Pokémon: Mewtwo and the Mysteries of Life
Chapter Two: Between Amber and Mewtwo (Part 1 of 2)
Other than remembering our arrival on the island, I recalled that I must have been passed to one of doctors that revealed that he was stationed there for research as well as to assess me. I had no idea when they had moved me, but stirring awake enough, I found myself in a bed that was in a white and bright apartment that was a little smaller than my old room. Pushing myself to sit up, I saw a view unlike anything I had ever seen, but I couldn't see it fully from where I sat. Looking around, I saw that my chair was stationed right next to bed by mere coincidence.
'Ee! Ee-vey!' I faintly heard Nari call from somewhere in the room, but I didn't see her anywhere.
"Nari!" I called out, trying to stand to my feet to look around the room, but pushing myself up proved to be a challenge, especially when I suddenly felt a shiver of numbness run through my entire being in haste, probably from the remaining dose of the sedative from earlier, as it landed me to my knees on the hard carpet. "Ouch. Nari, I'm here. You can come out. I'm alright."
"Looking for your partner?" I heard Giovanni's cold voice say as I raised my head to see him standing in the doorway, not alone. Chuckling to himself softly, they both stepped into the room and shut the door behind them. "Don't worry, it's nearby." Picking up a red and white sphere from off of the side table, he showed it to me as he clicked it and opened it right in front of me, where a burst of light came out to materialize as Nari. Scared and a bit confused, Nari focused until she saw me and leapt into my arms, relieved that I was alright from before. Feeling her wince at my touch on one of her paws, I looked up with a lot of other questions on my mind.
"What did you do to her?" I demanded, watching him drop the capsule down and open at my feet. Seeing Nari's head reluctantly look down at, I furrowed my eyes at him and figured out exactly what this meant. "You caught her?"
"Ah, you have understanding. Spirit as well," he said, chuckling and snapping his fingers for the lady that followed him into the room to help me up and back into my chair, I gathered, to which she did with no questions asked. "To answer your first question, nothing. Don't look too surprised. Consider it a gift gesture from your Father. He didn't want you to be lonely here."
"I was never alone," I said, from where I sat, earning from him a curious eye of consideration.
"Is that so?" He asked, walking the length of the room a bit to look at the small picture of my parents, my sister and I together before the accident. "Even during the time these past few weeks when all of his attention was focused on your sister?"
"What are you doing here?" I asked him with a small sense of trepidation, a part of it from the fatigue I was feeling. I was still shaking, but for some reason I wanted to show that I was not afraid of him.
"Straight to the point," Giovanni said, standing tall as he stared down at me. "Your father underestimates you. It is just as so what you overheard yesterday. Your father works for me now, and you would do good to stay in my good graces. As agreed on, you will be cared for, and that is why I am here. I wanted to make sure you arrived safely before I depart. This island is now your Father's and your new current home, meaning that your job will be to focus on your recovery and stay out of way. My scientists have already stabilized your sister for the time being, prior to your father's request. You may tell him that if he calls. If you need anything else, Gina, here, will the one to take care of you."
Nodding her head, the lady that Giovanni had brought in pushed up her thin glasses in spite as she cleared the way for him to walk out, to which he did with a sinister grin.
"Oh, and welcome to New Island," he said, pausing for only a second before he disappeared.
New Island? I thought to myself as I pushed my wheels to move my chair closer to the window that overlooked the small barren island completely surrounded by ocean. What Giovanni said was true, though, it did become my father's personal new lab to further support his experiments in cloning and genetic manipulations. I was only there as part of the deal, but what they said about looking into a possible cure for my paralysis was true as well. Only, I had no idea what they had in store.
The middle of summer had transitioned long into next winter before I received word that my Father had returned, supposedly finding what they were looking for – a fossil remnant of the rarest of Pokémon, Mew. Before I got to see him, though, there were a couple of people that came in and out of port, I saw from my window. Requesting to go downstairs, I was pushed to the main entrance where the lab door was sealed on one side, but I did see a Charmander, a Squirtle, and a Bulbasaur being wheeled into the doors, to which they looked at me with trepidation and a weak stance of fear.
"What are they doing here?" I asked any of the scientists who had turned my way in peculiarity, only feigning interest I noticed because of the solidary of my question.
"You're aware of your Father's work studying the genetic template of DNA, I'm sure," one of the them said, saying it like it was obvious. "They're here to aid in his experiments. It's some of the best cloning research I've ever seen, and with it, I have no doubt we will be able to reach even more milestones. Why even a small sample of genetic material, even if it's just the smallest strand of DNA, it's enough to make something possible."
"I agree with you one hundred percent," another one of the scientists said, turning away and going into their own conversation as they went into the lab. "Take fossilized Pokémon from the ancient past, for example. With enough tweaking, they can reawaken into a whole other present time than what they knew before."
"It's alright, guys," I said, reaching down to stroke their heads fondly, to which they seemed to like.
"Char-Charmander."
"Bulb-a … saur."
"Squirt-tle."
All three of them answered, to my realization with even a weakness in their voices that could not go unnoticed. Looking at Gina, who was looking at me strangely with impatience, I asked her, "Are they going to be alright?"
"I think you've seen enough," she said, taking my chair by the handles and gently pulling me back to allow them to take them away. Pushing me down another hallway towards one of the cubicles, I noticed, she then said, "Besides, you have another engagement we need to get to."
"With whom?" I asked, hearing her shut the door behind her as I then heard the scrape of a chair and heard a voice I longed to hear.
"With me, of course," Father said, still partly in his expedition clothes as he chuckled.
"Father!" I said, Nari uncurling herself from my lap from where she peeked out of the blanket she had hid under as we came downstairs. "You're back!"
"Yes, my dear," he said, ruffling my teal bangs a bit with a fondness he used to do with my sister. Realizing he was doing it, though, his touch softly left mine a bit out of sadness as he then asked, "Have they been taking care of you? How are you feeling?"
"Still a bit weak from time to time, but I'm alright," I said, watching him as he returned his gaze to the specimen that laid before him. "Is that it?"
"Yes," he said proudly, watching as I stared at it with a curiosity I didn't know I had. It laid there in the capsule dish, a small skeletal fossilized fragment that seemed to shine with a mystery to it. Strangely, it looked a bit like an eyelash, if you looked closely enough. "We believe it to be a fossilized part of the body of Mew long ago. With it, we should be able to harness enough of its genetic code to truly attempt to make a copy of the most powerful Pokémon in all of existence. That's what Giovanni wants is control, but, and I tell you this, I see the very secret of restoring life right in front of us all if this works. We will see Amber, again."
'Would we, though?' That question ran through my head several times, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. Not then, or at all, because I didn't truly know the answer. Father was so certain that this was the way to bring her back, even if it did not. And, I knew that if I truly said what I was thinking about it at all, it would not change anything.
"What's wrong?" He asked, knowing something was on my mind.
"Who are we doing this all for, Father?" I asked, not stopping myself as I saw this as a rare moment where he took a very distinctive interest in me. "I know you're doing it for science, but something about this whole exchange feels wrong."
"Wrong?" He asked, then crossing his arms behind his back as he turned to the specimen and the serum next to it fully instead of me. "Giovanni mentioned to me that he talked to you. He also said that he thought I didn't give you enough credit." Shutting his eyes, as I saw from the tinted glass facing his reflection from the front, he only smiled. "Why am I doing all of this? True, I do have an agreement I have to fulfill, but I'm doing it for all of us, even you."
"Me?" I asked, curious, Nari looking at Dad a bit with wonder as well.
"Yes, it may have seemed that I have put all my time and focus into Amber, but with this I want you to know that I do care about you," he said, holding up the serum that he had sat by the fossil before I had come into the room. "This is an extracted concentrated serum that I hope to add to your treatment if it does what we're testing it to do. For now, though, I need you to come with me."
Wheeling me outside himself, he asked Gina to go grab the capsule with Mew's sample before he surprised me enough for me to see that we were going towards lab, a place I had no permissive access to. Catching everyone's attention in the hall, Father only gave the signal for the lab's door to be unlocked, a moment I never gave a thought of ever seeing after this morning.
Passing a couple of scientists that looked up from their research, Father continued to roll me on down further into the lab and pass a series of large tubes that filled me foreboding, especially when I saw the Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur from earlier now hooked up to different machines that were taking records of their vitals and some other readings that I didn't quite understand. "Father, are they …?"
"They are part of the experiment, yes," he said, not hiding anything from me at this moment. Something about his tone made me a little curious why, but Nari's reaction to the atmosphere was drastic as she jumped right out of my lap blanket and started to tremble, all the while stopping right in front of two of the researchers who cornered her from going any farther, backing up to stand in front of me instead.
"Nari?" I asked, trying to calm her down, to which Father lifted an eyebrow at as he saw her reaction. "What is it?"
"Maybe you should recall her for the time being, dear," he said, stopping me right in front of the monitor where the familiar brain reading scans of my sister still read constant. Tapping a few buttons on the machine, Father looked back over his shoulder at me and just in time to see how I just rose strangely to my feet, a few of the scientists moving closer to watch as I walked up to the cylinder that contained the essence of what remained of my sister's subconscious. Passing Nari as she watched from the floor, I raised a hand up to the glass, heeding something I couldn't quite make out. "Akira, be careful with that."
'Amber, is that you?' I thought aloud in my head, not expecting an answer as I then heard only a familiar chuckle internally for an answer, a slight separate differentiation wave appearing on her monitor as the waves continued to grow.
"You're in shock," Father said, not understanding as I only turned to him in a still pose. "Understandable. What was I thinking? It's too soon for you to see her."
Suddenly, I felt a pang radiate through my head as I then felt myself start to fall to my knees in a similar way my numbness did as I gripped the tank and stumbled, Nari reacting alarmingly as she turned to see some of the scientists and Dad rush at me as I slid against the glass. Wanting to protect me, Nari performed the Pokémon move, Reflect, to repel their advances. Keeping it up, she refused to let it down for them to even get close.
"Nari, let it down," I said, weak as I had ever been, to which she did with a loyal gaze. "I'll be alright."
"Ee-vey …" She whimpered, right as Dad rushed forward and took me into his arms, reaching into my dress pocket to where I had put Nari's poke ball.
"You will be alright, my dear," Father said, turning to face Nari as she anxiously stared up at him as he pointed her capsule at her. "Return." With no choice, Nari returned in a burst of red light and went back inside the poke ball right as Dad clenched it into his hand, walking me over to a table to where he laid me down carefully. "You have that sample from the other day?" He asked, turning to where one of the assistants nodded her head and passed him a syringe of concentrated gene serum that they were experimenting with.
"Yes, by combining it with her own natural physiology, the gene enhancer genome should improve her own system for it to naturally heal itself without rejecting it, but we haven't tested it thoroughly with the new Mew genome we extracted from the fossil …" She started to say, trying to state the risk involved.
"If this serum has healing and enhancing properties, we'll add it into the mixture to help the clones along, but I want Akira to remember the promise I made to her," he said, administering the small syringe into my upper right arm with a concerned look. "I owe her that much." Looking to the others and lowering me back down into my chair, he said, "Take her back to her room and not a word about any of this. I don't want her getting upset." Waiting until they wheeled me to the door, he then said, "How are the others?"
"They are unconscious, Sir, but their vitals are just starting to come onto the screen. They are all three viably stable for now," Father heard one of the other scientists say, looking behind him to see something I did not see before, three specific clones with peculiar markings on them, no doubt from the gene- splicing experimentation that created them from. "The analysis scan of the Mew fossil is positive, the DNA reconstruction sequencing is constructing it now, and we should have it up and operable for testing it with the embryo in about two hours."
"Alright then, let's get started," Father said, not letting anything stop him now from his research that had already begun.
Slipping out of consciousness, I collapsed in my chair to the extent where one of the researchers, I guess, had to pick me up and carry me back to my room. Putting me gently in my bed, they tucked me back in as the other one brought in my chair and took some notes on a clipboard of my current state.
"What did the doctor give her?" asked the researcher, watching as the other one took a record of my vitals. "She's so pale."
"A common name for her condition is called hemiplegia, but hers has escalated since she got here," the second one said, once he saw that I was sleeping soundly. Slipping something around my arm, which caused Nari's poke ball to fall out of my grip and onto the bed, I wasn't aware of it as they then attached some sort of band around my forehead that was attached to the tablet they sat up next to my bed. "Dr. Fuji had me and a couple of the chemists put together a test serum made up of a small sample of her Eevee's unstable molecules, mixed together with a concentrated solution of berries that are known for their healing abilities, specifically for paralysis. However, he wanted us to combine it with a specific healing genetic gene we extracted and replicated from Mew's DNA. Testing it against a battle field state of paralysis, the gene therapeutical serum from the extracted DNA works instantly, but we haven't had a chance to fully test it … until now."
"You mean he gave her …?" the other concerned researcher said, seeing me move a hand to my head for a moment, clenching my eyes in a moan as I had gotten a sudden headache. From what, I wasn't sure.
"An untested solution that may have been used on the clones to help build their immunity against fail? Well, yes and no. What she may be experiencing may be something entirely different, but she has been so weak since she got here and Dr. Fuji has seen it," he said, placing his own opinion of me on the line. "I couldn't say no when he asked me to do this, and Giovanni made this promise as part of the job. He's being pulled two directions, even if he doesn't say it. He couldn't even face her when the news of his ex-wife reached his ears when we flew her to the lab and had to sedate her when she saw her mother's car unknowingly on the edge of the island outside the plane's window."
"You say it like she's not here in the room. How can you even yourself a doctor?" the researcher said, looking straight down at me with a fondness. "What happened to her sister, her mother, and what she's going through is hard enough, and no one so young should have to bear all this alone."
"Talking like that, you won't last long here. You're concerned about her? You can watch her," the scientist said, turning his back on the other guy who stood by the tablet with a furrowed scoff. "Giovanni gave us a job to do, and our main focus is the ultimate goal right downstairs in that room if we succeed. Don't forget your place, Irwin. I've already lost mine," he said out of spite, hiding something else in his tone as he rushed back down to the lab, leaving Irwin alone in the room with me.
"You know what?" he whispered, watching me as I laid there, hearing the still pulsing sound of the machine in the background somewhere. 'You remind me of my little girl, so much spirit. Fight hard, little one, you have so much to live for." Clicking the button to release Nari, he only shushed her as she appeared next to me as he pointed to the screen, to himself, and finally towards the door. Only watching him, Nari didn't settle down against me until he left, leaving us both alone.
'Vee, ee … Ee-vey,' She whimpered, my free hand reaching up to calm her as she only nestled closer and fell asleep with me, a part of me letting a tear fall down my cheek as I slowly became aware of everything I had heard, even if I felt like I was hearing it in a dream. Closing my eyes, I felt a familiar voice prick at the edge of my subconscious, too deep asleep to realize that a true encounter was about to begin.
Here is Chapter 2, a little earlier than I planned to post it, but this story has been a pretty inspirational one for me to write. And, this is only part 1 of 2, so stayed tuned for Chapter 3, and soon I promise.
Akira Fuji and Nari (or, Eevee) belong to me, and a couple of the other characters in the background also do, but more on them in the story will be revealed as we go forward. Please enjoy and until next time.
