Amber was safe for now, living inside Darkrai's nightmare world.
Reiji had her settle in there temporarily. Poliwhirl and the others stayed with her too—more than ten new "friends," enough to keep her busy for a while.
But Darkrai had already warned him: the nightmare world could only hold Amber for about half a month. After that, she would still fade away—along with the three cloned starters that had been moved in as well.
That gave Reiji a brutal deadline.
Within two weeks, he needed to find a Legendary Pokémon that could truly revive her. And he needed a body for her—because a soul alone wasn't enough. Only if mind and body were reunited, and only with the help of a Pokémon with real revival power, would there be any chance at all.
Amber's original body was likely gone for good, but cloned bodies? Those should exist in numbers. The problem was where they were.
Team Rocket had them. New Island had them.
And Reiji wasn't going anywhere near that place right now.
Hurricane winds were still ripping the sea apart. New Island was a nest of Team Rocket and a rampaging Mewtwo. Calling it a death trap barely covered it. Going back would be suicide.
Thud—thud—thud—
Fast footsteps pounded outside his cabin, layered with shouting and screams. His room had strong soundproofing, so the noise came through as a blurred mess.
He cracked open the balcony window and got nothing but howling wind.
So he opened the cabin door a finger's width and listened.
"Run—run! Pirates!"
"Pirates are on board!"
"Pirates? Now?" someone shouted back, half hysterical. "A hurricane's about to hit and they're robbing people? That makes no sense. Something's wrong here!"
Reiji shut the door again.
He ran the details through his head once, then called into the shadows. "Darkrai. Go check the captain's room. See if anything's off."
Darkrai slipped away.
Reiji recalled his Pokémon into their Poké Balls and kept only Spinarak, Ditto, Pelipper, and Gengar with him. He pulled on a full stab-resistant suit and started gearing up to slip out in the chaos.
In minutes, everything was in place: pack on his back, Poké Balls at his waist, a knife secured to his belt.
Ditto jumped onto his face and reshaped it. Spinarak settled onto his shoulder. Gengar sank into his shadow. Pelipper waited at the balcony, ready to move.
All he needed now was Darkrai's report.
He'd had people knock on his door before during the trip. He never opened it. Even if someone cried for help, he didn't move.
He wasn't about to fall for an ambush. Someone could beg one second and curse the next. Either way, he stayed silent and let them pass.
Darkrai returned quickly, and it brought exactly the kind of answer Reiji didn't want.
"I went to the captain's room," Darkrai said. "Team Rocket is there too. I heard them talking. The pirates are Team Rocket in disguise, and the captain is one of theirs. He's cooperating with them to round up the passengers."
Reiji's eyes narrowed.
"They've gathered everyone in the central hall," Darkrai continued. "Sailors are stationed inside, pirates are guarding the perimeter, and they're confiscating belongings. They're pulling out electronic devices first—anything that can record."
Reiji clicked his tongue. "So I wasn't wrong. This really is a trap ship."
Team Rocket wanted New Island's news buried. That was why they were collecting cameras and phones. As long as the passengers didn't resist, they probably wouldn't be killed.
The pirate act was a cover. If the outside world heard "pirates hijacked a passenger ship," it would drown out the real story—why the sky turned black, why the sea turned violent, why an island vanished into ruin.
It was a clean distraction.
He was still weighing his options when hurried steps rushed down the corridor.
Thud—thud—thud—
"Boss, first class still has a few stubborn ones," a voice said outside. "We've knocked and nobody answers. Should we break the doors?"
"No time. Break them. Drag whoever's inside out."
"They're here," Darkrai warned. "They're going to force it."
Reiji didn't hesitate. "Spinarak. Web the door shut."
As Spinarak sealed the frame, Reiji swung open the balcony window. Wind exploded into the room, yanking his hair and snapping the curtains like flags.
Spinarak reinforced the door with layer after layer of silk, then hopped back onto his shoulder.
"Pelipper. We're moving."
Reiji climbed onto Pelipper's back, and Pelipper launched into the gale.
The sea outside was a force-11 or force-12 wind—violent enough that if Reiji didn't clamp both arms around Pelipper and the railing points, it would peel him off like paper.
Bang—bang—
They were barely airborne when the cabin door slammed open.
A Machoke had smashed it in.
"Damn—he's escaping!" one of the "pirates" shouted, spotting Reiji already mounted on Pelipper. Webbing blocked the doorway, and they couldn't reach the balcony in time.
"Machoke, Fire Punch!"
The man tried to burn through the silk.
Reiji glanced back once. Under the mask, the corner of his mouth lifted in a cold smile. He let go of the balcony rail and locked both arms around Pelipper.
Pelipper caught the wind, and the hurricane hurled them forward.
In a heartbeat, they were blown hundreds of meters away. By the time the pursuers fought through the webbing and reached the balcony, Reiji was already a speck in the distance.
"Report it!" one of them roared, jabbing a finger at the sky. "A trainer escaped on a Pelipper!"
They grabbed a radio and shouted into it. "Captain! Captain! This is the Machoke squad—one trainer escaped on Pelipper!"
"I see him," a voice replied. The Team Rocket captain and the squad leader were already watching multiple dots peel off from the ship. "Continue the operation."
Then the leader's tone sharpened. "Deploy the Pidgeot squad. Eliminate the escapees."
At the order, Pidgeot after Pidgeot burst from the ship and chased the fleeing figures. At cruising speed, they were fast enough that most Pokémon wouldn't outrun them for long.
Reiji hadn't even fully corrected his direction before the pursuit caught him.
Flying in hurricane winds was already difficult. Doing it with a hunter on your tail was worse.
At least the one behind him wasn't carrying a trainer.
"A Pidgeot," Darkrai said from the shadow, tracking it. "It's locked on."
"Darkrai," Reiji said, voice tight, "use Dark Void. Handle it."
He couldn't turn around. Staying attached to Pelipper was already a fight. Pelipper couldn't battle mid-storm either. Darkrai was the only answer.
"Let it come closer," Darkrai said. "Then I'll drop it."
Pidgeot's eyes sharpened. Its wings flashed with metallic sheen—Steel Wing. It angled in like a blade, aiming to cut Reiji off in one strike.
It never got the chance.
Darkness swallowed its vision, and then consciousness followed.
Dark Void wrapped around it. Pidgeot's eyes rolled back, and it dropped straight into the boiling sea below. A wave rose, swallowed it, and it vanished.
Reiji's shoulders loosened for a fraction of a second. One less problem.
If he could survive long enough to break free of the storm zone, he could find his bearings and continue toward Kanto.
But the farther he flew, the darker the sky became.
And then the thought hit him like ice.
He'd flown the wrong way.
"There's something down there," Darkrai said quickly. "Submarines. A lot of them. They're salvaging something from the water."
"Submarines?" Reiji pulled open his pack, dragged out binoculars, and aimed them through the rain.
He adjusted the focus until the black hulls snapped into view.
A large red R was painted on them.
"Team Rocket…" he muttered.
Then he spotted what they were hauling.
Tall, transparent cylinders—capsules. Inside them floated Pokémon. So many of them.
"Pokémon?" Reiji's eyes narrowed. "Squirtle… Charmander… Why are there so many starters in tanks?"
Then it clicked.
New Island. Cloning experiments. Failed batches.
And not just starters. He saw other species too—so many different kinds. There were even human-shaped bodies inside some of the capsules.
Reiji's pulse kicked. He turned his head slightly, speaking into the shadow at his side.
"Darkrai. Take Gengar down there. Find a Squirtle, a Charmander, and a Bulbasaur capsule. Have Gengar swallow them."
He forced himself to stay calm and keep it tight. "One body each is enough. And search for Amber's body too. If you find it, swallow that capsule as well."
"Understood." Darkrai and Gengar dove like a black streak into the storm.
The sky was choked by cloud. Rain hammered down. Wind shredded the sea into white foam.
In that chaos, Team Rocket didn't notice Reiji overhead. They didn't notice Darkrai and Gengar at the surface either.
There were too many capsules. This sea was littered with them. With only three submarines, Team Rocket would be here for hours.
Each capsule blinked with a red beacon, making them easy to locate. Without those lights, even Team Rocket would have struggled to find them in this storm.
Reiji pulled his hood tighter and waited in the air with Pelipper, rain streaming off his sleeves.
Darkrai and Gengar returned quickly.
"We found them," Darkrai reported. "There were many capsules for the three starters. For Amber… we only found one."
"One is enough." Reiji released the breath he'd been holding.
He signalled Pelipper to turn away at once. Staying above Team Rocket for another second was asking to get spotted.
For Amber and the cloned starters, one intact body was all he needed. Legendary Pokémon could restore a body if they chose to—three Legendary Beasts had been revived after dying. Compared to that, an undamaged clone body was almost easy.
The real hurdle was never the body.
It was whether a Legendary Pokémon would help at all.
With Amber's body secured by accident, Reiji finally felt the tension in his spine ease.
He flew away from the submarines, and before long he spotted the passenger ship again—still moving on the surface, still trying to escape the worst of the storm.
Seeing it, Reiji's plan shifted.
He could hide in plain sight.
He wanted to see how the League handled this ship. If the League sent rescuers, he could ride that wave straight into Kanto. If nobody came, he could still slip away later.
He couldn't fly Pelipper back to the ship openly. The light here was much better than over the submarines. Anyone on deck would spot him.
So he had Pelipper drop lower and sent Darkrai ahead to scout.
Darkrai returned with a bad update: the ship was still under pirate control.
Reiji released Poliwhirl, recalled Pelipper, and had Poliwhirl tow him through the sea.
Once they reached the ship's shadow, he recalled Poliwhirl again. Spinarak shot a line of silk, and Reiji used it to climb quietly up the hull.
He timed it between patrols, slipped onto the deck, and ducked into a room that had already been ransacked. The door was wide open.
He left it that way.
A searched room with a closed door would scream one thing: someone came back.
Spinarak cleaned the water drops he'd left on the deck, and Reiji pressed himself into a corner, breathing shallowly.
Footsteps passed again and again in the corridor. He counted them by sound alone, keeping his body still.
Some Pokémon could pick up breathing and heartbeats. He wasn't going to make it easy.
Right now, pirates and sailors were working together—and they were all Team Rocket.
He was surrounded, and there was nobody he could trust.
Worse, he'd bought his ticket under his real identity. If Team Rocket decided to dig, they could trace him in minutes—ticket purchase, cabin assignment, travel record.
And the trouble didn't end there.
The capsules Gengar had swallowed likely carried tracking signals. They were hidden in Gengar's pocket dimension now, so the signals had probably dropped out—but Team Rocket would notice missing beacons.
Maybe only a few.
Maybe more.
In a storm like this, capsules sinking was normal. He needed Team Rocket to believe that was all it was.
He did not want Team Rocket hunting him.
So he stayed hidden.
Two hours passed. Maybe three.
He didn't relax for a second.
Then cheering erupted somewhere outside the cabin. It didn't sound like pirates celebrating.
Reiji sent Darkrai out again.
Darkrai came back fast, and for once, the news sounded good.
"League trainers arrived," Darkrai said. "The pirates are gone."
Reiji's knees nearly gave out. He collapsed onto the bed, letting the tension finally drain.
Even if the captain and sailors were Team Rocket, the League couldn't possibly be Team Rocket too.
Then he forced himself to sit up. "Who's leading them? Did you hear a name?"
"I'm not sure," Darkrai said. "But I sensed psychic power from the person in charge. People were thanking him. They called him… Will."
"Will?"
Reiji shot upright so fast the mattress creaked.
The relief that had warmed his chest turned cold in an instant.
Will was Team Rocket too—an infiltrator with League status. A Psychic-type Elite Four member, and a perfect face to "save" the ship for publicity.
Of course.
Team Rocket ship. Team Rocket pirates. So Team Rocket's League infiltrator comes in as the hero, earning praise and stacking achievements toward promotion.
Reiji's teeth clenched. "Team Rocket… Team Rocket… damn it."
He'd boarded Team Rocket's ship. Got hunted by Team Rocket pirates. Escaped into Team Rocket's operation zone. And now he'd been "rescued" by Team Rocket's infiltrator.
At this point, he wasn't even sure "rescued" was the right word.
No. He wasn't going out there.
He would stay hidden for the rest of the trip. Tonight the ship would reach the Sevii Islands, and by tomorrow morning they would reach Kanto.
He just had to endure.
Darkrai tilted its head. "So Will is also Team Rocket?"
"Most likely," Reiji said. "And if he's here, there are probably other infiltrators among the 'League rescuers.' We're not leaving this room. It's four in the afternoon now. Tomorrow morning we get off the ship."
He shut the door, lay back down, and stopped paying attention to whatever happened outside.
He'd changed his soaked clothes, but salt still clung to his skin. He could deal with that after he got off the ship.
He left Spinarak on watch and let himself rest for a moment.
When he returned to the nightmare world, Amber was playing with Shelmet and Marshtomp. She didn't even notice him at first.
Reiji called softly, "Amber."
"Rai-nii!" she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Is it okay outside? I saw Poliwhirl leave."
"It's fine," Reiji said, smoothing her blue hair. "It's been handled. This is all fallout from Mewtwo."
"Is Mewtwo okay?" Amber's eyes lifted immediately, worry snapping into place.
"It's fine," Reiji said, forcing a small smile. "Mewtwo is strong. Nobody's hurting it."
A Pokémon that could create weather like that deserved the title of Legendary Pokémon. And Mewtwo had only just been born. It would only grow stronger from here.
The one good thing was Amber. She'd bonded with Mewtwo early—deeply. If anyone could ever truly reach Mewtwo, it would be the friend from its childhood.
As for a "chosen" trainer? Reiji didn't kid himself.
He didn't have Ash's ability to talk miracles into existence. He didn't have Ash's absurd survival luck either.
Mewtwo might not even give him a chance to speak. So he wouldn't waste words.
Better to let Amber guide it. Mewtwo would listen to her before it listened to a stranger.
And later, when Zapdos and Darkrai had matured further—when Gengar and the rest had grown—Mewtwo would be terrifying, but not untouchable.
If he couldn't win, he could run.
…
Meanwhile, the clouds over New Island began to thin. The sky cleared again.
A black helicopter marked with a red R swept over the island and descended.
"This is my power…"
"I'm the strongest Pokémon in the world…"
"But… who am I? Where is this? I forgot something important…"
As the helicopter landed behind Mewtwo, Giovanni stepped out in a brown suit and addressed it calmly.
"You may be the strongest Pokémon," he said, "but there is another species in this world that is just as formidable."
"Humans?" Mewtwo asked, suspicious and confused.
Giovanni nodded slightly. "If you combine your power with humanity's… the entire world will belong to us."
"The world… belongs to us…" Mewtwo repeated, not truly understanding what the word meant, and not seeing the trap closing around it.
Giovanni watched it take the bait and smiled.
"But if you let your power run wild," he said smoothly, "this world will eventually be destroyed. You must learn to restrain yourself."
"Restrain…?" Mewtwo didn't fully grasp it, but its own strength frightened it.
Giovanni's voice turned sharper, like he was scolding and saving it at the same time. "Do you want the world to become ruins like this island?"
"What should I do?" Mewtwo asked.
Giovanni almost laughed. It was easier than he'd hoped.
He turned back toward the helicopter. "Come with me."
He didn't bother looking over his shoulder.
At this point, he wasn't worried Mewtwo would refuse.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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