Chapter 27: Molzapart and Chaletwo


Mark woke up early the next morning and couldn’t fall asleep again. Today he would get to see one of the two strongest pokémon in the world... and get himself in mortal danger at the same time. Oh, come on, he said to himself, if I’m that scared, I surely can’t still want to catch him...

Mark decided to talk to his pokémon since he had nothing better to do. He sent out Sandslash.

“What is it?” Sandslash asked.

“Nothing, I just wanted to talk.”

“About what?”

“Anything.”

“Then I can’t help you to find out what that anything actually is,” said Sandslash.

“I can’t either,” said Mark.

They were silent for a while.

“Sandslash, can you answer something honestly?”

“I guess I can,” said Sandslash.

“Do you like me and the way I train you?”

Sandslash didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then replied, “It has to be admitted that I haven’t gotten to battle very much...”

“Sorry,” Mark said quietly.

“But then again, you don’t really battle much at all, do you? So you should make up for it by letting us out of our pokéballs sometimes and allowing us to do whatever we want, then we just have to make sure we’re back at the place where you let us out at a given time. No pokémon likes being stuck in a pokéball for long, especially not Jolteon, he sometimes gets very frustrated about it.”

Mark was silent, then said, “I’m not sure I’m a very good trainer.”

“You are,” said Sandslash.

“I don’t know if you really mean that,” said Mark. “I mean, take May...”

“You’re a better trainer than her,” said Sandslash immediately. “Being good at battling isn’t the same as being a good trainer. She’s better at battling than you, but you’re a better trainer.”

The fact that Sandslash had just said May was better than him at battling gave Mark the feeling that Sandslash was really being honest, so he asked: “How?”

“She’s too determined to win,” Sandslash said. “She doesn’t care about her pokémon as much as you. You are a lot more ready to listen to us than she is. She’s slowly realizing it, but does she ask her pokémon if they want to evolve? No. Did she care about how Raichu felt after evolving? No. She just cared about the attacks he would have learned if he had remained a Pikachu. You are not like that. You care about our happiness. After I evolved, you regretted having never asked me if I wanted to evolve. And of course, just a minute ago you sent me out, one of your pokémon, just to chat, and then asked me if I liked the way you train us. Try to realize, Mark, that this is something most pokémon could never dream about. You are a really good trainer, and with a bit of outside time like I talked about, you’d be the best trainer we could ever get.”

There was a knock on the door, and May’s voice was heard.

“Mark, are you there? I thought I heard voices...”

He opened.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked.

“Sandslash,” said Mark. She looked at the pokémon sitting on the bed, then at Mark, still wearing his pyjamas, raised her eyebrows, and then said, “Shouldn’t you get dressed now? Then you can join me at the breakfast table...”

She went down the stairs for breakfast.


At four o’clock, everyone was gathering around the grass patch where Chaletwo appeared. There was a man selling small Chaletwo figurines (which looked like he had bought a lot of Mewtwo figurines and then painted over their eyes) and another one selling black T-shirts with bright yellow eyes in the background saying “I saw Chaletwo – have you?”in red letters. Mark found a good place to stand, May was somewhere else and everyone else was all around them. A two-meter radius around the exact spot where Chaletwo appeared was marked with a yellow line in the grass, and no one stepped over it. They waited there for what seemed like ages, until someone shouted “Ten!” Everyone joined in the countdown.

“...Four! Three! Two! One!”

And suddenly, Chaletwo stood in the grass.

He looked very different from how Mark had imagined it. He had always thought he would simply look like a Mewtwo with its eyes closed and nothing more than that. However, he had been very wrong. Indeed, the body shape was the exact same as a Mewtwo’s, but even with the eyelids down, it could still somehow be seen that he was looking around, and also Mark suddenly understood what Alan had meant when he said Chaletwo simply wasn’t evil – how could Mark ever have thought that? It was so obvious. How it was he couldn’t tell, but it was still obvious.

Chaletwo turned slowly, looking down every now and then to see the other side of the planet. When he turned to Mark, he stopped turning, and Mark really felt watched. Sweat appearing on the back of his neck, he started trying to think as much as he could about how terrible it would be if this was the last moment of his life, attempting to destroy all desire to catch the pokémon in front of him. After a second, which had stretched to five minutes from Mark’s point of view, Chaletwo turned past him. Mark breathed in relief. Suddenly, a tiny voice started speaking deep inside his brain. He’s facing away from you, it said. What if you just throw the Master ball now, nothing can stop you...

No, I mustn’t think like that, a clearer voice spoke out, but it was too late. Chaletwo had already noticed something, turned quickly back to him and stared at him (still with his eyes closed) while Mark did his best trying to eliminate the little voice. But it was unsuccessful...

And Chaletwo’s eyes opened.

The first thought that occured to Mark was that bright yellow did not quite describe Chaletwo’s eyes; they were a lot more than bright yellow. They were terribly, blindingly, unearthly yellow, each ten times as bright as the sun, piercing through his eyes like a knife, but yet so oddly beautiful in their terror that he couldn’t turn away.

Then, very suddenly, came the pain. For short, it felt like a burning hand was trying to rip his heart out, just ten times worse. He screamed, but it sounded far away. The screams of the people all around him when they realized what was happening followed, sounding just as far away. His vision was also fading; everything was slowly turning blacker except for the eyes, the worst of all, still as terribly bright...


Suddenly, it stopped. Very suddenly. He didn’t feel pain anymore. In fact, he felt nothing at all. He was located in total darkness.

The first thing he thought was “What happened?”

To his surprise, he got an answer.

“I can help you find out.”

It was a deep voice that echoed in his brain, a telepathic voice. Although Mark couldn’t see anything (maybe Chaletwo’s eyes had just blinded him, hopefully only temporarily), he knew it was Chaletwo’s.

“Touch, but you will not be felt. Dance around, but you will not be seen. Shout, but you will not be heard.”

“What the - ? No, wait a minute... are you trying to tell me I’m... dead?”

“Indeed you are,” said Chaletwo.

“But... but... that’s impossible! I’m here! With you!”

“Here is nowhere,” said Chaletwo.

“Of course here is somewhere,” Mark argued back.

“No. Why do you think you can’t see anything here?”

“Because there’s no light here! Or I’m blind!”

“Wrong. It’s because there is nothing here to see. Nothing but the two of us.”

“Then why can’t I see you?”

Chaletwo’s voice suddenly didn’t sound as mystical. “Because there is no light here either, you idiot!”

Mark didn’t point any words at Chaletwo, but Chaletwo was obivously reading the whole of his mind.

“What, I’m tired of being so stupidly dramatic! Let’s just talk normally!” Chaletwo hissed. “But for that matter, giving you light is the least of a problem.”

“Then give me some.”

Mark saw a small orb of light form and grow, lighting up Chaletwo’s hands which had the orb in between them, then his body, and finally the whole Mewtwo-like shape was clearly visible. Chaletwo put the orb aside, still lighting him up. The orb stayed where it was, in mid-air.

Mark waved his hand in front of his face. That was what he was trying to do, at least, but he got no response from his hands telling him they were being moved upwards. What bothered him more, however, was that he couldn’t see anything where his hand was supposed to be. He looked down at where his feet should be, but there was nothing there. Nothing where the chest should have been, either.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.

“The simple fact that you are nothing more than a spirit,” answered Chaletwo. “For short you’re dead, but you refuse to believe it.”

“I can’t be dead!” Mark protested. Chaletwo looked annoyed, then said, “Want better proof? Okay. Tell me, are you breathing?”
Mark waited for a short period of time.

“Er... I don’t think I am,” he finally answered.

“No, you’re not,” said Chaletwo, “because it’s your body that needs oxygen and currently, your body could as well be a stone statue, with the addition of being located in another world.”

It took Mark some time to swallow this.

“OK then. Fine. I’m dead. Then why did you kill me?”

“Because I needed to talk to you,” Chaletwo answered.

“Couldn’t you just have talked to me without killing me first?” Mark asked, feeling very annoyed.

“Think, human, think!” Chaletwo hissed. “How does this sound: The legendary pokémon Chaletwo, famous for having killed four trainers for no other apparent reason than that they wanted to catch him, suddendly decides to walk up to a trainer and start talking to him! That’s suspicious. Chaletwo taking a trainer with him when he teleports away is also suspicious. A trainer suddenly disappearing with no explainations is also suspicious. But this – Chaletwo doing what everyone deep inside knew he would do, killing someone in front of hundreds of people for the fifth time – that’s not suspicious. Not the least bit suspicious. Of course everyone who knew you will cry their eyes out, these crazy guys will write yet another article about how evil I am, everyone will talk about this for a few days, all that – but that’s about it. Then everyone will turn their minds to something else, and even if you danced the macarena naked in front of them, they’d just think it’s someone who looks like you and stop thinking about it. It has worked four times before and it will work again.”

“What do you mean, it has worked? Are you going to...”

“Resurrect you, yes,” said Chaletwo. “After we’ve talked. So let’s finish this off... just hope Molzapart is coming...”

“Molzapart? Is Molzapart in this with you?”

“Yes, of course. As soon as I felt a source of power rivaling mine, I rushed to Seafoam islands, found Molzapart and made friends with him, otherwise we might have battled sometime and killed each other or worse. All the trainers both of us have killed were killed for the same reason as you.”

“Which is...?”

“That can wait until Molzapart arrives.”

Mark noticed that Chaletwo had his eyes closed, even with nothing to blow up or kill accidentally. Chaletwo answered without being asked.

“I’m blind with my eyes open.”

“Oh.” Mark hesitated, then added, “That’s weird.”

“From your point of view, maybe,” said Chaletwo. “From mine, eyes are weapons when they’re open and tools for seeing when they’re closed.”

Just then, Molzapart appeared in thin air. He looked more graceful than Mark had imagined, but much closer to his imagination than Chaletwo had been.

“Lots of courage in this one,” Molzapart said, looking at Mark. “In fact, enough courage to count as... foolish...” He peered at Mark.

“That’s not a flaw, Molzapart,” said Chaletwo. “We don’t need someone who will go on as long as there is hope. We need someone who will go on when there’s no hope at all and give us new hope. We’re running short on time, Molzapart, and you know it.”

“When are you going to tell me what I’m doing here?” asked Mark.

“That’s a good idea, let’s get to the point,” said Molzapart.

“Well, you see, there is something no one knows about but us and one other pokémon in the world – Mew,” said Chaletwo.

“And that’s this,” said Molzapart: “Once every thousand years, the power of the legendary pokémon will slowly start to even out. The moment when they are equals, the Moment of Madness, makes them all mad. Thus the War of the Legends shall begin, and the world will turn to chaos. The legendary pokémon will fight each other so violently that after the war, the only living creature left in the world will be one of them. Every human, every pokémon, every plant and every tree will have died. The Survivor’s madness will wear off, and then it is the Survivor’s job to restore life and create new pokémon for the fresh start of the world. The war is inevitable, until human legendary collectors hold all the legendary pokémon captive at the Moment of Madness. Then the War will be canceled that time and for ever through eternity will the legendaries live in peace.”

“The survivor of the last war was Mew,” Chaletwo continued. “That is why scientists have found that Mew holds the DNA of all pokémon, as Mew revived all life after the War.”

“And now the War is about to happen again,” said Molzapart. “The power of the legendary pokémon has already started to even out. The other legendary pokémon are getting stronger, along with our powers growing weaker. So the other legendaries are almost equal to us, and we discovered that too late to have enough power over them to bring them here and make somebody able to catch all of them at once.”

“Well, this time, we are afraid the legendary pokémon are too many and too powerful. We are afraid that there won’t be a survivor and this War of the Legends will be the end of the world,” Chaletwo finished.

“And... am I that legendary collector who’s supposed to save everything?” Mark asked.

“You may be. We hope you are. The other ones could also be, but they haven’t had much success. And now we feel the Moment of Madness drawing nearer, and we are afraid we don’t have the time to inform more legendary collectors about this. So we are going to stay in your pokéballs, just to make sure we are at least held captive at the Moment of Madness... one legendary pokémon out of a pokéball will ruin everything. If there’s as much as a single legendary pokémon still roaming free at the Moment of Madness, the ancient magic behind the War of the Legends will make sure all the other ones will get out of their balls at that very second. So you have to try to catch all the legendary pokémon... and nothing is more important than that you don’t ever let one of them out of their pokéball. The Moment of Madness could be any moment, remember that.”

“Why isn’t Mew with you too?” Mark asked.

The two legendary pokémon looked at each other, then Chaletwo answered:

“Well... we had a bit of an argument. You see, Mew believes in fate. We came right to Mew when we felt our power getting weaker, but Mew just said: “If the War is not supposed to happen now or ever again, someone will hold all the legendary pokémon captive at the Moment of Madness, no matter what we or you do. If the War is supposed to happen again, there’s nothing we can do to stop it. And I’d rather be free than waiting in a pokéball for the inevitable.” Then Mew left and we’re alone with this plan...”

“For how long have you been doing this?” Mark asked.

“Many years,” said Molzapart.

“Then why has Chaletwo only killed four trainers?”

“I have killed many, many more, since we first noticed our powers fading. Chaletwo has been too busy with being a guardian. Four years ago, we realized that we were running very short on time, so he finally started helping with it.”

“You were lucky it was me who killed you,” Chaletwo suddenly said. “Molzapart has a little thing about torturing people to death by using Thunder, Blizzard, Fire blast, Drill peck and Psychic at the same time...”

“Well, at least I finish my work!” said Molzapart. “I kill them somewhere far away from everyone, then make everyone forget them. You kill them in public, with hundreds of peolpe watching, then leave. And look what that has done to you! Five long newspaper articles about how evil you are!”

“The people who wrote these articles are just stupid people who look at the clues rather than the facts themselves! Unlike you, I have a magic aura that convinces everyone who sees me that I’m trustworthy!”

“...Besides...” Molzapart looked at Mark with a glint of triumph in his eyes, “...the boy doubts my way is any more painful than yours.” That had been exactly what Mark was thinking.

“How am I to know what Death stare feels like? I have never tried!”

“Maybe you should try before jumping to conclusions!”

“And I didn’t like the way you said I was “too busy being a guardian”. I am a guardian, I’m born a guardian, and I will be a guardian!”

“A guardian born with weapons of killing right there in his eye sockets?”

“I can’t to anything about the fact that I have my eyes!”

“No, I’m just asking why a “born guardian” is born with the most powerful weapons in the world...”

“Chalenor had them too!”

“And how comes the guardian before you was also born with the most powerful weapons in the world?”

“Don’t you dare insult Chalenor in my ears!”

While they argued, Mark felt something strange happen to their voices. There was something really scary about them... Mark knew he had to stop them somehow.

“Stop it,” he thought desperately. They didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Are you asking to be attacked?”

“I’ll show you an attack!”

A dark purple orb started forming between Chalewo’s hands while Molzapart started glowing blue.

Mark imagined he was alive and actually had a real voice, then roared as loudly as he could, without any sound, “STOP IT!”

Molzapart and Chaletwo looked at him, still in the middle of charging their attacks, then looked at each other, then Chaletwo put his hands together so the orb vanished, and Molzapart stopped glowing at once.

“What happened?” asked Molzapart, his telepathic voice shaking. “Are we too late? Is the madness already overtaking us?”

“No,” said Chaletwo. “That can’t be. There is just this one moment, before it everything is normal and after it all the legendary pokémon are mad and it won’t stop until there is only one survivor...”

“Then what happened?”

“We can’t know for sure, but I have a theory,” Chaletwo said. “Well, we are too powerful to give up in any way. I’d even go as far as saying it is against our instincts to give up in any way. So when you answered the boy’s question...”

“I have a name,” Mark commented.

“Mark’s question, then. Well, when you answered his question, you just happened to put in a little comment about me being too busy being a guardian to help you with anything. And I can’t just let you say that, so I come with a little comment... you answer it... and so on until we’ve started attacking each other. It’s lucky that you were here, Mark,” he added, turning to Mark, “otherwise this might have been an early start on the War of the Legends...”

“Shouldn’t we get back to the point?” Mark asked.

“Yes. Well, while the other trainers haven’t managed to catch any of the legendary pokémon, we have gotten help from a most unexpected person...”

“Who?”

“Rick. The Cleanwater city gym leader. He already holds many of the legendary pokémon captive and never lets them out of their balls.”

“But he just clones them and releases them, doesn’t he?” Mark asked.

“Oh, no,” said Chaletwo. “That’s what is said. True, he released Suicune, everyone would notice if the lake stopped being cleaned, and some others, but most he kept. The pokémon he still has are Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Raikou, Ho-oh, Lugia, Celebi, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Latias, Latios, Jirachi, Deoxys, Hogia and all the Dracolor and evolutions in existance except for one Dragold and one Dragoblack.”

“Which means,” Molzapart added, “that the pokémon you have to catch are Articuno, Mew, Entei, Suicune, Waraider, Flamer, Leafer, Freezer, Hydrocean, Electrone, Psycon, Darkan, Rainteicune, one Dragold and one Dragoblack. Fifteen legendary pokémon.”

“Hey, Molzapart – I just suddenly remembered – why did you want Rainteicune to be wild when you talked to Alan Ketchum?” Mark asked.

“Ahh, so you know of that,” Molzapart answered. “You see, we didn’t want to tell anyone about the War of the Legends except for the legendary collectors. And we couldn’t just say “hey, don’t ever let Rainteicune out of his ball again”. So we decided that it was worth it to have one more legendary pokémon wild for the legendary collectors to catch to make sure that at least it couldn’t be out in battle at the Moment of Madness... well, now that you know what you’re supposed to do, I guess I’m off. Chaletwo will handle the resurrection.” And Molzapart disappeared.

“Er... Chaletwo, can I ask you something?” Mark asked.

“It depends on what the question is,” said Chaletwo.

“OK... why do you have a two in your name? Are you a clone? And are you in any way related to Mewtwo?”

Chaletwo sighed deeply, then said: “No, I’m not a clone, but related to Mewtwo? Well, that’s a long story... it all started before the last War of the Legends. There was a guardian of life then, just like me. That was Chalenor – you heard me mention Chalenor when me and Molzapart were arguing, didn’t you? – and Chalenor had the same powers as me, same Dark/Psychic type, same timetravelling abilities, same eyes, same Death stare... but not the same body. Chalenor appeared once every year, like me, and basically did everything I do. Once Chalenor went far into the future, around a thousand years. There he met Mewtwo, who introduced himself as the most powerful pokémon of his time. I don’t know what that could mean about the War of the Legends now, as I don’t know how far into the future exactly Chalenor went, but anyway – Chalenor introduced himself as a pokémon of the past, actually the most powerful of his time. Now, they had a conversation, and Mewtwo turned out to be very interested in Chalenor’s time. And when he heard that Mew was there, Mewtwo asked Chalenor if he’d let him have a look around his world. Chalenor agreed, and they went together to Chalenor’s time.

What they didn’t know was that the War of the Legends was already drawing closer. The power of the legendaries had already started to even out. When Mewtwo entered this time, he actually felt his power level change. When he asked Chalenor, he said that he usually felt something like that just after travelling through time, so Mewtwo accepted that. That was how Mewtwo took part in the War of the Legends, almost two thousand years before he was created.

And the War started, and all life was killed except Mew. When Mew’s madness wore off, the look of the world was terrible. Bodies everywhere. Mew didn’t really know what had happened, but then there was an explosion nearby. Mew went to check it, and it turned out to be Chalenor’s eye, the only thing left of the most powerful pokémon of all times, still bearing the power to blow things up. Mew now realized what had happened; everthing was dead, including the protector, Chalenor. As Chalenor and Mew had been very good friends, Mew desperately picked up the eye, found the nearest whole body, which happened to be Mewtwo’s, and then used psychic powers to transfer the power left in the eye into Mewtwo’s body, turning it to life. Thus I was born, gaining the powers of Chalenor in the body of Mewtwo, but a whole new pokémon with no memories of anything. Mew had succeded in making another Chalenor. But of course, Mew wanted me to help building up a new world, so Mew sent some psychic messages to me, the first one being “don’t open your eyes”, followed by everything about Chalenor’s job and what had just happened. And together, we resurrected as many humans as we could, modified their memory, planted trees, and then created new species of pokémon. And I decided the time and place at which I would appear to watch over the Earth, and Mew went and bounced around the world.

So, either I am Mewtwo, but with Chalenor’s powers, or I’m Chalenor in Mewtwo’s body. You decide.”

“Wow. Impressive,” said Mark.

“Well, what are we waiting for? I think I’ll send you a few days into the future along with resurrecting you. First after you’re back to life, you’ll be unconscious, but when you wake up, you’ll find that me and Molzapart will already have caught ourselves and we’ll be in your box on the PC storage system. We may sometimes transfer ourselves to the balls you carry to talk to you. But remember: never send us out.”

“Resurrection must take an awful lot of psychic powers,” Mark said.

“Well, actually, resurrection is quite simple. You need a ghost, a body and just a tiny bit of psychic powers to combine them again. The psychic powers are not the problem. You’d be surprised by how many pokémon have psychic powers. Ariados has psychic powers. But a ghost and a body are the hard ones. After dying, some people leave quickly. Others stay for a while. A few never go, but instead decide to haunt the place where they died. If the ghost is gone, there is no hope of resurrecting the body. So you either need to resurrect the dead one just after death when the ghost has definetly not gone anywhere, or be able to communicate with the ghost to tell it that it is possible to return back to life, maybe teleport the ghost to a location that doesn’t exist like I did with you. That’s something few pokémon are capable of... me, Molzapart, and ghost pokémon, really, that’s about it of pokémon that can see ghosts and also have psychic powers. The body is even more of a problem. There are limits to how damaged a body can be to be able to be resurrected. When you die of natural reasons, it’s because the body is just to old to work anymore. That means no resurrection. Cancer causes the cells to malfunction, that makes resurrection impossible too. Death stare happens to leave the body completely unharmed... and don’t forget that pokémon have a much better ability to heal themselves than humans, so their body can be more damaged... resurrection under other circumstances is a miracle.”

“But can I ask something else?” Mark asked.

“Depends on what it is,” answered Chaletwo.

“Can I tell someone about this?”

“Well, only if you really can trust them... or if it’s Ash Ketchum. Remember that he can help you.”

“Is it OK to tell one of my friends?”

“If you think you can trust her,” said Chaletwo.

“Can you then put me back near where she is?”

“No problem. I’ll put you back now, then... and remember which pokémon you must catch. Articuno, Mew, Entei, Suicune, Waraider, Flamer, Leafer, Freezer, Hydrocean, Electrone, Psycon, Darkan, Rainteicune, Dragold and Dragoblack... you... must... catch... them... all...”