2:The Secret Life of the Super Clones

Chapter 1:Amber's Life as a Normal Girl

Amber Fuji could remember her parents from when she was born.

Her Dad's warm, smile with a dark background and linoleum tiles she later reasoned to be the inside of the hospital she was born in. Then she could feel gentle arms around her baby body from whom she then reasoned to be her Mom. In that very foggy, dim memory Amber could feel the presence of other people surrounding her, making her feel warm.

Another, more vivid memory, was two years later. When she was two she had blue hair that was already long for a girl her age. Her Mom and Dad held a hand in one of their own so that her little feet were two or three inches above the sand. She could remember giggling as her parents showed her, very early in the morning when the day was just beginning, the shore behind their house. Their house was on Cinnabar Island, a big mansion right beside the sandy coast.

Amber had turned her blue eyes over the seashore to discover the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on.

Her small mouth widened in awe as she watched the blue sea wash against the sand over and over again. Amber watched as ocean was no still body of water like the bathtub that her mother dipped her in every once in a while to supposedly clean her off from germs that were supposedly very tiny. It was a constant movement, a constant flow of blue energy that ran towards her until it receded against the sand's shore.

How pretty! Amber thought about the ocean.

"Mommy!" Amber said. "Where does all that blue water come from?"

"Ow it's always been there sweety," her mother said. "Always."

"Actually all water has been measured to come from the current near the Islands of Ice, Fire, and Lighnting," Amber's Dad said. "It is where the Guardian of the Sea, Lugia, lives."

"From islands?" Amber asked almost laughing.

Land can't make water! Amber thought. Land will always be land, island or not! Silly Daddy! But then, Lugia must make the water! Oh, she wanted to meet this mysterious man named Lugia! He seems so nice to make this water for her!

"Daddy," she said. "Where does the water end? How deep does it go?"

I wonder if the ocean is more than three feet deep. Amber said. I hope not the dreaded five feet which her parents would not let her swim in.

"Oh, thousands of feet deep Amber!" her Dad said.

Oh my gosh! Amber thought. That can't be true! That's more than ten! Nothing is ever that high!

"As for how far it goes Amber," her Dad said. "It's farther than ten thousand miles long!"

Impossible! Amber thought.

These number were so high that Amber couldn't comprehend it. To think it was that big. It intimidated Amber to the very core of her soul that something was that big. That something was that powerful.

"Daddy that scares me!" Amber said and squeezed her parents hands as tightly as possible.

"It's okay Amber," her Dad said kindly. "Mommy and Daddy won't let the ocean, or anything, hurt you."

She gave the ocean another look, to see it's beauty of how gorgeously sunlight sprinkled down from above to shine upon it's surface.

"Well," she said. "It's still beautiful."

Amber's next most vivid memory was when she was four. She was in the big mansion as familiar to her as the back of her hand. It's walls and floors were decorated with lush red velvet. The tiles were ordained with pearl pink color that was so shiny you could see yourself as if it were a mirror. There were marble statues of a cat-like creature only a foot tall with a long, slim tail that her Dad referred to as 'Mew', a creature her Dad seemed to take special interest in.

Her mother was showing Amber an entire wardrobe of clothes for her to try on. They were full of skirts, dresses, tunics, and ribbons for Amber to try on. Amber was dazzled by this array of gorgeous clothing.

"Now Amber," her mother said. "You can try on any of these clothes you would like."

Amber spent maybe an hour putting on outfit after outfit, silently looking at how many combinations of color and design there was. She liked best the red dress with blue intertwined threads that her mother said formed calligraphy character for joy. Amber liked it with a black choker and a red ribbon in her hair. Amber had tried to pick a blue dress, her favorite color, but she just seemed to like this better.

"Oh, you look just wonderful Amber!" her mother said.

"Thank you Mommy!" Amber said. "I like it too! This is my favorite outfit!"

Then, when she was five, she could remember her Dad taking her out to the middle of Cinnabar Island. It was a field that was covered with the occasional dark green shrub. As she was walking through the field, what she saw was brilliant.

There were brown creatures with wings and short talons about a foot tall. They walked on the ground, picking at seeds. Their pale undersides reminded Amber of the color of her bathroom sink. Their beady eyes took notice of Amber and her Dad. Amber thought these things were a little paranoid by the way they kept glancing back at them.

There were red creatures with a dark red tail of large curls. These things looked like what you would think of as a fox. It's head, like it's tail, had thick hair that were shaped like curls. Amber thought these things were especially cute.

Another creature were thin stems with a pair of green leaves to the side. At the bottom of their stem body were thin roots like tendrils of an ivy plant. Their head at the top of their stem was a yellow, bell shaped head which was hollow and apparently served a mouth. The bell shaped head had a pair black, beady eyes. This creature struck Amber as weird.

"That bird is Pidgey," her Dad said. "The red one with four legs and a curly tail is Vulpix. The plant with roots as feet is Bellsprout."

"They look adorable," Amber said. "But what exactly are they?"

"Pokemon," her Dad said. "Pokemon are creatures that are not like humans. They're imbued with the power and elements of nature of the natural world. Lugia, the one who lives where the ocean comes from, he is a Pokemon."

Wow. Amber thought. I expected Lugia to be a tall, tan man in swim trunks who just swam all day on a surfboard. Guess I was wrong.

"Daddy," Amber said. "I would like to play with these…um, Pokemon. Will I heart them if I do?"

"Oh no Amber," her Dad said. "You won't hurt them. Almost all Pokemon are so strong that humans are absolutely powerless against them. That's why they can be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Amber asked. "How can that red…um, Vulpix be dangerous? It's so cute!"

"Vulpix is a Fire-type Pokemon," her Dad said. "A Fire-type Pokemon's body can heat up to extreme degrees and breath fire or set their bodies on fire."

How could that be? Amber thought.

Amber regarded water, the ocean in particular, as the strongest force there ever was. When a storm came, water was a cause of dark, scary clouds to form lighting. Water is what her parents warned her could hurt her if she was in a place where water was too deep. Water caused sand and dirt to wear away into nothing. Water could be too swift and her parents always warned Amber of this. Water could get clothes wet so you had to dry them for a long time. Water, the ocean specifically, was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. But also the most powerful.

But fire was warm and silent. It had the aura of comfort and coziness which provided light even in the darkest night. How could fire be dangerous?

"Yes Daddy," Amber said.

And her Dad explained to her what people did with Pokemon. They could be battlers, helpers, but what impressed Amber most was that they could be friends. Her Dad also explained to Amber how humans captured Pokemon in little balls called Pokeballs.

"Do they ever get lonely in those little balls?" she asked.

"No," her Dad said. "Because their human friends are always with them with care and love. It just comes to show that all life is wonderful."

Life is wonderful. Amber thought.

Amber started her first day of school when she was five. She had dressed wearing the school's uniforms that her parents made her wear. It was a dull grayish black.

Personally I think this shirt needs more decoration. Amber thought.

She walked into the Kindergarten room to see boys and girls dressed just like her. Some were chatting, laughing, and squealing over what their friends were saying. Amber expected everyone to be crying.

This accursed thing called school had forced her away from her parents and home so that everyday some strange adult could lecture them. Whoever made school must have made school just to punish Amber for a crime she never committed. Why couldn't she just stay home, watching the movement of the ocean, playing with her Mommy and Daddy, exploring the field to look for a new Pokemon, or trying on new outfits? (Nothing had come close to beating the gorgeousness of her original, favorite outfit.)

Amber was walking toward the gigantic dollhouse in the Kindergarten room where she planned to hide away from the teacher the entire time she was here.

But in her haste she bumped into a reddish-brown headed girl and they both fell back. They both stared at each other for a second as they looked at each other's accidental bruisers.

"Ouch!" the brown headed girl said. "That hurt!"

"I'm sorry," Amber said while rubbing her head.

As they both apologized they started talking and Amber found out that this girl's name was Melody. Her family was from Shamouti Island, somewhere in the Orange Islands. It wasn't far from Cinnabar. Melody and Amber talked about the ocean, the islands they lived on, the different Pokemon they saw, and their homes for a straight twenty minutes until it was time for the teacher to speak.

The teacher read to them a story about this girl named Cinderella and her fairy godmother. When she had finished reading it the teacher made them pair up to go over a passage in the story and read it themselves. Amber chose Melody as her partner and they laughed as they joked about the picture of Cinderella having the weirdest and ugliest hairstyle that could have been possibly imagined.

Amber remembered the next year she and Melody had been walking out into a forest in the middle of an island that Amber's family had brought her to. Melody's parents let her spend the day with Amber's family on the trip and they had permission to go exploring.

The locals of the small island simply called it the Berry Forest because it was a wild span of trees that grew all kinds of fruit. As Melody started to get a little bit scared at the darkness of the forest because of the canopy and all the Bug-type Pokemon crawling up the trees, Amber couldn't help but feel a sense of joy.

"Look at all the colors of the fruit Melody!" Amber said. "It's as if the trees are growing rainbows!"

"Yeah…" Melody said as she hyperventilated. "Um…Amber…don't Bug-type Pokemon only eat grass and plants and stuff like that and not, um…other living things?"

"I think most do," Amber said. "But my Dad told me about Beedrill that, although they're creatures that eat pollen, they are extremely territorial and occasionally attack intruders. Some Bug-type Pokemon like Pinsir and Venonat eat other Pokemon. Why do you ask?"

Suddenly Melody grabbed Amber from behind. This gave Amber a surprise.

"Amber let's go back!" Melody cried. "I'm scared of these creepy bugs!"

That's so silly! Amber thought. Bug-types aren't scary!

Amber walked over to a tree trunk and grabbed a Caterpie. It's green worm like body was topped with a red horn that was shaped like a Y. Amber pulled Caterpie from it's suction cup like grip on the tree. She showed it to Melody while Bug-type Pokemon remained perfectly placid in her hands, it's beady little eyes staring at Melody with it's head slightly tilted to the side.

"See Melody," Amber said. "It's not dangerous. All life is wonderful, people or Pokemon. Besides, this little guy is just the cutest thing ever."

"Cater…pie," it said.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Melody screamed.

Melody ran forward as fast as she could and swept right past Amber. Amber turned towards her, placed the calm Caterpie on the ground, and ran after her.

"Melody stop!" Amber said. "It's not dangerous at all!"

"It's so creepy!" she yelled back. "Get it away from me!"

Melody had disappeared into the dark woods. Amber ran in between the thick tree trunks as she ran in Melody's direction. When Amber felt tired she stopped to catch her breath beside a pond with her hands on her knees.

What a baby! She gets a face-to-face look at a Caterpie and she starts screaming her head off!

Amber looked around the thick forest of bright colored fruit. The pond was actually one of the few spots where direct sunlight shined through. Amber happily greeted the sunlight.

"Hey, girl," a voice said.

Amber turned to her side to see a boy with smooth brown hair that draped across his head in a circle. He had brown eyes and wore a blue jeans with a red shirt and tennis shoes. He had a sort of serious expression on his face. The boy looked like he was of the same age as Amber.

"Who are you?" Amber asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Name's Charlie," he said. "Look, have you seen a kid with spiky yellow hair, green eyes? He's my brother. He needs a haircut pretty bad, he's wearing shorts, barefoot and he quite possibly is in a-"

Suddenly a boy jumped from above, seemingly out of nowhere, right in between Amber and Charlie. The boy met the description of Charlie's brother perfectly.

He wore black shorts and a light green T-shirt. Amber couldn't help notice the boy's six inch long hair that grew out to the side and formed four very pronounced spikes.

My gosh that boy needs a haircut. Amber thought.

"Quite possibly in a tree," Charlie said annoyed. "Where were you when you left me Shane?"

"I don't know," Shane said. "I was just busy climbing trees."

Those boys look nothing alike. Amber couldn't help but think.

Shane looked only slightly older than Charlie.The boy Charlie's expression seemed to range from annoyed to serious with a stocky build. Shane on the other hand looked quite slender and had a very serene look on his face.

Charlie looked like he was getting irate. He pulled a picture out of his pocket and showed it to me. It was fruit that looked pinkish pale color and shaped sort of like an hourglass.

"Have you seen this fruit out here?" Charlie said. "It's called a persim fruit."

"We're supposed to be looking for it," Shane said.

"I think she knows that already, Mankey-boy," Charlie said like he was irritated. "And no thanks to you."

"Well I was looking for it on my own in my own way!" Shane said. "I was traveling by tree as you traveled by foot! Now which way do you think is faster?"

"Have you or have you not girly?" Charlie asked.

"I think I saw a fruit like that over there," Amber said and pointed to where she had started running.

The boy called Shane, who desperately needed his hair clipped, looked at Amber and Amber immediately knew what flickered in the boy's eyes. The way he seemed to hesitate and draw back slightly from Amber's presence as soon as he looked at her innocently.

That boy likes me. Amber couldn't help think.

Suddenly, out from beneath the pond, rose something pink. Amber recognized the Pokemon no more than one foot tall, slim body, adorable face and eyes, and long, thin tail.

"That's a Mew!" Amber said.

Charlie and Shane stared at it as it levitated in the air almost like magic. None of them had ever seen a Pokemon do this before.

Hello humans. The quiet, female voice seemed to resonate not in their ears but minds.

Then it zipped off into the air like a rocket. It disappeared into the great blue sky.

"Wow," Charlie said.

"It looked really cute," Shane said.

"That's my Dad's favorite Pokemon," Amber said. "He studies Pokemon biology and he says it's the rarest Pokemon in Kanto. So rare some believe it to be a myth. I can't wait to tell daddy!"

"Alright is this where the persim fruit are?" a deep voice said.

"Um, no but-" Melody's voice cried.

Amber and Melody looked at each other for a second after Melody appeared out of the grove. Then Melody ran towards Amber and gave her a big hug.

"I'm so sorry I ran away!" Melody said.

Amber only half heard it, still stunned by two facts: that she just saw a Pokemon that her Dad said was impossible to spot and the fact that a boy had a crush on her. Both blew her mind.

"Well, did you find any of the fruit?" the deep, masculine voice said.

Amber turned to see the man was very tall and very strong looking with thick muscle. He wore a camo green shirt, black pants, and an Army jacket that was decorated with medals. His eyes were black with short, spiky blond hair.

"This girl said that there's persim fruit that way, Matis," Charlie said and pointed the way Amber showed him.

"Let's go boys!" his voice boomed. "Lt. Surge waits for nothing!"

The man ran in the direction Charlie pointed to. Charlie sighed and followed after them. The boy named Shane looked at me intently before leaving.

"What is your name?" Shane asked.

"Amber Fuji," Amber replied happily.

"Do you live here?" Shane asked.

"No," she said, thinking that she would make another friend. "I live on Cinnabar Island, on the shore, not far from the dock."

Shane smiled.

I hoped he gets the hint that he can be my friend. Amber thought.

The boy turned to jump and grab a low limb and climb up a tree. He disappeared into the canopy.

Melody turned to stare at Amber.

"I think that weird boy liked you," Melody said. "Do you think that hair could poke someone's eye out?"

"If he doesn't get it cut soon," Amber replied.

They both laughed.

Amber and Melody had made their way out of the Berry Forest, Amber holding Melody's hand so she wouldn't be so scared of the bugs. They came out to a small field and Amber and Melody walked out of that to the city. They walked to the hotel that Amber's parents rented.

When the girls walked into the lobby, Amber was shocked to find her Dad talking to the buff man named Matis they had just met. They were chatting on the couch and laughing. Shane and Charlie sat right beside Matis with an uninterested expression.

Amber ran up to her father.

"Daddy!" Amber said. "I saw a Mew! A real live Mew!"

Her father's interest turned from what Matis was saying and turned to Amber.

"Are you joking?" her Daddy said.

"No!" Amber replied excitedly. "It looked exactly like the statues you have at home, except pink!"

"Where did you see it?" her father asked.

"In the Berry Forest! It flew into the air, out of a pond!"

Amber's father looked deeply perplexed, with his fingers at his chin and his eyes staring directly downward.

"That's…that's impossible…" her father said.

"Hey, John, don't tell me your still researching that Mew Pokemon," Matis said. "I heard it was just a mirage."

"I thought it was too Matis," Amber's Dad said. "Until I found an overwhelming amount of evidence that it was in fact very real."

"Daddy who is that man?" Amber asked.

The man named Matis turned his gaze towards Amber and after looking for a moment or two subsequently chuckled.

"Oh," her Dad said. "This is Matis Surge. He is an esteemed, highly decorated war hero. He's known for his skill with training, raising, and battling with Electric-type Pokemon. He is the Vermillion City Gym leader."

"Oh come on now," Matis said in his loud, booming voice. "You act like I'm just another fan of my work. Your father and I go way back. We were friends before and after I joined the Army."

"To tell you the truth Amber I never thought I'd see Matis again after he became Gym leader of Vermillion," her Dad said. "In case you want to visit again I live not far from the dock on Cinnabar Island. It's a big mansion on the coast. Cinnabar is where I conduct research on Pokemon biology."

"Is that so?" Matis asked. "Well I could go to Cinnabar every once in a while to pick up some things I need. I have these two young lads, Shane and Charlie, who work for me for some money that have lately been helping me."

So Matis is not their Dad. Amber thought.

"Amber I'll look into this Mew thing later," her father said. "Why don't you and Melody go on to the pool, okay?"

"Okay Daddy!" Amber said.

"Matis," Charlie said. "If we're not doing anything for you now-"

"You two could head to the pool," Matis replied.

Shane and Charlie followed Amber and Melody to where they were headed. But as Amber looked back she saw Matis stare at them and she could have sworn it was her he was looking at.

"Matis?" Amber heard her Dad say. "What are you looking at?"

"What?" he replied. "Sorry. Staring off into space."

Amber and Melody went into the bathroom to change into their bathing suits for the pool. They came out to find Shane and Charlie as they were waiting patiently outside the door. Shane had a big smile and Charlie was looking kind of bored.

"The pool is this way," Melody said and walked down the hall to the elevator. "I hope it's a saltwater pool. I just love the feeling of the ocean's water."

"So why are you with Matis?" Amber asked. "Where are your parents?"

Shane's smile disappeared almost instantly and Charlie's expression went from bored to grim.

Melody put her hand to her mouth as she realized the painful but obvious answer.

"Our parents are gone," Charlie said. "See, we lived in the slums and our parents were killed by a gang member's Pokemon."

"We saw it happen," Shane said as a tear rolled down his eye. Amber could tell Shane was restraining himself from crying more.

"That's just aweful!" Amber said.

Who would do that? Amber thought. The only people cruel enough to was Team Rocket and they were a bunch of bullies and thieves!

"I'm so sorry," Melody said.

"Yeah," Charlie said. "Shane and I decided we needed to get out of that place and head somewhere else. We found Matis who offered to give us a lot of money if we would help him a little bit."

"But what we really wanted to be were Pokemon trainers," Shane said with a romantic, hopeful tone. "That's our dream, to be Pokemon masters. And with all the money we'd make we would no longer be homeless."

"But we don't own even one Pokemon," Charlie said.

They arrived to the pool via the elevator. Charlie and Shane took off their shirts and jumped in with their shorts. After them Melody and Amber jumped in.

It was a saltwater pool like Amber heard Melody wish for. Melody looked happy to find that out. Amber laughed in front of Shane when she saw how his hair spikes dropped down like loose tentacles, stuck to his cheeks by the water.

Amber, Shane, Charlie, and Melody played tag while they swam around in the water. They all laughed and giggled as one of them was tagged

and splashed water on each other playfully. Amber and Melody, having the most experience swimming, were the hardest to catch and the best taggers. Charlie and Melody argued the most about if getting splashed counted as being tagged. Once, Amber caught Shane trying to hold her hand. Shane blushed and Amber smiled warmly.

Amber, like the rest of her friends, was caught up in the excitement of their game but it was briefly interrupted when she saw Matis looking at her from a distance.

Other memories Amber had were of Matis Surge stopping by every once in a while, and bring Shane and Charlie with him, to get a close look at the research her father did and have a good with conversation.

Amber would go out to play with the two boys in the field. Shane would usually climb up trees and then drop of the air out of nowhere. The boys and Amber would go exploring the volcanic mountain slopes on Cinnabar Island. They would watch Pokemon intently as the Pokemon roamed around in it's own territory. Shane would remark on how elegant the Bellsprout looked and in great harmony with it's natural environment. Once they saw a herd of Ponyta, what you would think looked like a white horse, with a mane and tail of fire, Charlie said he would give his left lung to capture that Pokemon.

Amber enjoyed the boy's company and they regarded her as a best friend.

And then it happened. The most painful memory of all. It was the day after Shane had said goodbye with an every so slight kiss on her cheek. Her memory of that day had been overshadowed by the next day. The most dreadful day of her life.

Amber had her favorite outfit on, the red dress, with the black choker and red ribbon. She was laughing at the joke her father had made about a Magikarp before he left for work at the lab, briefly before her mother left for work at selling real estate.

"The reason Gyarados are so angry is because everyone beat it up as a Magikarp and when it evolved it was the head-honcho of the sea!" her Dad said.

Amber giggled at the thought of a poor abused wimpy Magikarp evolving one day to, at the peril of it's bulliers, a hulking sea monster, when she saw the door open.

That's weird. Amber thought. I don't ever remember Mom or Dad saying they'd be back so soon.

Amber ran down the stairs to find not her parents closing the back door of the mansion but Lt. Matis Surge.

Weird. Amber thought. He doesn't usually have a creepy smile like that. And he usually doesn't have rubber gloves. And isn't it strange he used the back door and not the front?

"Hello Lt. Surge," Amber said sweetly.

He said nothing but just kept walking towards Amber.

"My parents aren't home, they're at work instead," she said.

Matis Surge raised his arms, ripped with muscle. His vision was like that of a hawk on Amber.

"Whatcha doin'?" Amber asked curiously.

He took Amber's entire body in one hand.

"What…what is this?" Amber asked panicking.

"Only the strong survive," Lt. Surge said. "I have orders from Giovanni myself to take out a weakling like you."

"Please let me go," Amber pleaded as Surge lifted her into the air.

Giovanni. Amber thought. The infamous Team Rocket leader. What-Surge tightened his grip making her gag-what did that have to do with me?

"A psychic human and the four strongest Pokemon in the world will be ours!" Surge said. "Did you really think it was an accident we met in the forest? That sour kid Charlie and that dopey Shane knew nothing about this but it was all apart of our ingenious plan! They'll join Team Rocket soon enough however! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

His laugh boomed through the mansion.

"This…this is…wrong," Amber said, as she felt the power of Surge's muscle. "I know…it is. Please…stop!"

Amber could feel hot tears running down her cheeks.

This is the end? Amber thought. No it can't be! Daddy you said nothing would ever hurt me! Daddy! Shane! Anybody!

"Don't worry my dear," Surge said as her breath began to be choked off. "You'll live again. After all, life is wonderful."

That was the last thing Amber heard.

Surge brought out a walky talky after putting the girl's body down.

"Phase One is complete," he said.

"Excellent," Giovanni replied. "Now, be ready to coax Fuji into working on the Project."