Mewtwo's power continued to radiate from its body as it stared at its former captors, torturers. It considered killing them outright, dropping a mountain on their heads, or burying them beneath the earth. With clenched fists and gritted teeth, however, it slowly turned toward Alex, its psychic energy distorting the air between them.
'What... do you intend to do with them?' it asked with obvious restraint through telepathy, like a gate holding back a flood.
Alex smiled knowingly as he answered, 'Nothing, really. I plan to hand them over to the League to be dealt with. Given what they know, they'd be worth a hefty sum to be brought in alive.'
'May I... kill them?' it asked politely.
'Consider this your final lesson. You are a Pokémon, not a human, and thus the League gives you far more leeway. Most Legendary Pokémon, for example, are left alone unless they become a threat to society. They can even massacre large groups of people if those people deserved it. But the moment they start indiscriminately killing innocent civilians, they become a problem the League cannot ignore. Then they must be stopped or put down.'
'As they are your prisoners, I must ask again. May I kill them?' it asked with budding excitement, understanding Alex's words and the flow of the conversation.
'Knock yourself out,' Alex said with affirmative intent.
'Thank you,' Mewtwo said from the bottom of its heart as it floated over and lifted those it had its eyes on.
Judging by the victims' clothes, they were all scientists who worked in the top-secret lab, though there were also a few guards and staff members among them. They floated toward Mewtwo, their limbs going limp as blood began to flow from their noses, eyes, and ears. The drug they had been administered to keep them unconscious was both a sedative and a paralytic, so even if they woke up, they wouldn’t be able to move.
Mewtwo was likely forcing them to relive the worst memories it had endured through their dreams, amplifying psychic energy to the point it caused physical damage. It would be a terrifying way to die, considering time was subjective, meaning they could be experiencing centuries of the worst imaginable torture in what was only moments in reality.
With a final flick of its wrist, the few dozen people Mewtwo selected were launched into the air at tremendous speed. Judging by the sheer initial force and trajectory, they were likely to land in the sea. Adding in the fact that the paralytic was supposed to keep them under for a week, they were likely to drown or float defenseless in the dangerous waters for that duration assuming they could even survive the fall.
‘You know, there’s still a miniscule chance they could survive,’ Alex said.
Most of them were ordinary humans, but a few were at Expert rank, which gave them enough resilience to survive the journey. If they somehow managed to stay afloat in an upright position to keep breathing, avoid being eaten by predatory Pokémon, and eventually get picked up by a transport vessel or wash ashore, they could still survive.
‘I have severed their spinal cords,’ Mewtwo replied with a hint of concealed pride. ‘Even if they manage to survive, it will not be a life worth living.’
‘I’m pretty sure there’s medical technology that could allow them to recover.’
‘The memories I implanted into their minds are more than enough punishment.’
‘And it cannot be removed via psychic means?’
‘Not without killing them.’
Alex shrugged. ‘Whatever makes you happy, I guess.’
Mewtwo then turned toward Alex and nodded. ‘Thank you for showing me mercy and for freeing me.’
‘Sure thing,’ Alex said as he fed Mewtwo the location of their base in Kanto relative to their position. ‘If you ever need help dealing with humans, I’d be more than happy to offer it.’
Mewtwo smiled lightly. ‘I will keep you in mind,’ it said before taking off at supersonic speed, disappearing into the distance and leaving Alex to continue sorting out the mess they had made of Team Dominion’s former base.
“Give me an update on the island’s situation,” Alex called out over the radio.
“Guzzlord has finished with all the molten junk on the surface of the crater and is starting to work on the compacted top layer,” Rhea reported. “I’ve found some interesting materials for building more gravity engines, but because of the explosion they’ve mixed with impurities, so I won’t know what I can do with them until I can clean them up. Apart from that, I’ve collected a few tonnes of random Master ranked materials that survived the explosion.”
“We’ve scanned the entire island and found a few more people who were in hiding,” Lyra reported. “Also, Sable called and wanted in on the action. She’s interested in seeing if she can mine near the magma chamber.”
“Have Metagross send her over with Iris’s Butterfree. She’ll be a big help in digging up this place. I honestly wasn’t expecting Team Dominion to have such a deep underground facility,” Alex replied. “Once you girls are done sweeping the place, help Guzzlord excavate all the dense, useless material on the island, including all the bunkers, ships, and submarines. It’ll be good to delay its tantrums further.”
“You don’t want to build a base here?” Mika asked. “It technically isn’t under anyone’s jurisdiction.”
“No,” Alex said, shaking his head. “It’s pointless being so far from civilization. It would just be us and the Pokémon, without any of the conveniences we have at the base. Besides, we’d be separated from the girls who need to stay close to their work.”
Celise and Maris needed proximity to people to properly manage them, which in turn required those people to remain near civilization for their own sake. Besides that, Clarissa, Sable, Lyra, and Mika would find it harder to travel to the island given their work. An isolated island base would significantly limit their operations.
Still, in the long term, it wasn’t entirely without value. Once they were older and far more powerful, with stronger and more destructive Pokémon, it might become a necessity. For now, the best option might simply be to stake a claim and keep it as a future asset.
As for the useful materials being sent into Guzzlord’s stomach, it was a necessary expenditure. Guzzlord required a large amount of scrap to stay satisfied, so there was no avoiding dismantling the island’s metal structures to keep it fed. Besides, it would likely be better to rebuild everything from scratch later rather than rely on the old infrastructure. That plan was still far in the future, after all, once the girls were so old they would have lost interest in being near civilization.
“Rotom, register the island with the League as my personal territory. Given the remote location, they shouldn’t have any complaints, since they have neither the upkeep nor the authority over it.”
“Affirmative,” Rotom replied.
“Rhea, put up private property signs all around the island's perimeter. Make sure anyone approaching from any direction knows they face a very real risk of death if they try to stake a claim.”
“We’re keeping the island!?” Rhea exclaimed. “Sweet! I can finally have my very own evil lair! Mwahahahaha!”
“Are you sure you want to move here, Alex?” Lyra asked worriedly.
“Should we stop feeding Guzzlord, then?” Mika asked.
“It won’t be anytime soon,” Alex replied. “It’s for the future, when you girls eventually grow tired of your day jobs. One day, our Pokémon will be so powerful they could level our base in Kanto with a casual attack. It’s good that we found a piece of real estate to hold onto until then. And no, Mika, keep feeding Guzzlord. We’re cleaning up everything on this island. I want it to become a natural habitat again, so the sooner we remove all of this junk, the more time it’ll have to recover.”
Alex wasn't planning on building anything grand if they eventually settled here. It would be better to have only the bare necessities and automate everything else. Rhea could have her evil lair run entirely by automation, Nyx could have her satellite tower to stay connected to the internet, and beyond that, all they needed was a modest house and plenty of nature for their Pokémon to live in. It would be the place where they retired.
A few hours later, Sable arrived via one-way teleportation and began surveying the crater, confirming it was a dormant volcano. If she dug straight down, she would eventually reach the magma chamber where the richest veins of valuable minerals and metals were likely to be found. Excited by the prospect of having the entire place to herself, she immediately got to work, intending to mine as much as she could before the airship was scheduled to arrive.
Thus, the girls got to work cleaning up the place, stripping it of every resource they could find and ensuring as much of the man-made structures were torn down, while the crater slowly hollowed out as Guzzlord ate to its heart’s content.
Eventually, they had little left to do, and with a few days still remaining before the airship arrived, they decided to have a bit of fun in the meantime.
As for what they would do once they returned to Kanto, there was a report to be submitted to the League, after all Sabrina was required to report her discovery and the fact that Alex had first dibs. He had some explaining to do when he got back home.
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