The key turned in the door...



But nobody was home it seemed in the Cinnabar Gym. All the lights were dark.



“Who's that who has the key to my gym,” an older voiced asked.



“Huh? I.... I found this key in the old mansion,” Abe sputtered out at the darkness. After a moment, a rush of flames as braziers along all the walls lit up.



The gym clearly was almost entirely abandoned, its machines all disabled, and the spots where banners once hung on the walls were plain to see.



As was the Gym's only other resident. An older balding man, in a white coat and sporting a mustache that would put Eggman to shame.



“So you've been snooping around in the old lab, too?” he asked.



“The old lab, you mean the mansion?”



“If you want to get the secrets to Mewtwo, you're not getting them out of us.”



“Woah woah woah, I'm not after any secrets. I just want a gym battle and to work on filling my Pokedex.”



“A Pokedex? You're the kid from Pallet that Oak was talking about?”



Abe seemed taken aback that this old guy locked in a mostly shut down Gym would even know Oak, “You know him?”



The Gym Leader grinned, “I'll tell you what. Since you're here for a badge, how about I tell you the story if you can beat me in a battle?”



--------------------------------------------------



Muk was going work. With its minimize, it had managed to stall out Blaine's Charizard, and now Blaine was second guessing his whole strategy with Rapidash. Blaine could risk an all-out attack and miss, or try to stall out Abe until he switched Pokemon.



Blaine chose the latter, and it didn't work out well for him.



“A wonderful strategy, using your Muk like that, but it seems I've lost.



Now, before I give you your badge, about Oak...



Samuel and I both met when we were investigating the fossils in Mt. Moon. He, Dr. Fuji, and I--”



“Wait, is that any relation to Mr. Fuji who gave me this?” Abe asked as he pulled out the PokeFlute.



“Yes, that would be Fuji's design! It's actually based on an artifact we dug up in Mt. Moon. As I was saying, we were hired by Giovanni to--”



“Wait!” Abe said, “You mean to tell me Oak works for Giovanni!?”



“We all did at the time. Though Oak was the first of us to quit. You see, after we uncovered a series of fossils, Giovanni wanted to take them for himself. But Samuel believed they should be put on display rather than revived. So he took one of the three fossils and left.”



“And that's when he went to Pallet,” Abe said. “But if we have Dome, and Giovanni has Helix, that means Oak must have Lord Amber!” the Voices were shouting at Abe.



“Most likely; but after Oak took the Fossil, Giovanni had our project shut down. It seems he wanted to move us to a new project, Pokemon Cloning.



He sent us to a tropical island to uncover information about a Pokemon believed to be the common ancestor of all Pokemon, we named it Mew. Using leftover DNA from Mew, we attempted to create a superior clone.



Using my new Gym as cover, we worked in the original Cinnabar Laboratory to clone Mew. After months of work, we finally created our clone, Mewtwo.



But in our haste to prepare it for Giovanni, we let its powers get out of hand. It destroyed the Laboratory and escaped from us.



It was only after that that Fuji and I were willing to break from Team Rocket. I established a new Laboratory here and closed my Gym unofficially, while Fuji left for Lavender Town to help the Pokemon orphaned by Team Rocket's villany.”



Abe thought on this for a moment, “And where is Mewtwo now?”



“I wish we knew,” the Gym Leader said, “All that I know, is Giovanni does not have it.”



“He has something even worse,” Abe said, “He has the Helix Fossil. And he's using it to create Glitch Pokemon.”



“If it's true that Giovanni has one of those Fossils, you should head for Viridian City. Giovanni used to be the Gym Leader there before he became the leader of Team Rocket. Someone there must know where he is. And take this Volcano Badge, you earned it by beating me before.”



“Thank you...” Abe said almost absentmindedly, the revelation that Professor Oak had once worked for Team Rocket still weighing on him.