Before long, Mewtwo stood face to face with Gym Leader Brawly.
"Hey! A new face! Welcome to the Fighting Dojo!" Brawly grinned broadly. "Let me test your strength with the passion of combat! Go, Combusken!"
The battle began! Brawly's lead Pokémon was none other than Combusken!
Without hesitation, Mewtwo sent out Beedrill again. In his logic, a Pokémon with quadruple resistance to Fighting-type moves was the optimal choice.
"Combusken, Wing Attack!"
Brawly's command caught Mewtwo off guard. Combusken leaped powerfully into the air, its wings glowing white as it slashed toward the airborne Beedrill with a sharp whoosh!
A Flying-type move! Super effective!
Caught completely unprepared, Beedrill took the hit hard. Its HP bar plummeted drastically, dropping straight into the dangerous red zone!
Meanwhile, Mewtwo's counterattack with Poison Sting dealt far less damage than expected when it hit Combusken.
The opponent's physical defense seemed quite impressive. Mewtwo's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
This damage... something's wrong. Combusken's attack power seemed higher than anticipated, while Beedrill's offense felt strangely weak.
It seemed he'd misjudged the opponent's Pokémon typing. This wasn't purely a Fighting-type!
Not only that, but a notification popped up as the turn ended.
[Combusken's Speed Boost ability activated! Its Speed rose!]
"Combusken, Ember!" Brawly didn't give Mewtwo much time to think.
Combusken's speed had noticeably increased, letting it strike first again! Flames shot forth in another super-effective hit! Beedrill's HP bar emptied completely as it collapsed with spirals in its eyes.
[Beedrill fainted!]
Mewtwo's expression remained unchanged as he immediately chose to restart the battle.
Since Beedrill had a type disadvantage, he'd send out Marshtomp to counter this opponent instead.
Soon the battle restarted, this time with Marshtomp taking the field.
After that first encounter, Mewtwo had determined the opponent's typing likely included Flying and Fire.
"Water Gun."
"Combusken, Swords Dance!" Rather than attacking, Brawly had Combusken spin in place, its body glowing with red light signifying a major attack boost!
Mewtwo's brow furrowed slightly, seemingly puzzled by this behavior.
The next moment, Marshtomp attacked.
A thick jet of water burst forth, super effective! Combusken's HP dropped to less than a quarter!
But at the same time, Swords Dance completed, raising Combusken's Attack by two stages! And as the new turn began, Speed Boost triggered again, making it even faster!
Yet Mewtwo still found the opponent's actions incomprehensible. Even with boosted Attack, given Marshtomp's bulk, this seemed pointless since the opponent couldn't survive another hit anyway.
As the new turn began, he had Marshtomp use Water Gun again.
"Now! Combusken, Baton Pass!" Brawly revealed a victorious smile.
A handprint-shaped mark appeared on Combusken's body as it transformed into red light and returned to its Poké Ball.
Immediately after, a muscular Gurdurr carrying an enormous steel beam materialized on the field!
The moment it appeared, red light swirled around it, the boost from Combusken's Baton Pass transferring over: Attack up two stages! Speed up one stage! This move... could transfer a Pokémon's stat boosts?
Mewtwo immediately understood Brawly's strategy: lead with the speedy Combusken, use its speed advantage to set up boosts while stacking Speed Boost, then use Baton Pass at low HP to transfer those boosts to the next Pokémon for sweeping!
Marshtomp's Water Gun hit Gurdurr, but the damage only took about a third of its HP. Clearly this was a tank with high endurance.
Things had come to this point, so he chose to restart once more.
"Gurdurr, Hammer Arm!" Brawly shouted with fierce momentum.
The terrifyingly boosted Gurdurr was quite fast, attacking first as its massive steel beam came crashing down on Marshtomp with tremendous force!
Marshtomp's HP bar plummeted like an avalanche, getting instantly KO'd!
With this level of offensive power and speed boost, Mewtwo's remaining Pokémon couldn't withstand the boosted Gurdurr either.
Beedrill fell to a single Fire Punch, his team swept effortlessly.
[You lost to Gym Leader Brawly!]
Kairos watched the defeat message pop up on screen and shook his head slightly.
Brawly's Speed Boost, Swords Dance, Baton Pass combo was basically a nightmare for new trainers in the early game.
Many players had gotten stuck at this gym for a long time, trying various methods like using high-damage Pokémon to KO Combusken before it finished setting up. But the Focus Sash prevented players from easily accomplishing that.
He wondered how long it would take the super-intelligent Mewtwo to find the solution.
As it turned out, Mewtwo's response once again surprised Kairos.
He didn't react like typical players by panicking or immediately restarting, and he didn't even go level grinding.
After exiting the battle, he went straight to Marshtomp's move list, his gaze rapidly scanning several moves: [Water Gun], [Growl], [Mud-Slap], [Endure].
His eyes paused for less than half a second on [Sand Attack] in the reserve move slot before unhesitatingly replacing [Growl] with it.
After completing this, he walked toward Brawly expressionlessly and initiated a second challenge.
Kairos instantly understood his thinking!
He planned to disrupt the target receiving those boosts during the turn Combusken used Baton Pass, namely Gurdurr.
[Sand Attack] lowered accuracy. If Gurdurr got unlucky and missed its first attack, it would get hit with Sand Attack again.
This was actually a simple strategy, quite common among game players.
But Mewtwo had never encountered this type of game before, yet he could instantly think of this approach...
Mewtwo really was as sharp as ever.
The battle began again.
Mewtwo repeated his previous setup: leading with Marshtomp while Brawly predictably had Combusken use [Swords Dance] again.
When the second turn started, Mewtwo didn't have Marshtomp attack but decisively commanded: "Sand Attack!"
Marshtomp raised its claws, kicking up sand from the ground and flinging it straight at the opponent!
Combusken transformed into red light just in time, and Gurdurr appeared again bearing two Attack stages and one Speed stage worth of boosts, looking intimidating! But the moment it emerged, it got a faceful of flying sand, a gray accuracy-lowering effect glowing around it.
[Gurdurr's accuracy fell!]
A new turn began.
"Gurdurr, Hammer Arm!" Brawly roared.
"Sand Attack!" Mewtwo's command came faster.
Just as Gurdurr raised its steel beam, the game notification popped up!
[Gurdurr used Hammer Arm, but it missed!]
The next instant, it took another face full of sand from Marshtomp! Its accuracy dropped again!
Watching this, Kairos couldn't help but feel impressed.
Sure enough, in such a short time, Mewtwo had not only seen through Brawly's core relay-boost strategy but also pinpointed the most effective countermeasure: using [Sand Attack] to lower the accuracy of the key sweeper, Gurdurr!
Once Gurdurr couldn't land its hits, even the strongest attack power meant nothing.
What happened next confirmed Kairos's assessment. Mewtwo had Marshtomp continuously use [Sand Attack] while seizing opportunities to chip away at Gurdurr's HP with Water Gun.
Gurdurr's attacks repeatedly missed. After its accuracy dropped four stages, the hit rate of Hammer Arm became pitiful.
Though it did land one hit during this process, Marshtomp somehow managed to survive thanks to damage variance.
Finally, after Gurdurr missed with Hammer Arm yet again, Marshtomp's Torrent-boosted Water Gun successfully finished it off.
As for Brawly's remaining two Pokémon, they were quickly dealt with by the well-prepared Beedrill.
Two minutes later.
[Congratulations! You defeated Gym Leader Brawly! Obtained the Knuckle Badge!]
Triumphant victory music played.
Brawly walked over, laughing heartily as he handed over the Knuckle Badge and TM [Bulk Up]: "Beautiful battle! Very clever tactics too! Your Pokémon really trust you! You've earned this reward!"
However, Mewtwo simply accepted the badge and TM silently, his face showing no joy of victory whatsoever.
He didn't even glance down at the badge symbolizing his win, nor did he celebrate with his Marshtomp and Beedrill like normal trainers would.
He simply put them away, then controlled his character to turn around and walk straight out of the gym, heading toward the next town. His departing figure looked particularly... odd.
Kairos watched the silent, advancing figure on screen, his brow furrowing slightly.
Something's wrong.
Clearly, Mewtwo's current state was very off.
Although his tactical abilities were improving and his battles were becoming more efficient, that sense of inner confusion seemed even deeper than after the Rustboro Gym.
Now Mewtwo was like a precise, cold machine executing a program. Victory itself seemed unable to evoke any emotion in him.
The way he looked at his Pokémon, while no longer purely viewing them as "tools" like at the start, still carried that complex sense of distance.
Kairos could feel that during this period, the brutal training and testing from Team Rocket, along with whatever ideology they'd instilled in him, hung like heavy shackles.
Even in this game world that could bring new understanding, it continued to deeply influence him.
Something was affecting Mewtwo's heart. He seemed to be contemplating heavier questions, his mind completely absent from enjoying the game's journey or his companions' company.
This wouldn't do.
He had to find a way to guide Mewtwo and help him untangle this knot in his heart.
But how should he guide him?
He couldn't just directly chat with him, right? That definitely wouldn't work and would violate his current role.
Arrange a suitable plot event?
Given the current situation, ordinary NPC storylines probably couldn't resolve Mewtwo's state.
Just then, Kairos's gaze fell on a module icon in the system backend that he'd used before, one glowing with an eerie light: [Mirror Challenge Module].
An idea flashed through his mind like lightning.
Of course!
Fight fire with fire! Let Mewtwo... convince himself!
This Mirror Module's power wasn't just in copying a player's battle data!
Its core ability was perfectly replicating the "player's" entire existence!
And right now, Mewtwo was his player! He could use this module in the game to create a data-constructed "Mirror Mewtwo" possessing all of Mewtwo's current thought patterns, cognitive logic, and even his confusion and doubts!
Let Mewtwo face himself directly!
Let him find the answer he's seeking through dialogue and interaction with "himself"!
This thought immediately excited Kairos.
Wasn't this idea pure genius?
Time to act! He immediately closed the window monitoring Mewtwo's gameplay and fully immersed himself in the system backend.
He pulled up the invitation card, opened the game development backend software, and directly selected the [Mirror Challenge Module] with his thoughts, activating it and locking onto the target player "Mewtwo"!
[Mirror Module activating...]
[Target player identity confirmed: Mewtwo...]
[Beginning deep scan of player's mental signature...]
[Reading player's current cognitive model...]
[Extracting player's deep thinking logic...]
[Analyzing player's emotional fluctuation spectrum...]
[Data modeling in progress...]
[Constructing mirror core...]
[Generating "Mirror·Mewtwo"...]
[Warning: High-intensity mental barrier and external interference source detected in target player, mirror generation depth limited]
[Activating deep penetration scan... consuming additional 1000 Emotion Points... penetration successful!]
[Mirror core construction complete!]
["Mirror·Mewtwo" generation complete!]
[Insert "Mirror·Mewtwo" into specific plot node in player "Mewtwo's" current game progression?]
"Insert!" Kairos directly confirmed.
As for the location... how about the seaside in Slateport City, where he was about to arrive?
The trigger condition... when he's alone facing the ocean, this mirror would activate.
[Command confirmed.]
["Mirror·Mewtwo" successfully inserted into game world, coordinates: Slateport City coastline (specific plot point).]
[Trigger condition set: Player "Mewtwo's" character reaches coordinate point while in non-combat, non-mandatory dialogue, solitary state.]
Watching the confirmation message appear on screen, Kairos let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair.
On the backend interface, the model representing Mirror Mewtwo slowly rotated, emanating an aura nearly identical to the original along with a cold yet deeply confused purple glow.
Now that Mewtwo's mirror was complete, Kairos knew that simply having two versions of Mewtwo in his current state talk wouldn't solve anything. He needed to make some changes to the in-game Mirror Mewtwo.
That way, their exchange would be meaningful and produce a positive effect on Mewtwo.
His gaze returned to the monitoring screen. Mewtwo's game character was riding Old Man Briney's boat, slowly heading toward the coastal city of Slateport. He'd arrive soon.
In that case... he needed to pick up the pace too.
Kairos took a deep breath and immediately got to work.