The stars shone above Cinnabar in that half-cloudy sky. A strange magenta color glowed briefly between them.
Maybe it was some meteor. The wind gently moved the clouds to the west. That magenta glow again. And suddenly the clouds became spirally deformed at a point to the east. Was it some legendary Pokémon? That spiral of clouds seemed to be approaching the ceiling of the gym. And finally the clouds vanished. The huge sphere of energy with yellow lightning appeared in front of Blaine. She stood in front of him, perhaps recognizing him. That being began to release sparks and thunder in a threatening manner towards Blaine.
-Arcanine, come!...- The flaming dog emerged from its Pokéball and directed a defiant look towards the sphere.
-That's Ash's mystery Pokémon! Why is it out of its Pokéball? - Mystery launched a very powerful jet of water in the direction of Arcanine, who dodged it. He counterattacked with a flamethrower, which Mystery received squarely, and returned it as a beam of ice that encouraged the movement of the canine Pokémon.
-Wow, I don't think he's very good at fighting. Ice attacks don't do much against my Pokémon...- A lightning emanating from Mystery fell at Blaine's feet.
I don't understand... why are you trying to attack us? - Another thundershock came out of Misterio and almost hit the veteran trainer if it weren't for Arcanine intervening to protect him. Recovering from the shock of the electric attack, the fire Pokémon growled angrily, protecting its trainer. Again, strong winds surrounded Mystery, pushing Arcanine back. The floor began to freeze in a completely abnormal way while stalagmites came out of it. The starry sky began to warp grotesquely behind Mystery. And just as it appeared, it went like a bullet towards the sea and was lost beneath its surface.
-What the hell was that...? -Arcanine faithfully leaned over his trainer, sniffing him and licking his hand. That had been a very annoying day and full of stressful emotions. Nothing a good glass of whiskey couldn't fix. He returned as quickly as he could to his house. Arriving and pouring his whiskey, Akibahara flung open the kitchen door. His eyes were wide. He was completely pale:
-I think I'm also going to need a glass of alcohol...This...-
"What do you mean?" His hand shook as he tried to take a sip of his drink.
Both men sat at the table in Blaine's living room. Akibahara bit his lips, as if something was bothering him and disturbing his consciousness.
"This is my fault..." he muttered after taking a light sip of whiskey. - Why did I forget about them? I should have noticed when the Rockets raided my lab...-
"You know my patience is short, Akibahara," Blaine growled, taking a rough sip of his drink.
-You know...five years ago, that young man Ketchum and his friends visited my laboratory and it was destroyed when I showed them my Porygon and Team Rocket came to cause trouble. Well, on that occasion, nothing happened because I took the proper precautions. They were well stored in that database. But this time...the Rockets illegally entered my database in cyberspace to try to find a way to recreate that strange serum... Possibly they released them without knowing what they were doing...-
"Stop wandering around and tell me what happened!" Blaine roared, making an impatient gesture.
-After that they came in person and I told them that I didn't know anything. They destroyed my laboratory again but I managed to escape. I didn't realize it was them until I heard rumors from the trainers stopping at the Seafoam Islands, about a Pokémon that shone like coral...-
Blaine listened intently with wide eyes as he slowly drank his whiskey.
-Not all the Porygons I tried to create were successful. Some...although I managed to make Pokémon aware of their surroundings and themselves, they were physically and energetically unstable. I don't know if Team Rocket has caught any of them during their stay on this island...-
-Did you create them? "I don't understand, why have they come to this island?" Blaine mumbled, turning red as confusion flooded his face.
-Maybe they liked the weather. It must be due to an error in its programming errors. They were failed prototypes that...I never wanted them to come to light. I called them Missigno. Because the Pokédex has no data on them, and you get an error message when identifying them with the sensor. It only appears there that your identification number in the database does not exist. But Blaine, they...they're very dangerous. That young Ketchum...it's a miracle he's still alive after capturing one! Who knows how many more are wandering around this place... - the horror on the scientist's face was more than palpable.
-The first time I got one of them to respond to my interactions and those of other Pokémon, I noticed something very strange. Hours and days after it was in the Pokéball I began to notice how the pens on my desk were multiplying. And it wasn't just that, I started to see things that weren't there. I swore I saw a Voltorb that was hostile towards me in the bathtub, and it really exploded, but I was able to escape... The Pokémon in my lab started acting very erratically and strangely, sometimes violently towards each other, sometimes towards me Sometimes they tried to court plants and chairs or tried to eat inedible objects.
-It took me several days to realize what was happening, when I took it out of its Pokéball, the objects in the room began to float and be thrown in all directions. That was when I realized that he was responsible for all the strange events... - And it was not only that, after a few days I myself began to have terrible hallucinations and strange dreams, it was not until I managed to send him to the virtual world that the delusions gave way.-
-They must be captured immediately and released into that virtual reality environment. Otherwise, they're going to cause real chaos in the real world! I suspect that...the longer they remain next to a trainer or inside a Pokéball, their power to alter reality and the psyche of the human beings around them increases even more...-
"The Rockets shouldn't catch them..." Blaine muttered, barely hiding his frustration. "If they do, it will be much worse than if they have modified Pokémon." Who knows what other strange and terrible powers those Missigno possess.-
-We must go right now to catch as many as we can.- Akibahara stated with a determined shine in his eyes.- I know that they respond well to certain types of bait, we must set a trap for them, only then can we catch them. It's night, so the citizens of Cinnabar won't notice what we're doing.-
That day's tests had ended with Ash. The doctors didn't seem to have found anything strange with him up to that point. The young man was more conscious and swore he didn't feel bad, but it seemed like the doctors were just ignoring him.
"You'll be able to get out of here in two days, young man," the middle-aged psychiatrist who frankly looked tired of dealing with him repeated for the third time.
-This is crazy, how is it possible that they don't allow me to leave? I'm fine, I want to get out of here and continue with my vacation as normal!
-The rules are the rules. "And you must stay another two days," the doctor grumbled, not wanting to continue arguing. Come on boy, go to sleep.
Ash didn't understand. The hallucinations seemed to have disappeared and he felt as good as ever again. But he didn't remember what had happened after he had seen Giovanni's Nidoking in that alley. Did it really merit that mental lapse that they had put him in that place? He returned to the new room where he had been moved hours before, this time it was not a padded room, but an ordinary one for a non-violent mental hospital patient, similar to a hotel room.
He went to sleep reluctantly. He didn't even know where Pikachu was or if he was okay. They had only told him that he was being cared for at the Pokémon center. And Misty, who was still recovering in the general hospital. That vacation was turning out to be the worst of his life. He was just beginning to fall asleep when he saw the familiar glow outside the window. It was Mystery, this time normal size, entering through a crack in the window.
-Mystery, what are you doing here? Have you gotten out of your pokéball, is everything okay with you? - The sphere innocently approached Ash, who wanted to touch it. And a gigantic glow flooded the room. A few minutes later, the firefighters were carrying Ash out of the burning room, while the young man did not stop babbling incoherently and shaking violently. Again the nurses held him and applied a painkiller, taking him to another room along with the rest of the mentally ill patients who were in the rooms in that hallway.