We made it to Oldale town. Mewtwo had obviously come through here. No one was hurt, but there was damage. The garden on the bottom left corner of the town was completely destroyed. We had no time to stay, so we began our trek for Littleroot town. Route 101 was surprisingly intact. Mewtwo probably flew high enough above it to leave it undamaged.

We looked around at all the low levelled Pokemon that roamed this area. Well, this was an area that a lot of new trainers began. They would come through here and level up their first Pokemon, or catch some new ones. My train of thought flew off the tracks when I heard a scream. It was of a man bearing a deep voice. I had heard it before. A long time ago. Dad and I began to jog, and then run. We emerged from the tall grass to see a large man in a white lab coat and shorts being chased around in a circle by a Poocheyena.

The man stopped running and the Poocheyena stopped in front of him and growled. He saw us and yelled,"Help Me!" I grabbed a Pokeball from my bag and threw it down. Dusclops appeared and began to create a shadow ball pre-emptively. I ordered the attack and the darkness trailed towards the dog. Before the ball hit, the Poocheyena looked at me. It's eyes were purely lavender, and had no pupils. The dog shot to the side and avoided the attack. It darted at the ghost but flew straight through it.

"Dusclops," I called,"Pursuit!" The ghost disappeared, but Poocheyena seemed to realise what was happening and dashed to the side. Dusclops reappeared where the dog had been standing, and seemed confused.

Dusclops collapsed onto the ground in confusion. I hesitated in calling out an attack as I was afraid it would just hurt itself in the process. Poocheyena emerged from the tall grass again and its fangs were red with fire. The flames caught onto Dusclops and he was set ablaze. I grabbed my third Pokeball from my bag and released my final Pokemon. Celebi began to shine a pale light and the fire was gone almost instantly. Dusclops stood and rose its hand. Celebi flew in line with the ghosts hand and was sent flying towards Poocheyena. It hit straight on and the dog collapsed, its eyes returning to normal. I called my two Pokemon back.

The man approached us with a smile on his face. "Thank you so much! I'm professor Birch!"

"I'm Takashi Sugimori, and this is my father. I've heard about you… You're the guy that studies Pokemon's habitats right?"

"Indeed I am! How nice it is to meet you!" A strong wind blew through the route, and a dark figure exited Littleroot town, accompanied by a Donphan and my Kabutops. They had lavender eyes matching the Poocheyena's. Mewtwo raised a hand and the collapsed fog was lifted into the air. He threw his hand to the side and the Poocheyena was thrown into the trees that made up the boundaries of the route.

"These puppets are too weak." Mewtwo had a surprisingly deep voice,"I need a stronger host for my power." When I saw the state Kabutops was in, I started to become angry.

"What the hell are you doing to my Pokemon?!"

"Your Kabutops is alright. No harm has come to him."

"Then give him the hell back!"

"I will give him back for a price."

"What do you want?!"

"I need a stronger host. Bring me this and I will give you back your Pokemon."

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"A Pokemon cannot hold the amount of power that I hold. I need a human's body."

Silence overcame us. Mewtwo was asking me to give him a human body to possess. But I needed to. I needed Kabutops back. "Ok."

"Takashi, no!" Dad yelled.

"Dad. I have to. We don't know what that thing is gonna do to Kabutops!"

"I know… but-"

"There is no other way!"

"We can kill Mewtwo-"

"If you try to kill me, I will destroy everything." Mewtwo said such destructive things in such a calm voice.

"Dad… I need to…"

He fell silent.

"Go. Find me a suitable host." Mewtwo raised his hand and all three of us, Dad, Professor Birch and I, were enveloped in a pale purple light. It clouded my vision, and when I emerged from it, I was separated from the group. I was in Mauville City.

I ran to Route 110 and looked over the lake to see the destroyed Slateport City. "Takashi?" I turned to see a 16 year old boy with black hair wearing the brightest blue shirt you've ever seen.

"Oh my God, Yuudai?" Yuudai Sugimori, my cousin and brother of two. We were really close when we were younger. His two siblings, Hamada and Kaori, who both moved away to the Sinnoh region a couple of years ago. "What're you doing here?"

"I came to see ya! I heard about all the stuff that happened in Slateport… you okay?"

We settled into the Pokemon centre, and we released our Pokemon – our Pokemon that weren't kidnapped. Yuudai's Pokemon were a lot stronger than they were the last time I had seen them. I remembered how when we were younger, Yuudai didn't like battling, he wanted to get a job at the daycare on Route 117 and become a Pokemon Breeder. He had three Pokemon – Gabite, Swampert and Azumarill.

"Where's Kabutops?" he asked bearing a confused face.

"Oh, uh…. It's a long story…"

"Oh… sorry… may he rest in peac-"

"He didn't die!"

"Oh… then what?"

"I don't want to talk about it…"

We set out to Rustboro city. I had one goal in mind. Saving Kabutops. And how was I going to do this? Get Mewtwo a new body. That's where Yuudai would come in. "So why do you want to go to Littleroot town so bad?"

"Oh, uh… errands… yeah, errands."

"cant it wait until we can go the short way?"

"You want to wait until they've rebuilt Slateport?"

"Exactly." he said with a smile.

"It can't wait."

"Alright then…"

We were almost to Verdenturf when we passed by the daycare centre. "Oh," Yuudai stopped walking and turned to grab the door,"I've just gotta drop in for a bit"

"Wait… Yuudai, did you get the job here?"

"Yeah!" he said with a big smile,"about a month ago!" I needed to stop being happy for him if I was going to give him up to Mewtwo.

"Okay then, I'm gonna go on ahead to Verdenturf, meet me at the Pokemon Centre there in an hour!"

"Sure thing!"

The Verdenturf Pokemon Centre was surprisingly cosy. It was definitely the cosiest Centre I had ever been to, and not just in Hoenn. The Nurse healed my Pokemon, and I still had some time to kill before Yuudai got there, so I went to the Contest site nextdoor.

The Skill Competition finals, from last year, were playing on the TV.

It was between Ushio Tanaka – the guy who had beaten me in my first (and last) contest of the tournament – and Ruby Flare, a guy from Littleroot town who had become the Hoenn League Champion earlier that year.

Ruby ultimately won, with his mighty Blaziken beside him. I had heard that he was somehow related to Professor Birch…

I checked the time, and it had almost been an hour, so I headed back to the Pokemon Centre. Yuudai wasn't waiting for me there… Ikusaba was.

"Well, well, well. Look who's here." He snickered.

"What the hell are you doing here, asshole?"

"Thought you might want this." He threw me a Hunter Badge, from that PHI group he was in.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Thought you might be good at it. Think about it." He turned to walk away; but then I had a much better idea. One that didn't involve giving Yuudai up to Mewtwo.

"Wait…"

"Hm?"

"I'll join you. On one condition."

"Yeah?"

"You come with me to Littleroot town for business. It'll be worth your while."

"How so?"

"There's a rare Pokemon there."

Yuudai entered the Centre as Ikusaba and I were discussing details. "Hey! Who's your friend?" It pained me to have to pretend Ikusaba was my friend, but I needed to.

"This is Hikaru Ikusaba. He's gonna help me with the erands, so you don't have to come anymore."

Yuudai shook Ikusaba's hand,"You said it couldn't wait, so I'm coming. I'm Yuudai Sugimori, by the way."

"Are you two brothers or something?" Ikusaba spoke up.

"Cousins."

And so the three of us, Takashi, Hikaru and Yuudai, were on our way to Littleroot town just so one of us could be offered to a power hungry beast. It was great.

Next, we needed to make our way through Rusturf Tunnel, which connected Verdenturf town and Rustboro city. The tunnel was fogged dirty. "Tsk," Ikusaba made a smug face, "It's horrible in here."

"Oh, woe is you." Yuudai laughed at my remark.

"Shut u-" Ikusaba suddenly remembered our agreement and stopped what he was saying. I had also forgotten. Just when Yuudai began feeling strange about our supposed friendship, we heard the voice of a young man, accompanied by the screams of a Wingull.

"Shut up, you stupid bird!" When we drew closer, we saw that the man was a Team Aqua grunt.

"Aqua!" Ikusaba and I could agree on something; Team Aqua and Team Magma sucked.

"Aqua?" Yuudai had never been into the news, so he had never heard of anything about Team Aqua, Magma, Rocket, or any other criminal teams in the world.

"Just attack 'im!" I called out Dusclops, and ordered an attack on the grunt. A burst of darkness shot from Dusclops' dismembered hands, and the grunt was thrown into the wall. Yuudai picked up the injured Wingull, and we began running for the exit.

On the other side, Yuudai checked the Wingull for injuries. "It's left wing is broken…"
"Is it wild?"

"I'm not sure. It doesn't seem to have any signs of ownership."
"Peeko?!" An old man came running from Rustboro city. His eyes met the Wingull with Yuudai. "Peeko!" The Man didn't realise Yuudai was treating Peeko, and hit him on the head with his walking stick.

"Woah, woah!" I calmed the man down. "Is this your Wingull?"

"Yes. Her name is Peeko… That damned Team Magma stole her from me…"

"Why the hell are they stealing citizens Pokemon?"

"I don't know… Those bastards…"

The Old Man left with Peeko, and we continued on with our trek.

We made it to the end of the route, and into the city. Here we were greeted by scared citizens still shaken by Mewtwo's landing a few days earlier. The crater where the beast hit was still exactly the same as when we had left it. I suddenly remembered that the bridge to Petalburg woods would still be destroyed.

When we went to the lake south of the city, the Old Man from earlier was waiting for us. A boat was in the water behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Ever since the mystery man from the sky destroyed the bridge, I've been running this ferry business for the citizens of Rustboro! Normally, I'd charge 100. But since you helped get Peeko back, I'll wave the fee."
"Thank you, so much."

"You're very welcome. The name's Briney."

"Nice to meet you Briney." Ikusaba was annoyed at our gratefulness to Briney, so he decided to speak up.

"Let's skip the formalities. Can we go over, or not?"
"Of course, my lad!"

Briney helped us across the river in his ship, Peeko perched majestically at the front. The view of the woods from the lake was splendid. It was a shame that that would be ruined by the petrified bodies when we walked in.

We exited Briney's ship, thanked him, and left. We entered the woods to see exactly what we were expecting. The forest was quiet, and the bodies of Pokemon, Bug Catchers and other trainers were sprawled across the ground everywhere. "Well this is creepy…" I realised Yuudai probably hadn't heard about everything with Mewtwo yet, so he wouldn't know what was going on in the woods.

"Uh… Yeah. Really creepy. Wonder what's wrong…" The awkward silence was finally lifted when we reached Petalburg city.

It was very late by the time we got to the city, so we stayed the night at the Pokemon Centre. Our Pokemon were healed, and we were rested.

We woke early, at 5AM, and we left for Oldale town. Route 102 was similar to Petalburg woods, so Yuudai was getting more creeped out every step we took. I tried to act surprised to adhere to Yuudai's knowledge, but I was more in the loop than anybody.

I remembered the possessed Poocheyena attack on my way here the first time, and I held my Dusclops' Pokeball in my hand as we walked. Just as I had feared, we were attacked by a Mighteyena with bright pink eyes. "Dusclops," I threw the ball onto the ground, "Shadow Ball!" The darkness charged in it's hand as Yuudai called out his Swampert. The shadow ball connected, barely affecting the hound. Swampert attacked with no order, almost like it was linked telepathically with Yuudai. The Muddy Water attack hit directly, and virtually the entire route was covered in a layer of dirty water. This slowed the Mighteyena down significantly. "Shadow Claw!" The ghost's hand formed sharp talons, swiping at the dog. Swampert finished Mighteyena off with a Hydro Pump.

When we reached Oldale town, Ikusaba said that he had some errands to run before we continued, so Yuudai and I stayed at the Pokemon Centre for a while. Hikaru made his way into the PokeMart. I wasn't sure what he was doing in there, but I could tell it was shifty.

He emerged from the Mart an hour later, with no supplies whatsoever. "What were you doing in there?"

"None of your business." I signalled to Yuudai.

"We are friends remembered."
"I was running errands."

"What errands..?"

"Errands for… for my grandma."
"For you grandma?"

"Yep."

"Ok, fine."

We resumed our travels, and my heart rate raised with every step closer to Littleroot. I was going to offer Ikusaba to a power hungry beast. I still didn't even know where Dad or Professor Birch were.

We drew closer and closer to the town, the sense that something was wrong sinking deeper and deeper into Yuudai. We could see Littleroot over the hill now, and we heard something behind us. All three of us assumed it was another possessed Pokemon, but, to our surprise, it was Professor Birch. When he caught up to us, he bent over panting. "I… I….. I finally… caught up…"

"Professor?"

"I have…. Been following you three… since Petalburg…"

"How slow are you?"

"Hikaru!"

We stepped into Littleroot. Mewtwo descended from the sky, and landed softly onto the ground in front of us. "So… Have you found me a host?"

"A host?" Yuudai's suspicions confirmed themselves in his mind.
"Yes. He's right here." I pointed to Hikaru.

"What the hell?! What are you talking about?! Host?!"

"Thank you, Sugimori. You have done well. I can feel the power within him." Mewtwo raised his hands, and Ikusaba bagan running from Littleroot. It was no use, Mewtwo punched forward, and Hikaru had collapsed. I looked over at Yuudai, who was staring at me with a horrified expression on his face.

"Wh-what have you done? Y-your friend…"

"That bastard is not my friend."
"What the hell are you talking about? Did you hit your head Taka?"

"It's very complicated, Yuudai. Please let me explain."

"You don't need to." Yuudai retreated deeper into the town. I had to let him go.

I turned back to Mewtwo and Ikusaba. Mewtwo called over my Kabutops, and ordered it to kill Hikaru. Kabutops used it's scythe hand to stab Hikaru through the chest. He died instantly. Mewtwo did as he had promised. He released Kabutops from the spell. Kabutops was so worn out that he collapsed immediately. Mewtwo completed the process, and merged his body with Ikusaba's. I had given the beast a host. Mewtwo demonstrated his shapeshifting ability, going back and forth between his Pokemon and Human forms. I had truly created a monster.

To be continued…