"Here they come?!"
Mewtwo shifted into a guarded stance, letting out a sigh; she hadn't expected these humans to arrive this fast.
She shot a slightly astonished glance at the "psychic" she had just met.
To think he could fire off Hyper Beam at people without batting an eye.
"I was created to be the strongest Pokémon, and anyone entangled with me falls into disaster."
The goddess-like Mewtwo sighed. "Even here I can't dodge it. Let me drive him away."
"That's not the case," Hikaru shook his head. "Human desire is like a boulder rolling down a mountain—what has trapped you is the malice of humans, not any fault of your own."
"You don't need to lift a finger; I'll handle this."
Although the pursuing Pokémon hunter had been blasted into the lake by Hyper Beam, the small spherical drones he'd deployed still swarmed into the Heart's Hollow.
Hikaru muttered that hunters and villain teams really loved these mini flying gadgets—high-voltage binding arcs, great mobility.
Talk about black tech.
"Iron Valiant, Electric Terrain."
The holy-knight-like mechanical girl bared a light-blade!
Pixelated eyes burst with tangible lightning; she drew the blade across the ground, and the geomagnetic field flared, detonating into a storm of electricity.
Lightning crackled underfoot!
Within the electrified field, the machines' signals were severely jammed, and Iron Valiant's Speed rose by 50%!
Sword Rush!
Her light-blade skimmed the cavern air in elegant arcs, cutting down every one of the fliers in a swift flourish.
Out in the lake, the hunter Danker crawled up in a sorry state—the Hyper Beam just now had almost killed him. Fortunately, he had a well-tempered body, and—
A scapegoat, Escavalier.
"Damn it, is there someone else inside that cave?!"
He turned and saw two Pokémon walk out from the lakeside cavern, their bodies bearing obvious signs of modification, which made him freeze for a beat.
Then he realized he'd hit the jackpot!
Such blatant tech-mod scars meant these two Pokémon had also escaped from some research outfit; in other words—
If he caught them and handed them all over to those "clients," he'd bag another fat bounty!
"Perfect… Mewtwo, and you two as well—you're all mine!"
"Go, Tyranitar, Escavalier!"
"Tyranitar again? Do all Pokémon hunters carry one around? Dark type or not, it isn't actually a wicked beast."
Hikaru's voice made the hunter jolt again, and when he saw a human walk out of the cave, he knew something was off.
Where did the ball-drones he sent inside go?
In the next instant, that holy-knight-like Pokémon dashed at him at incredible speed!
What, she's attacking a human directly?!
"Attacking a human straight on—do you still call yourself a Pokémon Trainer?!"
"Crunch!"
At the order, Tyranitar roared and bit down on Iron Valiant's light-blade!
A heartbeat later, Fairy radiance erupted along the blade.
A point-blank Dazzling Gleam deleted Tyranitar on the spot, the hulking brute gone in a flash.
Escavalier lunged with its lance, but a small blue figure intercepted—Riolu seized the tip, heaved, and tossed both spear and bug knight straight into the air!
"Hoo-hoo~"
Larvesta spewed a torrent of flame.
Overheat!
Fire painted half the sky scarlet; with a quadruple weakness to Fire, Escavalier didn't last a blink—its steel carapace was near-melted and it splashed into the lake!
"I'll get you treated once this is over."
Pokémon do self-recover decently fast; they were only following their hunter's orders anyway—and Hikaru knew this hunter.
Along with his Pokémon, he was very familiar.
"Hunter Danker—the guy commissioned by a research outfit to capture Mewtwo."
"Gotta say, your hairstyle's pretty slick. You any good at card games?"
This guy appears in Mewtwo: Prologue to Awakening—good looks, looks like a good guy at first glance, and a hairstyle like he wandered in from the Yu-Gi-Oh! world; the look's a bit like GX's mid-arc antagonist Sartorius.
He'd chased Mewtwo all the way into southern Unova for a long, long stretch—fairly dedicated work.
But Mewtwo hadn't killed him; so he sweet-talked Virgil from the Pokémon Rescue Team to find where Mewtwo was hiding.
"You bastard—don't underestimate me!"
Danker didn't understand what Hikaru was saying, but hunters are best at bullying the weak and starting a real-life brawl. Seeing the fight one-sided, he tried a desperate counterattack—only for Hikaru to catch his wrist in an instant.
A slight squeeze, and the bones in that hand cracked, drawing a scream.
"Like real combat? I'm a martial artist. Pokémon hunter—what use are you? Purity—way too low."
Hikaru figured he'd just fast-tracked the guy into his "movie-version" look; in the prologue he shows up with a fake broken hand.
Now it's real.
"Unova's mystery organizations are legion—wipe them out along the way and you'll still miss a few."
"This isn't a place you ought to be. Time to turn over a new leaf."
Hikaru's palm surged with psychic power; with a bang, it clamped Danker's face like an iron vise.
Mind Shatter—activate!
"What did you do to him?" Mewtwo asked, puzzled; she could feel that psychic force was different, but couldn't quite name it.
Hikaru shrugged and tossed the fainted Danker aside. "Nothing much—just reset his personality."
"Relax. He won't bother you again. I'll haul him off in a bit and 'release him into the wild' on some mountainside."
"After Mind Shatter, a person's dark side of personality is smashed to bits, and they genuinely turn over a new leaf."
"Though if that research group isn't dismantled, they'll just hire a new hunter. So next time, we ought to be much more ruthless."
Mewtwo was amused.
Releasing a human into the wild—that was a strange way to say it, but honestly kind of funny.
What was certain was that the psychic just now targeted the heart.
"So there are humans with psychic power this strong."
As she spoke, Mewtwo used telekinesis to fish Escavalier back from the lake. Danker had three Pokémon total, and, same as in the movie, she crushed their Poké Balls.
They were free now—and from what their memories showed, the trio didn't really like staying with Danker; once the Balls shattered, they bolted at once.
"That's a decent way to handle the aftermath."
Hikaru gave her a nod of praise.
Bang!
A Luxury Ball popped open and a hopping Gimmighoul lugging its treasure chest tumbled out. The moment it appeared, it ignored the others and bee-lined for the unconscious Danker, immediately rifling his pockets.
"Ahem—what are you doing?"
Hikaru stared at Gimmighoul, speechless.
Gimmighoul looked back, grinning impishly, and threw a thumbs-up.
"Cool!"
What am I doing?
Looting the body, obviously—can't you tell?
Spoils, baby, spoils. Any coins? The coins are all mine!
Trash mobs, drop your gold!
Behold how a king's treasury is built up!
Looting after the fight—it's a great habit.
"This little one is real greedy. I didn't know a Pokémon like this existed."
Arms folded, Mewtwo watched Gimmighoul frisk the body with interest; she'd truly learned something new.
And the coin imp actually pulled a pile of coinage off Danker!
Most were cash, but there were ancient gold coins mixed in!
"COOL!"
Gimmighoul went wild with joy!
See? The drop rate's actually insane!
"Hee-hoo!"
Whistling, Gimmighoul suddenly found a strange coin. After a careful look, it tossed it away.
"What, you don't want that one?"
"Peh-peh~" Gimmighoul waved, meaning that coin felt wrong—it didn't feel like a "coin" at all!
Yup, not a coin; useless to me.
"Amulet Coin… wait, no—that's not an Amulet Coin."
Hikaru picked up the thing that looked identical to an Amulet Coin.
[Cosmic Device: A crucial UFO component (power core).]
[Description: The starter module from Beheeyem's spaceship; identical in appearance to an Amulet Coin but with none of its effects. Retrieved from the wreckage of a long-crashed craft.]
[Effect: Used to start a spaceship; contains immense power for interstellar travel! Give it to a specific 'kind of Pokémon' to boost its performance.]
[Compatible Ultra Beast: Celesteela!]
"Even something this crazy shows up, huh. The hunter probably thought it was a gold slug."
Feels like something from a certain anime episode—lots of spacefaring Pokémon have ships: Clefairy's use Moon Stones as energy; Beheeyem's uses this whatever-it-is.
As for Deoxys and the like, they just ride in on meteors—and bring Rayquaza some local offworld snacks.
A thought stirred, and after mulling it over, Hikaru said to Mewtwo, "By the way, please keep an eye out. I don't know exactly where, but judging by the terrain, it's somewhere in southern Unova."
"Have you seen an old man and a girl—might be Oscar and Anna?"
"You mean the two nearly falling off a cliff—grandfather and granddaughter, with a Stoutland?" Mewtwo tilted her head. "Do you… know them?"
She briefly recounted how she happened to rescue that pair before they plunged off the escarpment, and Hikaru finally felt relieved.
In the original timeline, without Mewtwo's intervention, the two would have dropped into a bottomless abyss; even with a human's sturdier Pokémon-world physique, that would be fatal.
And that happened some time before the prologue—meaning, right about now.
If meeting Mewtwo had led to their fall, that would've been on him—fixed plots do have their downsides.
"Thank you for your help—you saved two lives."
"If someday you want to find Mew, call to me in a dream. Mew can't be tracked normally, but I happen to know one Mew who stays in a fixed place—and it's my friend."
Watching Hikaru leave, Mewtwo felt a strange warmth in her heart.
"Maybe I'll have good fortune from now on… I'll make good use of Dream Mist. If I obtain something important, I'll bring it back for you. Also—"
The world brims with curiosities; she had just read as much from the memories of those Pokémon.
So this human she met could indeed be called a "legendary person."
The Pokémon who fought for him—just these few that appeared—each had an unbelievable backstory.
For her, this counted as an encounter of destiny too!
"Individual One… we will meet, onii-san."
(The End of This Chapter)
(End of Chapter)
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