Chapter 22: Change in My Heart You seem different, Mewtwo mused telepathically. "What?" asked Arcanine. Not so blood thirsty I think. Arcanine opened its maw and flames danced between its teeth once again. With surprising speed it jumped forward and appeared above Mewtwo's slender frame. Heh, Mewtwo said as it raised a blue bubble around itself with a raise of its arms. That's better, doggy. The flames burst out of the great dog's mouth in a blazing orange jet: flame thrower! The round bubble was engulfed entirely and when the flames subsided Mewtwo lowered the sphere, only to be greeted with the immediate sight of nothing. Wha? Mewtwo glanced at the snowball on the other side of the fence, but no, Arcanine wasn't there. The humanoid feline had thought that maybe Arcanine would back out of their fight and use the chance to free its friends. But no, it wasn't the- Bam. With shocking force, Mewtwo was sent flying through the air and crashing into the air directly to its left. The fiery beast had charged from behind. It psychically steadied itself midflight, but Arcanine was already upon it and it snapped its jaws around Mewtwo's slender neck. With horrible strength, it yanked the psychic feline left and right by the neck and threw its crumpled form into the ground. Arcanine planted a firm paw on top of Mewtwo's head, holding it in place, and opened its maw above the limp form. It breathed in deeply and roasted the cat, or it would have had Mewtwo not suddenly raised one arm and surrounded itself in a blinding green light: protect! The green light flashed dazzlingly with white stars and completely nullified the flames. Mewtwo disappeared entirely, Arcanine found nothing under its reappeared above it, floating in the sky. Haughtily, it raised an arm and closed a fist. The sky suddenly darkened and rumbled; rain began to pour: rain dance! Arcanine hurled itself into the air. Maddeningly, its jump had more than enough force to send it at an equal level with Mewtwo, but the cat sneered wickedly and raised an arm. Thunder! The sky roared as an enormous blast of white lightning arced downward from the heavens and blasted towards Arcanine's soaring figure. Arcanine had no time to even think about how screwed it was: lightning strikes in an instant. With a flash, the dog's body was sent crashing to the soft ground below. Almost instantly, Arcanine bounded to its feet and looked up, preparing to launch an attack into the sky, yet meeting the sight of a fist. Mega punch! Mewtwo had teleported to it and delivered a shocking punch to the canine's face. With a crunch, Arcanine's body was sent crashing unto the wet floor. It whimpered but raised its head and opened its maw. Flames jetted out from within Arcanine's throat, but the heavy rain visibly weakened the flames to the point that Mewtwo simply sidestepped the fiery jet and swatted it aside. Pathetic, Mewtwo mentally said. Blue light engulfed the downed dog and it was forcibly hurled into the sky. Again, a bolt of white light flashed down and hit Arcanine: thunder. The spinning dog froze in midair and was sent crashing into the ground. Mewtwo surveyed the orange pokemon from across the field and noted the distinctly charred scent. A minute passed in the rain and finally Arcanine stirred. Slowly, it raised itself and turned to Mewtwo. It seemed to test its feet gingerly before bounding forward, but it no longer had that boundless gait that had characterized it before and stumbled slightly. Mewtwo waited until the last possible moment before tapping the ground. Even though the ground was grassy and wet from the rain, sand erupted outwards from a sudden crack in a blue light and blinded the rushing dog. It skidded suddenly and crashed into the ground. Mewtwo teleported to safety behind it, then approached it when it was down and kicked it fiercely: mega kick. The kick flipped the great dog on its other side and caused a strained sound to escape its coarse throat. Mewtwo didn't bother to wait for Arcanine to rise this time, it outstretched its arms and moved them in a long wave motion. Blizzard! Before the psychic feline, a plethora of ice, snow, and hail materialized suddenly and erupted outwards in a flurry of white frost. This combined with the heavy rain and instantly froze everything in front of Arcanine in a widening cone. Arcanine itself had been buffeted by the ice and now lay molded to the ground by a sheet of ice. Only its face lay exposed; it stared out groggily at Mewtwo. Mewtwo was annoyed. It certainly had not expected this easy a fight. It had expected to battle the same monster it had fought back at Saffron; an uncontrollable freak. But the thing that lay before it was nothing like before. Before, Arcanine had been blinded by power, and that had caused all thoughts to be roughly expelled (at least temporarily) from its mind. It had relieved solely on instinct. It had been a truly fearsome thing. Now however, it was burdened. It had all sorts of things to think and worry about. Its friends welfare and its situation most pressing; it was obvious that it allowed thoughts too much precedent in its mind. Worse of all, it seemed the mutt didn't even know how to battle correctly. Mewtwo could see the battle was over: Arcanine could not proceed like this. This left Mewtwo with quite a problem: it could no longer prove that it was superior. Oh sure, it could end Arcanine's life now, then move on to the two brats, crush them, and go home. But that wouldn't prove that Mewtwo was superior. Not until it faced the mindless beast that it had struggled against in Celadon and then crushed the two brats could it finally prove to itself that it had always been superior. Of course Mewtwo had no idea of how to turn Arcanine into the same monster. Before it had been mad with power, it couldn't think of a way to evoke the same state in the figure before it. Mewtwo smiled. Oh, it whispered mentally. But if I can't make you insane with power, then I'll just have to make you plain old insane. Arcanine was looking up at Mewtwo from the ground, its maw held closed firmly by the snow. Mewtwo sneered down at it and turned to the giant snowball by the road. With a flick of its hand, it emanated a blue light and suddenly, half the giant sphere melted cleanly leaving the remaining half solidly frozen. From the melted side, tumbled out a purple body: Karma. She was shocked, she was drenched in water, having been inside when it melted. Her eyes widened at appearing in the middle of a heavy downpour where before had been a sunny afternoon and seeing a large portion of the field to the west covered in snow. She scrambled to her feet as she turned in all directions, looking desperately for any sign of her missing brother, but stopping when she saw Mewtwo standing briskly behind the layer of ice. She reached for her belt but was stricken paralyzed as a blue light over took her: psychic. Mewtwo's right arm was extended out towards her. Swiftly, she floated over to Mewtwo's side, and lay there in midair, arms and legs outstretched, in an X shape. Her eyes darkened when she saw Arcanine's head buried below the ice, but she was now powerless to say anything. This girl, Mewtwo began. She called you her brother? Is she your trainer? You two seem awful close. A strange smile danced across Mewtwo's mouth, but it quickly hide it. It was playing around this. I wonder how mad you would be if...say...someone broke her arm? Crack. Swiftly, Karma's left arm twisted 180 degrees and turned perpendicularly upwards. Instantly broken. Her eyes turned glazed and Arcanine instantly responded, the ice shook under its force. Oh, you are pretty mad...Mewtwo said. But maybe you would be madder if someone shattered her knee? With a sickening crunch, her right leg bent perpendicularly forward at the knee. Tears lined her eyes, and she forced open her mouth to scream but no sound came. Arcanine blasted out of the ice with newly found force and power, but Mewtwo raised its left arm and psychically blasted and held it down; it was now determined to finish its sick show. Well, doggy. I must say you are pretty mad, Mewtwo practically whispered. But...I can't help but wonder how mad you would be if...Mewtwo closed its right arms fist. For one eternal second, she floated there, her left arm and right leg horribly displaced, eyes wide, face frozen in an expression of pleasant surprise. Then the fist drop of blood trickled down her nose. That second passed and Karma's eyes widened horribly as her whole body shook and her mouth popped open. Blood, deep crimson, splashed and gushed out. She shook uncontrollably in midair, the blood continuing to come forth, and she looked like a horribly bloody marionette doll; shaking wildly, with her arm and leg pointed crazily. Then Mewtwo dropped her. The blue light disappeared and she plummeted to the wet floor. She was drenched in water and blood, her purple attire covered in dark black crimson. She continued to shake violently, then she gave one final jerk, and remained still. In the pouring rain, Karma Metrawire relieved herself quietly in her jeans and passed away in a puddle of her own blood and bile. ...I wonder how mad you would be if someone tore apart her insides? Mewtwo finished. The humanoid cat turned its attention to Arcanine and released it from its psychic paralysis. Arcanine was frozen. It stared with wide eyes at Karma's body, her figure lying unceremoniously in the wet grass, her eyes still wide. Finally Arcanine responded. A single tear rolled down its right eye, it looked up, and howled. It wasn't an angry roar but a lamenting cry, and Mewtwo was honestly surprised by the deep emotions conveyed in the tune. It struck a strange chord in its mind. The boy next, Mewtwo sneered menacingly, it raised an arm slowly, threateningly. Arcanine turned its head away from the sky and turned to Mewtwo. Tears were streamed down its face. Bright tears, they were decipherable from the rain by their strange white sheen and looked dazzling running down its orange coat. But soon it wasn't just the tears shining white. Soon, Arcanine was shining entirely white as well. Its whole body engulfed suddenly in a strange white light. Mewtwo couldn't believe it. In reality, it didn't know if its torture would work to draw the fight out of the mutt, but it had never expected this. How could it? This was technically impossible: Arcanine was evolving.