Chapter 22

Mateusz strolled down the bank of a creek, skimming stones across its surface as he went. The water cascaded down mini rapids at some points in the bubbling creek over smooth pebbles that had been eroded over decades. The forest on either side of the stream which was fed by the lake in the middle of the mountaintop was not too dense and Mateusz could find his way around easily enough. Suddenly, out of the forest on his right, Joasia appeared, tail swinging from side to side as she walked toward him, looking rather happy about something.

"Hey Mateusz, I managed to secure the entire morning to explore the place, Mewtwo says we don't have to do training until after lunch," she said as she got closer to him.

"Oh wow, that's awesome!" Mateusz said, clearly pleased with the information by the wide smile on his face.

"Yeah I know! Where do you want to explore first? Mewtwo says there are caves that run through the mountain, or we could just look around the forest," Joasia informed him excitedly.

"Oooooh, the caves sound interesting, but we'll have to make sure we don't get lost," Mateusz replied after quickly making his mind up.

"Caves it is then," Joasia cheerily said as they began to walk toward the centre of the island.

The pair followed the course of the river along its rocky banks. Lush green trees on either side of the river prevented long-range visibility into the forest. Many bug pokémon could be seen in between the trees in places. Weedle, Ledian, Pinsir and Beedrill minded their own business and didn't bother Mateusz or Joasia as they went by. As they reached the rainwater filled lake in the middle of the mountaintop, they found 3 cave entrances and talked about which one to enter.

"So, left, right, or centre?" Mateusz asked Joasia.

"I reckon we go for the one on the right," Joasia replied as she pointed to the respective entrance.

"Righto," Mateusz agreed.

The pair approached the mouth of the cave which was rocky and had bushes growing on top of it. As they entered, they marvelled at the amount of light that reflected deep into the cave. One could see clearly for many meters ahead down the cave without the need for a torch. As they continued deeper, they could see pools of water in large, open caverns. Soon, it became darker and Joasia began to complain.

"We should probably go back now Mateusz," Joasia said as she grabbed Mateusz's arm and held on.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little bit of dark?" Mateusz teased in a friendly manner.

"Shut up Mateusz!" Joasia laughed as she playfully shoved him.

Mateusz stumbled to his side, teetered for a moment, and then fell off a ledge to their left.

"Ahhhhhh!" Mateusz cried as he fell into the darkness.

A loud snapping sound echoed through the cave.

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mateusz screamed in agony from the bottom of the cliff.

"Mateusz!" Joasia yelled out in concern.

All she got in reply were more cries of agony.

"Hold on! I'm going to climb down!" Joasia said as she began to carefully climb down the cliff.

Soon, she was close enough to where Mateusz was to see his writhing form in the gloom. She jumped off the cliff wall and fell the last metre. She landed next to Mateusz and immediately knelt down to examine him. Mateusz's legs were both at funny angles and one of his legs had a sharp piece of snapped bone sticking through it. Joasia gagged at the sight of blood that seeped from the wound the protruding bit of bone had made, but managed to keep her breakfast down.

Mateusz continued to writhe in pain but Joasia steadied him to prevent further damage to his legs.

"I'm going to go and get help Mateusz, don't move," Joasia told Mateusz.

"I couldn't move from here even if I wanted to! AGGGHHH! IT HURTS SO MUCH!" Mateusz said.

"Just hold on, okay?" Joasia said, giving Mateusz a reassuring squeeze of his hand.

Mateusz nodded his head before wincing intensely as another wave of pain washed over his body.

Joasia managed to safely climb back up the face of the underground cliff which she estimated was about 5 metres high. She ran back in the direction they had come from and ran out the entrance into the bright sunlight of late morning. She kept on telling herself that she couldn't stop running no matter what, every extra second she took meant more time that Mateusz was in pain for. She eventually reached where she had left the rest of the group earlier that morning. She caught Mew floating through the trees to her right.

"Mew! Over here!" she yelled at the small, pink legendary.

Mew stopped mid-air and floated toward her.

"What is it Joasia?" he asked.

"Mateusz fell down a cliff and both his legs are broken! We have to go and help him!" Joasia half-yelled in panic at Mew.

"Just let me go and get Mewtwo first, he can help," Mew said before speeding through the trees.

Mew soon reappeared with Mewtwo and the others in tow.

"Where is he, Joasia?" Mewtwo asked.

"I'll take you to the cave where is, quickly!" Joasia replied as she ran back in the direction of the cave.

The others followed at the same pace and they soon reached the cave where Mateusz was. They all went deep into the cave, past the pools of water and eventually came to the place where Mateusz had fallen.

"Mateusz, we're back," Joasia called down the cliff.

There was no response.

"I'll teleport us down," said Mewtwo.

There was a small flash and then they were all at the bottom. Mateusz's still form awaited them, blood still seeping from his wound. His face was slightly pale and he appeared tired. His chest rose and fell in time to his ragged breathing as he laid there, legs at odd angles splayed out upon the ground. A small pool of blood around his leg stained the grey, stone interior of the cave.

"Mateusz?" Joasia asked quietly as she knelt beside his still form.

Mateusz weakly smiled and gave a shaky thumbs up.

"He's lost a lot of blood; help me lift him up," Mewtwo said.

Joasia and Mewtwo carefully lifted Mateusz from the ground.

"Come this way," Mewtwo directed.

Mewtwo led whilst Joasia carried Mateusz carefully down the cave at the bottom of the ledge. The flames on Lifyra's back lit the cave up as they went. Eventually they came to a glistening pool in what Joasia thought might be the centre of the mountain. Mewtwo halted in front of it and seem to be in thought for a few moments.

"Yes, this is the right one," Mewtwo said, "Throw Mateusz in the pool,"

"What, but he'll drown, he's barely conscious," Joasia replied with a look on confusion on her face.

"Just throw him in the lake," Mewtwo responded with a more commanding tone this time.

"No, he'll die Mewtwo!" Joasia yelled, taking a few steps back with Mateusz's limp body in her arms.

Mewtwo simply shook his head and stepped forward. He grabbed Mateusz from Joasia's arms and threw him in the underground lake.

"Nooo!" Joasia cried out before jumping in the lake after him.

Joasia frantically searched for Mateusz in the lake but to no avail. She continued searching through the depths of the lake in vain and began to sob. All of a sudden, bubbles started rushing to the surface, and Joasia scrambled out of the pool. A figure could be seen just below the water's surface, but it was not Mateusz. A mewtwo with a black tail broke the surface instead, much to the confusion of everyone who had seen Mateusz go in.

"Where is Mateusz?" a dumbfounded Mewtwo asked the new mewtwo.

"What do you mean, Mewtwo?" the mewtwo with the black tail asked in response.

"Where is Mateusz?" Mewtwo asked again, but in a threatening manner.

"What are you going on about? I am Mateusz," the mewtwo pointed to itself in confusion.

"That is not possible, Mateusz is not of the same species as me," Mewtwo replied, even more confused than before.

The mewtwo that had called himself Mateusz looked down at himself. His eyes widened, shock clearly evident on his face.

"Ah! What the heck is going on here! Why the hell do I look like Mewtwo all of a sudden?!" he panicked and asked.

Mewtwo stood in thought for a moment, clearly concentrating on a memory.

"The water heals the body back to its original, healthy state," Mewtwo said to the others as he thought, "Meaning, Mateusz is in fact, a mewtwo. Perhaps even the creature that those files spoke of that we read. It would explain your strange powers, and since those files say it was a specially engineered version of my genes, making you immune to psychic type attacks because they must have added dark-type genes,"

"So you're saying that I'm… I'm the creature that the secret organisation created?" Mateusz asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, but I have no idea how you could possibly forget about all that, unless you erased your own memory," Mewtwo confirmed.

"That's just messed up, it can't be…" Mateusz said.

"It's the only logical way that you could possibly have the abilities you have demonstrated," Mewtwo assured Mateusz.

"This is all so weird, all of a sudden becoming like this," Mateusz replied, looking down at his new form.

"I think we should all go back to the surface now," Mew stated.

They all followed Mewtwo whom knew the way out. And eventually came to an exit at the surface. The bright sunlight momentarily blinded them but they felt relieved to breathe the fresh mountain air rather than the slightly stuffy air of the caves…


"It looks exactly like Team Rocket's one, except ours has a black tail," the scientist that had betrayed Team Rocket and given them the genes of Mewtwo told the head of the organisation.

"Would that happen to be because we embedded a dark-type's genes in?" the head asked.

"It is entirely possible, but we have not yet done enough research to be sure of it. We embedded those genes to ensure it would be immune to psychic type attacks, the kinds of attacks that Team Rocket's weapon uses. We also added a bunch of other abilities into its genetics that are not typically found in any one pokémon," the scientist answered the head.

"That is good, now even Team Rocket will not be able to stand up to us." The head stated with an evil glint in his eyes…


"Wow, that lake really did its job, my legs feel great!" Mateusz said as he did a jump to test his recently healed legs out.

"Yeah, you look great too!" Joasia said with a cheeky wink.

"Ha, very funny, it's still really strange to me being like this you know," Mateusz said, fiddling with his tail.

"You'll get used to it soon, but in the meantime, we have to go and do some training with Mewtwo, remember?" Joasia replied.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that," Mateusz said.

They both walked off toward the nearby clearing where they currently stayed. It only took them a couple of minutes to reach as they walked through the vibrant green trees of Mount Quena. Mewtwo awaited them with an expectant look on his face.

"So you have finally decided to show up," Mewtwo said with a smirk on his face.

"Sorry for being a little late, we lost track of time," Mateusz attempted to make an excuse.

"I'm sure you did," Mewtwo sarcastically responded, smirk ever-present, "Now we shall begin training for the day, if you two are ready,"

Joasia and Mateusz both nodded in reply and Mewtwo began.

"Today I will teach you how to levitate things with your mind effectively. I have heard from Mew that you, Joasia, already know how to do it a little but today you will refine it. As for you Mateusz, it is completely foreign to you and you will have to learn from scratch," Mewtwo informed the two other mewtwos…