This is the second of three chapters today.
As Pidgeot began to take flight, a Thunderbolt of incredible power hit her on one wing. The shock of the attack blasted through her, making her cry out in pain before struggling to move as Paralysis set in.
Twisting, she powered up an Aeroblast – and launched it at the lab building, the red blast of light lancing right through the wall and out the other side.
"No!" Professor Yung gasped, seeing bits of the roof and wall go flying in all directions, and the Mirage Pokémon flickered – then reasserted themselves just a moment later, and Pidgeot got blasted by an even more powerful Thunder attack.
Arc charged at the Mirage Pikachu who'd attacked her, but a moment later a Mirage Manectric – a copy of him – crashed into his side, slamming a Bite attack into his ruff. Arc pushed it off without any serious injury, but his counterattack of a Fire Fang just inconvenienced the Mirage Pokémon for about a second – and left no indication of damage at all.
While Arc was trying to get out of the hold of a Pokémon exactly as strong as he was, Pikachu ran towards his Mirage Copy. "That's my powerset! Get your own!"
Impassively, the Mirage Pikachu hurled a pair of Aura Spheres at him – one of which scored a glancing hit – and then Pikachu and his double were fighting close-quarters with Iron Tails and Force Palm blows.
Pikachu quickly noticed that – like the other Mirage Pokémon – the problem with fighting Mirage Pikachu was that none of his hits did anything. They were both scoring blows, but when Pikachu took a hit it caused him a moment of stunning, reconsidering, getting his bearings… and the Mirage Pokémon just absorbed the blows and kept going.
"This is worse than New Island," he said to himself – then nearly got knocked out by a high-speed tail swipe for his pains.
Bouncing back, he charged up the fastest Volt Crash he'd ever managed. This did do something, smashing right into the Mirage Pikachu, and the projection flickered as if it was a piece of cloth in a high wind.
Then a second Mirage Pikachu appeared right next to it, the first stabilized, and Pikachu said something squeaky and rude.
"Professor?" Misty called, looking at Yung. "Do you have any idea-"
"No!" Yung replied, showing them his tablet. "Look!"
On the screen was an odd symbol – two wavy lines and a crown – and a short message.
The Mirage Master Thanks You For Your Cooperation
"Mirage Master?" Max repeated. "Is that who's doing this – that cloak guy? He hacked your system?"
"It must be," Yung said, looking close to tears. "My life's work..."
This is why you should use Porygon, Kris said.
"Not helping, Kris!" Max protested. "Stay out of trouble for now-"
He snapped his fingers suddenly. "Wait – I know! Jirachi!"
Jirachi poked his head out of Max's bag, blinking sleep out of his eyes. What is – whoa!
"Jirachi!" Max said quickly. "I wish-"
Before he could finish speaking, a pulse of dark energy rolled over them. Jirachi scrunched up his face, struggling, then lost an internal battle and fell out of the air – asleep.
"Nice try," the cloaked figure said, in a carrying voice – one which sounded male. "But the good Professor's systems contain data on some Legendary Pokémon as well."
Beside him, a Darkrai lowered its hand.
"Jirachi?" Max asked, picking up his friend. "What happened – what did you do?"
"He is merely asleep," the Mirage Master stated. "For now."
Jirachi began to fidget, wincing.
"Darkrai cause nightmares," Brock reminded them – then they all had to duck, as one of the two Mirage Blaziken roundhouse-kicked May's real Blaziken right into (and halfway through) the lab wall.
"This isn't looking good..." May winced.
Lucario dove through a gap in the attacks coming towards him, avoiding two lances of Overheat with a few inches to spare on either side.
Rolling and coming up to his feet again, he held up two blue-glowing palms to block the attacks of both Mirage Blaziken with his Aura.
"Mega Stones!" Ash shouted, and Lucario could see out of the corner of his eye that his trainer was unlimbering his staff. The top began to glow, and then Lucario had to return his attention to the battle – though the pause cost him anyway, as one of the Blaziken used its Speed Boost to dart in and land a heavy blow on his chest.
Lucario went sliding backwards, and then a Blaze Kick hit him in the back and sent him sprawling across the floor. The glow of his Lucarionite guttered out for a moment, then began to build again as he got to his feet-
Before he could land a blow or even get his bearings, the first Blaziken was launching an attack again. Lucario managed to block this one from doing damage, but he couldn't do anything about the momentum – that sent him at least a foot into the air, and he used a blast of Aura from his footpaws to adjust his angle and avoid the first follow-up blow.
The second follow-up caught him by surprise, as a third Mirage Blaziken materialized directly on top of him before launching a vicious axe kick to slam him back to the ground.
That impact made air whoosh out of Lucario's lungs as he landed badly, unable to keep up with the multiple high-speed threats, and his Mega Evolution cancelled again from the impact.
Ash's loyal Fighting-type was canny enough to wait for a moment, pretending the injury was worse than it really was, and gather Aura to his palms as they lay pressed against the dirt… then he backflipped into the air, sending blasts of Aura in both directions to nail the Mirage Blaziken approaching him, and fired an Aura Sphere at the ground in front of the Mirage Master.
Without looking to see if it had done anything, Lucario launched himself into the air again – trying to get clear before the Blaziken could hit him again – and a Fire Blast erupted just next to him, slamming him into the side of the Yung Labs building just before a super-speed High Jump Kick drove him further into the wall.
Lucario coughed out a cloud of dust. "Ow," he said flatly, and then summoned a brilliant blaze of Aura to his palms.
He exploded back out of the wall in a burst of furious energy, grabbing one of the Mirage Blaziken by the wrist and slamming it right into the other one. Both flickered as the impact disrupted their solidity for a moment, and Lucario kicked off back the way he'd come to enter the lab through the broken wall.
"Lucario, watch out for the reactor!" Professor Oak shouted.
"Fine!" Lucario replied, seeing the Mirage Blaziken already on the way. He rammed his Aura Storm into the ground, firing it for just a moment to get through the floor, and was about to jump down when one of the superspeed Mirage Pokémon interrupted him with a scythe kick.
Lucario hit it so hard with a Force Palm that it flew backwards, and dove for the hole in the floor – only for another Mirage Blaziken to flicker in and hit him with a Fire Blast at point blank range. The explosion blew him into the air, and he landed on the lab roof and stumbled slightly.
Then another Mirage Blaziken came darting in. Lucario hit it with an Aura Sphere which made it stop and flicker for a moment, but the effort cost him time and energy – then he took a High Jump Kick to the head, and after that things got a little bit fuzzy.
Glaceon glowed faintly, pale icy blue lighting up her fur, as she fired out a torrent of Ice energy towards some of the other fighting Pokémon. The first rush of her ice trapped two of the Mirage Pokémon – the Mirage versions of Guy and Arc – then both of them simply vanished and reappeared outside their ice cages.
"Thanks for the break!" Guy volunteered, landing a strong blow on his Mirage duplicate – before getting smacked by an Iron Tail in return.
Glaceon turned, looking for another target, and a wave of ice crashed into her in turn from her Mirage duplicate. Aimed a little off from where she'd been standing, it didn't actually trap her – just knocked her skating off to the side, paws working hard to stay upright on the icy surface that the attacks had generated.
A second Ice Beam hit Glaceon, and this time it was dead-on. But this time she was paying attention, and neutralized the ice – though not without effort – before turning to fight her duplicate directly.
The two Glaceon exchanged blasts of Icy Wind, showers of Ice Shards, and the odd hit of a more advanced Ice-type attack which created a large icy 'splash' of effect. Then the Mirage Glaceon lunged forwards, knocking May's Glaceon over, and unleashed a massive burst of Ice-typed energy – one which Glaceon recognized as Sheer Cold, freezing them both in place in an instant.
Glaceon struggled, trying to melt the ice so that she could move, but the Mirage Glaceon just countered her attempts and poured more cold energy into their mutual globe of ice.
Wings buzzing, Brock's Flygon took off. A burst of electricity shot past him on its way to knock out Pidgeot's takeoff, and Flygon saw through one side of his eye that that had been a mirage version of Pikachu – so he launched himself skywards, knowing that his Ground/Dragon typing would merely help against a copy of Pikachu.
He ascended quickly, but before he could reach an altitude he considered safe there was a sudden flicker in front of him – then a Mirage Flygon was suddenly there, firing a Dragon Pulse right at him at close range.
Flygon had to evade, turning away from his climb so he didn't run right into the Dragon-typed attack, and two more of them flashed past on either side – making it so he couldn't turn back towards the sky, forcing him downwards.
Refusing to be cowed, Flygon rolled around his axis so he could fire upwards past his tail – launching one Dragon Pulse to hit his Mirage Duplicate, then another one to keep it suppressed.
Just as he rolled back to normal, however, a Mirage copy of Glaceon appeared right in front of him – falling through the air from the moment it appeared, but still there for long enough to blast the base of his wings with an Ice Beam and lock them up.
Unable to pull up in time, Flygon crashed back into the ground. Tough as he was, he shook off the impact – but he couldn't get clear before his Mirage copy, not at all harmed by the experience, piledrove into him to pin him against the floor with his wings pressed against the lawn.
"Ow," Flygon managed, struggling to get free as the Mirage Flygon's tail captured his own.
Then there was a bright flash of orange energy from halfway across the battlefield.
"I think I've noticed something," Max volunteered. "These Mirage Pokémon – they're acting in concert. They aren't just being told to go after their opposite numbers-"
He broke off as a Mirage Guy appeared for just long enough to knock out Cinder, then vanished.
"Like that," he went on, wincing at seeing Cinder in a heap. "I think he must have his own control unit."
"He probably does," Yung agreed. "But not necessarily for combat control. The Mirage System is capable of very advanced tactics – more advanced than I was planning on rolling out just yet."
"All right, Gyarados!" Misty called.
They looked up, and saw that Misty's Gyarados had just gone Mega. It slammed the non-Mega Gyarados it was dealing with aside, throwing it physically into the distance. It vanished as the Mirage System stopped simulating it and a new one appeared a moment later, but it was self-evidently not going to be any less vulnerable to being thrown long distances.
"Go after the Alakazam!" May suggested. "If you can do that then maybe we can get the control unit from the Mirage Master!"
Ash's focus went off Lucario as a Mirage Pokémon launched an attack in his direction. He was too busy ducking the Water Gun to see what it was at first, then focused and saw that it was a copy of Brock's Marshtomp.
Checking with Aura Sight just in case things had gotten really screwed up, he confirmed that it wasn't the real Marshtomp – then he moved forwards, bracing his staff in both hands to use as a weapon instead of as his Key Stone. He dodged another Water-type attack, then swung his staff and knocked the Marshtomp physically into the distance.
The moment it was gone, another one appeared – this one behind him – and came close to punching him in the back of the leg.
An eruption of Psychic-type energy hammered the ground beside Ash, but it didn't affect him directly – only the secondary blast of grass and dirt hit him, his hat protecting him from the direct effects of the Psychic attack.
Ash glanced up, seeing that it was a Mirage Deoxys, then blocked both the next attack it fired down and one from Marshtomp with a quick Protect shield.
Not liking his chances if he stayed in one place, Ash dove aside. He took in the battlefield at a glance – the close combat between Pikachu and Mirage Pikachu, Lucario being hammered into the side of the building by multiple Mirage Blaziken and the real Blaziken being badly handled by another copy of himself, and several other Pokémon having hard trouble dealing with what were effectively invulnerable versions of themselves – then had to change focus again, as the Mirage Deoxys came down and started to fight him directly.
Ash dodged the first attack, and the second was a Psychic attack he didn't need to dodge, but then the third one was a burst of Thunderbolt – one which he was only barely able to block in time.
"Watch out, guys!" he called, reaching for his sword with one hand so he had two weapons to block with. "They're able to use other moves-"
A Mirage Swellow snatched his hat off his head.
"Hey!" Ash called, then was picked up by a burst of psychic might from one of the Mirage Alakazam.. It threw him against the wall of the lab building, the impact knocking the breath from Ash's lungs, and then the Mirage Darkrai hit him with something and he blacked out.
"Crobat, get over here!" Brock called, getting the attention of his Poison-type.
The chiropteran Pokémon left off his aerial combat – one he was losing – and dove back towards Brock. "What is it?"
"Well-" Brock began, then an earsplitting BANG interrupted him.
"Gyarados!" Misty said, stunned, as her Mega Gyarados stood there with electricity crackling over his scales for a long moment.
A Mirage copy of Ash's Pikachu – the second Mirage Pikachu on the battlefield – stood there, cheeks sparking with electricity, and then blasted Mega Gyarados again to finish the job.
"Fighting these Mirage Pokémon isn't working," Brock said. "May, Misty, Max – we need to think about this logically. Recall your weaker Pokémon so they don't get hurt!"
"I-" Misty began, then nodded. "You're right, Brock. I wish you weren't, but we need to make sure our Pokémon are safe."
Max looked around, frowned, then returned Corona, and May called back her Skitty. Misty double-checked that Caserin was still in his Pokéball, then hurried over to Ash and used Mawile's Pokéball to bring her back in as well.
While that was going on, Brock held out one Pokéball after another. Zorua vanished in a burst of red light, still in her Rockruff guise, and then Stantler disappeared a moment later in another red flash.
Brock recalled Crobat next, and called Ninetales back as the last of his Pokémon still standing – Steelix hadn't managed to go Mega, and Geodude was deeply embedded in the lawn.
"My life's work..." Professor Yung said softly.
"Professor, do you have any idea how we can sort this out?" Brock asked. "Destroying the computers, anything?"
"Well-" the Professor began, then thumped a fist into the ground. "It's hard to think about this without being angry, Mr. Slate! You're asking me to destroy everything I've achieved, and I'm not sure it would even work."
"Why not?" Max asked. "Don't the computers do the projecting?"
"The projection systems are specialized, but not very large and quite long range," Yung explained. "He might have brought his own – or built one – and for all we know he simply stole one last night, or weeks ago."
Yung shook his head. "I realize now I should have better security. But that's a bitter pill to swallow."
"Your Pokémon are defeated," the Mirage Master stated, making them all look up.
It was true. Almost every Pokémon the friends had was out cold or paralyzed, and the latter were being watched over by several Mirage Pokémon each.
"Come to gloat?" Yung asked bitterly.
"No, Professor," the Mirage Master replied. "Nothing so simple. I have your technology already, I have no need to steal it – but I came anyway, because your lab contains something I want badly."
"What's that?" Max asked.
The Mirage Master did not respond to him, instead addressing Yung directly. "Your laboratory has scanning equipment. You will use it as I direct."
He pointed. "That Pikachu there."
Their gaze turned to Ash's Pikachu, now unconscious in a small crater – twitching every so often, reacting to nightmares caused by the Mirage Darkrai.
"Ash Ketchum has seen every Legendary Pokémon in the country," the Mirage Master told them. "His Pikachu has been present for all of it. You will extract his memories."
"No," Yung said. "That's… I don't use that any more. It's too painful."
"You will," the Mirage Master stated blandly. "Or you will all face the consequences."
Roland peered out of the branches of a nearby tree.
Fortunately, it looked like the Mirage Pokémon hadn't caught his hasty teleport – but now everyone was out cold or captured, and the Mirage Pokémon didn't seem harmed at all.
Roland ducked back as the Mirage Master made everyone head into the main lab, taking them underground to one of the rooms that was still in one piece, and thought about what he should do next.
He couldn't come in and help out – he wasn't nearly strong enough, and while his teleporting thing was pretty cool it wouldn't work out against a horde of indestructible Pokémon far stronger than he was.
Could he attack whatever was making the Mirage Pokémon?
No, that wouldn't work very well either. He didn't even know what it would look like, and it was only logical that there might be Mirage Pokémon to protect it.
So that left only one option… and Roland knew it would be hard to pull off, since his teleportation was short-range at the best of times.
He took a deep, steadying breath, and then vanished.
"Memory extraction..." Professor Oak said, as they were herded down to one of the remaining labs. "Professor Yung, I didn't know you'd developed anything of the sort. That alone is a major breakthrough."
"I didn't want it to be misused," Yung replied. "My hope was that I could develop it enough that it would no longer be as – as painful. But I never made any progress, and eventually the Mirage System took priority since it was much more promising."
"I understand," Oak agreed. "I think you made the right decision, Professor."
"I've got another question," Misty said. "When you mentioned that it was painful, Professor – how painful are we talking about?"
"It's… well, you have to understand that it's hard to measure pain," Yung said. "But it's not a physical pain – instead it's related to how the process of extracting the memories relies on bringing them up for retrieval, like with a hard disk. With a computer it's not painful, but to a living brain-"
"Professor Yung," the Mirage Master interrupted. "Connect the Pikachu to the system."
"I..." Yung began, then shook his head. "No – I won't do it! This is too-"
The Mirage Master's cloak moved slightly, and one of the Alakazam raised a spoon – which began to glow, in preparation for an attack.
"Connect the Pikachu to the system," the Mirage Master repeated. "Or face the consequences."
"Go ahead," Professor Oak recommended. "I don't think he wants to hurt us, but it's best not to give him a reason."
"Professor-" Max began.
"No, he's right," Brock said. "The Mirage Master's got all the cards here."
Yung nodded, then picked up the twitching Pikachu and took him over to the main wall station in this room.
He hauled down the equipment, which included a padded table large enough to hold a person, and fitted some electrodes to Pikachu's forehead.
Almost immediately the screen next to him lit up – losing the Mirage Master logo, and changing to show something from Pikachu's point of view with Lucario sparring with Ash, and Suicune lying near the fire watching with interest.
The image on the screen blurred, and then it showed an Entei fighting Ash's Charizard under a deep night sky. Again, and there was a Reshiram and a Zekrom clashing in the sky over a flying castle.
Pikachu's movements became more agitated in his sleep as waves of pain hit him, and the images rushed through faster and faster – often disjointed, as if the system couldn't conduct a basic search and was instead finding whatever it could find that involved Legendary Pokémon.
The Mirage Master watched the screens, not reacting to any of the scenes on display.
"This is… remarkable," Yung breathed. "I didn't even know Mr. Ketchum had met some of these Pokémon."
Arceus flashed up on the screen for a moment, then vanished again to be replaced with Latias and Latios – flying together over Altomare – before jumping to the time Pikachu had fought a crazy Mega Metagross in the Silver Conference.
While the scans were going on, there was the sound of pawpads two floors below.
"Okay, I can't smell anything," a voice hissed. Then there was a flicker, and Zorua and Stantler faded slightly back into visibility.
"Right," Stantler agreed. "And I can't hear anything. I think we're safe down here."
He stood there for a long moment, looking across at the Dark-type. "What now?"
"I don't know," Zorua admitted. "Great work on your illusions, but… we have to work out how to help the others."
She shook her head. "The only question is how… I mean, I guess there's got to be something, but it'll probably mean going back upstairs."
Stantler nodded. "And we can't plan without being kind of obvious up there, so we'll have to come up with a plan before we go up at all."
"Right," Zorua agreed.
She peeked around a corner, then signalled frantically to Stantler. Realizing what she meant, Stantler cloaked them both again.
Some moments later, a Mirage Arcanine paced past their alcove. It didn't pay any attention, and kept going until it was past and out of the way.
"That was close," Stantler breathed. "We've got to make sure we don't slip up, I guess..."
"Too right," Zorua agreed. "If any Mirage Pokémon find us, we could be in big trouble."
"Why?" asked a curious voice.
"Because then the Mirage Master will-" Zorua began, then stopped. "Stantler, that wasn't you, was it?"
"No," Stantler replied.
They turned around slowly.
A Mew waved at them.
"Hello," it said. "I'm M-001, what's your designation?"
"Just Zorua," Zorua answered automatically, then shook her head. "Wait – who are you?"
The Mew looked puzzled. "Databanks indicate that question was already answered."
"Then… what are you?" Stantler requested.
"M-001, Mirage Prototype: Mew," the Mew told him. "My matrix is not part of the primary Mirage System. Are you more Mirage prototypes?"
"We're real Pokémon," Stantler said. "You're really a Mirage Pokémon? You don't seem like the other ones we've seen today..."
"Only M-001 and M-002 are fully sapient," the Mirage Mew said brightly. "I have not interfaced with M-002, though, and I don't know many details."
"Okay, uh..." Zorua reached up with one forepaw to rub her muzzle. "Look. This is a kind of important question… can you help us with a problem? Someone's taken over the Mirage System and is using it to threaten our trainer and his friends – can you help us stop him?"
"Of course!" Mew agreed. "An artificial life form may not harm humans or Pokémon, or through inaction allow humans or Pokémon to come to harm."
"Remarkable," Professor Yung breathed, watching on the screen. "I knew this Pikachu had to have seen a lot, but this much… I never even guessed how much data was available."
There was a slight fzzt from Pikachu's cheeks. The Mirage Master gestured wordlessly, and one of the Mirage Pikachu appeared again.
It moved to stand next to Pikachu, draining away any electricity that was escaping.
"Professor," Misty said. "How long do you think it is before you can regain control of the Mirage System?"
"I have to admit that I'm not sure," Professor Yung replied absently. "It depends how much damage the Mirage Master did."
"But the system's clearly working," Brock pointed out. "And it's going to keep working for at least as long as the Mirage Master needs to get out of range – otherwise we'll just send our Pokémon after him."
"That is none of your concern," the Mirage Master stated blandly.
Max glanced over at Ash – still unconscious, suffering from the effects of Darkrai's attack – then sighed. "It's a pity we don't have our own way of hacking back."
"You're discussing strategy right in front of him," May said. "I just thought I'd point it out..."
"Yeah, but we've got to do something," Max countered. "It's a pity Jirachi isn't awake..."
"So… you're kind of a digital Pokémon?" Stantler asked quietly.
"Affirmative," M-001 agreed. "I am an artificial intelligence designed to operate the Mirage System for Professor Yung, though I have not been used in that capacity for some time."
"Why not?" Zorua said. "And are we going in the right direction?"
Mew's tail flicked for a moment. "According to my database of the contents of the building, the main Mirage projectors are down here."
He paused for a long time, thinking, then resumed talking. "And I do not have sufficient information to determine why I was not used for the task of operating the Mirage System. I infer that M-002 was superior for the tasks required by Professor Yung."
Zorua stopped. "Wait, back up. I think we missed something."
She pointed at Mew. "So… you're M-001. And M-002 is the other one… and M-002 is running the Mirage System now?"
"Correct," M-001 agreed.
"What's wrong, Zorua?" Stantler asked.
"We never met M-002," Zorua told him. "Remember? And Professor Yung never mentioned that M-001 or M-002 were a thing."
Stantler blinked, realizing where she was going. "Yeah, now I think about it that is odd… any idea what it might be?"
"Not yet," Zorua said, thumping her tail on the ground. "So… if your job was to run the Mirage System, can it operate without you?"
"M-002 or I can operate it at full capacity," M-001 told her. "That is our designated function. However, without an intelligent component in the system the computers are limited to a basic tactical matrix."
"That's what I don't get!" Zorua said out loud, then winced. "Um… sorry?"
There was the sound of paws on the floor, and M-001 led them through a door before closing it behind them.
The sound of the paws got closer, then passed by again.
"Phew..." the Dark-type exhaled. "Um, anyway… when the Mirage Master attacked us, they were using dozens of Mirage Pokémon – and they were certainly forming complex plans and working together. How could they do that without M-002?"
"Category error," Mew told her.
"...what?" Zorua asked, confused.
"Category error," Mew repeated. "My search for Mirage Master returned M-002; there is no difference between the two designations. M-002 is the Mirage Master."
Zorua and Stantler exchanged a shocked look.
"But… if that's true..." Stantler began. "Doesn't M-002 have the same rules as you? I mean – what is M-002? I don't understand."
"I do," Zorua said bitterly. "This whole thing has been a trick, hasn't it? There was no attack – it was all a setup."
"Insufficient data," M-001 said, then frowned. "But… no other logical conclusion is evident. By elimination, you are correct – conjecture suggests M-002 was accepted over me because M-002 does not prioritize preventing harm over obeying orders."
"Then that means Brock and the others are in danger!" Stantler said. "And they don't even know how much!"
He began to make for the door, but Zorua stopped him with a paw.
"Wait," she said. "We know now, and that's good. But we need a plan."
She turned to M-001. "Can you use the Mirage System yourself? Or – or fight M-002?"
"I cannot," the Mirage Mew told them. "My system does not currently interface with the primary projection units and I do not have a tap on the main power bus of the Infinity Generator. I can however conduct data searches."
"Then that's what we need to do," Zorua said firmly. "We need to know enough for a plan. Firstly… okay, I'm going to go over everything I remember Yung saying, and see how much of it was a lie."
"Affirmative," M-001 stated – then frowned. "There is a large quantity of additional move/Pokémon data being uploaded into the primary database."
"I bet that's what this is all about!" Stantler said, tapping a hoof on the floor. "Professor Yung really wanted that extra data!"
"Clarify," Mew requested. "Professor Yung endangered and injured you and your friends in order to obtain additional information?"
Zorua nodded.
The Mirage Pokémon looked shocked.
"Look, we need to speed up," Zorua went on. "First things first – can you find out-"
She stopped. "Wait a moment. Mew – I mean, M-001 – what Pokémon can the Mirage System not simulate?"
"Pokémon that cannot be simulated are Pokémon for which no data exists," M-001 told her. "Examples include..."
There was a pause.
"...the database is a lot more complete than I was expecting," M-001 admitted. "Examples include… Xerneas?"
"What about Riolu and Lucario?" Stantler asked, seeing where this was going.
"Mirage Riolu were one of the original test runs of the Mirage System," the Mirage Mew told them.
"So why doesn't Yung want them simulated..." Zorua mused. "Hmmm…"
AN:
It's kind of hard to defeat someone who is basically "exactly like you, but basically immune to damage".
