Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
Mewtwo. Fucking Mewtwo. Was the pokemon even supposed to exist yet? What the fuck was going on here? Giovanni was staring at me with narrowed eyes and I realised that delaying any longer would probably trigger his suspicions.
My first choice was obvious. I had no idea what was going on here but this pokemon would fall before my team like every other challenge we'd faced so far. An all-powerful psychic type? No fucking problem. I thought to myself as Kenpachi appeared on the field. Our aura connection cemented itself in seconds, and I sunk even deeper into Kenpachi's dark aura. Oak had trained all his children to resist psychic influence with practices that would surely qualify as child abuse if this was the real world but I had no desire to take any risks.
Kenpachi could understand how serious this battle was and jumped up before shattering the ground beneath the psychic's feet. The spears of stone that stretched out from the ground were turned to dust as they made contact with the barrier surrounding the legendary pokemon. 'Shadow ball. Rapid fire' I ordered with our deeper connection and Kenpachi executed without even a second's delay.
The ball's of dark energy passed through the Psychic's barrier like it wasn't even there but the pokemon teleported out of the way before they could make contact. When Kenpachi aimed again, the shadow balls shattered against the barrier this time. Did it just adapt to Kenpachi's move after a single attack? What the actual fuck?
Kenpachi wasted no time in sinking into the ground with a dig. He was a rock type but his control over ground type energy was still superb. The Legendary pokemon didn't even waste a second before stretching out its hands and ripping out a whole section of the field's ground. Kenpachi dove out of the now floating boulder and found himself falling to the ground.
A simple bracing of his feet allowed him to land without the slightest bit of injury. The Mewtwo didn't even look strained after that frankly ridiculous display of psychic power. Kenpachi followed my next plan to the later. A stone platform jutted out from the ground beneath his feet, boosting him into the sky and straight at the Mewtwo. His claws were enveloped in dark energy and he clashed against the barrier with an echoing sound.
A second later and he ripped through before stabbing his claws at the psychic type pokemon. It's telekinesis stopped him mid air before he could connect his attack, and he was thrown back into the ground with a wave of the psychic's hand.
Kenpachi rolled with the landing and was back on his feet instantly. The genetically engineered pokemon stretched out its hands and a familiar ball of orange started charging up in its hands. My tyranitar looked back at me as if asking 'are you sure?' when I relayed my plan. I could understand his hesitance though. It was a risky plan, but as the Psychic type sent a powerful hyper beam at him, Kenpachi settled into his stance and took the attack head on.
The force sent him skidding across the ground but he managed to keep his footing and when the attack ran its course, I was relieved to note he was still conscious if a bit worse for wear. A dark glow surrounded him before combining with another orange glow. He went flying from his position on the ground straight at the Psychic legendary.
Again, he broke through Mewtwo's barrier, and this time, also managed to overcome its psychic hold and crash into the ground with it. I watched with a smile on my face as they both went crashing down.
Kenpachi wasted not even a single second once they landed. He rolled on top of his opponent before wailing into it with punches, scratches, and everything in between. It was fantastic to watch and I allowed myself to hope for a second before the monster dried that all up.
Kenpachi became surrounded by a blue glow before being hurled off the legendary pokemon. He was held in the air, unable to move while the Mewtwo started charging up another hyper beam. A flick of my wrist brought him back into his pokeball before the attack could answer.
I ignored Mewtwo's eyes on me as I pondered what pokemon to use next. An evaluating look told me Kenpachi had managed to do a load of damage to it. My pseudo-legendary had ripped into it, and I wouldn't be wasting his efforts. Igneel appeared on the field with his usual roar of dominance.
Our strategy would be completely different for this battle. Igneel started things off with a sunny day to set the field up. The Mewtwo was content to remain floating a few feet above the ground, conceding aerial superiority to my dragon.
Igneel enjoyed the heat from the sunny day and sent four massive fire balls at the Mewtwo. Its barrier took the hits with nary a wince. We kept going though. Flamethrowers, fire balls, even our phoenix flame technique all went into the barrier with no effect.
'Blast burn' I commanded next. The sudden escalation was necessary. The move still took Igneel a few seconds to charge to full power but the Mewtwo was content to stand there and wait for the attack. We used the time wisely, and I even had Igneel take an extra few seconds to up the power even more.
The move crashed into the barrier with an explosion of heat that felt like it would singe the hair off my head. The sweat that broke out across my body was ignored as I watched the spot where the Mewtwo had been intently, waiting for the smoke and flames to clear up.
When it did, I wasn't as surprised as I should have been to find it untouched with only a broken barrier to show for the powerful attack. I could only grit my teeth in aggravation. While Igneel's version of the move wasn't on the same level as the kind of things Lance's Charizard could do, it was still plenty powerful. The Mewtwo seemed to have gotten tired of just floating there and appeared behind Igneel before grabbing onto his wings with a flex of psychic power. More power, and those wings were broken right before my eyes. Igneel's roar of pain was the stuff of nightmares. A psybeam sent him flying into the ground. Igneel was back in his ball before the Legendary clone could do anything more. My hand was shaking as I clenched it around Igneel's ball.
I had no interest in risking my pokemon for a worthless badge in the grand scheme of things. I considered releasing Broly or Kisame on the field to get revenge for Igneel, but the results of that were already obvious to me. Especially as I watched the mewtwo become surrounded by a golden light and regenerate its wounds. I had no chance here. I was nowhere strong enough to handle this pokemon. Not yet at least.
"Challenger, release your next pokemon" Giovanni's voice rang out across the empty stadium.
I raised my hand and spoke out. "I forfeit my challenge". I said nothing more as I turned around and left the stadium. As I was walking out of the gym, I ignored the receptionist's look. The Silph healing station was my next destination.
XXXXXX
In hindsight, it probably hadn't been a wise choice to spend as much time as I had in the healing station. I just couldn't resist the assessment of Kenpachi's armour that one of the attendants had offered. I might have called them healing stations but they were more like small labs scattered across the region.
You're probably wondering why I'm saying it wasn;'t a wise choice. Well, the answer to that is simple. It's because of the people standing in front of me. With only the light from Igneel's tail flame to see in the dense forest that separated Pallet from Viridian, I couldn't make out their faces but I had no doubts about who they were. Rockets.
Fucking rockets. There were two of them. From their voices, I guessed they were female but I had nothing more to go on than that.
"Look, Pretty boy. Just hand over the pokeballs and no one will get hurt" One of them said as she walked out of the cover of the canopy.
Fuck. An admin. At this point, I could no longer bother pretending that this was an accidental meeting. Fucking Giovanni. I knew he wouldn't have the balls to organise an attack within his own city but an attack just on the outskirts would be equally as suspicious.
"Do you know who I am?" I asked rhetorically to get them talking and to buy myself some time to think of a way out of this madness.
"We know exactly who you are, Daddy's boy. Donnell Oak, son of Samuel Oak. If you think your father's name is going to be enough to save you here, then you better start thinking again."
"My father's name might not mean anything to you but the team full of champion level pokemon at the ranch a few miles from here should mean something. It will take him only seconds to come to my aid once I sound the alarm. Fro your own good, I advise that you take to your heels and remove yourselves from my sight."
They both burst into laughter at that and I couldn't help but scowl in irritation. That had been my best attempt at intimidation and it didn't even faze them. Were these women crazy? I hadn't been bluffing earlier. While I'd loath to rely on Oak's help, I would still rather do that than risk any of my pokemon. My family.
"Look at little, whittle Dony. Crying to his pops at the first sign of trouble." The one on the left said in a mocking tone.
"Sad for you that pops just isn't around to help with your boo-boo" The one on the right continued.
Not around? What?
"Oh you don't know? How cute" My confusion must have shown on my face and the one on the left was quick to pick up on it.
"He's off at a fundraising gala tonight. All the way in Hoenn. There's no help forthcoming, little Donnel Oak. Now go ahead and scream for us" The one on the right finished up for what I'd begun to suspect was her sibling with a sarcastic tone.
What the actual fuck? On the one night when Oak was scheduled to be out of town? I'm not paranoid enough to think that Giovanni somehow predicted my arrival, and then organised an event all the way in Hoenn to ensure that Oak wouldn't be in town to help when he eventually attacked me. No, I'm not. That way lay nothing but madness. I'd just have to accept it as a stroke of bad luck.
Both the ladies in front of me were content to stand still and watch me with smirks on their faces so I connected my aura with Igneels and gave them something to look at.
In between one second and the next, my dragon sent a flamethrower screaming at both women. I couldn't even pretend to be surprised when two pokemon came out of their shadows to block the weak attack.
Sunny day, I commanded next. With the harsh rays of light beaming down on the clearing, I could get a good look at the pokemon arrayed against me. A mass of steel blades that I couldn't quite recognize, but my brain was sure it was a steel/dark type. The other pokemon was as recognizable as any other. A fucking Hydreigon.
A massive dark dragon, with two heads for hands and a form that looked to be made of pure muscle. Of course they hadn't been afraid. If I had a fucking Hydreigon on my side, I wouldn't fear much either.
Nobody knew where the infamous breed of pokemon hailed from but they were well known for being as deadly as they were rare. They held their place among the list of pseudo-legendaries by sheer infamy. I'd never seen one in real life but a Hydreigon was one of the few pokemon Oak had taught Donnell to be truly wary of.
And now, I had to fight one. I should feel fear. My hands should be shaking. I should be terrified. Perhaps, I should even be soiling myself in dread, but all I felt was anticipation of the battle that was sure to come. I'd prepared myself for a battle this morning, but the cheat code that was Mewtwo had taken the wind out of my sails quite thoroughly.
I put my hand to my waist and prepared to release my next pokemon when Lefty decided to speak. Referring to her as the one on the left had grown tiring.
"Only one more pokemon, Oak. We've seen your cheating ways, and we'll be getting a fair battle out of you today. For every extra pokemon you release, we'll release one of our own." She said and started cackling like she'd just cracked an award-winning joke.
Her sister joined in and I could only grit my teeth and consider my options. With a good look at the both of them, I could tell they were twins, they looked identical, and both of them had full pokebelts on their waists. If I tried to make this a free-for-all, then my team would be quickly overwhelmed, but if I played this sick game of theirs, then I'd probably be able to buy enough tiume to come up with something.
I hovered my hand across my belt while trying to make a choice. The mass of metal was clearly a steel type, so Igneel had that covered. Now, I just had to decide how to take out a dragon. Ino, Tsunade, or Kisame. Hydreigon were also dark types so Ino would be less than ideal, and Tsunade had close to zero experience actually battling. We weren't near any of the lakes so Kisame would be fighting at a substantial handicap.
Either way, no matter who I chose, there couldn't be a guaranteed advantage. I just had to go with the option with the least weaknesses for this particular battle.
I took a deep breath and sent out my pokemon of choice.
XXXXXX
"The boy noticed something" The master said with a snarl on his face. I could never understand this man.
He had everything. We'd done everything and he still complained. He complained about everything. Now, today's complaints were about Samuel Oak's brat. As if a boy of fifteen would be able to notice anything odd about my masterpiece.
My Mewtwo. "There's no way he could have noticed anything off. Besides, Mewtwo's compulsion on the building should keep him from remembering or even telling anyone the truth of what he saw here." The other one spoke in that nasal voice of his. Of course he had something to say. That fake scientist. The one that insisted he had some share in the achievement that was Mewtwo's creation.
What had he done but produce some vague ideas? Every scientist knew it as law. Ideas are wind. Only results matter, and that's what I'd done. I'd achieved results beyond what any other had.
"What if the compulsion didn't take? Oak is famed for his mental resilience. Could his offspring not have inherited some of that?" The Boss was back with his paranoia. Others would look upon Giovanni of viridian and see a charming, charismatic leader. All I see is a petulant brat scared of things not going his way.
"At fifteen? Don't be ridiculous, Giovanni. He noticed nothing. He saw nothing odd in Mewtwo, and even if he did, then he would be made to forget like every other that has come into this gym" It pained me that the other would be the voice of reason in this situation.
I hated the man and I loathed agreeing with him under any circumstances. Annoyingly, this was one of the very few times where he wasn't completely wrong.
"Oak could have trained the boy to resist psychic influences. It is not impossible to train that kind of resistance in children, after all" I found myself speaking without thinking, all to poke holes in the logic of the man that would style himself my rival.
He had the gall to laugh off my suggestion, and I was incensed to note that Giovanni joined him in his laughter. Bastards.
"Even Oak, heartless monster that he is, would never subject a child to that kind of training. Much less his own son. Let's not be ridiculous here. The boy is no risk" The other spoke and I found myself struggling to swallow the urge to send my fist at his head.
That would be a bad idea though. No matter how much I hated him, I still wasn't fool enough to challenge Blaine, formerly of the elite four, to a fist fight of all things. There's better ways to die, and none of them would be as painful.
The man was good at only one thing and if lesser minds like his and Samuel Oak's would stick to what they were good at without sullying the field of pokemon research, then the world would be a much better place than it is right now.
I turned away from both men toward the screen in front of me. Subject Mewtwo- 71 had shown tremendous power in today's battles but it still needed to rest for a whole two weeks after the day's ordeals. It wasn't complete. Nowhere near ready to be my magnum opus. That's why I turned to the cell schematics of subject Mewtwo- 72.
71 had given us a treasure trove of knowledge and was the farthest we'd managed to come so far, but we still had quite a ways to go. Quite a ways, and we were still slowly and surely running out of source material. The original dna specimen said to come from Mew itself was being exhausted and we'd probably only have two or three more bites at the apple before the DNA would become too unstable to be useful.
"Regardless of if he noticed something or not, the boy has been a pest in our organisation's side for long enough. He's arrested two of our admins and those pokemon of his are too rare and powerful to leave to the service of the league" Giovanni continued. He could be a dog with a bone at times.
"I thought you were planning on giving the boy time and attempting to recruit him to team rocket, yourself." The fraud replied and I couldn't help but be interested in this conversation.
They planned to recruit the son of Samuel Oak himself? How audacious, and oh so very risky. I cared little for the man but pissing off that monster would be the height of stupidity.
"I did. That's why I had Silph sponsor him. I wanted him used to the resources that Team Rocket could offer him. Plans have changed though. Something about the boy rubs me the wrong way. I'll send the twins after him tonight, he'll either join or die."
A/N; Thanks for reading. We just started chapter 36 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you feel like supporting my work. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile. This week's chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but this just felt like such a perfect place to end things that I just couldn't resist simply to stick to an arbitrary word count goal. I hope you enjoyed this. I haven't done as much writing because life be doing life things lately.