"Volkner... it really is Elite Four Volkner!"
Gero, his white hair bouncing as he ran, was nearly breathless with excitement.
These days, Volkner's fame burned like a wildfire among younger Trainers. His fanbase spanned across all walks of life.
"Elite Four Volkner, are you... looking for me?" Professor Newton asked carefully.
Due to his obsession with studying the Reverse World, Newton Graceland had long been considered something of an outsider in the academic community. To be approached directly by an Elite Four member—it was more than surprising.
"That's right, Professor Newton. I've got something I need your help with," Lucius replied with a polite nod.
Ordinarily, recruiting a scholar of this caliber would call for a more subtle approach: meeting at a symposium, engaging over shared research interests, gradually offering support and resources before extending an invitation.
But Lucius had no need for those formalities anymore—especially not when Hive had the authority to conscript.
At a quiet café, Lucius cut straight to the point.
"Professor, Hive has a strong interest in the Reverse World. You're the leading expert in this field. We'd like you to join our research project."
As he spoke, Lucius silently released a thread of the Virus, infecting both Professor Newton and his assistant Gero in a single, seamless second.
They were just ordinary humans. It didn't take more than that.
"Ah... sure," Newton replied, unsure of why he was agreeing so easily. He didn't even pause to ask questions. The idea of refusal simply never occurred to him.
"Excellent." Lucius nodded. "I understand you've made significant progress in devising a way to access the Reverse World—some kind of prototype machine? Devon Corporation can provide funding and technical support to speed things along."
"That's incredible! Thank you, Elite Four Volkner!" Gero was overjoyed, turning to his mentor. "With Devon's backing, we can finish it ahead of schedule!"
"But this machine..." Despite having agreed, Newton still looked hesitant.
Lucius, of course, knew why.
In the original timeline, Professor Newton had built a machine capable of drawing energy from Giratina. But realizing the immense pain it caused the Legendary Pokémon, he ultimately chose to abandon the project.
Gero*, however, was not so scrupulous. A rich heir with vast family resources, he rebuilt the device from Newton's original plans to harvest the Reverse World's power for himself.
Now, with both of them under Hive's command and supported by state-of-the-art scientific resources, Lucius was determined to see the machine completed ahead of schedule—regardless of the consequences to Giratina.
After working out several technical details with Newton and Gero, Lucius contacted Steven Stone, instructing him to have Devon Corporation establish a dedicated project team and send representatives to coordinate.
Hive now stood at the peak of the global power structure—its influence spanned continents, commanding three entire regions, three Mythical Pokémon, and an elite force of Champions and Elite Four Trainers.
Their enemies?
On one side stood Mythical Pokémon: Lugia, Ho-Oh, the trio of Shadow Time-Space gods, and the fused form of Black and White Kyurem—each commanding vast legions of their own.
On the other side: the remnants of the original League, led by Charles Goodshow. Considered the legitimate successors to the old world order, they still held considerable power, boasting numerous Champions and Elite Trainers of their own.
At present, Hive and the League maintained a tense, unspoken truce—because the Mythical Pokémon posed an existential threat to all of humanity.
But that balance was a fragile one.
To the League, Hive was nothing more than a ticking time bomb—its members infected by the Virus, a living threat to the very world they claimed to defend.
Inevitably, the three sides would clash in escalating skirmishes—until one side seized a decisive advantage.
And that advantage would come to whoever mastered overwhelming power first.
On that front, Hive had the upper hand. While the other two factions relied on shaky alliances, Hive could force assimilation.
As Lucius was analyzing his next move, his communicator suddenly flared with a torrent of images—memories, transmitted in rapid succession.
A vast, ancient forest teetered on the brink of destruction. Towering trees were shredded to splinters, and vortexes of chaotic energy tore the skies apart.
The fabric of space itself rippled and warped, flickering with jagged black rifts—signs of a world collapsing under pressure.
In the center of it all: a Celebi, completely pitch-black, etched with eerie glowing runes, flickering violently through space as it battled an invisible enemy.
Its power was monstrous—its attacks exploding with enough force to raze whole stretches of the forest. This Celebi looked like something cursed, infused with some unholy magic.
The footage came from Anabel. She'd transmitted it from Johto.
While Lucius had been en route from Indigo Plateau to Snowpoint City, Anabel had sensed a massive time-space disturbance.
She'd tracked the ripples to the northwestern corner of Johto—and found this Celebi.
Lucius slipped into subspace and teleported directly to Anabel's location.
She floated in midair, protected on all sides by her Metagross, Celebi, and Alakazam.
Now that she had a human body again, she was as vulnerable as any other Trainer—she needed her Pokémon to keep her safe.
"That Celebi's... not normal," Lucius muttered, eyes narrowed.
It was phasing wildly through the air, opening wormholes at a frantic pace—but never able to enter.
Every time it neared a wormhole's mouth, it was yanked back to its original position, trapped in a loop.
"Looks like it's caught in a temporal loop," Anabel murmured.
"Dialga," Lucius said grimly. He immediately sent a burst of pheromones to summon Rayquaza. "Prep the wormhole—we need Kyogre here."
Celebi was the Guardian of Time. And yet this one—clearly capable of space-time manipulation—was ensnared in a time loop.
Only one being could do that: the God of Time, Dialga.
If that was true... then perhaps this was a golden opportunity.
"Mhm." Anabel frowned, but gave a small nod.
"What is it?" Lucius asked, noticing the subtle shift in her emotions—he hadn't infected her, but he could still read her.
"I've seen that Celebi before..." she said hesitantly.
It was right after her failed assassination attempt on Lucius at sea—when her body was destroyed, and she'd taken over a Celebi to survive.
In that moment, deep beneath the Whirl Islands, she had encountered Lugia.
Lugia had told her of an impending apocalyptic event—caused by spatial distortions from another dimension—and shown her a vision of that very Celebi, locked in a violent battle against Dialga in an unstable subspace.
The Guardian of the Seas had warned her: the Virus was the architect of that coming destruction.
And it had proposed a solution—seal the Virus's source and all infected into an alternate dimension. A place it had only whispered of.
Ultra Space.
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T/N: I don't know who this guy Gero/Jero/Jello is. I tried searching but he doesn't seem to exist in canon. Might be original here.
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