Okay, I would like to start by saying I am TREMENDOUSLY sorry for the amount of time it's been since last update. Between work, holidays, and my other story, there just hasn't been time to write. But I'm going to start fixing that.
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Chapter Three: Hidden Agendas
Confusion wracked the young creature's mind. His hands came up to his head once more, and he curled himself up in midair as he struggled to think. Slowly, he pulled his hands back away from his head, his eyes staring transfixed at the small balls that tipped each finger. What were they for? His three fingers...his eyes followed his fingers down to his hands, and then down his arms. His muscles were small, weak, and yet he felt powerful. Why was that?
The creature didn't understand. He couldn't understand just what it was he was here for, why he existed. He lived, but he had no life to claim. He could think, could move...he knew...but he didn't have a reason. He didn't even have an identity. What was he? As he thought, he realized that the only answer would lie in that place he had just come from. He had been too rushed to get free, he needed to go back and find his answers.
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As she clutched Sasha close to her chest, Elise couldn't help but wonder what this was all about. The only sound as they rode through town was that of the motorcycle roaring through the streets. Her worries for her father began to increase as the silence of the officer refused to lift, until finally she couldn't take the curiosity any longer. "Um...excuse me," she asked quietly, "Miss...um...miss officer..."
"Please," the lady called back to her, "call me Sally. It's much less formal." The warm voice of the officer comforted her a little, but it didn't dissuade her fears for her daddy.
"Um...can I ask, is my daddy okay?" Elise's voice betrayed her insecurity, and Sally picked it up easy.
Sally was silent for a moment, as she considered what to tell her. She had been briefed by Officer Bryant just before picking up Elise, to make certain she had every answer she'd need. The question now was how much she should actually reveal. Elise's father was currently down at the police station, probably being questioned by one of the higher officers on the issue of this creature that had broken free. What had the computer screens called it? Mewtwo?
She cleared her throat before she responded. "Professor Pine is doing just fine. He's been taken in for questioning, but I'm sure once we've wrapped up this issue, you'll be able to see him again." Not likely, she knew. She already knew this girl's future, it had happened more than enough. She'd be taken into Team Rocket, made one of theirs, just like any other poor kid that needed to be taken into their grasp. Her master, the big man, didn't like loose ends.
Her sympathies went to the poor kid. That little Eevee she was clutching probably wouldn't stay hers, not a Pokemon that rare. It'd probably be pretty hard on her, but she'd get over it eventually, just like every other kid. Hmm...but perhaps it didn't need to happen. She began to wonder, how much did the girl herself know about the project her father had been working on? Perhaps there was a way she could avoid the kid's decided future. "Hey, kid," she asked over the roar of the cycle, "don't suppose you know what was going on back at the Silph building, do you?"
Elise shook her head, then realized Sally couldn't actually see her since she was facing away. "No," she admitted, "my daddy didn't tell me much about it." The whole project had been a huge secret. Any time she'd asked about it, her father would quickly change the subject. "I think they might have been doing something with the big, white creature that broke out of the building, though, if that's any help."
Sally sighed. She was afraid of this. A 15-year-old girl wouldn't have the top level clearance required, no matter whose little girl she was. "I'm sorry to hear that," she muttered, with every bit of sincerity. No one could fault her for trying.
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Meanwhile, back at the Silph building, a portly officer sat in the destroyed laboratory that had once held the creature. The containment tank in the center of the room was completely destroyed. Several computers had been smashed, chairs knocked over, and all manner of papers and files in pieces on the floor. Bryant's hands poured over any complete file he could find, his eyes greedily lapping up any information he could gather. Project Mewtwo, he had discovered, had been an attempt at creating a genetic replica of the legendary creature Mew. He couldn't help but laugh at the name they had saddled the creature with. "Mewtwo," he chuckled to himself, "how very creative that wasn't."
He had read a few of the design specs for the creature, but nothing that gave him what he wanted to know. There was no information on the creature's basic abilities, its powers, anything of use to him. If he was going to bring this thing in for his boss, he was going to have to do it blind, and that was not a thought he fancied.
CRASH
The sound echoed down the hall and through what had once been reinforced steel doors, now broken and torn open. Someone was here, and that did not rest well with Bryant. Grasping his flashlight quickly off the desk, he slipped out the doors quietly, shining his beam down the hall. It didn't take him long to find the source of the noise, a water cooler midway down the hall had been knocked over, and the culprit was still there. The moment the light hit it, the creature turned to face it, surprised by the flashlight's beam.
"Mewtwo?" Bryant whispered, nervous now to be face to face with the creature. What was that old adage about returning to the scene of the crime? His right hand lowered slowly, quietly, towards a holster on his hip, where a tazer gun resided. This was the opportunity of a lifetime.
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Within the heart of the Cinnabar Gym, the leader Blaine sat deep in thought. A large chair carved out of lava rock presented him his seating arrangement, as he ran over his thoughts. He often came to this spot to read, but this time there was a more pressing concern.There had been something unsettling about that officer, but he couldn't place what. She seemed awfully young, for one thing. More importantly, he couldn't recall ever seeing her before. He knew most, if not all, of the police force on the island. He had made it his business to know as much about the people who lived here as he could, he felt it an important part of his job. But the more he thought about it, the more he wondered. He couldn't recall ever seeing this "Sally" on the island before.
The more Blaine considered it, the less sense it made. "Rick!" he called out into the gym, knowing the trainers would hear his voice. Though his trainers were often busy at work with their fire Pokemon, it wasn't difficult to hear his voice echoing through the cavern.
Sure enough, it was heard in the main chamber by a young man. The main chamber was constructed out of lava rock, with spouts in the floors, walls, and ceilings. Each of these spouts would periodically shoot fire into the chamber, in a straight line from the spout. These were traps designed for facing other trainers, particularly young badge collectors going for the Indigo Plateau.
Rick was one of Blaine's better trainers. With short, black hair that always looked like he never combed it, and hazel eyes, he stood at approximately 6'3". Rick had been quite the explorer before finally settling in here on Cinnabar. He'd been all across the land, and he told stories of trips to other regions as well. He was coming up 32, a bit past his prime, but he never let that slow him down. Blaine knew that he also had a bit of a protective streak towards the kids in the gym, which made him perfect for the job.
When Blaine's voice echoed out into the training hall, Rick quickly turned his head up. This couldn't have come at a worse time, he knew. He was in the middle of a match! "Flare, hold." he called out to his Charmeleon in the middle of the battlefield. The creature stood at 3'7", with fiery red scales covering its body, save for its exposed, white stomach. A bipedal creature, the Charmeleon had powerful claws on its arms and legs, as well as a mighty tail that swept back from its body, topped by a burning flame at the tip. Last was its head, with its lizard's snout filled with sharp, vicious teeth, and a bare stub of a horn coming back from its head.
The creature had been in the middle of a sparring match with a fellow gym trainer's Ninetales. This quadrupedal creature had the look of a fox, and rivaled Charmeleon at 3'7". With a thick mane of fur that ran down to a large tuft on its chest, this Pokemon was covered, snout to toe, in shimmering, golden fur. Its ears perked up, listening for anything they could grasp, and its eyes emitted a terrifying red glow. Nine tails sprouted from its hindquarters, nine poofy, beautiful tails for which the creature was named. Last was a golden sprout of hair that came from the top of its head, sweeping back over its fur and running down to the end of its long, feline neck.
When the Charmeleon heard Rick's voice, it pulled back from the fight. "Sorry, Mina," Rick apologized to the girl across from him, "but the big guy calls." Minako was the name of the girl he'd been sparring with, another trainer here in the gym. The two were almost inseperable when they trained here, gym staff and the kids that hung out here all knew that. Minako's fiery red hair and shimmering green eyes had become one of the most common sights on Cinnabar. She was Blaine's star pupil, and there was some rumor that one day, should he ever choose to retire, she may be the one to take his place in the League.
Holding out a Poke Ball and squeezing to activate the recall system, Rick recalled his Charmeleon, which vanished back into her ball with a glowing red light. "Let's finish this some other time," he smirked, before heading back towards Blaine's inner chamber.
Minako, however, was not about to just let him go without getting one last hit in. "Yeah, yeah, you were gonna lose anyway," she teased, before turning back towards the other trainers.
"Oh, right," Rick laughed, "that's why my Flare had Valencia pinned. It all makes sense!" With that last bit, he vanished into Blaine's inner sanctum. The sanctum was adorned with lava rock all along the floor and walls, and a massive pit sat in the center of the room. They couldn't get actual lava to fill the pit with, simply because of the sheer temperature magma existed at. It would broil any human who came in here alive, just by the temperature it would heat the air to. But they had found a substitute solution, a molten liquid that filled the pit that was hot as the dickens but not too hot to survive being around. Still, Rick knew, it was best not to touch it. On the other side, there was a concealed door hidden in the lava rock. Only Rick, Minako, and a few other trainers knew Blaine had that there, with his own personal library hidden on the other side. There was many a time, Blaine would seemingly disappear from the gym, when he'd pass through the hidden door and spend his time with his research.
Blaine had a massive chair carved from lava rock, that rest on the far side of the room, across the molten solution. Not being incredibly stupid, Rick decided to walk around the solution, rather than through it. A wise decision.
"Rick," Blaine started as soon as Rick was close enough to speak, "have you ever heard of a woman named Sally Brown?" Blaine's chin rest on his right hand, in one of his favorite contemplative positions.
Rick scratched his head, confused by the question. "Sally Brown? Um...I don't think so," he offered, not sure what Blaine wanted.
"She's supposedly an officer of the law here," Blaine pondered aloud. "But something just doesn't seem right about her. I can't place it, but...it's almost like she's missing something. Some...some critical piece of...I don't know."
"Would you like me to go look for her?" Rick offered.
Blaine was silent a moment. "Hmm...yes, that would be a wise decision. See if you can't find little Elise Pine and her Eevee. Ms. Brown took them with her when she left."
Rick's eyes widened a moment in surprise. "Wait, she's got Elise with her?" There was not a trainer in the gym that didn't know that little trouble magnet. Elise Pine spent much of her free time at this place, enough that Minako had once jokingly called Blaine "Elise's surrogate mother". She'd been shut out of the inner sanctum after tripping over her own foot and almost falling into the molten solution. Rick had been there to catch her, but after that, they decided the clumsy little trouble magnet shouldn't be in a place that dangerous.
Rick breathed a sigh of exhaustion. "If this woman has Elise, you can bet she's dangerous. Elise isn't lucky enough for her not to be. I'll go look for her."
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Officer Bryant exploded from the elevator, racing through the lobby of the Silph building. "Clear the area!" he shouted to the clerk as he raced past the front desk. Before the clerk had time to consider what the officer could have meant, there came a crashing sound of metal being torn through. The clerk dropped quickly behind his desk, just in time to see a white creature whiz past overhead.
Bryant smashed as fast as he could through the doors and raced for his squad car. Leaping over it to hide behind the vehicle, he grasped his radio and screeched "I've found the creature from the Silph incident! The creature has turned hostile, send backup!" What he didn't report was that the reason the creature had gone hostile was because he had tried to bring it down for Team Rocket.
Back up in the upper floor, he had fired his tazer gun directly at the creature. He expected it wouldn't know what the weapon was, that it wouldn't know to move, but he had been wrong. It may not have known what the tazer gun was, but it had greater reflexes than he had predicted. Two darts connected by wires to the gun were fired at the speed of a bullet from the gun. They were supposed to dig into the creature and send a powerful electric charge into him, rendering him unconscious. Instead, they whipped away from each other in midair, moving around the creature to avoid striking him. It can't have been an accident, not the way they moved. Mewtwo had responded violently to the attack, and Bryant had barely made it to the stairwell before the creature closed in on him.
Bryant looked up over his car just in time to see the doors explode outwards by the sheer force of the creature's telekinetic power. He had sorely underestimated this newborn Pokemon. Whatever the hell this Mewtwo creature was, they had built it STRONG. He needed to delay, he needed a distraction that would keep it busy until backup arrived. Quickly, he grasped one of four balls on his belt and chucked it up and over the squad car. The tazer gun may have been of little effect, but let's see how the creature could handle a Pokemon battle.
The ball cracked open in midair, bending back on the hinge to release its contents. A red flash of energy flew through the air, releasing a large creature beating its wings in midair. Another 3'7" creature, this violet colored insect was adorned by two large, powerful white wings. Two black antennae stuck up from its head, and a two red compound eyes. A tiny blue nose occupied its face, with a tiny little mouth coming out beneath it. It had two long, blue little feet coming down from its thorax, about the length of its antennae, and two little blue claws that couldn't do much besides flitter there.
"Butterfree, keep that thing busy," was the only order Bryant gave his Pokemon as the creature floated out over the smashed-through doors, before digging into his squad car. He needed to find a weapon, something more potent than his tazer gun, something that could take down that monster. He couldn't hear any sirens yet, so he needed to buy time. Any hope of bringing in Mewtwo now was gone, he would have to find another means to retrieve it once the police had taken it in. He knew this, but he didn't care. All he cared about was putting it down hard.
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Sally's motorcycle roared down the street. She whipped between a taxi and a truck, then took a hard right into an alleyway. Elise held on tightly to Sally's waist with her right arm, while the left kept its firm hold on Sasha. "Where are we going?" she asked, her confusion present in her voice. "I thought the police station was still a ways down the street."
Sally didn't respond, she merely slowed her motorcycle in the alley, coming to a stop beside a large, black van. "End of the road," she sighed, looking back at Elise for a moment before climbing off the bike.
"End of...what do you mean?" Elise was starting to worry now. She didn't know where she was, but–
"She means," a voice snarled from the back of the van, "that you are coming with us." A man stepped out from behind the van, stepping menacingly towards Elise and the motorcycle. He was a powerfully built man, dressed in black, with long, blonde hair that ran down to his shoulders. The moment Elise saw him, her body welled up with fear. He grabbed her right arm, yanking her off the bike and shaking her out of her frightened paralysis. She struggled, pulling back, but he ripped her off her feet. With his left hand still firmly wrapped around her right, his right grabbed the side of her stomach and lifted her into the air. Sasha fell from her grip, barking and yipping at the man, but recieved only a firm kick from his foot.
Elise started to scream for help, her eyes looking wildly to Sally to help her. But Sally did nothing but look away, as the man threw her through the doors into the back of the van. After piling Sasha in with her, he slammed the doors, leaving her encompassed in darkness, in the bare, metal furnishings. She could hear his voice, just barely, through the door. "Welcome to your new home."