“Do you think it was a good idea to leave Brass alone?”

“He’s sleeping at the Pokemon Center, he’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” for a moment the two friends thought they saw fire and Brass laughing like some deranged psycho. The both shook off the thought and continued to wonder around the giant estate on the island.

It was odd to have such a huge estate in ruins and populated by only pokemon but still let people come and go. Was the house specificity built for this? Probably not, as the two ventured around the building they found many human furnishings and other various objects.

The two climbed down a set of stairs for what had to be the tenth time with in the last hour. This staircase led back to the first floor but to an entirely different section than where they started from. The narrow corridor only had a door which Galvin found to be locked when he tried to open it. That seemed a bit out of place.

Steel reached into her pocket and pulled out a rusty silver key. With a flick of the wrist the lock clicked leaving her smiling as she tucked away the key.

“Let’s go, I bet there’s more stuff down here!”

“Where did you get that key from?”

“I found it. Someone must of dropped it long ago.”

“I’ll say. That key is pretty rus-ack!” Steel grabbed him by the arm with no warning and dragged him down the flight of stairs behind the door. It was pitch black. There were no windows on this floor, that was due to the fact that the other floors were above ground although. Galvin shuffled around his belt of pokemon. Maybe his Vulpix could help out…

“I found the light switch!” Steel suddenly exclaimed. Flip of the switch and blinding light filled the area. This area was an absolute mess. Papers and glass scattered across the floor, furniture and shelves overturned and copious amounts of various fluids covered the floor.

What the hell happened here.

Galvin shook his head. Maybe he and Steel should leave… this place was hardly safe and the should report it. It looked like a safety hazard. Galvin glanced around for Steel to find her gone.

“Are you kidding me?”

Brass’s body swayed back and forth as he took a ride down the escalator. Steel and Glavin asked him to do something. What was it again? He tiredly opened his backpack, hoping someone left him a note of what to do. Lucky for him there was indeed a note hastily written by Steel.

Go pick up the fossil pokemon after your nap!
-Steel

Oh right. The island had a pokemon research facility and they took a tour earlier that day. One their tour they encountered a scientist that claimed that he could revive fossilized pokemon. Both he and Steel decided to challenge that claim with their Helix and Dome fossils (even Galvin’s Old Amber) they found back in Mt. Moon. If it worked Brass would gain a Kabuto and Steel would get an Omanyte. What a find that would be.

“Oh, Mr. Elliot! Mr. Elliot!” Brass turned to Nurse Joy. The woman motioned him to come to her desk so he waddled over.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Mr. Elliot, this is Simon Locke,” the young woman motioned to a little raven haired boy with Sentret curled around his neck. “He’s come all the way from Johto to see your friend Steel Selma.”

Well.

This was news to him. He had no idea Steel had a friend in Johto…

“Since you’re Steel’s friend you wouldnt mind keeping an eye on him until she came back would you?”

“Oh, no. That wouldn’t be a problem for me…” the nurse clapped her hands and smiled.

“Great! Take care you two!” The nurse turned away, returning to collecting and healing other trainer’s pokemon. Brass and Simon stared at each other as if they were in the world champion staring contest. Brass wasn’t even sure what he got himself into. He sure as hell wasn’t a babysitter and he knew next to nothing about this kid, even if he was supposed to be a fried of Steel.

“Soooo…”

“So?”

“Let’s go to the research facility.”

“Why?”

“I have to pick up Pokemon.”

“Do they have books there?”

“…Sure?”

“I like books.”

“Oh.” This whole conversation wasn’t awkward at all.

The walk to the facility lasted only ten minutes. The receptionist greeted them and Simon drifted over to a nearby bookshelf almost immediately. Brass saw no harm as long as the kid wasn’t gone by the time he came back. Brass walked down the long hallway to the last room on the left. Inside the room the scientist in charge of the revitalization project was covered in previously fossilized pokemon. An Omanyte hanging off his right arm, a Kabuto on his left leg and the Aerodactyl was hanging off his back.

“You’re late!” the scientist barked.

“I was… sleeping…” he vaguely waved to the man. “Why….why are you covered in pokemon?”

“They attached to me as soon as they came to being. They seem to be rather thankful.”

“Oh.” The man abruptly ripped the Kabuto and Omanyte from his body and attached them to Brass. A Kabuto on his head, and Omanyte to his chest. The Aerodactyl got the message and flew circles around Brass. The preteen stood there a little longer before awkwardly backing out of the room and back to Simon, who nearly had a heart attack.

“Why are you covered in pokemon?!”

“I…I don’t know. The researcher just gave me our pokemon like this. Just, stuck them to my body. I dont know why.” an awkward silence hug in the air for a while. The two eventually left the building and returned to the pokemon center, being gawked by every passing trainer.

Steel shuffled through the various papers. Something useful had to be here. Somewhere.

Do not worry Steel. I am sure there is some information to the project left here. Steel paused her search to glance at her ring.

“What’s so important about this project again? You never did explain…”

The research that was previously carried out in this building was put into creating Mewtwo. My hope is that we can find some information on Mewtwo and utilize it against this Hilda woman in battle.

“Oh. Well, that does make sense but how can you be so sure this is where Mewtwo was made?”

_It may not be one hundred percent reliable but, pokemon do communicate with each other when big things happen. Reports tell that Mewtwo was angry at humans for their experiments on other pokemon just to create it. In the end the pokemon in this building were unharmed by it’s rampage.

Many of the pokemon from that incident remained here on the island but they did share word with other pokemon and information spread across the sea and came to me. It’s more than likely this event was covered up by the human government._

“Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense.” Steel shrugged and continued her search. Deeper she went into the area where the mess worsened. The area was scorched and burned from floor to wall. Steel pushed a knocked over bookshelf into place with little to no effort, although as she did so stray books fell and even stubbed her foot. Wincing, she picked up the book. She was about to close and reshelf the book when something of interest caught her attention.

Sketches of Mew and various notes and sticky notes wedged into the book. This was definitely something useful. She tucked the book into her bag then placed the remaining books back onto the shelf just as Galvin finally caught up with her.

“What are you do-?!”

“I’m all done here” Steel interrupted, smiling brightly. Galvin stared at her for a moment before replying with an ‘oh’. The pair quickly backtracked a way out of the building and to the pokemon center where they found Brass covered in pokemon. Steel let out a shrill scream of delight as her eyes locked on the Omanyte. She ripped the pokemon off of Brass’s chest and cuddled the shellfish pokemon, and even rubbed it against her face in delight.

“It worked! It worked it worked it worked!! I have a real life Omanyte! Oh my gosh this is so amazing!!”

“That’s great and all,” Brass mumbled, trying to shake off the Aerodactyl. “But you have a visitor, some kid from Johto or whatever.” Steel blinked. She looked in the direction Brass was pointing to. In a black leather chair was a boy with black hair. Steel squinted her eyes. He was vaguely familiar…

The only one she knew living in Johto was… Simon. She reached into her back and pulled out the framed photo of herself and a young boy. She glanced between the photo and the boy, who was giving her a look.

“Simon…?”

“Yep!”

“…I had no idea this was you…” Simon scratched his head.

“Yeah, I guess that would be right. I should of sent a reply to your letter with a picture of me.”

“So… why are you here?”

“Did you fall on your head?” the boy huffed. “YOU sent me a letter asking me to come see you!”

“Maybe…” Simon sighed, pulling the envelope out of his bag and offering it to Steel.

“You’re still a mess…” she stuck her tongue out as she took the letter from him. She read it over once, twice and even three times before it settled in. This wasn’t her hand writing. This wasn’t what was in the letter she asked Galvin to deliver long ago. This penmanship was familiar although.

“Of course,” She smiled, a bit forced. She turned to Galvin. “Galvin, can you come upstairs with me? I left the present I chose for Simon up there.”

“A present!? Really?” Simon gasped, astonished.

“Yep! It’s really special too!” Steel grabbed Galvin by the arm and pushed him up the escalator and to the room leaving Simon and Brass alone. Simon glanced to Brass to find that his Kabuto was on his face, screeching like a banshee while trying to eat it.

Simon didnt know what to do.

No one really knows how to handle an extinct pokemon anyway….

“Steel, what’s wrong?”

“I didnt write this letter.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I didn’t write it. I never asked Simon to come to Kanto. The penmanship is close to mine… but this isn’t the letter I asked you to deliver.” She spilled rather quickly.

“If that’s not the case, who sent it?”

“I think… it was Hilda…”

“Hilda…?”

“Mom and dad sometimes took me to Rune base… and Hilda handled a lot of paperwork. She could be really good at faking a person’s hand writing… I just… know this isn’t what I wrote and I know Hilda is after me. What’s stopping her from getting me through other people?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll protect Simon.” Galvin smiled, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Steel smiled.

“Thank you Galvin…” As his hand fell back to his side, Steel reached into her bag and pulled out the foldable black traveler bike that was in her bag for at least three or so months. She was lucky she kept forgetting to mail it off. Galvin grabbed the bike by its back wheel and help pull it out the room. Simon was overjoyed the second he saw his gift. He circled his gift with stars in his eyes. A bike! A brand new bike too! All for him! Man, Nick would be so jealous!

Meanwhile Brass was still on the ground, although this time the Kabuto was not trying to rip off his face but rather, resting on his stomach.