Chapter 6: Attacked

"So, how did you escape, Joasia?" asked a curious Mateusz.

"I was helped by a couple of defectors; they closed down the security systems so I could escape." Joasia told Mateusz.

Joasia and Mateusz had been sitting in Mateusz's room of the cave whilst Mew and Mewtwo discussed something in Mewtwo's room. They had been sitting quietly and awkwardly in the room for about an hour now, barely saying anything, as neither one knew how to make decent conversation to pass the time.

"Why are you here, Mateusz?" Joasia inquired.

"I was… I don't quite know, I woke up under a tree with no memory as to where I came from, I stood up and a sharp pain cut through my chest and that's when I discovered I had two hearts, which isn't normal for a human. I wandered through the forest and slept under a rocky overhang for the first night. I found Mewtwo on the second day, but I didn't know anything about this place so I thought he might be predatory, and I realised I had gotten to close and he would soon find out I was there so I decided to try and sneak up behind him with a big stick to knock him out so I could run away. Once I was about five paces behind him he turned around and saw me, he said something about not being able to mentally sense me which is apparently unusual or something like that. He told me to follow him so I did, as it was my only chance at surviving. He interrogated me in the hallway of this cave and I collapsed unconscious from a sharp pain in the chest. After I woke up he told me I had to stay here because he needed to find out more about my so called 'abilities'. And that's about it; I'm being forced to stay here on pain of 'incapacitation' as Mewtwo calls it, not that I'd run away, I don't exactly have money or identification to get help in a human town so I'm stuck here, and I personally think that the moment I require medical attention in the human town, they'll find out I have two hearts and do experiments on me. Team Rocket might even try to kidnap me if they found out. " Mateusz disclosed his story.

"That sounds like a bit of a story." Joasia said back.

"What about your story? I've told you mine, now you tell me yours." Mateusz told Joasia.

Joasia filled Mateusz in on her story and how she got there to where she was now. She included all the detail, to see if she could manage to gain some sense of Mateusz's personality from his emotional reactions to what he said, but Mateusz listened without commenting or batting an eyelid. After she had finished with her tale, he simply frowned and muttered something under his breath.

"What did you say, Mateusz?" Joasia asked, doing the equivalent of a human cocking an eyebrow.

"Nothing you need to know, I was just saying something to myself…" Mateusz assured Joasia.

"No, I want to know what you said, NOW." Joasia demanded and stood up, taking a step toward Mateusz.

"I just said that Team Rocket sound cruel and I'm glad that they don't know about me, I don't exactly want to be put through what you went through, I'd go insane, and probably attempt to kill everyone I saw, so I'd be shot or something. If they did what they did to you to me, my dark side might finally win out. It's one of the only things I remember about myself, that deep inside I have a dark side that I've managed to keep locked away all my life, but it haunts my dreams." Mateusz decided to disclose after sighing.

Joasia sat back down and chuckled. "I scared you didn't I?" she jokingly asked Mateusz.

"No, I don't get scared by beings shorter than me; I get scared of hurting them should I have to defend myself." Mateusz said with an irritated look on his face.

"Like you could hurt me if you tried, I'm the biological weapon here, remember?" Joasia continued to beam from ear to ear, amused at Mateusz's defensiveness.

"Do you not remember that I can block out all your psychic abilities? Even Mewtwo can't read my mind without me willing it to happen." Mateusz said with a sudden smile, something he hadn't done since they'd met.

Joasia laughed at the prospect, she thought he had been lying about it when Mateusz had told his tale, and she thought he was lying now.

"Go ahead, try it yourself, if you don't believe me." Mateusz shrugged as he deciphered Joasia's cause of laugh.

"Alright," Joasia beamed as she attempted to reach into Mateusz's mind, and when she found she couldn't, she stopped smiling and frowned, to Mateusz's amusement, "this isn't possible, I should be able to read your mind easily!"

"Try again now." Mateusz smiled as he said this.

"I am no fool, Mateusz!" Joasia looked angry as she read Mateusz's thought that he willed her to read. He had thought the sentence: 'you silly fool, you should have listened.'

Mateusz was almost crying with laughter.

"I got you so good! You should have believed me when I told you, what other reason would Mewtwo have to keep me here?" Mateusz taunted.

Joasia got up looking even more pissed this time. She strode forward to where Mateusz was sitting and laughing and slapped him in the face. Mateusz's normally white cheek turned an angry shade of red as the blood flowed into the cheek after being slapped. Mateusz stopped laughing, but did not retaliate; he simply sat there, looking up at Joasia.

"Thank you, I think I needed that, Joasia, it wasn't in turn to call you a fool, I formally apologise." Mateusz said before standing up and asking, "Are you hungry for dinner? I know where a berry bush is we can eat from."

Joasia on the other hand just looked shocked at her own sudden outburst of violence and couldn't stop repeating how sorry she was, no matter how many times Mateusz tried to tell her it was all fine. She eventually agreed to go with him to the berry bush as she was hungry, and it was almost sunset. They had some berries before walking back to the cave, but, before they got to the cave, a small metal canister rolled between their feet. It began to hiss and emit a large quantity of smoke which soon became a screen.

"Smoke grenade, get down, there are people nearby!" Mateusz said as he tackled Joasia to get her on the ground quickly.

No sooner had Mateusz done this, then there were shouts coming from the trees around them and the shadows of two men with automatic weapons appeared to the front of them. Mateusz crawled and led Joasia out of the smokescreen before the men got to them, they hid behind a rock and Mateusz looked at the scene. The two men stood in the middle of where the smoke screen had been and looked confused. One raced off in a different direction, and the other stood facing away in the other direction. Mateusz quietly whispered to stay down. Mateusz snuck up behind the guard who seemed to be busy fiddling with a radio. His weapon hung by his side, held by only one hand, and loosely at that. Mateusz took his chance and snatched the weapon with lightning speed before the man could react.

"Don't move or make a sound, put the radio on the ground, and kneel down or you're a dead man, and give me your pistol and knife." Mateusz said as he pointed the weapon in the man's back.

The man complied with Mateusz's requests and knelt on the ground with his hands in the air. Mateusz stomped on the radio and it broke. He gave the man a hit in the head with the butt of the gun and he fell unconscious. Mateusz picked up the knife and pistol, before walking to the rock where Joasia was hiding.

"It's okay, he's out cold, we have to contact Mewtwo or Mew, can you do that?" Mateusz took charge of the situation.

"Yeah, sure." Joasia replied before saying, "They're on their way, Mewtwo says we have to go somewhere else that they'll take us to."

"Good, keep an eye out for anymore. Did Team Rocket troops have a large red 'R' on their uniform?" Mateusz asked curiously as he aimed the assault rifle at the direction the other man had run in, in case more came from that direction.

"YES! Oh my gosh, that means they've somehow followed Mew and I here!" Joasia's eyes widened as she theorised about how they were discovered.

Mewtwo and Mew soon arrived in a flash before them that startled Joasia.

"We must go, come here, both of you, Mew and I can muster just enough power to teleport you both along with us a short distance and we must run from there on in." Mewtwo told them.

"How come we didn't just teleport here before, Mew? Instead of walking?" Joasia asked Mew.

"I'll explain later, just come here both of you, before more troops come." Mew said.

Joasia and Mateusz walked to Mewtwo and Mew. They grabbed Mateusz and Joasia and a purple aura began to glow around them. Soon there was a flash and they found themselves about 400meters from their original position, on a hill above the forest.

"We must run now." Mewtwo said as he began to levitate forwards.

Mew floated alongside Mewtwo as Joasia and Mateusz ran behind. Mateusz managed to keep up; despite the fact he was running with an automatic weapon in his hands. They ran for about five minutes before Mewtwo decided they could slow to a walk. Mateusz was very thankful for this and inhaled deep breaths of air as he walked.

"How far or for how long do you think we need to walk for, Mewtwo?" Mateusz asked.

"If we are going to lose them entirely for a considerable amount of time, we'll have to walk all night for a total distance of around 25km. There will be no stopping until I say so, understand?" Mewtwo told them.

"Understood, gee I'm gonna be knackered by tomorrow." Mateusz said.

"I will be exhausted too; we'll have to catch up on sleep tomorrow." Joasia said on the side to Mateusz.

"How did you guys escape capture?" Mew asked.

"Mateusz was the first to react; he tackled me to the ground after what he called a smoke grenade rolled between our feet. He then helped me crawl through the smoke to behind a rock and told me to wait there. He stole the gun of a trooper who wasn't being very alert, and forced him to hand over his remaining weapons and radio, Mateusz then destroyed the radio so that he couldn't call for back up. He knocked the man out and then came back behind the rock where I was. That was when I contacted Mewtwo and you, Mew." Joasia recounted the events that had happened moments earlier.

"Why didn't you take out the man yourself, Joasia?" Mewtwo inquired.

"I didn't think properly at the time, besides, I hardly have any training." Joasia stated.

"Well thank you for helping keep yourself, and Joasia out of capture, Mateusz, I like your quick thinking." Mew thanked Mateusz.

"No problem, it's really bad for everyone if she gets captured, so I had to prevent that from happening." Mateusz said without a glint of pride on his face, he wasn't exactly one to take pride from compliments or thanks.

They continued walking in silence for some time and soon the moon was overhead. They came to a mountainous place where the density of the trees thinned slightly; there were many rocks on the ground, as well as some caves. They had a very short rest as Mewtwo told them to stop. After having a quick drink of water from a clear mountain spring that Mewtwo assured Mateusz was safe to drink from. They soon continued and after about another hour of walking up the mountain, the sun began to rise. On the horizon was the spot where they had begun their journey to this mountain range, a hill in the middle of the forest with a barren top. Mewtwo led them into a cave in the side of a ridge. He told them they would have a few hours of sleep there before he began constructing a new cave for them to properly live in. Joasia and Mateusz were soon fast asleep and breathing quietly, Mewtwo and Mew simply discussed a few final matters before they themselves rested…