'I didn't knew who I was. I didn't knew where I was. My brain was filled with memories that I didn't remember having nor did they belong to me' A lone person says to himself, lost in a world of his belief.
He didn't know how and didn't know why he existed, his very existence was a unknown to him. All unknown except the voices that he occasionally heard from time to time.
'Here they come again. Back for another check up' The person thought as he heard a constant march of rhythmic footsteps, a occasion he was deeply familiar with.
He hadn't opened his eyes but he knew who they were. Not because he had meet them but because of what he was shown and forced to believe all along.
" How is project mirror coming along? Any sort of improvement in the sync rate?"
"It is going wonderful. When you were away, I did some personal tweaking here and there and made a perfect subject whose sync rate has reached a astounding 84% after carefully selecting all qualities."
"You must be kidding right? That's almost equal to the level of a ditto's transform!"
While the two visitors exaggerate themselves with their same old words, the project mirror or whatever the figure was deeply familiar with.
And despite rejecting it for all of his short life. Deep down he knew it that denial and ignorance will never bring him any result he wanted nor will they let him live in peace.
He was a clone, a lab born artificial clone made from the DNA of a younger self of the world champion 'Ash ketchem' and this was a truth that denied him all the hope he ever wished for.
The hope that he will never be the original, the hope that no matter what he became he would always be nothing more than fake that will compared to the real deal.
So he had long forgotten about trying to rebel or anything because even if he hated it, deep down he was just as kind as the original, a kind person that will never swoop so low to kill another for his benefit.
So he did what the real ash could never accept. He had given up, or rather believed himself to have.
Meanwhile, The scientists that were responsible for the project talked about him, occasionally they would spew out a few words thinking he was Unconscious so he had managed to get a somewhat decent grasp of his position.
This place or rather the location of his current position was a hidden basement deep down in the forests of Unova, a bunker controlled by none other than the remains of team plasma which had long been forced to verge of extinction after the rising of the new champion Iris.
Their former leader Genisis was gone, captured and thrown to one of the deepest prisons of the pokemon world alliance and the remanents have long turned to their new leader, Colress.
It turns out that after iris rose to power as a champion and throughly cleaned up team plasma, Colress was overwhelming impressed to say the least with the unusual amount of power her and other champions's pokemon had showed.
And he recieved his answer soon after as when he was skimming through the background of the current champions, he found a undeniable evidence that made him go crazy in pursuit of the truth.
It was the battle recording Ash vs allen during the Kalos championship finals or to be more precise, the rare phenomenon who nobody else have been able to explain. The temporary evolution Greninja into Ash-Greninja.
In his madness, Colress went to the deepest ruins and the darkest mountains, all in pursuit of knowledge but at most found what could be described as myths and legends that were of no use to him.
' And in order to clench the endless curiosity within him, Colress turned to the dark side, gathering Remanents of team plasma and setting up secret labs.. and I am the latest experiment that's being worked upon. A clone of the only person who managed to do the phenomenon.' the figure repeated the same words to himself as he remembered his name again, 'subject 824: Codename mirror' .
Mirror was like a broken puppet, filled with despair and having no ambition whatsoever because he knew any resistance will be fatal for him but what he heard just then was enough to shock him to the core.
"So you are saying we need to change based again? Didn't we just shift here two weeks ago?"
"That's right! It took so much effort to set this up and now you want us to leave when we are so close to a result?"
The two scientist argued, not with a person because Mirror had not heard any footsteps but it didn't take his brain to understand they were on something called a phone if what he had learnt from the forcefed memories were true.
It seemed they were shifting places again, nothing new for them but there was something new. It was fear, a fear Mirror couldn't make a picture of as he suddenly heard a bang followed by the voice of the scientists and some sort of muffled yelling.
"Hold them. HOLD TH- bzz", the phone seemed to have been cut off, a reason that demanded urgency which was evident from the hastened voices of the scientists that followed after.
"We have to run! There is no hope for this place!"
"Not without our research. I have poured my soul in this work and no way in hell I will let it go to waste."
"But we need to run! If we don't leave now it will all be fo-" The second scientist's voice was instantly silenced by the sound of a pressure gate opening and metal being bent and even without seeing it, mirror knew what was happening.
"Stall for me bisharp, use Iron defence."
" Dragon dance. dragon tail."
A loud boom occurred as Mirror felt himself fall. The pod he was trapped in was shattered and for the first time in many years he could see.
But the first view that came to his face was neither very pleasant nor was it peaceful as he opened his eyes to witness a green face of a haxorus coming his way with the axes heading straight for his head.
He felt terrified and wanted to dodge but his weak body that never saw physical activity was not a good one to say the least as he couldn't even move out of it's way.
The attack was fast, fast enough to the point it only appeared in Mirror's view for a few mini-seconds before turning into a blur.
" Zap cannon"
The axe chop was deflected last second just before reaching mirror and a somewhat annoyed voice broke the silence that followed it.
"Now now. It's not very nice to break my crew's hardwork now is it? Miss Iris.", Colress himself came to Mirror's rescue, not because he was some kind person but instead because of the effort and funds he had pumped into Mirror.
From the corner of his eye Mirror could also make out a familiar figure that was looking down at him and Colress from a ripped open iron door, it was iris in her champion outfit but instead of the long dress she had switched to smaller pair of workout clothing with some armor.
Mirror looked at her, diving deep into the memories that have been fed to him and found somethings that were not the same.
First, Iris looked older by about 6 or 7 years as she was much taller than he remembered and had a much more mature face but he could still see it in her eyes, the excitement for battle and hint of anticipation for adventure.
On the other hand, Iris was not in a good mood as this was the tenth base she had to raid alongside the elite four and a small army of alliance soldiers in the past four days and patience has never been her strong suit.
" I should have made the security for the prison tighter, because of you and your stupid obsession I had not slept in peace for the past two months."
" Well what can I say? A scientist will always be a scientist and giving up my passion isn't something I would do... Use psybeam." Colress said calmly to Iris's banter as he released his porygon-Z and turned around to release his Metagross.
The Metagross didn't even need a command as with a single word from Colress it had already placed Mirror onto itself and acted as a foothold for Colress who calmly walked onto it.
"Dragonite use hyper beam." Iris ordered as she threw a pokeball towards Colress and her dragonite came out in full momentum as it instantly knocked out Colress's porygon Z.
Even without a thought or bit of strength in his body, it was easy for mirror to figure out that Colress was no match for Iris and so did Colress himself but he despite looking up at from below, he couldn't see a single speck of nervousness as Colress called back porygon Z.
"I would like to humour your efforts but I have places to be at. So my apologies And.", Colress pressed a button his glove, " Hope we don't meet soon."
The next second the a great suction force had erupted into the room and mirror himself had almost flown into it before being pulled back by Metagross and saw formation of something similar to a small portal similar to Hoopa's but without the rings.
Powerless and paralysed throughout the body, Mirror had no choice but to just sit down as he was being carried through the portal.
But suddenly the portal begins shaking, it's boundaries twitching as for the first time a frown appears on Colress face.
"No way those morons could have reach-.. GHETSIS YOU O-"
It only took a moment as the portal burst and Colress was thrown out as something akin to a crack appears on the space itself but.. Mirror was nowhere to be seen.