A/N: Pray for my toilet. Stomach bugs and the flu are on the rise. Possibly no chapter next week.
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Eight men and women surrounded us. I tapped the button on Tetsu's ball five times. They formed a semi-circle around us, two PokéBalls on each belt. Most wore plain travel clothes. One guy had a nice, buttoned shirt, eyes laser-focused on Lyla. They all wore the same cadmium green pants.
"It's just you three. How are you going to take all of us on?" The man sneered. He released a Cubone. Everyone followed suit, releasing their Pokémon. The small army consisted mostly of Skorupi and Ralts, with one Galarian Mr. Mime. Nautilus put himself between us and the Pokémon. I released Tetsu and Nova.
They weren't dressed the part, but I'd noticed Team Flux used Ralts and Skorupi as well. That they would target a mother and her child after failing to create a full-fledged territory war solidified the entire organization as dangerous and beyond breaking apart. They needed to be dismantled thoroughly. Today, however, I needed to survive a three-versus-sixteen.
"What do you want with her?" I asked, buying more time for someone to get to us.
"Just give us the girl," said the guy in the buttoned shirt. "No need to be dramatic."
"Somehow, I think that wouldn't fly with the League," I responded flatly.
"Dramatic it is," the dude muttered with a sigh. "Attack!"
"Nautilus, Nova, go! Tetsu, protect Lyla and Alex!" I commanded, slipping through the initial attacks. Tetsu used Gravity on the two and grabbed them with a Metal Claw. She kept them close, only using Protect to keep attacks from landing. Nova and Nautilus moved like twins. They knew exactly where the other was and covered each other's backs.
My focus was on the grunts. No matter how good they were, Nova and Nautilus couldn't beat all the Pokémon attacking us. I punched the throat of a grunt, recalling her Pokémon and locking the balls. Another rushed at me, a Ralts in his arms. The Ralts raised her arms and several beams of Psychic Energy collapsed into me. My arms burned and froze, prickling as the pain forced numbness. Unlike the Woobat's attack, however, my arms stayed intact.
The man's eyes widened as I stepped through the attack. I slapped Ralts out of his arms and kicked his knee in, recalling the Ralts and a Skorupi. The other grunts gave me a wide berth, allowing me to scan the battle for a couple of seconds.
Alex and Lyla were still safe. Tetsu was doing a great job using Gravity to get away from attackers and dodge physical projectiles like Pin Missile. She saved Protect for attacks like Confusion or Disarming Voice.
Nova and Nautilus were putting in work. They'd already knocked out six Pokémon, which left six after counting the ones I recalled and locked away. The Galarian Mr. Mime did nothing but tap danced, staying out of the fight entirely. That made me more uneasy, but I wasn't going to waste the chance to take care of the others.
Of course, that was when I noticed something happening under the mime's feet. A layer of ice formed underneath, slowly growing larger. Then, the Galarian Pokémon's eyes flashed and released a massive Ice Beam at Tetsu. She managed a Protect, but it shattered instantly and froze her and her Metal Claws in place.
"Hypnosis!"
"Kay!"
My squid reacted instantly, appearing in front of Galarian Mr. Mime and putting the dancing Pokémon to sleep.
"Aerial Ace, Incinerate!"
Nautilus and Nova switched places. Nautilus weaved between the remaining Ralts and Skorupi with Aerial Ace, targeting whichever was closest to landing an attack on Nova. As he protected her, Nova charged up an Incinerate and blasted Mr. Mime. She didn't let up, even when it woke up and formed an invisible barrier to stop the flames. She used Bite to destroy the barrier and kept up her assault. Soon, it was just Mr. Mime and my two fighters. I ran to Tetsu, pulling out an Ice Heal that came with the first aid kit. I sprayed it all over her frozen skin, which thawed immediately. She shivered as she laid Alex and Lyla down.
"Gah, you fucking annoying asshole! All you had to do was give her to us!" the man in the buttoned shirt barked. At that exact moment, a League Agent showed up next to me.
"Finally here," he muttered, his eyes drinking in the scene.
"Thank Arceus," I sighed. "We were ambushed by-"
My sight went black, and I felt my body fall to the floor before I lost consciousness.
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[Calem POV, Kukui's Lab]
I fanned myself as Kukui and Elio set up the screen. The heat wasn't terrible. Eighty-five degrees and sunny was perfect back in Kalos. My problem was the humidity. Alola was much more humid than the other regions. Only Hoenn's summers were worse, but no one, not even Hoenn natives, liked Hoenn summers. Kukui and Elio were enjoying a Pokémon battle when he arrived, and they weren't even sweating.
"Alright, sorry, Calem," Kukui said. "I need to replace the cables."
"You need to replace everything!" Elio responded, his face scrunched up in frustration. "I've been telling you for the last four years that your equipment is out of date. Even Johto is more advanced!"
"No need to be rude," the muscular professor chided Alola's Champion. "Anyway, here's what we have."
He clicked through a series of slides with equations and diagrams too complicated for anyone but him and his wife to understand. Well, maybe Paldea's professors could understand it as well, but he still hadn't met them.
Finally, Kukui stopped on a slide with a diagram of the Ultra Wormholes. It looked like a tunnel, or a pipe. "You know how Ultra Wormholes work, correct?"
"Can't say that I do," I replied, grimacing. He was about to launch into a boringly detailed explanation.
"No time for something in-depth," Elio interrupted. "Basically, Infinity Energy is twisted and condensed until it creates a dimensional rift, which opens into an Ultra Wormhole."
"Thank you."
"Well, that's woefully underselling it, but yes," Kukui said. "Normally, an Ultra Wormhole connects our dimension to the dimension of whatever opens it. Most Pokémon and Ultra Beasts can't do it, but Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma can. We believe Palkia, Hoopa, Giratina, and Arceus can also, but that's yet to be studied. It's a two-way connection, but only for the dimensions involved."
"Okay, I'm following," I said. I felt my face tighten. I didn't like how he said that last part.
"Elio had a conversation with Necrozma, Solgaleo, and Lunala a while back," Kukui continued. "I managed to create a device that maps out the Ultra Wormhole while he did, giving us a way to map interdimensional travel."
"That sounds extremely complicated, enlightening, and terrifying," I told him. Mapping out the dimensions was… I didn't want to think about what we could do with that information.
"Yes, and I wanted to test it again since it doesn't matter if it only worked the one time. That's why we asked if we could do that experiment in Santalune Forest last week."
Kukui changed the slide, showing two separate wormholes colliding and fusing into one giant interdimensional tunnel. The blood drained from my face, and I felt a migraine forming.
"Solgaleo and Lunala found traces of an Ultra Wormhole opening. They went in, and we mapped it out. We found the wormhole split into two. Neither led to Ultra Space."
"Where did they lead to?"
"We… We don't know," Kukui admitted. "Elio reported that Arceus stopped them from continuing to investigate."
My body went numb. I stared at the diagram, and then I saw myself staring at the computer. Kukui and Elio both moved closer to me. I saw their lips move, but I didn't hear anything until Kukui sat me down.
"Calem! Are you okay?" he practically shouted, concern etched over both of their faces.
"I think I dissociated for a moment there," I stated. "That's two unknown dimensions, with unknown entities of unknown power."
"Not exactly," Elio said. My head snapped toward him. "The area we were in… It was the exact same place as Marco Pérez. There's a high chance that Marco came from one of those wormholes. If he did, then we know one of those dimensions isn't too different from ours. The other…"
"What's with the other one?" I asked, though I honestly didn't want to learn more."
Elio looked at me, and I could see him struggling to say what he wanted to. "The other wormhole… Well, Lunala told me he sensed extremely malevolent emotions emanating from it. He also said Arceus told him to avoid the dimension unless he wanted his soul corrupted and twisted into something dark and vile."
His words hit me like a Psywave.
"Fuck."