Futility

Mew.

The strongest Pokemon in the world, barring Arceus.

Of that, there was no doubt.

But, despite the numerous 'supposed' sightings of Mew that were reported every year. Despite the fact that Mew was the most widely worshipped and revered Pokemon amongst the legendaries. Despite the fact that every single Pokemon researcher unanimously agreed about Mew being the genetic ancestor of all Pokemon....

There were many who doubted its existence in the current era.

Though I knew for a fact that Mew existed, the most irrefutable piece of evidence of that fact floated before me, staring down at me menacingly.

Mewtwo.

The genetic clone of Mew that was created from an ancient fossil that carried traces of Mew's DNA on it. But, also the supposed 'superior' version of Mew according to those who made him.

Wether Mew or Mewtwo were stronger was a matter for debate, but of the two Mewtwo was far more dangerous.

Mew was like an innocent child, more interested in playing around and having fun than fighting or doing anything serious. Mewtwo on the other was only ever exposed to the negative side of humanity for the first several years of his life, warping his nature into a genuine disdain of both humans and Pokemon.

And now I felt as if I was under the full force of Mewtwo's disdain at this very moment as he glared down at me from above.

"RI!"

"""ACE!"""

I heard the cries from everyone as psychic energy seized my body and pulled me upwards towards Mewtwo, preventing me from moving even a muscle as I was brought before him.

"Who are you human?" He asked me through telepathy.

"Ace Ketchum." I answered as firmly as I could in his presence.

"Ace Ketchum... Tell me, how did you already know of my existence?"

"Joe told me." I answered immediately.

"Joe?"

"Yeah. Joe Mama."

"..."

"I see." Mewtwo said in the same controlled voice(?), making me wish he wasn't wearing a helmet so I could see his facial expressions. His aura was so suffocatingly oppressive that I couldn't even read it as well.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I shall investigate this 'Joe Mama' upon my return."

"..."

Did he not get what a joke was?

"There is one other matter I wanted to ask you." Mewtwo suddenly added. "Why can I not read your mind?"

"???"

"Huh?" I asked dumbly.

"I said I would like to know why I cannot read your mind." Mewtwo repeated to me, with a bit more force in his voice this time.

"I dunno. This is the first I've heard of it." I answered truthfully.

However, as I pondered what he meant I could only conclude that Arceus had shielded my mind from psychics, even ones as powerful as Mewtwo. That was useful to know.

"You know something." Mewtwo stated. Something must've shown on my face.

"Just an idea. But all I can say is that, if I'm right, I'm shielded by something more powerful than you."

I suddenly felt as if the very air around me had sharpened like a blade as the psychic hold on my body tightened painfully.

"NOTHING is more powerful than me."

"That's a matter up for debate." I replied snarkily through the pain, only for Mewtwo to tighten his hold further.

Note to self, maybe I should learn to hold my tongue when talking to literal gods...

Ah, what the fuck. I spoke the same way to that damned alpaca.

"RIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!"

"GEOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

A pair of cries suddenly interrupted my conversation with Mewtwo, as both Riolu and Pidgeot rushed us in order to save me.

"Deal with them." Mewtwo ordered the surrounding Beedrill, who immediately swarmed my two companions.

"Stop it!" I snapped at him, as i had no idea what these Beedrill were capable of, and there was a very good chance of them killing either Pidgeot or Riolu.

"I don't think I will. They're the ones who need to learn their place." Mewtwo replied coldly, as the eye-slots in his helmet began to glow menacingly.

I strained against the psychic hold on my body as I snarled at him, "and what place is that? At your feet?!"

"Perhaps." Mewtwo replied coolly, even as Riolu found a gap through the horde of enhanced Beedrill and shot forward.

"Ri!"

"Futile." Mewtwo said as Riolu's fist stopped short of his body, before he flicked him away with psychic energy.

"Grrr..." I gritted my teeth from seeing my partner being sent flying away so easily, and strained even harder against my restraints as I tried to help him.

"Strong for a human. But it is useless."

"I'll never know if I don't try!" I snapped back at him defiantly.

"Perhaps, but the outcome will forever remain the same. Now then, I say it's time to deal with the others as well." As he said that, another group of Beedrill split off from the ones fighting with Pidgeot as they headed towards the girls.

"Leave them alone!"

"I cannot. I was ordered by my partner to eliminate you all while recovering Petrel." Mewtwo stated as if it were obvious.

Panic filled me as I tried to figure out how we were going to get out of this situation. Even if they were still tired, I couldn't even reach my Pokeballs to have my Pokemon help.

"!!!"

Something suddenly caught my attention just then, making me look up into the sky hopefully.

'By the time you exit Mt. Moon I'll have another surprise for you'

What professor Oak said to me when we talked the other day flashed through my mind right then as a small smile formed on my face.

"Oh? Something happened?" Mewtwo asked curiously at my sudden shift in demeanor.

"Yeah. You could say that." I said before taking in a deep breath.

"DRAGONIIIIIIIIIIIITE!"

My aura enhanced voice roared out and echoed off the mountainside as I sensed my oldest and strongest friend amongst the Pokemon.

"DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!!" Dragonite roared in the distance with draconic fury as he honed in on us.

Finally.

I'll finally be able to see him go all out.

The next thing I knew the sky darkened to the point that even Mewtwo looked up curiously, just in time for us to see numerous massive chunks of stone falling while coated in draconic energy.

Draco Meteor.

Pidgeot quickly took off at a far faster speed than any of the Beedrill were capable of as he sensed the danger, right before the first of the meteors began to rain down upon the modified bug types.

I watched in awe as the entire mountainside was destroyed from the falling meteors, massacring the Beedrill even as they too tried to escape. But even the ones who avoided the meteoric barrage were unable to flee, as fire engulfed the entire sky to make it truly appear as if it were Armageddon.

That wasn't a Fire Blast, Blast Burn, Heat Wave, or Inferno. It was merely a Flamethrower that Dragonite used to bathe the entire area in flames so intense, I watched as they melted the robotic armor of the Beedrill before reducing them to ash in seconds.

Wether it was the raging flames or the massive meteor headed straight towards us though, Mewtwo didn't even flinch as he flicked his wrist.

A sphere of psychic energy formed around the two of us that shielded us from both the flames and heat of the Flamethrower, while with the same wrist movement Mewtwo sent the meteor in a completely different direction towards the ocean in the south.

"Pitifully weak." Mewtwo sneered as Dragonite appeared above us, his chest heaving and expression one of fury.

"DRAAAAAAAAAAG!!!"

With a roar Dragonite charged us as powerful draconic energy encased his body, Dragon Rush.

"Hm." Mewtwo hummed lightly as he dispelled the barrier that had protected us from the Flamethrower.

He then waited until the very last possible second, right as Dragonite was about to hit him with his move, before putting his hand out and reflecting all of Dragonite's power and momentum back at him.

The force from his own attack, coupled with dragon types themselves being weak to receiving draconic type attacks, sent Dragonite reeling through the air.

I then watched horrified as Mewtwo grabbed Dragonite with his psychic powers, same as he had with me, and sent him flying directly at Mt. Moon.

There was a deafening crash as Dragonite's body hit the mountain, creating a massive crater as rock and rubble rained and slid down the mountainside in a tidal wave. But Mewtwo wasn't done yet, as he sent Dragonite's body upwards through the mountain, carving out a massive trench that triggered numerous more rockslides while completely reshaping one side of the mountain entirely.

I couldn't believe it.

I knew that Mewtwo was powerful, and that chances were even Dragonite wouldn't be able to defeat him. BUT, I had hoped that, as the strongest of the strongest trainer in Kanto, he would at least be able to put up a fight against Mewtwo.

I had never been more wrong in my life.

Pseudo legendary?

Hah!

The very idea of such a concept was laughable now that I personally witnessed what a fledgling legendary could do.

If Mewtwo was this powerful right now, only being a year or two old at the most, then how powerful would he be ten years from now? A century?

I shuddered inwardly at the thought if he maintained his current path, as I had no idea how much the current timeline would follow the anime with all the differences I've already seen.

"Is that all?" Mewtwo asked me, as if he were bored after defeating one of the most powerful Pokemon in the region.

"RI!" Riolu suddenly barked, drawing our attention to him as he rode up to us on Pidgeot's back.

"How pointless." Mewtwo said as he pointed at the duo menacingly.

Riolu immediately jumped off of Pidgeot to avoid being targeted, right as Mewtwo used Gravity to send Pidgeot plummeting to the earth. That left Riolu hovering in the air alone, just waiting for Gravity to resume working on him.

"Together!" I declared while synchronizing my aura with Riolu's.

Immediately my vision shifted so that we were both seeing through two pairs of eyes, one directly in front of Mewtwo, and the other in the air off to the side. I had to admit, with my arms being held out to either side, it almost appeared as if I were being crucified by the second coming of Pokemon Christ.

Creepy.

I put that thought out of my head for the moment though as we focused on the task at hand.

Before we could fall I created a small aura platform underfoot, giving us a foothold to push off from before I created another.

We darted around Mewtwo rapidly while also using the move Agility to increase our speed in an attempt to make it harder for him to attack us. Though in all honesty, I'm pretty sure he was just watching us out of interest after we synchronized our auras.

Rather than falter we committed to our attack as we threw off the gi we were wearing, revealing the Macho Brace and numerous weights underneath. The brace was the next thing we removed, before we slipped off one of our weights.

Fling!

Imbuing the weight with dark type energy, we chucked it at Mewtwo as hard as we possibly could.

Technically dark and ghost type moves SHOULD have more of an effect on even Mewtwo, since he should be officially classified as a psychic type. But then again, this was the genetic ancestor of ALL Pokemon we were talking about here.

Regardless, neither of us intended to stop and see if our attack worked. Instead, we simply continued moving while repeatedly using Fling on each of our weights to try and break through Mewtwo's defenses.

Soon however we were out of weights, and so we finally looked at Mewtwo to see him unfazed as they all floated around him.

"You can have these back." He said emotionlessly, before shooting every single weight at us with significantly more force than we'd thrown them at him with.

Detect!

Focusing ourselves to the limit, we used Detect to avoid every weight we could as they shot at us. We dodged around like a pinball while creating aura footholds in midair to try and keep ourselves out of harms way.

But even if we managed to avoid the weights, they just came back at us like homing missiles that were determined not to miss their target.

Instead of only running and dodging though, we shot towards Mewtwo with our arms spread open, gathering ghost type energy to them.

Shadow Claw!

With dark shadowy claws forming on our paws, we slashed them down at the barrier that encased both my and Mewtwo's bodies.

*CLASH!*

The two of us could only gape as our claws only glanced off of the barrier harmlessly.

"As expected." Mewtwo said uninterestedly, before we were suddenly seized by psychic type energy.

The next thing I knew I was back in my own body as the synchronization between Riolu and I was forcibly canceled, forcing me to watch what happened to my partner next.

"!!!"

*BANG!*

*BANG!*

*BANG!*

"RIIIIII!"

I could only listen as Riolu cried out in pain as the weights hit him with enough force to put been bullets to shame.

And immediately after the final one had hit him, waves of psychic type energy shot from Mewtwo's hands to send him crashing to the ground, where they continued to pour down upon him.

"I know your species value strength and refuse to waver before any opponent, but learn to realize when you're out of your league. It is time to give up." Mewtwo sneered down at him.

I strained against the energy that continued holding me in place as I resolved myself to at least deck Mewtwo in the face once. Just as I began to channel my aura though....

"I.....will......NOT!" A new voice roared out in defiance.

I looked down towards the ground to see Riolu channeling ghost type energy into his paws to use Shadow Claw yet again, but as he did so his entire body began to glow.

"RAAAAAAAAA!" Riolu roared out as he slashed his claws, tearing through the continuous Psyshock and kicking up a cloud of dust as he did so.

For a moment even Mewtwo was silent as we all waited for the dust to abate, and as it did a very different figure stood there.

"No defeat! No surrender! VICTORY OR DEATH!" Riolu, or rather Lucario now roared out defiantly as aura surged through his body, concentrating in his paws before it began to form a rotating sphere that quickly grew in size.

"HAAAAAAAA!!!" Lucario roared as he fired the large Aura Sphere at Mewtwo, who casually deflected it with a flick of his wrist.

"Amusing. But still futile." Mewtwo uttered, before Lucario suddenly disappeared.

"Right here!" Lucario cried out as a metallic fist passed right by Mewtwo's head, shaving off some of the armor covering it.

"..."

"I see... Extreme Speed and Meteor Mash." Mewtwo uttered quietly, naming the moves Lucario had just used. Moves that he hadn't been able to use a few minutes ago.

"!!!"

*KABOOM!*

The next thing I knew Lucario wasn't there anymore, and the entire earth was shaking yet again as another crater was created.

"I will congratulate you for being the first opponent to scratch me, but this is as far as you go." Mewtwo stated while looking down at the crater impassively, where Lucario now lay.

But then I watched as he raised Lucario up until he was floating next to me, covered in wounds.

"I believe you said 'no surrender or defeat'. You'll only accept 'victory or death'." Mewtwo said in a tone that made me pale.

"No...." I uttered fearfully, before he turned his attention towards me.

"I wonder if the rest of your Pokemon share the same sentiments?"

"NO!!!" I cried out even as he pulled the rest of the Pokeballs from my belt, activating them so that all of the Pokemon I had currently appeared alongside us, while he also pulled Pidgeot and Dragonite from where they had been lying.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

I screamed as Mewtwo held one of his hands up menacingly and clenched his fingers.

I immediately felt the fear spike in every one of my Pokemon as they were suddenly unable to breathe, with Mewtwo using his psychic powers to strangle them.

"STOP!" I screamed as I watched them all start kicking and clawing at their throats, Lucario, Pidgeot, Charmeleon, Cranidos, Grovyle, Exeggutor, Wartortle, Nidorina, Zubat, Miltank, Vespiquen, Tauros... Even Dragonite, Parasect and little Happiny weren't spared the cruelty as my little gluttonous egg desperately tried to breathe.

"PLEASE STOP!"

I begged Mewtwo desperately while struggling as hard as I could against the power holding me, until my entire body radiated aura like an amber lightbulb. But it was to no avail. Until,

"Would you be willing to make the same sacrifice?" Mewtwo asked me suddenly.

"What!?!"

"Would you make the same sacrifice for your Pokemon?" He repeated himself.

"OF COURSE!" I yelled out at him, and suddenly all of my Pokemon could breathe.

"Very well then." Mewtwo said as they all slowly drifted towards the ground.

"Partner....no..." Lucario said laboriously.

"""ACE!"""

"Let's put it to the test." Mewtwo said, before clenching his fist once more.

Instantly I felt the psychic hold on my body vanish everyone but in one place, around my throat.

And as the hold tightened I was unable to take in a single drop of air into my lungs, which immediately began to scream in pain.

"Just say the word, and I'll switch you for your Pokemon." Mewtwo told me coldly, as if he fully expected me to give in and sacrifice them.

But with each passing second I became incapable of such thoughts as my brain quickly became deprived of oxygen.

Instead, a series of images passed before my eyes starting from my childhood.

I saw myself playing with Ash as we usually would when we were younger. I saw mom cooking in the kitchen, or tending to her garden outside.

The years passed and I saw Daisy and professor Oak as well when Ash and I started working at his lab, accompanied by Dragonite as we met for the first time.

Again the years went by until I saw the young Dawn and May, specifically the scene where the three of us were frolicking in the 'secret' falls behind my house.

But then the scene shifted to the Houndour attacking us, which then led to the first time I met Riolu and we bonded as partners.

Almost every scene after that showed Riolu, as we played, trained, ate, slept, and even bathed together for every moment since then. But then came the scene where we went to Viridian by ourselves for the first time, and then a small Pidgey joined us.

As the scenes continued that Pidgey grew into a large Pidgeotto, before finally into a proud and massive Pidgeot.

And then we arrived at the most recent scenes.

I saw the day I got my trainers license, and chose Charmander out of the three starters. I could still feel the heat under my fingers as I touched his egg for the first time.

Then I was at the island where I caught my first ever Pokemon, Squirtle. I could still recall the excitement from capturing my first Pokemon.

I was then on a ship that was carrying May and Dawn, who I had seen for the first time in five years. My heart was still filled with the love and warmth from realizing they both decided to come with me.

Then I was in Viridian Forest, patting Sharpedo on the nose comfortingly while I knelt into her mouth and cleaned between her teeth. The first REAL sign of trust between us.

I was suddenly training Treecko, as I taught him how to throw a punch. I could still recall the pride I felt when he evolved while we were battling Brock.

Then there was Miltank, lowing contently as I milked her in the morning. Occasionally I'd pat or scratch her on her head or body in ways that I knew she loved.

Next was Combee, who's mother entrusted her to me during the destruction of her own hive. I could still hear her sobbing in secret as she mourned her mother.

Then I was in Pewter city as we all trained to battle Brock, where Exeggutor worked to master Solar Beam before we challenged him. I could still hear his leaves rustling and feet stomping in joy as he got better at using the move.

Then there was Happiny, eagerly eating everything we handed her despite how tiny her stomach must be. But no matter how annoyed I acted at her gluttony, I always found her adorable.

Cranidos was next as I recalled the day we first met, in which we were both pepper sprayed and tasered. But I also recalled polishing his head every night after he'd spend an entire day ramming it into everything he could.

Then there was both Nidorina and Zubat, who hadn't been with me long, but my anger at the way they had both been treated was still there, as well as how happy I was for them to put their trust in me.

Tauros was also there, as I began planning his future with Miltank once I was able to properly begin breeding Pokemon.

Even Parasect, with the joy I felt at capturing it and adding it to my team, after a long and hard fought battle.

As my life flashed before my eyes I could feel all of my Pokemon through my aura along with Dawn, May and Misty. I could feel their fear as the life was choked out of me, but I comforted them with the fact that I had truly enjoyed every single second I had spent with all of them.

If I had any regrets about my second life coming to an end, it was how little time I had spent with everyone, and how sorry I was to be leaving them all behind. But it was a price well paid if they could continue living.

I transmitted this to them along with how I felt throughout our journey together as my vision began to blur, before darkening.

The last thing I saw was something shimmering as it made its way down Mewtwo's cheek from under his robotic visor, before my limbs went limp and everything went black, even as a smile graced my lips.