Chapter 12 – Mysterious Mimicry
Disabling Depression
No stars could be seen, nor breezes felt, and only a few sounds could be heard when the periwinkle pokémon woke well after the sun had set. It knew it was close to nature, but there was a thin barrier between itself and the outside, a barrier which kept it comfortably contained.
The Pokémon sat up, stretched, and peered around itself. This time, its surroundings had not changed from last morning.
Disabling Teleport must have worked, Mewtwo thought.
The Pokémon had heard Dr. Fuji call it 'Mewtwo' yesterday after Teleporting. The Pokémon was still very new to this world, so it didn't know how it had been able to hear Dr. Fuji's words, even from miles away. Did it have to do with the fact that it communicates Psychically? Was there a limit on how close you had to be to someone to establish telepathy?
It didn't know, but whatever the case, Mewtwo now knew its own name. Or the name of its species, at least.
Mewtwo readied itself for its 'morning' routine, which was normally as simple as Teleporting to the place it had been created. Today, however, it hesitated. The Pokémon didn't know how long pokémon Moves lasted, so Teleport might still be Disabled.
If I can't Teleport, I'll just Disable Disable, Mewtwo thought snidely.
The Pokémon was feeling residual anger from somewhere – probably a dream, though it could never remember them, or even if it had any – and that anger was seeping into its decision-making.
Luckily for the Pokémon, it didn't have to experiment with Disable that night. It Teleported to the ruins of the lab successfully on its first try, as easily as it always could.
Disable must have worn off after doing its job, Mewtwo thought as the light from the Teleport faded. Good.
"Ah, there you are!" came the surprised voice of Dr. Fuji. "I almost gave up hope! I was about to turn in for the night. You're late- well, later than usual."
"I'm always late," the Pokémon telepathed. "In the day."
Dr. Fuji chuckled. "Yes, yes, very funny." The man waved a hand invitingly. "Why don't you come in. Would you like a snack? I have some leftovers that need to go somewhere- preferably not the garbage."
"Yes, actually," Mewtwo thought with a nod. The Pokémon wasn't hungry, but its taste buds were demanding something decent. "That sounds good."
"Then follow me," Dr. Fuji declared, disappearing behind the large tent flaps.
Mewtwo followed.
"Help yourself," said the man, gesturing at the middle table. He then walked over to his laptop and began typing.
Mewtwo walked up to the table – which was just above its head-height, though it was waist-high for the Professor – and frowned. It couldn't see much from its vantage point, but it could smell well enough. "Isn't it unhealthy for a pokémon to eat human food? Especially junk food?"
"It is not quite junk food," Dr. Fuji said, still staring at the computer screen. "Just fast food, and not even the greasy kind. If you don't like it, I can get something else for you next time."
"The problem isn't that I won't like it," the Pokémon said, grabbing one of the containers from above and lowering it to eye level. It was stir-fry noodles and Torchic(ken) with a plastic fork and spoon. "The problem is that I will like it, but I still shouldn't eat it."
"You sound just like my daughter," the man said with a laugh. But just as quickly as the humor and mirth had come into his voice and psyche, it left.
Mewtwo was a bit surprised at the sudden, depressed atmosphere surrounding the doctor.
Soberly and seriously, and still without taking his eyes off the screen, the doctor said, "You are a pokémon with human DNA. Your diet should allow for this."
Mewtwo tilted its head, then shrugged. It wasn't polite to argue with someone who was in a bad mood. "If you say so." The Pokémon picked up one of the trays and walked over to the table with a microwave. Then it frowned again. "I can't reach."
That actually caused Fuji to look up from his laptop. "I've got a stool you can-" the Doctor began, then paused. "Wait a minute. Can't you Levitate?"
Mewtwo tilted its head. "How?"
"You just-" the Doctor began again, then paused again. "...do it naturally, I suppose? I know Mew can freely levitate anywhere it wishes."
"Well I'M not Mew," the Pokémon huffed. "I'm MewTWO."
The Doctor started slightly, looking surprised, as if he hadn't expected Mewtwo to know its own name. "You... hmm... yes... well then, Mewtwo, maybe lift yourself up using your tail? Or I could get a stool for you, like I first thought to do. It's what I would always do for my..." but he trailed off, that depressed atmosphere deepening.
The Pokémon looked at its big tail, which had been swaying unthinkingly behind it until the moment it remembered it was there. The fifth limb had a mind of its own, but only when Mewtwo wasn't paying attention to it.
"I can try," Mewtwo telepathed. Then, as if it had known how to do so its entire life, it used its tail to lift itself from the ground, balancing perfectly. "Woah," it thought, the tray in its hands not even shaking.
The Doctor looked just as surprised as Mewtwo. He even started walking a few steps forward. "Do you need help with the-"
But Mewtwo was already placing the tray it held in the microwave. It was careful to remove the utensils first, even though they were plastic and not metal.
TM Troubles
Mewtwo glanced around the room after pressing the 'start' button, its new vantage point revealing many things.
The Pokémon perceived pounds of piled paperwork, stacks of silver discs, and a few more trays of takeout, all of which littered the table in the center of the room.
"Why did you even need all this food in the first place?" it asked.
"Fuel for an all-nighter," Fuji answered. "Well, all-dayer, I suppose, since I am now matching your sleep schedule as best I can. I had an idea for how to bypass the Transform issue, and I spent all day acquiring the resources to test it." It was then that Mewtwo noticed the bags under the man's eyes. The smells of coffee and Chesto juice in the air also made themselves known at that moment.
"What idea?" it asked, curious at what could have kept the middle-aged man awake for so long.
Dr. Fuji grinned, his sour mood leaving him entirely. "The thought occurred to me that perhaps you simply needed to feel yourself using Transform in order to learn it..."
The man walked to the central table and picked up one of the silver discs laying there.
"...so I spent a great deal of grant money to acquire this TM, ostensibly for the purpose of testing its interactivity with strange Moves."
"You spent a 'great deal' of money?" the Pokémon repeated. "How much is a 'great deal'?"
"Two hundred thousand pokémon dollars."
The Pokémon's balance failed, its tail slipped out from under it, and it fell to the ground.
"WHAT?!" it Psychically shouted, then winced at Dr. Fuji's wince. "Sorry," it instantly apologized.
"It's okay," said the man, rubbing his temples. "You are a newborn. Just be careful. My psyche is not as strong as yours."
Mewtwo nodded. "Okay." It tried to get itself up on its tail again, though it took a bit longer this time. It wasn't easy to concentrate when you were shocked. "But why was the TM that expensive?"
The doctor raised an informative finger. "It is TM one thirty-one, part of the discontinued 'one hundred' series no longer made by Silph Co. And since it has a number lower than one-fifty-one, it is no longer sold by Silph Co. either. Some of the very oldest TMs are single-use, and that may have also contributed the price. I've yet to see if this one is single-use or not."
In other words, it was expensive because it was rare?
"Still," telepathed the Pokémon as the microwave beeped. It freed the freshly heated food from the machine. "That's a lot."
"Yes, the price range of old TMs fluctuates wildly," Dr. Fuji said with a sigh. "TM one-one-one (Bubble Beam) can be bought for five thousand pokédollars, for example. It may be uncommon, but there is absolutely no demand for it. On the other hand, TM one-one-six (Pay Day) is currently impossible to find. A wealthy collector bought up all available copies long ago."
"You know a lot about this," Mewtwo observed.
The man shrugged. "I have an eidetic memory. For visual information, at least, I only need to see it once to remember it. And it helps if it's pokémon-related, though that's not strictly necessary anymore."
Mewtwo paused just as it brought a fork twirled with stir-fried Lo Mein to its lips. Why did that sound familiar?
"And I'm especially familiar with that particular wealthy collector," Dr. Fuji continued, "as he was my employer until recently. He once bragged that he bought the last copy of Pay Day for just under a million pokédollars."
That last part, stated so casually, made the Pokémon bite down on too many flavored noodles at once, causing it to Burn its tongue even as it psychically shouted, "A MILLION dollars?!"
The man cringed again, and Mewtwo hastily apologized again before looking for something to help the man heal his headache and put out its own Burn. The man was a fan of Fire Types, so there were a few Rawst Berries nearby, and since one of his favorite pokémon was the pseudo-Psychic Ninetails, there were also some Persim.
"Sorry," the pokémon said again. The Pokémon seemed to have no trouble communicating clearly while it was in pain – temporary and mild pain, granted, but pain nonetheless.
"Again, it is not your fault," said the man as his pained expression left him, the effect of the Persim Berry he'd eaten. "You simply need practice."
There was a moment of silence, then, as the Pokémon nodded and the Professor took a few deep breaths.
"Why was Pay Day so expensive?" Mewtwo asked when the fuss was over. "Was it single-use?"
"I don't think so," the man said, still rubbing his temples.
"If it wasn't single-use, why would he spend that much money on multiple copies?"
The man shrugged. "I didn't ask, but I know for a fact that he had a Persian. Maybe he was feeling nostalgia for the move from his own pokémon journey, or maybe he liked the idea of a wealthy man owning every Pay Day in existence. Or maybe it was just the crazy whim of an eccentric millionaire. Who knows? I never asked in the first place, and I am no longer able to ask. He stopped privately funding my research and I no longer have a means of communicating with him. He also kept his identity a secret and worked through an alias, so I don't know who he truly is."
"Hm."
"In any case," the man spoke on, holding up the disc. "The outdatedness of certain TMs is why I had to buy this online, from someone who had originally purchased it when it was still in production years ago. I would have used a Move Tutor to teach you this Move. Just about any Move Tutor is able to teach it, which is why this particular TM fell out of production. But I'd rather not introduce you to the wider public until you are ready for it. Buying this TM was a safer option than trusting a Tutor to silence."
I wonder why he wants to keep me a secret so bad, the Pokémon mused. Then, 'out loud', it thought, "What Move is it?"
"TM 131 contains the move Mimic."
Mysterious Mewmicry
Mewtwo tilted its head at the move's name. "I haven't heard of that Move before."
"I'm not surprised. Its effect does not lend well to battling, so few folk know of it. Especially young ones who... ah, may have learned most of what they know from watching battles on TV. And naturally a newborn pokémon wouldn't know it either..."
"What does it do?" Mewtwo asked, slurping up noodles.
Talking while eating felt strangely polite and impolite at the same time. The words weren't muffled, spittle didn't fly, and the conversation wasn't interrupted at all – which were all the reasons you weren't supposed to eat during conversations. But even though none of that happened here, Mewtwo still felt like it would be scolded by someone for not swallowing before speaking. Like there should have been a nearby adult to put it in time out.
Dr. Fuji didn't seem to notice the politeness issue at all. "Mimic allows you to learn the last Move used by an opponent."
The Pokémon paused mid-slurp. "ANY Move?"
"Yes, any Move," the man said with a nod. "Well, any move in theory. I've already taught it to my team via Move Tutor and run a few preliminary tests, and I've found that it is sometimes possible to Mimic the move Transform."
"Sometimes?" the Pokémon repeated as it ate the last of the takeout. The Pokémon had enjoyed the flavors of Rawst, Torchic(ken), and noodles.
"Yes, sometimes," Dr Fuji shrugged. "Sometimes, Mimic copies Transform and the pokémon using it can temporarily Transform into another species. But sometimes it fails. I have yet to figure out why." He glanced at his laptop, as if he felt an impulse to sit down and start typing. "It has given me something interesting to submit as a Pokémon Scientist, not to mention justification for the grant spending, but I digress." His gaze returned to Mewtwo. "Tonight, I want to see if you can use Mimic to learn Transform."
"I'll be able to learn Transform if I use Mimic?" the Pokémon asked.
"That is my hope," Dr. Fuji answered. "Unfortunately, Moves learned by Mimic are only temporarily learned. But with any luck, once you know how it feels to Transform, you'll be able to do it afterwards even without help from Mimic."
The Pokémon thought about that for a moment, following the logic.
Step 1: Learn Mimic.
Step 2: Use Mimic after a Ditto uses Transform.
Step 3: Learn Transform temporarily.
Step 4: Use Transform.
Step 5: Learn how it feels to Transform.
Step 6: Learn Transform permanently?
Ultimately, Mewtwo agreed that the idea was worth testing. And it would be learning a new Move either way, which was good because it only knew two – Disable and Teleport.
Then it thought about what learning a TM would involve. And then it groaned. "I'm going to have to get Captured again, aren't I?"
"Yes," the man said. "I do apologize, but I see no way around it. Maybe I'll buy a few Luxury Balls if this fails, to make it less unpleasant in the future if I think of a similar strategy with TMs, or something else that requires Capturing. If it's too uncomfortable, I can..."
"Just get it over with," Mewtwo sighed.
He did, and a minute later Mewtwo knew the move Mimic, just like that.
That was easy, it thought. Mewtwo had been expecting the TM-learning method to be more unpleasant. Or difficult. But no. One moment it didn't know the Move, the next moment it did.
Dr. Fuji reached into his white lab coat, took out a Pokéball, and released a Growlithe. "Let's begin."
For the next hour, Mewtwo Mimicked multiple Fire Moves as a proof of concept.
Curiously, Mimic had no outward tells of having been used – no flashes of light, no sounds, no automatically using the Move that's been Mimicked like you did if you learned a new one at level-up, or if you used Mirror Move.
Nothing.
If not for Fuji saying "Mewtwo, Mimic Flamethrower!" or "Mewtwo, Mimic Fire Spin!", nobody on the outside would have known Mewtwo had Mimicked those Moves. There weren't many Moves like that – Moves without visual cues or tells. Most Moves had something to give them away. But Mimic was, apparently, one of the rare few that didn't.
"I think we can declare this round of testing over," Dr. Fuji said at last.
Mewtwo hadn't learned any of the Fire Moves permanently, but Dr. Fuji said he hadn't expected that to be the case. It probably didn't learn any Fire Moves naturally. Though Dr. Fuji remarked that perhaps Mewtwo could learn Fire Blast via TM like the Psychic Slowpoke line. (Dr. Fuji rambled a bit, saying Water-Types weren't usually his area of expertise, but Fire Moves were, and so were the pokémon that could learn them.)
For now, Mewtwo had been able to learn all the Fire Moves temporarily via Mimic, and that was what Fuji had been testing for, so he decided it was time to move on to a mix of Psychic and Status Moves, to see if Mewtwo could learn Moves permanently through Mimic.
For another hour, Ninetails demonstrated many Moves, including Confuse Ray, Imprison, Extrasensory, and Safeguard, and Mewtwo successfully Mimicked Ninetails' Moves after Dr. Fuji gave him an Ether to restore his PP – Mimic only had ten uses. Ninetails didn't use any of these Moves on Mewtwo, of course; Dr. Fuji said that would interfere with the testing, especially Imprison, which prevents the opponent from using any Moves that it shares in common with the user. That wasn't to say Growlithe had attacked Mewtwo either. All the testing was done against target dummies, not Mewtwo.
"But Imprison would have been especially bad for the tests," Dr. Fuji had said.
As with the Fire Moves earlier, this round of Mimic testing resulted in many temporarily-learned Moves, all of which felt strange when Mewtwo used them. That is, until...
"Success at last!" Dr. Fuji exulted with an excited expression. "You have learned Safeguard! Permanently, that is."
"I have?" asked the Pokémon.
It attempted to use Safeguard again once Mimic was no longer active and the Mimicked Safeguard had worn off. A green, spherical shield appeared around its body, which then quickly shrunk down into a glowing turquoise outline just above the surface of its purple skin. Combined, the colors made its arm appear blue (and probably the rest of its body as well, though there was no mirror in the room to see itself).
"You have," Dr. Fuji observed with a grin.
"Huh."
"Fascinating," the Pokémon researcher declared. "Mimic truly can be used to learn Moves. I simply must record-" the man began, then cut himself off. "No, I simply must repeat this experiment with a different subject – one I can submit as a case study."
"You mean now?"
"No," the man shook his head. "Later. Though I shall have to be careful when I do, as this very well may put Move Maniacs out of business-" the man cut himself off again. "No. No! Later! I apologize, Mewtwo, my mind is a bit scattered. Tonight, I'd like to test my original theory. Let me get a Ditto and we can finally teach you Transform."
After more hours of testing, Dr. Fuji was at a complete loss.
Mewtwo couldn't Mimic Transform.
Mewtwo also couldn't Mimic Safeguard anymore, though since it now knew Safeguard, that was expected. You can't Mimic a move you already know.
But the important thing was that Mewtwo couldn't Mimic Transform, despite the fact that Transform was NOT listed among Mewtwo's 'known' Moves in the Pokédex. Any attempts Dr. Fuji had made to order Mewtwo to 'use Transform' had failed, just like they had last night.
"I just don't understand," Dr. Fuji said. "You can Mimic other Moves you don't know. You can permanently learn a Move you didn't know. Why can't you learn Transform the same way? Or even Mimic it in the first place? You don't already know Transform, according to the Pokédex, so you should be able to Mimic it. In fact, before tonight, you should have been able to Mimic any Move that was not Disable, Teleport, Barrier, or Confusion."
Barrier and Confusion? Mewtwo thought to itself. I know those? I'll have to try them sometime.
"You said it fails sometimes," the Pokémon pointed out. "Maybe this is just one of those times."
"But it doesn't make any sense!" the man almost shouted. "Of all pokémon who can Mimic Transform, you should be at the top of that list! Mimic should only fail if you already know the Move you are trying to Mimic! But you don't know Transform, and neither did any of the other pokémon who failed to Mimic it! Sometimes they would fail to Mimic Transform when other members of that same evolutionary line would succeed! Sometimes one pokémon would fail where another member of the same species succeeded!"
The list of pokémon which could and could not use Transform via Mimic, as tested by Fuji, is as follows:
Lv 40 Flareon, 3 Affection, Medium Friendship, High Intelligence, met 30 years ago on Route 25, Impish Nature – Success
Lv 25 Growlithe, 3 Affection, Medium Friendship, Medium Intelligence, met 10 years ago on Route 8, Brave Nature – Failure
Lv 42 Growlithe, 4 Affection, High Friendship, High Intelligence, met 25 years ago on Route 8, Rash Nature – Success
Lv 47 Arcanine, 5 Affection, Max Friendship, Human-Level Intelligence, met 35 years ago on Route 8, Brave Nature – Success
Lv 39 Ponyta, 4 Affection, Medium Friendship, High Intelligence, met 10 years ago on Sevii One, Naive Nature – Failure
Lv 42 Rapidash, 5 Affection, Max Friendship, Human-Level Intelligence, met 35 years ago on Sevii One, Serious Nature – Success
Lv 30 Vulpix, 2 Affection, Medium Friendship, Medium Intelligence, met 2 years ago on Cinnabar Island, Relaxed Nature – Failure
Lv 50 Ninetails, 5 Affection, Max Friendship, Human-Level intelligence, met 35 years ago on Route 7, Calm Nature – Success
Lv 20 Magmar, 2 Affection, Medium Friendship, Medium Intelligence, met 5 years ago on Cinnabar Island, Bashful Nature – Failure
Lv 48 Magmar, 5 Affection, Max Friendship, Human-Level intelligence, met 34 years ago at Mt. Ember, Lonely Nature – Success
Lv 16 Charmeleon, 1 Affection, Medium Friendship, Low Intelligence, met 2 years ago on Cinnabar Island, Rash Nature – Failure
Lv 50 Charizard, 5 Affection, Max Friendship, Human-Level intelligence, met 35 years ago in Pallet Town, Jolly Nature – Success
"Why is Ninetails able to Mimic Transform, but not Vulpix? Why Flareon and not Ponyta? Why can one Growlithe do it, but not another?" The man dragged a weary hand over his face. "I just can't make heads or tails of it. There has to be some underlying rule, but if I don't know it, I can't utilize it. And if I can't utilize it, then you can't learn Transform."
Mewtwo shrugged. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," it thought.
A light coming from the tent's entrance caught its eye. The Pokémon glanced at the ground just inside the tent, noting that dawn was approaching.
"It's getting early," said the Pokémon. "It's time for me to go."
The man gave an exhausted sigh. He removed the Pokéball from the Pokédex's Scanner and tossed it to the Pokémon. "Don't forget to Release yourself."
"Thank you," Mewtwo said, and did so. The Pokémon paused just before Teleporting away. "Don't forget to get some rest. Maybe you just need to sleep on it."
When it returned to the enclosed space where it had woken earlier that night, it yawned, Disabled Teleport, closed its eyes, and rapidly fell asleep. But just before Resting, Mewtwo decided to use its newest Move, Safeguard, as a reminder of the night's efforts. The blue-green glow surrounded its body even as drifted off completely.
Blaine's Blackboard
The Pokémon disappeared in a flash, leaving a man looking forlornly at a digital pad with many 'FAILED' ideas crossed out. The pad had a black background, white lettering, and the title, How to See My Daughter Again.
Dr. Fuji had not told anybody, even his wife, of his daughter's death. (His wife was currently in Sinnoh, and would be there for a while.) He hadn't mourned Amber's loss. He hadn't arranged for a funeral, because that would have been accepting her death as final.
At the top of the list of items that had not been crossed out yet was 'Mewtwo learns Transform'. Immediately above that was 'Ditto learns Transform' with a line through it.
Ditto simply weren't capable of turning into Amber. When he showed them her picture, they just turned into the physical picture itself, frame and all.* Either they weren't smart enough to isolate the intended target or they simply couldn't do it without a living model. But Mewtwo would have been smart enough, if only it could Transform in the first place.
And then there was the other reason Dr. Fuji been hopeful about this particular option...
He shook his head in disappointment and crossed out all the 'Transform' items on the list, including the ones involving having a Smeargle Sketch the Move. He'd keep Transform in mind, but for now it was time to Move on to other angles of attack.
The latest research findings from one of Sam's newest Trainers, for example, included a potential Pokémon Translator whose voice sounded remarkably like his daughter's. And although there wasn't enough light for any sort of certainty, the girl in the video seemed to be wearing a white dress – standard issue Silph, just like he'd bought for his daughter. Her hair color looked brown, not green, but perhaps that was just the lighting. Her facial features were obscured by shadow, but he could easily imagine Amber's face fitting perfectly in place.
On the other hand, maybe he was beginning to see Ghost Types.
The boy had called her 'Leaf', not 'Amber', and he couldn't imagine his daughter making a fake name for herself when she could simply use her real one. His daughter was the most honest and straightforward child he knew, and she didn't get angry or frustrated easily. She was a bit sassy, but he never knew her to hold a grudge, nor act outright resentful like this 'Leaf' seemed to be towards 'Ex'.
There were also no recorded cases at all of a human becoming a Translator rather than being born that way, and his daughter had never been a Translator, so it couldn't be her.
The man sighed heavily. Perhaps sleeping on the Transform problem was what he needed. He'd send an email to Oak inquiring about this 'Leaf', but he had little hope it would prove fruitful.
What he needed to do was draw forth Amber's consciousness again, and that was apparently going to take some time.
Blaine Fuji spent only a minute wiping the data on Mewtwo from his Pokédex, then returned his Fire Types to the their natural habitats via the PC before shutting it down completely.
* Jessie from the anime tried to get a Ditto to Transform into a person based only on a framed picture, and that's what happened.
Aftermath 2: Boss G's Black Box
In a secret hideout, on an illegal terminal, where the term 'private Pokédex' meant 'Pokédex with a secret back door' and 'data wipe' meant 'data successfully transferred'...
"'Mewtwo'?" Giovanni asked, seeing a pokémon name and appearance he had never encountered before. As the man began a bit more digging, he mused to himself, "What are you up to, Doctor?"
He had cut ties with Dr. Fuji after that explosion had stripped him of many, many valuable resources – expensive TMs, a Link Box, a Smeargle who had Sketched some extremely rare and Legendary Moves, a few experimental blank TMs... not to mention all the mundane but still expensive lab equipment. And all the Dittos. And the building itself. Even the Porygon he'd assigned to watch over the operation had somehow been lost despite its digital nature – and not just any Porygon, but the one he had used as a Trainer, long ago. That particular fact had been the deciding factor for dropping Fuji despite the 'empty clone' showing promise as a scientific discovery – his anger getting the better of him in a way that it hadn't for years. He'd been looking for petty revenge, and Fuji's funding had seemed like an acceptable place to start.
But by now, he'd had enough time to cool down and think logically. Dr. Fuji was a brilliant man and a valuable resource. The explosion – from what he could gather so far – had not been the man's fault. And now Giovanni was finding out that there was something else that had survived the explosion, something which had the Move Teleport, and which may have only come to Fuji after Giovanni had dropped him as a contractor. Something named 'Mewtwo'.
Whether Dr. Fuji was keeping his current research a secret because he was unable to contact Giovanni or he was unwilling was irrelevant. The fact that he was keeping it a secret in the first place was a very good thing, because the media would explode if they found out about it.
He would have to re-establish contact with Fuji... but he would have to be careful not to arouse the man's suspicions about the back door in the 'private' Pokédex he'd provided him. What would be a good ruse...?
He could claim he needed to know more details about the explosion, which wouldn't be a lie. He could claim he'd had a Heart Swap about his lab being blown up. That wouldn't be a lie either – he used to be angry and now he's not – but perhaps he should phrase it better. He'd undergone a Transformation? No, that didn't sound right. He could claim he'd thought better of it after Resting on the issue for a while? No... Perhaps linking the excuses together would be best? Some combination of him having Rested on it, having a Heart Swap, and undergoing a personal Transformation?
Regardless, he could set the issue aside for now. He would come up with better ideas over time so he could afford to be patient. In fact, it would probably be best to be patient - or rather, to delay his actions. Delaying action was not the same as being patient. He could patiently wait until better ideas came, but once they did, he would have to delay the action of implementing them.
If he realized a good ruse tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to use it right away because a call this early on would be too suspicious. The explosion had happened less than a week ago, after all. Giovanni corrected his mistakes and failings as swiftly as possible, but doing so had its drawbacks – especially when it came to getting others to believe that he had actually changed his mind. Most people weren't so good at correcting their own mistakes, so most people viewed claims of swiftly doing so with suspicion.
Perhaps... one to three months would be a good time frame for a 'normal' person to have believably changed their mind, depending on how he pitched it. Six months, at the latest.
In the meantime, he would keep an eye on this 'Mewtwo'.
Aftermath 3: Double Illusion of Transparency
Ten hours later, Dr. Fuji managed to wake himself up long enough to do a few important things. First, he made a voice recording for Mewtwo, since he wouldn't be able to keep himself awake long enough for a meeting. Next, he checked his email.
I'm sorry Blaine, began the email from Professor Oak, but Leaf has chosen the Anonymous Trainer option.
Fuji muttered 'Fffffurret' under his breath.
As you know, this means I am legally bound not to reveal her true name, or other background information, to any person – even family members – unless emergency demands otherwise. She has so far requested that no one know her information besides myself. Perhaps she has told Ex, perhaps she has not. You can submit a request to Silph to see her Trainer ID, but that's it. Leaf has specifically requested I keep all information about her journey private when possible, or anonymous otherwise, even from her parents. She wishes to grow up on this journey, she told me.
May I ask why you are asking about her? To check up on her progress, perhaps?
-Sam
Dr. Fuji sighed, mostly confident now that this 'Leaf' was not his daughter... though he filled out the request form anyway.
He didn't have universal access to Silph's Databases, as he wasn't a full Pokémon Professor. He could request information as a researcher, and as a Gym Leader he could request Trainer IDs of Trainers that have already battled him. Once upon a time, Gym Leaders could view Trainer IDs and other information without fuss. Unfortunately, bad actors trying to get advance information on opponents abused this, and now it was no longer that simple.
It would take at least a month (but probably two or three) for the paperwork to actually go through and for him to actually see the Trainer ID of 'Leaf'.
But again, he didn't expect much to come from it.
Amber would never choose the anonymous option, just like she would never use an alias. This 'Leaf' sounded like she had something to hide, not to mention a rebellious streak a mile wide, and that wasn't like Amber at all. Amber was an independent girl, but not isolated or antisocial.
Furthermore, if Leaf was Amber despite all the counter evidence, that meant a stable, third clone body was somehow made without his awareness. He couldn't even begin to fathom how that might have happened, since the only stable clones he'd ever made were the empty one and Mewtwo.
And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that Amber would have contacted him by now if her consciousness had somehow found its way into a living clone body- er, that is to say, his daughter would have called her parents immediately if she found herself in a strange place, in a new body, with the last thing she remembered being that she had died. That's what he and Cheryl had taught her to do, after all. Well, not in response to that exact situation, of course, but she was a sensible girl.
Dr. Fuji hit the reply_ button.
I'm not checking her progress as a Trainer, I'm just curious about the waves she might make, he typed. It's not every day a new Translator arrives on the scene.
-Blaine
Later...
I see. I'll try to prepare Leaf for her role and make sure Silph doesn't overwhelm her with requests. She IS ten, after all. I'll let you know if there are ever any emergencies concerning her.
Best,
-Sam
Thanks.
-Blaine
(There is something called the illusion of transparency: you believe you understand what someone else is thinking, i.e. what they are implying, but you actually misunderstand them completely. Then there's the double illusion of transparency: both sides falsely believing they have understood the other. If this conversation had happened in person, Professor Oak's tone probably would have alerted Dr. Fuji to what he was hinting at. And vice versa, Fuji's tone probably would have alerted Professor Oak to the fact that he hadn't caught the underlying message. But neither had noticed. After the advent of instant messaging through text, that sort of thing happened all the time.
Alas, not all rational actors can be perfectly rational all the time. )
Aftermath 1: Blast from the Past
For the first time in Mewtwo's life – that he could remember – he was having a dream. Strangely, he knew that he was a he, even though nothing else about his body had changed in the dream.
HE was not a genderless creature. That fact was solid knowledge, and he didn't bother questioning it any more than a dreaming human would question their ability to fly.
Mewtwo was floating down a tunnel... not a very long tunnel, or a very short one, or a very remarkable one... just a featureless tunnel, except the end he'd come from was bright, and the one he drifted down was dim. The light behind him pulsated with a radiance like that of Sunny Day, while in front of him it looked like someone had Linked the moves Mist and Dark Pulse together.
Mewtwo somehow knew that he had gone down this tunnel many times already. Perhaps he had dreamed before.
Just as he approached the halfway point of the tunnel, he saw something floating down the same tunnel, in the opposite direction, slowly emerging from the mist. Something told him this was also normal.
The figure drifted towards the periwinkle Pokémon. She was a human girl with green hair and a white dress. She looked about the same size as him, maybe a little taller. And she looked as if she was just waking up.
"Mewtwo?" asked the girl with a yawn as her eyes met his. "Is that you?"
"Yes," Mewtwo said as they floated closer to each other. "Who are you?"
"It's me!" she said excitedly, her sleepiness leaving her in an instant. "Ambertwo! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Um..." Mewtwo said as they floated yet closer. "Do I know you?"
The girl, who had seemed only happy before, suddenly developed a hurt expression. "Don't you remember me?" she asked as they drifted very close to each other... then past each other. Ambertwo was now closer to the light than him, and he was closer to the mist.
"Remember you..." Mewtwo trailed off, his eyes going distant as his surroundings grew darker. The girl did seem familiar, so he tried to search his memory... but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. "AH!"
"Mewtwo!" Ambertwo gasped. "Are you alright?"
"I-" he said, but another blast of pain almost made him white out.
"MEWTWO!" Ambertwo shouted, seeming to scramble frantically in his direction... or trying to, anyway. Neither girl nor pokémon had any control over the dream, or the directions they were floating. "MEWTWO!"
In desperation, he tried one last time to remember why this girl seemed so familiar, but another sharp migraine stopped him. This last blast of pain did make him white out, and he lost consciousness (or the dream ended) just as he fell into the darkness entirely, with no more light to see by.
The last thing he remembered from the dream was the distraught face of the human girl, her arms desperately trying to reach him, her voice frantically calling his name.
And he thought that if someone truly cared for him like she did, then at least he wasn't completely alone.
And he might even have a purpose.