Chapter 16: Time to Disappear

Two Hours Earlier/Route 9-Kanto

Before Mewtwo had teleported away, it had used Future Sight. In its Mind's 
Eye, it saw the mutt, the boy, and the girl leaving a town. Mewtwo didn't 
recognize the location, so it focused and panned out. It looked at the city 
from high in the sky and got a better view of the topography. Below him the 
entire town was now visible, it was a sprawling metropolis, buildings 
encompassed the entire town and to its center were numerous skyscrapers that 
pierced the sky. A high and shiny tower jutted out towards the sky in a city 
to the north, a large green forest to the south, and the sea to the west.

Mewtwo opened its eyes, it now recognized the locale, it was the Johto 
Region. Somehow, in a little more than half a day's time, the three were 
going to find themselves in Goldenrod City.

The Girl asked where Mewtwo had brought them and he answered, 'this is Route 
8. It's the closet place I thought to bring you where we'd have the least 
chance of encountering Rocket members who might interrupt us'.

The boy then asked something stupid about it caring about Rocket members 
helping it. How insulting Mewtwo mused, 'I fight alone, I don't accept the 
aide of humans in battles, I fight how I want to fight. Not with some moron 
trainer behind me, barking ridiculous orders'.

'The Rocket Base in Celadon gave a Red-4 Alarm. Among the other things that 
such an alarm signifies, it also orders Rocket members from near by bases to 
converge on the base under alarm in order to give aide, Mewtwo paused and 
pointed to the west. Rocket members would be flocking from Saffron and 
Cerulean. Maybe even Fucshia. All cities with Rocket Bases. Lavender Town has 
no such base, Rocket members wouldn't be coming through Fucshia'.

The boy asked another stupid thing, he was obviously suspicious but Mewtwo's 
patience was running out, "you're just leaving us here?"

'It doesn't matter. Go wherever you want. I'll find you eventually', the 
feline turned its gaze torward Arcanine again. 'Yes, I'll find you and I'll 
kill you all. For now, that is my purpose'.

Then Mewtwo teleported. It reappeared at a sea port. The sea's waves pressed 
up against the concrete as Mewtwo staggered. It looked like it had 
underestimated its energy reserves, Mewtwo dangerously exhausted.

The port was abandoned, no ships were docked and no people were around. 
Mewtwo was relieved, it had not intended to teleport here, it had teleported 
and its consciousness had faded for an instant due to its exhaustion and it 
ended up at the port randomly. The last thing it needed was for idiot 
trainers to try and chuck pokeballs at it, it feared that in its current 
state, an able trainer might succeed.

Its consciousness wavered again and it reached forward, fearing it might 
fall. Its hands came up against something, and Mewtwo suddenly found itself 
propped up against a truck. It was gray with two red horizontal stripes 
running on its sides. Mewtwo stopped for a moment, fearing that it was seeing 
things, but no, the truck was real. The feline reached for the driver's side 
door handle and it opened. It crawled inside and laid down sprawled on the 
seat.

Mentally, the cat pulled at the open door and it closed shut behind it. It 
closed its eyes and performed a final move: rest! It entered a deep slumber, 
during which it would enter an enhanced healing state at the expense of being 
vulnerable. Half a day, 12 hours, that will be enough...

<><><><><>

Karma didn't stop Chris until they had passed Lavender's outskirts. It was by 
no means a very large town and Chris only saw two people as they were 
leaving, but Karma seemed anxious so he didn't question her. They walked for 
a few minutes when she pulled out the pokeball.

Chris stopped as she tapped the central crystal on the sphere and it opened. 
The familiar red light appeared and Arcanine appeared before them. Although 
it was still covered in the bandages from earlier t stood normally, its coat 
gleaming orange, it was obviously fine. Karma went to work immediately on 
removing the clothy bandages, while Chris leaned back.

"How ya feeling, Arcanine?" asked Chris.

Arcanine looked around the path they had been walking on and shook its head. 
Part of Chris thought the action had a slightly...breathtaking quality. The 
midday light shone off the thick coat giving it an almost glossy look. Chris 
thought he could see why it was classified as the 'legendary pokemon'.

"Jeez! What happened?" Aranine sounded disoriented. "Maaan..."

Chris was sort of relieved, although only the deepest part of him would admit 
to it, seeing Mewtwo as banged up as it had been had shocked him. He didn't 
really believe Growlithe to be capable of battle, but he didn't forget their 
encounter with the Rocket Grunt near Bill's Sea Cottage. Then, some strange 
fury had transformed the puppy in a monster.

What that puppy became when it was enraged, Chris personally believed, was 
definitely capable of murder. Chris was worried that Team Rocket had done 
something to Growlithe and caused it to lose itself again.

Yet Arcanine stood before him now, acting as normally as it had before it had 
somehow evolved. Arcanine hadn't said anything when they had helped it to the 
Lavender Pokemon Center. Mewtwo had not lied, a quick scouting of their 
surroundings had revealed the Route 9 road nearby. They had quickly discussed 
taking Arcanine to the Saffron pokemon center, but Karma had quickly pointed 
out that even if most Rocket members had gone to Celadon, some were still 
bound to be in Saffron. Team Rocket was bound to be searching for them, it 
would be safer to head to Lavender, so they had.

Arcanine weighed almost 350 pounds, and it could barely walk. Even after 
Karma had treated it, they both needed to help support it as they slowly made 
their way.

"We need to talk," Karma finally spoke out. "Greg, what do you remember?"

Arcanine raised one eye, "we got beat by that cat lookin' thing. I woke up in 
a weird room and got stuff done to me."

"Stuff?" asked Chris. "Like what?"

"They drew blood, weighed me, injecting me, and stuff..." Arcanine stopped 
and added, "oh! And they were shocking me with weird colored electricity."

"How'd you evolve?" said Karma, she didn't seem interested in the tests that 
Team Rocket had conducted.

"I was in that room and they made me touch a red stone," Arcanine said 
slowly.

"A Fire Stone?" Chris asked.

"Probably...anyways I think I blacked out. When I came to I was on a street, 
the earth under me sorta jutted up and smashed into me..." Arcanine finished 
lamely. "Everything between there is...I dunno..."

"Somehow after you evolved, you managed to escape and battled that cat 
thing," Karma interjected. She quickly gave a quick resume of their battle 
with Mewtwo and the circumstances that had followed. She didn't coast over 
what they had seen in the Game Corner or the explosions that they had heard. 
Nor did she exclude the flaming Game Freak building. By the end of her 
explanation, Arcanine was very very still and very very silent.

"You saw...bodies?" Arcanine finally managed.

"In the fire, yes," Karma answered. Chris felt awkward. He too had seen the 
flaming bodies but the resulting battle had wiped it from his mind. Now that 
they knew Arcanine was responsible for their escape, they also knew Arcanine 
was responsible for the fire.

"So...I...I..." Arcanine trailed off.

"Stop right there!" Karma suddenly barked. "You don't have the right to feel 
sorry! We caused this. We have to accept that."

Chris remembered the Game Freak building exposions and wondered how many 
people had been caught in it. He stayed silent.

"The innocent people..." Arcanine whimpered.

"I said shut up!" Karma cried out, Chris thought maybe she had cracked. He 
had known her for a little while, but she always had seemed...in control of 
herself. Yet he supposed the sight of bodies roasting in the flames caused by 
her brother wad finally gotten to her. He reached for her, hoping to quiet 
her but he took one look at his face and stopped. Those were not the eyes of 
a hysterical person. She was going somewhere with this.

"Innocent people got involved because we were taken to Celadon and innocent 
people have died. When we started this quest, it was to help my brother, but 
now we have a responsibility to finish for the sake of others!" Karma 
practically cried.

"What are you talking about Karma?" Chris asked.

"It was your idea clutz! Celebi!" Karma rounded on him. "Not you too! Think 
about it! What happens if we go back in time and stop my brother from dying?"

Chris backed up a little, "if he never dies then, then I never meet 
Growlithe...so we never start our journey. I never meet Arcanine or you...so 
all that's happened..."

"...Never happens?" Arcanine finished.

"Exactly. If my brother never dies, then you two never meet. We never get 
involved with each other or Team Rocket. Everything that happened at Celadon 
never happens," Karma finished. She now had a serious expression on her face, 
she was looking at both Chris and Arcanine furiously. "Everything we've done 
un-happens. The time-line corrects itself."

"So we never become friends...our memories..." Chris didn't know what to say. 
He really had only met Arcanine and Karma a few days ago. Yet, the idea that 
they might 'un-meet' saddened him in a strange way. He couldn't express it 
but he had come to really like Arcanine and Karma as friends...to like...

"Maybe you don't like it," Karma said. She was directing this bit directly at 
Chris for some reason. "This was your suggestion clutz. Things are different 
now. We aren't doing this just for my brother anymore. By doing this, all 
those innocent people never die. This is our responsibility now, it's not a 
choice anymore."

Chris didn't say anything for awhile, but he finally nodded. He understood 
Karma's reasoning. She was right. They both turned to Arcanine, to see how he 
was handling the news. Its eyes were closed, as if deep in thought. Finally 
it opened its eyes, and they were clear. "Alright, Purples. I understand."

Chris stood there, between the two, and he started to laugh. Karma looked at 
him strangely until he stopped long enough to answer her gaze. "So I guess 
I'm never going to learn how pokeballs and pokemon center terminals work, 
huh?"

As he laughed Karma looked at him with a strange gaze, he meet her eyes and 
she answered softly, "I guess not."

He stopped laughing at that. He suddenly felt very cold inside, but before he 
could say anything else she turned away. "Come on Greg! Get lower."

Arcanine looked at her sheepishly, "why?"

She looked annoyed, "right now Saffron is vulnerbale. We already told you 
what Mewtwo said about the Red-4 alarm. Most Rocket members have probably 
left Saffron to head to Celadon. Now that it's almost empty of Team Rocket, 
we can get in and take the Magnet Train to Johto!"

"So? Why do I have to get lower?" Arcanine said.

Karma sighed and took out her pokedex, Chris noted with some amusement that 
it was not purple, but rather green. She opened it and pressed a few buttons. 
Eventually she leveled it with Arcanine and pressed a button. "Arcanine. The 
Legendary Pokemon," spoke a mechanical voice. "Praised for their wisdom and 
loyalty, it's powered by a blaze that burns in its body. Originally from 
China, its most discerning quality is its speed. It is capable of running 
6,200 miles in one day and night."

Arcanine's mouth dropped open. "You want me to carry you?!" it cried.