Magearna's learning ability was exceptionally strong.
Under Mewtwo's guidance, it took only a few days before it could fluently communicate with the other Pokémon in the laboratory, and it no longer stumbled while walking.
During these past few days, Yuga went to the Ecopark every day with the goal of building a good relationship with Magearna.
Magearna was indeed very close to Yuga, but it always prioritized Mewtwo above him, which made Yuga feel very frustrated.
The newly born Magearna was very innocent, but it had a sharp perception of good and evil.
At the same time, it was easily influenced and imitated others. Mewtwo was afraid it might learn bad habits, so at the beginning, it didn't allow other Pokémon to interact with it. The most typical examples were Persian and Weavile.
It wasn't that they were particularly bad, but they were too cunning and had complicated minds. Mewtwo believed that if Magearna spent too much time around those kinds of Pokémon, it might easily go astray, especially in its early developmental phase.
However, Magearna was a very curious little thing and got bored being cooped up in the lab all the time. So, one day while Mewtwo was busy conducting an experiment, Magearna secretly slipped out of the Haunted House Sub-Ecopark.
At that time, Mewtwo was handling three major projects: one was creating Magearna, another was researching the black water from the ruins, and the third involved the application of Ghost Vine materials. Now that Magearna had been successfully created, Mewtwo wasn't relaxing on the other two either.
When Magearna slipped out of the stone fortress, one of Mewtwo's assistants—Metagross—did notice. However, Mewtwo's experiment was at a critical stage and could not be disturbed, so Metagross chose not to alert it.
Besides, it felt that within the safety of the Ecopark, there shouldn't be any danger if Magearna went out to play a little.
Magearna stepped through the light gate connecting the Haunted House Sub-Ecopark and naturally entered the main Ecopark first.
Gazing curiously at the various Pokémon in the main Ecopark with its big round eyes, Magearna showed no sign of shyness at all.
The first one to notice Magearna was Nana. Although Magearna had only just been born, it was a Legendary Pokémon and thus possessed one of the basic traits of Legendary Pokémon, Legendary Aura.
Although the Legendary Aura on Magearna was faint, under Nana's perception, it still stood out like a beacon in the darkness, very prominent among the ordinary Pokémon.
In a blink, Nana teleported beside Magearna, examining it curiously. "Who are you?"
Because neither Yuga nor Mewtwo had revealed Magearna's existence, apart from the Pokémon inside the stone castle of the Haunted House Sub-Ecopark, none of the others knew about it.
Nana's sudden movement quickly drew the attention of the other Pokémon, and soon they all gathered around, chattering and asking Magearna questions.
Magearna had a very lively personality. Surrounded by so many Pokémon, it didn't feel nervous at all. It even introduced itself to everyone, saying that Mewtwo was its dad.
The reason it said this actually came from an offhand remark made by Yuga.
Because Magearna always put Mewtwo first, Yuga felt jealous and once joked with Mewtwo, saying that Mewtwo was like Magearna's old father and Magearna was its daughter. Magearna happened to overhear this and remembered it.
After all, the other Pokémon had dads—so it wasn't strange for it to have one too.
Everyone was shocked upon hearing Magearna's introduction. They didn't expect that this little fellow was actually Mewtwo's child.
Although Mewtwo didn't often appear in front of everyone, all the Pokémon knew that there was such a powerhouse living in the Haunted House Sub-Ecopark. Among them, some Pokémon in the main Ecopark were the most familiar with Mewtwo.
Because there were quite a few Psychic-type Pokémon in the Main Ecopark, Mewtwo would occasionally, at Nana's invitation, offer them a few pointers, so they were a bit more familiar with Mewtwo than the other Pokémon.
No one doubted Magearna's words, because the Legendary Aura emanating from Magearna gave them a very obvious sense of pressure. Although the pressure wasn't overwhelming, it was indeed present, and felt very similar to how they felt when facing Nana and Mewtwo.
Even Nana didn't question what Magearna said—she was just wondering in her heart who Magearna's mother was.
Because Magearna had only just been born, her mental development was still very immature, so after chatting for a bit, the older Pokémon gradually dispersed, while the younger ones continued to stay and play with her, such as the group of Ralts.
Magearna found the Ralts fun to play with, so she began playing games with them on the grass.
The Ralts also found Magearna to be friendly and really liked playing with her.
When Gothita returned riding on Cubchoo, the scene she saw was one of cheerful laughter and joy. Her face showed displeasure as she urged Cubchoo to walk over.
Isn't the most dazzling star of the Main Ecopark supposed to be me? Who is this tin can?
"Hey, what are you all doing?"
Gothita jumped down from Cubchoo's back, slightly tilted her little head upward, placed her hands on her hips, and asked in a haughty tone.
Because Gothita had an excellent potential, she was adored by everyone since birth—even Yuga treated her differently—and she was indeed smart, learning everything faster than most Pokémon. Gradually, she became a bit spoiled.
These Ralts were all new arrivals, so they didn't know Gothita very well. Seeing her unfriendly attitude, none of them were willing to talk to her and continued playing with Magearna instead.
When had Gothita ever been treated with such coldness? She immediately snapped and forcefully pushed away two Ralts that were beside Magearna.
The other Ralts, seeing their friends being bullied, immediately stepped forward to confront Gothita.
Surrounded and scolded by a group of Ralts, Gothita lost her composure. A powerful burst of psychic energy erupted from her body, flinging all the Ralts around her into the air.
One Ralts got back up and, seeing that Gothita was being unreasonable and had even resorted to violence, became furious and launched a barrage of Magical Leaves at Gothita.
Although Cubchoo thought fighting was a bad idea, when he saw his little friend about to be hit by the Magical Leaf attack, he lunged forward and used Fury Swipes to knock down the leaves.
Seeing that the Ralts dared to sneak attack her—and almost succeeded—Gothita's mind went blank with rage. She raised her hand and hurled a Shadow Ball directly at the attacker.
Gothita was far stronger than the Ralts. That one Shadow Ball directly knocked the Ralts out.
Seeing this, the other Ralts glared at Gothita with reddened eyes and simultaneously launched waves of Magical Leaves at her.
Faced with so many Ralts attacking at once, Gothita panicked. At this moment, Cubchoo opened his mouth and released a blast of Icy Wind, freezing all the Magical Leaves into icy clumps that fell to the ground.
The crisis was averted, and Gothita, who had just been flustered, suddenly felt like she was back in control again. She launched a Dark Pulse that swept the entire front row of Ralts away.
Magearna, who was not far away, still hadn't figured out what had just happened. Why did they suddenly start fighting? Fighting was a bad thing! So after seeing the Ralts get knocked away, she stepped forward to try and stop Gothita.
But seeing Magearna approach only made Gothita angrier. She thought: It's this guy's fault I got humiliated! And so she fired another Dark Pulse directly at Magearna.
The black ring of energy struck Magearna but dissipated instantly, not causing even the slightest harm to it.
Even though Magearna had just been born and hadn't even reached the strength of an Elite or pseudo-Elite level, it was a mythical Pokémon—its starting point was naturally far higher than that of an average Pokémon, by an unfathomable margin. There was no way Gothita, a little one like this, could hurt it easily.
Gothita stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the scene, then launched another Dark Pulse toward Magearna. Magearna might be naïve, but it wasn't stupid—it wasn't going to just stand there and let Gothita attack it over and over again.
With a casual wave of its hand, a silver energy blade shot out. It had used Flash Cannon to shatter Gothita's Dark Pulse.
Magearna simply wanted to stop Gothita's violent actions and had no intention of hurting it, nor did it even possess the mindset for combat. But the frightened Gothita mistakenly believed it was about to be attacked, and in panic, turned to Cubchoo for help.
Cubchoo also misunderstood. With a powerful leap, it rushed forward to block Magearna, attempting to protect its little partner.
However, the commotion had already drawn the attention of the adult Pokémon in the area, and they quickly arrived to put an end to the "conflict."
Looking at the many Ralts lying on the ground, injured by Gothita, Nana had no choice but to report the incident to Yuga.
Yuga hurried over and, upon seeing the unconscious Ralts, immediately asked Chimecho and Florges to begin treating them. Then he turned to Gothita, Cubchoo, and Magearna and asked, "Well? What happened here?"
Gothita knew it was in the wrong and mumbled uncertainly, not daring to tell the truth. And since Cubchoo always followed Gothita's lead, when it saw Gothita keeping quiet, it kept its head down and remained silent as well.
As for Magearna, this was its first time interacting with the Pokémon outside. It didn't understand a lot of things. In fact, it still didn't quite grasp how everything had escalated into a fight.
Yuga was aware of this, so when he saw Magearna's bewildered expression, he didn't scold it.
Then he looked at Gothita and Cubchoo, and his anger turned to a helpless smile.
"Looks like I've been spoiling you too much. Look at you now—daring to injure so many Ralts. Can't you solve your problems without using your fists?"
Gothita remained silent. At that moment, one of the Ralts just happened to wake up. Hearing Yuga scolding Gothita, it immediately got up to accuse it and recounted the whole story to Yuga.
After hearing it all, Yuga was furious: "You really are something! They were just playing and minding their own business. How exactly were they bothering you?"
Seeing that Gothita still refused to speak, Yuga grew even angrier.
"You've just been living too comfortably, everything's been going too smoothly for you!"
After saying that, Yuga began reflecting on himself. Because of Gothita's excellent potential, he had indeed been overly lenient with it. Clearly, this wasn't right.
After thinking for a long while, Yuga said:
"How about this—I'll send you somewhere to train for a while."
When Gothita heard this, it was as if it had been struck by lightning. Wouldn't that mean it had to leave its mom and dad, leave home? No way!
As soon as Gothita heard that Yuga was going to send it away for training, it started to feel scared—it had never left home before!
Yuga ignored Gothita's expression, which had drastically changed, and after soothing the Ralts, he informed Mewtwo to escort Magearna back, then dialed a person's number.
"Hello? Gon? It's me, Yuga!"
Gon is the Holy Son of the Bell Tower in Johto, a Psychic-type Trainer who also possesses psychic powers himself. His abilities are a true inheritance from Sabrina, and after years of training, he has become unfathomably powerful.
The Bell Tower is a place of strict discipline—perfect for Gothita to learn some rules and calm down. You can't polish jade without cutting it!
These past few years, Gon had been focusing on his training within the Bell Tower and hadn't taken a single step out of Ecruteak City. Although he had stayed in contact with Yuga, Yuga truly had no idea how far he had progressed.
However, as Gon's time training at the Bell Tower increased, Yuga felt he had become more and more mysterious—almost like a mystic. He especially resembled the current abbot of the Bell Tower, Abbot Joe.
Abbot Joe is a person who, though still young, always acted so solemnly and enigmatically that he could rival old men in their seventies or eighties.
Gon was very happy to receive Yuga's call. He chatted a lot with Yuga, and upon learning the reason behind the call, he agreed without hesitation to help "discipline" Gothita.
Gothita still had no idea just how terrifying a place it was about to be sent to.
At the Bell Tower, whether it was people or Pokémon, everyone had to get up at dawn to perform morning lessons, and in the evening, there were evening lessons. The rest of the time was spent either training or worshiping. Rules were everywhere, and any violation would be met with punishment. For Gothita, this would be nothing short of hell.
After ending the call with Gon, Yuga immediately transmitted Gothita's Poké Ball over. Cubchoo wanted to go too, and Yuga agreed.
Cubchoo had also picked up some bad habits under Gothita's influence, so it wouldn't hurt for it to go train and cultivate a better temperament as well.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed. On this particular day, Yuga suddenly received a text message from Ayamu. The message was extremely short—only two words.
"Help me!"
Yuga was shocked upon receiving the text and immediately called Ayamu back, but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn't get through. He had a strong feeling that something had definitely happened to Ayamu.
So, he tried calling Teacher Chiffon and Headmaster Fontaine of Zenith Academy. He had contact information for both of them as well. Unfortunately, the result was the same.
Couldn't get through!
Yuga wanted to go straight to Zenith Academy to find Ayamu, but he didn't know the exact location of the academy. Left with no other choice, he went to find Mr. Harrison.
After learning what had happened, Mr. Harrison quickly called an old friend of his—who was also a teacher at Zenith Academy—but again, the call couldn't go through.
At this point, both Yuga and Mr. Harrison were nearly certain that something had indeed happened at Zenith Academy.
"Looks like I'll have to make a trip back to Zenith Academy," Mr. Harrison said. "This time I'll need to ask Gym Leader Shimizu to accompany me."
Zenith Academy wasn't a minor organization. Mr. Harrison was well aware of its strength, and if something serious had happened to them, there was no way he—an old man—could handle it alone.
"Of course, even if you hadn't said anything, I'd still be going," Yuga replied. Ayamu was still over there—he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.