Day 2 (Afternoon) - Release, Release

Speak, what is it?

What? When?

This... How could this happen?

I am coming right away. For your sake I hope that you are wrong.

"This looks like a good place!" the boy said cheerfully and stopped. He had been walking for about half an hour through the forest before finding a road to follow, and after following it for just a few minutes he had found a clearing. Almost in the shape of a circle, the trees and grass in the area had not grown, creating a very odd scene - A completely barren circle of land in the middle of a large forest.

Trying to put his best look, the boy set down his backpack by a nearby tree and took only one thing from it - The Pokeball containing his first Pokemon. Then he went to the middle of the barren patch and started to decide where he would release his Pokemon. After deciding, he held out the Pokeball, firmly pressed down the large button on the front and shouted "Pokemon, come out!". The ball in his hand suddenly opened, releasing a red light that flew forth a meter or so before hitting the ground, and slowly shaping itself as the Pokemon he had only met for such a short time.

A blinding light suddenly filled the Pokeball, and Mewtwo felt his consciousness fade away. When he came to it, he was standing outside in what seemed to be some kind of forest. The first thing he saw was the human child standing a few feet away from him with the oddly colored Pokeball outstretched in his hands, aimed at him.

(Why... Why did he let me out?) Mewtwo thought to himself.

"Just listen to me for a moment!" the child suddenly broke the silence, "Try anything and I'll beam you back into the Pokeball!".

(Idiotic humans, always trying to have me do their bidding somehow) Mewtwo thought to himself, regaining his confidence. (I could tear the Pokeball from his hand in less than a second. But first, I want to know why he set me free after what happened...)

As Mewtwo regained his confidence, the boy lost some of his. The Pokemon before him was staring intently into his eyes, and seemed to be anything but willing to accept him. 'No, I can't give u already... I got to try!' he thought to himself. Trying to recall the speech he had prepared, he took a deep breath and spoke.

"I know that you might be confused about what has happened, so let me tell you. I am a 'Pokemon Trainer'. That is someone that travels around to find Pokemon, and then to train them! My goal in life is to train them to be the best Pokemon in the world, and I have chosen you to be my first Pokemon! It's going to be great, we can find more Pokemon, beat gyms and hang out together! And even if we face lots of hardships, you can always trust me as long as I can trust you like friends do. So what do you say? Let's go on our journey together as the best of friends!" the boy said smiling, standing proudly and raising his arms to the sky at the end.

Mewtwo stood flabbergasted. Never, ever had he been as dumbstruck as right now. (Stupid... Naive... THIS is what captured me?) he thought to himself, and he felt his rage slowly building up with each thought. (After all this time... THIS... is what finally captured me? A dumb and naive human child? Will I be forced to follow HIS orders?). (No...) he thought and became a bit calmer, (No, not at all. There is no possibility. 0 chance of this child holding me captive. In less than a moment, I could crush him. Rip him apart. So many opportunities, so many chances of doing so. But if I do that, what will happen to me? What happens if a Pokemon kills his own trainer? What if he calls me back before he has fully demised? Will I be trapped in that 'Pokeball' forever? Never to be found or released again? If only I had done more... Research into the matter. Maybe I could...)

He was very deep into his own thoughts, so he didn't hear the boy happily saying "Good, now let's go! Pokemon Return!". The beam of red light once again shot out, and hit Mewtwo directly on his chest. (No! I forgot to...) Mewtwo thought before once again losing consciousness. The boy saw the red light return to the Pokeball, and then sighed with a big smile on his face. "It worked…" he whispered to himself, "It really worked! I really am meant to be a Pokemon Trainer! ". He went and put on his backpack and placed the Pokeball containing his one and only Pokemon in a special pocket of the backpack next to his waist. Then he continued following the road out of the clearing and into the forest. "I wonder why it didn't talk this time?" he thought as he further and further into the forest...

The Eevee watched from behind a tree as the boy slowly left the clearing. She did not think of following him, however, as she now had other things on her mind. 'So that's what it is all about!' she said, remembering the boy's speech. 'That's why people catch Pokemon! To train them, to raise them, to be with them, to... Beat gyms?' she suddenly recalled, and started wondering.
'Beat gyms? What does that mean? What is a 'gym', first of all? How are they going to use Pokemon to do something when we don't even know what it is?' the Eevee thought as she was getting slightly annoyed. Before pondering any further, she suddenly noticed that the boy was gone from her view. 'Crap! I let them go too far!' she said, and then sprung out of the bushes and followed the trail into the forest.

The boy walked for several hours, and the sun was disappearing by the horizon once again. "It's that late already?" the boy said to himself, having been too engulfed in thoughts about his career as a Pokemon Trainer to notice anything going on around him and that he had walked for a very, very long time without doing anything else. He looked around him, noticing that he was still in the forest. but when he looked down to the ground, he saw something very unexpected - Human footsteps.

"Huh? Footsteps... Footsteps everywhere! Where did those come from?" he thought to himself, and a nasty thought hit his mind. Luckily, when comparing the sole of his shoes to the marks on the ground, he determined that the footsteps were not his own. They were of about the same size, but the markings were all wrong. "Who made them, then?" he thought, and decided to keep on walking.

Not too long after that, he saw a person on the road. It was a boy about his age, sitting crouched down by the side of the road searching through the bushes. He wore a dirty yellow T-shirt and red shorts, but most peculiar of all was that he was holding a stick with a rounded up net at the end in his right hand, usually used for catching bugs. As the boy approached him, the boy with the net suddenly turned around, looked at him and said "Who're you?". The boy jumped a little at the sudden shock of once again hearing another human being's voice, but he recollected himself and said "I'm the great Pokemon Trainer - Edward!". The crouching boy stood up and looked at him with a surprised face, before saying "Really?". The boy with the net looked skeptic, but when Edward opened up a pocket in his backpack and brought out an oddly colored Pokeball, his face changed completely. "You really are a Pokemon Trainer! That's great! Then I challenge you to a Pokemon Battle!".

They stared at each other for a few moments. "Who are you, then?" Edward finally asked. "I'm also a great Pokemon Trainer! Or, should I say, I'm going to be." the boy answered. "My name is Max, by the way". "Max, eh?" Edward said, attempting to act mighty. "So you think that you can defeat me in a Pokemon Battle? Fine, I accept your challenge!" Edward said, beaming with confidence. That is not all too surprising, considering that he had been practicing those exact lines at home in front of a mirror several times. Edward saw how Max reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball. It looked a bit different from his, but the differences were greatly outnumbered by the similarities. "How about one on one?" Max said. "Fine with me!" Edward replied, knowing that he only had one Pokemon to fight with anyway. 'By the looks of this "Max", he probably doesn't have any more either' Edward thought as he laughed to himself and tightened the grip around his own Pokeball. "Ready when you are" Edward said, and took one step back. Max did the same, before tossing his Pokeball to the ground and shouting "Caterpie, I choose you!". Edward also threw his Pokeball, but suddenly remembered that he did not know what type of Pokemon he had caught. Panicking, he made up a name and said "Persiban, come out!".

When all the red light had settled, Edward was given a feeling that he had only dreamed of in the past - Complete dominance. His opponent's choice, a Caterpie, was not one of the most intimidating of Pokemon. It looked like a larva the size of a football, and its most redeeming feature was a red horn at the top of its head that looked somewhat squishy. Meanwhile, Edward's choice was one of the most intimidating of Pokemon. Mewtwo stood at the size of somewhat larger than a human adult, with bodily features terrifying enough to give anyone nightmares. Max reeled back at the sight of Mewtwo, a look of surprise and terror covering his face. Whatever kind of Pokemon he had expected to see, this was not it. "W-W-What is that?" Max yelped. "That's my Pokemon" Edward said, and quelled a snicker. The moment that Mewtwo heard Edward's voice, however, he quickly turned around to him and extended a hand.

(Getting ahead of ourselves, are we not?) Edward heard to the familiar voice echo in his head. As a reflex, he tried to move his hand holding the Pokeball, but noticed that some invincible force was holding it in place. He tried to speak, but once again he could not move his mouth, and the weak scream that gathered in his throat was stopped and slowly waned away. (Do not bother, your body is paralyzed. There will be no talking or moving unless I allow it) the voice again sounded in his mind, and true enough it seemed like he could not move a single muscle. (I will explain this so that you may understand. I am not yours or anyone else's Pokemon. The fact that you captured me with one of those contraptions is a complete fluke. It was supposed to be impossible, but for some reason it has now happened.) the voice in his head rambled on, as Mewtwo stared deeply into his eyes.

'Back where we started, it seems...' he thought to himself, and remember what had happened the day before. Alone with a psychotic Pokemon. That reminded Edward of something, and as he looked behind his ferocious Pokemon he noticed that Max was still there. Edward tried to signal him somehow, but could not move even the slightest. Max's face was one of fear, but suddenly it turned into one of determination. "Hah! You shouldn't let your Pokemon turn his back to his enemy! Caterpie, Tackle him!" Max said somewhat loud, and the Caterpie rushed at a surprising speed for a bug to where Mewtwo was standing. Then, the little bug suddenly jumped up like a torpedo and hit Mewtwo right in the back. "That's it, Caterpie!" Max shouted.

But Mewtwo did not flinch. Actually, it was like he did not even notice any of it. (So in order to set things right, you need to release me into the wild again) the voice in Edward's mind just kept on echoing. "Again, Caterpie, again!" Max shouted, and the bug smashed itself against Mewtwo over and over again, before finally moving back, then sprinting like crazy and jumping to deliver a super powerful Tackle attack against Mewtwo's back.
This time things were a bit different, however. Mewtwo's tail suddenly moved, smashing into the Caterpie so that it was sent flying before hitting to ground with a quiet thud. If Mewtwo had done it deliberately or just his tail acting on his own, Edward could not tell. (I have your body in complete lockdown, and you are not even PAYING ATTENTION?) the voice in his head said, becoming louder and more violent. (That does it).

As if gravity was suddenly turned off, Edward felt his feet slowly leave the ground below him. Looking down, he noticed two things: That he was now able to move his head again, and that he was levitating higher and higher! He tried shouting, but noticed that his mouth was still not usable, and neither was anything else but his head. (Enjoying the view?) the voice in his head said with glee, and a quick look in front of him showed him that Mewtwo was also floating higher and higher into the air. They went by the top of the trees, and did not stop until they were so far up into the air that they would probably look like two dots from the ground. Below him, Edward saw what seemed like an endless sea of green, but as he looked behind Mewtwo once more he saw that the forest abruply ended not too far from where they were.

(I imagine that you already know what this means) the voice in his head calmly said. (We are very high up into the air, with nothing below us but trees, rocks and ground. A fall from half this high up would kill any human, so you can probably imagine what would happen to your immature body). Edward looked down and swallowed hard, he had not been this high up into the air since he rode an airplane when he was 5. (Needless to say, the one holding us up here is me. If I want to, I can drop you to your death at any moment. Not only that, but if you call me back into the round machine of yours, this whole thing will be out of my hands and you will plummet to your death). The voice then paused, obviously giving Edward some time to think the situation over.

The voice then continued, (So here is how it is: Either you release me now, or I let you fall. If you release me then I will set you down in the forest, delete any memories you might have of me and then disappear from your life forever. You can continue your... 'Journey', find some other Pokemon and keep on living. That, or your life ends now. I now allow you to talk, but scream and I will drop you at once. Make your choice.)
Defiant as Edward was, not even he would be stupid enough to try screaming in this situation. The situation appeared to be hopeless, the choice was to either comply or to die. "Fine, you win" Edward said with a disappointed look on his face. Mewtwo did not budge, and the voice in Edward's head said (Finally. I will allow you to move your arms and hands, but remember that if you call me back you will fall and die. Now, release me). "OK..." Edward said, and held the Pokeball tightly in both hands. Then, he closed his eyes, held the Pokeball up high and shouted "Release Pokemon, Now!"

And then there was silence. When Edward opened his eyes, he saw that Mewtwo was still floating in front of him in the air. (Do it) the voice in his head said. "I... Uh... I thought that was how you did it!" Edward said, and started searching the Pokeball for some instructions, buttons or anything that could help him. (What?) the voice in his head sounded. "That's how they did it on the show, I swear!" Edward said, "Release Pokemon! Pokemon Release! It's not working!".
Apparently, Mewtwo's already strained patience ran out. The boy felt painfully strong pressure crushing his body from all sides as the voice echoed (Impudent human, you dare mock me?) ferociously in his mind. (Release me now or die!). The pressure became stronger and stronger, and Edward was in great pain. He felt as if he was being pushed hard from all sides, and the fact that it became harder the more time passed caused him to panic. He extended his arm, aimed the Pokeball at Mewtwo and shouted "Release Pokemon! Release Pokemon! I'm doing it, stop hurting me! STOP IIIIIIT!". (Do you take me for a fool?) the voice replied, (I am giving you 5 seconds to do it for real, after that I will kill you regardless. One, two...)
Edward suddenly shouted "Pokemon Return!". A red beam shot out from the Pokeball and hit Mewtwo squarely in the chest. (Impudent human, you've killed us both...) the voice trailed off as Mewtwo started to lose consciousness. He finally became engulfed in the red light and flew into the Pokeball. And then he fell. As wind passed him by and the ground approached swiftly, he kept thinking 'I screwed up, I'm sorry, I screwed up, I'm sorry, I screwed up, I'm sorry...'

Strong nausea hit him, and he started to lose consciousness. Before his mind completely fell into darkness, he could feel himself hit the ground. The ground came much earlier than he had expected, and it was unusually soft. Nevertheless, the last thing he saw before fading away was an unknown person's face, looking at him. Then darkness.

The Eevee stared in disbelief at what had just happened. First, both the boy and the menacing Pokemon had both unexpectedly risen high up into the sky. Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, it had taken her quite a while to find a branch on a high enough tree that would let her see the sky in the dense forest. When she got there, she had seen the Pokemon and the human floating motionless in the sky. The human had shouted something that she could not make out, and then the Pokemon disappeared in a blaze of red light. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the human helplessly falling from the sky like a sick Pidgey, and could not look away from the grizzly scene. But from out of nowhere, a big bird suddenly appeared. The big bird flew right below the human, catching him on its back in mid-air. The Eevee stared, and then sighed out of relief. 'What just happened?' she wondered. The bird then kept flying, and the Eevee though 'Ah! I'm going to lose them!'.

Jumping from tree branch to tree branch and occasionally looking up, she was having a very hard time catching up with the bird. It was very fast, and the branches in the forest were bunched up together very tightly, making them hard to navigate through. Making a huge leap from one branch up into the air, the Eevee was hoping to get a better glimpse of the bird. What she saw instead was something incredible. Right outside of the forest something was shining, and there were big, pointy boxes that varied in sizes. Shocked by this sight, the Eevee completely forgot what she was doing, and accidentally slipped on the next branch, fell to the ground and fainted.

In the air on the back of an unknown bird, Edward now sleeps a restless sleep. Inside a Pokeball still tightly held in his hand, Mewtwo rests and fears what might have happened on the outside. On the ground below, an Eevee named Kira is knocked out and dreams of oddly shaped boxes.

And so the second day ends, and this story
CONTINUES

Authors Comments: So, now we're getting somewhere. What's going to happen next, I wonder? No, really, I do, I haven't planned out anything special yet. Oh right, they're near a town! You can always make something out of that, right? It's going to be a pain having to write things from Kira's viewpoint, though, she's never been to a town before! 'There was a big box (House) with holes in it. I tried jumping into it, but there was some kind of hazy force field covering one of the holes (Window)'. Sheesh, I'd better come up with something smart fast, or I'll have to 'suspend' her from the story.

Do I have to mention that bird Pokemon usually don't fly around the sky helping people? Maybe it has an owner?

Oh yeah, and the first battle in this story occurs! Mewtwo vs Caterpie. I know that bug type psychic type, but come on. When was the last time you heard of a Caterpie winning a battle? Seriously, the Pokemon is one notch below a Pokemon that cannot move, cannot attack and can do nothing but harden itself. BELOW! Maybe there's a bigger meaning to the whole battle, "The world's strongest Pokemon vs the world's weakest Pokemon"?

...Naaaaah.

OK, on with the Mewtwo: Caught? Trivia!

Trivia

5. The chapter's title is taken from the song Release, release by the band Yes. It's kind of weird, but really good. That applies to 80 of Yes songs, by the way. Listen to it, and one day you will also say 'You gotta get it gotta get it gotta get it right'.

6. Max is named after Kayak's second singer, Max Werner. It's a common feud between the fans of he band (All five of them) on who is the better singer, Max Werner or Edward Reekers. Although the layup is perfect, Max will NOT be the story's 'Rival'. That concept has been too overused.

7. And then there was silence is a 14-minute song made by Blind Guardian about the events written in the Iliad (Troy and the wooden horse, you know). It's epic.

(Wait, all the trivia pieces were song tributes? How unoriginal... Oh well, I'll do better next time, I guess.)

I love getting feedback for things like this, so please post a review of the chapter if you have read it! Although I have the story pretty much planned out already, I still take suggestions, and any sort criticism would be helpful.

So, until the next time, Τα λέμε!