Chapter 1: The Great Gonzalez
Chapter 2: Strange Books and Stranger Boxes
Chapter 3: New Companions and Old Rivalries
Chapter 4: The First Gym
Chapter 5: In the Mountains...
Chapter 6: Waterside Warfare
Chapter 7: Experiments at the Cape
Chapter 8: Struggle on the SS Anne
Chapter 9: Giovanni
Chapter 10: The Pokemon Tower
Chapter 11: Ghosts and Gyms
Chapter 12: Ninja Ninja
Chapter 13: The Future Champion?
Chapter 14: We Meet Again
Chapter 15: Muscle and Mind
Chapter 16: Mysteries of the Mansion
Chapter 17: Hope Rides Stallone
The small golden key I found in the mansion fits perfectly in the lock. A quick turn of the key, and the door to Cinnabar Gym opens. The front room of the gym is nearly empty. A strange machine sits on the back wall of the room, with a young man standing beside it. As I walk into the room, the man points at a large screen on the machine. I walk up to the screen, and read the words on the machine. "Pokémon Quiz! Get it right and the door opens to the next room! Get it wrong and face a trainer! If you want to conserve your Pokémon for the Gym Leader... Then get it right! Here we go! Caterpie evolves into Metapod?"
"Oh that's easy. Of course it does." I say out loud, while pressing the large button that says 'YES'. A section of the back wall slides open. On the other side is a nearly identical room. Another trainer stands next to another machine. I once again go through the process of answering an easy question, and once again the door opens. This continues four more times, until finally I arrive in a room without a machine on the back wall. This room is far larger than the other rooms. On a dark red chair in the back of the room sits an old man wearing a long white coat and reading a small book. The lights reflect off of his hairless head, and a long mustache twitches as he stares across the room at me.
"That's odd. I don't recall the gym being open right now." The old man gently puts the book down and stands up. I hold up the key I used to unlock the door.
"Found this over at that burnt down mansion." I hold up the journal. "It was inside of this, which I'm sure you could tell me much more about., right Blaine?"
"What are you doing with that journal? Hand that here right now!" Blane yells at me as he steps forward and pulls a pokeball out of his coat.
"Let's make a deal old man," I shout to Blaine, "You win this match, I give you this journal back. I win, you tell me everything you know about what happened last year."
"You're a fool if you think you can beat me, but I'll accept that offer!" Blaine throws the pokeball in his hand, and a small red dog pokemon appears, identified by my pokedex as a Growlithe. I throw out the pokeball containing Stallone. The dog pokemon opens its mouth, and a stream of fire begins to shoot out. Stallone rips a chunk of the gym's floor out, and throws it at the Growlithe. The floor chunk hits the dog square on the nose. The stream of fire stops as the Growlithe barks painfully and falls over. Blaine recalls the dog and then out a Pontya, a horse pokemon with fiery hair.
The Ponyta begins to gallop towards its opponent. "Stallone, Magnitude!" My companion hears my command and begins pounding the floor with its fists. The floor begins to shake, and then eventually crack. The Pontya trips and falls as one of its hooves gets caught in one of the cracks. Stallone rolls over to the Ponyta and slams two rocky fists down on the horse pokemon's head. The old gym leader withdraws his second pokemon, and send out his next one. An Arcanine, the evolution of Growlithe, emerges from the pokeball, and begins breathing out a torrent of flames. I quickly recall Stallone, and send out Lopez. The blast of fire hits the Snorlax's massive body, but Lopez looks unfazed by the attack. "Lopez, Body Slam!" I shout out my order, and Lopez begins running across the floor. Despite its size, it clears the distance between itself and the Arcanine quickly, evading the large cracks in the floor. The Arcanine shoots out another blast of fire, but it does nothing to stop Lopez from slamming his massive body into the fire pokemon. The impact sends the Arcanite to the floor, unable to get back on its feet.
"Looks like I've underestimated you, boy." Blaine says to me angrily as he brings out his last pokemon, Rapidash, which is the evolution of Ponyta. The Rapidash runs at Lopez, then leaps high in the air, nearly to the ceiling of the arena, its hooves directed at the Snolax's head.
"Return, Lopez!" I quickly recall my pokemon, then send Stallone back out. Instead of a Snorlax, the Rapidash's hooves land on the hard stone body of a Graveler. Its front legs damaged from the impact, the Rapidash backs away from its opponent, then opens its long mouth, unleashing a massive stream of fire. "Stallone, Rock Slide!" Stallone rips out two more chunks of floor, then launches itself into the air. The throws down the floor chunks at the Rapidash, each one knocking the horse more off balance. Finally, Stallone drops down on top of its foe. The Rapidash's legs finally give out, and it collapses to the floor. Blaine grinds his teeth in anger as he recalls his final pokemon.
"Alright, Blaine. We had a deal. I won, and I want answers." I pull the journal back out of my pocket as I recall Stallone.
Blaine sighs and sits back down on his chair. "Honestly, most of it's covered in the entries that are still readable in that book. Two years ago I was part of a research team that found an ancient pokemon in South America that we named Mew. When we returned to Kanto, we began studying Mew's DNA in the lab underneath the mansion here in Cinnabar. We believed that by using that DNA, we could create another Mew. We could revive a nearly extinct species of pokemon! The idea of it was fascinating!."
Blaine slumps down in the chair, his hands begin to slowly shake. "However, the company financing our research wanted to make changes. We were told to try to alter the DNA in order to amplify the potential of the pokemon's psychic abilities, to create a stronger pokemon. Many of the scientists on the team were excited at the prospect, and we began to alter our research to fit our financial backer's wishes. The pokemon we created was frightening, and nothing like the playful Mew we had found in the jungle. We gave it the name Mewtwo."
"It learned to communicate with us by projecting thoughts and images into our heads." The old man lowers his head as he continues to talk, his voice becoming loud and filled with fear and anger. "Eventually, it would project images to us of itself escaping. The images were terrifying. Daily it would show us visions of it killing all of us with its psychic powers, as if it was promising us what it would one day do. We thought that we could curb those powers by giving sedatives to the monster, but we were wrong. One day, it finally escaped, destroying our laboratory as it left. Myself and my friend, Fuji, were the only ones that survived."
"What day did it escape?" I nervously ask the gym leader.
Blaine raises his head and looks at me. "September 6th."
"Do you know if any pokemon trainers were hired to go after the escaped Mewtwo?" My whole body shakes as I ask the question. September 6th was the day before my father was asked to leave.
"It seems likely, but I don't know any details about what was done to hunt the monster. I spent 3 months hospitalized after the incident, and the rest of the year trying to forget what happened."
I give out a long sigh. "One last question then. Who is this company that you mentioned. Who wanted you to create that monster?"
Blaine pauses for a moment, as if afraid to speak. "We were funded," the old man pauses again, "by the Pokemon League. The orders to modify the DNA we collected came directly from Lance of the Elite Four."
The shock of Blaine's words nearly cause me to stumble backward. "Why would the Pokemon League want to experiment like that? What would they gain by creating that monster?"
"I.. I don't know. We never questioned the orders we were given." Blaine pulls a flame shaped badge out of one of the pockets on his coat and tosses it to me. "One more badge, though, and you can ask them yourself." Badge in hand, I walk back out of the gym, and head to the town's pokemon center to let my pokemon rest. There's only one gym left until I can face the Pokemon League. All I have to do now is hope that Viridian City's gym leader has finally come back to his gym.