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The first time Blue had to steal from someone, she primarily felt fear. Fear of being caught and fear of what he might do to her. The next time, it was guilt. Guilt for stealing from someone who appeared genuinely nice and friendly. But a growling stomach and a tiny hand grasping her own made the guilt bearable. Now, a few years down the road, stealing had become somewhat intuitive for Blue. It’s not like she enjoyed taking something precious away from its former owner. It’s just…. sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So she did it. Time and time again until she stopped worrying about the guilt and the fear.
So when she saw the big banner on the door to the city hall announcing it’s closed for a corporate assembly, she didn’t think much of it. Just another opportunity to free some wealthy guys from their pocket change. They won’t even notice it. She was experienced enough to know.
As usual, the best way to get into such a location and to get close enough to any unsuspecting patron was to be a waiter. Barely any other camouflage would get her this close to nearly every person in the room, after all. And camouflage was something she really excelled at.
Blue released her Ditto out of its Pokéball and looked around the building for a staff entrance. Once located, she sneaked in and looked at the personnel shuffling around. The majority of the waiting staff were women. They had a standard uniform that would be just a bit too big for Blue. It was made for adults after all, and Blue was just 11 years old, even if she was tall for her age. But that wouldn’t be a problem. “Hey Ditto,” and the small pink Blop looked up at her. “Think you can help me out with that?”
The instructions went by on a fly and lucky for Blue, none of the staff knew each other or would suspect her. They prepared the serving trays, stacked some glasses, cooled the sparkling wine and then patiently waited for the first people to appear. Well, the first guests to be exact. There already were some Men present in black uniforms who looked suspiciously sly with their hats hiding half of their faces. They must have been security, Blue assumed.
The first guests appeared and were welcomed with a smile and glass ready to be pushed into their hands. They would assemble in the front part of the hall first, mingling with each other and talking business. Blue started observing the people. They were mostly men, clad in black suits, omitting an Aura of arrogance. Their jackets would show an obvious bulge where their wallets were stored. While this looked easy enough, the chance of being spotted now was too big. The people walked around too much, having their eyes everywhere, and they also weren’t drunk enough. Blue knew how to be patient in a situation like this. She would get her chance once everyone sat down and would start to eat their food. Also, if the big decorated stage and white screen were any indicator, there might be a speech and presentation scheduled later on. If the room was darkened and everyone's attention was focused on the stage, this just could end up as one of her easiest coups so far.
The room was filled with a lot of people already when a man, presumably the CEO, entered the hall. He was tall and wide, but most intriguing was his face. It looked like trouble, marked by experience and wit. He was definitely someone Blue should avoid at all cost. Luckily some other girl had already rushed over to offer him a drink. He was followed by 4 people. Were they his assistants? Blue couldn't figure out what was going on with them, but they were odd. Even in a room full of arrogance, theirs stood out even more. The important man took the offered glass and raised it in the air.
“Thank you all for coming to this special occasion. Please take your seats and we will start with dinner and the main event."
His voice was deep and oozed authority. The crowd responded instantly with a unison of " Yes, Boss!” and then everyone but the assistants opened a path for the man to walk through and bowed down. What kind of corporation was this?
Everyone sat down at the tables and the crew started serving out dinner. Whatever weird company this was, they surely didn't save money on the food. It looked and smelled fantastic. They only had the finest Tauros meat, perfectly prepped Seaking instead of the low quality Magicarp usually served at these events, and even Slowpoke tail. It wasn’t just the food, the decoration was of high quality as well. There were many round tables with five to eight chairs each. They all had a white fabric draped around them without a single fold. The dishes had an elegant flower design to them that was mirrored by the flowers present in the middle of each table. There were name tags on each seat. Blue was amused by the range of names. It started with normal names like Sabrina and ended with strange names like Proton or Orm. But she had more important things to do.
Blue started handing out the plates of food and refilling glasses and every so often slipped her hands into the jackets hung over the back of the chairs.
There was a lot of cash on them. In some wallets Blue found multiple IDs all with the same face attached to it. This was suspicious enough already, but then Blue found some notes discussing obtaining a special Pokéball being able to catch all Pokémon instantly. The news of a Pokéball like this existing was huge for her, but what did they mean by obtaining it? This didn't sound like something you can just get at the store.
Blue looked back at the table she just relieved of their wallets and started to get wary of them. The glint in their eyes and the smirks on their faces stopped looking like that of businessmen and started to make her shiver. This might have been a bad idea.
After everyone was done eating, the announced main event started. The CEO went up to the stage and every chatter stopped instantly. The room was dead silent. The influence that man had over everyone reminded Blue of someone she would rather not be reminded of. She gulped the feeling down and followed the other staff members to the side of the hall, patiently waiting for them to resume the work after the speech was done.
“Good evening again to everyone. If you are here, this means you belong to my most trusted and elite members. It should go without saying that everything shown today must stay in this room and that not obliging to this rule will come with consequences”, the man scanned the room, looking at all the familiar faces before stopping at the waiters. Blue looked down at the floor instantly, just like some other woman. The woman next to Blue started shaking and Blue started to suspect why no one of the staff knew one another. They weren't hired for their skill or because they worked in the business. They were here because they could be silenced. Blue wondered how she even got in this so easily. She really shouldn't be here.
“Without further ado, I hand this stage over to Blaine. The scientist behind this amazing milestone for Team Rocket.”
Team Rocket. Now all of this made sense to Blue. She had heard of them, obviously. They were pretty infamous here in Kanto and frankly they were very bad news. Blue was no angel, far from it. She scammed people, stole wallets and food more often than not and she even stole a Pokémon herself once. But she could never accept an organisation terrorising people like this. This was something that man would do and she refused to be like him.
One of the four assistants stood up and walked up next to the CEO Boss.
“Thank you, Boss" he cleared his throat and addressed the room "thank you all for being here. I'm sure everyone is aware to some degree what we were working on over the last months and eagerly await some news about this.”
Blaine shuffled around in his pocket and pulled out a bunch of papers, before turning around and inserting a floppy disk into the computer. He opened some folders and turned to the audience again.
“So, let me start at the beginning. Many years ago, some colleagues and I stumbled over some traces of a Pokémon never seen before in Kanto. Rumours about the existence of this mysterious and aloof Pokémon 151 had been floating around for a while, but there never was any proof,” Blaine looked up from his Paper and unto the crowd, “But we found it. Mew. Based on the reports, we had assumed it was a psychic type Pokémon and used a machine to analyse its psychic waves and located it.”
He clicked on the computer mouse and opened a picture of a Pokémon Blue had never seen before. It was the same pink as her Ditto, but the long legs and tail obviously meant it was not connected to her little blob-like companion. It was immensely cute and being this rare, Blue couldn't imagine just how much this Pokémon was worth.
“We managed to take this picture, but Mew is very cautious around people. It fled from us instantly, but we managed to get some samples from it. A DNA sample to be exact. And that’s how the whole cloning theory started.”
Cloning? Was this even possible? Blue was intrigued, but it also made her feel uneasy. Team Rocket wasn’t really an organisation you could trust with a technology like this, right? Blaine went over some more pictures, explaining the science behind the cloning project and the needed equipment.
“So, when everything was ready we started creating what we called Mewtwo. It wasn’t just a direct copy of Mew. We had bigger plans, creating the strongest Pokémon of them all,” he looked over to his Boss, who nodded approvingly.
“And it worked,“ Blaine continued. “We managed to create a new Pokémon. Its psychic wave is a lot stronger than that of Mew. Its sheer power was so much, we can’t have it wake up just yet, or it would probably destroy the whole lab.” Blaine let out a dry laugh.
“Here, let me show you our accomplishment."
Another click on the mouse and the next picture appeared. Blue let out a tiny gasp. This creature roughly looked the same as Mew, bodywise at least. There were some deformities that were notably different and the color was not the same pink anymore. Most notably however, was the missing right arm and leg of it. This was so exciting, but oh so wrong. Did it feel that it was missing an arm? Why was it shackled inside that tank? Blue didn’t want to ponder these questions too much.
“As you can see, we are not quite finished, yet. And this is as far as we can go right now. The sample we had of Mew had to be replicated a lot in order for this project to be a success, but our method isn’t efficient enough. Every time you replicate it, just a tiny little fraction gets lost from it. And now, there is nothing left,” He looked at the picture of Mewtwo and continued “We can’t complete it like this.”
The room got filled with whispers, some in awe and some with doubt. Before it got too loud, the Boss rose up and took over the microphone.
“And that’s exactly where Team Rocket gets involved now. Based on the system of Blaine and his Team, we should be able to locate Mew once again. This time, we have to capture it to ensure we will have enough DNA samples for further research. That way, Mewtwo can be finished. And once that prototype was a success, we can create even more and even stronger Pokémon from there on. So,” he addressed every one of his underlings, “make sure to share that picture of Mew to all your men and have them catch it. Don’t worry about telling them any details, they don’t need to know them. There will be a bounty for whoever catches it.”
Blaine looked at the ground the whole time. He didn’t seem to enjoy this whole event. Blue didn't dare to feel any sympathy for him. He was complicit in all of this, after all. But it did make her wonder just how this whole ordeal was created to begin with.
“I assume that was everything from your side, Blaine?”
“Of course, Boss. There is nothing more to add.”
“Very well. An applause for Blaine, gentlemen,” he started clapping his hands and the room followed suit. “ Sadly, he has to leave us now. He told me that keeping that prototype alive in its current form is quite some work and he has some adjustments to make. His work is highly appreciated.”
“Thank you, Boss” Blaine gave him a small bow, before turning around and retrieving the floppy disk, “I will be on my way now. Good luck to everyone.”
“I’ll have some of my men escort you back.”
The men Blue had assumed were security rushed over to Blaine and he followed them off the stage. Now it really started to seem off.
Blue rushed out the main hall and into the bathroom for the staff members. She couldn’t waste any time, so she got rid of the empty wallets. She preferred planning things out beforehand, but a situation like this might never appear again. She needed that disk. She wanted that rare Pokémon Mew. It was powerful from what was told, maybe powerful enough to help her in her task. But she also couldn’t shake off the dread of Team Rocket getting it and creating more of these clones. The strongest Pokémon of them all. She couldn’t let them do that.
“Ditto, can you change into the outfits those grunts wore?”
A reassuring sound came from her Pokémon and Blue left the bathroom clad in the grunt uniform and caught up with the group and Blaine near the side exit. Now, she had to improvise.
There were around 5 grunts escorting Blaine, so Blue figured one more wouldn't stand out too much. She joined them and trailed at the end of the group, trying to not gain any attention from them.
Blaine had put the disk into the inner pocket of his jacket previously. She had to get really close to him in order to steal it. No, this wouldn't be enough. A hug? A bump? Maybe she could make him slip and fall onto the ground and then the disk would fall out.
She felt someone rip her shoulder. “What division are you from again?"
Blue whipped around. "Huh, me?”
"Yeah, I don't remember seeing you before.”
All eyes were on her. So much for a plan. She might just need to battle them. Sure, it was 5 or 6 Vs 1. But they were only grunts. How strong could they be?
"Oh, I'm just the new owner of that Mew disk”, Blue declared and threw a Pokéball at them. She started with her Clefairy.
“Huh? Are you kidding me?” One of the Grunts screamed, and with that all 5 grunts released their Pokémon from their balls as well. Blue faced two Rattata, two Zubat and an Ekans. Blaine stood behind the grunts, opting to observe first.
“Clefairy, use Double Slap!” And with that the little fairy lunged at the opposing Rattata and gave it a series of hits.
“Stop it. Zubat, Supersonic!”, one of the grunts shouted and the Pokémon followed the order. Clefairy became confused and the Rattata retaliated with a quick attack. Now the Ekans attacked as well with Poison Sting.
“Damn it.”, Blue knew that Clefairy wouldn’t endure another round of attacks, so she put all her eggs in one basket, “Metronome”. Clefairy snapped out of its confusion and wobbled its fingers. Metronome enabled Clefairy to use Take Down against the Rattata, finishing it. However, Clefairy fainted from the Recoil damage as well. Four more to go. She called out her next Pokémon.
“Jigglypff, Sing!” The balloon Pokémon came out and put the opponents to sleep. “Very good, now we can finish them off one after another. Double Slap!” Jigglypuff finished off one of the Zubat, when Ekans woke up and attacked it from behind, wrapping itself around the round Pokémon.
“Haha, right! Don't let it go”, the grunt cheered. He turned around to Blaine, who was still watching. “Do you plan on helping us or what?”
“I’m afraid I left my Pokémon at the lab before coming to the event. You are on your own.”
“Tch fine, not like we need your help. Ekans use Poison Sting again.”
“Jigglypuff, Defense Curl”, Blue called out and her Pokémon curled in on itself and rolled out of the wrap, avoiding the poisonous sting. “Good, now Pound.”
It landed a critical hit on the snake Pokémon, but it was too late. By now, the other two Pokémon had awoken from their slumber and both landed a Quick Attack on Blue’s Pokémon, finishing it off. Next, Blue sent her Squirtle into the fight.
“Very well. Squirtle, use Water Gun." The little Tortoise used its water attack against the Ekans, managing to take it out as well. Now it was two vs one. Blue dared to hope.
“We are not gonna lose against a single girl”, one of the Grunts said, crunching his teeth together “Zubat, Ratatta, you two use Bite.”
Both Pokémon lunged at Squirtle, who hid inside his shell in order to protect itself.
“Oh no”, Blue lamented. Realistically, Squirtle was her last Pokémon she could use. She needed Ditto in order to escape this situation unseen and with both of these Pokemon attacking her nonstop, she didn’t realistically have any opening herself. That’s when her Pokémon started glowing and its shape changed, becoming slightly bigger.
“Waaar!” The Pokemon emerged from its shell, showing its new, evolved form and new power, firing a strong Bubble attack on both opponents, effectively forcing them to put some distance between them.
“You are amazing, Wartortle”, Blue jumped with joy. Her Partner was the cutest and strongest she could have ever hoped for. Seeing its new power, Blue had an idea how to finally end this. “Use Bubble again, this time on the ground.” The bubbles wet the ground, creating some fresh mud. “Perfect, now Tail Whip.” Wartotle hurled the mud at both the Grunts and their Pokémon, blinding them for just a second too long.
Blue ran past them towards Blaine. “Give me that disk!”
Blaine, shocked at her sudden aggressive approach, couldn’t keep his footing on the wet ground and when Blue collided with him, he fell straight to the floor and the disk was catapulted right into Blue's open hands. This couldn’t have gone any better.
“How dare you, you little -”, the grunt screamed in anger. But before they could do anything, Wartortle hurled another wave of mud at them.
Blue used the chance to run into the crowded street of Celadon City and made Ditto transform into a random passerby. Perfectly blended in, Team Rocket lost her trail and eventually gave up. Looking at the disk in her hand with the Mew inscription, Blue knew she had a lot of research to do. Getting Mew for herself would be incredible, but simply foiling team Rocket's plan was already worth it.