Pokémon: Mewtwo and the Mysteries of Life
Chapter One: The Beginning
Mewtwo. A Pokémon that was created by scientists as a result of secret DNA splicing and unnatural genetic mutation, a creature so powerful and mysterious that not many remember that they even encountered it. You've heard of his story before? Then, you're one of the lucky ones. This tale that I'm about to tell comes from a time that I will never forget – a period of innocence, trials, hurt, and acceptance that had formed our bond since the very beginning – an experience that connected to the very heart of where our real strength comes from. Where my tale begins with this, well, it all started after a car accident.
"There has been an accident," that's all I heard some time after the crash. Then darkness, being the only thing I saw until one day my eyes opened just enough to see Mom and Father crying, or at least Mom as she had gripped my hand with a deep and trembling sadness that I could never forget. Next to my bed a few feet over, I briefly saw the way Father was focused on someone else and how the limp yet desperate hold of his hand intertwined into the tiny fingers of the one who I knew I would physically see no more. I understood that, even though I was only six.
Who was I in all this? Let me explain. My sister and I were out on an outing with our mom on the lower part of the island before the accident happened. Where we lived, well you could roughly call it an island that was actually pretty flourishing and huge for its side, all while and with a population of 33 citizens at the time who called it home. Some even called it the Fiery Town of Burning Desire, thanks to our resident Gym Leader, Blaine, who was a well-known Pokémon Trainer who took on challengers on a semi-daily basis, thanks to all the tourists. But to most of us, we called the island, Cinnabar.
My sister and I were twins, well she was older than I was by only a few minutes, but we each had mild teal-colored hair that just moved in the wind as carefree as anything that passed it. We also both had blue-grey tinted eyes that Father had described that could light up an entire night with hope and fill it with stars and laughter, if we could. Despite living next to a dormant volcano in a mansion that stood at the top of the uppermost cliffs, my sister only remembered the early years we spent with our parents. We weren't afraid, it was just another day on the island for us as we enjoyed the brief ride down the rocky road.
I don't quite remember what hit us, but the impact nearly overturned the car as I had blacked out, my head banging up against the side. I didn't see what happened to my sister, but, of course, I wasn't too aware of anything that happened during the accident either.
"Mommy?" my voice whispered, her face automatically looking up from where she had it down on the bed. Wincing a bit from the angle she lifted her head too fast, she only scooted closer as she sighed.
"Yes dear, I'm here," she said, tracing her hand along my face as she only shut her eyes as I suddenly heard Father's screams from the other side of the room. "Philip," She whispered, letting a tear drop down to splash down on my hand as she gently caressed it.
"Dr. Fuji, Sir, you need to calm down," an assistant tried to say before he was interrupted.
"Calm down, don't you tell me to calm down!" Father shouted, hovering protectively over where he had a more possessive but desperate hold of my sister's limp hand, letting it fall out of his only to stand and glare at the others. "You have the audacity to tell me that my little girl, Amber, is gone. How do you expect me to do nothing?!"
"Sir, we've tried everything," they said, again, to his ignorance as Father turned his back on them. "I'm sorry, but your little girl is not responding to treatment."
"Philip," Mom tried to say, failing to get his attention as she brushed some of the limp curls out of my eyes and away from the bandages. Worry crossing her face, she watched as I suddenly felt very weak, Father focusing instead and intentionally on the monitors above my sister for any signs of life.
"We haven't tried everything," Father said, clicking a few buttons on some of the machines to take some measurements and read the printouts.
"Philip!" Mom finally cried, seeing me start to faint once more, this time a little slower as my gaze blurred from the fatigue.
"What?!" he cried, annoyingly startled as he turned to see my eyes lower tiredly in shock, suddenly going quiet. "Akira ...? Is she …?"
"Awake," she answered for him, letting the others come over to check me as I saw one of them faintly gently turn around to cover up my sister's face out of respect. "I tried to tell you." Hearing Mom's tired tone, something else was up. I couldn't tell yet what it was then, but the way Father looked between us and my sister, Amber, there was just something else that was fixing to be on the verge of tearing straight in two.
Waking up much later, I woke up to find out that it was Mother who had moved me to my own bed when I made stable enough to move, and it was only after that that she finally told me what I knew to be truth. Amber was not coming back. The others, that were still in the infirmary, with Father only shook their heads in disbelief at Father's insistence that my sister was still alive. I was the only sole survivor between the both of us from the wreck, to which Mom, who had also walked away from the wreck with only a bruise on the head, said was a miracle all with the doctor also diagnosed me with only a few scrapes and a mild concussion that left me really weak but alive. For a few days, true, I didn't have the strength to do anything, and I didn't see Father for a long time. Whenever I would ask about him, Mom would just tell me that he was taking his time to process some things. As it had had been a few weeks after I even had the energy to see what he had been doing in secret, hearing him only at night as he had locked himself up downstairs in the basement, it proved to be something big. However, Mom had beat me down there first, not seeing me as a slowly crept in behind her to look in, too, just short of the steps.
"Philip, what are you doing?" Mom had asked him, interrupting him during one of his experiments. "Dear?"
"I've reawakened her consciousness!" Father said with almost a sigh of relief, indicating at the cylinder just behind him, where a presence of light somehow radiated simply. What was it? I didn't know. I only saw that it made Father happy, while at the same time it made Mother sadder than before. "Here, in this chamber. I just need to keep it viable long enough to complete the process!"
Stepping into the room right behind Mother and continuing carefully enough down the stairs, she didn't see me as she just trembled and cried out, "Why are you doing this?! You can't bring Amber back!"
"You're wrong! Look!" Father said, eagerly seeing me and picking me up with one arm when they both saw the way I slowly came down the stairs to look at it closer. "She lives within this light. Her energy is undeniable," he said, showing us both the triangular brain levels of my sister on his own computer and the strength of it as it steadily continued. "If my cloning theories are correct, we'll have Amber back with us one day, soon."
Cloning. That was the first time I had heard that word. It was a mystery of science that Father really delved himself into as a scientist, a scientific phenomenon that questioned the viability of life itself. When I asked Mother later that day what cloning was, she only grew quiet for a second before she looked at me right in the eye and said, "It's like expecting something to be the same as something else, a copy. However, it's often not with the same results as you want them to be. Here is an example. You and Amber were twins, but you two weren't like two peas in a pod all the time. You may have looked the same, acted the same, and even ate some of the same things growing up, but … You each were special in your own and unique ways, and I loved you both just as you both were. That's life. We are not meant to all be the same and we can't always predict and control what may happen next. Life is a gift and it is meant to be shared, or cherished, no matter how long it may last."
Those were some of the last few words I heard from Mom the day before she left. Because I was still receiving treatment, I couldn't go with her as she had left the house one day after saying she would come back for me once she received word that I was getting stronger, but neither Mother or Father knew when that was going to happen. According to the doctor that Mom was having me see in the city, just off of the island, I was suffering from a rare form of paralysis that had occurred from the swelling on the east side of my head from where I had struck the side of the car in the accident.
Father was confident that it was only temporary, but there were times I found myself just sitting in a chair, almost too weak to move at all because of the strength in my legs not being the same since then. One day, to my Father's request, I was given a very special wheelchair from someone that showed up one day in a black emblemed outfit I had never seen before. With him, though and all on that very same day, a strange middle-aged man came to the house with a Persian walking on in right behind them. Sensing a strange ambiance following them as they walked past us, it only made my little Eevee hop up into my chair to join me. Curling itself protectively into my lap, growling and whimpering both at the same time, we both watched as He only passed us by and did not stop until he got to the open door of Father's open lab. Pausing just inside the top of the stairs to stare down at the result that my Father had somehow accomplished, he impressively grinned at the signs of evident life of Amber's consciousness still thriving and showing verdant results.
Saddened by Mom's letter and her departure, Father didn't see our visitor at first as he rose to his feet to place his hands on the tube that had 'Amber' in it to say, "I'll do anything, to see you again."
"Anything? Interesting, so the rumors are true," the man said as he only chuckled and petted his Persian, a sign for him to sit and wait there, as he walked down the stairs to talk. "Did I startle you? My condolences for your loss, Professor, but I had to come and see the outcome myself of what you have accomplished. Even with little resources, it's astonishing to see just how much progress you've made of your own. Is that her?"
"Yes, alive and well," Father said, again going off of my sister's subconscious brain waves that never ended on the screen. "But, I regret to say that I am at a stalemate. There's only so much I can do to keep her stabilized and, at the same time, try to gather enough materials to take this to the next step. I only need a chance to take it a step further and make it a true revelation in the history of life and science. I want to give Amber another chance at life, and this is the only I can …"
"Father?" I said, politely interrupting and gaining his and our guest's attention as I then asked, "Is that truly Amber, though? Mother said …"
"Akira, I'm astonished that you would even ask that!" Father erupted, causing me to back up my chair in fear. "You see the evidence right in front of you! Your sister is alive, right there in sight. I'm sorry about the interruption, Giovanni. You wanted to ask me something?"
"But Father …" I tried to say, before he cut me off to only order, "Go to your room. I'll come talk to you later. Go!"
They watched me shrink back, Giovanni especially as he only watched me with an unreadable eye. Waiting until I wheeled out of the lab from the top of the stairs, I didn't get very far as I then heard them on the other side of the wall as Giovanni asked, "How is your other daughter doing?"
"Not as strong as she once was. Her mother's physician is saying that it's an advanced form of hemiplegia, caused by her concussion from the accident. Currently, there's not much they can do for her," Father said, telling him everything. "She's comfortable at least, but I wish I could give her more care. With everything that's happened, it's hard to balance my work and …"
After a while of not hearing much more, Giovanni said something as I then heard through the cracked door an ultimatum that had my father's immediate attention. "I understand your dilemma all too well, Professor. Without enough help, the right results do just seem out of reach. So, what if I were to tell you about an opportunity that could benefit the both of us?"
"Such as?" Father asked, all ears.
"I agree to fund your research and take care to provide all the resources you would need to perform your experiments to the fullest. Your daughter would have the access and care to several doctors and researchers to that side that could help with her path to rehabilitation and recovery, but it would free you up to take part in an interesting extraction that my team has traced over to a far-off island in the Hoenn Region. Once there, you should be able to find traces of a very powerful Pokémon known as Mew, to which is said to potentially possess the genetic composition of every known species. It is rare and not often seen, but having been spotted there before in Guyanese jungle in the past, I want you to take my team and look for it. Even if it's a trace of a fossil or of a Pokémon, you should be able to find whether or not it was living there. In return, I have a job for you in my service, and I would like to see the results of your research if it proves to be fruitful and successful in cloning and sustaining life. I also want to see about the creation of the world's most powerful Pokémon, one seen as unlike any before. You'll have my entire lab staff and equipment to help you see this experiment through to full fruitation. Do we have an agreement?"
Suddenly afraid, I backed up against a wall in the hallway and into the way of Giovanni's Persian, who had wandered over to peek outside of the door to only stare at me in greed, right as my Eevee looked up into my eyes, sensing my misgivings to the degree with what my Father was fixing to do. However, I didn't get a chance to fully process what it would mean for us to do before one of Giovanni's grunts came in and down the small hall at his signal, stopping short towards me to see where I pushed back my chair, just outside the door and cornered.
Coming out of his lab, Father was actually smiling instead of being upset. It was like nothing before had happened as he then said, "Ah, there you are, my dear. Thanks to my friend here, I have decided to take on a very important assignment, and you're coming along."
"Where are we going, Father?" was all I felt I could ask.
"You're going on ahead of me, my dear, to an island," was all he said as the grunt was then led by my father and into my room to gather some of my things for them to take. "You'll be leaving in the morning, so we can get you all settled into your new room at the laboratory where I will be stationed when I get back. I'm going to have to make some special preparations to transport your sister to the lab separately. I can't say much more than that, but I have a grand feeling that this will be a new start for all of us."
Looking at him and seeing the way Giovanni affected him, I knew I couldn't say anything to change his mind as I only gave him a respectable nod. For the next hour or two, I watched as Giovanni's associates helped to box some of my things up and listened to how they were making plans to have my things and myself moved to a secret location, and all by special transportation. I knew this was the start of a brand-new journey, but something about what Giovanni promised my Father felt wrong, very wrong. I was too little to say what it was that frightened me, but I knew I couldn't trust these people in what they wanted to do.
I went to bed that night in an empty room, nothing around me at all made any sense except for Eevee, who pushed itself under my trembling left arm to comfort me as I cried. I did miss my sister, of course I did. I missed my mother, too. Staying here was out of the question unfortunately, because of Father's promies for us both, but there was something else, too, that happened after we had left. Due to an interruption, though, I never found out what happened until a little bit later.
"Vee! Ee-vee," came my little partner's cry as it sensed my fear all too well. Hugging Eevee closer, I whispered my hopes into the innermost parts of my heart, to which I found myself feeling a familiar warmth and a loving reminder of my sister, who shared that spot with me. Eevee was my comfort, a gift from Mom before the accident, and because she reminded me of a special flower that stood for devotion and new beginnings, I named her Nari.
'Akira,' I thought I heard for a second as I whispered, "Don't worry, Nari, everything will be fine."
'… everything will be fine.' Came the reply at the same time.
"Huh?" I said, momentarily opening my eyes to stare ahead at nothing but the blackness of the room. "That was just my imagination, right?"
"Vee? Eevee," came my partner's puzzled answer, to which I only shook my head in faint denial as both Nari and I went to sleep then after a minute. When morning came though, it was a whole different experience.
"Father, I thought I would get a chance to see you before you headed off," I said, as I was buckled down in my seat comfortably, with a couple of small pillows lightly against the arm rest to cushion my right side, by one of Giovanni's associates who was flying the private jet. It wasn't too long after that we were off the ground. Holding up a cellphone, I heard my Father's voice speak from the other end.
"I'm sorry, Akira, this couldn't be helped. I had to leave early this morning to meet up with the extraction team. I'll see you when I get there," he said, his voice getting more and more excited at the prospect of the discovery ahead for him. "Oh, I almost forgot, one of the doctors from the lab sent ahead a sedative for you to take and to help make the ride a little easier to handle."
"I was kind of hoping I could stay awake to watch the sea," I said, hopefully making an excuse to stay aware for the trip. "I've never been a plane before."
Thinking about it for a moment I assumed, Father then replied, "Alright, just so long as you don't over exert yourself. If you get tired or dizzy, let one of them know, alright? Giovanni assured me that they would take good care of you."
"Alright Father, I will," I said, hearing him click off at my answer and after a quick goodbye. Pausing for a moment, I thought I heard someone else in the background that sounded very familiar on the phone but I chose to ignore it for now. Looking around the plane, something just felt off as I felt eyes on me from the back of the plane, even from how the pilot looked back at me from time to time. Hugging Nari to me, I just focused on the sea instead as the plane flew high up and enough over the island and then out over the sea. There was a moment I pulled myself closer to the window when, on the edge on the island, I thought I saw something familiar that looked like a car that had crashed along the coast. However, right before I could utter a question about it, I felt a sudden jolt on my arm as one of the grunts had secretly approached me from the back, catching me as I went limp from the sedative.
"Sorry princess, the boss said he wanted you comfortable," she said, seating me back against the pillows as I blacked out, the medicine coursing through my veins at a rapid pace. Growling, Nari bounced up from off of the seat of my lap in agitation as the grunt then called out a Zubat to retaliate against her with a quick shot of confusion. Stunned, Nari fell off the seat, too dizzy to move before she felt a rough hand catch her from the back of her tuff. "You too, settle down, or you'll join your friend. The trip's an easy one, but there's a storm ahead. We'll get there soon enough, though, and then you'll learn everything you'll need to know."
Whether or not they returned her to me that moment, I didn't know because I was too groggy to notice much of anything else. All I could remember was that I knew she wasn't there anymore. Only half-awake by the time we touched down on the ground, I heard the coarse waves of dark ocean as I felt two of the grunts carefully carried me into a tall and foreboding building, the only building that stood as a tall and foreboding place that stood alone on the rocky and barren plane on the only shore the island provided. As history would tell, it was this place where He truly began.
Hey Pokémon Fans, first off: This story is based around the events of the very first movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, and its remastered version, Evolution. Which events do I plan on exploring in these films? Feel free to read and follow along with a brand-new character, an OC I am very proud of and was inspired to make after watching the heartfelt connection that Mewtwo shared with Amber, who first opened his eyes to the beauty of life in its purest and simplest pleasures. Who is Akira? Who will she meet along this journey? Stayed tuned and find out. Until next time!
All Pokémon references and other characters, except for the ones I introduce, belong to its creators.
