They wouldn't be able to use Joey's blood, since she was a clone. Her DNA was slightly different from Crystal's due to the difference in Fur color, so they didn't want to risk creating further problems by using Joey's blood.
Satisfied that the sample was still clean and free of viruses, he placed it in the machine and began the cloning process. He checked the charts from the process that had created Joey, then decided to modify the computer commands a bit. With luck, the right combination of commands for the machine would create a stronger, yet less hostile Mew clone.
Blade typed in a few commands, thinking carefully. Changing too many options would cause the process to fail completely. He continued typing, inspecting each of the commands before entering them into the computer.
A scientist approached Blade from behind, then watched what Blade was doing over his shoulder. He coughed, causing Blade's fingers to slip over the keys. Blade turned around and glared at him, then mumbled something quietly.
"Why are you standing right behind me like that?" Blade asked, a tone of annoyance in his voice.
"I just wanted to see what you're doing, that's all," the scientist responded.
"Well, go find something else to do," Blade hissed.
The scientist backed away, then picked a clipboard up off the table and walked out of the laboratory. Blade sighed in irritation, then turned back to the computer. He resumed typing, unaware that he had inadvertently pressed the enter key halfway through a command when the scientist had startled him . . .
Jads glanced at the paper laid out on the floor next to her, then looked at the project which she was currently working on. The underground headquarters had been finished, so now the only thing that they had left to do was build everything that went in it.
Jads looked at the diagram sitting on the floor again, then over at Ira. "What exactly am I building, anyway?"
Ira shrugged his shoulders, then walked over to where Jads was kneeling. He looked at the blueprints, then smiled. "To be honest, I don't have a clue. Most of these blueprints were stolen from Team Rocket."
"So, for all we know, I could be building a bomb?"
Ira chuckled, then said, "Possibly. But I doubt that, because Team Rocket doesn't make blueprints for their bombs. They have scientists keep all that information in their heads."
Jads nodded, then resumed the task at hand. She was most of the way finished, and she had been working on the project for about six hours. Ira looked over at Joey and Crystal, then was surprised to see how rapidly they were working.
"Hey, slow down, you two!" he called.
Joey paused for a few moments and replied, "If our psychic powers allow us to build things so quickly, why should we go slow?"
Ira chuckled, realizing that Joey had made a good point. He walked across the open floor, to where he was working on a project of his own. In addition to the individual project blueprints, Ira had found a layout of how each of the items fit together. Each of the three things being worked on would eventually join together to make a single . . . something. Ira just wasn't sure what.
Ira looked around again, then resumed working on what he had been assembling earlier. Along with Jads, Crystal, and Joey, Ira was nearly finished. It would only take them a few more minutes, if that.
When Jads was finished, she stood up and checked her work. She then turned to Ira and asked, "Where do you get all the stuff for these projects?"
"It all comes from your average hardware store. There's nothing complex about what the things we're using. It's just the final result that will be complex."
"How can you be so sure?" Jads asked.
"Because, all of these plans were locked away in a vault that very few members of Team Rocket have access to," Ira replied.
"Well, how did you get access to it? From what I've heard, Giovanni hated you both," Joey said without looking up.
"I had a few friends in high places," Ira replied, a crafty look on his face.
Joey finished what she was doing and stood up, then looked at Ira. "So, you finished yet?"
Ira glanced at his plans, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm finally done. Should we quit for the day, or should we get this thing completely finished?"
"I say we finish it," Crystal replied, wiping off her paws.
"In that case, let's get back to work. We'll get all three parts assembled, then we'll decide where this goes," Jads said.
"How will we determine that?" Joey asked.
"That's easy," Ira replied. "It all depends on what this thing does. For example, storing Pokeballs, an information database, battle tactics, etc."
"And if it's just junk?" Crystal asked.
"If it's junk, we take it apart and use the parts for something else."
"Well then, let's get moving. I'm tired," Crystal said.
Ira and Jads nodded, then they began assembling the three sections according to the master plans . . .
Giovanni walked slowly down the long corridor, deep in thought. His opportunity for success had escaped by blowing a hole in the wall of the laboratory, as well as Blade's next promotion. Giovanni heard footsteps ahead of his, so he glanced up as he was walking. It was Blade.
"Blade, have you had any success finding the Mew yet?"
"It's too soon. Just be patient, these things take time," Blade replied.
"We don't have time," Giovanni said. "Time is against us, because it won't be long before this Mew somehow gets revenge on us. I don't' know why, but I get the feeling it will happen eventually."
"I wouldn't worry about it, sir," Blade responded. "With the tracker, it will take us less than a day to locate Joey. It's just a matter of capturing her, which is what we're working on right now."
Giovanni nodded. "Very well then. As you were."
Blade resumed walked down the hall, a bit relieved that Giovanni still wasn't mad at his for his loss of Joey. What concerned him more was the fact that eventually Giovanni would want to see Joey for himself. He would have to find some way to keep Giovanni from knowing the truth. If Giovanni found out that they were starting a new experiment and not bothering to capture Joey, they could all be fired . . .
Once the project was completed, Ira and the others stood back to admire it. He glanced at the blueprints and noticed a separate list of instructions, which he read carefully. The completed machine looked something like an oversized computer, though much more complex.
Ira mumbled quietly as he read through the instructions, then eventually stood up. He stepped over to the machine and flipped a few switches, then the monitor switched on and began humming quietly. Ira smiled, then began typing a few things on a keyboard. A menu appeared on the monitor, though it was blank.
"What now?" Jads asked, glancing at the monitor.
"Give me your Pokedex," Ira replied.
"Why do you need my Pokedex?" Jads asked.
"Just give it to me," Ira said, holding out his hand.
Jads hesitated, then pulled a Pokedex out of her pocket and handed it to Ira. Ira placed the Pokedex into a slot on the machine, which then pulled it inside. The word "scanning" appeared on the screen, then a few moments later the Pokedex popped out.
Ira pressed a key, then a list of all the Pokemon ever known appeared on the screen. Ira handed the Pokedex back to Jads, then grinned. "It's a good thing Team Rocket provided us with a Pokedex that was fully completed, eh?"
"Yeah," Jads responded, looking at the computer screen.
"So, what exactly did you just accomplish?" Joey asked, hovering next to Ira.
"We'll just have to explore and find out," Ira said, scrolling through the list of Pokemon.
Ira stopped at Caterpie, then pressed Enter. The screen changed, and a full list of statistics as well as a picture of Caterpie appeared on the screen. Jads was still a bit confused.
"I don't get it. What's the difference between having the information on a computer and having it on a Pokedex?"
Ira shrugged and began scrolling through the list of stats, then paused when he reached an options section. "Interesting. It's asking me to enter in a skill level."
"Skill level?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah. That's what it says," Ira replied as he pointed to the screen.
"Try 10," Jads said.
Ira entered in the number, then pressed enter. A message appeared on the screen which said, "Generating environment."
Ira tilted his head a bit, not sure what that was all about. "I may be wrong, but this looks similar to the battle simulators that Team Rocket had. They're used to help trainers with battle tactics for specific Pokemon. Except those ask for two Pokemon, not just one."
Right as Ira finished speaking, the entire room changed. Ira, Jads, Joey, and Crystal found themselves standing in the middle of a clearing, trees and vegetation all around them.
"Okay. What the heck just happened?" Ira asked.
"Um, I believe you were correct about that computer being a battle simulator," Joey said. "It's just a little bit more realistic than you expected it to be."
A Caterpie appeared in the middle of the clearing, a few yards away from the group. Ira and Jads looked at each other, somewhat worried. Neither of them had their Pokemon.
Jads looked at Joey and Crystal, then said, "Well, one of you is going to have to battle, because it doesn't look like there's any other way out of here."
Crystal nodded, then said, "Leave it to me. I have plenty of experience."
Joey shrugged, then hopped onto Jads's shoulder. Crystal stepped forward and took battle stance, as did the Caterpie. A bell rang out of nowhere, causing Crystal to jump a bit. The Caterpie, however, charged forward immediately with a Tackle attack.
Crystal dodged the attack easily, then responded with a normal Psychic attack. The Caterpie flew through the air and smashed into a tree, then disappeared. At the same time, their surroundings disappeared as well. They found themselves standing in the headquarters again.
Jads and Ira looked at each other, then smiled. "That's gonna be interesting to play around with," Jads said . . .
A week passed, and the cloning experiment was coming along a bit quicker than expected. Blade wasn't sure how long it would take compared to Joey, so he was hoping for the best. The cell growth had increased rapidly over the past few hours, so things were looking good.
So far, the cells were developing faster than they had with Joey. However, Blade knew that the results would be unpredictable. For all he knew, the developing clone could die at any moment. A few other scientists in the lab were monitoring the progress, walking about as they performed various tasks assigned to them by Blade.
Blade yawned, then looked back at the computer he was seated in front of. The number was still rising rapidly, and Blade wasn't sure when it was going to slow down. Blade looked at a chart of Joey's progress during the cloning process, then compared it to what the computer was showing him. The number of cells was considerably higher.
Rather intrigued by this, Blade stood up and stepped around to the side of the computer. He slid off the metal cover, then inspected the circuits to make sure that everything was hooked up and functioning properly. Sure enough, everything was working well.
Blade replaced the metal cover on the computer, then glanced at the rest of the cloning machine. It was impossible to open up the machine while it was running, since doing so would interrupt the ongoing experiment. He decided that everything in the machine was working well, since the computer was getting all the readouts properly.
Blade glanced at the workers who were completing the project of fixing the hole in the wall, then sighed. Hopefully this next clone wouldn't be as hostile as Joey had been. He glanced at the empty glass tank, then sigh again. He would have to come up with a name eventually for the next clone . . .
Joey yawned and sprawled out on the soft chair in the living room, tired from all the working she had been doing ever since joining Team Rocket47. Ira figured it would take them about another month to completely finish the Underground Headquarters at the rate they were working, which was quite good, considering the number of projects they still had to do.
She glanced at the bookshelf next to the chair, then began browsing through the books. After a few moments, she pulled a book off the shelf and began reading it.
Joey's peaceful moment was broken moments later, however, when Crystal came flying across the room and tackled her. Joey and Crystal both fell out of the chair and landed on the floor, making quite a bit of noise. Crystal ended up on top of Joey, giggling loudly.
Joey pushed Crystal off, then said, "What was that for?"
"I couldn't help it. You were completely oblivious that I was even in the room. Besides, Ira, Jads, and I need you for one more task, then we'll be done for today."
Joey grimaced. "But I don't want to. Haven't we done enough work today?"
"Remember, Joey, there's no I in Team."
"True, but there is a me."
Crystal was about to say something, but she paused, then burst out laughing. "I'm gonna have to remember that one. But seriously, we need your help to get this finished, otherwise we'll get put behind schedule."
"Behind what schedule?" Joey asked. "We just build things. There's no set schedule for us."
"True," Crystal replied, "but it's only a matter of time before Team Rocket discovers the location of our base and attacks."
Joey paused and thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose you're right. So, what do you need my help with?"
"Moving some stuff around."
"Can't you just do that with your psychic powers?" Joey asked.
"Technically I can, but there's limitations to my powers alone."
"Whatever you say," Joey replied.
Joey and Crystal headed out of the living room to a door, then pulled it open. Behind the door was a spiral staircase, leading down into the darkness. Joey and Crystal stepped through the door and pulled it closed, then began flying down the staircase rapidly. They were able to get down much faster than Ira and Jads since they could fly.
At the bottom of the spiral staircase, the air was much cooler than at the top, and also somewhat damp. The sound of dripping water echoed down the narrow corridor, which was lit up by lights hanging from the ceiling.
Joey and Crystal flew quickly down the short corridor, coming to a heavy metal door. Crystal pulled the door open and flew inside, followed by Joey. The door swung shut by itself, closing with a reverberating crash.
"We're definitely gonna have to put a security device of some sort on that door," Crystal mumbled while flying over to where Jads and Ira were sitting.
"So, what needs to be moved, and where to?"
Jads pointed to the machine at one end of the room, then said, "It needs to be moved to where all the Pokemon storage equipment is."
Joey nodded, the she and Crystal focused their powers on the machine simultaneously. The machine lifted gently off the ground and began moving slowly through the air. Joey and Crystal would have to be careful. There were a few other machines, so they didn't want to damage anything. After a minute, the machine was where it needed to be.
"Can I get back to my reading now?" Joey asked.
"Yeah, sure," Ira replied. "We're finished for the day, so Jads and I will be up in a little bit."
Crystal and Joey flew over to the metal door and pulled it open, then flew through the opening and up the spiral staircase. Jads and Ira glanced at each other, then sighed.
"Isn't there an easier way to keep all this stuff hidden?"
"Nope," Ira replied. "The security features will be necessary if we don't want to get caught."
"You have a point," Jads replied. "But hey, it'll all be worth it once we're finished . . ."
Blade rushed into the laboratory, then headed straight to the holding tank. He had been called by one of the scientists with an urgent message, so he had run the whole way.
Blade stared at the tank in astonishment, because the clone hadn't turned out to look like Crystal OR Joey. In fact, the Pokemon inside didn't even look like a clone of either one. The Pokemon was a Mewtwo.
Blade sucked in his breath, rather appalled. Mewtwo was even more of a legend than Mew was, so how had they succeeded in creating one with Crystal's DNA? There had been theories about Mew and Mewtwo being closely related genetically, and Blade had just proved every single one of the theories.
The Mewtwo was curled up into a ball inside of the chamber, its knees pressed against its chest and its arms crossed in front of the knees. The skin was a pale pink color, except for a large circle on the belly which was a darker pink. The scientists had already attached the various wires used to monitor vital signs to the Mewtwo.
"Odd," Blade thought. "I thought a Mewtwo was supposed to be purple. I suppose that's what happens when I use a pink Mew's DNA."
Then another thought crossed Blades mind. Joey was purple, so why wasn't this Mewtwo purple as well?
Blade shrugged his shoulders, but didn't move. He continued to stand in front of the tank, staring at the Mewtwo curled up inside of it. Perhaps this experiment would go better than originally planned . . .
Jads stepped into the living room, somewhat tired from doing so much work that day. She glanced at the chair, then smiled. Crystal and Joey were curled up in the chair next to each other, sleeping soundly. Everybody had been working hard, so she didn't disturb them. They had earned a long break.
Jads pulled a book of the shelf, then went to her bedroom. She dropped the book onto her bed, then changed into a pair of pajamas. She laid down on the bed and switched on a lamp, then picked up her book and started reading.
Jads was only a few pages into the book when Ira knocked on her door. She sighed and stood up, then walked to the door and unlocked it. She pulled open the door, then looked at Ira.
"What now? I was trying to read a book."
Ira apologized for interrupting her, then said, "I was thinking, as much help as Crystal and Joey are around the cabin, it would still be nice to have some other members around. We've got more than enough space."
"What are you getting at?" Jads asked Ira curiously.
"I think we should take our chances and do a little recruitment tomorrow."
Jads smiled, then nodded in approval. "I think that's a great idea. Where do you plan on having us start?"
"More than likely we'll start in Veridian City."
A slightly worried look crossed Jads's face. "What about Team Rocket? If they're based in Veridian City, won't there be undercover agents everywhere?"
Ira smiled, then winked at her. "Not to worry. We're not recruiting members for TR47. We're recruiting for an anonymous organization."
Jads giggled at the thought, then sighed. "So, what time are we starting?"
"Anytime tomorrow. If we don't have much success, we'll get a hotel in Veridian and stuck around for an extra day."
Jads nodded. "And what about Crystal and Joey?"
"They're just gonna hang out here and watch over the place. I think they've earned a break for a few days anyway."
Jads smiled, then threw her arms around Ira and gave him a peck on the cheek. Ira blushed a bit, then Jads giggled and pulled away from the embrace. She then said goodnight to Ira and closed her bedroom door.
Jads flopped onto her bed again, then picked up her book. Before she began reading again, she glanced at the door, giggled at the thought of what she had just done, then sighed. After a few more moments of pondering, Jads resumed reading her book.
Meanwhile, Ira was stumbling back to his bedroom, somewhat surprised. He paused at the living room and glanced at Crystal and Joey, who were still curled up together in the chair. He then continued to his own room, closing the bedroom door behind himself.
"I hope we can get some new members," Ira mumbled to himself. "We need all the help we can get . . ."