CREATION CHRONICLES

chapter one: space

everything has a beginning. time, space, creation...

and the beginning of her research starts in childhood. myths, legends, stories read to lure her into slumber. they cling stubbornly to the brain. where science should be, mythology lies. it festers, grows with age.

enter hoenn and the opportunities it brings...

her second tenure as a head scientist manifests childhood fantasies into reality. mew, the mother of pokemon. and now, the legend of creation... it feels close to her fingertips, more tangible than ever before.

the scene opens now: a head bent over a book, pale hair spilling over a scarred shoulder. she reads and reads and reads until dusk creeps into night and night creeps into dawn.

she's found small pieces for the puzzle...

In the beginning, there was only a churning turmoil of chaos.
At the heart of chaos, where all things became one, appeared an Egg.
Having tumbled from the vortex, the Egg gave rise to the Original One.
From itself, two beings the Original One did make.
Time started to spin. Space began to expand.

chaos. egg. original one.
time. space. matter.

the legend of creation is second nature for sinnohians. and yet, she looks to occurrences in hoenn for answers to questions she cannot forget.

desolate land. primal crystal.
sootopolis. unowns. soiree.
dimensions. time and space.

it's all a jumble, that she knows... but there's something about the first aqua assembly she refers back to. the instability, the shuddering structure of the crystal itself. the connection between the deceased champion and the crystal doesn't lend itself to spatial disarray. no, that's not it. and she only knows of one being that could be a possible answer:

palkia. the god of space.

it opens more questions than provides any answers but it's a start. and with a start... hope.

an eevee finally climbs up onto her lap. the mewl that follows speaks of sleep, speaks of attention. and she cannot deny the alluring summoning of rest. with a soft sigh, illeana closes the open tome and writes down a quick note.

to do:
- return to eterna city for clues
- return to mt. chimney
- experiment with unowns and distortions
- find assistance.

and when she dreams... she sees the manifestations of her wishes, her desires, her hopes. each one is draconic. each one is almighty. each one is a god.

CREATION CHRONICLES

chapter two: time

the concept of time is rooted in realism, in the notion all continues outside the realms of the human mind. it exists, it flows, it breathes. some even say time's steady river pulses along like a heartbeat.

and in the legends of old, in the myths of sinnoh... that heartbeat flows from a god.

dialga. the god of time.

she's poured herself into countless passages. days spanning into weeks and weeks into months. such is the very concept she looks to understand, the very god she wishes to find.

time flows forward. it is unforgiving, unrelenting, unyielding.
time stops for no one, not even its god.

and in the past, in the carcasses left behind by time's wake... she finds little clues of information.

the almighty sinnoh. the original?
perhaps...

she finds an old tale woven into dusty pages on one particular day, when her ghosts are all causing havoc inside the house and she's so distracted she almost misses it. they quell as she stills, as she gasps. and when phantom forces settle with curious, blinking eyes... does she begin to read aloud.

"give not into sorrow. give not into anger. offer only friendship to those around you.
give not into sorrow. give not into anger. bring not almighty sinnoh to sorrow. for that is when time's flow will cease."

it leaves her confused, grasping at straws she doesn't quite see.

time's flow... will cease...

she thinks of the rumors she's heard, of the story FERNANDO SILPH told in the grassy parks of eterna city in front of a statue bearing resemblance to... something. timelines altered, timelines revisited. for what purpose, she does not know.

thoughts shift, thoughts stir. and in them, she finds more pieces to a puzzle she only dreams of one day solving.

groudon and mount chimney. the events of this day still cling with stubborn persistence in the mind. they had been buried beneath the existence of sea hoenn but they always resurface, always with a vengeance.

the present. the past.
colliding.

she had a theory then, even with the harshest heat of an artificial sun beating down on her skin. perhaps... she had been right, after all.

time ebbs, time flows. it does not go backward without purpose, without tampering.

the notion, along with the small passage of hymn from an old dusty tome, is written down in her growing notes. there it sits, there it waits. eventually, if she's lucky... it'll all come together.

for now, she heaves out a tired sigh and quickly goes over her schedule for the week. tomorrow, she meets with Felix Gallagher to begin the hunt for more. after that, it's more and more of the same: days spent in a lab and nights spent devouring any information on the matter that she can.

finally, she glances at the clock. it ticks, it tocks. and she falls asleep to the steady rhythm, to the steady heartbeat of time and its god.

CREATION CHRONICLES

chapter three: original

in the beginning, there was nothing. and then... an egg.

all counts of creation are rooted in the concept of nothingness bleeding into being. and perhaps, in some way, there is solace in that notion. to become something out of nothing is an incredible feat.

the beginning speaks of a giant chaos, of nothing and everything clashing in primordial existence. from the chaos emerges an egg. some could say a phoenix, others a fable.

she says the original god.

from the original one forms the universe. one thousand arms shape the world, shape existence, shape fate. and from this god springs two beings to continue creation, to continue balance.

and balance, as all things do, comes with a price.

the original one creates
from it three beings.

balance and order, control and power. they have roots in every story, every myth passed down through generations. it's her belief-- no, her vow -- this myth holds solid foundation in hoenn's present day. even here, even now... so far away from sinnoh, she feels the weight of creation's beginning in unfolding events.

harmony does not come easily. it is not as natural as one believes. it is hammered into society, into being, with shaking hands stained of blood and held there with a loose grip. it's a feeble thing, this harmony. one small tip in the scales and the universe is thrown out of balance.

and what would the original one
do when its creations are unbalanced?
restore.

the price is war, famine, pestilence, death. four horsemen sent into the world to right wrongs, to restore balance. she's heard one, seen its involvement in the events with groudon's rampage and the flow of time ebbing into the past to rewrite mistakes in the present. she's listened to the stories of the other, seen bits and pieces of its appearance in the world. things warped away, a primal crystal shuddering in and out of existence as if it's cursed to be banished from this plane.

and every night, in the dark of a room...
she prays to see them just once.

she is, however, not as well versed in the ways of the original god as the church of arceus is. they worship and worship until their throats bleed from cutting hymns spoken into the beyond. and sometimes she wonders if the original one even hears them at all?

does the original one...
no. arceus...
does the beginning, the father, the holy, the creator hear her prayers?

there is no answer for the question asked. and maybe, if she's ever lucky enough to take all of her chaos and turn it into success, creation, existence just as the original one has... she'll be able to ask.

the ancient tome in front of her is slowly shut and left to be poured over tomorrow and the next day and the one after that until she finds reason, success, power, creation.

CREATION CHRONICLES

interlude: act one

she stares and the reflection stares back.

she expects it to morph, to twist into an ugly visage. perhaps it'd almost make her feel better...

but nothing changes.

she blinks and resumes cleaning sea hoennian blood from her cheek.

the next week... she begins therapy.

"do you know why you're here?"

a sigh escapes. she looks exhausted, barely there.

"i've been told i'm not myself."

the man's face doesn't shift. it stays painfully still. she adds it to the list of things she dislikes.

"by who?"

everyone isn't a good answer.

"FERNANDO SILPH , Greyson Connors ... i'm sure Eva Morales , GABRIEL BLACK , and dahlia goode would agree with the assessment."

the man's pen moves and she expects he's writing names.

"well... do you agree with their assessment of you?"

no... no, she doesn't.

"not particularly."

he stares. she stares right back, chin rising slightly.

"why?"

she scoffs, arms crossing in annoyance.

"there's bigger things to worry about than me."

he writes that down. she's certain of it.

"you're important too, though, miss reyes."

more important than the end of times? a laughable concept.

her lips twitch upward but don't quite show teeth. not yet.

"your job must be quite stressful."

not as bad as the others. compared to them, she has little responsibility.

the man continues, open notebook resting in his lap. she can't see the scribbled notes and it frustrates her.

"not to mention dangerous. your file mentions near death experiences in the littleroot and sootopolis incidents as well as the ultra beast war?"

she stays silent.

"there's also... a classified incident and your recent capture at the hands of team rocket."

what's his point?

her eyes narrow, looking for the motive.

she finds nothing.

"let's start with the ultra beast war."

fuck.

"i kept an entire squad of league operatives alive at meteor falls."

his pen resumes scribbling. he says nothing and she takes it as a cue to continue.

"i lost my avatarship right after and left to recover in sinnoh."

his pen stills. his eyes look up and they meet hers.

"i'm sorry to hear that, miss reyes."

she shivers. he continues.

"how do you feel about the war now?"

her face becomes unreadable.

and softly, her voice rises.

"resentful."

"why?"

"it cost me everything."

A STUDY INTO GENETICS:

What Pokemon DNA Holds
publication by Illeana Reyes,
League Head Scientist

Despite Pokemon existing for as long as history remembers, there is still much we do not understand about them. Some things, such as personality and temperament, we can attribute to the domestication of Pokemon… but what of the differences we cannot see?

These variances exhibit themselves in a plethora of different ways, from the color of a Pokemon to the way it grows stronger than another member of its species. To understand such a concept, it is important to take a closer look at what makes up a Pokemon.

Genetic sequences lend themselves to providing endless possibilities for appearance, size, weight, even health. For Pokemon, however, we have only seen a handful of possible outcomes for the species we know. It is entirely possible that we have only just begun to scratch the surface of what Pokemon genetics truly hold.

It is with that purpose in mind that I wrote this article, providing a look into carefully researched cases in which we uncovered the answers to some mysteries of Pokemon.

SHINY

It is, truthfully, difficult to pinpoint where the shiny phenomena of Pokemon originated. Is it due to a specific mixture of genes? Is it simply chance?

By comparing multiple samples of the same species, the answer is clear: it is both.

The shiny gene reveals itself in 1 of 8192 Pokemon. By this math, it is a rare gene composition passed down through the generational lines of Pokemon.

Genes, however, do not always show in the same manner. Dominant genes take precedent over recessive genes. This is not to say that a recessive gene is buried beneath a dominant gene. Instead, this lends itself to the concept that a recessive gene like the one found in shiny variants of Pokemon requires a precise combination to reveal itself. For instance, two Pokemon from the same clutch of eggs can look entirely normal yet still carry the shiny gene within them.

So how exactly does the shiny gene reveal itself in the Pokemon around us? Is there a way to know which Pokemon have a better genetic makeup to produce shiny variant offspring? At the moment, there is no way to know for certain whether one Pokemon has a higher chance to produce shiny offspring over another. By looking closer into where the shiny gene sits within the double-helix structure of DNA of Pokemon who are carriers, it is possible to understand further where the gene can become overshadowed by other, more prominent genes.

REGIONAL

Two Pokemon of the same species can have different sets of DNA based upon the environmental and generational factors their ancestors were exposed to. For instance, the Alolan Ninetales not only looks genetically different from that of the Kantoian Ninetales, but both variants of the Ninetales species have different typings.

While the climate of both regions is more beneficial for the evolutionary development of the Kantoian Ninetales, the Alolan variant of this species has genetically adapted to harsh environments through the trials and tribulations of multiple generations.

Another example is the Alolan version of Exeggutor, which benefited from the warm tropical climate of Alola. The climate Pokemon develop in can, in some instances, lead to a beneficial altering of their genetic makeup. Continuing with the Exeggutor line’s flourishment in Alola, we have seen a change in their typing as well. The growth of Exeggutor allows for the awakening of power stored within the cells. As Alolan Exeggutors grow through generations, their reliance on their psychic typing becomes close to obsolete. In the place of a psychic typing comes a dragon typing, which many believe to be the awakening of their true power.

Regional variants are, in most instances, a classic example of nature forcing the genetic structure of Pokemon to adapt to the environment. It proves that evolution is constantly ongoing through multiple generations, never ceasing in transcending beyond what we currently know.

DISTORTION VARIANT

Recently, the emergence of Space-Time Distortions has unearthed a new discovery for scientists in Hoenn. As discussed in Eva Morales ’s publication (2022) of an unknown variant of Electrode, the genetic makeup of some Pokemon becomes altered when exposed to the energy held within distortions. While an official name of these variants is not yet available at the time of this publication, scientists are certain they are their own specific variant.

Different from regional variants we currently have studies on, the distortion variant of Pokemon like Zorua, Electrode, and Braviary shows a unique combination of genetic code not seen in our lifetime. DNA samples of these Pokemon reveal aged versions of chromosomes thought to have been erased through the generational evolution of their species.

In Eva Morales ’s publication (2022), the carbon dating of this Electrode’s Apricorn exterior places the timeframe of existence around 400 to 500 years ago. Based on Sinnohian lore surrounding the spatial makeup of Space-Time Distortions, it is safe to say the distortion variant we see emerge from these chaotic rifts around the region are, in fact, reverted back to prior evolutional chains. Research into these distortion variants is, however, still being conducted to further confirm current hypotheses surrounding the enigma they present.

POKERUS-Y

The final recent discovery unearthed by Hoenn’s scientists involves the emergence of a new virus called Pokerus-Y. After a spree of hatching eggs during this past Spring, Pokemon showing increased signs of growth and strength have emerged from some batches of eggs. These Pokemon show no symptoms on a physical level but samples of their blood, tissue, and cells reveal the Pokerus-Y virus.

This virus gains its name from the yellow tint of the parasite on the cells. Despite being referred to as a parasitic virus, Pokemon infected with Pokerus-Y are not affected in a negative way. On the contrary, these Pokemon have shown substantial growth compared to those not infected within the same species.

Currently, the exact cause of infection of Pokerus-Y in some Pokemon is largely unknown. Some hypotheses believe the act of breeding Pokemon to produce eggs can cause the virus to appear but there is little evidence to prove the theory correct at the time of this publishing. Pokemon infected with the Pokerus-Y virus do, however, show no sign of fighting the parasite after multiple samples from different subjects have been studied. In fact, the cells inside these Pokemon seem to be nourished by the presence of the virus. Pokemon infected with Pokerus-Y have shown faster evolutional cycles, which could be caused by the increased growth and strength of the infected Pokemon’s body.

At this time, additional research is being conducted to unearth a better understanding of where the virus came from and how it develops.