Chapter 21: Life is a heavy price to pay

Mid-afternoon

Kanto

Celadon city.

After failing in Kyurem's capture, the trainers decided to take the ship back to Kanto. True to what Black predicted, Gold found his student curled up and comatose behind one of the large boulders dotting the cavern. He picked the boy up on his back and returned only to see the other Unova native passed out. They team managed to wriggle their way into the cruiser and the night was spent on a comfortable bed. Morning came and they were deposited to Vermillion city port. Heaving the two fainted trainers on him (Black's body was getting frighteningly cold) Gold summoned his togekiss and flew off to Celadon, anticipating a warm shower and a long nap, what he did not look forward to was this apocalyptic scenery playing before his eyes.

Their base, his home, was up in flames. The area surrounding the Game corner was cordoned off by crime scene tape and a fleet of police cars, officers and gym leaders were prowling the area. A column of thick black smoke was rising from the main building, he numbly observed his co-criminals sliding in and out of various battle formations. All of them had taken to the air and were wearing masks to prevent their identity form being known. Peering in between the flying Dex holders, he spied an ebony skinned creature resembling mewtwo. It carried a large spoon and was twisting it around in the air creating a tornado and preventing the trainers from getting close. Panicking, he urged his togekiss to fly nearer to the scene; alas it collided with an invisible barrier and twittered angrily. He now understood why none of the police joined the battle, either mewtwo created the barrier or his team members did, it was small comfort to know that their identities would at least be protected. Securing the two prone bodies with him, he breathed a sigh of relief when his team leader came over on Green's charizard.

"Gol-" Red began but was cut off by his underling.

"What's going on? Why is the base up in flames? More importantly, Black and Lack-2 need serious medical treatment, my lackey is frostbitten and Black got his blood sucked out of his body by cofagrigus. We need to do something!"

"Listen to me..." Gold was impressed by his leader's ability to stay calm under such pressurized circumstances. He on the other hand had broken out in a cold sweat. "Go to Professor Oak and leave Lack-2 and Black there, just explain that those two need medical attention, say they work for Green and nothing else! Come back afterwards" before Red finished his words, his subordinate was already soaring away. The adolescent turned his attention to Yellow, her eyes were wide with horror and they darted back and forth amongst the trainers. "Yellow" she flinched, "sit with me on Charizard; we desperately need your help. Seems like Mewtwo's levels far surpasses our own. It might even be higher than hundred." The girl nodded somberly and sat behind Red, her arms hesitantly gripped the older male. With a roar, charizard dove aside as a black ball of energy assaulted them.

"Red," she questioned as her hazel irises combing the area for signs of her leader and group mates, "how did this happen?

Morning of the same day

Kanto

Dex criminal's hideout

Jade irises peered into the laptop and swung back and forth. The air conditioning in the room was on the lowest setting and Green pulled at his shirt in an irritable manner. His work was tiring and he had been up since dawn planning the organization's heists. He often wished Red would take a bit more responsibility. All that man was good at was battling and planning battling strategies...And escaping it seems. Sometimes when Green needed him, he was duly informed that Red was not present at base. It was times like these that his blood pressure would spike to dangerous levels. Exhaling to calm himself down, he reached for the coffee mug sitting next to his laptop and drank a good quantity of the scalding liquid. Pushing his wheeled chair back, he slumped into it and shut his eyes. Emerald would come in soon, followed by Crystal and White...Yellow was with the capturing team in Unova, he briefly hoped everything was going without a hitch, if so; they should be making their way back to Kanto. Straightening himself up, he was about to wheel back to his laptop when a large detonation resounded throughout the base. Confused, he lifted himself off the chair and in a second, Dark Mewtwo teleported in the room.

Green had never known such fear. The monster's eyes were glowing with tangible hatred. It lifted its three fingered hand and a giant spoon materialized. Whirling around, it smashed the laptop and proceeded to swipe its spoon, destroying the bank of computers and other equipment situated inside the chamber. A twister was summoned and it tore through the floor and roof of the game corner. Exiting via this tunnel, mewtwo raised his weapon to the sky and a condensed mass of energy was pooling around it. He fired it downwards and the base crumpled in on itself. Red had rushed into the room and pulled his best friend out. Commanding out their pokemon, all the trainers were ordered to leave the base and engage in combat.

The future looked bleak.

Like beedrills protecting its nest, the trainers rose, some of them partnering up to share a single flying type. Green tossed Red his charizard and told the raven haired man to take control of both their pokemon. He himself grabbed Aero and surveyed the condition from above. No doubt the police would be coming in soon. Thankfully Execution's leader flying in an arc, organized the traumatized trainers into a formation. He spied Sapphire whizzing past on a tropius with Ruby and called her. The girl hopped off her flying pokemon and joined her teacher on the ancient dragon.

"We will have to get up close and personal with Mewtwo, are you up for it Sapphire?" The teenager clenched her jaw and her eyes shone with conviction as she nodded. "Good, you see Mewtwo is hovering on that piece of broken building right? We'll descend there, get your strongest pokemon out, I'll pull Scizor in and we'll try to prevent that monster from teleporting from the area, sounds alright?"

"Yes, let's...do our best."

The onyx feline glowered at the two foolish humans who leapt down near him. Mauve irises locked on to the spiky haired brunette...the man who made him. A sense of rage and bloodlust washed over the monster as he began to weave a barrier around the group, he did not want any intruders to take his prey. He will enjoy torturing them, folding their minds till they gave up the will to survive. Mewtwo will wipe that defiant look of hope off these humans' faces. He wanted them to know pain. They needed to know the meaning of hell.

"HUMANS!" he roared and saw their eyes widen with shock and disbelief. Some of them had stopped what they were doing simply to gape at him in astonishment, "your capacity for cruelty is spectacular, you create, seeking dominance over each other and when the tool is not suited for your needs, you simply discard it." Mewtwo pointed his spoon to Green who drew his hands into fists, "was it fun? Making me? Knowing you are giving birth to a monstrosity that cannot be controlled? Did it ever cross your puny mind that I would be able to comprehend speech? Able to understand you humans...WILLING to live together with you? No...Of course not. YOU ONLY THINK ABOUT YOURSELVES!"

He flashed to the petrified man and brought down his spoon, intending to crush Green's skull for good. However a metal coated insectoid blocked his attack, an impressive feat. The ground catered at Scizor's feet as he held Mewtwo's spoon, its body was glowing in a yellowish aura. With surprising strength, it pushed the legendary pokemon back. Blaziken moved next, when the levitating pokemon halted, several elemental blasts hit him and he was tossed around the area for a bit. Up above, the sky brightened considerably and the sun's rays shone harsher. Toro, body shrouded with orange flames dashed to the reeling monster and slammed into it. Both beasts emitted pained cries, recovering first, the psychic wound its tail around the blaze pokemon's throat and hefting its spoon, it executed a perfect psycho cut. Saph wailed as Toro was tossed at her feet, the flames encircling its wrist sputtered out. The grief stricken trainer sunk on her knees and the moment she did so, the opposition fired a ball at her.

Time seemed to slow down as Green attempted to block the attack, the intensity of the attack was muddling his mind and his skin felt like it was peeling off. Something huge landed before him and miraculously the attack rebounded. The older male wiped sweat and tears off his face and observed a solemn faced Dia next to him with a crew of pokemon, the monsters lumbered off and took strategic places on the crumbling platform. The brunette realized that Dia's monsters were primed to defend.

"DIA! Come back here!" Red screamed in a panicked voice from above, "I told you to stay with me! Saur, ingrain!"

The boy slapped his cheeks with both hands and looked up, clear eyes locked on to his screeching teacher who was trying to dive down and snatch him. Smiling, he proclaimed:

"I'll defend Senior Green and Saph by all costs, you said I'm a defender sir...Please have faith in me and let me do this! I can't attack like the other members of our team so I'll focus on what I'm good at." His blue eyes fixated on Mewtwo, "I'm the only one who can do this...Tru, use ingrain and get ready for frenzy plant." The two males positioned themselves next to Saph who seemed to be burning in rage.

"Phado, Rono...Attack!" she shouted and several other flying trainers did the same.

"Zuzu, Mimi go!" Ruby's voice echoed.

"Blasty, Hydro cannon."

"Scizor, Night slash."

The attacks came from different angles and all rushed to the center where mewtwo hovered. In the midst of their attacking, they all became veiled with a yellow aura and the mythical pokemon noted how their strength exponentially increased. He focused on swatting the deluge of water away from him. A punch landed on his belly and he spat up purple blood. Lightning came down and struck him endlessly and soon the area darkened and it began to rain. A steel hardened tail ripped numerous cuts on his body and he saw a red blur flash past in the periphery of his vision. Suddenly it felt like his skull was being torn apart at the sutures. He howled and shot something at the offending human, instead of hitting the target, the shot was absorbed by bastiodon.

Before he could recover, two grass snakes, serperior and servine, charged out and wrapped themselves around him, seeds buried into flesh and bloomed, vines constricted him and flowers blew out spore, paralyzing his movements. Pulling apart the vines, a hand clamped over servine and tossed it away, the grass type hit the edges of the barrier and it promptly fainted. Serperior on the other hand was proving to be a worthy adversary. It coiled around him, around his neck and suffocated him. Pulling the regal pokemon off his person, he threw it into the air and sliced it.

Neatly in half.

He heard the trainer scream somewhere to his left. The two halves of the serpent lay in a pool of viridian colored fluid before him. Unfortunately this beast will never wake again.

"Red...I can't do this anymore." The ruby eyed trainer's concern shifted from Dia to Yellow who was sweating profusely behind him. Swaying, her grip weakened and when charizard swerved to avoid colliding with Crystal. She slid and fell off, fainting as she did so. The indigo haired girl dove after senior and Red sighed in relief. The blonde had worked hard, too hard and now it was time for his counter attack. He wasn't sure what to do. Should they kill off Mewtwo? Was it possible to kill it? If they didn't the barrier surrounding them will never come down. Soaring higher, he got a bird's eye view of the place. The boundary was vast. It prevented the prowling police from even getting a good glimpse of them. His eyes strained to the diminutive figures directing terrified civilians and he wondered if Misty was there with them.

Oh for Celebi's sake...his inner voice admonished him, now is not the time to think that. Why did the voice in his head sound like Green?

The dilapidated buildings were crumbling apart and he spied green vines writhing underneath the concrete surfaces. Frenzy plant was ready for action. He stroked charizard's head, after the grass type move managed to pin Mewtwo in one place, he'll hit it with a blast burn...Putting all this into contemplation, he pulled his poke-gear out and called his two best friends.

Hiding behind bastiodon, the two older trainers watched Diamond as he took a cupcake out of his little backpack and began eating it, the boy explained he ate when he was nervous and Green's body tensed when another attack rebounded off the shield. Abruptly his poke gear began beeping and he reached deep inside his pocket with sweat slicked hands and answered it. Red and Blue's face popped up on the mini-screen

"Green, what should we do with Mewtwo?" His friend's worried tone transmitted through the speakers, "we have to decide, at the rate its going, it's going to kill our pokemon and turn on us next. By the way, Yellow fainted; she couldn't handle the stress of raising all our pokemon's levels at once."

His mind blanked.

Yellow fainted...she didn't faint, she went into a coma. It happened once before when she trained for a longer period of time, devoid of sleep, her body shut down forcibly for almost a month.

"K-kill it" his voice was hoarse and scratchy, "Kill mewtwo." he relayed and his body shook unwillingly.

"...Got it," Red cut the connection and Blue merely eyed him with sympathy before the screen went blank.

Don't look at me like that.

He swallowed bile and readied himself to attack.

"Frenzy plant!" Red commanded loudly over the din of battle, Dia scrambled up from his place, stuffed the pastry in his mouth and also ordered his Tru to execute the same move.

The surroundings burst apart, raining concrete and dust as thick green vines erupted everywhere. Mewtwo, sensing the ultimate move teleported from place to place in an effort to escape, but no matter where he went, the tendrils pursued him. Some of them were wide as tree trunks as they rose and followed him of their own accord. Thinner ones caught up to him and ensnared him, the fatter ones crawled over his body like insects and some buried itself in his flesh and absorbed his power. Mewtwo thrashed, struggled, but the bonds held him tighter. The tangled mess confined him so securely he couldn't even move his head. A red eyed trainer flew before him with an orange dragon; he was flanked by another youth wearing goggles. Together the duo shouted something and he felt like he was dipped in hell. The flames licked over the vines and charred them; the agony had no words to describe it as he flopped tiredly to the ground.

The world was turning before his lilac irises.

"You will suffer for this..." the psychic beast premonitioned, "you will die by the hands of the very people you wished to protect! Mark my WORDS!" Holding the spoon upright, it teleported to Diamond and broke the spoon on the teenager's head. The boy slumped down, eyes turning upwards and he stilled. Pearl howled and ordered his partners to go after him; they were saved from an untimely death due to Blue.

The three leaders touched down to face Mewtwo; the feline was leaning tiredly on its spoon stump. Saur, Blasty and Charizard stood behind their trainers. Looking up, the monster eyed the three humans with distaste. Although he hated the spiky haired male the most, his eyes locked on to the ebony haired trainer who was viciously tugging a cap over his blood red irises. His emotions were in turmoil, boiling from rage, to grief and back to rage. Pulling his weapon out from the concrete, mewtwo decided to attack him, clearly he was the weakest link in the formation.

It was not every day that Mewtwo's predictions came untrue.

A solar beam in tandem with hydro cannon blew a hole in his stomach. Distraught, he looked down to his abdomen which was held together by a spine cleared of flesh. Vines forced him into a kneeling position once more and he tried to use psywave to counter the attacks, alas, the move rebounded. Blast burn cracked his spoon and splintered his bones. The trio was now standing right before him, their dark shadows casting over his pitiful from.

"Hu...mans...I...Hate humans. Selfish...You are such selfish creatures." Tears were streaming down the pokemon's eyes as it quivered, "you...Will..."

"Scizor, Cut" The insect slashed its gleaming pincers downwards and cleanly severed Mewtwo's head from its body, despite being dead, the pokemon completed what it wanted to say, it's lilac eyes pinned the three criminals.

"Die..."

"Dex criminals hmm? What a fitting name for a bunch employing the likes of Gold, Black and those two new members...Who also hold Poke-dexes." a pink haired woman scrutinized a list.

"Are there any other names on the paper?" Norman enquired.

"No, see for yourself" the document was passed over to the skeptical gym leader, his eyes scanned the paper multiple times and he let out a sigh of relief.

"More importantly Chief..." a cyan haired man cut in, "it is rare to see you with us, usually to let me know when you are coming so why didn't you?"

"It was an emergency Falkner,' the chief replied in a bitter tone "the nobles in Ransei are not so happy about the development. They have started warring again, claiming that the legendries need to be returned to their correct posts in order for peace to return to their region."

"That...Is a total lie isn't it?" The flying type gym leader rested his chin on folded hands, "those people are always warring with each other, taking over each other's states is simply a game to them...But you are right, if the mythical pokemon are not returned to their original post, who knows what might happen? We already had a mess with Deoxys."

"Exactly" Anabel got up and dusted off her uniform, "So now I had to come here and confirm the situation for myself...The barrier surrounding the game corner is extremely powerful...I suspect they designed it over Mewtwo's original barrier, it is impossible to slip in without knocking all of the pokemon out at once. I'm leaving for Kalos again, Falkner, please keep me posted on the details."

"Will do ma'am." The rest got up and bowed as their chief left the meeting hall, her cotton candy pink hair streaming out before her.

"Are there any other suspects we can add to the list?" Surge boomed, once Anabel left, he put his legs back on the table, "we can scribble names down for now and confirm it later...damn furrets think this is a game."

Misty squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and tried to appear nonchalant, thankfully everyone was poring over the document to notice her uncomfortable behavior.

"The Pokemon league's association would like to replace Red as the dual champion of Kanto and Johto" Steven piped up, "according to them, he does not do his work properly and he is missing for almost one year...Discussions are taking place to replace him with Lance."

"Whatever, not my concern" Volkner yawned and got up from his chair, seeing this, Norman did the same and the duo exited the chamber in a haughty manner. The superintendents merely watched them with an unfathomable expression. Theories and plans were discussed and before the meeting broke up, a giant screen lit up and a figure appeared on it.

"Hey..."

"Boss!" Looker jumped up and the person on screen smiled, "where are you?"

"Chasing after those criminals Looker, what else? Oh yes, I investigated Red's room in the champion's league and there are signs that he does not use that place at all. I'm trying to track him at the moment but it is proving to be difficult...Tsk, they are good at keeping their movements hidden that is for sure...I have to leave now...I'm busy. Take care and make sure to do your work instead of slacking off!" The monitor beeped and went silent. Looker sat back in his chair trying to calm himself.

A lot of worry gnawed on his mind.

A few days later, Evening

Kanto

Pallet town

"Following the commotion in Celadon city's Game corner, police officers still cannot get inside and investigate, there seems to be a psychic barrier surrounding the entire place. Cameras placed on the scene are fed with false feed on a daily basis thus we are still in the dark about the criminals' identities. From eyewitness reports, it seemed like this organization is made up of highly skilled trainers and on the day of the Game Corner fiasco, they were fighting what seemed like a dark mewtwo...It is speculated that it might be a product of illegal research..." Tired eyes peered at the screen and the old man let out a moan. Shaking his head he switched the television off and duly observed how his grandson entered the room, the youth had a distracted look on his face as he placed several coffee mugs in the kitchen sink and proceeded to head upstairs to his room.

"Green!" Oak sharply called and the adolescent halted with one foot on a stair.

"Yes Grandfather?"

"Are you going to clean up this mess they're showing on the news? Or should I just go ahead and declare that my grandson is a criminal?"

His question went unanswered as the brunette climbed the stairs and shut his door with a resounding bang.

Two weeks later

Afternoon

His poke gear was ringing and he cast a quick glance at the clock hanging on his bedroom wall...right on time. He picked up the device and answered the call:

"Blue...Update me on the situation."

"Hello Green~ It's nice to meet you too you ingrate!" her sigh was a rush of static over the speakers "anyway, Red still can't be tracked, he and Gold have gone into hiding together, I suspect they are roaming around somewhere in Johto or Hoenn...As for Diamond, his condition is still critical, the amount of brain damage he suffered is frightening, Platina and Pearl are taking him to Unova for treatment, using Platina's resources, apparently my young underling had told her parents about her real doings and they actually support her, so the money is coming from the Berlitz family. Dia's parents have been informed that he suffered an accident whilst trying to capture pokemon."

"I understand, continue"

"Yellow...Is still in a coma. At least visit her for once Green! I'm tired of dealing with everything here on my own whilst you and Red get to relax! It's unfair!" the female complained bitterly, "The psychic barrier around the base, although you can't call it a base anymore, is being maintained by Red's espeon, your golduck and alakazam which I fished out of storage, gallade and gardevoir, Black's Musha, Xatu and a whole other bunch I don't care to remember. Silver, Crystal and Lack-2 are tasked with salvaging the base for any important research materials and recalling our legendary pokemon into pokeballs for easy transportation. White, Emerald and Black are setting up our new headquarters in Johto whilst Ruby and Sapphire come in from time to time to help out with everything. Ruby informed me that Norman doesn't allow him to go out much."

"..."

"As for YOU! Congratulations for returning from Alola Professor Green!" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, "The media and public are absolutely over the moon for you being able to crack the mystery behind a black mewtwo! Nice isn't it? You get to go to conferences and sip expensive coffee while smiling for the cameras, gorgeously I might add; and I get to run around cleaning up our mess. Next time, take more responsibility, you are worse than Red, at least he has a legitimate reason for hiding a-"

"And I don't? I'm keeping the media's attention to myself so you and the crew can run around undeterred in the shadows. Don't think I find it pleasing when my Grandpa looks at me like I'm the world's worst human ever to grace the Poke-earth..." his voice was low and hard, "if I have time, I'll squeeze in some extra work."

"Right, fine...Be sure to visit Yellow okay~ be courageous and confe-"

"Shut up pesky woman!" he snarled and put down his pokegear, he could hear Blue's laughter ringing in his ears.

Exhaling, he laid down on his bed with one arm covering his face. Perhaps he should visit her...After all; her ability to raise pokemon's levels at will was a crucial factor in their battle against Mewtwo:

"Die..."

The ominous words uttered by the beast echoed in their minds and his best friend lost it on that day. Red gripped his cap, threw it to the ground and started screaming. Behind them, Pearl and Platina had rushed to Diamond and the blonde was trying to wake his best friend up by smacking him lightly on the cheeks. The heiress was sobbing quietly. White on the other hand, numbly knelt and gently stroked her Amanda who was beyond a shadow of doubt, dead. Green himself was about to return charizard back into a pokeball when he noticed that the dragon's tail was cut off. The pokeball fell from his hand just as his loyal partner breathed its last. Seeing this, Red screamed further and Blue tried to calm the trainer down. It has been a long time since the ruby eyed trainer cast away his calm like this. Outside, the helicopters were gathering and the barrier was slowly dissolving.

"First things first!" Blue, who was good at controlling her emotions better than anyone he knew, took command of the situation, "we have to prevent that barricade from breaking down completely, or else were good as dead, Hand me your psychic types, I'll weave the barrier myself. Also..." she added in a more solemn tone..."get ready to bury our partners who passed away."

"What?" the words tumbled out in shock, he too was losing his grip, "what do you mean bury?"

"Exactly what I mean Green!" she hissed..."Ruby! Where are you going?! It's dangerous in the base!"

The teenager did not heed her words.

Sluggishly, he spun around to see Red stroking his Charizard's head, he joined his best friend in doing the same, he knew the flame pokemon ever since he was a child, he grew up with it, fought with it...Lived with it. And now...That was all gone.

His consciousness shifted and for a split second he was disconnected from the flow of time, when he came too he saw his charizard frying Red with a flame thrower...His confusion further expanded when he saw White hugging her Serperior, wasn't the grass serpent dead a few minutes ago? Wait, what was he saying?

"This is really odd!" Red exclaimed as he tried to put out the embers singeing his jacket, "I was patting charizard who was lying on the floor...He was dead...And suddenly it wakes up and breaths fire on me!"

"Whatever senior, let's get going before Senior Blue puts up the barrier" Gold grabbed his teacher by the arm and dragged him, "Silver, Crys, be seeing you! I'm gonna make sure my team leader doesn't get caught!" Waving, the duo departed hastily. When Green got up, he heard Diamond utter something in a garbled manner and faint once again.

Celebi he pondered...This must be the work of the time travelling pokemon. A small slip and they arrived at not so different future, but to the happily sobbing Poke-Dex holders...It made all the difference.

Arc one:

Boredom is the root of all evil

The despairing refusal to be oneself

End

A/N: Much thanks to Jack54311 for reviewing. I guess this chapter answers your question of the explosion? Also I'm not getting any stats, this site is experiencing some funky problems and seeing no reviews or viewers for my story is making me cranky. Anyway, I hope the readers get to enjoy this chapter...if people are able to read it.