Recommended Music: Kaze ni Nare from Jam Project. Since they're the only band from which I can sing at least lik 10 songs, you'll probably see more from them here later.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 21: Destroy.

"Leave."

Even if they wanted to follow the order given to them by Mewtwo, both Red and Bill were still too shocked by what they just saw and heard to move even an inch. The Pokemon in front of them decided to sit down, allowing one of its legs to dangle off the altar while lifting the other up so that it could use it to prop up the hand on which it leaned its head. The fact that they were unable to even speak a word in its presence gave Mewtwo some weird sense of confidence. A feeling that it was better than them. As soon as it realized what that was, it touched its forehead with its free hand, in order to help it focus and to get rid of that emotion, which was one of the many things it disliked about humans. It was similar to the sense of pride it learned much about during its time with Articuno, but tainted by negativity. Any such feeling could quickly lead to anger, which could cause it to unleash its powers.

Since Team Rocket wasn't able to find it for so long, it started pondering how they knew about his stay at Seafoam Islands, and it deduced that they must have somehow been able to track its psychic force. That's why it chose the old part of town to stay in. There were no Pokemon there and most people avoided it, so it knew it wouldn't get into any fights.

"Is it possible..." Bill's voice broke the silence which lasted for about half a minute.

Mewtwo glared at him immediately since it wasn't pleased with the fact that it wasn't able to fully eliminate the worrying feeling. The scientist took a step back. Even though the mysterious Pokemon didn't move, whenever it looked at them, its presence was threatening enough to make Bill regret ever wanting to find it. Mewtwo looked at his shivering hands and slowly closed its eyes to give itself a short while to think. It already felt like a bad decision at that moment, but for some reason it couldn't stop itself. It opened its eyes back again and looked at the human in front of it.

"You may speak."

Bill still looked unsure but he slowly began to repeat what he wanted to say earlier "Is it possible... that you're using... telepathy... I mean... To communicate with..."

"Yes." Mewtwo replied without giving the man a chance to finish his sentence.

Seeing that the being in front of them was willing to hear them out, Red completely forgot the sense of fear he felt initially. He allowed his curiosity to take over and took a step forward before speaking up.

"Are you a Pokemon?"

Bill was shocked by the fact that Red was somehow able to act normally in Mewtwo's presence. It was after hearing the teenager speak that he realized that his body started hunching over on its own. He noticed his knees shaking and wanted to punch them in order to make it stop but he subconsciously thought that it would be a bad idea to make any sudden movements so he decided against. Still, he grabbed onto them, hoping that it would be useful in calming himself down. Mewtwo made took a split second glance at the scientist since even those slight motions were enough to catch its attention. Surmising that it wasn't worth its attention, the Pokemon looked back at Red and took in what the question posed by the teenager meant.

"A Pokemon..." they could hear its mutter in their minds "...I guess you could say that. But then again... You can see that I'm much more..."

It stopped itself to find a better word than "human". It wasn't a long pause, but Mewtwo still looked irritated by the fact that it almost slipped up by saying something like that.

"I'm different than other Pokemon... I'm also different than humans... Perhaps it's this... the fact that I'm the only one of my kind... that makes me feel more important than I should do."

Red felt confused by that enigmatic answer, but the sight of the mysterious being worrying about choosing the right vocabulary was weirdly entertaining. He leaned back a little while holding up the back of his head with both hands and lifted one of his legs slightly, making a shape similar to the letter "D". The pose was quite relaxing and was somehow remembered by his body to be something that would show that he wasn't threatening in any way. Until that moment the reason Mewtwo wasn't concerned with the presence of the two males was his confidence in its own strength. If they tried to attack it, it would be able to defeat them. But the teenager wanted the Pokemon to be able to understand that it didn't need to keep its guard up. Red himself didn't know how talented he was at making others drop their defenses and the way he acted was just something that came to him naturally.

"You're really overthinking this stuff."

Mewtwo looked at him with a surprised expression. It felt something weird happening with its face so it quickly reached towards it with one hand. It tried to decipher what was happening by feeling the details around its mouth.

"I'm smiling... Why am I smiling?" the shock was enough to make it abandon the psychic connection so those words existed solely in its mind.

It looked at Red with suspicion but the boy seemed oblivious to the effect he had on Mewtwo. The Pokemon stared at him for some time, trying to understand what it was that caused it to be put at ease. Its mind wandered to Seafoam Islands and the time spent battling with Articuno. Somehow, the teenager in front of it was giving out the same vibe. Mewtwo began to understand that the reason it was able to feel that way was that it wasn't alone.

After being created by Team Rocket, Mewtwo was surrounded by mostly negative emotions and whenever it was on the run, all it could focus on was how to avoid encountering the criminals again. But that meant that they were on his mind all of the time. Whenever it was with someone else, with Articuno or Red, their positive feelings were shining strong enough that it was able to forget all the bad things. That caused it to question whether running away was actually a good thing. Even if he was able to avoid Team Rocket, the thought that they would finally catch up to it was still in its mind, corrupting it into a similarly negative thing.

"I guess I'm happy." it stated after reconnecting their minds.

"That's good. I like to be happy." Red responed while smiling "By the way... I think there's someone who wants to meet you."

After saying that, he reached towards one of the pokeballs. He felt it trembling for some time but was still careful enough not to let the one inside out until the one in front of them would be comfortable with it. Red looked at Mewtwo who nodded in approval.

"Go, Charmander!" the trainer shouted while throwing the ball into air.

After forming from the light, the lizard looked weirdly pent-up. He was moving around as if he had too much energy stored inside and wanted to release it all at once. It took him some time before he noticed where they were, and even slightly longer to remember the reason for wanting to escape its pokeball. He looked towards Mewtwo who immediately felt the small Pokemon's excitement. It was an immediately recognizable feeling. The same one it and Articuno felt when facing each other. Unfortunately for the fire Pokemon, Mewtwo didn't respond in the same way since its instinct told it that similarly to Red and Bill, Charmander wouldn't be able to face it in battle. It was easy to tell that any fight between them would be a one-sided one. But the lizard's determination to face a strong opponent, signified by him scratching the floor, swinging his tail, and the light smoke escaping from his mouth, was enough to convince the artificial Pokemon to give the little one a shot at fighting it.

"Alright. If it's a battle you want, then a battle you shall have, Charmander!" it announced.

"Watch out." stated Red "Since we come as a package deal."

The boy stood behind his Pokemon, with his arms crossed. Seeing that, Mewtwo only then remembered that Pokemon who live in pokeballs were used to fighting by receiving commands from their trainers. Although it didn't give it much thought previously, it was of the opinion that Pokemon should be able to fight by themselves, but somehow seeing the two in front of him unified in their confidence made its blood rush enough to at least raise its curiosity.

"If you're also to be my opponent, it would be well if I could learn your name. I could take it from your mind since those kind of things are easy to learn, but I know you humans have this thing called... "respect". At least in this sense, I want us to be equals." Mewtwo explained.

Red smiled, feeling a little embarrassed by the fact that just a couple minutes ago he was scared of the one in front of him, and now they were to stand on even ground as opponents "My name is Red. But we still haven't learned your name."

The Pokemon looked a little surprised that the boy asked himself, but it already was giving some thought to how it should introduce itself "I guess I have two names... but both of them weren't something that I had chosen for myself..."

It looked around for something that would give it an idea. It finally stopped after finding some shining object on the floor. It walked over and picked it up before turning to Red.

"What is this thing called?"

"I guess it's some kind of a cross." the boy responded after taking a look at it.

"Then that'll be my name. From now on, call me Cross!" it declared while sticking its right arm forward, after throwing away its namesake.

"I'm Bill, by the way."

The words interrupted the dramatic mood so everybody momentarily turned their attention to look at the scientist. It seemed like he was slowly regaining his composure, since he smiled slightly, but it looked like he decided to sit down on one of the better looking benches in order not to get in the way, and to wait until he was completely fine. He did a weird wave with his hand, which probably meant that he wanted them to go on with whatever they were doing, and not to pay him any more attention.

. . .

Some amount of time earlier, two helicopters, each carrying around a dozen Team Rocket members, were about to fly over Cerulean City. The same girl who earlier informed Angie about one of their men finding M2, was sitting opposite of the admin, waiting for some kind of order. She glanced towards a window, although she couldn't see anything of interest without standing up. Since the information about their target's whereabouts was pretty vague, she wondered if their boss decided on a suitable place to land. They had a distorted photo which caught Mewtwo's legs and tail. Since it was taken in Cerulean a day earlier, they had to hope that the Pokemon didn't leave. Another thing to take into account was how would it be able to hide in the city. The old part seemed like the only good place but it would still take a long time to search all the ruins without scaring M2 away. Unfortunately for them, the labyrinth of alleys was too tight for their vehicles and they couldn't land in the new part of the city without attracting attention.

"How are..." the girl stopped herself mid-sentence after seeing Angie stand up.

She realized that the pilot announced that they were closing in, right before she started her question. Angie's movements seemed almost robotic because of how much she was focused on her goal. The admin walked over to the doors, everyone else giving her space, without asking any questions about her intentions. After inputting a combination of numbers, the doors opened on their own and before anyone could understand what happened, Angie was gone. A bunch of her underlings started undoing the belts holding them in their seats, so the other girl had to take command in order to stop them from doing something unnecessary, not to mention dangerous.

"Stop that! Return to your seats!"

They listened to her begrudgingly, but even after returning to their places, they remained clearly worried. The girl decided to deal with that by using a communication device placed in her ear to contact their boss. She pointed at it to let everyone know that they should turn on their own ones.

"Miss Angie. What should be our course of action?"

"I'll land in the old city and start scouting it out. Find a place to land outside Cerulean and change into civilian clothing. Enter the old city when you're ready but let me know. Cover the biggest entrances and have at least two people observing from somewhere up high in case M2 tries to escape by air. If we don't find it immediately, we'll using Koffings and Weezings to smoke it out." she responded, although at some points it was hard to hear her because of the wind.

The Team Rocket members felt a lot more calm knowing that she was okay, although many of them still wondered what she did. They rarely saw her using her Pokemon, but even then, they didn't remember her having a Flying type at her disposal.

. . .

"Now look at this! Water Gun!"

Misty's Staryu who already was using Rapid Spin to rotate in air, started shooting out a stream of water, although making sure not to put too much power into it. The effect seemed similar to a sprinkler or a small fountain. The children watch this performance with awe. Seeing that they were growing uncomfortable with waiting for Red an Bill to return, the Gym leader decided that it was the best way to cheer them up. Additionally, having Staryu already out of its pokeball was a good move, in case the mysterious Pokemon would find them before the boys would find it. Although she already saw this kind of thing multiple times, Misty also got into Staryu's show and observed its movements with a big smile. It was thanks to looking up towards it, that she noticed something quickly flying over the buildings. She could tell that it was something blue, but nothing else.

"Was that the Pokemon you were talking about?" she turned to the children.

Neither of them seemed sure. Misty began worrying that the Pokemon would run away if it noticed them so she started looking around. After finding a building in a relatively good state, she told the children to hide in there until she returned, leaving Staryu to protect them in case the mysterious Pokemon would return and find them. After that, she took off in the direction it flew towards.

. . .

"I give you the right to attack first." said Mewtwo.

"Oh. That's awfully nice of you. But it seems like you're not taking us seriously." responded Red "And that may be a big mistake on your part. Charmander, Flame Charge!"

The lizard set itself on fire and started running towards the opponent. Even though his speed was increased, Mewtwo perceived his movements almost as if the Fire Pokemon was moving in slow motion. It decided against making any unnecessary movements and simply jumped while raising its knees, making its foe run straight into the altar. Realizing what just happened, all the lizard could do was turn off his flames. The altar was a wooden one and setting it on fire could lead to the whole church catching on fire. Despite that, the force with which he hit it was enough to make him break through the wood and get the upper half of his body stuck inside. Mewtwo wondered whether it should help its opponent get out of there, but chose not to do it after seeing Charmander struggling with all his strength.

"Use Metal Claw to get out."

After listening to his trainer, the lizard was easily able to break through the wood. He turned towards Mewtwo, trying to hide how angry he was at being treated in such a way. He didn't realize that thanks to its psychic abilities, his opponent could easily read the mood. It decided to use it to its advantage, even if it didn't really need to put in much work to win. It put one of its hands forward and made an inviting motion with it, taunting its foe.

"Charmander, don't let yourse..."

It was already too late. Charmander used another Flame Charge to launch himself in Mewtwo's direction before getting rid of it midway and turning his claws into metal. With each slash, Mewtwo took a swift backstep, at one point making even a spin. After some time, it jumped and did a somersault in order to land behind some obstacle. It was only after that Charmander realized that his opponent was dancing around him and he was led back straight to the altar. Mewtwo leaned forward by putting both its hands on the wood and looked at the lizard from above. The Fire Pokemon got frustrated even more, but at least it seemed like he realized that trying to fight on his own was even less effective than when he listened to Red's commands. He looked back at his trainer to let him know that he returned to his senses and was ready to listen to his orders again.

Red smiled and quickly came up with a new plan "Flamethrower up!"

Mewtwo had to push itself backwards in order to avoid the pillar of fire which almost hit its face. It lost its balance momentarily and the teenager wanted to make the best out of that small amount of time.

"Flame Charge!" he shouted while signaling with his hand.

Mewtwo used its tail to stabilize itself and was about to jump back, expecting Charmander to jump over the table, but because of the earlier Flamethrower, it wasn't able to see that Red ordered Charmander to circle around the altar. It saw the flames with the corner of its eye but wasn't able to do anything before being hit in its left leg. That was enough to make it trip up. Charmander had to travel some more before he would be able to stop himself and turn around. During that time, Mewtwo, who was falling towards the floor, used its telekinetic abilities to spin itself enough to break the fall with its arm.

Noticing that Charmander was already facing it again, readying another Flame Charge, it glared at him with an amazing amount of pressure. That was the sign of it using Disable to make the lizard unable to repeat his attack. Unfortunately for himself, the Fire Pokemon didn't realize it and began running at Mewtwo without setting itself on fire. Meanwhile, his trainer jumped onto one of the benches since he wasn't able to get a full view of the battle from the floor.

Mewtwo understood that even without fire surrounding him, Charmander hitting the arm, which was the only thing stopping it from falling down in those fractions of a second, would still be enough to deal some damage. To avoid that, it used its powers to cover its free arm and swung it, creating a blade of telekinetic energy which was enough to send Charmander flying into a nearby pillar. For a second, during which Mewtwo had enough time to jump back on its feet, Red became worried about the structural integrity of the church, since some dust fell down from the ceiling after that impact.

"Grab onto the pillar!" the boy ordered after noticing that Charmander was about to fall out of the small indentation he made with his body.

The lizard used Metal Claw to dig into the stone and was ready for his next command. Mewtwo was positively surprised by that swift recovery, which could be seen from its smirk.

"Flamethrower!"

This one was much more dangerous than the previous one since it was a horizontal attack. As soon as Mewtwo saw the flames traveling in its direction, it knew that it couldn't just step back like previously. It jumped to the side but the attack didn't stop. Charmander kept on spewing flames from his mouth, driving his opponent closer and closer to a wall. Mewtwo realized the trap it was walking into and took as little time as it could to use Barrier. The force it was able to withstand was in large part based on how much energy the Pokemon could exert itself. This way it became a contest of who would run out of power sooner. Since it already felt that Charmander couldn't keep up the Flamethrower longer than it could maintain its shield, it was against ending it in such a boring way. It started moving forward, although the constant onslaught of fire was making each step a great effort.

Realizing that Mewtwo planned to crash into Charmander with its Barrier, which would simultaneously stop the flames and damage the lizard, Red came up with a risky juke "Let go and use Smokescreen!"

As soon as the lizard stopped using flames, Mewtwo was able to speed up so it was still uncertain if Charmander would be able to escape from being crushed by the Barrier. Fortunately, the Psychic Pokemon slammed into the pillar at the same time that Charmander landed on the floor and started releasing black clouds of smoke from its mouth. Mewtwo released its shield and immediately tried to kick forward, hoping to hit its opponent, but instead his foot met with the pillar, irritating it.

It was clear that Charmander already managed to move away. Mewtwo decided to focus its abilities since, if it had enough time, it would be able to feel out where its opponent was. But Red didn't want to give him that chance. His Pokemon moved out of the cloud and looked at him. The boy pointed towards the place where the pillar was. He deduced that Mewtwo would try to go about the whole thing calmly, which in that instance would prove to be a wrong choice. Charmander understood his trainer without the need for words and shot out another Flamethrower before his foe was able to locate him. Mewtwo thought it felt something so it turned towards that direction while touching its head with one hand and pointing forward with the other.

"It must be him. I..."

It didn't have time to finish that thought since the flames of Charmander's attack reached it. Although they weren't enough to hurt it too much, the surprise of being hit by them was enough to make it stumble backwards, which allowed them to propel it through the air and into a wall. Red gave his Pokemon a sign to stop in order to try to listen and feel out how effective his plan was. The fact that it fell for such a basic trap, annoyed the artificial Pokemon more than it would like to admit. But that fact became clear when it allowed its emotion to control its actions.

After getting itself up from the floor, on which it landed after hitting the wall, the first thing it did was focus its energy to unleash a powerful Psywave which traveled through the entire church, dispersing the Smokescreen, but also pushing back Charmander and causing Red to fall off from the bench he was standing on. Bill immediately stood up. After regaining his calm, he observed the battle with great interest, but at that moment he became worried about Red. Fortunately, the boy got up from the floor with just a few bruises.

Mewtwo started quickly walking forward, but after realizing that its attack accidentally hurt the boy, it let go of the energy it was gathering in its hand. Even though there wasn't an official agreement, it knew that Red wasn't supposed to be involved in the battle in such a capacity, which immediately made it feel bad about what it did. It stopped midway and started wondering. The thing that caught its attention was that it never thought about how humans were much more fragile than Pokemon.

"Are you alright?" it spoke telepathically.

Its reaction momentarily surprised everyone, but Red smiled and gave it a thumbs up sign. Mewtwo felt relieved. It felt like it was about to undo everything it learned that day with one stupid act. It didn't have much time to think it over since another bothersome thing happened right at that moment. It heard a small piece of the ceiling fall down to the floor. All of them turned their gazes upwards and quickly realized that Mewtwo's Psywave must have disrupted the already weakened structure of the building.

More and more small pieces of rubble were falling towards the floor. The first thing Red did as a reaction to that, was return Charmander to his pokeball. Mewtwo quickly looked around to decide the best course of action in the limited time they had before the whole church would collapse on them. He grabbed both humans and while holding them like barrels of wine, shot out towards the entrance of the church, since it seemed that the hole in the wall would be quickly blocked, considering that the building started crumbling from the front. Bill closed his eyes because he remembered in an instant that the doors were locked and he feared they would crash into them. After hearing a loud noise, he opened them back again and saw that they were already outside. He looked back and realized that Mewtwo must have applied Psycho Cut to its leg in order to kick the doors open. They barely managed to land a few meters away from the church before they saw it completely collapse.

"That was a close one." stated Red, who for a moment had to take off his hat to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"Yeah. No kidding." replied Bill "Let's never do that again."

Both of them started laughing. Mewtwo, who stood between them, looked at their happy faces and although it never did it before, it felt that it was about to laugh with them. It started to open its mouth but before any sound could come out of it, something unpleasant interrupted it. It instantly spun around and jumped back towards the church, making sure not to hit the other two with its tail. Realizing that something must have happen to make it act in such a manner, both humans went immediately stopped laughing, went on guard and turned to see what it was that affected their new acquaintance.

"Team Rocket!" both of them announced simultaneously.

The one who stood before them was Angie. She wasn't alone. Her Dragonair was slowly circling around her, moving through the air, ready to protect her from any attack. She started walking forward and her Pokemon was able to keep up without breaking its rotation. Uncertain of what she could want with them, both males remained vigilant. She stopped when she was around a meter away from them. She stared at each of them for about 5 seconds before turning her gaze towards Mewtwo.

"It seems I'm in the presence of a celebrity." she stated.

Bill, who subconsciously focused on how naturally beautiful the girl looked, blushed a little while responding "Weeell... I wouldn't exactly call myself a celebrity."

"I wasn't talking about you." she quickly interjected without even looking in his direction "I have no idea who you are. But you..."

She walked up even closer to Red, ignoring the quiet sobbing of the disappointed scientist. Even with the Dragonair spinning around her, they were almost uncomfortably close.

"I know you. I don't have a lot of free time but I still dedicate it to improving Team Rocket. I dug around a bit and found out that you already got in our way 3 times. Not to mention your fight with Darkness Gang." she explained.

"Oookay... Why did you do that?"

She sighed quietly since her opinion of him already worsened after seeing that he wasn't immediately able to catch onto what she was suggesting.

"I offer you a place on Team Rocket." she said while extending one hand towards his face, as if she was expecting him to kiss it "If you're as good as they make you out to be, you can even become my right hand. And I assure you that you'll be much better off with me than with Alex."

"Am I supposed to be charmed?" he asked while gently shoving her hand away.

She furrowed her brows but quickly returned to a calmer expression, in order to pretend that she didn't really care that Red wasn't interest in her offer.

"That's enough!" Mewtwo's thoughts were so loud that all the humans grabbed their ears, even though it wasn't of any use in blocking its telepathy.

"That's right. It's shameful that I would get so distracted right after finding my target." commented Angie.

She started looking in Mewtwo's direction.

"Wait a minute. Do you know her, Cross?" Red was trying to understand the situation at hand.

"Cross?" she asked with a monotone voice "So you have chosen a new name for yourself... That won't do. Your name is M2. You're the property of Team Rocket. Now, quit this foolishness and come with me. I don't want to harm you if it's not necessary since everyone put so much work into creating you... Especially the boss. He has great hopes for you."

"I refuse." it responded immediately.

Angie was so concerned about how to deal with Mewtwo's refusal, especially without her underlings and the unforeseen factor of Red being there, that she didn't notice Bill quietly slipping away into another alley. When the scientist was far enough, he took out his cellphone and, through a video call, connected with Cerulean City Police Department.

Angie was taken out of her thoughts by a sound in her ear. It was obvious that it was her subordinates trying to inform her that they entered the old part of the city, but she decided to listen to what they had to say anyway, which was a big mistake on her part. Mewtwo quickly advanced towards her as soon as she lost her focus and delivered a powerful and precise punch to Dragonair's chin. It was so strong that it pushed the dragon backwards without it having time to release Angie from its protection, which caused it to have the opposite effect since the girl was pulled along with it. The Pokemon hit the wall of a nearby building and took most of the brunt of the attack, but the admin looked like she also felt some of it, which could be seen from her massaging her arm after falling on the cobbled road.

Mewtwo's attack was so fast that it took Red a second to understand what just happened. When he saw quiet anger in the Pokemon's eyes, the boy quickly walked up to it, hoping that he would be able to calm it down. It wasn't because he was worried for the Team Rocket member but because he didn't want Cross to once again become swallowed by negative thoughts. He jumped in front of it after realizing that it wanted to walk towards Angie to deliver another hit.

"Move out of my way. Don't try to stop me, Red."

"No. You can't do it. I saw how you felt after hurting me in the church. This is the same as that. It's different from a Pokemon battle where everyone agrees on a fight."

"No. This isn't the same. You don't understand." the voice it projected sounded more and more annoyed.

"Then make me understand!" the boy insisted.

"They... Team Rocket... Aside from the fact that they haven't stopped following me... I don't really know what kind of organization they are. But I can feel their emotions. As soon as I was born, everything I could feel around me was like clouds of poison. I had to get out of there. Even this one..." he stopped to point at Angie who pushed away her Dragonair to have an easier time at getting of the ground "...I can feel the good in her but it's hidden away under a deep layer of darkness. Although I sometimes can feel negativity from normal people... Even your doubts during our battle, even Bill's fear after seeing me... The light in you gives me hope that humans can be good. But not them. There's not a single member of Team Rocket who could be considered a good person. I don't know what they created me for but it's surely something that would create even more negativity in the world. I finally understand what I should have done from the beginning... I need to destroy them to erase all that negativity."

"You're not going to change anything that way. Instead of focusing on erasing the negative feeling through force, you should focus on trying to understand where those feelings come from. I'm not really that smart when it comes to those things but I know that talking to someone is better than not giving them a chance."

"No!"

Mewtwo accidentally unleashed a Psywave which threw the boy on the ground. The Pokemon immediately looked worried by what it has done. Before it could offer the teenager a helping hand, he got up himself and got right in its face.

"Yes! Don't you see? I care about what you want to do with this girl! If you destroy her like you said and I start hating you, what will you do?! Will you want to erase my negativity too?!"

Mewtwo was so conflicted that it had to drop the telepathic connection. It grabbed its head and hunched over, hoping to find a good answer to Red's question among the multitude of thoughts going through its head. While the artificial Pokemon was busy battling its thoughts, it seemed like the Team Rocket admin wanted to start an entirely different battle.

"Dragonair, Fire Blast!"

As soon as her Pokemon shot out its five-armed flame, one of Red's pokeballs opened on its own and Charmander jumped out of it in order to block the attack with his body. Although being a Fire type helped the lizard withstand it, he still felt the pain. Mewtwo, Angie and Dragonair looked as surprised by his arrival as his own trainer. The Pokemon looked at Red with determination in his eyes.

"I understand." the boy responded.

"What is..." Mewtwo tried to ask, although it was barely able to stand because of the mess of thoughts weakening its mind and messing with its ability to perceive things.

"Charmander came up with a great idea. You feel like it's your duty to get the world rid of Team Rocket because you experienced firsthand the effect of their negativity. But if we're there to help you, you won't have to deal with it alone which means you won't have to use such drastic measures." explained the trainer.

His Pokemon nodded in approval of the conveyed message.

"Why are you... willing to go to such lengths... for someone you just met?"

"What are you talking about?" Red smiled before turning his back towards the Pokemon in order to make what he was about to say seem less embarrassing "We're already friends."

Angie became somewhat mesmerized since the interactions between Red and M2 seemed weirdly interesting. She quickly came back to her senses after noticing that the boy was staring at her. She blushed, ashamed by the fact that she didn't take her chance to attack when they were occupied.

"What are you waiting for?! Use another Fire Blast!" she ordered her Pokemon.

"Counter it with a Flamethrower!" shouted Red.

Both of the Pokemon shot out their flames and their attacks collided in mid-air. Although Dragonair's move was stronger it was a one-time thing, while Charmander kept on using Flamethrower which meant that Fire Blast was slowly but surely being pushed back towards the dragon.

"That's how you want to play?!" Angie somewhat became more excited by the battle than she would have liked to "We'll also use Flamethrower!"

The added force of Dragonair's second attack shifted tipped the scales in the admin's favor but it seemed like that particular day wasn't ready to stop gifting Red with surprises. Right as they were about to lose, Charmander's body started to glowing with a bright light. He grew larger and seemed to gain a horn on his head. As soon as the light faded, the power of his Flamethrower strengthened significantly. The Pokemon was now red instead of orange, but even though his appearance changed, his will to fight remained the same. Red didn't have to use the Pokedex to learn this new form's name, since he already looked it up previously, out of curiosity. But there was something else to be learned from the device. Just as he thought, with this evolution, his Pokemon gained a new move and it seemed like a good time to try it out.

"Let's kick it up a notch! Charmeleon, change your Flamethrower into a Dragon Rage!"

Because he was already using another attack, the flames created by the new move didn't look like the ones Red saw earlier in the day, instead keeping the continuous form of Flamethrower, seemingly changing only in color. But that was just a secondary observation. As soon as the blue flames reached the Fire Blast which was stuck between the two streams of fire, they started to push it back with great speed. Dragonair kept on pushing back when suddenly it felt something hit its face from the side. It was distracted long enough for Charmeleon's Dragon Rage to completely obliterate the dragon's flames, causing a big explosion which sent it flying through the wall which was weakened from the previous time it hit it.

Charmeleon stopped its attack and everyone looked to the side to see who helped him win. The ones they saw were Misty and her Starmie. Angie looked ticked off but she held her anger inside. She quickly returned Dragonair to its pokeball before looking around like a bewildered Rattata surrounded by Ekanses. She was about to call out her second Pokemon when she heard her communicator again.

"What is taking you so long?" she said quietly after touching it, making sure to keep her eyes on everyone around her.

"You told some guys to find a high ground and observe... Dammit! You told them to observe everything from there. It seems somebody called the police. They just arrived and now we're in the middle of a battle." responded one of her underlings.

"Who...?!"

"Hey, everyone. Did I miss anything?" asked Bill who has just returned.

Only after looking at him, Angie realized that he must have slipped away sometime earlier and called the police. She wanted to punish him for interfering her plans but knew that Red would stop her if she wasn't fast enough. She threw a pokeball in the scientist direction in order to have her Sandslash appear right in front of him.

"Slash!" she chose that attack since it had the shortest name, in order to further increase the chances of nobody being able to stop it.

Although neither Red nor Misty were fast enough to give out an order, there was still someone who could choose the best course of action on their own. Mewtwo pushed itself off the ground and although there was no time to activate Psycho Cut, it blocked the attack with its crossed arms. Sandslash didn't even notice what happened until it landed and noticed the purple body in front of it. The Ground Pokemon was so shocked, especially by the fact that its attack didn't seem to do almost any damage, that it had to take a couple steps back.

Although it also took him a while to understand what happened, Bill finally spoke up "Thanks for the save."

"That's what friends are for." Cross responded while giving Red a meaningful look.

Sandslash backed off so far that it ended up next to its trainer, whose attempts at keeping in her anger looked like she was almost about to cry. To let out her anger, she punched the already damaged wall, not noticing that it caused a loose tile to fall off the roof. Since her Sandslash seemed oblivious to it, Red was the closest person. In the state she was in, it was almost certain that she wouldn't listen to him so he opted for a more direct approach.

He tackled her, not giving her a chance to understand what was happening. They flew through the hole in the wall and it would seem like they were out of danger but the floor was covered with rubble and glass so the landing probably wouldn't be too soft. Red spun around so that it would be him who would take in most of the pain. He felt something pierce his back. It hurt so much that he immediately let go of the girl, who got up as quick as she could, confused and trying not to blush.

As she was going back through the hole, she noticed the destroyed tile in the place she was standing in before. After seeing that, she glanced back at the boy who was slowly getting up. Her first instinct was to repay his kindness by giving him a helping hand, but she immediately reminded herself that he was still her enemy. Not to mention that Misty, who was worried about Red, approached the building and her Starmie was dangerously close.

"Miss Angie!" someone shouted.

Suddenly, a bunch of Team Rocket members arrived from different directions. Bill decided to keep hiding behind Mewtwo since the criminals had multiple Ekanses, Zubats and Koffings with them. Among them was Angie's right hand who saluted her boss as soon as she looked at her.

"Our people are still struggling with the police but we're here to help you." the girl announced.

"Good. Now that we have bigger numbers, the victory will be ours." stated the admin.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." although Red was bleeding from his back, he managed to get out of the building and throw four pokeballs into air "Go, everyone!"

Seeing that, Misty decided to call out her last Pokemon "Go, my steady!"

Red and Misty stood together, surrounded by Red's team, Starmie and Golduck. Seeing that, some of the Team Rocket members became a little uncertain of their chances at winning but after receiving one angry look from Angie, each of them was ready to take their chances with the battle. They were about to start giving orders, but Cross, who didn't need any, was quicker. Before anyone could attempt something, it already appear in front of two Zubats and knocked them down towards the ground with solid chops. Seeing a Koffing trying to react to its attack, it spun around, grabbed it with its tail and threw it at a nearby Ekans, taking both of them out of the battle. While everyone was busy trying to comprehend what happened, Red didn't waste any time and started giving out orders.

"Dragon Rage! Thunderbolt! Swift! Bounce! Mega Drain!" he said while pointing to specific targets, so that his Pokemon wouldn't clash with each other by trying to attack the same enemy.

Misty followed in his steps "Rapid Spin! Zen Headbutt!"

Seeing her underlings' Pokemon being defeated one after another, Angie started realizing that she should have already abandoned the mission. She struggled between the thoughts of failing Giovanni and her being able to escape. Although it would mean being humiliated by Alex and Peter, running away would mean that she could still be able to be of use to Team Rocket in the future.

"You! What's your name?!" she asked one of the closer Team Rocket members, one whom she for some reason didn't recognize.

"It's Ro... Roger." he responded "I know I'm not part of your faction but I wante..."

"I don't care. Tell your Koffing to use Smokescreen so that we can escape."

"But what about..."

"Do what I tell you." she added with a much colder voice.

"Koffing, use Smokescreen!"

Although the battle didn't last long, it was only after beating everyone else, and with Mewtwo keeping an eye on all the helpless Team Rocket members, that Red was able to see that Angie managed to run away. But all of the excitement of the day and his slow blood loss were too much for him to attempt running after her, especially if he didn't know which way she went.

"Alright. So what now?" asked Bill, who finally felt safe enough to approach the others.

"I'm not sure. I want to be more like Red, but I still can't forgive Team Rocket... At the same time, living while fighting for freedom every day of my life..." Cross sounded very somber.

"Oh. I completely forgot about this thing." Bill stated after taking out the device he showed to Red when they entered the church "It's a shame I didn't get to use it."

"That's it!" exclaimed Red.

He almost fell over, but Mewtwo caught him in time.

"Misty." the boy looked at the Gym leader.

"What is it?"

"It may be a little specific but do you know any place in Cerulean or nearby which is a big, enclosed space, with access to food and water, yet without any humans inside?"

The girl felt like Red was joking since the kind of place he described did exist, and was known by everyone living in Cerulean City.

. . .

After the police arrived and arrested around half of the Team Rocket members who took part in the hunt for Mewtwo, Misty went back for the pair of children and introduced them to Mewtwo. She, Cross and Bill kept Red company when he visited the hospital to get the shards of glass taken out of his back. He got bandaged and, although the doctor insisted that he stay the night, decided to leave in order to check out the place he and Misty talked about.

They had to take a boat to get there and the sun had already set by the time they arrived at the entrance to the famous Cerulean Cave. Bill took that chance to explain that the place was a mine in the past, but the presence of humans angered a Rhydon who went on a rampage and scared all the people away. Although the cave was abandoned, during the summer, teenagers would sometimes dare each other to spend a night inside.

"I know it's not as nice as that church you were in but there's a looot more space. There are ponds, edible roots and mushrooms, so you'll never be thirsty or hungry. And you'll have other Pokemon to keep you company. So?" Red looked at Mewtwo "Do... Do you like it? Maybe not? We can search for another..."

"No. This is fine." responed Cross "But I feel bad by passing my burden onto you."

"Hey! Remember. "That's what friends are for". Besides, it's not something that I'll be doing alone."

"That's right." said Misty "Police, Gym leaders and even some more amazing people are all uniting. Together we'll surely defeat Team Rocket."

"You'll be safe in here. Although I still don't know if I'll be able to create something that will be able to break the barrier, I'll start working on it as soon as Team Rocket are all behind bars."

"And I'll arrange to have two people always guarding the entrance to the cave, so that they can contact me if Team Rocket try something."

Mewtwo smiled. It though about how Articuno would react if it saw him with all these new, great friends. It reached out to Bill who handed it the device.

"Push this button. Give the barrier some time to cover the cave and then just throw this thing on the ground." the scientist explained.

"Alright." responed the Pokemon.

It wend inside the cave and, soon after that, a pink light shone from inside. Red approached the entrance at took a last look at Cross, through the slightly transparent energy field. The Pokemon waved to him and gave him a smile before disappearing in the darkness of the cave.


Hello, people of the internet. I think I shout get like a welcome phrase which I could use regularly instead of writing something stupid every time.

The first arc(I would call it Mewtwo Arc, even though it was only in like 4/21 chapters) is finally over. Surprisingly, this finale was easier to write than the two parter about Blue. The main thing was me trying to stop myself from writing too much. I was considering splitting this one further into two 4k words chapters but I decided against it since there wasn't a good place to stop. So you get the entire story about how Red and Cross/Mewtwo(Another name I was considering was Fresco) became friends, in one package.

Speaking about that, the friendship was the biggest change for those two chapters. The word for word description I had of those chapter since before even Gen 6 came out is(I'll have to quickly translate it which is somehow harder than just writing in english):

"Red arrives in Cerulean City after choosing another way to reach Celadon City. There's a big ruckus in the city because of a Team Rocket attack. Misty and a Pokemon research, Bill(Originally he didn't appear in Chapter 9), suspect that they(Team Rocket) are trying to draw attention away from a cave next to the city, in which lives a powerful Pokemon. When they arrive there, they see Angie, an admin, and a Sandslash with Mewtwo(This sentence didn't even sound right). Red sends Magikarp and Oddish to stop Sandslash, and together with the remaining Pokemon tries to calm down Mewtwo. Bill develops a computer program to catch Mewtwo. Misty protects him from Team Rocket. During the fight, Charmander evolves into Charmeleon. Bill locks Mewtwo in the cave and Team Rocket runs away."

So, basically, besides the characters, everything changed. During those couple years I learned how to plan out stories so instead of having Mewtwo debut only now, I planted the seeds for this story since Chapters 10-11. I came to a conclusion that having Mewtwo as an antagonist wouldn't be fun nor original. I also changed Bill's computer program(?) into a chekov's gun... barrier maker. Yeah. I also wanted to put some focus on Angie since she's my favorite admin. She always had a Dragonair but in my plans it didn't debut till later, so having Dragonair right after a Dratini was a coincidence.

I went and cheated a bit with Charmeleon. I try to have every Pokemon have only 4 moves at any given time. I like Charmander's moveset. It's very versatile and I can write(hopefully) interesting battles with it so I didn't want to change it, but I needed to give it a new move. That's why I decided that I'll count Dragon Rage as a variation of Flamethrower and this way have him with 5 moves. Also, if anyone didn't realize, Mewtwo wasn't fighting seriously until it used the Psywave. If it did, Charmander would end up like those Team Rocket Pokemon at the end.

The name of the chapter connects with the previous one to make "Search and Destroy", since Team Rocket are kinda like an army. And the titles clearly illustrate what each chapter is about.

I'll probably take a short break before I start writing the next chapter so it may not come out until february. Also, the next 5-6 aren't really a part of an arc. Another, more tightly knitted arc start after that so look forward to it.

There was probably a lot more stuff I wanted to talk about but it's hard to remember. If anything isn't clear, don't be afraid to ask. I'll try to explain. Also, let me know if I make any goofs. I looked at the previous chapter a couple time for reference and there was one sentence where I messed up and used like three different words instead of the one I wanted and it didn't make any sense. I went and changed it but there's probably a bunch of these mistakes that neither me nor Word are able to catch.

Also, unrelated to the Chapter but related to Pokemon, I finally got a Ludicolo in Go. Aside from most legendaries(don't have time for raids) and regionals and Pokemon not yet available in the game, I have all the Pokemon from Gen 1-3. Now I'm going to start walking around with a Skorupi or something.

EDIT: I actually forgot a short scene I wanted to write. I'll try to put it in the next chapter or something.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmeleon, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 3

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, ?.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.