Unova region.
Lacunosa Town.
Inside a quiet, crumbling manor, a white-haired butler in a black and white suit looked at the composed young man before him with undisguised concern.
“Master Ichiyo, are you truly intending to set aside the Gym Badge collection and travel to Kanto?”
The young man called Ichiyo had short golden hair and pale skin that gave him the look of a sheltered noble who had never encountered hardship in his life.
He nodded.
“I’ve received intelligence suggesting a Legendary Pokémon may be present there, so I intend to go and see for myself.”
“A Legendary Pokémon?” The butler’s expression went slack with astonishment.
Such things were extraordinarily rare.
“If I can catch it, there may be hope for our family yet.” Ichiyo turned toward the door.
“I’ll leave the manor in your hands while I’m gone.”
“Of course, young master.”
Ichiyo stepped out and began the journey to Kanto.
His starting identity when he entered the game had been unlike the common options most players received.
No Shorts Kid, no Bug Catcher, no Youngster.
He had spawned as the young heir of a fallen noble family, and the first words he had heard upon entering the world were the thoroughly classic: our family has fallen on hard times.
Both parents gone.
A vast empty manor.
One aging butler.
Savings that would not last the month.
He had scraped his way into becoming a Trainer through sheer effort, secured a steady income through the Unova League, and avoided starving by a narrow margin.
He pulled his attention back to the present and watched the streets scroll past the window.
A Legendary Pokémon.
He was the top-ranked Trainer in the game by overall standings.
That Pokémon was going to be his.
Kanto region.
Pewter City.
A temporarily rented auto repair shop.
Over a hundred players of every description had gathered inside.
At the front stood a heavily built man with the kind of physique that suggested he had not skipped a training session in years.
He was the Guild Master of Dragon Ascendant, Ryuji.
With a Legendary-scale event within reach, he had called in members from across the map to assemble here.
“Everyone.
This Legendary Pokémon belongs to Dragon Ascendant.
I called you all here to work out our approach for when Mewtwo appears.”
The mechanic was well understood by every player in the room.
To catch a Pokémon, you had to weaken it first, reduce its health as far as possible without knocking it out, then throw your Poké Ball.
“There will be other players on the island.
The Legendary’s strength is going to be extraordinary.
We take a position early, watch how things develop, let the other guilds and solo players soften it up, and then we move.”
No objections.
Everyone nodded.
“Good.”
“First Legendary Pokémon since launch.
It belongs to us.”
New Island.
Team Rocket’s secret research facility.
A researcher in a white coat and round-framed glasses stared at his terminal with sweat running down his face.
How had this happened?
New Island’s location and the entire Mewtwo Initiative had somehow been leaked to the public.
How did anyone outside the organization know this place existed?
Even within Team Rocket, intelligence relating to Mewtwo and New Island was classified at the highest level of secrecy.
Beyond the research staff, only Giovanni himself and a handful of senior executives had ever been told.
And now it was out there.
What was he supposed to do?
The player going by the name Theo felt like his head was about to split open.
His starting identity had been listed as Intern Researcher, and on his very first day in the game he had found himself stranded on the map labeled New Island with no way off.
He had tried to leave.
The ocean stretched in every direction and he had no transport.
He had tried asking other players for help.
None of them could do anything.
For months he had watched helplessly while other players caught Pokémon and explored the open world, while he remained stuck on this island without having caught a single one himself.
After the initial panic settled, he had begun methodically exploring the research facility, searching for any way out.
And then, not long ago, he had stumbled onto the deepest secret this place held.
The people here were using cloning technology and experimentation to create a Legendary Pokémon.
A Legendary Pokémon, a being that existed on an entirely different level from ordinary Pokémon.
And Team Rocket intended to use it to dominate the entire world.
Absolutely deranged, Theo had thought at the time.
But his thinking had shifted gradually over the weeks that followed.
Being stranded on New Island was a desperate situation, yes.
It was also an extraordinary opportunity.
If he could catch the Legendary Pokémon called Mewtwo, he would start ahead of every other player in the game by a margin that could not be closed quickly.
So Theo had asked careful questions, conducted quiet investigations, and eventually confirmed one critical fact: Mewtwo, newly created and not yet fully awakened, had the mental awareness of a newborn.
It understood almost nothing about the world it was being born into.
When Mewtwo awakened, he would poison the cafeteria food and eliminate every NPC researcher in the facility.
Then he would approach Mewtwo and tell it that he was its father, the one who had created it.
A newborn mind would have no reason to doubt him.
He would start the game with a Legendary Pokémon and leap so far ahead of the competition that catching up would be nearly impossible.
The plan had been progressing smoothly until that post appeared on the forum and blew everything wide open.
Theo’s internal monologue at that moment was not fit to repeat.
“The plan has to move up,” he muttered, steadying himself with a slow breath.
“Tonight.”
Mewtwo had not yet fully awakened.
That did not matter.
He would take it anyway.
Whatever happened, he could not allow another player to get there first.
Deep night.
The innermost section of the New Island research facility.
Cold white light filled the sterile laboratory.
Inside a transparent cultivation tank, pale green fluid moved in a slow, steady current.
A slender silver-white figure floated motionless within it, shaped like something between a human and a feline.
Its young body hung with eyes closed, as still as an infant still forming in the womb.
Only the faint rhythm of its heartbeat gave any indication that this artificial Legendary Pokémon had already developed its own consciousness and its own life.
Theo stood before the tank, staring at the Pokémon inside with burning eyes.
The outside world had no idea what this Pokémon was truly capable of.
He did.
He had read every data file in the facility.
Every physical measurement, every recorded output, every test result pointed to the same conclusion.
This Pokémon could level a city without effort.
His starter Pokémon.
Inside the tank, Mewtwo had already sensed the presence standing before it.
It paid no attention to the figure.
Its mind was occupied with something far more immediate, three questions turning over and over in the dim warmth of its half-formed awareness.
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going?
…
Bonus @200 PS
Read upto 12 chaters ahead @keepsmiling818 P2reon