章 23: 23. Pink Pinball

Mewtwo scoffed in response.

"I think you have to get your facts straight. You're the one who's smaller. And I called you a pink pinball cause that's what you are, constantly zigzagging all over the place. Don't you ever get tired of annoying everyone?"

The raven haired trainer and the blue jackal pokémon glanced nervously at each other, while Pikachu shook his head as he got out of the backpack when he heard their argument. He had been taking a nap since entering the backpack and just woke up due to their argument.

Mew glared at her brother.

"Hmph! I may be smaller, but I am older than you, and more powerful, so don't push it!"

"Is that a challenge? Well then, let's go another round," Mewtwo replied as he stepped away from the tree and got into a battle stance with a smirk on his face.

"That's it! I'm gonna flatten you like a pancake and then I'm gonna feed you to the Regis!"

"Stop it, both of you!" interjected Riolu suddenly and very loudly.

For a small pokémon, he sure did have a loud voice. Mew and Mewtwo turned their heads with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. They were surprised to hear the loud voice coming from Riolu who capitalized on their silence.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves! We're on a noble and important mission! Yet you're fighting for no reason like a pair of children! Now, let's get back on track and focus on what needs to be done before my Master and I leave you here and call your Father to let him know you two are playing games when we should be starting on our goal!" threatened Riolu while glaring at the two legendary psychic pokémon.

Ash's eyebrows were raised and his eyes were widened in shock at what his pokémon just said. Wow, he must really have no fear, thought Ash. He just scolded those two as if they were children, not caring that they both are powerful legendaries. Arceus was right. Riolu will be a great addition to the team.

"No! Please don't tell Daddy! I promise I'll behave! I'll go get some stuff for you guys so you can enter the Tree of Beginning okay? Just give me a quick minute!" With that statement, Mew disappeared.

Mewtwo however, quickly composed himself before speaking.

"I admit I may have gone a little overboard. However, speak to me like that again, and I will not let it go so easily, even if you are Ash's pokémon. Understood?" Riolu neither spoke nor moved, just continued to glare at Mewtwo.

Ash and Pikachu looked at each other and both shook their heads. "This is gonna be rough."

"Pika pika…" agreed Pikachu.

A second later, Mew appeared again in their midst while carrying two aura crystals shaped as poke balls hanging from a necklace. She gave one to Ash and another to Mewtwo.

"These aura crystals will let you go into the Tree of Beginning. The Regis will not bother you anymore and neither will the other defenses the Tree has. As for your pokémon Ash, they don't need one since they are bonded with you. Your aura crystal is enough for you and all your pokémon. Since Mewtwo is not really your pokémon, he needed his own. Now follow me while we head inside!" Mew began leading the way immediately afterwards and the three Regis cleared the path that allowed Ash, Pikachu, Riolu and Mewtwo to follow after her.

"Why must we go inside? Can you not pass the knowledge to Riolu so we may leave without going inside the Tree?" asked Mewtwo.

"I could, but it will take longer. The Tree has many Aura crystals inside of it that will help me transfer the knowledge quicker since Riolu and I must connect with our Auras to pass the knowledge over," clarified Mew, satisfying Mewtwo with her explanation.

After walking a few minutes through the tree's passages, they finally reached the center of the tree. Ash and Pikachu smiled as they were greeted with a beautiful area, remembering it. Riolu gasped in surprise over what he saw while Mewtwo kept his stoic demeanor even though he was impressed by the sight.

The inside of the tree had a fairly large lake in the center of it, with a waterfall that went a good distance up in the air, against the north side of them. Many aura crystals were seen all around them that were embedded in the walls of the tree, in the ground and some in the lake as well.

They ranged in size from small ones able to fit in one's pocket to enormous ones that were as large as cars. There was also a circular path to their right that was connected to the walls, spiraling up towards the top of the tree along with several different passage openings along the path.

"Follow me Riolu. Ash, you and my brother can wait here while I transfer the knowledge. Please feel free to relax and you can even take a swim if you'd like!" said Mew, leading the way towards the spiraling path along the walls of the tree.

Ash thanked the pink legendary and Riolu followed after Mew. Ash set his backpack down and sat down near the lake, enjoying the view in front of him. He watched as Pikachu ran around to each crystal nearby and made funny faces with his reflections. Ash chuckled at his pokémon's actions. Mewtwo had an expression of annoyance all over his face that he noticed when he turned to him.

"What's the matter Mewtwo?"

"Nothing is wrong Ash. I'm merely annoyed at what Pikachu is doing and want to leave as soon as possible."

Pikachu heard the psychic feline and stuck his tongue out at Mewtwo before continuing his antics. Ash chuckled again.

"You know, there's nothing wrong in having a little fun. You should try it sometime." Mewtwo glared in return that caused him to become nervous, rubbing the back of his head.

"Or maybe not. Okay…um…if you don't want to just stand around…ah…oh, how about we start making plans on what we should do?" suggested Ash, hoping that doing something would appease the powerful feline.

Mewtwo replaced the glare he was sporting with his usual stoic expression. "Alright, let's go over what Arceus told us and see what we can come up with."