Next chapter is here, folks! Apologies for the delay. Sometimes life can be a female dog. In any case, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon! If I did, pokemon on the Switch would be announced already, and it would be open world!
~DragonClawFromQ: Wow, great but sweet. The plot line is building up for Ash to finally get a girl. (...) My favorite chapter of this book, yet.
Thank you. I appreciate the kind words! :)
~Guest: This is an awesome fanfic, but I've been waiting forever for the chapter. Please, post the next one.
You don't have to wait any longer. ;)
''Meloetta'' Speech
'Meloetta' Thoughts
The eight gym in a region is seen by many trainers as their last obstacle—a final test, if you will—to see if you're prepared and have what it takes to take on the Indigo Plateau, where only the best of the best will face off and get a shot at challenging the elite four, and possibly, the champion.
Logically, one would expect a challenger of the Viridian city gym to be nervous, eager, maybe even a bit confident in their skills by now. However, none of these feelings were even remotely present in Ash Ketchum's body at the moment.
When the raven haired trainer had stepped foot inside the gym, his happy attitude had shattered like a porcelain vase. A sense of déjà vu hit him like a ton of bricks; a sense of déjà vu that was filled with a lot of mixed feelings. The gym was open, but covered in darkness, much like how Brock's gym in Pewter city had been—his first gym battle at the start of his adventure with Meloetta and Pikachu. Those feelings brought him a sense of nostalgia that had him longing for this battle more than anything.
Unfortunately, it was greatly overshadowed by the sinister silhouette sitting across the room. Ash didn't need to see his features to know who it was. A feeling of loathing overwhelmed him, a dark scowl crossing his face as the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni, stood up and stepped into the dimness of what little light filtered inside. His grin was wide and his posture confident as he eyed the boy who had single-handedly destroyed his organization.
The only reason why neither Meloetta nor Pikachu had attacked yet was a simple gesture of Ash's hand. They were loyal to him through and through, and so, obeyed him without question. The raven haired trainer wanted to hear what Giovanni had to say first.
The Team Rocket leader bowed in what could be considered a mock gesture, and then spread his arms wide while smiling devilishly. ''Ash Ketchum, Pikachu and Meloetta, welcome to the Viridian city gym. I've been waiting for your arrival ever since I had the pleasure of experiencing with my own eyes what kind of a massive threat you are. You took down Team Rocket all by yourself, and for that, I have massive respect. I've never met anybody with as much willpower and drive as you have,'' Giovanni complimented genuinely. ''However, if you think you can get away with it, you're sadly mistaken.'' He now frowned. ''Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me?''
Ash snorted, certainly not impressed with Giovanni's little dialogue. ''Is this where you've been hiding all this time?'' Ash asked instead of answering him. ''I totally thought you fled like the little Run Away Rattata you are. You saved me a lot of trouble, actually. I was going to hunt you down after the League was done. That little robot on Cinnabar Island was a good distraction, I have to say, but whatever you did in the pokemon mansion won't come to fruition. I'm going to stop you right here and right now, Giovanni!''
Giovanni tsk'ed nonchalantly. ''Always jumping to violence, I see. I suppose it can't be helped. After all, I used to be a lot like you when I was your age. Full of energy, ready to conquer the world, but then I quickly realized life isn't fair. Fate is constantly interfering, putting up roadblocks to your hopes and dreams that seem impossible to overcome. It's why I created Team Rocket in the first place; I want to conquer the world and get rid of these roadblocks that thwart me constantly, but that's only possible if I take out the biggest one of them all, and that one is standing right in front of me.''
Ash had heard enough. Whatever Giovanni's plan was to reach this goal wasn't important to him; the only thing that mattered was stopping him now. ''Meloetta, bind Giovanni with your Psychic and Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!'' Ash commanded with a growl.
Both pokemon complied all too eagerly; they knew what this human being was capable of, Meloetta especially. The small legendary's eyes glowed and she immobilized the Rocket boss quite effectively. Pikachu followed suit and released a potent bolt of electricity that surely would knock Giovanni out.
The only problem was, it absolutely didn't, and that was because Pikachu's Thunderbolt never hit its target in the first place. Pikachu's aim was deadly accurate, but as soon as it was about to hit Giovanni straight across the chest, it was reflected by a powerful wave of psychic energy.
Ash gasped, as did Meloetta when she found her psychic grip faltering on Giovanni until he broke himself free like he was shredding away old, dried up ropes around him. Pikachu just watched owlishly, unable to comprehend what had happened while Giovanni just grinned widely.
''Ash, you don't really think I was unprepared for this encounter, do you?'' Giovanni scolded him, shaking his head. ''You see, ever since I captured your Meloetta, my dream was finally able to be a reality. Thanks to you, Project M has been fully realized, and for that, I am very grateful,'' Giovanni said with his everlasting grin on his face. ''So,'' he continued, ''what better way to celebrate than to test its capabilities on the Hero kid of Kanto himself?''
''What are you talking about?'' Ash demanded. The raven haired trainer was losing his patience very quickly with the Team Rocket boss.
Giovanni snapped his finger, not saying anything and instead showing Ash what he meant. An automatic door opened up in the back of the gym, revealing a very intimidating presence to the young trainer and his pokemon. Immediately, an ominous aura gripped Meloetta from every side; it was almost overwhelming. Ash too could feel how strong this individual was. Looking at Pikachu, he saw that he was shivering. He didn't have to be a pokemon professor to know Giovanni had somehow managed to catch a legendary, but which legendary, he could only guess.
One thing was for sure: it was stronger than Meloetta, and that scared him. Here was a force greater than his own legendary in the hands of probably the scariest man in all of Kanto. Ash knew things were going to escalate very quickly from here on out.
The legendary floated towards Giovanni obediently, as if it was completely controlled like a puppet. Ash could now make out it was wearing an armor of some sorts, with a helmet that covered its entire face. Its most distinctive feature was its long purple tail. The raven haired trainer had never seen this legendary before, and had no idea who it was. Meloetta, however, seemed to know all too well and gritted her teeth.
''Allow me to introduce to you Mewtwo!'' Giovanni said grandly, ''Team Rocket's genetically altered version of Mew! He was a bit… disobedient at first, completely going rogue and escaping our top secret facility, but thanks to you, Ash, I was able to regain control of him again.''
Ash perked a brow. Seeing he was not in control of the situation anymore, he tried to stall. ''Oh? How did I help you regain control of him? Last time I checked, I destroyed Team Rocket, not help it out,'' he challenged the Team Rocket boss. Ash knew the only way he was going to win this battle was if he somehow could release his other pokemon without Mewtwo or Giovanni noticing, but that was going to be a bit tricky.
Luckily, Giovanni was in a good mood. He chuckled in amusement and decided to answer Ash's question. ''Well, as you can imagine, after Mewtwo had escaped, Project M was in shambles. We successfully created life, but how would it benefit us if we couldn't even control it? That's when my faithful doctor Drampa came up with a genius plan! We just had to make an armor that would grand us complete ownership over Mewtwo. That in itself posed a few problems, however. The armor had to be strong enough to contain Mewtwo and we had to find him as well.'' Giovanni paused for a bit as he began to pace back and forth.
''Fortunately for us, that first criterion could be met easily if we had the original source of Mewtwo's powers, Mew. You might ask how this would make things any easier, seeing as we now had to track down a Mew and Mewtwo. Well, Ash, that is where your lovely Meloetta came into play. You see, legendaries have this nifty ability to be able to track other legendaries as long as they've met them before. We originally intended to use Meloetta only for the tracking of Mew, but to our complete surprise, she had met Mewtwo before as well. Interestingly enough, she has even met multiple Mewtwo in her past.''
Meloetta's eyes began to widen; if the look on Giovanni's face told her anything, it meant he figured out exactly why she had met multiple Mewtwo.
''How can that be?'' Ash asked. ''You're suggesting you only created one Mewtwo. How can my Meloetta have met multiple?''
Giovanni rubbed his chin. ''Believe me, I was as baffled as you are, but it's true. We were so intrigued that we tried to track these other Mewtwo, but we couldn't find any of them; as if they didn't exist yet. That led me to just one conclusion: your Meloetta is from the future,'' Giovanni stated simply.
Ash and Pikachu both gasped as they looked at Meloetta. Ash gave her a questioning glance, as if asking if the Team Rocket boss was telling the truth. The petite legendary couldn't lie to Ash, nor to Pikachu for that matter. So, she nodded her head slowly, confirming what Giovanni had deduced to be true.
''Melo mel mel,'' she explained, ''Meloetta mel!''
''You mean to tell me you really went back in time—for me?'' Ash whispered. He was extremely flattered and he really wanted to hear more, but right now, there were more pressing matters to take care of.
Meloetta nodded her head lovingly at Ash's question while Giovanni continued his monologue.
''Finally, the puzzle started to make sense. I had asked myself constantly why a Meloetta would join a trainer who just started his journey. It would only make sense if she's from the future, wouldn't it? Maybe she knows you for a very long time now, Ash. Who is to say this is the first time she's come back into the past? You know how long legendaries live. I can imagine it must be hard for her to part ways with you over and over again, constantly returning to that moment she met you...''
Ash shook his head. ''No, this must definitely be her first time; otherwise she knew this was going to happen and stopped you.''
Giovanni nodded his head. ''Very clever, Ash. I suspected that too. With that worry taken care of and with the information we got from Meloetta, we were able to successfully capture a Mew and create a suit that would function properly! That only left Mewtwo, and while incredibly strong, he's still very young. It was easy to trick him and so, here we are!'' The Team Rocket boss had turned his back to the raven haired trainer as he ended his explanation. Ash saw it as his golden opportunity to reach for the pokeballs on his belt for a surprise attack.
However, it seemed Mewtwo had anticipated this. With a flick of his wrist, all of Ash's pokemon—still contained in their balls—floated away from him, where they dropped harmlessly in front of Giovanni.
''Hey, give them back!'' Ash said angrily. He desperately wanted to command Pikachu or Meloetta to attack, but he knew it was foolish to do so. Both pokemon knew this too; defeated, they could only watch and hope Giovanni wasn't going to do anything to them.
''Always so protective,'' Giovanni taunted, ''Don't worry, this is just a precaution. Together with your other pokemon, especially your ancient Dragonite, you will cause me more trouble than necessary. So, I'll keep them safe for a while until our battle is over.''
''Battle?'' Ash asked unsurely.
Giovanni smiled. ''You haven't realized yet, right? Well, allow me to enlighten you: I am the last gym leader. If you want the Earth badge, you'll have to face me and defeat me.'' Giovanni now began to smirk. ''I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. If you want to save everybody from Project M, I request a one-on-one battle, your Meloetta against my Mewtwo.''
Ash was sure the Team Rocket boss was joking, but from the look on his face, he was completely serious. He eyed Meloetta and Pikachu, looking for help. ''Guys, what can I do?''
Pikachu let a growl escape his throat; he knew there wasn't anything they could do to prevent this. Refuse and more than half of their family would pay the price. ''Ash, there's no other options left,'' Pikachu finally said.
Meloetta felt an incredible rage well up inside of her, but couldn't think of anything else as well. ''I'm sorry, Ash. Pikachu is right. We have to battle him and overcome extreme odds. We're in the disadvantage here, since Mewtwo is much stronger than I am.'' She paused and then gave Ash a look that was filled with love and hope. ''But,'' she whispered lovingly, ''maybe together—you and me—we can overcome this situation. Let's battle Giovanni, and defeat him once and for all!''
So there you have it, guys! I hope you don't mind the cliffhanger. :P Anyway, did you guys love it, like it, hate it? Reviews are always welcomed! :D Next (extra long) chapter the climax of this story, Meloetta vs Mewtwo! Until then. ^^
~Syrup-Waffle