Chapter 80: On the Search for a Mystery

It was late one evening in Vermillion City. In the Cerise Institute, Goh was sitting at his desk, fiddling around with a contraption. Ash came in from training to find him hard at work.

"Hey Goh, whatcha working on there?"

"Just putting the finishing touches on my invention."

Curious, Ash sat up and walked over to his desk.

"I didn't know you were an inventor."

"Well, not really, but I am pretty good at fixing the machines around here. But I've been working on this device for ages, and its almost complete."

"What is it?"

"It's a device that will detect Pokemon energy."

"Pokemon energy?"

"You see, whenever a Pokemon uses an attack, they release a certain wavelength of energy depending on what type the attack was. And if it was the same type as the Pokemon who used it, it'll be even more powerful."

"And this device will be able to locate the source?"

"Theoretically, yes. Just need to twist this last screw, and…done! Now I just need to test it. Would Pikachu mind being my test subject?"

Pikachu nodded, giving him the thumbs up.

"Great! Just go find a hiding spot, and in 10 minutes use an Electric type attack. If this machine works, we'll be able to find you."

"Pika!"

Pikachu ran off, Goh taking a look at his watch to count down. Once 10 minutes had passed, he turned on his device.

"Now to set it to detect electric energy, and…got it!"

Sure enough, a large dot appeared on Goh's screen. After tweaking the settings a bit, it showed Pikachu was in the laboratory's park.

"Alright, let's go find Pikachu!"

"Right!"

It didn't take long to find Pikachu, who had hidden in a crevice up on a cliff. When Pikachu saw them, he immediately ran up to take his place on Ash's shoulder.

"It works! Thanks, Pikachu, you were a big help."

"Pika!"

"Now just hold still for a minute."

Pikachu was confused, but did as Goh asked while his device scanned him.

"There! Now it'll recognize your signature, and I can compare it to other electric types. Plus, now if Team Rocket manages to steal you, we can use it to track them down."

Ash, as usual, was amazed by all this.

"Science really is amazing! Are you going to try and find Mew now?"

"Not yet. First, I'd better make sure it works on more types."

"Good idea."

Goh sent out his Kubfu, and gave her the same directions as Pikachu. Sure enough, they found her just as easily as they had found Pikachu. After testing it on a few more of the Pokemon in the park, Goh was satisfied that the device worked like he wanted it to.

"Perfect! Now, for the final test."

After making the necessary adjustments, he hit the button. Almost immediately, a huge indicator popped up on screen, making Goh's eyes go wide.

"Woah, look at that!"

"That's a huge surge of Psychic energy off the coast of Kanto! Do you think it's Mew?"

"I don't know, but it's powerful, whatever it is!"

Just then, Lillie and Chloe came in, having heard all the commotion.

"What's going on?"

"Goh thinks he might have found Mew!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, check out my tracker!"

"Hey, you managed to get it working!"

"Yep, and check it out. I'm getting a huge energy reading coming from this island a few hundred miles South of Cinnabar Island! Whether its Mew or not, it's incredibly powerful."

"So cool! Are you going to tell Project Mew?"

"I'll need to if we want this investigated."

So Goh took out his phone and called their headquarters. Quillon answered the call, his trademark glare plastered on his face.

"Challenger Goh, do you have something to report?"

Goh showed him the tracker and explained everything. He was hoping for some praise, bu he was soon disappointed.

"Do you have proof that Mew is the source of this reading?"

"Well, no."

"And how do I know you actually tested it? For all I know, you could be bluffing in hopes of getting more tokens."

"I would never!"

"This call is finished. Unless you want to be expelled from the Project, I suggest you don't call again unless you have proof to back up your claims."

"What's going on here?"

Before Quillon could hang up, Professor Willow stepped into the screen, curiously. Goh explained everything again, and instead of dismissing his claims the Professor stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"This may be worth investigating. We'll meet you at Vermillion City's port so we can all investigate further."

Quillon remained skeptical, however.

"Professor, with all due respect, you're basing an investigation off an energy reading from a toy. For all we know, this is just a fluke."

"You may be right, Quillon, but as a scientist its my job to determine the truth. Go and inform Danika of the mission."

Quillon scoffed, but complied. Willow turned back to Goh and smiled.

"Good work, Goh. You might be onto something."

With that, the Professor hung up the phone. Goh pumped his fist, excitedly.

"Alright, time for adventure!"

The next morning, Ash and Goh were waiting at the docks for the members of Project Mew, who would be arriving any moment by boat. Chloe had school, and Lillie had an errand to run for Professor Cerise, but both girls wished their boyfriends the best of luck. Ash paced the docks, excitedly.

"This is going to be awesome! It's too bad they couldn't bring their flying base, that looked awesome!"

"They said there wasn't a good place to land it without causing a disturbance."

Suddenly, two Pokeballs on their belts began to shake. The two opened them to find their Kubfus, ready for battle. Ash chuckled at how eager they were.

"I guess you guys can't hold back how eager you are either, huh?'

"Fu!"

"Well, I don't see any problem with it. After all, you guys won't get any stronger unless you get some experience."

The Wushu Pokemon cheered, just in time for the Project Mew boat to pull up to the dock. No sooner had the engine stopped did Danika run down the gangway, scooping up the two Pokemon and cuddling them.

"Oh, you're so cute! I could just eat you up!"

Quillon just sighed at his partner's antics.

"Danika, stop it. We have a job to do."

Danika, realizing what she was doing, chuckled sheepishly and put the two Pokemon down.

"Heh heh, sorry. Guess I got carried away there. Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah! Let's go find Mew!"

Quillon scoffed.

"I'm telling you, this is a waste of time."

"And I'm telling you, the Professor wants to be sure."

Quillon rolled his eyes and headed into the cabin.

"Whatever, just get onboard so I can prove it."

Danika sighed, and turned to the other two.

"Sorry about him. He's…difficult."

"So we've gathered," Ash remarked.

"Listen, Goh. You're not a chaser yet, and this mission could be quite dangerous. So try and stick close to us, ok? Quillon might not act like it, but he doesn't want you to get hurt any more than I do. And if this does turn out to be a fluke, don't get too disappointed, ok? Sometimes science is like that."

Goh nodded in understanding.

"Don't worry, Danika, I understand."

"Great! Now, it looks like we've got a while to go before we reach this island. Why don't you tell me about how this device of yours works?"

Goh smiled, and happily obliged.

Three hours later, the boat reached the Island on Goh's tracker. Once all four of them had departed, they took a good look around at their surroundings. The Island was one dense jungle, with trees stretching to the sky.

"Woah."

"You can say that again."

"Which way does the tracker say to go?"

Goh glanced down.

"Go straight for now."

So the group headed into the jungle. Unbeknownst to them, a mysterious pair of eyes were watching them overhead.

The quartet walked further into the jungle, taking note of the diversity of Pokemon they encountered. Wild Mankey and Grookey swung from the trees, Water Types of all sorts swam through the rivers, Slaking and Snorlax lounging in the shade, none of them had seen such a diverse ecosystem before.

"Incredible! All of these Pokemon from different regions together in the same place."

Just then, Goh spotted a Rhyhorn grazing in a meadow. Goh grinned, and was about to take out an empty Pokeball when his device started to go off like crazy.

"What's wrong, Goh?"

"I don't know. My device is alerting me to a proximity alert, but I don't see anything!"

Suddenly, Ash perked up, his aura sensitivity alerting him to a familiar presence.

"Ash, are you okay?"

"Guys, I think we're in trouble."

"What's wrong?"

Before Ash could answer, a huge shape fell from the sky. Everyone but Ash gasped when they saw what it was.

It was a tall, humanoid Pokemon. Pure white, with shades of purple. A weird tube stretched from its back to its head, and a huge purple tail swished behind it. If one didn't know any better, they might think it was Mew.

"You are not welcome here. LEAVE!"

"What is that thing?"

Ash gulped, now realizing just how much trouble they were in.

"Mewtwo."