Cheese watched as Maple popped yet another Jaboca berry into her mouth. They were her favorite, and she had somehow gotten a whole pile of them that was quickly disappearing. She probably stole them from a human market.
"You're eating a lot more than usual," Cheese said.
Maple glared at him, which was the only way she ever looked at him. "That's because I'm more hungry than usual, obviously. Don't you have something better to do?" She popped another berry into her mouth, then picked up the rest using psychic and flew away.
Cheese laughed softly once she was gone. That had been a fairly tame response compared to usual. Maybe he was starting to grow on her. Probably not.
"Cheese, get the sleep powder, now!"
Cheese jumped at the sudden intrusion of Limburger in his head. "Golly, you're gonna kill me with a heart attack someday old man."
There was a loud clatter in the living room, followed by a terrible growling noise. Oh boy. Cheese got to his feet with a groan and started towards the supply closet, but then Maple sped past him with the jar of sleep powder in tow. There was a thud of something falling to the floor and the growling stopped. Cheese started floating towards the living room instead.
"What are you guys trying to do, burn the house down? Why'd you teleport that thing in here?"
Cheese froze. Tenmaitwo had recently picked up in Rocket transmissions about a pokemon being experimented on, and they and Limburger went off to rescue it. Cheese wasn't well enough to join, as usual. It was also clear from the way Maple said "thing" exactly what this pokemon was.
Another mewtwo? No way...
Cheese came into the living room to find Maple angrily throwing a myriad of water moves at some flames and an Arcanine asleep on the floor. Cheese relaxed, but also felt strangely disappointed. Not a mewtwo.
As Cheese got closer they started noticing more details about the beast. Bipedal, a collar of fur in the shape of a breastplate, ears angled towards the back of the head. He looked up at Limburger, who was slumped on an adequately damp couch in exhaustion.
"Yeah," Limburger said, "Don't worry, she isn't competition for you at all with that personality."
Mr. Fuji ran in "what in arc- oh dear." He stared at the pokemon on the floor.
Tenmaitwo flew towards Mr. Fuji. "I managed to access the facility's computer during the rescue, as always. This was an experiment to try to find a way to complete Maple's fossil DNA using pokemon DNA instead of human's. Obviously it worked."
"No way..." Mr Fuji muttered. "We made thousands of attempts to do that, including with growlithe and Arcanine samples."
"I'm still processing the document explaining how they made the breakthrough. Its ridiculously long. And boring. But the growlithe line genes dont have anything to do with it. Theoretically this could be replicated with any pokemon."
Mr. Fuji sighed. "That is... very bad news. Any particular reason they chose growlithe line genes as opposed to any other?"
"Yes. The second goal was to fix the problem discovered when Cheese rebelled. Arcanine are known for their loyalty. Let's just say she wasn't happy to be taken from her creators."
Cheese's heart sank. A mewtwo bred specifically to be loyal... he wondered if they had treated her as poorly as they had him. Probably not. She looked flawless.
Maple huffed. "A friendly mewtwo is bad enough. This amalgamation is going to kill you all." She flew away.
"You ok Cheese?" Limbergur asked directly to him.
"Yeah," Cheese replied back. "I'll be fine." He noticed Mr Fuji was staring at him like he was considering asking the same thing.
Limbergur switched to addressing everyone. "Maple isn't exactly wrong. The second she wakes up she's going to be mad and ready to return to team rocket."
"Well, we can't let her leave." Mr Fuji rubbed his chin in thought. "Both for her sake and other's. I hate the idea, and it won't make her any happier, but we'll have to confine her."
Tenmaitwo tipped forward, which was their version of a nod. "I'll get started immediately. By the way, I destroyed rocket's copies of all of their research documents and killed the scientists. It will be a while before someone rediscovers the breakthrough again. You're welcome."
"Thank you," Mr. Fuji muttered. Tenmaitwo flew off.
Cheese stared at the sleeping Arcatwo. Would they ever be able to break down her blind loyalty to team rocket, or would she spend her entire life in a cage? He couldn't imagine going through that, which was saying a lot. The only cage he had ever experienced was Rocket Headquarters, which was a pretty big cage. That had been terrible enough. His thoughts turned to the eevee. She may never leave incubation either, let alone wake up. This mewtwo was almost definitely a fire type, which meant if she ever escaped and went on a rampage through the shelter, the eevee would die.
Three mewtwos... when were they going to stop?
Maple sat in the attic with her snacks, hating everything. The new mewtwo should be killed, but she knew Mr. Fuji wouldn't allow that, and she didnt want to be kicked out. "Five mewtwos... when are they going to stop?" She thought bitterly.