Preparation


In the area around Cerulean city, Mewtwo sat and waited. For what, he
wasn't sure. It had been two days since the dream, and now...something
in his mind told him to come to this exact spot and wait. He was just
beginning to grow impatient when a man fell from the sky and landed in
front of him.

"Well, nice to see you again," the man said with a wide grin.

"Who...are you?" Mewtwo prepared to blast him off the face of the
earth like the insect that he was.

"You don't..." The man grinned even wider. "You really don't remember
me, do you?" He suddenly laughed, something that caught Mewtwo
completely by surprise. "Well, that's wonderful! It'll make
controlling you that much easier."

"Control me? Are you mentally ill? Do you have any idea what I am?"

"Yes, I know exactly who and what you are, Mewtwo, and that's why I
want you on my team when the game begins."

"How do you know my name?" He began gathering energy, preparing to
turn this annoyance into dust.

"Well, let's just say I have an interest in you killing your mother."

"My what?"

"You...don't remember? Hah! This will be easier than I thought!"

"You...are starting to annoy me..."

"All right, then listen to this. You're going to destroy every living
thing on this planet, but you've got to get your mind together."

Mewtwo had had just about enough. "Now you die, human!"

"I'm not a human, and my name's Jerry."

Mewtwo sent a powerful wave of psychic energy directly at Jerry, but
he responded by vanishing into thin air for a moment, then reappearing
in the same spot without a scratch on him.

"I don't have time for this. Sleep." He put a hand to his face, then
the giant pokémon fell to the ground with a light crash. "Pleasant
dreams."

Mewtwo felt the ground beneath him, but his eyes told him he was in an
entirely different place. Darkness was the only thing he could see,
but there was something else. Something was coming at him, and fast.
He watched it carefully, then, when it was close enough, he recognized
it as a human skull. All of a sudden, it opened its bony mouth and
spoke.

"Kill them all...."

More skulls flew toward him and around him, speaking in raspy voices.

"Kill.....kill them....kill the humans....destroy them all....."

Back in the real world, Jerry watched as Mewtwo writhed in pain and
fear from his dream. Then he turned his attention to more pressing
matters. The rest of the players would need to be gathered before the
game could begin. Personally, he would have chosen a better location
than Cerulean, but everyone he needed to collect was within his range
of travel, so it was as good a place as any.


On the road to Cinnabar island, Ash, Misty and Brock walked along,
arguing as usual. Unbeknownst to them, someone was watching them from
the woods, being very careful not to be seen...yet.

"So, you know anything about the gym leader on Cinnabar island?" Ash
asked.

"Nope, he's kind of a recluse," Brock replied.

"I hear he only uses fire pokémon," Misty offered.

"Hmm, then Squirtle will..."

Suddenly, someone walked out from behind the trees and stepped in the
middle of the road. He didn't move, and just starred at the three
trainers.

"Who're you?"

He was a kid, about Brock's age, wearing all black clothes with a
visible dagger hanging off the side of his belt and a lump in his coat,
most likely a gun. He suddenly vanished, then reappeared behind them.

"Name's Sean."

"Umm...what do you want?" Ash asked with one hand on his pokéballs.

"Do you know a pokémon named Mewtwo?" he asked.

"Umm...yeah, we do."

"You want to know where he is?"

"Sure!" Misty exclaimed suddenly.

"He's in the area around Cerulean. I can get you there."

"How?"

"Bicycle." He walked behind a tree and brought out three brand-new
bicycles. "Take route 16 to Vermillion, then take the underground
shortcut to Cerulean. I'll meet you there."

"But..." Misty was about to ask more questions, but he walked away
without another word.

"So what do we do?" Ash asked.

"I say we keep going," Brock suggested. "We don't even know who that
guy was."

"Yeah," Misty said while looking at the bikes, "But I've got a weird
feeling that something's gonna happen...Something big..."

"Yeah right, you're crazy!" Ash took one look at the bikes, then one
look at the road to Route 16. "Well...it'd be a shame to waste these
great bikes."


Over on Cinnabar island, Dr. Jonas and Dr. Micheals were looking
through old reports on both Mew and Mewtwo, trying to find a way to
find, capture, or kill him.

"I'm telling you, he can be reasoned with!" Dr. Jonas set down a
clipboard and pulled up an old database on his computer. "He's an
intelligent pokémon, and if we show him that we mean him no harm, he
might listen to reason."

Dr. Micheals scoffed, then rifled through papers on older projects.
"Mewtwo is dangerous, and he should be destroyed."

"Like the others?"

"The others are the exception. They don't even know the power they
have, so they pose no threat to us. Mewtwo, on the other hand, knows
full well what kind of power he has, and he has a very unique interest
in seeing us dead and his mother returned to him."

"Then we should do just that, and give him what he wants."

"Are you seriously suggesting we release Mew? We don't even know if
the genetic alterations are permanent! For all we know, she could be
faking it just to get us to trust her, then she could kill us all! You
remember the tests, don't you?"

"Of course, but all I'm saying is you shouldn't be so nervous."

"You really shouldn't, you know," a new voice from behind them said.

They both spun around and came face-to-face with a grinning Jerry.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?"

Jerry vanished, then reappeared behind them. "I'm here to tell you
that Mewtwo is near Cerulean, if you still want to pick him up."

Both doctors were surprised at Jerry's disappearance, but Jonas managed
to regain his composure. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Well, I was the one who led him there, so it would stand to reason
that I would know where he is. If you want to retrieve him, I suggest
you hurry up and go to Cerulean." With that, he vanished, and didn't
reappear.

Micheals, of course, didn't trust him as far as he could throw him, but
something inside told him to follow up on this little tip.

"Let's go."

"To Cerulean? Why?"

"Because we don't have anything else to do. And this very well might
be the only lead we ever get."

"All right, fine, but no soldiers! That was the main reason he kept
running in the first place. We take along a few guards, but no one
else!"

"Fine..."


Also on the road to Cinnabar was a lone red car, driven by a very irate
pokémon trainer. Gary had missed a perfectly good opportunity to get a
$50,000 reward and replace the muffler on his car. He was so deep in
thought that he almost ran over somebody who was standing right in the
middle of the road.

"What the... Get out of the way!"

"You want that reward?"

"Huh? What?"

"$50,000. All you have to do is capture Mewtwo."

"Who are you?"

"Sean. That's all you should call me...for now. Now, turn that thing
around and go to Cerulean City, immediately."

"Cerulean? No way! That'll put me back at least a month!"

"Not if you take the shortcut."

"Shortcut?"

"Turn around, follow the road for three miles, then turn right at the
dead tree. You'll get to Cerulean faster than you think."

"How do I get back?"

"I'll tell you that when I see you there." With that, he disappeared.

Greed beat out suspicion in Gary's judgement, and he quickly made a
180 turn and drove down the road.

Sean watched as the young trainer drove away. That made two on his
list. All he had left was a few gym leaders and a couple old friends.
Then he could confront Jerry.

***

In Cerulean City, just outside the pokémon gym, just about everyone had
been gathered for...something. Ash, Misty, and Brock had just ridden
up on the new bikes when they spotted some familiar faces.

Todd, A.J., Sabrina, Erika, Koga and his sister, Lt. Surge, even
Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny were there. As they were riding up, Ash
spotted Gary sitting in his car, looking around for someone. Misty
recognized the two scientists from the research lab, who were
accompanied by four armed guards. Then the two people they were all
looking four entered the scene. Sean walked in down the west side of
the street, Jerry on the east side, along with a familiar face.

"Mewtwo!" Jonas looked in horror at the giant pokémon walking
alongside Jerry. Mewtwo glanced over at the scientist, but kept
walking.

Jerry turned to the doctor. "Dr. Jonas, could you please refrain from
distracting my friend here till absolutely necessary?"

"What have you done to him?"

"Simple mind-control induced by dreamscape haunting. In other words,
nightmares. Quite simple, in context. You should have tried that with
Mew. Perhaps you would've had more success controlling her."

Before he could respond, Jerry and Mewtwo walked into the center of the
street, along with Sean.

"So..." Sean said, both to Jerry and to everyone around him.

"All the players have arrived. Let's get this game started."