Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokemon or Mick Jagger.

Fit Three:
To The Third Power...
And Beyond

Brock looked around. This was starting to get worrying; Misty had been gone now even longer that Ash had been. He wasn’t the type to panic, but still- what was going on out there? He looked up expectantly as the door opened, but it wasn’t either of the two young trainers. “Any luck?” he asked.
“There’s no sign of them,” Professor Samuel Oak replied. The aging researcher had stopped by the Ketchum residence earlier on an evening jog and, being briefed on the situation, decided to go look for Ash and Misty. Tracey had gone with him, while Brock and Delia had remained at the house in case the young trainers returned by themselves.
“Something’s wrong, somehow. Something’s terribly wrong.” The young “Pokemon watcher” standing behind the Professor spoke everyone’s mind. “I don’t care how dark that forest is or how much Ash gets into his training or even- sorry Mrs. Ketchum- even how much of a plain idiot he can be sometimes-” (Delia only sighed; mothers are more aware than anyone else of their children’s shortcomings) “-he shouldn’t have been gone this long,” Tracey went on, “and neither should Misty!”
“We’re not going to get anywhere by all of this worrying.” Brock tried to calm his friend down, walking over to the door.
“Well, we have to do something!’” cried Delia, and everyone started talking at once, almost drowning out the explosion that suddenly erupted some way off.
Caught off guard, the four realized that the bast had come from the hill where Professor Oak’s lab was. “Gary!” Samuel cried (his grandson had stayed at the lab to watch the equipment), and they all ran down the road to the inferno.

At the top of the hill, they relaxed a little; Gary, a little dazed but none the worse for wear, had stumbled from the flames and now met them at the top of the steps. “Grandpa... we need to get the Pokemon....”
“Gary, Pokeballs are fireproof, remember? Otherwise a Charizard or something like that could break free easily. As long as the roof doesn’t fall and open the balls, they’re safe.”
“I think that’ll be okay. Thanks Brock, I’d forgotten about that.”
“What happened?” Samuel asked, but before his spiky-haired grandson could reply, beams of dark energy started striking the ground around them. As the dust settled, they could see someone walking towards them.
“...Misty?” Delia and the rest could scarcely believe their eyes. Gary, however, just shouted “Get down!” Everyone dived as another bolt flew right over them.
“It was so sudden,” Gary explained. “She just walked in, and I wanted to ask her where she’d gone- Grandpa told me he was looking for her- but she started saying this weird stuff like ‘Witness my power, pathetic human,’ with this freaky look in her eyes. I thought she was on LSD or something, but then she started shooting energy beams out of her hands. I know, it sounds like I’ve been watching too much DBZ, but...” He shrugged in frustration.
“It almost sounds like something is possessing her,” Brock mused.
“Well, what the hell are we supposed to do about it?”
“Gary!”
“Sorry, Gramps.”
“Crobat, go!” cried Brock as he threw out a Pokeball. The purple bat appeared in a flash of light. “Use Supersonic!” Crobat shrieked its sonic attack as the group all plugged their ears. The redhead 20 feet away shrieked in pain and collapsed, clasping her hands to her head. The others looked closer, it seemed that something was flowing out of her ears. Afraid that Crobat had done her permanent damage, they raced towards her but stopped short as she began to groggily get up- and the slimy substance congealed into a tall shape.
Brock was the only one in the group who been at Purity Canyon and seen Mewtwo (for the second time, though he didn’t realize it), and this creature’s resemblance to the angsty telekinetic was nothing short of eerie. “What are you?” he demanded of it.
It gave a basso chuckle in that mouthless voice trademark of psychic Pokemon like Mewtwo or Lugia. “Personal, aren’t we? All you need to know about me is that I am far more powerful than you will ever be. ...Then again, the conquerer’s name should be the last thing the conquered hears... I am called Mewtres.”
“Oh, you’re French- figures”, quipped Gary- who then screamed as black light enveloped him.
“Mock me not. I overpowered your friend here-” the creature indicated Misty, who had started to head towards the others- “easily enough, and I will defeat you all. I will suck the life from you until there is nothing left”- the basso was crescendoing rapidly- “starting with this insolent plebeian-”
“MIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!”
A multicolored beam of light struck Mewtres, and the others all whirled to see where it came from. “Mimey!” Delia called- for it was her loyal Mr. Mime, who had also hurried over at the sound of the explosion. The eerie glow around Gary faded, and he slowly got up as Misty joined them.
Mr. Mime’s Psybeam (for that was what it was) continued to jolt Mewtres, but something was different- instead of keeling over, Mewtres’s silhouette was becoming more imposing, doubling, tripling- wait a minute, it was doubling and tripling-
The mime Pokemon finally stopped it attack, but the damage had been done.
Everyone, including Mewtres, stared at the grotesqueries that were now standing near the ferocious feline, looking around at each other and everyone else.
The evil clone was the first to break the silence.
“So,” he chuckled, “this is what it’s like to have brothers.”


* * *

He looked up as the door opened, pausing the mp3 on the computer and wiping his face clear of refried beans. He felt almost embarrassed at the unimposing setting for his “interview”, but it wouldn’t have done at all to have the boy take in the vista from his own office and figure out where he was; no, best to have him brought to one of the smaller spare offices towards the inside of the tower.
Ash was hustled in by his captors, Dr. Sebastian gliding in behind and securing the door. The young trainer stared at the man sitting behind the desk. He had seen him before, he remembered. At Purity Canyon; yes, he had been with Domino and Team Rocket. One of the leaders, apparently, judging from his suit. Apparently he was trying to be stylish, but being sophisticated is hard when you’re dressed like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber and holding a burrito. All the same there was a cold suaveness to him.
“Ah hello, I see you’re done with your nap.” He grinned.
“Sir?...” Mondo ventured hesitantly.
“Oh- Mondo, Elaine, you can go now.” Ash’s captor waved his arm and the two younger Rockets left the room, Mondo scurrying ahead of the girl in the lab coat. As the door closed, he continued, “Well, I must say, I’m glad we finally get to have this little chat.”
“What, no poems?” Ash snapped.
“If my underlings wish to express themselves through drawn-out personal mottos, that’s their business.” The man rolled his eyes. “I prefer to get down to business as soon as possible.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
The man grinned. “You’ve been quite a nuisance for quite a long time. I sometimes wonder how much better off things would be for both of us if we, ah... aligned our long-term goals.”
“In other words, become a Pokemon thief like you?”
“Oh that hurts. I don’t actually go around swiping from people. I do the planning; but mostly I’m the enigmatic Giovanni, Viridian Gym Leader, respected Pokemon League member, and high-living corporate executive.” He grinned again.
“Which explains why Jessie, James, and Meowth were in charge of the place when I was there.
“Huh? Why would I...” Giovanni’s voice trailed off for a moment. “Yes... I guess I did leave them in charge... but darned if I can remember why.” Whatever errand he had taken with Mewtwo that fateful day was gone from his mind along with the errant psychic Pokemon itself. “All I remember is coming back and finding that my Gym had been razed; so while it’s being rebuilt, I focus on my other operations.”
“Such as Silph Enterprises....” Ash said, half to himself.
“How did you know about that?” Giovanni’s eyes went buggy. “I mean, I’m pretty high-profile, but I didn’t think you paid much attention to things like that.”
“A friend of mine who wants to be a Pokemon researcher has read up on you guys.” This was true; after Ash had returned to Pallet and started hanging out more with Professor Oak’s grandson, Gary had waxed eloquent on the hyper-high-tech research corporation, apparently unaware of the true identity of the man behind the wheel. “He was especially interested in the Deputy Director or something-” he stared behind him- “Dr. Erik Sebastian.” Erik stared back, impassive.
“Bravo, bravo,” Giovanni clapped. “You really know your stuff. See, this is why I think we could really work well together.”
“You’re all criminals,” Ash spat. Yet a thought occurred to him- why hadn’t he heard more in the news about Erik that what he had heard from Gary? Lance had surely pointed the finger at him after the whole evolution ray project went bust. Yet if Gary knew about it, he hadn’t mentioned it to Ash....
“We’re quite invulnerable from the public end of things.” Ash, stunned that his captors could follow his train of thought that well, turned to face Erik, who was smirking. “It is well known that Lance Lamont, while honorable enough, has a rather... unrestrained lifestyle; it’s how he copes with the job. It is the opinion of many thinking persons that he was not quite lucid during his Lake of Rage investigation. How could he be, implicating such a noted figure as myself?” Ash was seething in his chair.
“You see?” Giovanni picked up the discussion. “It’s really in your best interest to join us. You’ve reached the pinnacle of your Pokemon training career. With your talents, you deserve more. You can help reshape the world according to your own desires.”
“I can go jump off a cliff!” Ash planted his feet on the floor, shoved, and flew backwards into Erik Sebastian, who fell to the floor, tangled in the chair. Ash darted to the door, opened it, and ran out, closing it behind him.

“I still think it’s too risky, Jason,” Erik admonished, after standing back up and righting the chair.
“We need to give him a sense of security, amice,” Giovanni replied. He’s not going anywhere. Head off to your other duties, I’ll call you again when I need you.” Erik turned and glided from the room.
Now it’s up to me, thought Jason, turning back to his computer. he called up the security images displaying the fleeing captive and let Mick Jagger resume asking for the honky-tonk blues. As a last bit of routine, he called up the latest bits of online news.
His eyes bugged out for the second time that day.
“ROGUE MONSTER BATTLE- APPARENT CLONE POKEMON”
He called it up and read further.
“Oh hell....”
So much for Mewduo.
But what was the other Pokemon that looked exactly like it?

To Be Concluded...

Yes, one more chapter will finish it up. This is going to be a lot more rushed and a lot dumber than I had originally planned, because it’s just going to set up a longer story arc. This is also my last fic at The Pokemon Tower; future stories are going to be on Fanfiction.net under a less bulky pen name, with a different E-mail address, so don’t mind the one I’ve already put up. More next time....