Three Hours before the attack on the Aether Foundation
The sun was starting to rise as I took a deep yawn stepping out of the Aether House, I was done with the tests and could now continue the investigation. Checking my belt regarding my three Pokeballs I still couldn't help but feel uneasy, I felt almost naked without my normal team, If things got dicey could I rely on a Pokemon I just caught and one who hates my guts?
Lost in my train of thought as Zorua jumped on my head wagging her tail and barking away. Bringing her down I held her close to my chest nodding in agreement. "You're right girl, no point dwelling on the bad. I've still got you and Liligant if worse comes to wear."
"Do you two have to be so loud this early in the morning? Where do you get the energy?" Glaidon growled adjusting his hoodie and stuffing his hands deep in his pockets. "If you're all done with your little pep-talk how about we get a move on?"
"R-Right, so, oh so exalted one, where are we heading next?"
Gladion gave it some thought tapping his foot. "I would suggest heading straight to the Aether Foundation, however, without concrete evidence, that you weren't the one who raided them, they would be doubtful to let you in. We'll leave that card off the table, hmm, where could we go?"
"You don't know? Well, that's rather reinsuring." I mutter scratching the back of Zorua's ear. "Any ideas Mimi?"
Before she could respond I felt that sharp headache again. The same as before, the same before an ultra-wormhole snatched me. Moving my hand I noticed it was out of sync with the rest of my body an after image following. My body began to glow as I stepped back startled. "Not again."
"What? The displacement!? Impossible, there isn't an Ultra Worm Hole!"
Holding Zorua before I could be snatched away I threw her towards Gladion. "Take care of Mimi Gladion!"
Doing so Gladion held Zorua by her arms dumbfounded. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
"Getting to the bottom of this once and for all. Don't go waiting up on me."
****
It felt as if my body was torn apart as my entire surroundings fell apart into the haze-filled neon city. I was back in New Driftveil City. On my hands and knees, I kept gagging feeling like I could be sick, the travel between my time and this one was far more violent than Professor Turo's Time Machine. Once I had fully adjusted myself I latched onto a vending machine standing up, this time round I was in a different part of New Driftveil City, also different this time was the fact Zorua wasn't here. For the best, if you ask me. Gripping Liligant's Pokeball tightly I glanced around. "This wasn't just a coincidence, someone had brought me here on purpose. Who?"
Taking a step forward suddenly a hand wrapped around my mouth dragging me into the alleyway. Trying to fight for air the kidnapper let go pinning me to a wall. Startled I took a long look confused. "Zinnia?"
The girl in question had a striking resemblance to my friend, however, looking closer, I could tell it wasn't her. This girl had much longer hair tied into a torn ponytail, her eyes were a faded orange, the big giveaway though would be a metal arm. "What do you think you're doing walking out in the open like you're going for a stroll? Do you want to get snagged by the royal guards?!"
"Sorry, I just lost track of where I was going."
"Typical of you, boss. But we can't have you getting captured. The future of Team Plasma depends on you."
"Right, right... Who the hell is Team Plasma and who are you?"
The girl slapped my face lightly waving her metal arm before me. "Hello, earth to Y/N, it's me, Zero. Get a grip, come on, the others have hunkered down outside the exclusion zone, we're readying our next steps."
Zero let go of me as she began to lead the way halting our progress as several patrols kept going past. Waiting for a moment she glanced at me uneasily. "I heard whispers of you getting tagged a few days ago by this city's gym leader. Sloppy work if true. That's unlike you."
"We all have our off days, right?"
"The patrol is getting ready to move, let's sync our location via the Z-Transceiver." Zero suggested pausing and looking at me again. "Where is your transceiver?"
"I, umm, lost it?"
"Damn it, whatever, let's hurry, before the whole city is upon us."
Darting through the streets we ducked into an old rusted telephone box outlasting another patrol. "Mind telling me why everyone wants my head on a pike for?"
"You're shaking my timburr now, what the hell is wrong with you? The whole world got the idea that you're the bastard who brought about the end of the world, it all started with that thing, that monster."
"A Pokemon?"
"If it was, it wasn't any known Pokemon in the dex, no entry, no number, nothing. Completely missing from our data. If you seriously need reminding, you won't have to wait long." Zero whispers edging the booth open and hurrying to the edge of town. I wasn't far behind as we had distanced ourselves from the lights and ecosystem, all that was left was the dark and cold.
Zero had stopped pressing her leg against an old railing staring onwards. I slowly approached as she glanced at me ushering me over. "If you need reminding of what Team Plasma is here for, let this be the reminder. What remains of Unova."
My heart dropped as I gripped onto the railing my eyes glued to the scene. My lip began to tremble unable to process what this was. "Impossible, this can't be real."
Everything beyond New Driftveil City was gone, it was a complete wasteland with nothing to show for it. There wasn't anything out there, all life, vegetation and hope had withered away, an endless creator drilled into my mind.
"All of Unova is like this, I'm sure the other regions too, it wiped out all Pokemon, so there's nothing left."
"What could do something like this?"
"An abomination, one we haven't seen since judgement day." Zero informed adjusting her Z-transceiver pointing it at me. "Now questions remain, who the hell are you? You are not our boss."
Holding my hands up I tried to defuse the situation. "Whoa, easy there Zinnia, we can talk about this."
"My name ain't Zinnia imposter, who are you, what did you do with the boss?"
"Alright, alright, I'm from the past, hundreds of years when Pokemon still exist, see, look here," I explain holding out a Pokeball. "You recognise this?"
"That's a fake, you're lying."
"There they are!" Zero turned around cursing under her breath. "Crap, the royal guards. You're on your own, buddy."
"Wait! I still have questions." I shouted as Zero jumped over the railing into the unknown abyss. "So close."
Turning around I was surrounded each had their Z-Transceiver pointed at me barking orders. "We have you surrounded, Plasma scum. You'll pay for what you've done. Queen Greta has orders to bring you in alive, but the way we see it, you caused this. Took our family and Pokemon. We should return that favour."
"Saying I'm from the past isn't going to change minds no?" I sighed gripping Liligant's Pokeball. "Fine, hard way it is then." Curling my Pokeball I tossed it in the air as Liligant burst out making all the Royal Guards gasp in shock. "Quickly mark our escape Liligant with a leaf storm!"
Blinding all the pesuers with a powerful array of leaves I took the chance running for my life. Diving over the railing I slid down the creator as I was attacked instantly. From the ground behind me, a metallic Gyarados burst through trying to snatch me up. Liligant jumped down kicking the Future Gyarados away and running alongside me.
"Don't let them get away Iron Leviathan!" The iron Gyarados dived into the air spinning like a drill ripping through the ground just behind us. Rolling over I rose to my feet running through the empty barren wasteland, running like this had me sitting ducks.
Liligant was hoping between rocks countering any surprise attack the Gyarados had for me. Eventually, its attention drifted to my partner as it launched a focused hyperbeam cutting Liligant down. Sliding down another section of the creator I held my Pokeball out. "Liligant return!"
Falling back I landed on my backside as the Iron Leviathan towered over me roaring. Gripping my next Pokeball tightly I was terrified, just what the hell were the people of this time doing to power up these Pokemon? Sending out Vulpix I wasn't even given enough time to order an attack as the ground broke apart sending the two of us falling into the unknown.
****
It took me a moment to wake up, the faint echo of sparks was enough to get me up as I felt jolts of electricity zapping me. Jumping I crawled back seeing floating rocks moving around emitting electricity. Looking up I saw where I fell, it must have been quite the drop as I couldn't see the outside world. Holding onto the side I picked myself up luckily with no real injuries to my body for once. The one casualty was Vuplix's Great Ball had shattered. "That's coming out of my paycheck."
Dropping the Greatball it suddenly hit me, where's the Pokemon to match the Pokeball? "Vuplix? Hey, are you out there? Hello!?"
I waited a moment hearing a very faint whimper coming further into the cave. Walking towards the noise and ducking under the floating rocks I saw Vulpix on the floor hurt. Running over I tried to help as he snarled at me attacking any attempt to get closer.
Holding my hands up I crouched down whispering. "Easy, it's alright, I want to help, see, friend."
Vulpix, while still hostile towards any action allowed me to get closer as I took a look to see he hurt his front right leg. "Your Pokeball is broken, so I will carry you ok? Here let me..." Ripping the sleeve from my shirt I tied it around Vulpix's leg tightening it. "There, that will do for now. I promise once we find some supplies to get you back up to full health. I'm not a nurse but I know my way around herbs and plants. First, though, let's find a way out of wherever we are..."
Holding Vulpix in my arms I began walking through the cave spinning and seeing the wonder ahead of me. "I've never seen such a cave system before, Akari would freak out by just the concept. Does this system run under the entire city? We could be lost down here for hours." Walking around a corner I saw a set of supplies, tents and chairs set up facing a specific wall. "Or not?
Taking it slowly I kept my guard up having my hand on my final Pokeball gripping Vulpix closely. Edging towards the scene I could tell the camp hadn't been in use for some time. The tent was torn apart, the pans stone cold and the cameras set up smashed across the floor. Running my hand over the torn tent I whispered to myself. "Why did everyone leave in such a hurry?"
Turning around I eyed down the cameras and lights moving my vision towards where they would have been facing. My heart sunk into my stomach as I was fixated on the wall. The wall had a large hole, no, it was a shape, an outline of something. Something big, something of random shapes, a collage of mishmash outlines. It was completely random, it made no sense. Whatever was there had long gone.
"Zero mentioned something about a monster... A mysterious Pokemon that destroyed the world. Could it have come from here?" Approaching the hole I noticed there was a gap narrow enough to squeeze through. I hesitated for a moment not knowing what was waiting inside. But with nowhere else to go I made the horrible choice to venture inside. Squeezing through the gap I stumbled forward into a large opening blinded by lights. Covering my face I was startled by the discovery. The crystals I had seen before were different here, I couldn't be certain but they looked to match the ones found in Area Zero down to the shine and gleam. My mouth was wide open as the crystals ran throughout the small cavern into the middle forming a giant crystalised tree.
"Impossible, this can't be possible... terastallizing is only possible in Paldea. This shouldn't exist." I mutter stepping back. "We should leave."
Continuing to walk backwards I felt the ground beginning to shake. Looking up I saw something crawling on the ceiling. A spider-like Pokemon covered in a metallic hue. I had recognised the Pokemon from a TV show I had watched. It was a future Galvantula. Falling back the Paradox Pokemon crashed down ice trickling from its fangs. My eyes widened fixated on this monster as I held Vulpix tightly crawling back.
It roared with rage and anger going straight for me. Protecting Vulpix I turned scurrying to my feet running. I was hit several times by a mixture of electricity and ice taking all the hits protecting Vulpix no matter what. Forcing my way through the gap we came through I felt the future Galvantula snag my leg. Gasping I was pulled back in. With the last of my energy, I tossed Vulpix to safety. "Get out of here Vulpix!"
Turning around I tried reaching for Mimikyu only for frozen webs to snag me holding me in place. I tried escaping to no luck completely open. Looking away I was fearing the worst trying not to cry out in fear my screams were stopped by Vulpix shouting furious. I looked behind me seeing Vulpix had come back and was just standing his ground snowflakes echoing around him.
"N-No... Vulpix run."
The Paradox Galvantula dropped me rushing Vulpix which retaliated with a sudden hailstorm blinding the area. Now free I twirled my Pokeball out. "Mimikyu help Vulpix use Shadow Ball!"
Blasting the Galvantula with a powerful blow was enough to create an opening scooping up Vulpix and recalling Mimikyu getting to safety. Now back in the camp, I kept crawling back seeing the Paradox Galvantula crawling through to attack us. Clenching Vulpix I kept crawling back closing my eyes.
A moment passed as something shook my shoulder. Screaming out I opened my eyes falling on my back and finding myself back outside the Aether House and Gladion watching me keeping his distance. It took me a moment to process what happened as I was still trembling. "We're back? Oh my Arcues we're back!"
"What the hell happened?! You vanished again."
Vulpix curled into my chest just as scared as I took a deep breath shaking my head. "I really don't know, I, I... I saw the end of the world."
"The Aether Paradise can wait, we need to visit the Professor regarding this. If anyone knows what will happen it's him."
****
Sitting up on the Professor's sofa I gripped a cup of Hot Coco letting the steam hit me calming me down. Vulpix hadn't left my side forcing even Zorua to take the floor. She didn't mind too much seeing how much the two of us were shaken up. "I just don't understand, none of this makes sense."
Professor Kukui walked in arms crossed stumped. "Our research isn't matching up, this kind of Ultra Space travel shouldn't be possible. I don't understand but you seem connected to this alternate version of Unova in the future. But why?"
The computer began to ring as Kukui smiled. "Don't worry cousin, if anyone knows what's going on it's the Aether Foundation. Let's see what they have to say."
"Professor, it's good to see you, I hope you have some information for me." I glanced up and saw a young girl on the other screen talking to the Professor.
Professor Kukui nodded as I kept glancing watching the meeting. "I might have something, but first, I have a friend here who wants to ask some questions. He's currently investigating a criminal case he needs help with. Y/N, you're up."
Walking over to the screen my eyes drifted to seeing Zinnia and the girl there... But someone else made my heart skip a beat.
It was me. I was looking at me.
"Wait, what? But... Professor, Y/N, is right here."
"I guess the Sprigatito is out of the bag huh? I was hoping to do this quietly this time, but it cannot be helped."
The feed cut out with the sound of an explosion echoing out. I stepped back dazed. "That was me, how was that me!?"
Gladion took a few steps back gripping his fist tightly looking petrified. "Lillie... Lillie!"
Gladion ran off as Professor Kuki kept trying to get the signal back just as shocked. "They're not responding. Y/N! Go after Gladion, get to the Aether Foundation, and make sure everyone is okay."
"Professor, how was I there!?"
"I don't know Y/N. I don't know, but we don't have time to question such a thing." He responded stepping back. "The Culprit has revealed themselves, we've got to stop them no matter what. Go! Save Lillie and your friend."
Zorua jumped on my shoulder nodding with determination. "Yeah, let's do this Mimi. Let's go and save Zinnia and take down this copycat once and for all!"