Murkrow cawed anxiously from its spot between the thrust-apart elevator doors. Heart racing, Kenta sprinted for the empty vertical shaft, thrusting his arm out for the bird pokémon to grasp. Murkrow dug in its claws and proceeded to ascend, but Kenta pulled back.
"No! We need to go to the bottom. I have to know what else they've got!"
"Are you okay down there?" came Karen's voice from above. "They're coming. You've got five minutes at best!"
Kenta acknowledged the warning but ignored the urgency. Murkrow continued descent for ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds. A few moments more elapsed, then they touched down at the bottom, facing the final elevator doors.
"The fifth basement floor," muttered Kenta, preparing to tug the doors apart as Murkrow wedged its beak in. He noticed a crack of light between the doors. That's weird. When I left the light on upstairs, did it light the whole place up?
With a heave, he forced the doors.
The scene awaiting him was much like the fourth floor, with two notable exceptions. The first was a team of four men in white lab coats, who were lined up in front of the door. Three of them were holding pokeballs, while one had a cocked pistol in his hands, aiming at Kenta. Yet somehow, the firearm took a back seat to Kenta's second observation. In the middle of the room, at the center of all the shelves of pokeballs, was a transparent circular tube with green liquid inside. A nine-foot-tall creature drifted within the tube, strung up with a mess of wires, and a sort of breathing tube upon its face.
It was at this moment that Kenta first conceived in his mind that he might require the help of Mewtwo. He had heard of Mewtwo in the past; indeed, he had seen news reports showing blurry images of the creature, in sync with Giovanni's disappearance from Team Rocket. However, he had known little else, aside from rumors and obscure documents that a hacker friend had gotten off the deep web. It all came back to him now, as he gazed upon this creature floating in the test tube, guarded by doctors in lab coats who didn't seem the least bit pleased at being found out.
"Don't move!" shouted the gunman, leveling his pistol with Kenta's head. "Who are you? How did you get down here?"
Kenta's mind was made up in an instant. There was no way he would engage these guys in a battle, not when it was three-to-one, with a bullet aimed at his cranium. But nor could he stay there and cooperate under his time crunch, with reinforcements on the way who would probably kill him anyway. He was, after all, supposed to be dead already. Kenta jumped backward into the elevator shaft, launching himself sideways just enough to throw off the gunman's aim. There was a bang, and Kenta heard the bullet zing by his left ear.
"Murkrow! Up!" he cried, and a second later, he heard the men barking orders, followed by more bullets beneath his ascending feet.
"Go, Latios! Follow him!"
"You too, Latias!"
Latios and Latias? thought Kenta, erupting into a cold sweat as Murkrow flew up the shaft with all its strength. No way . . . there's no way-
Then he saw them. The psychic dragon siblings, Latios and Latias, came through the threshold further down the shaft and levitated their way towards him, fitting into the narrow confines just right. If they were to launch something like a Dragon Pulse or Luster Purge at him now, Kenta would surely die, or black out instantly from his injuries. He couldn't afford either, but he had no way to escape. In a vertical corridor, he would be hard to miss, unless Murkrow pulled him back into the room of the fourth floor. But even then, the Latis would simply corner him like a rat, and Bolt and Zapdos were simply too big to fit in the elevator shaft, to come to his aid.
Too big . . . wait a minute!
With his free hand, Kenta reached for his belt and dropped the only occupied ball that still remained on it. "Dragonite! Outrage!"
From her position outside, Karen watched keenly as the Champion Hall of Records lit up with a sudden, blazing light. A few seconds later, Murkrow emerged from the heat, dragging a blackened and limp Kenta by the arm. Karen's eyes widened in concern.
"Kenta! Are you okay? What happened down there?"
Kenta coughed and grimaced, then came to life with a sudden vigor, twisting around and looking back. "Dragonite!" he cried, stumbling back toward the mausoleum. "I have to see if Dragonite's okay-"
There was another explosion of light and heat, and Dragonite came shooting up through the floor of the elevator, ripping the metal hole even wider. The dragon pokémon touched down in front of Kenta, covered in cuts and bruises, but eyes alight with battle furor.
"It has some scales missing!" Karen observed. "Kenta, is that-?"
"Multiscale," Kenta replied. "That's how he managed to survive just one round against the dragon siblings. But we can't count on that again." He placed his hands on Dragonite's shoulders, looking at his pokémon with fierce pride. "You need to get out of here, but not with me. Mount Silver isn't too far west of here. Use your Extremespeed to fly out there, and don't stop until you've reached the high caves. A friend of mine is at the summit, and I'm entrusting you to his care until I come to get you. Can you make it?"
Dragonite nodded, then glanced in curiosity at Zapdos and Bolt, who were hovering just a little ways further above them. Kenta glanced hurriedly back at the Hall of Records, where Latios and Latias would emerge any second. "There's no time to explain now. Go!"
For the few persistent trainers who had ever leveled a Dratini all the way to its Dragonite form, there was a bond of mutual understanding that developed between dragon and tamer. Dragonite was intelligent enough to understand human speech beyond just the typical commands that a dog trainer might issue, and one day, he would demand that Kenta reveal everything. But until then, he would trust and obey. Dragonite was off like a shot, retreating so fast that a sonicboom echoed through the area. A few seconds later, a blue blur and a red blur burst from the Hall of Records, pursuing the orange dragon that had forced them back down the elevator shaft earlier.
Kenta leaped onto Bolt's back and widened his Master Ball to receive Zapdos. "We can't linger, Karen, and it's better that you don't know what I saw, for when they question you. I hope to see you again!"
"Wait!" cried Karen, as the Salamence lifted off. "It has to look like you beat me! Remember?"
Kenta's stomach turned over, but there was nothing for it. Karen sure had guts.
"Zapdos. Thunderbolt."
***
Back in the cabin on Mt. Quena, there was a long silence.
"Kenta, why didn't you ever tell me any of this?" asked Marina at last, looking hurt.
"I didn't tell anybody," Kenta replied tiredly, his voice somewhat raspy from his story. "Except for Hibiki. He's the only one I could ask to get involved so deeply in this."
"And the only thing I regret is how little I've been able to help," Hibiki said stoutly. "So don't go feeling guilty about that again."
Mewtwo's voice returned. "So. The humans that you've made your leaders are storing up all of your most powerful pokémon in a stronghold under the Indigo Plateau."
"I suspect that's just one storage area," said Kenta. "There may be one in the Hoenn League Headquarters as well, and in Sinnoh, and any of the other regions where the protection is heaviest. But chances are, I stumbled upon the biggest stash, since Kanto and Johto are the only regions to combine under one Headquarters."
"But that's not the big take-away from this story," Hibiki added, feeling queasy at the thought of it. "The scary part is that Kenta might have encountered an artificial pokémon in the making, built to take on whole armies single-handedly."
"I don't have any proof of it," said Kenta in a regretful voice. "I didn't even take a picture, much less a camcorder. But I know what I saw, and when people are secretly making pokémon in a chamber already filled with bio-weapons, their intentions can't be pure."
"Perhaps they are keeping all these pokémon out of harm's way, in eternal stasis hibernation, and are preparing a guardian for them more suitable than a human like Karen," said Mewtwo with just a hint of slyness in his manner.
Kenta perked up angrily. "What's with this Devil's Advocate response all of a sudden? Do you doubt my judgment of character?"
"No. But I know now why you sought me out. You are afraid that, when you initiate this civil war of yours, you will lose before you can recapture enough super pokémon to put up a decent fight. And you want me to support you until then, to buy you the time you need. Especially if the other side has made their own Mewtwo."
To this, Kenta said nothing. He sat upon the couch, eyes glued to the end wall. Mewtwo went on.
"I will not expose myself or my friends to the world for any reason, unless humans confront me directly and threaten our safety and freedom. Perhaps you are right about everything, and perhaps I am shortsighted. But as things now stand, trainers may catch less pokémon, and they can wreak less havoc upon one another. I will watch and wait. But I will not help the person who gave Team Rocket a Master Ball."
"So, it comes back to me, huh?" Kenta's voice was strained, and he clasped his hands in front of him so tightly that the knuckles were white. "Y'know, you weren't my only hope. But you were my best hope."
The door to the cabin squeaked open by itself. "Please leave."
Eusine spoke up in a soft voice that surprised Hibiki; he had forgotten that the man was there. "You heard him. We should go. There's nothing left to discuss."
"No! We need to go to the bottom. I have to know what else they've got!"
"Are you okay down there?" came Karen's voice from above. "They're coming. You've got five minutes at best!"
Kenta acknowledged the warning but ignored the urgency. Murkrow continued descent for ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds. A few moments more elapsed, then they touched down at the bottom, facing the final elevator doors.
"The fifth basement floor," muttered Kenta, preparing to tug the doors apart as Murkrow wedged its beak in. He noticed a crack of light between the doors. That's weird. When I left the light on upstairs, did it light the whole place up?
With a heave, he forced the doors.
The scene awaiting him was much like the fourth floor, with two notable exceptions. The first was a team of four men in white lab coats, who were lined up in front of the door. Three of them were holding pokeballs, while one had a cocked pistol in his hands, aiming at Kenta. Yet somehow, the firearm took a back seat to Kenta's second observation. In the middle of the room, at the center of all the shelves of pokeballs, was a transparent circular tube with green liquid inside. A nine-foot-tall creature drifted within the tube, strung up with a mess of wires, and a sort of breathing tube upon its face.
It was at this moment that Kenta first conceived in his mind that he might require the help of Mewtwo. He had heard of Mewtwo in the past; indeed, he had seen news reports showing blurry images of the creature, in sync with Giovanni's disappearance from Team Rocket. However, he had known little else, aside from rumors and obscure documents that a hacker friend had gotten off the deep web. It all came back to him now, as he gazed upon this creature floating in the test tube, guarded by doctors in lab coats who didn't seem the least bit pleased at being found out.
"Don't move!" shouted the gunman, leveling his pistol with Kenta's head. "Who are you? How did you get down here?"
Kenta's mind was made up in an instant. There was no way he would engage these guys in a battle, not when it was three-to-one, with a bullet aimed at his cranium. But nor could he stay there and cooperate under his time crunch, with reinforcements on the way who would probably kill him anyway. He was, after all, supposed to be dead already. Kenta jumped backward into the elevator shaft, launching himself sideways just enough to throw off the gunman's aim. There was a bang, and Kenta heard the bullet zing by his left ear.
"Murkrow! Up!" he cried, and a second later, he heard the men barking orders, followed by more bullets beneath his ascending feet.
"Go, Latios! Follow him!"
"You too, Latias!"
Latios and Latias? thought Kenta, erupting into a cold sweat as Murkrow flew up the shaft with all its strength. No way . . . there's no way-
Then he saw them. The psychic dragon siblings, Latios and Latias, came through the threshold further down the shaft and levitated their way towards him, fitting into the narrow confines just right. If they were to launch something like a Dragon Pulse or Luster Purge at him now, Kenta would surely die, or black out instantly from his injuries. He couldn't afford either, but he had no way to escape. In a vertical corridor, he would be hard to miss, unless Murkrow pulled him back into the room of the fourth floor. But even then, the Latis would simply corner him like a rat, and Bolt and Zapdos were simply too big to fit in the elevator shaft, to come to his aid.
Too big . . . wait a minute!
With his free hand, Kenta reached for his belt and dropped the only occupied ball that still remained on it. "Dragonite! Outrage!"
From her position outside, Karen watched keenly as the Champion Hall of Records lit up with a sudden, blazing light. A few seconds later, Murkrow emerged from the heat, dragging a blackened and limp Kenta by the arm. Karen's eyes widened in concern.
"Kenta! Are you okay? What happened down there?"
Kenta coughed and grimaced, then came to life with a sudden vigor, twisting around and looking back. "Dragonite!" he cried, stumbling back toward the mausoleum. "I have to see if Dragonite's okay-"
There was another explosion of light and heat, and Dragonite came shooting up through the floor of the elevator, ripping the metal hole even wider. The dragon pokémon touched down in front of Kenta, covered in cuts and bruises, but eyes alight with battle furor.
"It has some scales missing!" Karen observed. "Kenta, is that-?"
"Multiscale," Kenta replied. "That's how he managed to survive just one round against the dragon siblings. But we can't count on that again." He placed his hands on Dragonite's shoulders, looking at his pokémon with fierce pride. "You need to get out of here, but not with me. Mount Silver isn't too far west of here. Use your Extremespeed to fly out there, and don't stop until you've reached the high caves. A friend of mine is at the summit, and I'm entrusting you to his care until I come to get you. Can you make it?"
Dragonite nodded, then glanced in curiosity at Zapdos and Bolt, who were hovering just a little ways further above them. Kenta glanced hurriedly back at the Hall of Records, where Latios and Latias would emerge any second. "There's no time to explain now. Go!"
For the few persistent trainers who had ever leveled a Dratini all the way to its Dragonite form, there was a bond of mutual understanding that developed between dragon and tamer. Dragonite was intelligent enough to understand human speech beyond just the typical commands that a dog trainer might issue, and one day, he would demand that Kenta reveal everything. But until then, he would trust and obey. Dragonite was off like a shot, retreating so fast that a sonicboom echoed through the area. A few seconds later, a blue blur and a red blur burst from the Hall of Records, pursuing the orange dragon that had forced them back down the elevator shaft earlier.
Kenta leaped onto Bolt's back and widened his Master Ball to receive Zapdos. "We can't linger, Karen, and it's better that you don't know what I saw, for when they question you. I hope to see you again!"
"Wait!" cried Karen, as the Salamence lifted off. "It has to look like you beat me! Remember?"
Kenta's stomach turned over, but there was nothing for it. Karen sure had guts.
"Zapdos. Thunderbolt."
***
Back in the cabin on Mt. Quena, there was a long silence.
"Kenta, why didn't you ever tell me any of this?" asked Marina at last, looking hurt.
"I didn't tell anybody," Kenta replied tiredly, his voice somewhat raspy from his story. "Except for Hibiki. He's the only one I could ask to get involved so deeply in this."
"And the only thing I regret is how little I've been able to help," Hibiki said stoutly. "So don't go feeling guilty about that again."
Mewtwo's voice returned. "So. The humans that you've made your leaders are storing up all of your most powerful pokémon in a stronghold under the Indigo Plateau."
"I suspect that's just one storage area," said Kenta. "There may be one in the Hoenn League Headquarters as well, and in Sinnoh, and any of the other regions where the protection is heaviest. But chances are, I stumbled upon the biggest stash, since Kanto and Johto are the only regions to combine under one Headquarters."
"But that's not the big take-away from this story," Hibiki added, feeling queasy at the thought of it. "The scary part is that Kenta might have encountered an artificial pokémon in the making, built to take on whole armies single-handedly."
"I don't have any proof of it," said Kenta in a regretful voice. "I didn't even take a picture, much less a camcorder. But I know what I saw, and when people are secretly making pokémon in a chamber already filled with bio-weapons, their intentions can't be pure."
"Perhaps they are keeping all these pokémon out of harm's way, in eternal stasis hibernation, and are preparing a guardian for them more suitable than a human like Karen," said Mewtwo with just a hint of slyness in his manner.
Kenta perked up angrily. "What's with this Devil's Advocate response all of a sudden? Do you doubt my judgment of character?"
"No. But I know now why you sought me out. You are afraid that, when you initiate this civil war of yours, you will lose before you can recapture enough super pokémon to put up a decent fight. And you want me to support you until then, to buy you the time you need. Especially if the other side has made their own Mewtwo."
To this, Kenta said nothing. He sat upon the couch, eyes glued to the end wall. Mewtwo went on.
"I will not expose myself or my friends to the world for any reason, unless humans confront me directly and threaten our safety and freedom. Perhaps you are right about everything, and perhaps I am shortsighted. But as things now stand, trainers may catch less pokémon, and they can wreak less havoc upon one another. I will watch and wait. But I will not help the person who gave Team Rocket a Master Ball."
"So, it comes back to me, huh?" Kenta's voice was strained, and he clasped his hands in front of him so tightly that the knuckles were white. "Y'know, you weren't my only hope. But you were my best hope."
The door to the cabin squeaked open by itself. "Please leave."
Eusine spoke up in a soft voice that surprised Hibiki; he had forgotten that the man was there. "You heard him. We should go. There's nothing left to discuss."