Pokémar Episode V, A Clone's Destiny

Corporate Espionage

The basement stands in peaceful quiet as Thunder and I wait for Mewtwo to awaken. Looking to try and do something productive, even slightly, in the meantime I casually scroll through the Hoenn news feed on my phone, looking for any signs of potential Rocket activity. Sure enough their activities are continuing. And growing in frequency. The region's premiere news site is calling it an "unprecedented crime wave." Though whether that is objective truth or simply the site trying to fish for views is unclear, but regardless, things are getting worse. Rocket is getting bolder. Jackson has even asked for Tsunami to join him on his commutes for protection.

The authorities claim they are doing everything in their power to curb the growing chaos, but the fact it's gotten as bad as it has suggests one of two things. Either Rocket has grown powerful enough to actively challenge the police head-on, or there are bribes and moles aplenty in the law's ranks. The latter seems more likely as the former would probably devolve into war on the streets. And that hasn't happened. Hopefully it never will. But I fear that getting the police involved will tell Rocket exactly where we are. We're on our own.

My train of thought is brought to an abrupt halt as Mewtwo suddenly rouses from their slumber, rising up from the couch. They're hyperventilating. Panicking. Something I've never seen from them before.

"Woah! Easy there Mewtwo." I say. "You're safe. You're among friends."

"W-w-w-what is this feeling!?" They stammer. "I can't--I can't t-t-think straight!" Did all that trauma flip a switch or something in them? This is by far the most emotion I've ever seen out of them.

"Panic. It's panic. Extreme fear. Focus a minute. Breathe. Slowly. In through the nose, out through the mouth." After struggling to ease their breaths for a minute they get into a rhythm. In... and out. In... and out. In... and out.

"That is... that is a bit better..." They say. "What happened? We were listening to that music then I... I... I don't remember but I know... Arceus, I was dying... It... scared me. Why did it scare me?" Their breaths grow shallow again as anxiety threatens to take back control.

"Mewtwo. Breathe. You're okay. You're alive. Lay down and breathe. Just focus on breathing." They lay back down and try to get back into that rhythm. I join in to try and ease them into it. After a good ten minutes they finally seem composed enough to talk to. "You better?"

"I believe so. What exactly happened? And why are all these feeling so... powerful?"

"That object in your brain we told you about a while ago? It tried to kill you by injecting toxins into your head. It was a kill switch that Rocket would activate to prevent you from going on a rampage."

"Clearly it failed."

"Yeah. It sounds like they tried, based on previous neurotoxic damage, but it only affected your memory center. I think it malfunctioned. And then went off in earnest today from that same malfunction."

"Is it gone?"

"It's gone."

Their relief is palpable. They let out a deep sigh. "Thank Arceus... That still doesn't explain my sudden emotional state of being. Is that how the rest of you live? How do you handle all this!?"

"Experience and practice. Years of it. I'll be glad to help you through it. As for the why, I can't say."

"You said that this all started when Alex had you listen to all that music, right?" Thunder chimes in. "What if you starting to feel emotion is what triggered the device? And it ended up destroying whatever it was keeping you from feeling?"