Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 296: Mewtwo X and Y (Two-in-One)

On the other side, Mewtwo was still confused by Rio’s suddenly brightened expression.

"Mewtwo, you’re about to unlock a powerful force from within."

Rio excitedly took out a Master Ball and recalled the bewildered Mewtwo. After waiting two seconds, a flash of light—Mewtwo was released again.

"What’s this? I feel like two new powers have appeared inside me."

Mewtwo’s expression was shocked after coming out.

"Try touching those two energies." Rio smiled, knowing that the system had helped Mewtwo unlock its X and Y forms in just two seconds.

Mewtwo closed its eyes. The next second, evolution light bloomed around its body.

Its form transformed into a combination of humanoid and feline features—silver-white overall, with only its tail, eyes, and abdomen appearing purple. Nerve bundles extended from the center of its back all the way to the back of its neck, and its fingers were composed of three spherical segments. The overall appearance gave off a sense of raw, powerful strength—full of explosive potential.

"Mewtwo X." Rio’s eyes lit up.

In his view, Mewtwo X looked incredibly cool. The information before him also updated.

[Pokémon: Mewtwo (X Form)]

[Level: 95 (88 + 7)]

[Talent: Legendary]

[Friendship: 20]

[Ability: Steadfast]

[Gender: —]

[Moves: Disable (135%), Confusion (135%), Swift (135%), Life Dew (135%), Ancient Power (135%), Psycho Cut (135%), Safeguard (135%), Amnesia (135%), Aura Sphere (135%), Psychic (135%), Power Swap (135%), Guard Swap (135%), Psystrike (135%)...]

[Description: This Pokémon was created by humans through genetic recombination of the Mythical Pokémon Mew. It possesses immense power—a single psychic wave can easily shatter a building. Though man-made, it is powerful enough to surpass most Legendary Pokémon. It was born for battle. Currently, it has entered its X Form. ]

"So this is the new power?"

Mewtwo’s voice echoed in its mind. It stared in shock at its transformed body.

"That’s right. This is your power." Rio smiled.

"I feel like my fists are filled with endless strength now." Mewtwo said in amazement.

"Your feeling is correct. Right now, there’s no Pokémon in this world that can withstand your fists—not even Annihilape could hold on for long." Rio explained with a smile, though he added silently in his mind: ...except for Regigigas.

"Really?"

Hearing that, Mewtwo was overjoyed. It turned its gaze toward Lugia, who was still locked in battle with Gengar high above.

Lugia wasn’t having nearly as easy a time against Gengar as it had against Mewtwo earlier.

"I suggest you switch to the other Y Form to fight it. The X Form isn’t suited for battling Lugia." Seeing Mewtwo wanting to charge in with X Form, Rio advised against it.

Lugia had a four-fold resistance to Fighting-type moves, so X Form wouldn’t be effective here. If Mewtwo didn’t fight well, it would just undermine the newfound power—and dent Mewtwo’s confidence too.

"The other form? Understood. I’ll save this form for testing against Annihilape another time." Mewtwo agreed after hearing Rio’s words, closing its eyes again.

Rio couldn’t help but offer a silent moment of sympathy for Annihilape. If they were the same level, he’d bet on Annihilape—but the problem was the twenty-plus level gap. Annihilape wouldn’t stand a chance, even if Ghost-type was immune to Fighting-type moves, Mewtwo knew Foresight. That immunity would be rendered useless.

The real beneficiary of that test would be Red Gyarados. Why? Simple—Annihilape would get beaten up by Mewtwo X and get furious. But since it couldn’t win, it would take out its anger on Red Gyarados. And Red Gyarados just so happened to love being a punching bag.

On the other side, Mewtwo began trying to switch forms. Evolution light bloomed again.

This time, its appearance changed from the burly, powerful X Form to a smaller, more compact form—shrunken two or three times over, almost like a baby. A protrusion formed on its head, resembling headphones.

"Mewtwo Y." Rio smiled.

The level information still showed 95, but the form indicator had changed from X to Y.

"This..."

Feeling the power of the Y Form, Mewtwo’s face showed even more shock. It felt as though its psychic energy had been amplified several times over.

"Go. Let Lugia feel just how strong you are now." Rio said.

Mewtwo looked at its hands, then at Rio, and finally back at Lugia, still fighting Gengar in the sky.

"Old Ghost, step aside. I’ll take over."

Mewtwo announced to the sky. A fluorescent glow enveloped its body.

The next second, Gengar—who had turned itself into black mist with Dark Pulse—emerged from the mist with a shocked expression. It felt a powerful psychic wave outside, surrounding its entire black mist—lifting both the mist and Gengar itself, tossing them aside. It also separated Lugia—who had been trapped inside Gengar’s mist—from it.

Lugia looked at Mewtwo Y as if it had seen a ghost. It didn’t understand how it had suddenly been freed from Gengar’s black mist—it had just felt a surge of powerful psychic energy coming from below. Looking down, it saw a Pokémon very similar to the Mewtwo from before gazing up at it.

Suddenly, Mewtwo shot upward, dragging afterimages in its wake, closing in on Lugia in an instant.

"You’re... the Mewtwo from before?" Lugia stared at Mewtwo Y in surprise—this Mewtwo seemed completely different in both appearance and presence.

"That’s right. It is I."

Mewtwo Y flew to a position one body length above Lugia, looking down with an air of superiority.

That ticked Lugia off. This defeated opponent is acting all high and mighty? Even if Mewtwo seemed a bit stronger than before, it didn’t have to be so arrogant.

Lugia spread its wings and used Twister. Waterspouts erupted from the sea, surging toward Mewtwo Y high above.

But two seconds later, Lugia looked at Mewtwo in shock—because the waterspouts were being pushed back down by an invisible psychic force. This was the first time it had ever encountered such a thing.

"You... are not good enough." Mewtwo extended a finger and wagged it at Lugia.

Lugia was furious.

"LUUGIA!!!"

It roared skyward and used Weather Ball, replicating its earlier strategy. Dozens of water spheres formed from seawater hurtled toward Mewtwo. Then, its body glowing orange, it used Sky Attack to charge at Mewtwo Y.

But this time, Mewtwo Y was completely different from before.

First, its speed was terrifying. As the Weather Balls approached, it used extreme speed—comparable to Teleport—weaving between dozens of water spheres. When Sky Attack came, it used Teleport, instantly appearing a hundred meters away, completely dodging Lugia’s attack.

Lugia managed to track Mewtwo’s landing point, but its own speed simply couldn’t keep up.

Meanwhile, after the Teleport, Mewtwo Y raised its palm toward Lugia, who had just missed. A powerful psychic wave condensed into a black energy ball in its hand.

[Psystrike]

The sheer terror of that psychic wave forced Lugia to quickly gather an Aeroblast in its mouth.

Two seconds later, the two moves collided midair. The energy ball from Psystrike briefly paused in midair—then visibly pushed forward toward Lugia. Lugia’s eyes widened as it tried to push back with more power, but compared to Mewtwo Y’s overwhelming psychic might, its Aeroblast was outmatched.

In the end, Psystrike struck Lugia, nearly sending it crashing into the sea.

Gengar watched from afar, utterly dumbfounded. It couldn’t understand how Mewtwo had suddenly become so strong.

"Lugia. You are no longer my match." Mewtwo hovered high above, looking down at Lugia once more.

"Lugia~" — You’re lying! A loser is a loser! I don’t know how you suddenly got so strong, but you will never defeat me! I am the Sea Guardian—the ruler of these waters!

Lugia charged at Mewtwo, using Brave Bird this time. Mewtwo raised its right hand again, gathering another Psystrike.

Two seconds later, Lugia was blasted into the sea.

From that point on, Lugia was completely outmatched. No matter what attack it used, Mewtwo easily countered and turned it back. The baby Lugia and Phione watched with their mouths hanging open the entire time.

In the end, Lugia went berserk—but even in its frenzy, it couldn’t beat Mewtwo Y. It was finally knocked out and held above the sea by Mewtwo’s psychic power.

Seeing this, Rio patted Charizard’s back. Charizard understood and flew Rio over to Lugia.

"Lugia. You’ve lost." Rio smiled.

Lugia, severely wounded and nearly unconscious, glared coldly at Rio. Its friendship toward Rio had already dropped from 0 to -15.

"Come with me." Rio continued.

"Human, stop dreaming. Even if you capture me, I won’t listen to you." Lugia’s cold voice echoed in his mind.

"Does that mean... you’re admitting you’ll be captured?" Rio’s lips curled upward.

Whether it would listen was one thing—whether it was willing to be captured was another. The fact that it said it wouldn’t listen meant it had resigned itself to being caught.

Lugia’s eyes widened—it realized it had misspoken. It tried to protest, but with a flash of light, it was drawn in.

Inside the Poké Ball, Lugia tried to resist—but it was too weak now. After the ball shook three times, Rio successfully captured it.

When it was released again, it found itself face-to-face with its child and Phione on the shore.

"Well then. You’re both my Pokémon now." Rio smiled. "Anything you’d like to say?"

"I told you—even if you caught me, I won’t follow your orders. And once I recover, I will attack you first." Lugia said coldly.

But Rio just kept smiling. "What if I told you that you could become the strongest legendary bird in this world?"

Lugia paused.

"Stronger than Ho-Oh?" Rio’s tone was tempting.

"I don’t want to."

Rio was taken aback. He hadn’t expected his usual "power" temptation to fail this time.

But then—

"Because I’m already stronger than Ho-Oh. I don’t need to become stronger than it."

Rio rolled his eyes. So that was what it meant. He had thought Lugia had actually become immune to the allure of power.

"Then do you want to become stronger than Mewtwo?" Rio changed his approach.

That made Lugia’s gaze shift slightly. It began sizing up Mewtwo, who had already reverted from its Mega Evolution. Mewtwo looked back at Rio with a somewhat exasperated expression—it could guess what Rio was planning.

"Do you want to or not? Answer me." Rio pressed.

"Can you really do that?" Lugia hesitated.

"Of course." Rio said confidently. "As long as you trust me, support me, and follow me, your future will definitely hold power greater than Mewtwo has now."

Those words drew a strange look from Charizard. That line sounded oddly familiar—like something Rio had said when he was convincing Raikou back in the day. It seemed like that was how Raikou had gradually joined their team.

Lugia studied Rio carefully.

"I feel like you’re lying to me." Lugia said skeptically. "I find it hard to believe."

"Then do you believe her?"

With a flash of light, Rio released Articuno.

"She trusted me, supported me, and followed me—and now she has grown powerful." Rio pointed at Articuno. "Articuno, show him your terrifying power now."

Articuno looked at Lugia and said proudly:

"Watch closely, Lugia. I am no longer the fragile creature I was when I served under you. You’ll have to be careful if we ever fight."

With that, Articuno breathed a blast of extreme cold onto the raging sea. The surface froze at a visible rate—within seven or eight seconds, the endless ocean had been completely frozen over.

Lugia was stunned. Completely shocked. It couldn’t believe what it was seeing.

It had thought this "silly bird" had gone mad to speak to it like that. Now, it seemed differently—Articuno actually had the power to back it up.