Written for Kutie Pie who wanted a Mew and Mewtwo shipping fic in the Yuletide Story Exchange. Rated PG-13 for mild language and space battles. Other comments at the end; this is a long one-shot, so I'll be posting it in two sections.
Heavenly Knights Diamond Heart and Pink Lotus in Bullet Hell
The marbled storms of Jupiter could be seen high above the horizon of Io where he flew, a looming presence over the volcanic surface. Mewtwo enjoyed this dangerous but beautiful scenery at times; not now. His focus was on the radar of his interplanetary mech, tracking a few hostile vessels. Not long ago, they had disrupted his training session of preparing Jirachi as a pilot of a Heavenly Knight Class mech. Diamond Heart was the only one operational, but the Outer Sol Defense space station was due to receive a second one from Earth in a couple of weeks. Even if Jirachi was a promising pilot, his Star Knight mech was barely capable of battling these weaker drones.
Speeding up to their position, he felt certain that these were drones. No life forms could be detected by his technology or his psychic powers. These ones were called Scouts, based on observations of their movements and actions. This group was worryingly close to Myrmidon station. In the past year, Mewtwo usually encountered them on the outer reaches of the solar system, at closest near Saturn's orbit. They were getting past the observation satellites, although there weren't enough out here. Even with rapid advances to counter the threat, the Pokemon back on Earth and the inner system stations couldn't build them fast enough to get full coverage. They were lucky they had him to act as the first line of defense out here.
He got close enough to see the Scouts with the cameras. There were five of them now, two damaged from escaping their clash with the two mechs. Alert to his approach, they coordinated their fire into a sweeping wave pattern. Mewtwo snorted and guided Diamond Heart to dodge it smoothly. The only difficulty was the damaged units being out of sync with the other three. Now that he didn't have to worry about covering a slower mech, he clenched his fists in the control gloves and used Confusion through his mech's guns. The two damaged ones and a third burst into pieces quickly, with the other two following not long after.
After making a second check of the area, he shifted his helm telekinetically to activate the long range radio. “Myrmidon, this is Diamond Heart.”
The station replied a few seconds later, “Diamond Heart, thanks for checking in. How's the pursuit?”
“Escaped drones eliminated along with three others, all Scouts. Will be sweeping Io's surface in case of others. Analysis on other moons?”
“Still compiling reports. Io Surface Monitor Delta isn't responding, be sure to go there.”
“Roger,” Mewtwo said, calling up a map of the moon with a thought. His helm display showed that the monitor station wasn't far from his current position. As much as he would like to do a survey by latitude, checking on the station first seemed more important. “We've had a lot of these Scouts showing up these two weeks.”
“Do you think it's in preparation of the next assault?”
“Might be,” he said. “We can't be sure how they plan, but it would make sense.”
“I hope we can get... wait, the Delta Monitor is responding again.” Mewtwo briefly felt annoyed, but then the communications officer went on to say, “An unregistered interplanetary mech is hovering over that monitoring station.”
“The Kleeks or what?” Mewtwo said, continuing his path towards the Delta Monitor. His mech's radar was now picking up on the mech too. It was larger than a Scout, although not by a lot.
“No, there's a Pokemon piloting it,” the officer said. “The psychic signals are being blocked, so I can't identify what kind of Pokemon we're dealing with. And, the data we can get from the mech reads a lot like a Heavenly Knight class, but it's definitely not the one designed for Jirachi.”
“Another one?” Mewtwo grumbled, although curiosity burned in him as to who could have built it. He had designed and built Diamond Heart on his own during the initial invasion of Earth five years ago when the technology they had at the time proved insufficient against the incomprehensible Kleek aliens. It wasn't something that just anyone could build. When he came out here, he had left the design basics with a large team of highly intelligent and well trained Pokemon engineers.
He got into visual range and took a good look at this rival's mech. It looked rather like a pink lotus flower, folded up in a bud to move about in the low atmosphere here. As he approached, the mech opened up to reveal multiple weapon barrels. A pretty good idea, he considered, as it would be able to fire in any direction without moving much. Diamond Heart had the same capability, just without the flower motif and thus the ability to retract its weapons.
“Mewtwo, we're not getting a response from the foreign mech,” the communications officer warned. “Still can't identify the pilot.”
Right as he scowled, the lotus mech fired a beam based on Psybeam at him. He barely got Diamond Heart out of the way. Opening up the local radio channels, he said, “Cease your hostilities! I'm with the OSD!”
There was no radio reply, just a turn to fire Toxic in a spreading cloud. Mewtwo had to shift directions quickly in order to get around it, then ascend quickly to avoid a string of barbed mines in Spark. Briefly, he was impressed at this range of skills. Especially Spark translated into a mine attack, that'd be useful when dealing with being pursued. But this Pokemon was being far too reckless, initiating a mech battle with him. He replied with Confusion, using a bullet spread filter rather than a single shot of it.
And the lotus pilot dodged around it, making quick small moves to end up safely at the edges of the attack energy. It didn't waste time in attacking back, now shooting Water Gun as a quick succession of small shots in a wild spread. Barely aware of it, Mewtwo started smiling as he wove through the fire to get closer to the lotus mech. This was easy compared to what he faced in the large Kleek ships. He thought of showing the pilot how that kind of attack was really done, but dismissed it in favor of trying to disable the mech safely and bring it back to the station. After all, this was a good ship in the hands of a good pilot and he wanted to know who was responsible for both.
Then the lotus pilot made the silly mistake of using Splash through the weapons. That move could only ever do something in a mech if directed though the jets or engine, and that was only if the pilot was very skilled. Through his senses, Mewtwo was able to figure out that the lotus pilot was actually spamming Metronome. Disappointing, maybe this wasn't a good pilot after all. The Pokemon would be using it in hopes of getting something powerful for cheap, as always occurred when one depending on the chaotic move. Yet aside from the Splash mistake, the other moves had been formed for tactical use unlike normal battles. That would require a pilot to have a sharp quick mind that let it cast Metronome, then instantly shift the form filters to best fit what was coming.
Mewtwo prepared Thunder Wave in a wide filter. While it would have a low range in that manner, he was closing in on that range quickly and it would disable the mech safely. There was a large build up of energy within the lotus mech. It seemed that the pilot had managed to get a powerful skill. Preparing for it, he made a dash in an arc to get out of the way of the charging barrel.
The lotus pilot managed to switch barrels in time to fire Rend of Time at Diamond Heart. As soon as he realized what the move was, Mewtwo felt like his heart nearly stopped because he would not be able to dodge that move this close to the mech. It hit with a crushing force as time attempted to take the toll of centuries on his machine. His machine, a work that he'd slaved over day and night for a year even as he had to constantly be on guard from the Kleek invaders. He was as familiar with its inner workings as he was with his own body.
“No!” he screamed, focusing his mind into Diamond Heart's workings to try undoing the damage. Many parts were on the verge of being broken down and the machinery was slower to respond to a Recover skill. The effort felt like his brain was being squeezed tight. While he knew this was dangerous, he ignored that fact completely trying to keep the mech from being destroyed.
Somewhere in the mess, he got a message from Diamond Heart's core. 'Successful link-up to Heavenly Knight Pink Lotus complete. Request to take over flight controls. Accept?'
This mech that had been fighting him was trying to override his control and take him somewhere? But the moment he got distracted in thought, a terrible pain filled his body and parts of Diamond Heart threatened to break down. “Accept,” he said, then went back to keeping his mech together and salvageable.
Next thing he knew, he saw a familiar Klink after it took off his helm trying to get him out of the damaged mech. It was Myrmidon Station. Briefly, he wondered why the rogue mech had brought him here. Then the toll of keeping his mech together really hit him and Mewtwo passed out.
-+-
Jirachi was used to the world changing every time he woke up. After all, he tended to sleep for a century or two at a time. The changes were incredible this time, though. Now Pokemon were living out in space, on the planets that used to be specks in the sky they could only dream about. Some of them even had great big machines that they battled inside. Apparently mecha duels used to be a sport, but then were used for war defense as strange beings nearly took over the world and enslaved Pokemon. They were called Kleeks because no Pokemon could yet understand them, but their machines often made a sound like 'kleek'.
And he was going to be battling in those big machines against these warrior aliens. Every time he learned more about the time he'd woken up to, he wondered if this was a wise idea. The Kleeks preferred a method of attack Mewtwo called bullet hell in which sheer quantity of attacks overwhelmed the Pokemon trying to battle their machines. The only Pokemon machine that had proven capable of fighting back without being destroyed was Mewtwo's specially designed mech. Despite being recognized as the best mech pilot among Pokemon, Mewtwo had several close calls fighting the Kleeks. Still, Jirachi kept deciding to continue the training and join him once his Heavenly Knight arrived. Not just any Pokemon could pilot a mech and it was a show of respect that he'd been asked to do this
Still, today had been worrisome. First there were the Scout drones in his training flight today. That proved to him that the mech he was training with really wasn't up to the task of fighting Kleeks. Even these weakest of foes had badly damaged his machine. Diamond Heart had no such trouble. When Mewtwo went off to destroy the Scouts, he then encountered a hostile Pokemon mech which attacked him on sight. According to the Beheeyem captain he'd watched the ensuing battle with, the opponent had a great mech and a great pilot, if one that seemed almost playful in the chosen tactics. Then the opponent used a skill only legendary Pokemon like himself and Mewtwo could use, nearly destroying Diamond Heart and Mewtwo in one shot.
It had been a moment at the precipice of panic for everyone on the defense station. Here was their best pilot and only operational Heavenly Knight, their main means of fighting back against the Kleeks; both might have been destroyed in a heartbeat. Jirachi had felt a deep dread at this, partly because he wasn't sure he was ready to go up against the alien foes. But more than that, the Pokemon of Earth had barely won back their home world and star system not that long ago, before he'd woken up to this time. Could this be the moment they lose, to a treacherous Pokemon?
Then the reports came in. Mewtwo and Diamond Heart had survived, both badly damaged. And the new Heavenly Knight, named Pink Lotus, was bringing them both back to the station. Wondering who it could be, Jirachi used his status as the pilot-in-training to get down to the station dock to watch both mechs come in.
The dock workers quickly moved in to pull Mewtwo out of his mech, so Jirachi flew over to the Pink Lotus. It was quite a beautiful machine, he thought, in great contrast to the simple aesthetics of the Diamond Heart. Some of the petals unfolded to release the pilot. Strangely, it was a small cockpit, one better fit to a small Pokemon like himself rather than the taller Mewtwo. A small Pokemon rushed out, paying more attention to the Diamond Heart than Jirachi.
Using that to his advantage, Jirachi grabbed hold of Mew before she got far. “Hold on! You don't have permission to be here.”
“Lemme go!” she said, her large blue eyes tearing up in guilt. “That wasn't supposed to happen; I didn't think I'd actually hurt him!”
He tried to look stern, but Jirachi had never been good at that. “Well what were you thinking, attacking him out of nowhere like that? And with Rend of Time; that move can be deadly at that range, doubly so in a dangerous place like Io.”
“I didn't mean to use it! I was metronoming!” She finally managed to squirm out of his grasp and fly over to the Diamond Heart. They had gotten Mewtwo out now; he was unconscious, being shifted to a stretcher so they could get him over to the doctors. Seeing that, she started bawling. Knowing that she really must not have meant it, Jirachi flew over to her side, hoping he might at least keep her out of the crew's way.
“Pilot Jirachi,” the captain called over the small radio on one of his tails.
Jirachi brought the tail forward to speak into it more clearly. “Here, sir.”
“Who's the pilot of that mech?”
“It's Mew, but she's an incarnation I'm not familiar with,” he replied. Like he hadn't been familiar with this incarnation of Mewtwo at first. But that happened with his sleep patterns, other legendary Pokemon passing away and being reborn. His rebirth cycle was much longer, based on how often he was awake rather than how long he'd actually lived.
“Bring her up to the bridge; we need to talk with her.”
“Yes sir,” Jirachi said, then came closer to tap the side of her head. “Come on, Mew. Leave him to those who can heal him.”
“But I want to help since I hurt him,” she said, turning to him in pleading.
“Come speak with the captain first or you won't be allowed to,” Jirachi insisted. When she reluctantly nodded, he led her to the elevator. He could simply teleport himself to the bridge, but wasn't sure how far along this Mew was in learning her skills.
The bridge was a busy place, with many Pokemon working at computers to keep the defense station running. In the center, there was a holographic ring that played footages of security cameras, right now being what Surface Monitor Delta had recorded about the battle between Mewtwo and Mew. The Beheeyem captain, known as Marius, was reviewing the data gathered. He acknowledged them by glancing their way, but then turned back to the recording.
After Jirachi introduced the two, Captain Marius spoke with lights flickering at his fingertips. He had no mouth to speak, but could make himself understood with just the lights. “Even if you are a legendary Pokemon, I ought to arrest you and have you deported back to Earth for what you have done today. But I may give you a chance. Explain yourself, what you were doing here and where that Heavenly Knight came from.”
Mew twirled her tail around. “You'd have to be really lucky or really convincing to keep me captive. But anyhow, I was bored and I knew Mewtwo had to be bored out here waiting for battles few and far between. Yet he never even asked me to train as a pilot even if he woke this sleepyhead up and asked several other legendaries if they would later on. So I built my own Heavenly Knight based on the specs he left with the engineers and my own resources, then flew it out here to Jupitor on its own. I figured I'd make a game of it and quiet the relay station briefly to draw him out, but then he was there on Io anyhow. But I didn't mean to actually hurt him. I was just going to show him what my mech could do and let him disable me. After all, I was pretty sure that he'd go for that to study it rather than destroying it. Although I wished he'd been more aggressive so I could really show off what Pink Lotus can do.”
“We don't have time for games out here,” Marius scolded.
When she seemed indignant, Jirachi figured that she had to have reincarnated recently. “He doesn't have the time to get bored out here,” he said, avoiding the tone the captain had taken. “Mewtwo is an expert engineer out here, so he does work around the space station as well as on his own mech. Then he takes frequent patrols around the outer system, prepares for possible battles with the Kleeks, and is training me on top of that.”
“Well I can at least help out around here since they still have to deliver your Heavenly Knight,” Mew said.
“You've done exactly the opposite of that in taking Mewtwo out of commission,” Marius said, his lights tinged red as he was angry about it. “The movements of the Scouts and other drones suggest that our enemies are building up to a new attack wave and he's the only offense we have out here. If you were under my command, I would punish you severely for this.” Mew dipped in her hovering, more at the reminder that this was her fault than the threat of punishment. “But as it is, I am forced to conscript you into the OSD instead.”
“Really?!” Mew said, her eyes sparkling in glee.
“Yes, because now you own the only operational Heavenly Knight we have, you've proven that you won't need the training to use it like Jirachi would, and you're the only healthy pilot as a result of this duel.” Before she could get too excited, the captain narrowed his small eyes at her. “Of course, this also means that I can punish you now for your reckless foolish behavior. You'll be at reduced pay until Mewtwo recovers to compensate for his medical costs and you will be on cleaning duty on the habitation level until further notice.”
“Aw man,” Mew said, disappointed to hear that her first duty in the OSD would be cleaning. But then some thought cheered her up. “But if I'm around, I can still help Mewtwo while he's recovering. I'll get things good and clean real quick!” She took off back to the elevator with a gleeful giggle.
Seeing her take off, Marius put a hand on his large forehead. “Is it a wise thing to let her near him at this time?”
Jirachi tilted his head, thinking. “It depends. As I said, I haven't met this incarnation of her properly, just her predecessors. Each incarnation of a legend is an individual, not the same as the one that came last. However, there are also traits that make us who we are. Things change and stay the same, both in the self and in some bonds that can never break. There is a bond between Mew and Mewtwo that can never break, even if it changes as one or the other reincarnates. I wonder what it will end at this time?”
“Pardon?” the captain asked.
Jirachi smiled. “Sorry if I'm being mystifying. It tends to happen with age. As for if letting her near him is wise, there is no wisdom that can decide that without observation. I would watch and see.”
Then Mew flew back to them. “Hey, where is the habitation level? And where am I staying?”
“I'll show you, as well as the room for the cleaning staff,” Jirachi said.
-+-
Mew felt annoyed that someone she'd just met was already punishing her. But she couldn't care about that long as she got to be near Mewtwo again. He was so smart and cool! She'd first gone to see him out of curiosity at a mech battle tournament around fifteen years ago. Of course, he'd won that tournament by a wide margin with a mech of his own design, one that had looked like a Metang. When asked about how he'd come up with such innovations afterwards, he'd replied as if it were no more difficult than making a chain of daisies. He even announced that he'd stop participating in these tournaments except as a grand champion to those who dared challenge him, to give other pilots a chance at fame. She'd decided right then that she wanted to be at his side, helping and maybe learning to be as cool as he was.
And what luck that she had an instant way to get to him by just being herself. He knew who she was the moment she got close. Of course he would, they were legendary Pokemon that already had a connection to each other in spite of meeting face to face for the first time. Still, it had been such a thrill to have him come to her and say, “Oh, hello Mew. Good to meet you at last.” Like all the dreams she had might come true being near him.
Unfortunately, it didn't take him long to start being cold around her. Maybe she'd just been too eager at first in hugging him the moment he greeted her. Or maybe he was just too calculating and logical to know what to do with her. But that only made him more interesting. The calm demeanor he wore most of the time, the confident pride that always sought to be the best, it was all attractive. He was even more intriguing when she saw the occasional moments of warmth out of him. Like a time when a young Pokemon had tripped and nearly spilled a whole basket of berries she'd been running with. Mewtwo caught the basket by telekinesis without bruising a single berry. When the little one seemed embarrassed, he pretended the incident hadn't happened at all and told her to be safe going home. Now if only Mew could get him to show the same warmth to her, everything would be wonderful.
She had to spend a few hours with the cleaning crew, changing out the bedding in various rooms and cleaning up a few messes in the mess hall. The moment the Sylveon in charge of the housekeepers had to think of what to have her do, she talked him into letting her go to the recovery area and check on Mewtwo. Doing all these chores when she was here in space was terribly mundane. She hadn't gotten any time to look around outside of searching Io for the monitoring station. Once Mewtwo was well again, maybe she'd ask him to show her around the other moons.
He was alert by the time she came to visit, kept to a bed with a psychic dampener nearby. Trying to save White Diamond as he had must have been a tremendous strain on his mind. The doctor would have set the dampener up to reduce any possible mental strain while he recovered. Although it definitely wouldn't feel good to be restricted to bed rest like this. “Hello Mewtwo,” she said, trying to be cheerful.
“Oh, it's you,” he said, closing his eyes. It didn't last as he opened them again on recognizing something. “Wait, you? Were you the pilot of that other Heavenly Knight?”
Not caring about being in the presence of the psychic dampener, she darted in and grabbed his hand. “I'm really really sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you; I didn't think I'd actually get a skill like that. I wanted to have some fun with you and see how good your new machine was right up close. You were amazing like always, and I really didn't mean to mess you or your mech up so bad.”
Mewtwo sighed, giving a token shake of his hand but then not really trying to get rid of her when she kept hold. “You were metronoming, you should have expected that anything could come of it. We should count it as lucky that you didn't completely ruin White Diamond. And who built your mech?”
“I did,” she said. She'd hoped for a long time that she could reveal it in a way that really impressed him, but this was just making her sad that he nearly lost his mech in the process. “You said you got to be the best pilot by building them yourself, so I thought I'd do the same and give you an actual challenging challenger, cause you'd like that. It was a fun game for a bit.”
“Mew, this isn't a game,” he said harshly. “We're at war with an alien species we don't know a lot about, except that they seem determined to take over our home system and drain all the natural resources for their own use no matter what happens to us. Many Pokemon have died already, and many more could die if we lose this stage of defense. If you're going to be out here, you can't just act on a whim and do something because it looks fun. You have to take things seriously.”
Mew felt hurt that he thought she couldn't be serious. “Well I will! The captain already asked me to take over the patrols while you're recovering. Although he also ordered me to join the cleaning crew as punishment.”
Not happy about this, Mewtwo scowled. “Great, I see how it is. We have to take you on because we don't have Jirachi's mech yet.” He shook his hand again. “Well then you get out of the psychic dampener since you need to be on active duty at a moment's notice. And you had better not goof around or I will get him to increase your punishment.”
“I won't,” she said, letting him go and hovering back out of the dampener as he asked. “But I want to help you get better too. It's my fault, so I should do something for you.”
He glowered at her briefly, then looked aside. “It's... enough that you're taking over my duties as the Heavenly Knight pilot.” He tried to look impartial, but she could tell that he was restraining a sigh, maybe even tears.
“I could help you repair your mech,” Mew said, hopeful at the idea. It would be great if she could work directly with him like that.
He didn't agree. “No, you don't get to touch mine. I know the maintenance crew can handle most of it and I'll adjust further when I can get around again.”
Maybe it would just take some time to convince him. But he did seem upset that he was restricted to bed rest now, giving her another idea. “Or I could learn a healing skill to help you get better faster. I'm sure I could make it powerful.”
“The doctor here is fine, you don't have to be hovering over me,” Mewtwo said, then realized the pun. “Figuratively. Although if you make that literal, I will smack you.”
Mew giggled. “Sure you would?”
He glared like he might attack, but then winced as his mind was injured. “Stop doing that, you know I hate it.” Although that just made her laugh even more. Someday he'd stop fighting it.
“Excuse me?” The Audino among the nurses came up to them with a cart. She smiled. “I don't mean to disrupt if it's a special moment, but it's time for dinner.”
Mewtwo groaned at that while Mew felt delighted. “Well he'll deny it whatever I say,” she said, going over to see what the meal was. Soup. “I can help with the meal if you've got other patients.”
“No, I can feed myself,” Mewtwo insisted. “And she is not allowed to baby me because that'll just make me mad and I'm supposed to be staying calm, right?”
The Audino chuckled, but then nodded. “Right, sorry Miss Mew, but we can't be upsetting Mewtwo at this time. You can visit, but be nice. Oh, and I believe the head of housekeeping is looking for you.”
“Aw, already?” she asked, flipping her tail in annoyance. “Okay, I'll be back later, Mewtwo! And I'll come up with something entertaining so you don't get bored, promise.”
“I won't be looking forward to it,” he grumbled. But he didn't tell her to not visit, which was promising.
-+-
The worst thing about being restricted to bed rest was that the doctors here knew that Mewtwo would get right back to work once they let him go. Because of this, they tended to keep him here when they would have released anyone else. He was thus a mostly captive audience for Mew as she kept trying to amuse him and recover his spirits as much as his body (as she thought she was doing). He could simply not let her visit and considered it fairly often. However, she was terrible in knowing just how to pout and make him feel guilty for pushing her away. Over the years, he found it easier just to tolerate her as best he could, usually by finding work a fair distance away from her so she wasn't around every day.
But she always managed to find him and had done so once again even though he'd moved all the way to Jupiter.
Mew wasn't here now, giving him some quiet time. Although he couldn't say it was peaceful. She was off either training Jirachi or being debriefed from her first mission. Captain Marius had sent Mewtwo some recordings of Mew's battle with a small group of Kleek ships in Pluto's orbit. While it was mostly the weak Scouts, there were also a pair of drone Fighters. More signs of another attack wave building? It worried him a great deal. It should be just another day before the doctors released him and then another week until Jirachi's mech arrived. But what if the attack came between now and then? Or worse, today when he would be forbidden to fly unless things got desperate?
There was Mew, as much as he was reluctant to admit it. They were of similar capabilities, just with specialties in different areas. As such, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that she would also be capable of building a Heavenly Knight on her own and learning to pilot it. But she was younger than him and could be such an airhead that Mewtwo occasionally wondered why she wasn’t a regular Pokemon. To see how good she was in spite of how he’d dismissed her as a potential pilot was embarrassing.
She was good. With the addition of the drone Fighters, the Kleek force didn’t go with the simple bullet wave array that had been nothing to fly through unharmed. There was still a pattern; there was always a pattern. In this battle, they had gone for a more complex conical trapping pattern. It was meant to drive the opponent into a pattern of dodging that ended up pinning them to a spot where all units would fire on it. Mew did not get caught by this even though it was her first battle against the Kleeks. She turned the pattern on them by getting out of the cone of fire and eradicating three units in quick succession while they were focused on the trap zone.
Not only that, but Pink Lotus was really impressive. Its movements were a thing of beauty: smooth yet erratic, able to change directions freely and quickly. It was smaller than Diamond Heart, but that was to its advantage as there was less for the enemy to fire at. With Mew’s adeptness in changing weapon filters on the fly, it had a huge range of attacks available to it. Admittedly, that was also a flaw since it only got that range through her metronoming. It was much too unpredictable to be reliable. Yet, their enemies seemed to be totally reliant on patterns. Perhaps an unpredictable mech and pilot were the best counter.
Could she be better qualified to battle the Kleeks than he was? The thought made him shut off the recording and slump back into his raised bed. She had beaten him thoroughly on Io, something that had never happened to him in mech piloting. He’d almost say in battling in general, but there had been embarrassing losses when he was younger than her. Still, he hadn’t been defeated in a long time, not in anything he was good at. It had been a loss due to chance, but that was a weak excuse. Mew had a way of turning chance to her favor somehow.
But he couldn’t just give up because Mew had shown him up once. Mewtwo had promised the Pokemon back on Earth and all the inner colonies that he’d protect them to the utmost of his ability. He had to get better and get Diamond Heart back to full battle capacity. Maybe even better than Pink Lotus, now that he’d seen it in action twice. Although it was a riddle of how he would get more information on the Lotus without Mew finding out.
“Mewtwo!” Mew called out cheerily, flying over to him without bothering to ask to visit. A service tray was floating behind her. “The nurse let me bring your medication.”
Why? Did the staff like to torment him too? He sniffed. “More like you pestered her into it, am I right?”
“I might’ve asked,” she said, setting the tray on a table nearby. “Nice to see you don’t have to be in the dampeners any more. I know the pills they’re giving you are nasty, so I broke them up and made some tea with them so they taste better.”
“Is that safe?” Mewtwo asked, warily eyeing the large mug that she revealed.
She smiled in confidence. “Totally! And it’d be even better cause I put natural healers in it too. Come on, try it.”
There were times when arguments were futile, mostly when Mew was involved. Plus the nurse would scold him for not taking the medication and might even find an excuse to keep him restricted longer for it. He took the hot mug and tried a sip of it. At least with Mew, he knew she wouldn’t intentionally poison it.
“So? How is it?” She floated much too close for comfort.
He used a free hand to try getting her to back off. “All right, I suppose. Honey’s a bit strong in it.” Actually it was good, far better than taking the pills straight. Not that he’d tell her that.
“Great, I knew you’d love it,” she said regardless. Then she darted around to his other side to get around the hand. “Bet you wish I was here all along to make you better, huh? I really want to help you.”
“Stop it,” he said, uneasy with this. Although this time he didn’t want to get angry and yell at her again. “Mew, you’re being too reckless.”
As he thought, she looked him utterly confused. “What’re you talking about?”
It should be obvious. “It’s like I told you before, we’re at war, we’re soldiers now. So you need to keep a professional impersonal relation with anyone.”
“Why?” she asked, coming right up next to him. “That sounds awful.”
“No, what’s awful is what would happen if something goes wrong,” he told her. “And that could happen before you know it. I’ve taken down two of the big Kleek warships, but on both occasions I had a lot of close calls with death. It’s something I told Jirachi already: we could die out here easily. Even if it’s just an injury like what happened on Io, this station can’t move far quickly. I’m often out on my own for days at a time on patrols and if something failed, it could take the Pokemon here weeks to get to me. If I got too close to somebody now, I’d cause a lot of heartache any time I go out, even worse should something tragic happen to me.”
“But a lot of Pokemon worry about you anyhow,” Mew said.
He shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t want to make it worse.”
While he wanted to make her think more seriously about this job, she just smiled. “It’s really sweet that you’d worry about something like that.”
“I am not sweet,” Mewtwo said, making her laugh. “Would you want to make any of your friends upset if you were lost on a mission?”
Mew almost seemed to get it, but then said, “No, so I have to be just as awesome as you and win every time.”
“Anyone can lose,” he said, turning his attention back to drinking the medicated tea. Maybe he should try to get Jirachi to talk sense into her, since he could never manage it himself.
-+-
Mew was excited to hear that Mewtwo had gotten released from his restrictions, but she was still on cleaning duty as punishment. But that had its advantages, since she could easily offer to clean floors and look for him while doing that. Although it was plenty obvious where he was going first: the maintenance dock to work on Diamond Heart. She cleaned enough of the hallways to be seen doing the job, then went there to see him.
The Diamond Heart was a simple mech on the outside: a long ten sided diamond with a few extensions for jets and a large weapon barrel. It was a dull white and gray, kind of boring. If she could dress it up for him, she’d make the paint a glossier white and use a brighter silver on the extensions. Or maybe a jewel tone colors, that might be nice. But it had to be really impressive on the inside in order to be the best Pokemon built mech out there. Mew really wished that he’d let her see what was going on there, since he'd only left the basics with the crew on Earth.
Luckily, he had several panels open today so he could pull the cockpit out and work on it. Some mechs were made so that the only restriction on a pilot was their size category, possibly their type. But the Heavenly Knights were custom made for the pilots; the shape of the control helm, gloves, and leg braces made it so only Mewtwo could fly Diamond Heart. She had made it the same in Pink Lotus. With her small size and body shape, she had to adjust the design so she could combine the control gloves and leg braces into something she could wield with her long tail. Presumably they were doing a similar design with Jirachi’s mech.
“I knew I’d find you here,” she said cheerily, waving a mop telekinetically at him.
“Don’t bring that stuff near my work,” Mewtwo said. Not that she would; cleaning supplies and electronics didn’t mix nicely.
“Roger!” she said, cleaning up a bit. But she could still talk to him. “How’s it looking?”
“I can get it ready in a couple days, but I don’t have to tell you anything further,” he said.
And he didn’t, continually rebuffing her questions on the repairs he had to do. Eventually he told her to quit bugging him and get back to her job. This happened every time. No matter what she did for him, he was never impressed. She’d learned that sometimes he simply didn’t say he was. Even knowing that, she rarely got a good sign like when he’d finished the tea yesterday. Sometimes he seemed to care about her, but most of the time he acted annoyed and told her to leave him be. Mew wanted to believe that she could get through to him as long as she didn't give up. Even so, were they doomed not to be anything more than friends? If one could even call what they had now that.
She finished up cleaning the floors (except around Diamond Heart), but Mewtwo still wasn’t paying her any heed. Not even enough to try pity. Mew took the cleaning cart back to the elevator to find another area to clean. But as she waited on it, Jirachi came down the hall and stopped by the elevator too. “Hello Mew,” he said, swishing his starry tails in a friendly manner.
“Hi Jirachi,” she said, smiling but not really feeling it.
Mewtwo might’ve missed it, but Jirachi didn’t. “What’s wrong?”
“Just the usual,” she said. He reacted with a blank expression, not knowing what that was. “I keep trying to impress Mewtwo and be as great as he is, because he’s been my hero ever since I first met him. Maybe even before then because I kept hearing awesome stories about him. But he’s so cold to me and never gives me a chance. I’ve worn him down to where he seems to tolerate me and will talk. It takes forever to get him to open up a little bit at a time. Sometimes I think I should give up, but I want him to like me. I could make him happy, and he could use that because he’s so gosh darn serious all the time.”
Jirachi smiled at that. “He is. You’d think he was older than me when I’m a far older incarnation. Even counting the times I’m awake.”
“Have you spoken to him much?” Mew asked. Maybe he could advise her on what to do.
Unfortunately, he shook his head. “No. The last Mewtwo I knew was a previous incarnation. I only know this one since he woke me up in this century.”
“Aw, guess I should ask somebody else then,” she thought aloud. But who? She didn’t think he was close to anyone, although he had lots of acquaintances.
“I can tell you what I told him the moment I met him,” Jirachi said, tilting his head and making the ribbons there tumble. “I said, ‘I can’t make someone fall in love, but I can help it along in other ways’.”
He was in love with someone? Maybe even her? “Really?” she asked, coming closer in curiosity.
Chuckling at her reaction, he said, “Really. But the thing is, I was waking up and I can be off with my intuition in that stage. He was thinking about you. He didn’t want you to become a pilot out here because he doesn’t want you killed in this war. That’s why he went so far as to wake me up instead of asking you. I’m one of the oldest legendary incarnations around anyhow; it won’t be a big loss if I pass away since this incarnation can’t last much longer as it is.”
“He told you that?” Mew asked, shocked that he’d reveal something like that. At the same time, she felt ridiculously excited and wanted to go back and hug Mewtwo in spite of his protests.
“No, but I’m sure of my intuition once I’m fully awake,” he said.
“That's great!” she said, but then the rest of what he said hit her. “Oh, but, really bad too because I’m already up here. I don’t want to make him upset.” Maybe that’s what he’d been trying to say earlier without being direct, that he didn’t want her to die fighting with him.
“Then you should take things a little seriously yourself and make sure that you come back alive from every mission,” Jirachi said. The elevator binged as it came and opened its doors. “You go on ahead since you’re actively working. I can wait.”
“Thanks, for all of this!” Mew said, already considering all that he told her. Even the part about himself. That made her dart back over to stop the doors from closing. “Oh, but it is sad about you, I mean…”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I may be at the end of my life, but I want to see to it that my next incarnation comes into a peaceful world. I won’t let the Kleeks kill me either.”
She smiled back at him. “Good, just wanted to be sure.”
Heavenly Knights Diamond Heart and Pink Lotus in Bullet Hell
The marbled storms of Jupiter could be seen high above the horizon of Io where he flew, a looming presence over the volcanic surface. Mewtwo enjoyed this dangerous but beautiful scenery at times; not now. His focus was on the radar of his interplanetary mech, tracking a few hostile vessels. Not long ago, they had disrupted his training session of preparing Jirachi as a pilot of a Heavenly Knight Class mech. Diamond Heart was the only one operational, but the Outer Sol Defense space station was due to receive a second one from Earth in a couple of weeks. Even if Jirachi was a promising pilot, his Star Knight mech was barely capable of battling these weaker drones.
Speeding up to their position, he felt certain that these were drones. No life forms could be detected by his technology or his psychic powers. These ones were called Scouts, based on observations of their movements and actions. This group was worryingly close to Myrmidon station. In the past year, Mewtwo usually encountered them on the outer reaches of the solar system, at closest near Saturn's orbit. They were getting past the observation satellites, although there weren't enough out here. Even with rapid advances to counter the threat, the Pokemon back on Earth and the inner system stations couldn't build them fast enough to get full coverage. They were lucky they had him to act as the first line of defense out here.
He got close enough to see the Scouts with the cameras. There were five of them now, two damaged from escaping their clash with the two mechs. Alert to his approach, they coordinated their fire into a sweeping wave pattern. Mewtwo snorted and guided Diamond Heart to dodge it smoothly. The only difficulty was the damaged units being out of sync with the other three. Now that he didn't have to worry about covering a slower mech, he clenched his fists in the control gloves and used Confusion through his mech's guns. The two damaged ones and a third burst into pieces quickly, with the other two following not long after.
After making a second check of the area, he shifted his helm telekinetically to activate the long range radio. “Myrmidon, this is Diamond Heart.”
The station replied a few seconds later, “Diamond Heart, thanks for checking in. How's the pursuit?”
“Escaped drones eliminated along with three others, all Scouts. Will be sweeping Io's surface in case of others. Analysis on other moons?”
“Still compiling reports. Io Surface Monitor Delta isn't responding, be sure to go there.”
“Roger,” Mewtwo said, calling up a map of the moon with a thought. His helm display showed that the monitor station wasn't far from his current position. As much as he would like to do a survey by latitude, checking on the station first seemed more important. “We've had a lot of these Scouts showing up these two weeks.”
“Do you think it's in preparation of the next assault?”
“Might be,” he said. “We can't be sure how they plan, but it would make sense.”
“I hope we can get... wait, the Delta Monitor is responding again.” Mewtwo briefly felt annoyed, but then the communications officer went on to say, “An unregistered interplanetary mech is hovering over that monitoring station.”
“The Kleeks or what?” Mewtwo said, continuing his path towards the Delta Monitor. His mech's radar was now picking up on the mech too. It was larger than a Scout, although not by a lot.
“No, there's a Pokemon piloting it,” the officer said. “The psychic signals are being blocked, so I can't identify what kind of Pokemon we're dealing with. And, the data we can get from the mech reads a lot like a Heavenly Knight class, but it's definitely not the one designed for Jirachi.”
“Another one?” Mewtwo grumbled, although curiosity burned in him as to who could have built it. He had designed and built Diamond Heart on his own during the initial invasion of Earth five years ago when the technology they had at the time proved insufficient against the incomprehensible Kleek aliens. It wasn't something that just anyone could build. When he came out here, he had left the design basics with a large team of highly intelligent and well trained Pokemon engineers.
He got into visual range and took a good look at this rival's mech. It looked rather like a pink lotus flower, folded up in a bud to move about in the low atmosphere here. As he approached, the mech opened up to reveal multiple weapon barrels. A pretty good idea, he considered, as it would be able to fire in any direction without moving much. Diamond Heart had the same capability, just without the flower motif and thus the ability to retract its weapons.
“Mewtwo, we're not getting a response from the foreign mech,” the communications officer warned. “Still can't identify the pilot.”
Right as he scowled, the lotus mech fired a beam based on Psybeam at him. He barely got Diamond Heart out of the way. Opening up the local radio channels, he said, “Cease your hostilities! I'm with the OSD!”
There was no radio reply, just a turn to fire Toxic in a spreading cloud. Mewtwo had to shift directions quickly in order to get around it, then ascend quickly to avoid a string of barbed mines in Spark. Briefly, he was impressed at this range of skills. Especially Spark translated into a mine attack, that'd be useful when dealing with being pursued. But this Pokemon was being far too reckless, initiating a mech battle with him. He replied with Confusion, using a bullet spread filter rather than a single shot of it.
And the lotus pilot dodged around it, making quick small moves to end up safely at the edges of the attack energy. It didn't waste time in attacking back, now shooting Water Gun as a quick succession of small shots in a wild spread. Barely aware of it, Mewtwo started smiling as he wove through the fire to get closer to the lotus mech. This was easy compared to what he faced in the large Kleek ships. He thought of showing the pilot how that kind of attack was really done, but dismissed it in favor of trying to disable the mech safely and bring it back to the station. After all, this was a good ship in the hands of a good pilot and he wanted to know who was responsible for both.
Then the lotus pilot made the silly mistake of using Splash through the weapons. That move could only ever do something in a mech if directed though the jets or engine, and that was only if the pilot was very skilled. Through his senses, Mewtwo was able to figure out that the lotus pilot was actually spamming Metronome. Disappointing, maybe this wasn't a good pilot after all. The Pokemon would be using it in hopes of getting something powerful for cheap, as always occurred when one depending on the chaotic move. Yet aside from the Splash mistake, the other moves had been formed for tactical use unlike normal battles. That would require a pilot to have a sharp quick mind that let it cast Metronome, then instantly shift the form filters to best fit what was coming.
Mewtwo prepared Thunder Wave in a wide filter. While it would have a low range in that manner, he was closing in on that range quickly and it would disable the mech safely. There was a large build up of energy within the lotus mech. It seemed that the pilot had managed to get a powerful skill. Preparing for it, he made a dash in an arc to get out of the way of the charging barrel.
The lotus pilot managed to switch barrels in time to fire Rend of Time at Diamond Heart. As soon as he realized what the move was, Mewtwo felt like his heart nearly stopped because he would not be able to dodge that move this close to the mech. It hit with a crushing force as time attempted to take the toll of centuries on his machine. His machine, a work that he'd slaved over day and night for a year even as he had to constantly be on guard from the Kleek invaders. He was as familiar with its inner workings as he was with his own body.
“No!” he screamed, focusing his mind into Diamond Heart's workings to try undoing the damage. Many parts were on the verge of being broken down and the machinery was slower to respond to a Recover skill. The effort felt like his brain was being squeezed tight. While he knew this was dangerous, he ignored that fact completely trying to keep the mech from being destroyed.
Somewhere in the mess, he got a message from Diamond Heart's core. 'Successful link-up to Heavenly Knight Pink Lotus complete. Request to take over flight controls. Accept?'
This mech that had been fighting him was trying to override his control and take him somewhere? But the moment he got distracted in thought, a terrible pain filled his body and parts of Diamond Heart threatened to break down. “Accept,” he said, then went back to keeping his mech together and salvageable.
Next thing he knew, he saw a familiar Klink after it took off his helm trying to get him out of the damaged mech. It was Myrmidon Station. Briefly, he wondered why the rogue mech had brought him here. Then the toll of keeping his mech together really hit him and Mewtwo passed out.
-+-
Jirachi was used to the world changing every time he woke up. After all, he tended to sleep for a century or two at a time. The changes were incredible this time, though. Now Pokemon were living out in space, on the planets that used to be specks in the sky they could only dream about. Some of them even had great big machines that they battled inside. Apparently mecha duels used to be a sport, but then were used for war defense as strange beings nearly took over the world and enslaved Pokemon. They were called Kleeks because no Pokemon could yet understand them, but their machines often made a sound like 'kleek'.
And he was going to be battling in those big machines against these warrior aliens. Every time he learned more about the time he'd woken up to, he wondered if this was a wise idea. The Kleeks preferred a method of attack Mewtwo called bullet hell in which sheer quantity of attacks overwhelmed the Pokemon trying to battle their machines. The only Pokemon machine that had proven capable of fighting back without being destroyed was Mewtwo's specially designed mech. Despite being recognized as the best mech pilot among Pokemon, Mewtwo had several close calls fighting the Kleeks. Still, Jirachi kept deciding to continue the training and join him once his Heavenly Knight arrived. Not just any Pokemon could pilot a mech and it was a show of respect that he'd been asked to do this
Still, today had been worrisome. First there were the Scout drones in his training flight today. That proved to him that the mech he was training with really wasn't up to the task of fighting Kleeks. Even these weakest of foes had badly damaged his machine. Diamond Heart had no such trouble. When Mewtwo went off to destroy the Scouts, he then encountered a hostile Pokemon mech which attacked him on sight. According to the Beheeyem captain he'd watched the ensuing battle with, the opponent had a great mech and a great pilot, if one that seemed almost playful in the chosen tactics. Then the opponent used a skill only legendary Pokemon like himself and Mewtwo could use, nearly destroying Diamond Heart and Mewtwo in one shot.
It had been a moment at the precipice of panic for everyone on the defense station. Here was their best pilot and only operational Heavenly Knight, their main means of fighting back against the Kleeks; both might have been destroyed in a heartbeat. Jirachi had felt a deep dread at this, partly because he wasn't sure he was ready to go up against the alien foes. But more than that, the Pokemon of Earth had barely won back their home world and star system not that long ago, before he'd woken up to this time. Could this be the moment they lose, to a treacherous Pokemon?
Then the reports came in. Mewtwo and Diamond Heart had survived, both badly damaged. And the new Heavenly Knight, named Pink Lotus, was bringing them both back to the station. Wondering who it could be, Jirachi used his status as the pilot-in-training to get down to the station dock to watch both mechs come in.
The dock workers quickly moved in to pull Mewtwo out of his mech, so Jirachi flew over to the Pink Lotus. It was quite a beautiful machine, he thought, in great contrast to the simple aesthetics of the Diamond Heart. Some of the petals unfolded to release the pilot. Strangely, it was a small cockpit, one better fit to a small Pokemon like himself rather than the taller Mewtwo. A small Pokemon rushed out, paying more attention to the Diamond Heart than Jirachi.
Using that to his advantage, Jirachi grabbed hold of Mew before she got far. “Hold on! You don't have permission to be here.”
“Lemme go!” she said, her large blue eyes tearing up in guilt. “That wasn't supposed to happen; I didn't think I'd actually hurt him!”
He tried to look stern, but Jirachi had never been good at that. “Well what were you thinking, attacking him out of nowhere like that? And with Rend of Time; that move can be deadly at that range, doubly so in a dangerous place like Io.”
“I didn't mean to use it! I was metronoming!” She finally managed to squirm out of his grasp and fly over to the Diamond Heart. They had gotten Mewtwo out now; he was unconscious, being shifted to a stretcher so they could get him over to the doctors. Seeing that, she started bawling. Knowing that she really must not have meant it, Jirachi flew over to her side, hoping he might at least keep her out of the crew's way.
“Pilot Jirachi,” the captain called over the small radio on one of his tails.
Jirachi brought the tail forward to speak into it more clearly. “Here, sir.”
“Who's the pilot of that mech?”
“It's Mew, but she's an incarnation I'm not familiar with,” he replied. Like he hadn't been familiar with this incarnation of Mewtwo at first. But that happened with his sleep patterns, other legendary Pokemon passing away and being reborn. His rebirth cycle was much longer, based on how often he was awake rather than how long he'd actually lived.
“Bring her up to the bridge; we need to talk with her.”
“Yes sir,” Jirachi said, then came closer to tap the side of her head. “Come on, Mew. Leave him to those who can heal him.”
“But I want to help since I hurt him,” she said, turning to him in pleading.
“Come speak with the captain first or you won't be allowed to,” Jirachi insisted. When she reluctantly nodded, he led her to the elevator. He could simply teleport himself to the bridge, but wasn't sure how far along this Mew was in learning her skills.
The bridge was a busy place, with many Pokemon working at computers to keep the defense station running. In the center, there was a holographic ring that played footages of security cameras, right now being what Surface Monitor Delta had recorded about the battle between Mewtwo and Mew. The Beheeyem captain, known as Marius, was reviewing the data gathered. He acknowledged them by glancing their way, but then turned back to the recording.
After Jirachi introduced the two, Captain Marius spoke with lights flickering at his fingertips. He had no mouth to speak, but could make himself understood with just the lights. “Even if you are a legendary Pokemon, I ought to arrest you and have you deported back to Earth for what you have done today. But I may give you a chance. Explain yourself, what you were doing here and where that Heavenly Knight came from.”
Mew twirled her tail around. “You'd have to be really lucky or really convincing to keep me captive. But anyhow, I was bored and I knew Mewtwo had to be bored out here waiting for battles few and far between. Yet he never even asked me to train as a pilot even if he woke this sleepyhead up and asked several other legendaries if they would later on. So I built my own Heavenly Knight based on the specs he left with the engineers and my own resources, then flew it out here to Jupitor on its own. I figured I'd make a game of it and quiet the relay station briefly to draw him out, but then he was there on Io anyhow. But I didn't mean to actually hurt him. I was just going to show him what my mech could do and let him disable me. After all, I was pretty sure that he'd go for that to study it rather than destroying it. Although I wished he'd been more aggressive so I could really show off what Pink Lotus can do.”
“We don't have time for games out here,” Marius scolded.
When she seemed indignant, Jirachi figured that she had to have reincarnated recently. “He doesn't have the time to get bored out here,” he said, avoiding the tone the captain had taken. “Mewtwo is an expert engineer out here, so he does work around the space station as well as on his own mech. Then he takes frequent patrols around the outer system, prepares for possible battles with the Kleeks, and is training me on top of that.”
“Well I can at least help out around here since they still have to deliver your Heavenly Knight,” Mew said.
“You've done exactly the opposite of that in taking Mewtwo out of commission,” Marius said, his lights tinged red as he was angry about it. “The movements of the Scouts and other drones suggest that our enemies are building up to a new attack wave and he's the only offense we have out here. If you were under my command, I would punish you severely for this.” Mew dipped in her hovering, more at the reminder that this was her fault than the threat of punishment. “But as it is, I am forced to conscript you into the OSD instead.”
“Really?!” Mew said, her eyes sparkling in glee.
“Yes, because now you own the only operational Heavenly Knight we have, you've proven that you won't need the training to use it like Jirachi would, and you're the only healthy pilot as a result of this duel.” Before she could get too excited, the captain narrowed his small eyes at her. “Of course, this also means that I can punish you now for your reckless foolish behavior. You'll be at reduced pay until Mewtwo recovers to compensate for his medical costs and you will be on cleaning duty on the habitation level until further notice.”
“Aw man,” Mew said, disappointed to hear that her first duty in the OSD would be cleaning. But then some thought cheered her up. “But if I'm around, I can still help Mewtwo while he's recovering. I'll get things good and clean real quick!” She took off back to the elevator with a gleeful giggle.
Seeing her take off, Marius put a hand on his large forehead. “Is it a wise thing to let her near him at this time?”
Jirachi tilted his head, thinking. “It depends. As I said, I haven't met this incarnation of her properly, just her predecessors. Each incarnation of a legend is an individual, not the same as the one that came last. However, there are also traits that make us who we are. Things change and stay the same, both in the self and in some bonds that can never break. There is a bond between Mew and Mewtwo that can never break, even if it changes as one or the other reincarnates. I wonder what it will end at this time?”
“Pardon?” the captain asked.
Jirachi smiled. “Sorry if I'm being mystifying. It tends to happen with age. As for if letting her near him is wise, there is no wisdom that can decide that without observation. I would watch and see.”
Then Mew flew back to them. “Hey, where is the habitation level? And where am I staying?”
“I'll show you, as well as the room for the cleaning staff,” Jirachi said.
-+-
Mew felt annoyed that someone she'd just met was already punishing her. But she couldn't care about that long as she got to be near Mewtwo again. He was so smart and cool! She'd first gone to see him out of curiosity at a mech battle tournament around fifteen years ago. Of course, he'd won that tournament by a wide margin with a mech of his own design, one that had looked like a Metang. When asked about how he'd come up with such innovations afterwards, he'd replied as if it were no more difficult than making a chain of daisies. He even announced that he'd stop participating in these tournaments except as a grand champion to those who dared challenge him, to give other pilots a chance at fame. She'd decided right then that she wanted to be at his side, helping and maybe learning to be as cool as he was.
And what luck that she had an instant way to get to him by just being herself. He knew who she was the moment she got close. Of course he would, they were legendary Pokemon that already had a connection to each other in spite of meeting face to face for the first time. Still, it had been such a thrill to have him come to her and say, “Oh, hello Mew. Good to meet you at last.” Like all the dreams she had might come true being near him.
Unfortunately, it didn't take him long to start being cold around her. Maybe she'd just been too eager at first in hugging him the moment he greeted her. Or maybe he was just too calculating and logical to know what to do with her. But that only made him more interesting. The calm demeanor he wore most of the time, the confident pride that always sought to be the best, it was all attractive. He was even more intriguing when she saw the occasional moments of warmth out of him. Like a time when a young Pokemon had tripped and nearly spilled a whole basket of berries she'd been running with. Mewtwo caught the basket by telekinesis without bruising a single berry. When the little one seemed embarrassed, he pretended the incident hadn't happened at all and told her to be safe going home. Now if only Mew could get him to show the same warmth to her, everything would be wonderful.
She had to spend a few hours with the cleaning crew, changing out the bedding in various rooms and cleaning up a few messes in the mess hall. The moment the Sylveon in charge of the housekeepers had to think of what to have her do, she talked him into letting her go to the recovery area and check on Mewtwo. Doing all these chores when she was here in space was terribly mundane. She hadn't gotten any time to look around outside of searching Io for the monitoring station. Once Mewtwo was well again, maybe she'd ask him to show her around the other moons.
He was alert by the time she came to visit, kept to a bed with a psychic dampener nearby. Trying to save White Diamond as he had must have been a tremendous strain on his mind. The doctor would have set the dampener up to reduce any possible mental strain while he recovered. Although it definitely wouldn't feel good to be restricted to bed rest like this. “Hello Mewtwo,” she said, trying to be cheerful.
“Oh, it's you,” he said, closing his eyes. It didn't last as he opened them again on recognizing something. “Wait, you? Were you the pilot of that other Heavenly Knight?”
Not caring about being in the presence of the psychic dampener, she darted in and grabbed his hand. “I'm really really sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you; I didn't think I'd actually get a skill like that. I wanted to have some fun with you and see how good your new machine was right up close. You were amazing like always, and I really didn't mean to mess you or your mech up so bad.”
Mewtwo sighed, giving a token shake of his hand but then not really trying to get rid of her when she kept hold. “You were metronoming, you should have expected that anything could come of it. We should count it as lucky that you didn't completely ruin White Diamond. And who built your mech?”
“I did,” she said. She'd hoped for a long time that she could reveal it in a way that really impressed him, but this was just making her sad that he nearly lost his mech in the process. “You said you got to be the best pilot by building them yourself, so I thought I'd do the same and give you an actual challenging challenger, cause you'd like that. It was a fun game for a bit.”
“Mew, this isn't a game,” he said harshly. “We're at war with an alien species we don't know a lot about, except that they seem determined to take over our home system and drain all the natural resources for their own use no matter what happens to us. Many Pokemon have died already, and many more could die if we lose this stage of defense. If you're going to be out here, you can't just act on a whim and do something because it looks fun. You have to take things seriously.”
Mew felt hurt that he thought she couldn't be serious. “Well I will! The captain already asked me to take over the patrols while you're recovering. Although he also ordered me to join the cleaning crew as punishment.”
Not happy about this, Mewtwo scowled. “Great, I see how it is. We have to take you on because we don't have Jirachi's mech yet.” He shook his hand again. “Well then you get out of the psychic dampener since you need to be on active duty at a moment's notice. And you had better not goof around or I will get him to increase your punishment.”
“I won't,” she said, letting him go and hovering back out of the dampener as he asked. “But I want to help you get better too. It's my fault, so I should do something for you.”
He glowered at her briefly, then looked aside. “It's... enough that you're taking over my duties as the Heavenly Knight pilot.” He tried to look impartial, but she could tell that he was restraining a sigh, maybe even tears.
“I could help you repair your mech,” Mew said, hopeful at the idea. It would be great if she could work directly with him like that.
He didn't agree. “No, you don't get to touch mine. I know the maintenance crew can handle most of it and I'll adjust further when I can get around again.”
Maybe it would just take some time to convince him. But he did seem upset that he was restricted to bed rest now, giving her another idea. “Or I could learn a healing skill to help you get better faster. I'm sure I could make it powerful.”
“The doctor here is fine, you don't have to be hovering over me,” Mewtwo said, then realized the pun. “Figuratively. Although if you make that literal, I will smack you.”
Mew giggled. “Sure you would?”
He glared like he might attack, but then winced as his mind was injured. “Stop doing that, you know I hate it.” Although that just made her laugh even more. Someday he'd stop fighting it.
“Excuse me?” The Audino among the nurses came up to them with a cart. She smiled. “I don't mean to disrupt if it's a special moment, but it's time for dinner.”
Mewtwo groaned at that while Mew felt delighted. “Well he'll deny it whatever I say,” she said, going over to see what the meal was. Soup. “I can help with the meal if you've got other patients.”
“No, I can feed myself,” Mewtwo insisted. “And she is not allowed to baby me because that'll just make me mad and I'm supposed to be staying calm, right?”
The Audino chuckled, but then nodded. “Right, sorry Miss Mew, but we can't be upsetting Mewtwo at this time. You can visit, but be nice. Oh, and I believe the head of housekeeping is looking for you.”
“Aw, already?” she asked, flipping her tail in annoyance. “Okay, I'll be back later, Mewtwo! And I'll come up with something entertaining so you don't get bored, promise.”
“I won't be looking forward to it,” he grumbled. But he didn't tell her to not visit, which was promising.
-+-
The worst thing about being restricted to bed rest was that the doctors here knew that Mewtwo would get right back to work once they let him go. Because of this, they tended to keep him here when they would have released anyone else. He was thus a mostly captive audience for Mew as she kept trying to amuse him and recover his spirits as much as his body (as she thought she was doing). He could simply not let her visit and considered it fairly often. However, she was terrible in knowing just how to pout and make him feel guilty for pushing her away. Over the years, he found it easier just to tolerate her as best he could, usually by finding work a fair distance away from her so she wasn't around every day.
But she always managed to find him and had done so once again even though he'd moved all the way to Jupiter.
Mew wasn't here now, giving him some quiet time. Although he couldn't say it was peaceful. She was off either training Jirachi or being debriefed from her first mission. Captain Marius had sent Mewtwo some recordings of Mew's battle with a small group of Kleek ships in Pluto's orbit. While it was mostly the weak Scouts, there were also a pair of drone Fighters. More signs of another attack wave building? It worried him a great deal. It should be just another day before the doctors released him and then another week until Jirachi's mech arrived. But what if the attack came between now and then? Or worse, today when he would be forbidden to fly unless things got desperate?
There was Mew, as much as he was reluctant to admit it. They were of similar capabilities, just with specialties in different areas. As such, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that she would also be capable of building a Heavenly Knight on her own and learning to pilot it. But she was younger than him and could be such an airhead that Mewtwo occasionally wondered why she wasn’t a regular Pokemon. To see how good she was in spite of how he’d dismissed her as a potential pilot was embarrassing.
She was good. With the addition of the drone Fighters, the Kleek force didn’t go with the simple bullet wave array that had been nothing to fly through unharmed. There was still a pattern; there was always a pattern. In this battle, they had gone for a more complex conical trapping pattern. It was meant to drive the opponent into a pattern of dodging that ended up pinning them to a spot where all units would fire on it. Mew did not get caught by this even though it was her first battle against the Kleeks. She turned the pattern on them by getting out of the cone of fire and eradicating three units in quick succession while they were focused on the trap zone.
Not only that, but Pink Lotus was really impressive. Its movements were a thing of beauty: smooth yet erratic, able to change directions freely and quickly. It was smaller than Diamond Heart, but that was to its advantage as there was less for the enemy to fire at. With Mew’s adeptness in changing weapon filters on the fly, it had a huge range of attacks available to it. Admittedly, that was also a flaw since it only got that range through her metronoming. It was much too unpredictable to be reliable. Yet, their enemies seemed to be totally reliant on patterns. Perhaps an unpredictable mech and pilot were the best counter.
Could she be better qualified to battle the Kleeks than he was? The thought made him shut off the recording and slump back into his raised bed. She had beaten him thoroughly on Io, something that had never happened to him in mech piloting. He’d almost say in battling in general, but there had been embarrassing losses when he was younger than her. Still, he hadn’t been defeated in a long time, not in anything he was good at. It had been a loss due to chance, but that was a weak excuse. Mew had a way of turning chance to her favor somehow.
But he couldn’t just give up because Mew had shown him up once. Mewtwo had promised the Pokemon back on Earth and all the inner colonies that he’d protect them to the utmost of his ability. He had to get better and get Diamond Heart back to full battle capacity. Maybe even better than Pink Lotus, now that he’d seen it in action twice. Although it was a riddle of how he would get more information on the Lotus without Mew finding out.
“Mewtwo!” Mew called out cheerily, flying over to him without bothering to ask to visit. A service tray was floating behind her. “The nurse let me bring your medication.”
Why? Did the staff like to torment him too? He sniffed. “More like you pestered her into it, am I right?”
“I might’ve asked,” she said, setting the tray on a table nearby. “Nice to see you don’t have to be in the dampeners any more. I know the pills they’re giving you are nasty, so I broke them up and made some tea with them so they taste better.”
“Is that safe?” Mewtwo asked, warily eyeing the large mug that she revealed.
She smiled in confidence. “Totally! And it’d be even better cause I put natural healers in it too. Come on, try it.”
There were times when arguments were futile, mostly when Mew was involved. Plus the nurse would scold him for not taking the medication and might even find an excuse to keep him restricted longer for it. He took the hot mug and tried a sip of it. At least with Mew, he knew she wouldn’t intentionally poison it.
“So? How is it?” She floated much too close for comfort.
He used a free hand to try getting her to back off. “All right, I suppose. Honey’s a bit strong in it.” Actually it was good, far better than taking the pills straight. Not that he’d tell her that.
“Great, I knew you’d love it,” she said regardless. Then she darted around to his other side to get around the hand. “Bet you wish I was here all along to make you better, huh? I really want to help you.”
“Stop it,” he said, uneasy with this. Although this time he didn’t want to get angry and yell at her again. “Mew, you’re being too reckless.”
As he thought, she looked him utterly confused. “What’re you talking about?”
It should be obvious. “It’s like I told you before, we’re at war, we’re soldiers now. So you need to keep a professional impersonal relation with anyone.”
“Why?” she asked, coming right up next to him. “That sounds awful.”
“No, what’s awful is what would happen if something goes wrong,” he told her. “And that could happen before you know it. I’ve taken down two of the big Kleek warships, but on both occasions I had a lot of close calls with death. It’s something I told Jirachi already: we could die out here easily. Even if it’s just an injury like what happened on Io, this station can’t move far quickly. I’m often out on my own for days at a time on patrols and if something failed, it could take the Pokemon here weeks to get to me. If I got too close to somebody now, I’d cause a lot of heartache any time I go out, even worse should something tragic happen to me.”
“But a lot of Pokemon worry about you anyhow,” Mew said.
He shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t want to make it worse.”
While he wanted to make her think more seriously about this job, she just smiled. “It’s really sweet that you’d worry about something like that.”
“I am not sweet,” Mewtwo said, making her laugh. “Would you want to make any of your friends upset if you were lost on a mission?”
Mew almost seemed to get it, but then said, “No, so I have to be just as awesome as you and win every time.”
“Anyone can lose,” he said, turning his attention back to drinking the medicated tea. Maybe he should try to get Jirachi to talk sense into her, since he could never manage it himself.
-+-
Mew was excited to hear that Mewtwo had gotten released from his restrictions, but she was still on cleaning duty as punishment. But that had its advantages, since she could easily offer to clean floors and look for him while doing that. Although it was plenty obvious where he was going first: the maintenance dock to work on Diamond Heart. She cleaned enough of the hallways to be seen doing the job, then went there to see him.
The Diamond Heart was a simple mech on the outside: a long ten sided diamond with a few extensions for jets and a large weapon barrel. It was a dull white and gray, kind of boring. If she could dress it up for him, she’d make the paint a glossier white and use a brighter silver on the extensions. Or maybe a jewel tone colors, that might be nice. But it had to be really impressive on the inside in order to be the best Pokemon built mech out there. Mew really wished that he’d let her see what was going on there, since he'd only left the basics with the crew on Earth.
Luckily, he had several panels open today so he could pull the cockpit out and work on it. Some mechs were made so that the only restriction on a pilot was their size category, possibly their type. But the Heavenly Knights were custom made for the pilots; the shape of the control helm, gloves, and leg braces made it so only Mewtwo could fly Diamond Heart. She had made it the same in Pink Lotus. With her small size and body shape, she had to adjust the design so she could combine the control gloves and leg braces into something she could wield with her long tail. Presumably they were doing a similar design with Jirachi’s mech.
“I knew I’d find you here,” she said cheerily, waving a mop telekinetically at him.
“Don’t bring that stuff near my work,” Mewtwo said. Not that she would; cleaning supplies and electronics didn’t mix nicely.
“Roger!” she said, cleaning up a bit. But she could still talk to him. “How’s it looking?”
“I can get it ready in a couple days, but I don’t have to tell you anything further,” he said.
And he didn’t, continually rebuffing her questions on the repairs he had to do. Eventually he told her to quit bugging him and get back to her job. This happened every time. No matter what she did for him, he was never impressed. She’d learned that sometimes he simply didn’t say he was. Even knowing that, she rarely got a good sign like when he’d finished the tea yesterday. Sometimes he seemed to care about her, but most of the time he acted annoyed and told her to leave him be. Mew wanted to believe that she could get through to him as long as she didn't give up. Even so, were they doomed not to be anything more than friends? If one could even call what they had now that.
She finished up cleaning the floors (except around Diamond Heart), but Mewtwo still wasn’t paying her any heed. Not even enough to try pity. Mew took the cleaning cart back to the elevator to find another area to clean. But as she waited on it, Jirachi came down the hall and stopped by the elevator too. “Hello Mew,” he said, swishing his starry tails in a friendly manner.
“Hi Jirachi,” she said, smiling but not really feeling it.
Mewtwo might’ve missed it, but Jirachi didn’t. “What’s wrong?”
“Just the usual,” she said. He reacted with a blank expression, not knowing what that was. “I keep trying to impress Mewtwo and be as great as he is, because he’s been my hero ever since I first met him. Maybe even before then because I kept hearing awesome stories about him. But he’s so cold to me and never gives me a chance. I’ve worn him down to where he seems to tolerate me and will talk. It takes forever to get him to open up a little bit at a time. Sometimes I think I should give up, but I want him to like me. I could make him happy, and he could use that because he’s so gosh darn serious all the time.”
Jirachi smiled at that. “He is. You’d think he was older than me when I’m a far older incarnation. Even counting the times I’m awake.”
“Have you spoken to him much?” Mew asked. Maybe he could advise her on what to do.
Unfortunately, he shook his head. “No. The last Mewtwo I knew was a previous incarnation. I only know this one since he woke me up in this century.”
“Aw, guess I should ask somebody else then,” she thought aloud. But who? She didn’t think he was close to anyone, although he had lots of acquaintances.
“I can tell you what I told him the moment I met him,” Jirachi said, tilting his head and making the ribbons there tumble. “I said, ‘I can’t make someone fall in love, but I can help it along in other ways’.”
He was in love with someone? Maybe even her? “Really?” she asked, coming closer in curiosity.
Chuckling at her reaction, he said, “Really. But the thing is, I was waking up and I can be off with my intuition in that stage. He was thinking about you. He didn’t want you to become a pilot out here because he doesn’t want you killed in this war. That’s why he went so far as to wake me up instead of asking you. I’m one of the oldest legendary incarnations around anyhow; it won’t be a big loss if I pass away since this incarnation can’t last much longer as it is.”
“He told you that?” Mew asked, shocked that he’d reveal something like that. At the same time, she felt ridiculously excited and wanted to go back and hug Mewtwo in spite of his protests.
“No, but I’m sure of my intuition once I’m fully awake,” he said.
“That's great!” she said, but then the rest of what he said hit her. “Oh, but, really bad too because I’m already up here. I don’t want to make him upset.” Maybe that’s what he’d been trying to say earlier without being direct, that he didn’t want her to die fighting with him.
“Then you should take things a little seriously yourself and make sure that you come back alive from every mission,” Jirachi said. The elevator binged as it came and opened its doors. “You go on ahead since you’re actively working. I can wait.”
“Thanks, for all of this!” Mew said, already considering all that he told her. Even the part about himself. That made her dart back over to stop the doors from closing. “Oh, but it is sad about you, I mean…”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I may be at the end of my life, but I want to see to it that my next incarnation comes into a peaceful world. I won’t let the Kleeks kill me either.”
She smiled back at him. “Good, just wanted to be sure.”
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