Many years ago, after the battle between two Deoxys and Rayquaza, after Rayquaza blew both of the aliens apart and literally ripped them into shreds, you already know what happened to their cores. But what about the rest of their bodies that were torn off?
Since Deoxys regenerates, it doesn't exactly pull that extra DNA back to itself. If it could, then it wouldn't have been dormant for so long. Instead, we need to look back at where the battle took place.
Yes, we know it happened in space, but one key detail is that it was over Hoenn, specifically above Mossdeep City.
The pieces of Deoxys fell onto the people of Mossdeep City. Since these were such small fragments of Deoxys DNA, and Deoxys itself was already extremely weakened, when it touched humans, their natural immune systems fought it off before anything could happen.
As for Pokémon, since this was such a weak strain, it simply gave them all Pokérus. Nothing bad happened immediately. Most people didn't even know it affected humans as well, since no one showed symptoms. So people began calling this day the "Delta Incident," since many Pokémon were given this rare virus that made them stronger.
However, there was one group that wasn't accounted for: the weak and the elderly, whose immune systems were too fragile to fight off the invading DNA. It didn't show up at first, just small fevers and maybe some minor effects, but nothing major. No one thought it was anything unusual.
But then, almost a year later, the new virus began affecting them more severely. With time to regain strength, the DNA caused the sick and elderly to develop what they could only describe as "tainted" DNA.
Shortly after, these people fell into comas, and no one was truly able to fight it off. The virus either left them too weak to function, or they died because their bodies could no longer fight off other illnesses.
In fact, have you ever wondered what happened to Tate and Liza's parents, and why they weren't involved when Liza went missing? They also died due to this virus, or more accurately, they died from other illnesses their bodies had lost the ability to resist.
The tainted DNA isn't harmful in nature, and that's why no one was able to find a cure. They couldn't identify its symptoms in time before it was too late, and it wasn't even contagious.
Today, there is only one infected patient left. That man's name is Malde, and he's only been kept alive thanks to his daughter, Harmony, who works as a doctor. She transferred him to LaRousse's medical facility, where she also became the director, which has more advanced treatment options. Even so, he hasn't woken up, only survived in a coma.
And that is Colress's target, the reason he was running through town. Normally, he wouldn't be able to access Malde. He is kept in a sealed room, and Harmony is the only one who has the key, and she wouldn't just give it to him.
So what if he made her have no choice but to do what he says? Then he could begin his experiment. And it's not like he's doing something bad, based on Colress's calculations, there's actually a high likelihood this could save Malde and grant him a kind of immortality.
Just thinking about the results made Colress want to salivate. He glanced at his watch, tapping his foot impatiently.
Ten minutes.
That's how much longer he had to wait. Now, it was time for him to make his move.
–
{Meanwhile with Ash}
Ash found Nora near the Battle Dome, sitting alone at the edge of one of the moving walkways, her hood up and her arms wrapped around her knees.
Even with all the futuristic noise of LaRousse around them, the hum of conveyor belts, the chatter of hologram ads, the distant sound of machinery, she still somehow looked isolated from everything else.
Ash slowed to a stop in front of her, looking down at her with his hands on his hips.
Nora looked up when his shoes entered her vision, and the moment she realized it was him, her shoulders relaxed just a little.
"You got here fast," she muttered.
Ash shrugged, "You sounded stressed."
"I am stressed."
"Yeah, I noticed."
That got the tiniest snort out of her.
Ash sat down beside her on the edge of the walkway railing while Pikachu and Vee hopped up beside him.
Nora stared down at her hands, "Did Damian answer you again?"
"I didn't call him yet. I thought you said he was with you."
"Well...when I said he was with me, it was more like I know where he is, but we didn't talk," Nora admitted.
"Ah, favors," Ash sighed, "Things can't ever be simple, huh?"
"Guess not…" Nora muttered.
Ash sighed one more time and looked up at the sky, leaning against the railing, "…You really think that prophecy is true?" he finally asked.
Nora hesitated, "I don't know," she admitted quietly, "I know you said not to trust it, but...what if it is? What if one of us actually does betray everyone someday?"
"Nora, people who are going to betray everyone usually don't spend this much time panicking over whether or not they're secretly evil."
"That is not comforting."
"It should be."
"It really isn't."
Ash snorted softly.
Nora looked over at him after a moment, "…You really trust Damian that much?"
"Yeah."
"And me?"
Ash gave her a look, "Nora, you literally called me crying because you felt bad after accusing him."
Nora blinked and looked down, "Okay, when you say it out loud, it sounds kinda dumb."
"Because it is dumb."
Nora lightly kicked his leg, "You suck at emotional support."
"And yet you called me."
"…Fair."
Nora sighed and pulled her hood down. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly before glancing away, "He's over near the trainer district."
Ash raised an eyebrow, "You just left him there?"
"I needed a minute!" Nora defended immediately, "And he needed one too."
"Uh huh."
"I'm serious!"
Ash stood up with a grin before offering her a hand, "C'mon. It's about time all of us actually talk instead of dancing around this whole thing."
Nora stared at his hand for a second before taking it with a sigh, "This is going to suck."
"Probably," Ash said as he pulled her up to her feet.
"You are unbelievably bad at making people feel better."
"And yet I'm still everyone's favorite."
And so Ash basically dragged Nora along behind him, and she stumbled to keep up. Eventually, they got to the trainer district, and Ash spotted Damian leaning against the railing near one of the city's massive elevator platforms, overlooking the lower districts.
He noticed them almost immediately. And the second his eyes landed on Nora, his expression fell, and he looked down.
"…Hey," Nora said awkwardly.
Damian looked away again, "Hey."
Ash walked right between them before the awkward silence could kill somebody, "Alright, this is getting annoying."
Damian blinked, "What?"
"You two." Ash pointed between them, "Can we just talk like normal people for five minutes, please?"
Nora folded her arms, "I said I was sorry."
"And I said I got it," Damian replied.
"But you're still mad."
"I'm not mad...just...upset," Damian admitted as he looked at Nora, "Because you thought I'd actually betray everyone."
Nora immediately looked guilty again, "…Yeah…"
She scratched her arm, "I didn't want to," Nora said quickly, "I was scared."
"I know," Damian said.
But Nora kept talking, faster this time, "And the prophecy was already messing with my head, and then everyone kept acting weird, and—"
"I know," Damian repeated.
Nora stared at him for a moment before finally mumbling, "…I really am awful at this."
"Everyone is," Ash said immediately.
Nora kicked him again.
"Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you to make up so we can go on, live our lives, and get ice cream," Ash said, "But what I am saying is that no one is perfect. And maybe we can't figure out everything that's going to happen, with the prophecy, the stupid bad guys, all of it."
"But one thing we can choose to do is trust each other. So...are you guys willing to try, with me? Because I trust you both. And I'd like it if you could believe in me, the guy who believes in you."
He looked between them, "What do you say? Can we try to talk this out?"
Damian and Nora looked at Ash for a second. Then, slowly, they looked at each other. Their expressions were complicated. Just as they were about to give Ash their answer everything stopped.
The moving sidewalks beneath them jerked violently before grinding to a halt. The holograms flickered, and the lights across the surrounding buildings blinked once, then suddenly, everything went out.
All the power was gone.
And with it, the small square robots in the sky lost power and began to fall, crashing against the ground. Panic spread as people started running for shelter, trying not to get hit by the falling machines.
Before any of them could react, a loud alarm suddenly began blaring across the city.
WARNING.
WARNING.
EMERGENCY POWER FAILURE DETECTED.
Ash cursed under his breath and looked around. He saw the hospital, but he also spotted the lab in the other direction.
Ash bit his lower lip. He had a feeling he knew what was going on. If this was similar to the Deoxys incident, then something was going wrong there, meaning he needed to get to the lab. But there was also the matter of the hospital. Since Nora and Damian were here, there was a chance that that was happening. So he needed to make sure Damian went nowhere near there, so the incident didn't happen.
But just not going wasn't good enough. Ash clicked his tongue and looked at Nora and Damian, "I don't know what's going on, but we need to find out. I'll go to the hospital, you guys run to the research center!"
"Wait, but-" Nora started to say something, but Ash cut her off.
"We don't have time to argue about it. Just go," Ash said.
Nora was about to protest again, but Damian nodded, "Alright, we can try."
Ash nodded, "Good. Thanks, and listen to me."
Suddenly, he put his hands on Damian's shoulders, and the atmosphere seemed to grow colder as Ash looked him directly in the eyes.
"Don't go to the hospital," he said in the most serious voice anyone had ever heard from him.
Then Ash let go, turned, and began running through the town toward the hospital as fast as he could, followed by Pikachu and Vee.
Damian watched him go, still in shock. Nora did too, but she took a breath and put a hand on Damian's shoulder, "Let's go."
Damian nodded, and they started moving.
Meanwhile, Ash kept running. As he did, he grabbed his phone and called Brock's number first, but it rang three times and went unanswered. Dang it. He hung up and called May. She picked up on the second ring.
"Ash? Where are you?!" May's voice came through.
"I'm running through town, not important. How are you guys? And where's Brock?" Ash asked as he jumped over a railing and rushed through the streets.
"Brock's helping some people get to safety. Some people got locked out of buildings," May explained.
"Good. Stay safe there too. I'm trying to figure out what's going on," Ash said. Then he paused, thinking, before remembering something, "Get people to areas with the least amount of technology, over by the docks at least, until the power's back."
Being in an area like this when it loses power is actually very dangerous. You don't know what was relying on that power to stay up. Maybe a building won't collapse, but the robots still falling could hit something else and break it. Then, when the power comes back, that becomes a huge hazard.
And what's worse, if you're wondering why Ash hasn't thrown out a Poké Ball, it's because, without power, the electromagnetic lock system on Poké Balls can't open. So Ash is stuck with only Pikachu and Vee. And anyone who didn't already have their Pokémon out...well, too bad.
"I—okay, I can try, but what about you? Where are you?" May tried asking again.
"All you need to know is I'm safe, and I'm going to try and fix this. So get everyone to safety," Ash said, hanging up before May could object.
He kept moving, and he saw the hospital, but then suddenly something strange happened. The power came back on. Of course, the robots that had fallen from the sky were now sparking, damaged, and a hazard that would need to be cleaned up before people could safely walk on the roads again, but the power was back.
That only made Ash feel worse. He didn't slow down. He kept running toward the hospital, which was so close now.
—
{A few minutes earlier, in the seconds leading to the power outage}
In the lab, an assistant called out to Professor Lund, "The machine is ready, sir, ready to start on your order."
Professor Lund nodded and looked at Deoxys, "Do it."
The assistant pressed the button, and the machine started sparking again. Then it fired a laser at Deoxys's core, lighting up the entire room.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the core started absorbing the energy. Everyone watched it carefully, looking excited, until Lund raised his hand, gesturing for them to stop the laser.
But when the assistant pressed the button to stop it, nothing happened. The laser kept going. He pressed it again, and again, three or four more times, but nothing changed.
"Sir, it's not working!" the assistant shouted.
Lund's eyes widened as he ran over to the terminal and tried it himself, but just like the assistant said, nothing happened. The laser kept firing.
Suddenly, the lights in the lab started flickering. One of the assistants looked outside to see if it was happening there too, and to everyone's shock, the entire town was in a blackout. It was like all the power in the city was being redirected into the lab, then fired into the core and absorbed.
"Find a way to turn this thing off!" Lund shouted, and everyone scrambled, searching for any way to shut the machine down. Meanwhile, Lund looked outside in panic. This was bad, if there was no power anywhere else, people were in danger.
"Can we call anyone?" Lund asked. But Yuko was already trying, and getting nothing.
"No, the town's signal is out too," Yuko said, clearly shaken.
Lund clenched his fists, then sat down at the master terminal and started typing, "Come on, we need to stop this before it's too late!"
As for what was preventing them from shutting the laser off, remember the virus Colress had placed in the system that gave him master control. He had locked them out, making it impossible to stop the machine. Because of that, the city's power was being completely redirected into the lab.
Colress smiled as he walked through the hospital. Around him, doctors were panicking, trying to move patients and keep them alive. Without power, many were in serious danger, relying on advanced equipment that had suddenly failed.
Since everyone was too preoccupied, he managed to walk right in. His trench coat hid his face as he moved through the hospital halls, scanning his surroundings. He had studied the layout beforehand, so the lack of lighting didn't slow him down.
Soon, he reached the place he had been looking for, the room housing the hospital's main generator.
Inside, someone was already there.
Harmony.
She stood at the control panel, frantically flipping the generator switch up and down.
"Come on, come on, why won't you work?!" Harmony said, panic rising in her voice.
"Oh, that's not going to work," Colress said calmly, using a voice changer to disguise himself, "However...I can turn the power back on."
Harmony immediately turned and saw a man standing in the shadows, "Who are you? Did you do this?" she demanded.
"Yes," Colress said through his voice changer, "I did. But I can turn the power back on. All I want is to make a deal with you."
"You run the hospital, right? So you have access to all the restricted rooms," Colress continued, "All I want is access to one. I want Malde."
Harmony's eyes widened, but she quickly hardened them, "That's my father's room. There's no chance I'm letting you near him!"
"Oh, I know. But actually, I have your father's best interests at heart. I also know he's sick. He's been in a coma for quite a while, hasn't he? I know what he has," Colress said, and that made Harmony fall silent. So he continued, "Why don't we help each other, and we can both get what we want?"
He held up a control, "I can bring the power back, but only if you agree. Choose quickly. If you don't, patients will start dying."
That wasn't a threat. Harmony knew that without power, the patients in critical condition would die.
Harmony cursed under her breath but relented, "Fine. Whatever. Just hurry up, people's lives are at stake."
Colress smiled, knowing everything was going according to plan. He pressed the button, and back in the lab, the laser finally stopped, but it was too late.
"Oh, and if you try to betray me, I can turn the power off at any time. And next time, I won't be as merciful," Colress added before walking ahead, "Now come on, to your father's room. Remember our deal."
Harmony clenched her fists but followed, guiding him up to the top floor. She stopped at one of the restricted rooms and entered her code, opening it. On the way up, she tried to get a look at him, but he kept his face covered.
When they entered, they saw Malde lying on the bed, breathing slowly. Colress looked at him and nodded, confirming what he suspected. Then he walked to a nearby desk and began unlocking it.
"So what is it you want? Do you have some 'magical cure'?" Harmony asked in an exaggerated tone.
"Simple. We just need to inject him with this."
Colress opened the case. Inside were multiple needles. His finger traced over them until he found the one he wanted and pulled it out. The syringe contained a thick, purple substance, almost like syrup.
"Are you crazy?! I don't care how desperate I am, I'm not going to let you inject some weird chemical into his bloodstream!" Harmony immediately stepped in front of Malde's bed.
"You're a psychopath. I won't let you touch him, or any other patient here," she said, her hand slowly moving toward her Poké Ball belt.
But it was an empty threat, and Colress knew it. The lock system hadn't had enough time to reset.
"Fine, then. You do it."
Colress held out the syringe. He stepped forward and placed it into Harmony's very confused hands.
"Analyze it. Do whatever you need to convince yourself it's safe."
Harmony's mouth fell open, but she quickly closed it and puffed up her chest, trying to look unbothered.
"Fine. Maybe I will!"
She went to the desk, and since this was a private room, there was already medical equipment inside. She took a small sample of the liquid from the vial and tested it.
Then she nearly dropped it when she saw the results, "Hold on, this is just Pokérus?!"
She stared at it, "This isn't dangerous. We've known about it for years." But she was also confused. This wasn't the first time someone had tried to inject Pokérus into a human, and every time, the human body simply fought it off. It had no effect on humans.
"Exactly. However, your father was affected by that strange disease years ago. His DNA is different, meaning he doesn't react the same way we do to other viruses, but you already know that," Colress explained.
"The strain of Pokérus you have in your hand is one that specifically increases HP in a Pokémon. Although it doesn't affect humans, it might affect your father, and it could cure him. It may even lengthen his lifespan. With a bit of tweaking, we might even be able to reach immortality in this lifetime."
Harmony was stunned. She still didn't trust him, "I...how do I know you're not lying?"
"You don't," Colress said simply, "You want your father healed, and I want to further my research. You can treat this merely as a business transaction."
Harmony looked down. Logically, she should smash the vial right now and tell him to go to hell, but it had been years, and she was desperate.
"Fine...I'm willing to try. But I swear, if you double-cross me, I'll-" She didn't even get to finish.
"Glad to hear it. Now, if you will…" Colress gestured toward Malde.
Harmony walked up to the bed, "Let's just get this over with." She stood over Malde and took a breath, "Hang in there, Dad…"
She injected him with the vial, pushing the plunger down and letting the substance enter his bloodstream. When she pulled the needle back, she took a step away.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Harmony looked down, "I don't think it—"
But then Malde stirred. Slowly, he sat up in bed, though his eyes remained closed. Relief flooded through her, and she quickly moved around the bed to hug him, but Colress placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, "Wait a moment."
Harmony was about to snap at him, but then Malde's eyes suddenly shot open. One was red, and the other was purple.
He doubled over, letting out strange, unnatural noises.
Then, right before their eyes, his left arm began to mutate, stretching outward before splitting apart like he lost the bones in his arm, forming two writhing tentacles. His right leg twisted and grew into something else, there wasn't a foot, just a full, blackened leg.
And his face, when he lifted his head, half of it was covered in a red-and-blue mass. Colress noted that it looked a lot like Deoxys.
Harmony, however, recoiled in horror, "OH MY ARCEUS WHAT THE FU—"
Her shout made Malde's head snap toward her, his eyes narrowing.
Harmony instinctively stepped back, fear gripping her chest.
Malde tensed, about to strike, but then he suddenly froze.
He tilted his head upward, as if sensing something above. Then he turned.
With one violent swing of his mutated arm, he struck the wall. The impact blasted it apart, sending chunks of debris crashing down into the street below.
Thankfully, most people had already taken shelter, otherwise, someone would have been killed.
Then Malde walked out through the hole. They were multiple stories up at the top of the hospital, so a fall like that should have killed him. But the moment he stepped off, he began to float...and then he flew, rising into the sky in the direction of the lab.
Harmony stood there, completely dumbfounded, then immediately turned to Colress, "What have you done?! This is all your fault!"
Colress, however, looked completely unbothered, "Things didn't go as planned. However, I still got my breakthrough. If he really is immortal now, I'm sure we can find a way to use it without the transformation."
Harmony looked like she wanted to punch him, "You experimented on a comatose patient and turned him into a monster!"
"I proposed a treatment. You administered it yourself."
Harmony froze.
Colress tilted his head slightly, "And notably, your father woke up after years of inactivity. That alone is extraordinary."
"That thing isn't my father anymore!"
"We don't know that yet," Colress answered calmly, "Besides, if your father is immortal now, you'll have plenty of time to find him yourself."
Then he simply started walking toward the doorway.
Harmony stared at him in disbelief, "That's it?! You're just leaving?!"
Colress paused near the destroyed wall, the wind from outside tugging at his coat.
"Well, yes. I got what I wanted, so I have no reason to stay."
"You caused this!"
"And now I have data." Colress tapped the side of his glasses, "Which means this outing was productive."
Harmony's eye twitched violently, "You—"
He gave a small, polite nod, "Thank you for your cooperation, Director Harmony."
Harmony stood there, completely speechless for about three seconds. Then she shouted, "YOU ABSOLUTE PSYCHOPATH!" She grabbed a clipboard and hurled it at him.
Colress calmly sidestepped without even turning around, the clipboard flying out through the broken wall.
Then he pressed a button on one of his devices and pulled out a Poké Ball, "I'll take my leave now. I must observe more data."
He threw the Poké Ball, and a Beheeyem emerged. Colress stepped onto its head, and it lifted him into the air, carrying him out through the hole in the wall and into the sky.
And the reason he could use his while no one else could? He had his own personal system. He came prepared for this, he'd be a fool if he couldn't manage that much.
—
Meanwhile, back at the lab, when the laser finally stopped, all the scientists and assistants thought they had done it, they had managed to shut it down. Everyone began to relax.
However, they didn't realize it was too late. Deoxys had already gathered enough energy and was now back at full power.
After so long, Deoxys slowly opened its eyes and looked around the facility it was in.
It was strapped down to a table with metal restraints, surrounded by scientists, but in its mind, there was only one thought: it had to find the second Deoxys.
With a small amount of effort, the restraints snapped like twigs. Deoxys began to float, and that's when everyone noticed. Deoxys was free.
It looked over all of them, its gaze narrowing.
Then, suddenly, the glass dome surrounding the research center shattered from the outside with a violent explosion. Deoxys shot out into the open sky and hovered there, scanning the area.
It looked down over the town, but it couldn't find the specific electromagnetic signature it was searching for.
Then its head snapped toward the sea, where it sensed something approaching, multiple electromagnetic signatures. Maybe one of them was what it was looking for.
Its next target was clear. It was going after the approaching boat.
And on that boat, standing right at the front, looking out over the water, was Green. Her brown hair flowed freely in the wind, and she wore her usual cheeky smile. She had no idea what was about to happen