Chapter Two: Crime and Punishment

Sirens streaked down the street, blaring towards the Silph facility. An alarm had sounded minutes before inside the building, yanking Officer Mitchell and her unit away from their patrols. Something was going down, and Mitchell had no intention of letting it get out of the building, unless it was in handcuffs.

However, just three blocks from the building, she saw it. Something smashed out through the window of the ninth floor, taking much of the wall around the window with it. Her bike streaked to a stop as she watched the rubble fall, then her eyes shot instantly the violet...thing...that was streaking across the sky. "What in the hell...?" she spoke breathlessly, watching this mystery creature take off into the distance.

She watched the creature until it was out of sight. Part of her wanted to chase after it, to find out what that thing was, but the cop in her told her that if it was moving that fast, it was gone now. She needed to verify the scene of the accident, look for injuries and survivors, and try to find some sign of what had just happened over in the Silph building. That was her first priority, and she would carry it out with everything she had.

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Elise ran down the street, following after the violet streak. She had seen it drop lower as it got further into the city, but she knew she'd never catch up on foot. Still, she had to try anyway. She ran as fast as she could, darting around a bike rack and passing through an alleyway, without even a care for fatigue or distance. She had to know what that was, had to know what had just come out of her father's building. What were they keeping in that place? Some sort of...maybe a robot? Was that one of the super secret projects they were working on?

She kept running, straight in the direction she'd seen it go. If it was going down like that, and kept going in that direction, she knew that it would probably be straight ahead. She just had to get there, and so she ran, faster and faster, clutching Sasha closer to her as she ran.

She didn't know what she would find, but she had to go find out. That thing had come from her home, she had to know what it was. She just had to. She had to, and she wouldn't let anything...stop...anything stop her...

Elise's run slowed as she came into another alleyway, and then stopped entirely. She let Sasha down, then bent over, her hands grasping her knees as she breathed. She was completely out of breath, and that thing was, by this point, long gone. She fell back against the wall, sliding down into a sitting position, and put her hands on her forehead. Whatever that had been, it had to be miles away at this point. There were still several miles to the city limits, and if it had kept flying past those, it would probably be out over the ocean at this point. It was gone.

Sasha climbed up into Elise's lap, snuggling up for her, and it brought the smile back to Elise's face. So she didn't find that thing. She could still enjoy the company of her–

"Well, now, look what we have here?" The voice sent a chill down her spine. It sounded older, maybe 17 or 18, and definitely masculine. And suddenly, she realized how vulnerable she was right now.

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"Hey, I found one!" Pine heard the voice close by, calling down the hall, as he started his return to conscious activity. He didn't remember much of what had just happened, his mind was still woozy from Ditto's suffocation. His eyes struggled to open, but his vision was still black for a few seconds before it started returning. However, he was certainly not happy with the image that presented itself before him.

The entire hallway was ruined. Doors had been smashed off their hinges, and it looked like they had been ripped forward by some kind of powerful shockwave. There was pink slime splattered against part of the wall, though not enough to constitute a...Ditto! The memory came back to him right then, the Ditto that had imitated his partner to get in here. It had...it was after...what was it after?

The memory flashed before him again, that horrible Ditto that had shoved him against the wall and suffocated him. It had wanted...no, that couldn't be right. What had it said? "Whatever your little project is in there, it is now the property of Team Rocket." No...no, it couldn't mess with Mewtwo, it couldn't be allowed to–

"Sir, are you okay?" A woman was there. A woman dressed in blue, crouched down to speak to him. The woman looked like she was watching for injuries while she spoke, and the golden star shining on her shirt told him exactly who she was. There was a police officer here, and maybe more. They must have come because of the security cameras that certainly had to have caught the Ditto attacking him. Relief began to wash over him a moment, maybe they had caught the Ditto and everything was–

No, no that couldn't be right. This place looked like something had burst its way out of here. Ignoring the question for a moment, Pine looked down the hall. It looked as though something had stopped at the elevator, and then gone into one of the rooms. The destruction, the torn off doors, lessened as it got nearer to the elevator. And one door, next to it, was blown in rather than out, signifying that something had gone in that direction.

Horror began to grip him as he started to realize what this could mean. No, he had to–

"Sir?" The woman's voice was more stern now, she wanted an answer and she wanted it now.

The man nodded his head, coughing up a little before responding. "Yeah...yeah, I–" he tried to get up, but it was right then that his eyes had gone behind the woman, down the hall, and the sight he saw confirmed his worst fears. The magnetic doors were destroyed, it looked like something with tremendous strength had forced them open against the machinery that held them shut. There were no handprints on the doors, no signs of physical contact, but yet, they had been torn open by incredible force. And now, he didn't dare look inside the lab. He didn't have to. He already knew what would be found in there.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to come down to the station and fill out a report." The woman's tone was carefully aimed to avoid freaking him out, but he was a smart man, he could tell. She was not a happy police officer, and this was confirmed by the last bit she added. "And I certainly hope you know what the hell that thing that tore out of here was, because I definitely do not."

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Elise scooted vainly, too scared to stand and watching the men approach. There were three of them, older teens, somewhere between 17 and 20 was her guess. They were dressed in leather, two with brown hair and one with black. The one with black was in front of the other two, walking towards her with a predatory grin, while the other two hung back. He seemed to be the leader of the three boys.

Elise scooted, clutching her precious Sasha to her chest. She was frightened now, realizing how bad a place an alleyway was for a girl of her age. But it was broad daylight, maybe if she screamed, someone would–

The boy tossed a ball right in her direction, a small orb with red covering the top and white on the bottom, split around the center. Anyone would recognize this orb, it was a Poke Ball, which trainers used to capture and contain their Pokemon. Her eyes remained fixated on the ball as it flew through the air, watching it open, now too frightened to move.

Red energy flew from the ball, the Pokemon being released from its stasis. It formed into a shape only three feet high, but as big around as it was tall. As the creature took shape, it formed into numerous vines and ropes, dozens, maybe even a hundred or more, of these strange blue vines, wrapped firmly around a central core that was obscured by the vines. She didn't recognize this one, she didn't know enough about Pokemon to recognize them all. Two pink little feet stuck out beneath the vines, but that was all of the body she could see. And suddenly, she had a bad feeling about this, and she began to scream.

However, the creature moved as soon as she did, wrapping its vines and tentacles around her ankles, her wrists, and especially her mouth. It was holding her still, grabbing and binding her, binding her wrists together and wrapping around her legs to hold her there. She tried to scream more, but the sound was muffled. She berated herself for her foolish mistake of stopping here, and she knew it was going to cost her–

One of the tendrils withdrew back to the creature suddenly, and an eek of pain was emitted from it. Another thrashed, and she realized what was happening. Sasha was biting them, biting at the tendrils, trying to protect her. The man just laughed, watching the vain struggle. "How much you think we can get for this one?" he chuckled, looking into Elise's terrified eyes, but no response came. He listened for a moment and then, confused, asked, "Guys?" But before he could ask again, he was knocked forward by the both of them, backing up slowly. The man whipped around, and his eyes widened at the sight before him.

There was a creature at the end of the alleyway, composed entirely of fire. Though only 4 feet tall, the image of this living flame was intimidating to all three of the boys, The only seemingly solid pieces of it were the beak and claws. The creature was bipedal, with four flaming spikes coming out of its back and two fiery orbs resting just above its eyes, both of which burned a hotter flame than the rest of its body. It also bore a tail, swept back behind it, with a flame burning on the end.

Elise's fear turned to excitement when she saw the creature, for she would recognize this one anywhere. She had seen this creature, the Magmar at the gym several times, and she knew it belonged to Blaine, the leader of their gym, and she knew as soon as she saw it that she was safe.

The vine creature that held her turned its gaze too late, as a large ball of flame flew from Magmar's beak, enveloping the creature. It shrieked in agony as it burned, its tendrils losing their grip on Elise. The young girl quickly crawled away from it as the flames engulfed it. The burning plant writhed in agony for a few moments, before it fell to the ground, passing out.

The three boys backed into the corner as the Magmar advanced on them, walking past Elise and Sasha. Elise hugged her Eevee close as she scooted away from the boys and the Magmar, with a smile on her face. Her relief finally reached its peak when she heard Blaine's voice behind her. "I've already called the police. You boys would do well not to move, my Magmar eats people."

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The creature had made it past the city limits, flying effortlessly through the air. It knew little, beyond the fact that it was confused. Slowly, it began to lose altitude, dropping down towards the beaches that rimmed this mysterious island it had awakened on. But as it did, it found its mind was plagued by questions. The most prominent of all being, who was it? What was it?

The creature soared effortlessly through the air, flying powerfully over the city. While it didn't exactly know how it did this, it never stopped to ponder it. The creature had never known what it was to be like without. Flight was a reflex for it, something it could do without having to know it could do it.

Rather, it mind was plagued by the countless questions, each striving to override the other. Who was it? What was it? Where had it come from? It stopped its flight, hovering in midair 60 feet above the nearest rooftop, and wrapped its hands up to its head to try and think. It didn't know what it wanted to do, it didn't know where to go. No identity, no place, nothing but a vast, alien world that surrounded it.

It had been in such a hurry to flee that place, where it had awakened. It had panicked, not knowing where it was, not knowing what it was, and it had ran. But now that it was free, where was there to go? It tried to think, but no answers would come. There were no hidden memories to tell it where to go. No past to give it some idea of its future. It was alone in this harsh world, without even a name to go by. "Who am I?"

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"We called it Mewtwo." Pine looked down at his hands, resting on the cold, steel table. The woman who had awakened him, Officer Mitchell, sat across from him. Two larger, male officers stood over her shoulder as she questioned him, all three focusing intently on his words. Pine, himself, was feeling more sober than he had ever been, save for when he found out about his wife's death. His creation, his project, was loose in the city someplace. "It was supposed to be a genetic recreation of the legendary Pokemon called "Mew". I don't know where the head office got a sample of genetic material from Mew, you'd have to ask them that, but I believe our project confirmed pretty well that it was genuine."

Pine put his hand to his forehead, trying to think. "This was supposed to be a shining achievement for Silph. We had created a genetic byproduct of Mew, that we could examine and determine for ourselves the capacities of this Mew creature. One of the greatest questions of Pokemon is this being, this Mew creature that so many legends speak of. We were inches away from answering the greatest questions we have about it, from perhaps finally understanding Mew."

"So," Officer Mitchell asked, "this thing is...like a clone?"

Pine shook his head slowly, "No, no no, not a clone. Similar, but there just wasn't enough genetic material to perfectly replicate Mew. No, we needed to fill some of the holes in the code, so we tried repeated attempts to create Mewtwo life forms. After numerous failures, trying everything from Goldeens to Growlithes, I was finally able to find a successful genetic mixture that resulted in the project that escaped from our facility. By filling the gaps with human genetic material, I was finally able to create the first living Mew recreation."

A silence filled the room, one that hung in the air for several minutes. Officer Mitchell was trying to take that in. She was no science buff, but it didn't take a Kadabra to understand those last words. "You..." she cleared her throat, trying to get the words out, but was having trouble speaking. "You made this...thing...out of humans?" She felt at once revolted by this project, by the simple disgust that filled her at the mere thought. "You...you didn't use your own...material...did you?" She asked the obvious question, and for a moment was afraid that she might here the obvious response.

Thankfully, her fears did not come to pass. "No," he laughed at the mere suggestion, "no, anyone involved in the project was not considered as a genetic donor. We didn't want anyone developing an unhealthy paternal obligation to our experiment. We've all seen that movie."

Officer Mitchell nodded her head, then thought for a moment. Putting her disgust aside for the moment, she knew she had a job to do. "What can it do?" she asked, one of the more important questions.

Pine was silent a moment, trying to think. "I...I don't really know, to be honest. We never were able to begin the experiments, before it broke out. But...I don't think it's dangerous, per se. It's probably confused, and maybe a little disoriented, but I don't believe it's dangerous."

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"That THING is dangerous," the woman at the bar snarled. The tavern was empty, they had claimed it a fumigation in order to clear people out. Officer Bryant sat at the bar, next to a very frustrated blond woman. The thing wearing Sally, from the night before, in a major huff. "Damned thing smeared me all the way down the hall! It never even touched me, it just blew past, and I lost my composition!"

Confused, Bryant merely nodded his head. Having sat here listening to Ditto rant for the past hour, he was becoming eager for it to just get to the point. "So," he spoke directly, "I ask again. Where is it now?"

"You think I know?" Ditto asked, astonished. "You have Mitchell and Douglas tapped, why don't you go look for...for...I don't know, some police call or something."

Bryant raised an eyebrow. "Do you really believe it's going to show up here in the city?"

Ditto scoffed. "It's a big, white freak of science. It looks like some lab experiment to make a human cat, or something like that. And it blows things around like there's no tomorrow. Trust me, it won't be hard to find."

Bryant narrowed his eyes, glaring at Ditto for a moment. "Do I detect a hint of insubordination in your voice, Ditto?" He did not like the tone Ditto had taken with him. "Need I remind you that you are not in a position to make orders? That you are not even the bottom rung of the ladder, no, you are BENEATH the ladder."

Ditto clenched his fists for a moment, then took a deep breath, and unclenched them. He knew he couldn't afford to raise his anger again. "No, I apologize." He hated doing this, hated being treated like he was less than a grunt, but he knew he had no choice. There were no other options available to him, not with...no, there were no other options.

Bryant nodded his head. "Good. Now, get dressed. Police uniform. I have a job for you."

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Elise plopped herself back down on the steps, just outside the Fire Gym. Holding Sasha in her arms, she sighed. She'd failed to find the whatever that had come out of her father's workplace. She'd failed spectacularly, and almost gotten herself killed, or worse. If Blaine hadn't been there, who knows what would have happened to her?

Rick, one of the League trainers who practiced here at the gym, had once called her a trouble magnet. And as much as she hated to admit it, she hadn't done a good job proving him wrong. And now, here she was, about to get another stupid scolding for something that had happened to her.

Blaine stood before her, a tall and lanky man in his late 40's. The man was bald, something she had noticed time and time again. Very, very bald, though he had a thick, white moustache that grew out from under his nose. He usually wore dark sunglasses, to help him deal with the glow of the fire he was constantly surrounded by when training his Pokemon. This man was the leader of their gym, one of the higher ranking officials within the Pokemon League. Blaine was a brilliant man, that she knew well. He valued intellect over power, which she often found interesting. Often, he would challenge visiting Trainers to a challenge of the mind, from simple riddles to mind-numbing logic tricks, and she loved watching through them and trying to guess for herself.

Blaine took a seat on the steps beside her, and she sighed. She knew it was coming, the talk for what had happened to her. She was going to be talked to because something had happened to her, even though she hadn't done a thing wrong. "Listen, Elise," he started, "just what were you doing in that alley? You know those places are dangerous."

Elise looked up at Blaine, straining for a response. What should she tell him? The truth? Maybe if she came up with something, something believable, he would...no, no, Blaine was smarter than that. If it were Rick, perhaps, but she had seen enough of his challenges of the mind to know that she could not outsmart Blaine himself. "I was...did you see that purple streak in the sky earlier?" Blaine raised an eyebrow, but nodded his head, and she continued. "It came from the building where Daddy and I live. I saw come out of there, and I wanted to know what it was, but it went too fast and I couldn't catch up and I ran out of breath." She pouted, wishing she'd been able to find it.

Blaine thought for a moment, then sighed. "You're lucky, Elise. You are very lucky that I was in the area." He'd been taking his Magmar to the Pokemon Center, the local hospital for Pokemon, to get it checked out. The magma duck had been suffering some sort of troubles with the way it was burning, it seemed colder than usual. He had heard Elise scream, and he'd come instinctively at the sound.

Elise turned her head down, looking at Sasha. "I know. And I'm sorry, but I really wanted to–"

She was cut off, however, by a stern voice standing in front of her. "Elise Pine?" She looked up, and felt her breath cut short when she saw the man standing before her. A blond-haired woman, with hair down to her shoulders, dressed in the common blue police uniform.

"I...I..." Elise stammered out, confused. "...I...yeah...yeah, I'm her...um..." She felt fear begin to grip her heart. Why was a police officer looking for her? What was going on? Was it her daddy? That thought chilled her to the bone. Had something happened to her father?

Blaine narrowed his eyes at the officer. Something didn't seem right. "What is this about?" he pressed, taking control of the situation. Being leader of the Cinnabar Gym also granted him a respected status as head of the community, and as such, he appreciated knowing everything that went on.

"Relax," the officer smiled. "There was a disturbance back at the Silph Labs recently. We're questioning everyone affiliated with that place. We want to know everything we can about what happened back there."

Elise chirped up. They weren't after her, nothing had happened to her father, and she had gotten a good look at the creature that broke out as it flew by over her head. "I saw it!" she yelped. Her fear of the officer faded when she knew this wasn't about her, and now she knew that this could be good for her. She could help the investigation, maybe get an officer to put in a good word...maybe she could become a police officer! The youngest on the force! Yeah...she was fantasizing, but it was fun.

The officer nodded her head, then gestured slowly away from the gym, towards the motorcycle that was parked in the street. "I'm going to need to ask you to come down to the station, so that we can fill out a...uh..." she stumbled for a moment, which caught Blaine's suspicion. "...a report."

Blaine stood up slowly, his eyes studying the officer. "What did you say your name was, again?" Elise stood, carrying Sasha towards the motorcycle. Blaine was suspicious, but Elise hadn't caught anything to worry about.

The officer helped Elise onto the motorcycle, then turned her head back to Blaine. "I didn't." She smiled at Blaine for a moment, then winked, "I'm Officer Brown. But you can call me Sally," before taking off, with the girl in tow.