Interlude XVI - The Vaulted Sky

During the chaotic earthquakes, Mewtwo's newly created, highly efficient tulpa, "Victory," orchestrates a daring escape from the Cinnabar Island lab. Grabbing Dr. Light as a hostage, Mewtwo launches itself off a cliff. When its telekinesis falters due to the suit's automated potion cut-off, it plunges into the ocean. The fall nearly kills it, but its cellular regeneration kicks in, and it reshapes its psychic force to propel itself underwater, evading Giovanni's pursuing Dark pokemon by hiding in a submerged cavern. Once safe, Mewtwo discovers that Victory forcibly absorbed the other tulpas—Doubt, Trust, and Flourish—to increase its processing speed. Unsettled by Victory's ruthless efficiency, Mewtwo dissolves the partition, absorbing the tulpa entirely. Alone in the dark, Mewtwo listens to a recorded message from Giovanni triggered within its suit. Giovanni reveals that Mewtwo's genetic defect was a lie designed to keep it dependent, a precaution born of fear that Mewtwo might become a threat to humanity. He admits his failure but offers a truce, revealing that Dr. Fuji is still alive and that Mewtwo's genetic donor was chosen for their compassion, not intelligence.

Mewtwo discards the armor and flies into the night sky, experiencing the intoxicating but profoundly lonely reality of freedom. Without its tulpas to provide internal companionship, the vastness of the world is overwhelming. Exhausted, it rests in the ocean, learning to swim and observing wild pokemon, but its momentary peace is shattered when an unseen predator severs its tail. It barely escapes, realizing its overconfidence almost cost its life. Hiding in the sand, Mewtwo creates a new tulpa named "Survive," specifically restricted and designed to prioritize safety and adaptability.

Over the next few months, Mewtwo travels far into the northern wilderness, learning to hunt, forage, and defend itself. While tracking a faint psychic signature, it encounters an unown and merges with it, discovering its mind is an empty, emotionless mirror. Following the unown, Mewtwo discovers a massive, beautiful sphere comprised of hundreds of unown. However, merging with the sphere plunges Mewtwo's consciousness into a terrifying, maddening dreamscape, revealing a vast, alien intelligence methodically working to consume reality itself. Survive manages to break the connection, saving Mewtwo from the mental void, though the abrupt disconnect causes them to plummet into the forest. Recovering from its broken bones, Mewtwo realizes the scale of the threat. Recognizing that the alien intelligence is an implacable danger to the entire world, Mewtwo decides that its only option is to return to civilization and warn the humans.