RPS: MewTale...

Ranger Log, Jul. 1…
One of the suspects finally caved and gave us the location of the illegal lab… Headed there now… None of us are sure of what we’ll find, but we’re braced for the worst…

“Quick Luxray, use Thunder Wave!” Pokémon Ranger Roger shouted, and his Luxray sprang forward, following his command and sending the grunts to the ground, paralyzed.

“Good work, Roger!” Ranger Sho complimented his partner before he and two other rangers rushed forward to place handcuffs on the stunned grunts and confiscate their Poke balls. Sho stood up and peered into the room of locked cages, frowning as he pulled a pair of Poke balls from his own belt.

“Looks like we’ve got even more in here,” he said, then tossed the balls forward, releasing a Grumpig and a Medicham. “Alright you two, see what you can do about these locks!”

The Grumpig obeyed, using Psychic to open several of the locked cages, while the Medicham tactfully used Brick Break on the locks, releasing the numbers of Pokémon trapped inside. Several of them sprang free, but others cowered at the backs of their cages, while some seemed lethargic, with no real desire to move from their prisons. Sho frowned as Roger approached one of the cages and gently removed a Fennekin that had a poorly set bandage on its leg. He carefully removed the bandage and looked at what lay underneath, wincing at the sight of a fresh, yet poorly treated Poison Fang wound.

“Seems like we found the room they used for testing toxicity.” Roger said with disdain, then carefully handed the Fennekin off to another Ranger with an Antidote handy.

“This is just sick…” Sho grumbled to himself as he followed his sniffing Grumpig out of the room and down the hall to check for more cages. As they passed by an operating room, the sight of restraints and sharp tools laying across the table there sent a shudder down his back, the image of some poor Pokémon being subjected to who-knows-what kind of experiments there flashing through his mind.

“I know. I’ve got the heebie-jeebies!” Roger said as he caught up to his partner. “Still that should be the last of the Pokémon in this place… So the worst is over.”

“What about the ones who got away?” Sho asked, looking back as the grunts with the red ‘R’ emblazoned on their black uniforms were hauled away.

“We’ll get ‘em, eventually.” Roger assured, patting Sho’s shoulder. “At least they’ll have one less lab and a lot less Pokémon under their belts.”

The two stopped as Grumpig’s nose bumped straight into a dead end. Sho exchanged a brief glance with his partner before kneeling down to his Grumpig’s level and giving it a pat on the head.

“Easy there boy, what do you smell?”

“Kind of an odd spot to have a dead end…” Roger said, walking forward to the wall. “And Wilbur’s nose is never wrong…”

“You think there could be a secret passage?” Sho asked, standing back to full height.

“It’s worth checking out, at least.” Roger said, bringing out his Purrloin. “Alright Ms. Galore, you’re up! Use Secret Power!”

The female Purrloin gave a wink to her Trainer before turning the wall and doing a lovely—and somewhat showy—spin as her body began to glow with a pinkish aura. The aura pulsed out, giving a brief flash before seeming to stick to a section of the wall that was a little over six feet tall and nearly four feet wide.

“There is a door!” Sho said, his gaze traveling down to Ms. Galore as she flirtingly leaned towards his Grumpig, Wilbur, and gave the Pokémon a wink before jumping on his head.

“Purr,” she cooed, pointing with her paw to a much smaller square in the wall beside the door. As Sho stepped forward she dismounted Wilbur’s head and stuck the landing perfectly.

“Your Purrloin sure is showy…” Sho said with a chuckle as he opened up the small panel, revealing what looked like a key-card scanner.

“Well she is a former Contest performer…” Roger said with a shrug.

With a bit of work from Wilbur and Sho’s Medicham, the scanner was easy to bypass, and the two Rangers moved through the door and down the flight of steps with caution, not sure of what they would find.

What they did find seemed like something straight out of Pokenstein… Dimmed lighting, large vats and tubes filled with strange fluid, computers with reading they didn’t understand, machines that looked like the kind you would see on an assembly line, not in a lab. Sho shuddered as he approached a table with a computer that had been left on, but partially smashed, probably in the confusion.

“My heebie-jeebie meter just maxed out!” Roger said as Ms. Galore jumped into his arms and his Luxray’s heckles raised.

“Its not just you,” Sho said, trying to make out what he could on the computer. “…What were they doing down here?”

His question was halted in his mind as he came across a glass tube that was occupied but a small figure, about the same size as his partner’s Purrloin, curled into a ball and with wires attached to different parts all over its body. Sho felt a shudder creep upon him as his Grumpig growled and his Medicham backed away from the tube a bit. Roger looked over at his friend and looked the creature in the tube over.

“What kind of Pokémon is that?” he asked.

“I’m not so sure it is a Pokémon,” Sho replied, tearing his eyes away for a moment to glance at a computer beside the tube. The screen had been broken slightly and a few of the controls smashed, probably in all the confusion or an attempt to destroy evidence, but it still seemed to be working, so he stepped up to it.

“Lets see what we can find out,” he said. “Hopefully it sheds some light on this mystery.”

Though the computer was indeed broken, and the screen broken, there was just enough data left for Sho to pull up a single file, the one that had been most recently opened. The information it contained told a story of a rare Pokémon and the scientist’s attempts to clone it from fossils, but as he read on, it appeared they had acquired a living specimen. Sho read quietly to himself, frowning as a particular piece of information caught his eye.

“It was pregnant?” Sho asked, stopping as he read aloud.

“What are you talking about?” Roger asked, leaning closer to his friend to see.

“The Pokémon they were attempting to clone was a pregnant Mew.” Sho said.

“So… what happened to the infant?” he asked.

“I think that thing in the tube there is the infant,” Sho replied.

“What?” Roger looked from him back over to the glass tube and the Pokémon within. “You mean they experimented on the baby Mew and turned it into… that?!”

“All that genetic testing… just what were they trying to create?” Sho asked himself, eyes briefly scanning the name of the file on the computer.

‘Mewtwo’.

There was a pause that neither of the men dared to break for what felt like several minutes, until the buzzing of one of the flickering lights above them broke the silence, and Roger cleared his throat.

“So… what do we do?” he asked.

“…Well, we can’t just leave it here, that’s for sure.”

Ranger Log, Jul. 5…
The infant is doing well. Mika and I have decided to name him ‘Myuuko’, and even at his young age I can already tell he is just as powerful—if not even more so—than my own Psychic Types.

Ranger Log, Feb. 10…
Myuuko is growing stronger by the day, and today he has seen his first snowfall. It has been a warm season, so the snow was late this year. We all had our first snowball fight.

Ranger Log, Sept. 1…
Myuuko is becoming more and more inquisitive of his origins… I know Mika and I will have to tell him someday… but I am not sure how to find the words to tell our Myuuko the truth…

“Alright Myuuko, that’s enough for today. Dinner is sure to be ready by now.” Sho said, turning away from the young Psychic Pokémon and picking up his jacket from the ground.

Myuuko’s violet eyes gazed down at his round fingers, a glowing, blue aura surrounding them and his forearms as he looked at his adoptive father and master. His eyes glowed brightly for a moment as he levitated another small pack over to him and looped it over his shoulder flawlessly.

“I’m getting stronger,” he said through telepathy.

“Yes, my son, you are.” Sho replied. “More and more every day. Your skill shows that.”

“Its more than that.” Myuuko said, floating after Sho as they started to head back down the hill. “Even when we don’t train I can feel this… swelling sensation within my body, pulsing inside my chest like a second heartbeat.”

“You do have an unusual Psychic aura, I’ll admit that.” Sho said. “I’ve seen it in other Psychic types, to be sure, but yours is unique in some way that I can hardly explain.”

“Wilbur says its because all Pokémon are born differently.” Myuuko said, and Sho tensed slightly. “Like how some are born with unique coloring and some are born with special moves, while others are born just plain, or a little weaker.”

Sho breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, that’s one reason,” he said.

“Your pulse jumped.” Myuuko said, glancing at his master. “And you held your breath for a few seconds when I brought that up. Is something wrong?” Sho did not reply, so Myuuko continued. “Its about how I was born, isn’t it? Every time that subject comes up you and Mika become all tense, and dodge around the subject…”

Sho sighed and stopped walking for a few moments as the cabin they lived in came into view, along with the river it stood beside. Myuuko frowned and landed on the ground beside Sho as he stared down at the flowing water. He scuffed one of his footpads against the grass and looked down at his feet, not having to use his abilities to sense his master’s distress.

“Please, don’t think me ungrateful,” he said. “You and Mika have been kind to me all my life… but you’ve always told me to be wary of humans, and that they wouldn’t understand me… how can that be true if I’m a Pokémon just like all the others? What is there that’s so different about me?”

“Sho, Myuuko!” a female voice called from the deck of the cabin, causing both to turn. A short, young woman with dark hair so thick and long it was done into one, thick braid, stood waving at them. “Just in time! Dinner is ready! All the others are already inside!”

“Coming!” Sho replied, waving back to his wife, then looking down at Myuuko. “We’ll discuss it over dinner.”
~~~
“I was… made? I-In a lab?”

“That’s where we found you.” Sho said with a sad nod. Myuuko sat across from him on a small cushion, and Mika sat beside her husband. “We had been investigating an organization known as Team Rocket, who capture and sell rare and powerful Pokémon for profit. They even did experiments on some of the Pokémon they captured, and one of these Pokémon was a Mew… your mother.”

“My…?” Myuuko frowned, glancing at Mika.

“Sho, before you continue?” Mika implored. Her voice was cracked and her eyes were misty, and before her husband could inquire, she slid across the floor to kneel in front of Myuuko, then threw her arms around him in an embrace.

“None of this means we don’t think of you as family. We love and care for you very, very much… it doesn’t matter how you came to be… I-I am glad you are here now!”

“…Mika…” Sho swallowed a lump in his throat, then glanced over as his and Mika’s Pokémon all ran over and joined in the hug with a various amount of calls that Show knew had to be a form of agreement and assurance.

It took a bit longer for Sho to continue with his story… usually when Mika got going it was hard to get her to stop, even for her Wynaut, who always made her laugh just by smiling at her. By the time she had composed herself, Sho had already prepared a pot of tea and pulled a few crackers from the cabinet, setting them on the coffee table for everyone to share before sitting back down.

“I’m sorry…” Mika sniffled as she accepted a tissue from Wilbur. “Y-You were saying Sho?”

“Team Rocket had captured a pregnant Mew,” Sho continued, calmly pouring a cup of tea for Myuuko, who now sat between him and Mika. “When the infant was born, they began to conduct experiments on it. Various forms of gene-splicing and DNA manipulation… the infant eventually mutated into a form different than most other Mew.”

Myuuko took this all in with a sip of tea. “So I am a Pokémon… I was just… made to be different.”

“We’re still not sure what they were trying to accomplish. But… now, you know the truth. And you know why you have to be careful of humans.” Sho said.

“Team Rocket could still be after you.” Mika said. “I used to work at a Pokémon Center, and I remember hearing the stories about them… they’re horrible, horrible people!”

“Team Rocket…” Myuuko glanced down at his reflection in his tea. He could sense from his adoptive masters and their Pokémon just how much disdain, disgust, and fear they had at the thought of this organization. And the thoughts of them mistreating Pokémon the way they did…

“What happened to my mother?” he asked on a whim, looking up at Sho and catching him slightly off guard. All he could do was shake his head down at the young Pokémon.

“I… I don’t know,” he said. “There was never any record of what happened to her in the lab… but there was no sign of her when we found you. I’m sorry, Myuuko.”

Myuuko frowned back down at his tea. He used his powers to create small swirls in the mug that spun and danced around. It was how his insides felt; that spinning, that wave-like motion that felt like a pulse inside of his body. Somehow knowing where he came from made him understand them better… but not knowing about his mother’s fate…

Late that night, he made sure everyone in the cabin, human and Pokémon, were sound asleep before creeping out of his bed, across the floor over around his sleeping comrades, and then finally down the stairs. He couldn’t risk using his powers to make himself float, the other Pokémon and Sho would sense that for sure. Besides, he knew which boards to step on without making them squeak…

Myuuko snuck into the kitchen, picking up the small pouch he had used earlier that day in his training from the counter and opening the refrigerator door. He packed what food he could see that wouldn’t spoil easily, and also not take a lot of preparation. There wasn’t much, but it would be enough to get him to the city at least…

The kitchen light suddenly flipped on, and Myuuko felt like a Munchlax with its paw caught in the Poke Block jar. He had enough food packed now, he could easily just bolt out the door or the window that was over the sink, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead he turned his head to look and find Mika standing there, arms crossed with a bundle of cloth laying over them. She said nothing as Myuuko continued to stand there like a Stantler caught in the headlights, until he could bare it no longer.

“I…” he said, letting the refrigerator door swing shut. “Its just that I—”

“You can’t stand not knowing what happened to your mother… is that it?” Mika asked, stepping forward. Myuuko looked at her, shocked that she was able to guess so quickly, and she just smiled at him. “Sho may be the Psychic expert, Myuuko-kun, but I am an expert on the heart. I understand exactly how you feel. When I was a little girl, too young to really remember anything, my mother disappeared. He searched, but when he couldn’t find her after so long, my father remarried, and that woman became my new mother. She was kind, and loved Pokémon; a love that she passed on to me and made me want to work at the Pokémon Center when I grew up. But I still always wondered what happened to my real mother… in many ways I still do.”

Mika walked forward, allowing her arms to hang loose, holding the bundle over her stomach. “I’m not hurt that you want to find out what happened to your real mother. Though I… I will miss you. And I’ll worry. Which is why I brought this,” she said, unfolding the bundle in her arms and revealing a small, child-sized rain poncho. “For cold nights. At least I know you’ll be warm and dry.”

“Mika…” Myuuko sniffed and quickly wiped away a few tears from his eyes before accepting the poncho. “Thank you. I… I am going to miss you too. And everyone else.”

“One more thing…” Mika said, reaching under the hair gathered around the back of her neck and pulling at a small chain that lead beneath her robe. On the end of the chain was a small, bent up spoon pendant, with a periwinkle and azure stone embedded in the bowl. She looped the chain over and off of her own neck, then gently looped it over Myuuko’s head.

“Sho gave this to me when we were children… I bet you didn’t know we’ve known each other for that long, did you?” Mika asked with a smile. “He said that it would be the part of him that I always carried with me. Now, I want you to have it… so you can carry both of us with you always.”

Mika was almost thrown off balance as Myuuko threw his arms around her neck. She shut her eyes to keep tears from falling before returning with embrace with a tightness that she knew that, if she didn’t let go quickly, she might never want to.

“Just remember the lessons Sho has taught you,” she said, leaning away and ending the hug. “First fight with your head, then with your strength, and then—”

“With my heart.” Myuuko nodded, throwing the poncho over his shoulders and clasping the buttons shut. “I’ll remember.”

“Good.” Mika said with a sigh. “I… I’ll miss you. I don’t really know how to say…”

“Don’t say goodbye. Just… so long, how about that? ‘Cause I’ll be back. Someday, I promise.” Myuuko said, an aura of blue surrounding his body as he began to float in the air. “I promise,” he repeated, before floating towards and opening the door.

One last look from the porch at his home, then stars, the horizon, and the world whizzing past below him were all he saw until dawn the next morning…