Only one more Episode untill the big one hundred and the end of this story arc. This is, unfortunatly, one of those episodes were there is a lot of dialog and explaining and stuff. Finally, Flame finds out why the Rocket's wanted him so badly.
Episode Ninety-Nine: Things of Legends
So I found myself at that annoying stand, with everyone watching me. I would have given anything to be somewhere else at that point, all the attention was unnerving. Porygon had gone first but I hadn't listened to a word of it, I was too busy trying not to reaquaint myself with the apples I had eaten for lunch.
"Well, I guess I better get this over with before I pass out," I said nervously, scratching the back of my head. That got a couple of laughs from the Pokémon, most of the Humans were busy trying to figure out how they were understanding me to understand what I was going through.
"Now, as much as I want too, I will not lie to you," I started, blanking out all of the stares and focusing on what I was saying instead, "it would be so easy for me to tell you that we went just went into the Rocket's base and kicked their butts. It was a lot more complicated than that."
I paused and glanced across at my friends and they all knew what I was going to say, Squirt nodding that it was okay. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and continued.
"Most of us were suffering from injuries when the whole thing started. I had one arm in a splint and Blacky down there had a cracked skull. Plus the Rocket's swarmed everywhere so we didn't stand a chance. Then Alpha and his team showed up and gave my group a little relief. As we went to stop the Rocket's in our first battle, they took over this Center and kidnapped my trainer and two of my friends. So me and Squirt snuck in and rescued him, with help from Raichu, and the Rocket's leader gave us a messege as we got away. I had to surrender or they would level the town."
The words were flowing easier now as I got used to the stares as everyone listened to my every word.
"I didn't know what to do. In the end I actually knocked out one of my friends and left. Turns out that I found the other of our group that had been missing, the Rocket's were after her. So I made them go after me instead of her and I found myself in their base. Then they told me things, that I now realise were lies, and got inside my head. Pretty soon I found myself obeying them, even fighting against my friends."
I froze there, glancing again at Squirt and the others. Most of them had a deadpan expression but Squirt and Pika were lost in though, reliving those memories. I took another deep breath and continued once more.
"So I am no hero. I am nothing but a traitor. The only reason you all understand me right now is because of this collar that I allowed the Rockets to put on me. I only came to my senses when Blacky, who I had raised from a kit, was injured during the battle with a powerfull Dragonair. So I turned traitor again, this time on the Rockets, and managed to help save the day. Then I helped out in the final battle in the harbour, nearly losing my life in the process."
I looked around at everyone before finishing off the tale.
"So, I am anything but a hero. The true heroes are the others, those that never gave up on me and even managed to forgive me after the whole evil thing. They are the best friends I could ask for. Now, before we all finally get to eat, let me wrap up this little thing and remove the last trace of Team Rocket from here."
Everyone looked on as I reached up and grabbed hold of the collar before ripping it in two and throwing the bits away. A loud cheer started as I left the stand and took my seat back at the table.
"Fairly decent speech," Cubone said, "but maybe you oughta loosen up a little next time."
"There isn't going to be a next time, unless you want to get thrown back into the harbour," I said as I reached for a cake and started to tuck in.
After about a half hour of eating, everyone had mingled together and were talking. Someone was playing some annoying music and a few people had started dancing. I was sitting on my own, finishing off the last of the food.
"You know what this place needs?" Came a voice from behind me.
"No, what?" I replied, watching Squirt and Pika dance away instead of looking at the speaker.
"A drunk. You can't go wrong with a drunkard. A discoball would be a nice touch too."
I turned to glance at the idiot who felt they had to engage me in conversation and fell off of my chair again.
"Mew?" I muttered, "what the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh I dunno, I felt like I would just drop in for a sec and say hello," Mew replied sarcasicaly, "I swear you get dumber everytime we meet. I'm here for the party."
"What if someone spots you?" I asked, worried about what would happen.
"They'd see you talking to a very cute Pikachu. It's a little disguise I've been using for years for the rare I do go out in public."
I scratched the back of my head again, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
"You didn't mention me in your speech," Mew continued, swiping one of the last cupcakes and taking a munch, "I'd be insulted but I really do not need the publicity."
"I'd ask if you dealt with all of the android thingies but I know you missed a few. Because they went after me."
"We are both hunted. But I am always at the top of their list. So if I appear before people in other countries and stuff, it'll take their focus off of you."
"Why are they after you anyway?" I asked, the question had been bugging me for a while.
"They want to control me. They want the power that I would give them. Fat chance of them getting it off of me though, so they want my genetic data so they can clone me."
"You lost me there," I interrupted.
"Cloning is where you create a copy of something. So they could create another me and control that, essentially giving them my power but with minimum fuss. They managed it once before, but it went a little wrong."
"How so?" I asked, wanting to figure out what the Rocket's were after out of me.
"The clone was too powerfull. And he had freewill. He could think for himself and decided that the Rocket's were a load of crap. Completely destroyed their base. Then tried to take over the world untill me and a few Humans stepped in. Now he just wiped out the Rocket's memories of him so he could live his life in piece. But they remembered that they were hunting me down and are after me again. Heh, what was great is that they though that my clone was a failure because it looks different to me."
"Appearance isn't everything."
"And that I know something they don't. I wasn't always small, pink and fuzzy. Well I guess I was a little fuzzy. Anyway, I broke one of those golden rules. It was only a minor thing but I got stuck like this and lost a little bit of power in the process. That must have been about three thousand years ago, but the Human legends are younger and so everyone thinks that this is how I always looked."
We both sat in silence for a few seconds, Mew thinking about his past while I thought about the future.
"So, why are they after me then?" I asked eventually, bringing Mew back out of his thoughts.
"There is an old tale about a battle between a lizard of fire and the Pokémon of Light, which is what some people call me. Ironic really, I am probably the least pure Pokémon in existance and I get branded the holy one. While my clone, who hasn't been around long enough to get into any trouble, calls himself the Pokémon of Shadow. I really should go visit him sometime, see what he's up too."
"Can you get to the point?" I interrupted, all the talk of clones was slightly desturbing.
"Sorry. Anyway, the legand states that 'the fire lizard with a scar upon its face shall do battle with the Creature of Light. As the sun sets, the lizard shall strike out the light and leave the world in eternal darkness'."
"They think that I am that lizard," I muttered, realising why they wanted to get hold of me so badly.
"Pretty much. They want to use you and get to me. Which is bullshit. You may be strong but there is no way in hell that I would lose. Besides, there are lots of your kind with facial scars. You are a fairly scrappy race."
"You have a point," I said with a smirk, "there is no reason to worry. We'll just beat the crap out of them instead."
"And they are not aware of the rest of the legend," Mew laughed before itoning the rest, "'with its final breath, the Creature of Light shall destroy the darkness.'"
We stopped our conversation as Squirt and Pika headed up. Both of them were staring at Mew, which made me kind of nervous.
"Who've we got here then?" Squirt asked.
"I'm Cresent. I was just asking Flame here about his little speech," Mew said, glancing across at me, "I better be going anyway. Nice speaking to you."
"Uh, okay," I said as Mew began to walk away, "goodbye."
Squirt turned back to me and smirked, "trust you to start talking to girls. I can't leave you alone for five seconds without you getting into some sort of trouble."
"What?" I asked, confused now.
"Oh come on," Squirt sighed, while Pika just stared after Mew, "how could you not have noticed? The cuteness and stuff."
Pika turned her stare on him and he instantly backtracked, "not that I'm saying that you don't have any. Ah sod it, it doesn't matter what I say. I'm just going to end up digging a bigger grave for myself."
"It learns," she muttered as Squirt ran like hell, "so, what were you two talking about anyway?"
"Nothing importent," I lied, "'she' just wanted to clear up a few things."
Pika glared at me for several seconds and all that was running through my head was, 'oh shit, she does not believe me,' but she eventually nodded and set off after Squirt. I heard something about not being able to sit down for weeks but I blanked the rest out, I didn't want to violate my hearing anymore than I already had.