The Real Agency


Inside the dark room, Aaron waited as Sean slowly came back into 
conciousness.  "Well, welcome back to the world!  Did you miss me?"

"Ohhhh...."  In the dream, Sean felt fine, but in the real world, he
felt like shit.  He ached all over, and there were definitely some new
broken bones.

"Good.  Now, let's get back to Kaldra."

Before Aaron could continue with his torture, he heard a surge of 
energy from behind him.  He spun around and was suddenly face-to-face
with a glowing blue-white portal in the middle of the room.  He could
see a tunnel beyond the entrance, but the tunnel curved a few feet down
and he couldn't see any farther.  Then a small beam of light flew 
through the portal and materialized inside the room.

"Sean?"  Aaron stood there for a moment, switching his gaze from the
guy on the torture rack and the one standing in front of the portal.
Then the portal closed and Vincent reached behind him and pulled a very
large gun from behind him, one that definitely wasn't there before.
"Oh, shit!"

Aaron ran, but his trainees stood their ground, which proved to be 
their undoing.  Vincent's gun was the same shape and color as the gun
in the mall, which was exactly why Aaron ran.  Vincent held the gun at 
chest level, then pulled the trigger, releasing a torrent of plasma at
a rate of more than fifteen bolts per second.  The blasts cut down the 
trainees like weeds, each one getting hit by at least two bolts of 
high-energy plasma.  Eight trainees went down in two seconds.  One of 
the others charged Vincent from behind, but when he was a few feet 
away, the Agent spun around and swung his gun around, hitting the 
trainee with the butt of the gun, knocking his head clean off.  He 
watched it roll for a few moments, then went back to shooting people.

Sean tried to raise his head to look at his savior, but it was getting
more and more difficult to even breath.  "Hey...  Help..."

Vincent ignored him and blasted a few more trainees.  Then he just 
stood still, leaving himself open to attack.  He just let his gun 
dangle down in his right hand, seemingly waiting for someone.  Then one
of the trainees rushed him, screaming a battle cry.  He got no more
than five feet when Vincent raised his arm behind him and fired a salvo
of plasma at the man's face.  More than half his head was completely
burned off before he even hit the ground.

Aaron watched in what could only be described as wonder as this 
juggernaut destroyed his men.  He noticed that as Vincent's arm dropped
back to a resting position, the gun faded into nothingness, leaving him
unarmed and vulnerable.  Before he could launch an attack, however,
one last trainee rushed Vincent as he stood stock still.  Just before
the attacker reached him, however, he was suddenly thrown back by an
invisible force.  Aaron followed the man as he shot back and smashed 
against the cabin wall, a metal spike portruding from his chest.  "Wait
a minute, that wasn't there before..." Aaron mumbled idly.

Now that the last trainee was dead, there was nothing standing between
Vincent and Aaron.  "Come on, asshole," Aaron challenged, "Make a 
move!"

Vincent just raised his arm and pointed at Aaron, then he was flying
backwards through the wall of the cabin out into the clearing beyond.
He hit the ground and rolled a few times, then came to a stop on his
side.  He groaned softly, then looked up and saw Vincent casually step
through the hole in the wall and walk out into the field.  "I'm not
gonna lose to this freak..."  Through will alone he raised himself to
his feet and faced Vincent again.

"Come on, you son-of-a-bitch, come and fight like a man!"

Vincent didn't say anything.  If anything, he became more like a statue
than before.  Aaron couldn't detect any movement at all from him.

"Well?!?!  Come on, you freak, fight!"  Aaron pulled his gun and fired
a few rounds at him, but they were stopped by a near-invisible force
field.  "Grrrrr....fuck!!"

"That's not how real Agents fight."

Aaron was as surprised to hear Vincent speak as if his skeleton had
jumped straight out of his skin and started dancing.  "Fuck you, you're
no Agent!!  You wouldn't even make the first cut, you little shit!!!"

Aaron charged, continuing to fire his gun, but the bolts were always
deflected by the force field.  Before he got more than ten feet away
from Vincent, a beam of light erupted from the ground, shooting into 
the air farther than he could see.  "Holy shit!"  He fell backwards,
then rolled to the side as another beam appeared to the left of him.  
He quickly got to his feet and ran, trying to get anywhere but where he
was now.  Everywhere he ran, a beam appeared in front of him, until he 
was surrounded.

"Bye-bye."

The ground started to glow a brilliant white, covering the grass and
dirt completely.  Then it all exploded, a pillar of energy over a 
hundred feet high, encompassing the entire field.  Aaron felt his body
being ripped apart, molecule by molecule.


Mewtwo watched the pillar burn for over a minute, then it died down.
In the field, Vincent waited till the pillar had returned to the ground
and the light had died down.

"*That's* how a real Agent fights, dickhead!!"  Vincent turned on the
heel of his shoe and walked back into the house.  Behind him, the 
ground was charred, the grass burned away and the first layer of dirt
had been removed.  Aaron was nowhere to be seen.  Vincent walked up to
Sean and yanked his head up so he could see his face.  "Sorry, Sean, 
but you've got to go."  He pulled a small remote control from inside 
his coat with a single red button on it, then pressed it.  Sean moaned
softly, then before he knew it, his body disintegrated, leaving no
trace of him ever being there.

Once inside, Mewtwo surveyed the scene, looking at the burned carcasses
of the many human-like creatures.  A head rolled past his feet and he 
casually watched it roll to a stop.  Then Vincent walked in, looking
very devil-may-care.  Mewtwo thought him more a devil than anything, 
though.  He couldn't sense Sean anymore, but now his focus was on
Vincent.

"Hey, hi there!" Vincent called.  He waved, then reached in his coat
and pulled out a cell phone and punched in a number.  "Hey, I've just
got to make a quick call, then I can explain it all in detail."  He put
the phone to his ear and spoke to whoever was on the other line.  "Hey,
you there?  Good.  Yeah, I'm done.  No, tell them to wait for my 
signal.  Yeah, could you get in here?"

"Sure," a voice from behind him said.  Mewtwo looked behind him and saw
a girl holding a phone of her own, kicking aside severed body parts.
"Nice.  Modern killer?"  She was the same age as Vincent, and she 
looked surprisingly like the girl at the mall...Granted, her head 
wasn't smashed in, but her body was exactly the same.

"Damn straight," Vincent said playfully.  "Mewtwo, let me introduce you
to Maggie.  You can get acquainted later."  He pressed a button on his
cell phone, then spoke into it again.  "Okay, bring them in!"  He 
walked over to Mewtwo and put a hand on his shoulder.  "You might want
to move a little to the left."

He complied, then all of a sudden, a number of blue-white portals 
opened, and dozens, if not hundreds of people came through them, 
holding various equipment that looked extremely advanced.  They all 
milled about, some picking up the dead bodies and throwing them through
the portal, then some walked up to Vincent and waited.

"Okay, you guys take apart those machines," he pointed to a collection
of metal contraptions on the left side of the room, "Take them back to
headquarters and put them back together again.  I want to see what they
can do.  Okay, you guys," he pointed to the right side of the room.
"Take apart those machines and turn them into scrap metal or something.
They're worthless as anything else."

"Right!" one of them said.  They all gave a mock salute and went to 
work.  Vincent watched them for a few moments, then he slipped away and
out of Mewtwo's sight.

"Hey, Mewtwo!" Maggie motioned for him to come outside.  "Let the guys
do their job, okay?"

He nodded idly, keeping one eye on the people that were dissembling the
machines and one eye on where he was going.  They left out the hole in
the wall where Aaron had broken through.  Vincent was outside, still
talking on his cell phone.  "No, no, no, tell them to destroy the 
*entire* planet, not just the surface.  Yeah, they may have underground
colonies we don't know about.  Right.  Yeah.  Okay, good, I'll see you
when we're done here.  Okay.  Bye."  He put the phone away and turned 
to Mewtwo and Maggie.  He had the widest grin Mewtwo had ever seen.
"So, you wanna know what's been going on?"

Mewtwo's expression never wavered for an instant.  "I would appreciate
an explanation, yes."

"Okay, here's what's going on."  He took a deep breath and stretched a
little, like he was preparing for a big speech.  "About five years ago,
a guy escaped from a maximum security prison on Meros II.  He broke 
into the lab there and stole a bunch of blood samples from various 
Agents.  Then he left Meros and purchased a cloning machine from the
Black Market, then as far as we know, he came here and used the machine
and the blood samples to create clones of all the Agents' blood he had
stolen.  Unfortunately, the particular samples he stole were tainted,
and, well, let's face it, they were old.  It was, what, fifty years 
old, maybe more?"  He looked at Maggie for conformation.  She nodded, 
then directed a few other Agents in their duties.

It was all an illusion, Mewtwo thought.  Nothing about it had been
real.  Sean wasn't real.  Aaron wasn't real.  Maggie's death wasn't
real.  It was all one big illusion.

Vincent let his explanation sink in for a few moments, then continued.
"We found the guy pretty fast, but we didn't know he had come here and
created the clones till recently.  So, we set up this whole thing.  You
know, it was a bitch putting those buildings back in Cerulean."

"Hmm, I saw them when I went to meet Sean."  He remembered the pure
confusion he felt when he saw the buildings.  His first reaction was
that he had been in that cave for a longer time than he thought.  "May
I ask how you did it?"

"It wasn't too hard.  All we did was create a temporal bubble around
the affected area, reverse the timestream so the buildings would be
rebuilt, then accelerated time till everyone in the area was back to
speed with the rest of the world.  Pretty simple, huh?"

The way he had explained it made sense, but Mewtwo couldn't imagine 
the technology they must have acquired to accomplish something like
that.

"Anyway, that's what's been going on.  Actually, you know the clones?"

"Yes?"

"Well, since the blood samples were old and tainted, all the fake 
Agents looked a little different, and they were really weaker than us.
Hell, most of the Agents I know could've done this job by themselves. 
You think Jerry was powerful?  I could've whipped his ass with both 
hands behind my back.  Literally.  One good kick to the head, and-"

Mewtwo pretty much tuned out the rest of the conversation.  He had all
the information he needed.  He just stood there and watched as Vincent
and the rest of the Agents thoroughly destroyed all the evidence of the
cabins' or the false Agents' existence.

"Anything else, sir?" one of the Agents asked Vincent.

"Yes, there are three pokŽmon trainers in Pallet Town that know about
all this.  Go there and replace their memories.  Nothing fancy, just a
few minor adventures, stuff like that.  Nothing that would make them
go back and investigate."

"Right."  The Agent used a small remote to open a portal, then walked
through, the portal closing behind her.

"What about the scientists?" Mewtwo asked.

"Hmm?  Oh, right, them.  Don't you worry about them, we already took
care of them."

"Hmph.  Good for you."

***

It was close to dark before Vincent received a call saying all the 
stray clones had been hunted down and destroyed.  The home planet for
the Agency and the demon's planet had been blown up by a powerful 
orbital weapon.  The Agents had taken apart the machines inside the 
house, then set the cabin ablaze.  Mewtwo now watched it burn, staring
deep into the flames, noticing the waves and sparks that the fire
produced.  It was like a dance, beautiful but deadly.

"Hey, I got a surprise for you!"  Vincent walked up to Mewtwo holding
a data padd in his hand.  This padd was larger than the ones in the 
cabin, and probably more advanced.  "We found someone wandering around,
and we thought you should meet her."

Her?  Then Maggie walked in, carrying Mew.

"Mother?"  Maggie handed Mewtwo his mother, and she stood on his paws
as he held her up.  "I...thank you.  I did not know where she had 
gone."

"Well, it wasn't easy to find her," Maggie said with a tone of 
irritation.  "I found her in the middle of the PokŽmon League.  Luckily
no one was around, but she should've been more careful."

"I am sure she had a good reason for being there."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Vincent said idly.  Maggie made a few gestures at him
like she was prompting him to say something.  "Oh, yeah, I wanted to 
make you two an offer, that's why I had Maggie find Mew."

"What is it?"

Vincent trained his gaze on Mew.  "We want you guys to come with us, 
back to Sylen Prime, the Agency homeworld.  We know you have some...
'wants' that no one else in this world can give you."

"And just what might those 'wants' be?"

"Mew, of course, wants to get rid of that goddamn genetic tampering.
We can do it, of course.  I mean, we can create a perfect clone, 
granted the blood sample is good.  And you, Mewtwo, want to know just 
how long you'll live."

"How...did you know that?"

"Well, Mew was obvious, and you...well, I read your mind.  I can do 
that, you know.  Not as well as you, of course.  I can only get bits 
and pieces, not the whole picture."  He turned back to his offer.
"Look, you two don't have a home here.  You might not have one on 
Sylen, but at least you'll be safe there.  And we can give you just
about whatever you want.  You want to never be sick?  We have vaccines
for a ton of diseases.  You want immortality?  We have a drug that 
prevents the body from decaying, thereby making sure you never age.
You want to visit the penguin who plays pool on a mountaintop with a
carrot for a pool cue and billiard balls that dance?  Well, that'd take
some cajoling, but it's really cool to see."

It made sense.  Everything but the penguin.  There was nowhere to go 
here.  Even though the scientists had been 'taken care of,' he would 
still have to be in hiding for the rest of his life, along with his 
mother.  It didn't sound very appealing.  Then there was the option to 
go with them, to a place he could scarcely imagine, with people who 
made a career out of deception.  And for all he knew, it could be a 
trap.

<My son.>

Mewtwo looked down at his mother, his mind open to her thoughts.

<Yes?>

<We have no place here.  We are unnatural creatures.  I have sensed
these Agents' minds.  They will give us amnesty.  We shall be free.>

<I understand.>

"Well?"

Mewtwo looked up again.  "We shall accept your offer."

"Great!"  Again he took a small remote device from his coat, but this
one was covered with buttons and had a small screen on it.  He punched
in a few buttons, then it shot a bolt of blue energy out a few feet in
front of them.  The energy pooled in a single spot, then a portal 
opened, giving them view of a tunnel leading to a place only they knew.
It was more than six feet high, perfectly circular, reaching almost
down to the ground.

"Just step in."

Mewtwo cautiously stepped closer to the portal, then slowly walked 
inside.  He became a beacon of light flying through the tunnel, and was
quickly out of sight.

"I'm gonna go too," Maggie said just before she casually walked into
the portal.

"Bye."  Vincent looked around.  All the Agents were gone.  The cabin
was burned down and the ashes had been buried.  The charred ground
where he had defeated Aaron had been sprinkled with grass seeds, and in
a week, no one would ever know they were here.  It was a good mission,
carried out very well.  He was about to step through the portal and go
back to headquarters when there was a flash of light, and a woman 
appeared beside him.

She was older, maybe in her twenties.  She had short blond hair that
seemed to shine with an inner light.  "So, you brought them with you?"
she asked.

"Yeah," he responded simply.  "I thought they should be free."

"Hmm.  Good intentions, but do you think they should be exposed to your
life?  Hell, even I don't like hanging around you sometimes, what with
all that fighting."

"Yeah, but you have no choice."

"Unfortunately."

"Yeah.  So, how far along is the plan?"

"We're sixty-three percent complete, and we're pretty much safe from
any problems."

"Where is he?"

"Teraagan IV.  He's fighting the Kejalikkans."

"Well, good for him.  Look, let's focus on Mewtwo right now.  Maybe he
can help us."

"With the plan?"

"Oh, good god, no!  No, I meant with the Agency."

"You want to make him an Agent?"

"Why not?"

"Hmm.  Ought to be fun."

With that, she disappeared, and Vincent went through the portal.  It
promptly closed, erasing the very last trace that they were there.