"Ah, well, I was searching for Mew when I found some odd entries. So I came to Red after seeing---"

Red cut me off with an arm crossing over me. He was stumbling to his feet now in front of me, faced towards Blue. Though I couldn't see his expression, his tone was as icy as the air around us. The frosty waves came rushing back like they never left, "She's visiting."

"Why? I come and visit. How come I never knew?" Blue's face scrunched together, he seemed confused. But he bordered on an anger, "Why is she here?"

"She's my friend."

"No, I am."

Now, it was my turn to speak. I gradually lifted my body to be upright. I stuck close to Red as I said, "Red isn't allowed to have more than one friend? That is pretty selfish of you."

"It's not selfish," the ginger retorted, his next words turning in knives to stab my heart. "He's better off not to have friends who are the likes of you."

Red's head tilted like a child's, his chin pulling down just slightly, "Likes of... Her?"

Blue paced forward and grabbed the white wing collar of Red's jacket and pulled him away from where I stood. "Take a look at her. You really didn't realize? Who do you think she is?"

"Blue," I growled, my tone starting to turn desperate, "don't."

Why is he doing such a thing? Blue and I are friends too, aren't we? Yeah, I like him but--- why has he turned so cold like this? I pondered, pleading with my eyes towards the former champion.

The trainer couldn't read the signs I shot at him, or just simply blew them off. Red's deep eyes were looking down at the frost coated Earth by his shoes when Blue snatched his head up, making sure Red could only see me. "See her? She's the reason you're stuck here. The reason you'll never go home. The reason of the Coming. She is---"

Don't say it! Don't say it! Stop! Shut up!

"The player."

Red's trusting eyes melted into widening pools while his jaw hung.

"She is what she is. She's not going to stop playing with each of us like some game. That's all she ever believed this is. Right, Leaf? A game?"

I couldn't respond.

I wanted to so badly.

But I had so much I could say.

So much could happen that I wouldn't be able to control. If I said no, would they believe me? Would I believe myself? If I said yes, I would lose my best friend and the boy I liked.

But my silence wasn't good enough either for the two. Blue's grip released the banished boy who simply crumpled to his knees, slouched over with betrayal. I felt as if I could see the knife I plunged into his back. Blue, he just stared at me. It seemed he was hoping I would at least say something.

"I'm sorry," was all I managed in a broken song, spinning on a whim. I didn't dare turn around. Running out of the shelter and back into the icy storm. The wind felt colder, the snow doubling what it once was. It was dangerous to send out Pidgeot, but I did anyways and boarded on.

Though just before takeoff, a figure stood in the arch way of the cavern. The snow too powerful to allow my vision to reveal who waited. A voice gargled by the choking gusts had said my name, though I could not identify the speaker.

Nor did I seem to care. I shut my eyes, recalling the journal, "Cerulean Cave. Where the failed experiments are..." I patted my pokemon's upper neck tenderly. "To Cerulean City, Pidgeot."

He let out an obedient coo before beating his wings into the frosty blasts, soaring across the Region and away from the storm. My stomach jumped as we shot across the sky, but the terror couldn't even compare to this other feeling. I couldn't even describe it as I buried my face into Pidgeot's neck, betrayal? But whose, was the question.

Between the darkened clouds I could see the slice of the moon in its lunar waning cycle high in the west skies. It's very late at night... I thought, now just realizing how much time I had spent on Mt. Silver. My head gently sunk into the monster's downy feathers covering his nape with heavy lids, carelessly melting into a half sleep. My arms clinging around the bird's breast which puffed out while his lungs filled with a thin air. The howling winds settled to a whispering zephyr fluttering though Pidgeot's secondaries.

The slicing silence gradually became the sound of feet smacking against walkways, the distant buzz of a person's television playing re-runs of what I could tell to be an interview.

A head that I cuddled turned and rubbed a hard beak into my matted hair. Peaking up shyly, my eyes met with my mount's. The overgrown-pigeon's obsidian eyes telling me we arrived. I ran my hand over Pidgeot's plume before sliding into the pavement ground, wobbling to find my balance. I recalled the pokemon back to its capsule.

The people who I once assumed were held by numbers and codes to four step radiuses were meandering back to their homes or not there at all. A town I would play though always with people suddenly became empty, dark and lonely.

Alone, I found my way up the Nugget Bridge which seemed corroded away in the darkness. Patches of odd coloration. It wouldn't have phased me in the least if the platform was made of any other metal. Gold, it is one of the most nonreactive metals on the periodic table and is virtually unchanged when exposed to oxygen. Meaning in simpler terms, Gold should not be able to tarnish or corrode like it was.

But I ignored the signs which once again crossed my path.

I'm in a game. Is this technically even gold? Am I even breathing in oxygen? It's all virtual... My mind turned, flashing with Blue's words cutting into my heart. I still see it all as a game... But what can it be other than that? They seem real, but due to that messed up fail-safe I got sucked in. Gah! I don't understand this and I don't like that I can't!

I spun my fingers around the top of my head, finding myself only a quick surf away from Cerulean cave. I let out Vaporeon and as the fresh water turned below us, I amused one thought. "What if during the glitch where I got sucked in, I really didn't. What if those watts of voltage struck my nerve system so hard, burned out so much vital tissue on the way... That, instead of dying, I fell into a coma and this is just all a dream I created. Not the first time I thought this."

That wasn't a terrifying thought at all. Please note, the sarcasm.

Yet, upon hearing my conspiracy, the pokemon who ferried me shook around. Letting out his arrogant snorts rudely. The azure-skinned eeveelution angled his head up to me and gave a hard gaze. "Vay." He told bluntly. "Poreon! Por-Por!" The pokemon continued to ramble now, his head tossing around just feet away from the land.

I can't understand pokemon, but on the level of having a trainer-pokemon relationship... It was like that pet dog you had. He knew when you were upset and would comfort you. In turn, you knew when he wanted food, to go outside, to poop and when you're sharing your problems you could almost make out the animal's snide responses.

This was one of those things.

Vaporeon, I believe, was telling me, "Hey! I'm real. This is not some coma because I'm here! No way is life made up when I'm alive."

Alright, it probably wasn't that. But he was so arrogant in his actions that it's easy to draw that conclusion from his barks.

Arriving to the smock of land that sat at the entrance of Cerulean cave, I boarded off and smiled a thanks to the water-type before returning him.

Taking my first few steps into the cave, a dark ambiance loomed over, my heart beating like a drum.

A gooey purple blob slinked by, its white eye holes goggling at me. "Twooooh," it grumbled before melting further away.

My eyebrow rose, "Is that a Ditto? Failed clone of Mew, makes sense." That's when it wafted in. The scent.

It was like rotting carbon compounds (anything that once was alive), mixed with lab acids. Walking further, I pinched my nose futilely attempting to rid the scent from getting further into my system.

But it was no help, the vile odor still drifting stronger than it was originally.

Taking a step further, it felt as if a veil was dropped over my eyes, images sharply shivering though my mind. It was unwillingly poured into me; sounds that were obviously not part of the ecosystem I thought I was surrounded by.

I felt no connection, I was just that I was watching. First it was as dark as sin before it gradually opened from the center. I sunk in an orange formula, bubble running past my eyes. From every angle, I could sense something. Like objects were a part of me--- sunk into my skin. I feared to breath, but when I did- it was just like taking in air. My mind told me it was, quickly reminding myself this was all a sort of illusion.

How I was seeing it, I knew not.

My attempts of movement were restricted, giving me note that I was in a sort of crystal capsule. Looking out of it were distorted figures of darkness staring at illuminated screens. Almost in sync, they all spun to stare at me. Voices mulled from all directions, excitement, happiness, and hubris. They shadowy people turned to one another, shaking hands:

"Congra--la---s ------, We d-- it!"

"---ally! a l----g suc---."

"Y-u --st b- -- ----d, --c--r Fire."

"C-- we --- th- boy -- n-w?"

"No. -- n--d sec---ty i-case th-s o-e melts -ik- --- other-."

My head involuntarily twisted over so I would be looking to the right. There, in another capsule of orange fluid, floated a boy. He was no older than five, black locks drifting about. He looked peacefully asleep, but I could make out each of his ribs that his white skin tugged tightly against. Under his eyes were heavy, dark bags sagging.

I didn't realize it, but I was walking. In the real world. My brain had just become reeled into this mystical like movie. The sounds changed to a droning chatter, heels slapping against marble or steel floors. My heart beat softly, a confusion sinking in. I'm in a cage now? In room full of cages. I was in one of them.

"Hey..." A high voice murmured.

Flinching, I looked to the right to see him. The boy who floated in the tube from before now sat in a chair. His ruby eyes glinting at me with not fear nor greed. Just a child's joy. I tried to speak, only making out animal like rumbles.

He grinned, "Do you understand me?"

Again, I tried to speak with the same result. So I simply nodded.

"Ah! That the first! You look different than the others too!" his smile broke for a moment, my eyes saw his arm. It was lined with injection dots, red and puffed up. I cocked my head to him, moving my gaze from his to the boy's arm. "Ah, These? No worry, they no hurt as much as they did before this."

I gave him a look of a straight disbelief.

He--- laughed. "You caring!" my face heated up before shooting my head away. "Hey! Wait, keep talk to me! Well, pay attention. The scary people in white jackets forget I exist unless do tests. It lonely... Hey! Wanna be friends?"

Gently, I turned back to face him. My head turned as if I didn't know what a friend was.

"You no know what a friend is? A friend is a friend! I take care you, you take care me. We there for both of us! Get it?"

Not really... My mind echoed.

He beamed, "I hear you! How come no mouth moving?"

I blinked to the boy, The child can hear my thoughts?

"Yeah! Yeah! I can!" He smiled so innocently. "My name Red! Remember it! And they call you MewTwo- should me call you too?"

Yes?

"Okay MewTwo! We be friends!"

It broke away from the touching moment. A new scene coming to mind.

An empathetic connection latched into my heart, a hot sweat felt as if it was a layer of plastic over me, despite that the metallic room was an ice cold. From a high window, as if I were in a basement, I could see sweltering heat waves.

"Move it, kid!" I coarse voice shouted, then the sound of shocking, the smell of burning flesh, followed immediately by a young boy's tortured broken shriek. I had no control when I spun around, my heart breaking to see a little raven-haired boy struggling to his feet. A shrouded woman in a lab coat held a cattle prod at his back. Each time the child stumbled, the staff points were thrusted into his spine; blue fuses leaping around the air.

I suddenly became infuriated, my arm flinging out dramatically. Though, in place of my arm, was a long lavender one with three, classic alien-like, fingers outstretched. The prod in the scientist's hand suddenly lit up in a faded magenta light, creaking and crying as it bent into a loop. I pulled back and the instrument was torn from the person's grip harshly and thrown into the wall, clattering loudly- metal against metal.

As if on cue, a burning sensation erupted against the nape of my neck, all my nerves frying and from my lips came a monstrous gargling before it all shattered away. Now they came, the feelings becoming painful to carry.

"Give me back my son!" I retracted into the cage I felt as if I had known my entire life. A man in a lab coat was screaming at this woman. She protectively stood in front of Red, arms stretching like a guard. I felt crushingly, involuntarily, pain in my heart. Protection was something I couldn't give him, is what this odd mind thought.

She looked at the man with sheer hatred. There was no fire like one would expect, it looked like ice, "Your son? Your son! You're horrid! You've been experimenting on your son for months, denying me any visitation. He's my child, too! You have no right to call this boy your son, either! Just look at him! Explain to me why he cowers, why his eye is swollen shut, why I can see the burn marks and cuts running up his body? What about a proper education for him? He barely speaks like a normal kid his age! You are lucky I am simply divorcing you! I could report you to the law!"

"Then why won't you?"

"Because I once loved you, you idiot!" she sobbed, tearing her way from the building and dragging Red along with her.

The man, Dr. Colress Fire I believe, reached out an arm for a moment. Like he were about to stop her. But it retracted, his breath floating out for a long period of time. The man then turned to me, his deep wrinkles relaxing as a horrendous grin crossed his face, "Well then, I guess that just means more training for you! Let's get rid of that silly empathy!" The came in flashes, pain, crashes, fatigue, the smell of my own blood mingling with toxic chemicals they injected. My heart breaking further and further until it was nothing. I felt nothing. Staring at the heartless people who paced around me, I felt something bubble. It was so cold it burned. I wanted to kill them.

That was all.

And then, it escalated. Fire burned all around, screams of the ones who once tortured Red filled the air. Their flesh burning instead of mine. Fires of the computers spilled onto the flammable elements, causing explosions every second. A man huddled in the corner, scribbling wildly in a leather bound book. His eyes darting to me in dread. I approached in ease, my alien arm stretching out to caress Dr. Fire's trembling face. My fingers clenched in a snap, the light wrapping around the scientist's head.

He screamed. Oh, how he screamed. And I felt happiness. To hear his choke in agony, blood starting to drip from his nose while his eyes rolled back to show the whites, "Stop! Halt! I beg!" he shrieked like he had a power over me. I destroyed his mind, collapsing it onto itself. His chest stopped. My fun of listening to his pleas to live were over. So I threw him with my supernatural powers into the flame. My hands moving to take his blood first though, thrashing it across the open pages of his burning journal which he was always glued to.

"That was for Red," a monstrous voice snarled from my own mouth.

That's where it ended, everything faded back to Curlean cave. The smells and visions drifting off, but never leaving my mind. Tears were in my eyes as my heart thumped unevenly, breaths struggling to take in the air. The illusion gone, their screams still lingered. Still haunted.

I was back in the cave I had entered. I trembled, words seething at the ends of my teeth which chattered against one another. "What in hell was that?"

"Those were my memories..."

The hair on the back of my neck shot up as the voice from the visions came, the one which sounded both human and monster. Slowly turning, my mouth slipped to hang ajar as it floated towards me. Staying adrift in the surrounding air was a humanoid pokemon the color of dying thistle, but from his stomach and twisting into his tail was a deep plum purple- matching its eyes which swirled with the empty frost of hatred.

His voice came without his mouth forming the words- telepathy. Something I never believed to exist. This world just loves to screw with my brain doesn't it? "Greetings, Player."

I couldn't speak. Just gawked at something that was so human once, but became a monstrosity. My heart scratching up to my throat with fear.

"I have been awaiting your arrival for a while now."