The smell of Oak's lab was a strange mixture of sweat, coffee, Pokémon, and an assortment of chemicals. The odor mixed together with the hot air blowing out of the constantly running computers that sat at the researcher's desks. It was a welcoming, albeit strong, smell. Despite the fact that Oak's work is extremely well known and grand compared to some other professors, he had a small set up. The lab sat on property near the edge of town. The building was not much bigger than the typical house. Meaning, the smell had already flooded the house even though the workday had begun only an hour ago.

Every single room had been converted into lab stations for the few researchers that Professor Oak had hired. Their desks were messy, and papers were haphazardly stacked high on their corners next to beakers filled with liquids of a variety of colors. It was a mess, to say the least. Yet, for some reason, I loved it here. It felt like a home away from home. My favorite after-school activity when I was younger was to run down the road from school and around the corner on 11th Street to Oak's lab. I camped here, watching the assortment of Pokémon that paraded through here while doing my homework.

The assistants were tentative to let me stay in such a dangerous environment, but Professor Oak claimed that he saw potential in me. I was a bright student, but I struggled in the classroom environment. Only the Professor saw my potential whenever he would help me with my homework. I passed every subject at or slightly above the average, but science was where I flourished. I was driven to do experiments and figure out why things worked. Noticing this need for information, Professor Oak kept me around as a lab hand, helping out wherever I could. That was my life until a little over a year ago when Oak gave me the assignment that changed my life. Now, I got to do it all over again.

"Mewtwo is in my office out back, let's head out there to discuss," Professor Oak said.

We walked down the short hallway to the backyard. The lab sat on property on the edge of town, meaning it had the largest backyard in Pallet Town. The enormous yard opened up onto the small forest beyond town. It was nothing compared to Viridian Forest, but it was sizable enough to accommodate the Pokémon that Oak was studying at any given moment. Before the field, a free-standing building was just outside the back door. We walked over to the shed, and the Professor unlocked the door.

Inside, the single room felt cozy. Books lined the shelves to my right, and on the other side sat tables with papers, beakers, Poké Balls, and other various contraptions. One thing that caught my eye, in particular, was the Great Ball that sat isolated from the rest of the mess. Mewtwo.

I pointed at the ball. "May I?" I asked.

"Not yet, I have a few things to explain about him first," Oak replied. He waved at the seat opposite to his. I sat down, and he walked over to grab Mewtwo's ball.

"Team Rocket's files said the Mewtwo is genderless. Why did you just refer to it as a 'him?'" I asked. I spun the chair to face Oak as I talked.

"That is correct; Mewtwo does not have a biological gender. However, he has informed me that he would like to use male pronouns. Something about 'Male Pokémon are stronger, and I have to be the strongest.'"

I raised my eyebrow at the Professor, to which he raised his hands. "Those are not my words, they are his."

"I know, but I'm just wondering where it—I mean he—got such an idea." It was odd, a sexist Pokémon? I had never heard of or seen such a thing. I had researched many species, but yet none of them had shown a gender dominance. Even Nidoran, with their different appearances, were nearly equal in strength throughout their evolutions.

"Also, you were able to get him to talk? Not even Team Rocket and their horrible experiments were able to do that. They had deemed Mewtwo a success minus his inability to speak." I said as I recalled the information from the Rocket's base.

"Team Rocket was a gang comprised of fools. They believed that Mewtwo should have possessed the ability to speak verbally. They never tried to have him communicate with telepathy." Professor Oak said.

He set the Great Ball on the desk in front of me, then walked around to take a seat in his chair. "Alakazam, another psychic species, has this ability too. However, it is extremely rare and is only seen among the most intelligent of their kind. Mewtwo, with his overwhelming amount of psychic energy, was able to communicate easily with a bit of coaxing.

"Phoebe, how about you talk to him yourself. Go ahead and let him out," Oak ordered.

Hesitantly, I grabbed the ball from the desk and tossed it towards the ground. The ball erupted into a display of light from which Mewtwo's form took shape. The creature, standing maybe half a foot above my height, looked down at me with his cold, dark eyes. It was terrifying, to say the least. His raw power thundered from his presence as he examined me.

"You," he said.

"Me?" I sheepishly asked.

"You are..." he paused for a while before continuing. "You are powerful and worthy to control me."

I wasn't aware that I was holding my breath until that second. I exhaled with a laugh. "Good to know that you approve," I responded.

"There are a few conditions to taking Mewtwo with you that I need to go over," Oak interjected. Mewtwo and I both looked at him now. "First, Mewtwo needs—"

Mewtwo took over for the Professor. "I need to be able to experience the world for myself. Your friend here—Professor Oak, he calls himself—tried to convince me that the world isn't evil. I have yet to see this purity that he claims exists with my own eyes. Take me with you, show me what your professor claims is true. If I am not pleased with what I see, then I will do what I must to cleanse this world from evil like you have cleansed it of the Rockets."

I gulped down my fear before responding. "Okay, I will take you with me wherever I go. How does that sound?"

In response, Mewtwo simply nodded. Then, he continued. "I do not have to be out of the Great Ball at all times, but I do have to be kept in a visible spot. Simply attach my prison to your backpack so that I can observe the world around us from its interior."

"In towns, I'll keep you in the ball. But if we're ever out on the road or in a forest, I'll let you out so that you can explore. Your Poké Ball doesn't have to be a 'prison.' You are free to explore the world with me," I assured him.

"Thank you, Phoebe. You are as kind as you are powerful," Mewtwo said. "Second, and finally, I wish to be able to express my power. Find me a worthy challenge while we are adventuring together. Lest I get bored," he said. "You don't want that, do you?" he challenged.

"No," I said. I shook my head vigorously to emphasize my point. The last thing I wanted was Mewtwo to get bored and head off on a rampage.

"Very well," he concluded. Suddenly, without my control, the Great Ball's lid popped open, and Mewtwo's body converted into energy. This energy swirled around in midair before resting in a perfect sphere inside of the Great Ball. Then, the ball's lid snapped shut as quickly as it had opened.

"Did he just put himself back in the ball?" I asked over my shoulder to Professor Oak. I had never heard of a Pokémon being able to recall themselves.

"He'll do that to you," Oak said. There was a hint of caution in his voice. "He will do the opposite too. You'll be sitting there one day, looking over data from a test, when suddenly, poof!" He waved his hands and jumped in his seat slightly. "Mewtwo will be towering over you, asking you a million questions about the world, where he came from, who was that girl that captured him, et cetera. It's a terrifying experience."

I laughed at Professor Oak's explanation. "This is going to be a fun adventure."

"Yes, it will be. Before we go over the details of Johto, however, we need to discuss Mewtwo in further detail. The program I put him through, and how you need to follow up," Oak began.

"Yeah, what do I need to do?"

"So, the program works as an 'anger management' therapy to Pokémon. I put all of the starters that I give to children through it as well, including your Charizard. Wild Pokémon are dangerous, so it's ill-advised by many professionals to give them away to kids. However, if you train the Pokémon to become used to humans, they become less angry and distressed. These creatures are not inherently dangerous, but they can be if they are startled. And my goodness, are Pokémon easily startled. Therefore, in an attempt to let them get used to humans, effectively making them less dangerous, I put the Pokémon in an environment surrounded by people.

"It starts in the lab building over there." Oak pointed back toward the building we had walked through in order to get to his office. "I set the Poké Ball on the counter where there's a lot of foot traffic and wait. You are aware that Pokémon can see outside of their Poké Balls, correct?" I nodded, and so Oak continued. "After a few hours, the Pokémon inside of the ball realizes that these humans mean it no harm. Then, I let it out in the lab to explore at its leisure. Usually, the Pokémon start huddled up in a corner of the room, skittish to anyone and anything. After a few hours or even a day—it varies from creature to creature—they will actively walk up to the researchers. After that point, they realize that they're safe and start interacting more and more with the humans. This process takes about a week of the Pokémon cautiously exploring the environment. Also, food is placed close to desks where humans sit in order to encourage the Pokémon to go near researchers. It speeds it up slightly. I used to give the Pokémon a month, but that extensive of a time frame is not necessary anymore."

I took a few moments to soak up all of that information. "What does this mean for me? Like, what do I have to do with Mewtwo?"

"Mewtwo, surprisingly, took minutes to exit the Great Ball when I started the program with him. He sure gave my researchers quite the shock when he burst from the ball." Oak chuckled slightly. "He insisted on letting him explore the world outside. I promised him that he would be able to in a week. I'm telling you what he already told you, that you need to let Mewtwo out of his ball whenever you can. He's extremely curious about everything. Please, satisfy this curiosity. He's also extremely concerned that there is nothing good left in this world, and he wants to destroy anything that he doesn't deem as good. Show him that there is good left, and that you just have to look for it."

"I will, Professor," I said. I picked up the Great Ball and clipped it onto my bag with a keychain. "Now, what can you tell me about my assignment Johto? I need to know what I'm doing before I get there."

"Ah, yes," Oak began. "You will be working with Professor Elm. The assignment is the exact same as the one I gave you here: catch every single Pokémon in the region. The plan is for you to leave in a month. It will be a bit of a boat ride from Vermillion City here in Kanto to Olivine City in Johto. Then, you will meet up with one of his assistants in the city. Elm is in a lab in New Bark Town, so it's a bit of a distance from Olivine. You can catch Pokémon along the way and meet up with him later."

Professor Oak slid a small electronic device across the table. It was pink and white. When I picked it up, I noticed that the lid flipped open. A small screen was situated in the device, like a smaller Pokédex.

"This is a Pokégear. I'm sure you've seen them around here in Kanto with some of the richer people. Elm insisted that you have one so that he could check in with you," Professor Oak explained. "He does his research a bit differently. He plans to pull data from your Dex directly instead of weekly check-ins like we used to do. He moves quickly, so he wants data quickly."

"Makes sense," I said. I fiddled with buttons on my new Pokégear, trying to find the on switch. Suddenly, a beeping noise emitted from the device and its screen lit up. The screen showed a few buttons, things like map and contacts. I jumped over to the maps screen to discover a terrain completely unfamiliar to me. "Is this Johto?"

"Yeah, that's what it looks like. You will be landing here," Professor Oak said. His pudgy finger covered up nearly the whole screen as he pointed to a town in the south-west portion of the map.

"Interesting," I mumbled back, trying to figure out more functions of the device. I only had two contacts at the moment: Professor Oak and Professor Elm. I figured that I would add more people soon enough. If only mom had one, maybe I would be able to talk to her more that way, I thought.

"Do you have any questions?" Oak asked. I shook my head in response. "Well, if you come up with anything, just ask me. Or," he paused briefly, holding up his Pokégear. "Just call. I'll try to remember to keep it on me at all times. We will talk again as your departure date draws closer. You'll need a few more details before you leave. Also, Phoebe, please don't feel obligated to go. I asked only because I trust you to do a good job, not because I'm trying to keep you away from your mother or anything. If you want to stay here, you are free to do so. I can always find another pers—"

"No, I have to be the one to go," I interrupted quickly. Oak raised an eyebrow at my outburst, and I realized that I had to explain myself. "There's something that you need to see, Professor."

With a weak grip, I handed over my Pokédex to the Professor. He accepted it, turning it on as he stood to face the windows behind him. He placed a pair of reading glasses on his nose before he began his examination. Outside, Pokémon pranced about in the spacious fields. I focused on their carefree movements as I sat trapped inside the familiar office that now felt like a jail cell. The room felt smaller as I watched Professor Oak scrutinize my Pokédex. He flipped it over and over, tapped some of the buttons, and even took off the back lid where the battery pack was. All the while, he paced the length of the window. He closed up the back panel before setting the Dex down on the desk behind him. He still faced the windows with his hands clasped behind his back.

"I'll be honest with you," he began, "I have no idea what Pokémon this could be." He turned to face me, "Unless you take folktales into consideration." He raised his eyebrows as if to ask my permission to continue.

I nodded, "I do, that's how I found out about Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres."

He sat down gingerly while rubbing his forehead. "Tell me about the name 'Mewtwo.' Don't you find it odd that its name includes the number two, as if there could have been a first one?"

Leaning back in my chair, I considered this information. Two facts popped into my mind disproving this theory. "Except, the Pokédex said this mystery Pokémon was only about one foot tall. Mewtwo is a giant compared to that. Also, if that were true, wouldn't Mewtwo be listed as one hundred and fifty-one and not one hundred and fifty?"

Oak shrugged, "The Pokédex registers in the order that you—or others, now in the case of Johto—find Pokémon and their evolutionary trees. Its number doesn't matter. Also, it's only a possibility. Like I said: it's a folktale, they aren't entirely reliable. I heard this when I studied in the Southern Hemisphere, down in the Alola region, before the war broke out. It is highly unlikely this folk Pokémon would be found here, if anywhere at all anymore." He paused now, sighing deeply. "I want you to be serious here for a second, Phoebe." Oak leaned in close over his desk now. "Do you want to go to Johto for research purposes or for this mystery Pokémon? Don't let it cloud your judgment."

I stared down at my Pokédex. It was another enormous task, like the world was telling me "Congrats on doing the impossible, now do it again." Tentatively, I grabbed the device and pocketed it. "I'll go," I finally confirmed. I was set now on traveling for research—it was fun, after all. However, something inside of me still burned with a desire to uncover the secrets of 151. Its blank picture called to me whenever I looked at it. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, focusing on the task now at hand. "First, however, I want a month to rest and stay with my mom. She would probably be happy to have someone to share the house with."

Professor Oak smiled at me. "Good, I'm glad you want to do this. You have great potential to become a top tier researcher in this world. I hope you stick with this. Talk to me again about a week before you want to leave. Until then, I'll make the preparations."

I stood to leave, Dex in hand and a new fire in my heart. I was going to become the best Pokémon professor in the world, not because of how well my reports were written or how many Pokémon I examined, but because of what I found. I had a new mission, one that shrouded itself with foggy mystery: capture these folk Pokémon to prove to the world that they exist. I threw Oak's words of caution to the wind as I realized that this was what I wanted my true goal to be. Let the other species be damned, the legends deserved to be in the research spotlight for once. After all, legends were usually based in fact. Their time to shine was now, and I was going to make it happen, especially for 151.