“Heyyyy!” The young PokéManiac waved back at her fellow girlie, quickly closing the distance. She was clad in her Hydreigon Sygna Suit, yet Chomper was nowhere to be seen. “Yep, this is the place. At least that’s what the neighbors said.”

Interdimensional portals were bad news. Fallarbor and its surrounding areas were already susceptible to corrupted droughts thanks to Groudon’s rampage earlier that year, and now, another anomaly had taken root. It was her duty as Minor Gym Leader to ensure the safety of her people.

Andrea saw it first. The same ‘eye’ that had stared at her and MATIAS SILPH back in Area Zero was staring at her once more. “S-so, does any of your books have any info on this?” She nervously asked her historian friend. What lay beyond that rift were horrors beyond their mortal comprehension.

“T-this is kinda exciting! We could be the first humans to fully explore the Distortion World! Let’s go, Mecha-Chomper!” After gaslighting herself into thinking this was a good idea, Andrea mounted her Iron Jugulis, and they boldly went where no man had gone before.

Yuina Higashi

☉

“I’m over here!” Andrea hollered, not too far from the Hisuian expert and her Braviary from another era. Although she was eager to explore this mostly uncharted realm, she knew very well the dangers of straying from the group.

True to its name, the Distortion World was a distorted mess of land structures floating nonsensically in an ever-swirling void. Up was down, and down was up. Waterfalls flowed backwards or even sideways.

Perhaps its most eerie feature was the complete absence of life. Even the Border was known to house the occasional Ghost-type, yet this realm that mocked every known law of physics was truly and utterly desolate.

“Whoa… This feels completely different from the Ultra Wilds!” The enthusiastic PokéManiac remarked in sheer awe. Her Iron Jugulis, on the other hand, showed no emotion on its robotic visages (all three of them).

“Where do we even begin? We should probably find someplace to land first, huh?” Andrea suggested, scanning the vicinity for any platforms that looked large enough to support the weight of two humans without crumbling.

Then again, it was possible that the concept of weight did not exist here.

Yuina Higashi

☉

“A mirror of our own world… I see.” The Minor Gym Leader nodded in understanding, recognizing some of her hometown’s landmarks mixed in with the non-Euclidean geography. “So anything that happens in Hoenn must also affect this world.” She surmised.

Yuina with her Braviary landed on a large, floating island, and Andrea with her Iron Jugulis followed suit. “Something doesn’t add up…” The draconic cosplayer muttered as she dismounted the robotic hydra. “If this world mirrors our own, shouldn’t there be a Mirror Andrea and a Mirror Yuina? Where are all the people? Where are all the Pokémon?”

Suddenly, Mecha-Chomper’s LED face flashed red, its danger sensors going haywire. The futuristic paradox started firing Dragon Pulses left and right, seemingly at nothing.

“Whoa, Mecha-Chomper, what’s wrong?!” Andrea blurted out in shock, trying to restrain the defective machine. “Yuina, I’m getting the heebie-jeebies!”

She could feel it too: That uncanny sensation that they were being watched by someone or something. Yet, its location was impossible to determine. It was everywhere at once, and yet it was nowhere.

Yuina Higashi

☉

Yuina’s warning made restraining the rampaging paradox all the more urgent. “Chomper… I mean Mecha-Chomper, stop!” Andrea yelled, and surprisingly, the machine listened. Its LED display switched back to normal, and it stopped attacking.

However, that did not mean the danger had passed. Far from it. The feeling of unease intensified. The young woman felt chills all over her body. “I… don’t think we’re supposed to be here. It’s like the Ultra Sea all over again.” She muttered.

Indeed, it was faintly similar to the insanity-inducing fear exuded by Eternatus. Was this realm then part of another deity’s body? An even more powerful, more ancient deity?

Yuina Higashi

☉

The eccentric cosplayer crouched on all fours so that she could get a better look at the apparatus strapped around the Braviary’s leg. She did not understand what half those readings meant (despite being something of a self-proclaimed scientist herself), but she could tell it was bad.

“Something very, very powerful? Like a legendary Pokémon?” She supposed it made sense. The Distortion World was rumored to be the home of Dialga and Palkia’s neglected sibling, yet nobody had seen them in years. “Hey, legendary Pokémon! We mean no harm! We just wanna be your friends!” Andrea hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Whoever was in charge of this domain was clearly not interested in their friendship. The world itself seemed to close in on the two trainers, trees and mountains bending inwards as if observed through a fisheye lens. “Uh oh…”

Yuina Higashi

☉

Yuina wouldn’t need to shout twice. Andrea promptly mounted her robotic dragon again, and Flew off the sinking island. The entire world twisted and turned, sucking everything in with the gravitational pull of a black hole, while the girlies were spat out like a bad breakfast.

Landing back in the familiar Route 113, it took a few seconds for the young PokéManiac to recover her bearings. “W-we… we’re back!” She jovially exclaimed, before turning questioningly to her historian friend. “Did you record any useful data on your gizmo?”

Meanwhile, the rift that had taken them to that place they should have never gone to had disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.

Yuina Higashi

☉