the door. You must walk through it." He said mysteriously.

I raised an eyebrow, recognising quotation of The Matrix. John laughed. "I had to," he said, still smiling.

"Uh-huh...." I said absently as I turned to the door. "Do we knock or what?" before I even finished my sentence, the door opened slowly by itself, revealing a huge area that looked like a main lobby for a huge mansion. Looking at the doors around that one, I noticed that the room was far wider than the space between that door and the next physically allowed.

"Please tell me these are inter-dimensional doorways before I go against my policies and pity the neighbours for having small appartments," I said to John.

"Yes, they are," John answered.

"Good." I stepped in.

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"Moo."

Not what I had expected. After finally making our way to the third floor and having made it through the maze of corridors, we had finally reached Jou-san's room. I had expected many things. Things like 'I've been waiting for you,' or 'come in, younglings.' But 'moo'?!?!?!

I didn't know what to do. Of all the things he could have done, he decided to mimic a cow. -Good grief,- I said to myself in my head. I looked around, noticing that I couldn't even see him. I looked around at the expensive- looking room, furnished with cloth that looked like silk, and elaborately carved oaken furniture.

I turned to John. He came close and whispered in my ear: "He's a sage. Being very intelligent can get somewhat straining on the brain. Results can include weirdness and slight insanity."

"Slight insanity?!?!?"

"Yes," he responded to my outburst. He nodded toward the middle of the room and I turned to face that way. There I saw what hadn't been there last time. There was a man, old in appearance, wearing white robes. Where he had come from, I didn't know.

"Jou-san, I presume?" I asked him, still wondering how he got there. He looked up, and our eyes met. He had golden eyes, which seemed to drill into my very being.

"Bearer of the portal stone," he said in a clear voice that punctured into my thoughts and almost made me flinch.

"Yeah, that's me," I answered, not sure what to expect.

He studied me, head to toe, to sword, to pocket. "Bring it forth," he said, looking intently at my pocket. I took out the portal stone, holding it in front of me so that he could see.

He walked toward me, using a cane for support. It was black, with a shiny metallic knob on the end. He looked at the portal stone, nodding his head. "Yes, yes. This is definitely one of the four stones." He looked up at me. "You have a great responsibility upon you. If this stone falls into the wrong hands, the results could be disastrous."

"I understand," I said. "I protect it well. In addition to the power that..... We posess, I, as you can see," I jerked a thumb at Castor, "Am capable of protecting myself and the stone."

"To protect the portal stone..." He stared into my eyes, "You will need to balance your two minds. None can face the challenges without stability of mind."

He turned to Tom. "And some secrets are not meant to be secrets among friends." I stood there, looking blankly at the two. -Secrets?- I thought to myself. I looked at Tom, who was looking at Jou-san, looking baffled. What I could read from his face, was that he knew what Jou-san meant, but not how he knew....

Neither of us had time to ponder long, for Jou-san moved to Elin. He held out a hand, giving her something that I couldn't quite see. "Use it wisely. Use your head," he said quietly.

Then he turned away and headed to the other end of the room. He stopped on the spot where he had first appeared and turned around. "Give me the portal stone," he said, holding out a hand. I hesitated, but, seeing his serious gaze, I obeyed, placing the portal stone in his hand. He started circling his other hand above it, palm down, and muttering some strange words that I couldn't understand.

He kept muttering, and the stone started glowing blue. I watched as the light became brighter, then dimmed to it's normal appearance. Jou-san handed it back to me and I took it, eyeing it expectantly.

"You have only discovered a small part of the portal stone's power. I have unlocked a few more abilities that will help you on your travels. You can create small portals for obtaining small things and now you, all of you, have portals for weapon reserves." He looked at me indicating to my blades. I reached behind my back to grab Castor, but my hand caught on nothing. Castor was gone!

Jou-san came forward and put his hand to the side of my waist where I usually kept Pollux. His hand slid into a portal that seemed to appear by proximity sensing. He withdrew his hand, and there was Pollux.

I stared in awe. "Portals," I said and reached behind my back again, my hand reaching into a portal, out of which I pulled out Castor. "Cool!"

"You do not have to worry about the weight or size of your weapons, for now you have portals where you usually have straps," Jou-san said as Tom reached into portals inside his coat, pulling out his pistols and Elin pulled out two elbow blades from her waist portals.

"Wow, thanks!" I said as I pulled out my 2 meter long rod from a 10 cm deep pocket.

"Do not thank me. Thank the portal stone, for it is it that made this possible," he said. "Also," he took Castor from my hand. He waved it in a large arc and when he returned it to me, I noticed something strange about it, but I couldn't quite figure what. I waved it about a small bit, and then I noticed the absence of the trailing whip.

"Cool!" I said as I flicked the sword and the whip grew to its full length again. "This should make stabbing a little easier."

"You will need these abilities in the future. The challenges will be trying."

"You mentioned the challenges earlier. What do you mean?" I asked as I slid my weaponry into the portals that opened and closed as I pleased.

"Do you not think that others also crave these abilities and more? Many wish to travel between dimensions and take advantage of these powers. These challengers will track you down and battle you for the stone. You must protect it, for it must not fall into the wrong hands," he explained, staring intently into my eyes.

I was quiet for a few seconds, then "Oooookkkay........."

"But for now your greatest worry is returning your other mind to you. I understand that he is located near Team Rocket Headquarters," he said, not seeming to hear my "Yes". "You will be facing the whole army of Team Rocket. In this you will not triumph, for you are skilled, but you cannot face an army of armed humans and an army of different Pokémon all at the same time. You will need help," he said, seemingly deep in thought.

"Yes, but where can I get that kind of help?" I asked, looking at everybody. I didn't care who answered me. I just needed a good suggestion.

"I know!" cried John.

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Behold what is chapter 10!!! (Whoa. I got this far.... OO Let's all celebrate the 10th chapter of Schizo!!!!)

Like? Not? Let me know. Chapter 11 coming soon!