Chapter 1

"Woah there! Not so fast, kiddo."

I had just hopped off of Gyarados' back and onto the small, rocky beach outside of Cerulean Cave. I had walked by it several times, but I was surprised to see somebody waiting there at this hour. I sighed impatiently. We were already running a little behind schedule as I noticed the sun quickly beginning to sink lower behind the hills ahead of us.

"Just who are you? Some kind of gatekeeper?"

"I sure am. If you wanna enter this cave, you're gonna have to battle me first!"

"Mister, we're in a bit of a hurry today. Did someone actually put you here?"

"Officer Jenny herself, actually," the trainer said indignantly.

Gyarados rumbled in annoyance behind me. "Want me to bite his head off? This fool doesn't know who he's talking to!"

"Shh," I said, shooting her a warning glare.

"What's the rush? Is there something shady going on here?" he continued, his expression suspicious.

Crap, this is bad. "Alright, look," I dug in my bag for a moment and pulled out my badge book, opening it so that he could see that I had all eight badges and an amulet from the Elite Four. "I already beat the Elite Four, see? I'm a Champion of Kanto!"

"Sorry, rules are rules. There are some pretty strong Pokémon past this point, I'd hate to see anybody get hurt, especially a little—"

"But I just showed you my badges, I'm not a weak trainer!" I protested, holding them closer to his face.

"Oh yeah? How do I know that you didn't borrow those?"

"My name's on here," I huffed, trying not to roll my eyes.

He tossed a Pokéball in the air and caught it again, smirking condescendingly.

"Come on, just battle me!" he taunted.

Gyarados rose higher out of the water behind me, leering at the ace trainer over my head. "Trainer, this human is testing my patience!"

I cleared my throat and said, "As much as I would love to put you in your place right now, my Gyarados here is also itching to get inside this cave. And she gets very scary if she doesn't get what she wants."

He looked up at her and grimaced slightly. Gyarados growled and slapped the water with her tail in response. "Fine, just go ahead," he muttered, reluctantly stepping aside.

I held out her Pokéball and she returned as I shouted a quick "thanks!" before running ahead inside. "Be careful in there, girl!" he called after me.

The air in the cave was heavier, and much colder, compared to all other caves I had explored previously. Though we had just walked inside, I was already straining my eyes to see even a few feet in front of me. I withdrew Ampharos from her Pokéball, and she lit up the cave before I had time to ask. But even then, her light did not reach more than a few meters away.

"It seems as though this cave is heavily protected," Ampharos murmured, stunned.

"I've never met a Pokémon that could make caves darker like that," I agreed, letting out all my other Pokémon. Ninetails, Arbok, Gyarados and Togekiss looked around, though there was not much to see other than rocks and some pools of water. "We're inside the cave," I began, addressing them, "but I have no idea where he is. But you guys can see better than I can, so keep an eye out for anything suspicious that might lead us to him."

We kept close to Ampharos as we walked, nervous about what other surprises might be waiting for us ahead. I could hear some Pokémon scurry out of view when they sensed the light approaching.

Eventually, we came across another shore. It appeared to be an underground lake.

"Gyarados—"

"Way ahead of you," she replied, already entering the murky water.

"Wait, I was going to have Amphy—"

"Alright then. Amphy, get up here! We need you up front," she barked back.

"Okay!" Amphy called back cheerfully.

"Hey!" I shouted, trying to get their attention.

My shout echoed throughout the cavern. Ampharos was in the middle of clambering up Gyarados when they both looked back at me.

"You both need to wait for instructions," I said sternly, "I'm the trainer, here!"

"But we already knew—"

I shook my head, "I don't care! What if something happens because you weren't waiting for me to give the order? I know you're both smart and strong Pokémon, but with a situation as dangerous as this we need to have a chain of command. Okay?"

Again, Ampharos enthusiastically shouted, "Okay!"

Gyarados was silent for a moment, then she turned around and said, "Okay."

"Ninetails, you come back into your ball for now. There won't be enough room for you. Ampharos, you can get on Gyarados. Arbok, you and I will follow from behind. Togekiss . . ."

I looked up at the ceiling of the cavern. There were plenty of sharp rocks jutting downward, but I trusted Togekiss to dodge them easily.

"Fly close to the water in the back. Okay?"

Togekiss nodded, clearly still startled by my shout.

Arbok slithered into the water behind Gyarados and flattened her head so I could climb onto her. I withdrew Ninetails from the land behind me, and we set off.

We silently moved through the water for quite some time, I imagine it would have been much shorter had we not encountered so many Golbats. I had to yell commands to Ampharos from Arbok's back as she nimbly fought them off. "Ampharos, any land in sight?" I called after she electrocuted yet another Golbat.

"Yes! Just up ahead!" she shouted back toward me.

"Let's head towards it, we'll regroup there!"

Once we got to shore, everybody got out of the water except for Gyarados. "It looks like there's another path leading this way." I said, indicating the stones that seemed to outline a small path through the cave.

"Let'sssss follow it and sssssee where it goessss."

I was about to set off, but stopped when I heard a little squeal to my right. I looked in that direction and saw half a Slowpoke's head protruding from behind a boulder. When he realized that I knew he was there, he was brave enough to come out a little further, but his wide eyes showed that he was completely afraid of us.

He seems docile enough, I thought suddenly, maybe he could take us to Mewtwo.

"Excuse me, is there a powerful Pokémon hiding in this cave?" I asked, squatting to talk to him.

Slowpoke came out all the way. I felt my eyes widen in surprise when I saw that the three-foot long tail most Slowpoke usually had on their backsides was missing.

"What do you want with Mewtwo?" he asked.

I was startled by how direct he was.

"Well . . . I heard that he's injured. I was sent by a friend to get him out of here before Team Rocket does. They know where he's hiding, so it's not safe for him to stay here anymore."

"Hmm . . ."

The Pokémon seemed to expect my team and I individually, as if deciding whether or not I was telling the truth.

"He will try to kill you, but . . . you seem like strong Pokémon," he said to my surprise. "You won't go down easily. But protect your human," he added, looking back at me, "she's so small."

"We're not afraid," I said, hearing Gyarados slap her tail against the cavern wall at those words, "we understand what we're in for."

The Slowpoke did not respond, but instead continued to inspect my team.

"So . . . do you know where we can find him?" I asked again. "This cave is pretty big, and—"

"I know where Mewtwo is, every Pokémon here does. I'll help lead you to him, but I sure won't face him with you!"

"I understand," I said kindly, "thank you for helping us!"

"If it helps Mewtwo, I sure will," said the Slowpoke in his humble voice. "He's not a bad Pokemon, y'know? Just scared is all." His eyes widened suddenly, "Oh don't tell him I said that!"

I couldn't help but smile at his testimony.

He promptly turned around and motioned us to follow with a nod of his head and a flick of his stump.