POKÉ WORLD WAR
Wednesday
The following has been transcribed by the Pokémon Channel Radio Station crew in order to archive the World War Week Special.
VENETIA: Good morning, everybody! Welcome to another episode of our special show World War Week! It's World War Wednesday! Today we'll listen to Leopold Darrell, our first and only recurrent guest. Welcome, Leopold!
LEOPOLD: Hi, Venetia.
VENETIA: How's your stay here in Goldenrod?
LEOPOLD: Nice.
VENETIA: Great! The first topic I would like to hear about is the terrible pokémon file destruction by Team Smoke. You were in the organization during this time, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, Venetia, I was part of it.
VENETIA: What exactly was this act?
LEOPOLD: Hm... Team Smoke wanted to have all the pokémon knowledge for itself. That way no one would ever be able to catch up with us, to stand up against our team.
VENETIA: And how was this done, exactly?
LEOPOLD: We traveled in great numbers, armed with strong monsters, wrecking or stealing any pokémon information we could find. Venetia, you know I'm not proud of this, right?
VENETIA: Don't worry, Leopold.
LEOPOLD: We invaded people's houses and broke all the computers and burned all the books. Even if they weren't pokémon books, you know, we didn't always had the time to check. We completely destroyed research labs. I already paid for all of this. In a lot of ways.
VENETIA: I know, Leopold. Now, a lot of information at the time was online, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. But Team Smoke found a way to get rid of it too. They just had to smash some computers abroad.
VENETIA: All the main servers were in Unova. Did you go there to carry out this job?
LEOPOLD: Not me. I know one of the guys that was part of it, but I wasn't. I never left Kanto during my time as a criminal.
VENETIA: Was this whole process just to get rid of information? Seems a little too much for me.
LEOPOLD: And you read in my book that it wasn't, right? (Laughs). With this job they were also making people stop hiding their pokémon from us on computers. That was happening. And some people also were hiding monsters online or even sending them to other people at the time. Few people knew that, but we did.
VENETIA: Ok. Leopold, Mew is my favorite pokémon ever, so another moment of your life I really, really, want to talk about is his capture and the creation of Mewtwo! What was your role in the whole thing? Have you actually seen Mew?
LEOPOLD: Sure, I saw Mew and Mewtwo several times. Hm... It all started in one of these violent trips we used to do. I was there the first time Team Smoke stepped on Cinnabar Island. A real-life paradise at the time. Beautiful beaches and a hot sun.
VENETIA: That was before the volcano eruption?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. We arrived there by sea and completely thrashed the...
VENETIA: Did you use your poliwrath to get there?
LEOPOLD: (Laughs) Yeah! Do you remember him from Monday?
VENETIA: (Laughs) Yes.
LEOPOLD: I used him to swim all the way there. So, hm... We completely thrashed the inside of their lab. The city offered little resistance and we quickly conquered it. It was easy because Blaine was somewhere else at the time. We left a few members there to rule the city, like we always did, and returned to Saffron with some new pokémon and some pokémon data we gathered.
VENETIA: What kind of data?
LEOPOLD: Hm... Researches made in the lab, mostly. But analyzing it, later, someone found an unusual diary of a doctor. The guy was obsessed with this legend about a mythical creature that lived in the forests of South America. According to the story, it could get invisible at will and would only appear to people who were pure in heart and really wanted to see it. The scientist had years of notes on that diary! He was sure the creature was real, and it was a pokémon! Hm... At that point people were already calling them pokémon, even though they were wild. If it could go into a pokéball it was a pokémon.
VENETIA: I see. Who was this scientist?
LEOPOLD: I won't tell, sorry. He haven't gone public with this story and I respect that.
VENETIA: Ok. No problem.
LEOPOLD: So, hm... You could see he was a kindhearted person by reading his diary. His love for pokémon was so strong! And he wanted to see Mew more than anyone else. If there was someone in the world that could make the little guy appear, was this doctor. A group of people inside the organization became interested in going back to Cinnabar to check on him. Maybe the scientist was still alive. We could try to join forces with him. Maybe take him to South America to capture the monster with us. We thought it would be easy to convince him. It was an opportunity to make all his years of work worthy! And after all he could join our team of scientists. We would let him study Mew! The Big Boss approved an expedition back to Cinnabar, but only because we hadn't received any reports from the team left in the island. Someone should go back there to check it out, anyway.
VENETIA: And you were in the group that went back there?
LEOPOLD: Yeah.
VENETIA: How big was it?
LEOPOLD: Hm... Like, twenty people, I guess. Between twenty and thirty.
VENETIA: And you went by sea again?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. We arrived at night on the island.
VENETIA: What did you find there?
LEOPOLD: We found the house we used as headquarters in ruins and the lab we had destroyed almost new. Some citizens laughed when they saw us, others cursed. It became clear to us that the members we had left there were already dead.
VENETIA: Did you know any of these members?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Some of them.
VENETIA: I'm so sorry. What did you do then?
LEOPOLD: We ran. Thirty people would never be enough to fight whatever happened to them. When we were almost reaching the shore we heard a gallop beside us. It was Blaine, riding his rapidash with his arcanine beside him. He had returned. Following him were hundreds of Cinnabar citizens.
VENETIA: Wow!
LEOPOLD: Blaine fire attacked us all. Most of us were quick enough to release our pokémon. So they took the hit in our place. But a couple of friends didn't make it.
VENETIA: I'm so sorry about them. Did you use your poliwrath again?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. And all my friends had Water-type pokémon with them too. Hm... You know what I never understood about Cinnabar Island? The easier way to get there is surfing. So most people that visit the island have a strong water pokémon, right? Why was the gym a Fire-type? It never made sense to me.
VENETIA: I could be wrong, but I think fire is very symbolic for them due to the volcano.
LEOPOLD: Maybe.
VENETIA: There's also some story about a Fire-type pokémon saving Blaine's life. Anyway, what happened then?
LEOPOLD: Hm... It wasn't hard to defeat the arcanine and the rapidash with all those Water-type pokémon. Then Blaine's ponyta and growlithe catched up and joined the battle, only to be defeated too. He was not a hard enemy, but by the time the four fire pokémon had fainted, his people were already on us, using monsters of every kind. I remember a pikachu and a vileplume attacking my poliwrath at the same time. Horrible.
VENETIA: Do you have any idea how many people were in this battle?
LEOPOLD: Hm... Less than thirty on our side... hundreds on theirs. But most of them had only one pokémon, while every member of Team Smoke had at least twelve.
VENETIA: Sound like and epic battle to me.
LEOPOLD: It was. But I didn't see the end of it. In the middle of the confusion I made eye contact with an enemy drowzee that put me to sleep. I woke up on the beach when the sun was already setting. My friends and I were tied to logs on the sand. Laid down. Blaine was interrogating us, saying that the tide would rise soon and we would all die, unless we answered him.
VENETIA: The Hotheaded Quiz Master has never been a better nickname. What was he asking about?
LEOPOLD: Things about our organization.
VENETIA: Did you give him any answers?
LEOPOLD: No. Not at all. We were Team Smoke. You can't torture Team Smoke.
VENETIA: And what happened?
LEOPOLD: They left and we stood on the shore, with the waves breaking on our feet. I'm not sure how long we were there. A few hours maybe. In the middle of the night, while we struggled to free ourselves, we saw the most scary thing of our lives. First, there was what seemed like a pokémon cry. One of my friends started to scream. Then I saw it. Walking along the shore, toward us, was a monster so creepy I don't even know how to start describing it! It was... Hm... It was not from this world. Hm... It had all these... Moving... Dots...
VENETIA: Do you mind if read the paragraph in which you describe it in your book? I remember it stunned me!
LEOPOLD: Not at all.
VENETIA: Let me see... One minute... Here we go! "Approaching our tied selves, sliding trough the wet sand like a wheeled column, a ten feet fragmented monster appeared. It had no face or other recognizable body part. It was just a big block of static." Wow!
LEOPOLD: I'm sure a lot of listeners will doubt what I'm saying, Venetia, and I cannot prove it, but it happened.
VENETIA: But you're not the only one that saw it, right?
LEOPOLD: No, I'm not, but everyone else had serious problems after a while. I suffered from a strong headache, hallucinated a little bit. Got sick. But that was nothing. Most of the other guys had severe amnesia. Some of them went completely crazy.
VENETIA: That's tough.
LEOPOLD: The monster walked over a friend of mine, that instantly died, smashed in the sand. Everyone was shouting for their lives. The monster became cloaked in a harsh light and a few seconds later shot a ray of energy into another guy. It ripped one of his arms out. I still remember his screams. But it also destroyed the log he was attached to. As soon as he found himself free he ran to the pile of backpacks near us, bleeding, got the first filled pokéball he found and threw it in the ground. A scyther came out of it. My scyther!
VENETIA: Leif!
LEOPOLD: Yeah! I shouted "Leif, slash the weird monster", and he did it. I guess it was a critical hit because the creature was clearly shaken up. The guy that had freed himself found an empty pokéball and captured the monster.
VENETIA: He captured a new specie! I wonder how much money he could get with that pokémon.
LEOPOLD: Me too. But he didn't get anything. You could see the madness in his eyes while he continued to search our baggage, blood spilling from where his right arm should be. We were shouting for him to save us, but he seemed too impressed with the content of the bags to listen. He found one of his pokéball, released his noctowl and flew carrying as much bags as he could. I wish I had ordered Leif to follow him, or to attack him, but I asked the scyther to freed us, and by the time he finished the guy was far away.
VENETIA: What happened to him?
LEOPOLD: He lost his mind. Got completely crazy. At least that's what I've been told. And after some months he released the monster in the same shore we found him. I cannot say if that's true or not.
VENETIA: Weird. Hey, do you think Blaine and the folks from the city knew about the monster? Maybe they weren't really trying to drown you guys. Maybe they left you there to see what would happen!
LEOPOLD: They were trying to get us killed. I don't care about how they planned to do this.
VENETIA: What about the bags? The guy didn't take all of them with him, right?
LEOPOLD: He left only one behind. Inside, we found the essential items a Team Smoke member would carry around, like food and pokéballs but, for some reason, there were a lot of revives. A lot of them!
VENETIA: How many?
LEOPOLD: More than a hundred! It barely fit the backpack. With that many revives it wasn't hard to took the city back. Even though we were only fifteen people now.
VENETIA: What happened to Blaine after that?
LEOPOLD: We took him to The Big Boss. I don't know what else happened to him. But he's well today, as you know.
VENETIA: Ok. Let's focus here. Mew. Did you find the doctor?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, in the reconstructing lab. We tried to convince him to join us. The guy was shy, but very stubborn. We offered a lot to him, but he would not help Team Smoke. Our only option was to kidnap him. Another group of Team Smoke members took him to some far away island in Guyana to try to capture mew.
VENETIA: What do you know about the expedition?
LEOPOLD: I know they wandered about a week through a tropical jungle. And I know the legendary pokémon appeared at some point.
VENETIA: Maybe the doctor didn't want to encounter mew at first, because he would be helping Team Smoke, but after a week in the jungle he fell that finding the pokémon was his only hope, so mew appeared!
LEOPOLD: Maybe.
VENETIA: Everyone saw Mew?
LEOPOLD: Yes. I saw him too, at some point.
VENETIA: So you don't need to be pure at heart to see him. Maybe you need to be kind just to make him appear, but after that everyone can see him!
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Or maybe this whole thing is just bullshit. Can I say bullshit?
VENETIA: No.
LEOPOLD: Sorry.
VENETIA: So, how did they capture Mew? With a regular pokéball?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. That's the only thing we got until the end of the war. No greatball or anything. I imagine they attacked with several pokémon at the same time, some of them putting him to sleep. That's what we did to capture strong pokémon.
VENETIA: Poor thing.
LEOPOLD: They took him to Cinnabar Island. Team Smoke made all kinds of experiments with him in an old mansion. I think it was the doctor's house. He stood there the whole time, as a captive.
VENETIA: Can you tell us what was the final goal of the experiments? Was creating Mewtwo the plan all along?
LEOPOLD: The plan, at first, was to study him. Team Smoke had great scientists. They wanted to know what made him so special. And they found out about the DNA thing, you know? He got every pokémon DNA inside him, or something like that. And he could learn any move. Then The Big Boss wanted to create a new pokémon. A pokémon only Team Smoke had! It wouldn't be the first man-made pokémon, you know? People were already making voltorbs and magnemites.
VENETIA: What about porygon?
LEOPOLD: Not yet, I think. Anyway, this was an opportunity to create the perfect pokémon! They took out his DNA... Or hers, I don't know... I'm saying "him" until now, but they impregnated mew, so...
VENETIA: Mew was genderless. I mean, mews are genderless. I'm sure there are others. Call it anyway you want.
LEOPOLD: Well, they took the creature's DNA and tinkered with it to make it stronger. I'm sorry, I wished I could explain this in a better way, but I'm no scientist.
VENETIA: Don't worry.
LEOPOLD: They impregnated mew with his own DNA. A clone. After some time, an egg appeared. In my book there are testimonies about this subject from scientists that used to work for Team Smoke. People that want to know more about this should read it. So, Mew laid an egg. After some days, it hatched.
VENETIA: Were you there to see it hatching?
LEOPOLD: No, I wasn't. But I saw both the egg and the baby. And I was there when it all went wrong.
VENETIA: What went wrong? I mean, I'm sure everybody knows what Mewtwo did, but it would be great to hear your point of view.
LEOPOLD: Well, I'm not sure I can give anyone a new perspective. Hm... Some months after the egg hatched, maybe half a year, the whole island woke up to these explosions and screams. A couple of friends and I ran to the mansion to see what was going on. We found the building wrecked in several parts. The sadder view was inside. Before, the place had been decorated with statues of what Mewtwo was supposed to look like. The bodies of many of our friends were scattered around that creepy palace, filled with images of the pokémon who had killed them all. We found the doctor, agonizing. We also found mew's pokéball. During the attack nobody was able to reach that ball to make Mew fight for the humans. We ran to Saffron City to deliver both man and pokémon to The Big Boss, and tell him what had happened!
VENETIA: How that went?
LEOPOLD: Not good. We went to Fuchsia by sea, took one of our trucks and headed to Saffron. A friend of mine drove. Five or six people were in the back with the doctor and I stood in the passenger seat, with the precious pokéball. We went through Route 15, then 14, 13... We could have gone through Lavender Town, but we chose to go through Vermilion. Both cities were a mess at the time, but we though we still ruled Vermilion, so we went that way. When we were passing near the harbor something exploded underneath us and sent the truck to the air!
VENETIA: Wait! In front of the harbor? After passing through Diglett's Cave?
LEOPOLD: Exactly! We rolled...
VENETIA: Leopold! Have you listened to yesterday's episode?
LEOPOLD: What? Of the show? No, Venetia. I'm sorry.
VENETIA: We might have... Leopold, I think... I mean... I think I know what caused this explosion!
LEOPOLD: What?
VENETIA: I... I'll give you a copy of yesterday's episode, in tape, or in text, if our crew transcript it quickly enough, and you draw your own conclusions, ok? Let's not make a big deal out of this!
LEOPOLD: Ok.
VENETIA: Please, go on!
LEOPOLD: Hm... The explosion threw the truck off the road and made it roll a couple of times through the wooden port, until it landed on a sandbank. My face was all sticky with blood and my head ached. I thought I had Mew's pokéball pressed agains my chest, but couldn't find it anymore. The driver, my friend, was all crooked in his sit, dead. I tried to leave, but the door wouldn't open. After the dust settled outside, I got out through the broken window. There were pieces of vehicle scattered all around. I found mew's pokéball in the sand, open and empty. I went to the back of the truck to check the crew. Everybody was either dead or hurt. The doctor wasn't there. I checked the opposite side of the truck, the driver's side. There, on the ground, I saw mew, dead. Not fainted like your generation sees pokémon all the time. Dead. At his side was the scientist on his knees. Lots of blood in the sand, from man and pokémon alike. The doctor was trembling, playing his pokéflute, while tears ran down his face. But the pokémon would not wake up. At that point I decided to leave the crime life forever.
VENETIA: I... I'm so sorry. Remembering this must be terrifying. What did you do?
LEOPOLD: I ran. I didn't want to face the boss after that, so I ran hoping I would never have to see another Team Smoke member in my life.
VENETIA: What happened to the people that stood there?
LEOPOLD: I heard that the doctor kept the survivors alive until help arrived.
VENETIA: Who came to help?
LEOPOLD: They were rescued by Lt. Surge and the people who ruled Vermilion at the time. The survivors were arrested, except for the doctor, of course.
VENETIA: You really should listen to yesterday's episode. Is the doctor well?
LEOPOLD: Yes. He doesn't answer by doctor anymore. He lives a calm life in Lavender Town, taking care of abandoned pokémon.
VENETIA: What about you? Where did you go?
LEOPOLD: I lived in the wild for a couple of days. There, I realize the first step to truly change my life would be to hand myself to the police. When I did, I promised to tell them everything I could to help them destroy Team Smoke. And I really did. That's how I got my sentence reduced, although I had to stay in prison for more than I would like to. I came out of prison after the war had ended. On my first day as a free man I got my book proposal.
VENETIA: I have to say that the chapter about this period you lived in the wild is great. What about mew's body?
LEOPOLD: I think the doctor made something with it. But I don't know what. Nobody knows. Maybe he kept it for himself. Maybe he made a funeral, burying or drowning it. I don't know.
VENETIA: It's so sad we don't even have a body.
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Oh! But the truck stood there for a long time! Do you know this story? Maybe it's still there.
VENETIA: What? How?
LEOPOLD: Team Smoke never came back for it. After the war authorities found out there was a chance some of mew's DNA might be in there. Mew's fur is so fine and thin it can only be seen under a microscope. They completely isolated and protected that small sandbank! I haven't been in Vermilion for a long time, but last time I was there, you could see the truck if you looked east!
VENETIA: Wow, that's awesome! If you are listening to this show in Vermilion right now, or maybe you're going there any time soon, look for this truck! It might be your last chance to see it. Well, It has been an honor talking to you again, Leopold!
LEOPOLD: The honor is mine, Venetia!
VENETIA: Hope you have a wonderful return to Kanto!
LEOPOLD: Thanks!
VENETIA: That was Leopold Darrell, my friends! Thank you for listening to another episode of World War Week! Tomorrow we'll be back with a very special guest! I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I think some of you have already guessed it! Goodbye!