Glitched

[Jirachi100]

Buildings stretched out as far as he could see on the monitor, and beyond that what looked like a mountain structure. It was hard to see since the whole scenery was marred by that strange code. @ signs and ampersands, exclamation and question marks, amongst other things filled the screen in neat rows, changing before their eyes so fast it was almost headache inducing.

Is that Glitch City? XD

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

Is that Glitch City? XD

...

32 - A Risky Plan​

"You absolute idiot!" Switch snapped. "What were you thinking?!"

Vector wasn't in the mood for his tone. His head hurt, and he groaned as he placed a paw above his eyes. Had he hit his head on something? He couldn't remember.

"Where am I?" he mumbled.

"Your room," said Switch. "The unown have been bringing berries into it by the bucket load for the past hour."

Vector ventured to open one eye. Switch was crouching as a talonflame beside five heaping plates of berries. Bucket load was clearly an over-exaggeration.

"How long have I been out?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know." Switch rolled his eyes. "What time did you decide to jump through the freaking window?!"

"It's not like we're miles up off the ground!" Pain radiated through Vector's head again and he placed a paw back over his eyes. "Give me a break. I was doing an experiment."

"Seeing if you could bounce?"

"No! Trying to find out if I need to be conscious to erase those cracks!"

Switch's beak snapped shut and he stared at the meowstic for a moment. The silence drew Vector's eye onto him and he sighed.

"What was the result?" Vector asked.

"They were all still there," Switch told him. "A small net of them just below the window. They curved up towards the sky which was how I was able to drag you out without touching them. I was too worried to really process that you fell through them if I'm honest."

Vector clenched his teeth together as he pushed himself up. "So that answers it then."

Switch rushed to the bed and adjusted the pillow so the meowstic could lean back against the wall.

"That explains why Leaf caught it," Vector went on. "I have to be conscious, don't I?"

He found a plate of berries deposited on his lap and absently picked one from it.

"I guess so." Switch shrugged then let out a sigh. "Things just keep getting more and more complicated."

"I'd say they're getting simpler, but whatever." Vector took a huge bite from the sitrus berry and grimaced at its sour flavour. "I mean... we now understand why Leaf caught it when Pixel and the unown didn't." He looked at Switch, now crouching on the floor, out of the corner of his eye. "And we know that even if humans do eventually catch it that you won't."

Switch made a thoughtful noise and gazed at the top of the wall. "Good point."

"But it's not just being unconscious that causes it to fail," said Vector.

Switch snapped round to look at him again. "What do you mean?"

"I remember seeing those cracks above my head," Vector explained. "It's very vague, but... it seems to be if I'm in the process of passing out then it won't work."

"Oh, I don't understand that at all," said Switch. "I don't even understand why you need to be awake either, but there we go."

"Neither do I," said Vector. "And I guess we'll never know."

He finished off the sitrus berry then chose his next one carefully, selecting a maranga from beneath a heap of pecha berries. As he took a bite out of it, finding it much more pleasant, he turned his attention back to the talonflame.

"Who else knows what happened?"

"No one," said Switch. "Gyro told me you'd demanded he only tell me, so I kept it to myself. Pixel and Retro have no idea, and Gyro told the rest of the unown to keep it under their metaphorical hats." He paused. "X found that very amusing. I think he might be stringing it into a new pun."

"Well, you need to have some humour these days or you'd just cry."

Vector tried to push himself up but Switch leapt to his feet and shoved him back down with a wing.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Vector blinked at him. "I was getting up."

"Not a chance. You need rest."

Vector closed his eyes and pushed his wing aside. "I have stuff I need to do."

"Oh really?" Switch's beak crinkled into a frown. "Like what? Force yourself to faint again?"

Vector stared into Switch's livid, yellow eyes then shrugged. But before he could say anything, Switch waved him off.

"K is beside herself right now," he explained. "When she found out you curing her caused you to black out she genuinely thought you'd died! She blamed herself! Of course I didn't tell her it had anything to do with that because I wanted to put her mind at rest, so I had to tell her it just makes you rather tired and you overdid it. Not quite a lie, but I'm still not happy about it. However, there was no way I was going to tell her that curing the virus and erasing those cracks is slowly killing you!"

Vector narrowed his eyes into a leer and his words came out slowly, laced with a warning. "I never told you that."

"No. But when you told me you were dying I just strung the two together. The evidence is all there, Vector. And to be perfectly honest, until we can find some way to do that without it draining your life away, I think you should stop." Switch turned his tail on the meowstic and strutted to the far end of the room where he lay down against the wall.

Vector was silent as he stared at the talonflame, watching as Switch tucked his head beneath one of his large wings. It was too much to ask. Retro and Pixel wouldn't be the only ones to lose family or close friends, and they certainly weren't the first. Other pokemon would experience that heartbreak, or already had. What the world needed was hope. Hope that there was an end to all this. No, he couldn't quit now. Too much was at stake.

"I can't just stop," he said.

"Why not?" came Switch's muffled voice.

"Because the world is suffering and for some reason I can neutralise it."

"Well I'm not happy that we rescued you from doctors who planned to risk your life to find a cure, and you're now doing the exact same thing!" Switch snapped his head back up, the feathers along his neck erect like red daggers. "We saved your life and now you're just going to throw it away by saving part of the population?! There's no way you're going to survive long enough to get the antibodies to everyone, especially not if wiping two pokemon clean causes you to pass out with exhaustion!"

Vector stared back down at the plate of berries, his appetite wiped out as he tried to control his temper. Switch's words had struck a raw nerve, but the human had a strong point.

There really was no point. He needed a better plan.

"No," he said flatly. He pushed the plate to the side and slipped from the bed, giving the talonflame one last sideways glance as he made for the door. "I guess you're right."

...​

Pixel moved through the tunnel, feeling a lot better after a nap. She was hoping to find Vector and Switch and make sure they were okay and as she reached their room she found the door open. The bed was unmade but empty, and she spotted the dozing talonflame curled up in the far corner, his head buried beneath his wing. A small smile played at her lips and she pulled the door to quietly.

When she strode into the main cavern the only pokemon there were the unown, busying away at their computers. The newly revived K and Gyro were hovering by the coffee table sipping cups of tea, nattering quietly amongst themselves. They looked up when she entered with smiling eyes.

"It's so nice to meet you!" said Gyro. "We never really got a chance to introduce ourselves, did we?"

"No, we didn't." Pixel smiled back and clasped her paws behind herself. "I'm Pixel. The two friends with me are Switch and Vector."

"Oh, Vector's the one who has the counter virus?" Gyro asked.

"Yes, that's him. Retro's been calling them antibodies but... I guess it doesn't really have a name."

"Well, it doesn't matter." Gyro closed his eye. "I think you already know this, but you know... manners and all that. I'm Gyro and this is K."

The K beamed. "So totally awesome to meet you! And I love your scarf, so kool!"

"Thank you!"

Pixel absently fondled her scarf as she looked around the room at the unown. So far it was only Gyro who she hadn't picked up an odd vocal trait from. Even Alarm screamed from time to time, which she guessed earned her the name (or nickname) the others called her. She found herself wondering if there'd been more unown living here before the virus hit, or if their group had always been relatively small. Nevertheless she didn't want to ask perchance it was a bit of a sore spot.

Her eyes went to the tunnel leading out and she wondered if maybe Vector had passed through here. She hadn't seen him anywhere else in the cavern.

"I'm sorry, but I'm looking for Vector," she said. "Have you seen him?"

"Saw him a bit ago," said Amp. "He went outside."

"Outside?" She placed a paw on her chest and looked back to the exit tunnel. "Did he say where he was going?"

"Oh yes, I made sure to ask. He said he wanted to go on the roof," said Amp. "I didn't question why. I mean, it's just a grass mound. It hardly has much of a view. Especially at this present moment. It's mostly just cracks and twisted tree stumps."

"Yes, it's hardly x-traordinary," said X. "I would describe it as x-tremely dull and somewhat..."

"Distressing?" Gyro offered.

"I can't pun that," said X. "Give me time to think of something and I'll get back to you."

"Stuck for a pun?!" Amp chuckled and quickly tapped at his computer keyboard which brought up a password locked computer diary. "Please excuse me while I document this momentous occasion!"

A smile spread across Pixels face and she let out a small laugh. After quickly thanking the unown she zipped through the tunnel until she ended up at the fork. The path that led upwards had a little light trickling down it which grew brighter the further up she went. Eventually she found herself standing amongst lush, vibrant grass, the odd corrupted code rising up towards the canopy. Most of the mound was free from those cracks, but they criss-crossed and zig-zagged above them like a huge galvantula web.

Sitting atop a rocky crag was Vector, his eyes trailing over the cracks with a look in his eyes that Pixel couldn't quite place. It might have been sadness or general weariness. She couldn't deny she was rather fed up with how the world was herself. The world she'd known her whole life was breaking away, and if it continued much longer her whole race might end up extinct... unless they could get the cure. Even then who was to say the cracks wouldn't slowly consume them, reducing their world to nothing?

It wasn't until she pulled herself up onto the crag that Vector noticed her, a look of surprise filling his blue eyes. She smiled at him and leant back on her paws.

"You looked lonely," she said.

That look of surprise melted away to be replaced by a small smile and he copied her, leaning back to look up at those strange cracks.

"It's sad isn't it?" he said. "I was hoping to come up here and find it like Luma Island, where I could lie back in the grass and look up at a sky free from all of..." he waved a paw, "this."

She watched him stare down at his own paw looking thoughtful for a moment before he clenched it into a fist and let it drop back into the grass. Her eyes followed it, fixing on the steam-like code.

"Even if you did erase them," she said, "it wouldn't be much different. You'd still see all this code."

He nodded but said nothing, his eyes drifting to the opposite trees. Twisted trunks corkscrewing into the ground, jagged lumps where limbs were once attached, patches of sky visible between shattered branches and ultraviolet jagged lines.

"I don't really see the point any more," he said.

She looked up at him, her violet eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

"Let's face it. There's no way I can erase every trace of the virus and cracks while giving everyone in System this... antibody or whatever it is. And who's to say it's not travelled overseas to the Analog Islands?"

That thought had never really hit her before, but now it did so. The sheer notion that this horrible incident might not be contained to System made her sick. Pokemon hadn't even been allowed to leave System for fear of carrying this condition over to the Analog Islands, or further. She'd never considered it could simply go there itself.

She hunched forwards and hugged herself, the trees before her eyes unfocusing as her mind went elsewhere.

"Don't worry about it, Pixel," said Vector. "I have a plan."

She looked up at him with a start. "What? A plan?"

He nodded. "Yes. I... think we might be able to kill this virus at its source."

She felt her eyes widen and every strand of fur slowly go on end as the realisation of what he was telling her manifested in her mind.

"The source?" She shook her head slowly. "Tell me you're not seriously thinking about going into the Fracture?!"

"I actually am." When she was about to object again he raised a paw. "Just hear me out. If it originated there, then the source of those cracks might be there. If I can erase them, maybe I can erase the source of it. Which, in theory, would destroy all cracks and any further progression of the virus."

"But... pokemon might still have the virus after. It would still be contagious. It would still spread."

"They're quarantined. Any further progression can be controlled. Until we can get the cure to them anyway."

"So you're saying you'd go into the hospital ward and erase the virus from every patient?"

His shoulders went slack and he let out a long breath. "I honestly don't know. But I want to give this a go."

Pixel stared down at her paws, a rising dread growing in her chest. "Vector... no one has ever come out of the Fracture. They've sent in drones..."

"I know all that. But no one has gone in there with this... condition... before, have they? Or an immunity to the virus. What if I – or we – can go in there and come out completely unscathed?"

"I can't erase the cracks like you can. And when the unown touched the virus they didn't erase it either."

"Exactly. It didn't effect them." He turned his blue eyes onto her, warm despite their icy colour. "What if the Fracture works in the exact same way? You could walk through that distortion like it were nothing but air."

She continued to stare down at her paws as his words washed over her. It made perfect sense, and as absurd as it sounded it was their best shot. If they could indeed destroy the virus at its source then it might save millions of lives in the long run.

"Okay." She let out a breath and nodded. "We'll talk to Retro. Maybe she and the unown, even Switch, might be able to help."

A soft smile spread across his face and she couldn't help but return it.

The initial shock now over, her body relaxed and she let her paws fall back onto the grass. Her right one brushed against Vector's and she felt his paw twitch, hesitating for a moment before he moved it over hers. Her arm tingled as her fur stood on end and she looked down at their interwoven paws before looking back up at him and meeting his warm eyes.

Her conversation with Retro came rushing back to her, throwing everything into perspective. The mew wasn't wrong. She had developed feelings for him, but everything that had been going on had stopped her from really acknowledging it. Now they were about to enter the Fracture. If things went wrong, she wouldn't get another chance.

In one swift motion she scooted closer to him and caught his lips in hers. She heard his breath catch in his throat as his body went tense, but it was only for a moment as his free paw moved up her arm and around her shoulders, pulling her into him as he deepened the kiss. His claws brushed over her jaw and cheek as he moved her long fur back from her face.

He paused for a moment to take in a shaky breath, then released her as his paw went to his chest. The warmth from his eyes had vanished to be replaced with worry and he wound his claws into the grass.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Pixel was still feeling rather breathless which caused her voice to waver as she asked, "For what?"

"I... cant..." He paused to take in another shaky breath. "I've fallen for you, but I..."

Pixel's heart was racing as she sat waiting for him to finish. She didn't know what to say, or what to expect. All she knew was the word 'but' rarely brought anything good after a positive statement. Her eyes wandered to the trees, once again taking in the state of the world. But nothing prepared her for Vector's eventual statement.

"I'm dying..."

Her heart lurched into her throat and she snapped her head round to look at him, her mouth hanging open wordlessly.

"I didn't want to tell you," he said. "I was hoping that... we might find a cure and it would get rid of this... whatever it is." He lifted his paws then let them fall back into his lap. "Every time I use one of those stupid attacks it left me with, or erase those cracks, or even the virus, it weakens me."

Pixel's eyes flitted left and right as she took all this in. It explained so much. His fainting spells, coughing up blood, his desperation and crankiness to find a cure. How had she not noticed? Tears stung her eyes and she looked away from him, one paw resting on the ground as she fought the urge to get up and walk away. Despite how she felt there was no way she was going to leave him now.

"That's why I want to go to the Fracture," he said. "I don't think I would survive erasing many more cracks or helping victims, but if I can erase it at its source then it might get rid of all of it, even if it costs me-"

"No." She balled her paws into fists in her lap, but she didn't look up at him. "Don't talk like that."

"Pixel, if I can help this world I will, even if it costs me my life." He took in a ragged breath and wiped a paw across his eyes. "It's my fault it ended up like this and I want to put it right."

Those words stung her almost as much as his revelation. She looked up at him and frowned. "It's not your fault. Who's to say the virus wouldn't have eventually leaked out anyway?"

He seemed to consider this for a moment then shrugged. "Nevertheless, I'm going in and I'm going to find the cause of all this and hopefully destroy it."

It was a ridiculously reckless plan, but everything he'd said made sense. The virus came from the Fracture, so whatever was causing it should be inside there, and if this 'antibody' could destroy it then it might just save their world.

Hopefully after that they could focus on trying to cure him.

She really wanted to see this through. Even if their friends refused to help him, even tried to stop him which she knew he'd ignore, there was no way she was letting him go in there alone.

She pursed her lips in thought and leant back on her paws. "Then I'm going with you."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Alright, so it turns out my initial theory about Pixel’s immunity was correct! I knew it had something to do with Vector. But the fact that he has to be conscious? That’s definitely weird. Then again… nothing about this virus behaves biologically, so…

And they're actually going to enter the Fracture! I knew it would have to happen eventually, but it’s exciting that they're finally gonna do it!

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

.

The Fracture was so much fun to write X3

...

33 - System Going Down​

"No!" Retro retorted. "Absolutely not! It's too dangerous!"

This had been the mew's response for the past ten minutes. Since the second Vector had approached her with his idea she'd begun to panic, pacing back and forth while the group of unown and Switch followed her with their eyes.

Vector leant against the wall beside the door, his arms folded and his mouth turned into a frown. Pixel knew all too well that no matter what Retro said, he was determined and she wasn't going to stop him. The reason he'd run it by her wasn't only just in case she wanted to help but also because her teleportation would have been a quick way to reach the Fracture. If she weren't going to help him then he'd walk if he had to, and Pixel would walk with him.

"None of you are going to the Fracture," Retro said, punctuating with a hard glare right on Pixel and Vector. "You know full well even drones haven't made it back out of that city!"

Vector simply shrugged. "If you're going to ignore my facts, then fine. But I'm going."

"'Fact' is a very naïve way of wording it, Vector," said Retro. "Since you don't know for a 'fact' that you, or Pixel, will survive passing through the Fracture's wall."

"Well, since I'm dying anyway I've nothing to lose, have I?"

Those words struck Pixel like a blade and she placed a paw over her chest, diverting her gaze to a blank spot on the wall. Retro was stunned speechless but recovered quickly and finally sat back down.

"It's still no reason to be so reckless," she said. "Especially not without testing to see if it would work first."

"And how do you plan to test it?" he asked. "Create another much smaller fracture you can stick your paw into? Because you can do that with the cracks and we all know the outcome."

"What worries me," Retro began, "is that you can erase the cracks and the virus. Exposure to whatever antibodies you're carrying only makes us immune to the virus and those cracks. Despite being immune the effects are very different. You might survive passing through to the Fracture, but we might not!"

Vector shrugged again and kicked back from the wall. "Fine. I'll go alone."

Pixel watched him as he moved into the tunnel, then gave herself a sharp shake before following after him.

"Vector, wait!"

He looked back at her, then his attention was drawn back into the room as the computer monitors flickered off, the monotonous whirr from the fans dying down into silence. Every light blinked out, plunging the cavern into darkness.

"What on earth?!" Retro zipped past them, followed by the unown.

"What's going on?" Pixel cried as she ran after them.

"I don't know!" Retro called back.

The mew took the exit to the top of the crag where she darted around in the air, searching the sky for an opening in the cracks. Something was very wrong. Pixel couldn't quite put her paw on it, but something was different.

"If you want to go through it, it's no use," said Switch. "The gaps are too narrow."

"I'm not trying to go through it," said Retro. "I'm looking for a wide enough space beyond it. Ahah!"

The mew vanished in a flash, reappearing as a pink speck beyond the canopy between two black cracks. Despite how far away she was, they could hear her yell of surprise clearly.

It was followed by a deep rumble through the earth, growing with intensity until the very trees shook. Pixel was thrown off her feet, landing hard against Vector and Switch. The unown floated behind them, holding the larger pokemon steady as the ground continued to shake.

Pixel clutched onto Vector for dear life, her violet eyes wide as she searched the sky for the mew. But there was no sign of her. What was going on?

...​

It had all happened so fast.

N00b had to bring his car to a nose-dive, the front wheels hitting the tarmac with such force it almost threw him from his seat. But there was no time to be worried about any damage to the car. He was more worried about what he'd just witnessed.

First, a massive crack appeared out of nowhere, zigzagging its way through the sky towards the ground like an ultraviolet lightning bolt, narrowly missing the nose of his little car. The surprise caused him to lose control of the vehicle has he pulled it up over the crack and down towards the ground rather quickly. His eyes never left the anomaly. He'd seen it take out one of the transmitter posts, warping it into an elaborate knot. It had struck down several buildings before causing an explosion somewhere deep inside Meta City.

He'd got his answer quite quickly. Every light blinked out. Every transmitter across System stopped flashing.

That crack had taken out System's main control deck. The results alone were enough to tell him that the back-up controls had been wiped out already, leaving all of System to rely on one building to operate every single communications and electronics service across the region.

As he was processing this, Nybble let out a terrible shriek. N00b whipped his head around to follow the emolga's terrified eyes and what he saw caused his heart to lurch into his throat.

Far in the distance was a floating speck, one of the three drifting continents but which one he couldn't make out. Right now, it was falling. A massive island twice the size of Meta City, plummeting towards the ground.

All communications and electrical circuits had been cut off. That meant all three of the drifting continents were no longer held up on their invisible circuits. All three were crashing to the ground, and the damage was going to be catastrophic.

...​

Hundreds of eyes watched in terror as Luma Island dropped down towards the ocean.

Wave City was one of few cities that still operated towards the north of System, carefully dealing with shipments to and from the Analog Islands. The city had experienced a couple of virus outbreaks but being so close to the shore hadn't experienced the worst of the cracks.

However, Burst stood amongst the inhabitants of Wave City as he watched his home plummet towards the water. He didn't have enough time to fully process what was happening. Like everyone else, he was trying to turn and run, flapping his wings to give himself momentum into the air.

The island struck the ocean, the roar of the water growing in intensity as a huge tsunami rose up into the air, lifting the cargo ships with it. The wall of water crashed back down and engulfed the shore, destroying the villas on the cliff face and spreading out over the city.

The staraptor screamed as the water hit him, his voice joining hundreds more before he was engulfed in the tsunami and dragged backwards towards the ocean.

...​

N00b led the emolga twins down the streets of Spool City. It was much different than when he'd left. The sky was almost filled with black cracks, but fortunately it hadn't been closed off. That had filled him with a little relief at least.

As he turned into the familiar alley way, a deep voice drew his attention to the trash cans where a trubbish was peering out at the small city.

"What's goin' on?" Kurg asked.

N00b paused beside his trash can and tried to catch his breath. "One of the cracks has taken out the main control deck," he gasped out.

Kurg raised a brow. "Seriously? Aww, man!"

"I need to see if Connor's okay. I'll speak to you later."

The lillipup turned and dashed down the alley, but the heavy plopping sound behind him told him the trubbish had left his home to follow after him. N00b struggled to move the heavy manhole cover blocking his only access into Connor's home. A low, involuntary whimper rose from his throat as he pawed at it helplessly.

Byte appeared at his right side and stuck his claws beneath the heavy sheet of metal, his eyes scrunching shut as he strained to lift it free. Kurg joined his side and stuck a tentacle beneath it, lifting it almost effortlessly.

"You country pokemon ain't got no city strength?" the trubbish snorted.

Byte merely gave him a sideways glance before following the lillipup into the sewer.

Kurg pulled the cover back into place and dropped down beside the small group, creating a deep, echoing clang as he hit the grate.

"Thanks, Kurg," said N00b.

The trubbish shrugged. "Ain't nothin'."

The group walked in silence over the metal grate, Nybble covering her muzzle with her paws to block out the worst of the smell. Fortunately it wasn't a long distance to the next manhole which was conveniently located right beneath Connor's home. The emolga took in a deep breath when they broke through into clean air.

N00b's heart sank as he discovered not a single flicker of light came from Connor's dark computer lab. The only light was the failing sunlight that came in through the dusty windows.

"Connor?" he asked.

The pikachu's small form appeared in the doorway beside a worried-looking Diode.

"What's going on?" Any hint of bitterness had left Connor's voice to be replaced with worry.

N00b rushed over to him and threw his paws around his neck, almost knocking him over. The answer died in N00b's throat as he burst into tears, his small body shaking with heavy sobs.

"Hey, N00b," said Connor. "Tell me what's going on. And who are these pokemon?"

N00b couldn't answer. Everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours now completely overwhelmed him.

He felt a paw touch his head and he looked up into the warm, smiling face of Snippet.

"Well, look at you," she said. "At least your back safe 'n' sound, hey? And you gone an' brought two new, adorable friends with you. And little Kurg, too!"

N00b took in a ragged breath and let his forepaws fall to the ground. "I didn't have much choice. I'm sorry."

"Oh now, don't you go sayin' sorry, you poor thing." The leavanny tutted a few times before continuing. "You go an' sit down an' tell us everythin'. Diode's gonna help me with the oven so I can make you's all some soup an' tea. Go upstairs now. It's comfier up there."

N00b followed after Connor, keeping his head low and taking steady breaths to avoid bursting into tears again. The room the pikachu led them to was a warm sitting room that had a sofa and two arm chairs stationed around a glass topped coffee table, and a television mounted on the wall.

Snippet strode through a door that led into an adjoining kitchen, all the while talking in her thick accent.

"Shouldn't be too long now, boys. Diode's pretty quick on firin' up the old oven. Helpful one, thissun. Connor couldn't fry an egg with his electricity, could you, boy?" She chuckled as Connor rolled his eyes. "Guess tha's whatcha get for not practicin' more, hey? But no bother, he's a sweet kid is Connor."

She strutted back into the room and placed a tray with seven glasses and a jug of juice on the table. As she poured it out into the glasses, she went on;

"In all the years I had you boys here there ain't been one proper fight between yous. Yous been like my own kids. Proper sweet. Can't say I'm not worried sick 'bout Switch, though. Now we can't even contact him 'cos the electricity's gone an' cut out."

Kurg accepted a glass and cleared his throat. "That's 'cos one o' them dumb cracks has shot out the control deck. That's what N00b told me anyway."

Snippet looked up at him with a start. "Really? Tha's not very considerate is it?"

"I don't think them cracks really think 'bout what's considerate."

"No." N00b let out a sigh and pushed himself upright. "We saw one of the drifting continents fall after the power went out."

Nybble whined loudly and covered her eyes with her paws. "Why?! First we lose Leaf. Now our home."

Byte pulled his sister into a hug. "I know. Just be glad we weren't still on it."

Snippet looked around at them and covered her mouth. "Oh, my dears!"

"It just fell from the sky." N00b stared down at the floor and shook his head. "What's happening to our world?"

...​

No alarms. No lights.

Hertz rushed through the hospital amidst the other doctors and nurses, their panicked voices drumming on his ears as they worried over the quarantine and life support systems.

There was no other option. They had to evacuate the building.

Bootstrap caught up to Hertz with Mirror on his tail. "What's happened?"

"The electricity has been cut off," Hertz explained.

"That much is obvious," said the marowak. "Do you know why?"

"No one knows why, at least not yet. There's been no possible way to get a message to us. We don't even know if its temporary."

"Well we need to think of something and fast. Hundreds of pokemon are relying on the life support systems."

Hertz fired him a sideways glare. "Until we get some electricity to securely run both the life support and quarantine systems there is nothing we can do. If one doctor steps paw inside that room and leaves without disinfecting themselves then we're all at risk."

The marowak's eyes widened with surprise. "So there are even doctors locked back there?"

Hertz gave him a grave nod. "Yes."

"Then what do we do? We can't just leave them there! They're clean!"

"What we do is we go back to my original plan to find a cure. And as it so happens I had a meowstic in my custody who had suffered the virus but survived it. He may very well provide some kind of solution to this problem." Hertz paused as he took in the marowak and wobbuffet's confused expressions. "Unfortunately he was kidnapped. I have two of my best tracking him down, and I plan to join them."

Bootstrap threw his paws wide. "Why didn't you say anything about this?!"

"Well, as it must be said, my methods were rather... controversial. But desperate times call for desperate measures." Hertz clasped his paws behind his back and looked at both pokemon in turn. "Now I guess it's time for me to ask you whether you want to join my own little investigation into the virus and help me retrieve this potential cure?"

...​

A loud screech filled the train's cabin as the wheels ground against the rails while the driver tried to bring the train to a safe halt under the violent shudders that threatened to throw the train off its tracks. The machine had been propelled along with the momentum its speed had provided while the passengers sat in darkness, their screams rivalling with the shrill sound of the wheels. Sample clasped his paws over his ears but it only dulled the break's screeching and the wails from the wartortle beside him. Finally he lurched forwards, propelled from his seat as the train finally came to a sudden stop. At some point the shuddering had ended and he felt Mono tense as the pair of them braced themselves for another earthquake. Instead, a dull flicker came from above them as the emergency lights kicked in, powered by a back-up battery.

The two pokemon looked around in bewilderment, their expressions matching those of every single other pokemon on the train. The windows were pitch black, the tunnel outside also plunged into darkness.

"We are sorry to announce," came the driver's voice over the intercom, "that the train has lost power. Please move in an orderly fashion to the nearest emergency exit."

While the driver repeated himself, Sample pushed himself up and exchanged glances with Mono. Her fluffy ears twitched with worry and she moved along into the crowd, slipping out of the nearest door.

The tunnel was crowded and unsettlingly dark. A few pokemon managed to bring up the torches on their phones, chasing away some of the darkness and clearing a path to freedom. Unfortunately, Mono and Sample didn't possess such phones so they found themselves following a group of teenagers in the direction the driver – a hitmonchan – pointed them towards. Apparently it was the fastest way out of the tunnel, and would take about ten minutes to walk.

"What do you think happened?" Mono finally asked the exploud.

Sample grunted and pulled out his pocket computer. His confusion was only increased when he discovered there was no signal coming through to him.

"I've no idea," he said. "And I can't check either."

Mono huffed and looked away from him. "Maybe it's the tunnel. See if you can get a signal outside."

Lights off. Earthquake. Signal dead. Something had happened and he was convinced it had something to do with those dangerous cracks.

The train hadn't been going far. It would have dropped them off at Batch City, the closest they could get to the rogue drifting continent. There they had hoped to find a flier or two who could take them to the island – and hopefully this time not be met with a violent end. He brought up a handy map he'd downloaded, which unfortunately was no longer picking up his GPS. If his guess was right, they were towards the end of the tunnel that joined Batch City Station. Beyond Batch City were a couple of large towns before they ended at the derelict cities, which he knew would be cordoned off with yellow tape.

Hopefully the fliers wouldn't mind breaching those boundaries for a little extra cash.

"My feet hurt," said Mono.

"Stop complaining," grumbled Sample.

"I have you know I ain't as young as I used to be!" Mono snapped back. She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are the odds of you carryin' me?"

Sample stuffed his computer back into his pocket. "Slim to none. Stop your whining and walk."

Mono snorted as Sample sped up and trotted to keep up with him. She started ranting but he tuned it out, focusing instead on the light ahead of them that grew the closer he got to it. Before long, the teenagers in front of him switched off their torches and began to trot towards it with a cheer. Ten minutes had been a bit of a generous guess from the train driver. Before long he was stood outside, looking up at the station before him. The platform was almost bare save for those who had just arrived in the city. Those waiting for the train had their faces set with confusion. Sample guessed a lot of those waiting had left the station to return home. He was guessing every pokemon who had arrived at this city, not counting himself and Mono, actually lived here or in one of the surrounding towns. Ordinarily, pokemon would be intent on moving away from the dangers the Fracture posed to the northern cities, but unfortunately not everyone could afford that luxury. Not to mention the southern cities no longer had the capacity to accommodate them.

"So we look for a flier?" Mono asked, slightly breathless.

Sample made a non-committal grunt and retrieved his computer. Still no signal. He frowned at it and looked around at the station. Something hadn't quite registered when they'd arrived, but every single light was off. Every single billboard was blank. His eyes fell on a greying simisage stood outside a shop, pulling down the shutters over its windows.

"Oi!" He trotted over to the green monkey pokemon who looked up at him with a warm smile.

"Oh, hello there!" The simisage's voice wavered with age. "I'm sorry but I've had to close for the day."

"I've noticed. What's going on here? Why are all the lights out?"

"All I can assume is the power has failed," the shop owner explained. "Everything is out. We can't even get any news to find out why. It just went, see. Did your train fail too?"

"Aye, it did," said Mono. "Wonder what's happened?"

Sample watched the wartortle move away from him to the platform's edge then looked back at the simisage.

"No idea, eh?" The exploud shrugged. "Well, thanks for your time anyway." Just as he turned away he remembered the fliers and looked back at the green monkey. "Oh! Where's the nearest flier depot?"

"Just outside the station, but I doubt they'll be available if they can't answer their calls."

Sample grit his teeth together as he tutted then quickly thanked the simisage once more. A loud yell came from Mono and the two pokemon span towards her. She stood staring up at the sky, scratching her ears with her claws.

"What's the matter now?!" Sample boomed.

"I... I can't see the drifting continent."

"Well it has gone rogue! Look harder!"

"I am!" Mono snapped. She looked back up at the sky, turning on the spot as she searched desperately. "Thing is I can't see either of 'em. Not Cyan or Luma."

"Luma would be out over the sea by this point," the simisage offered helpfully.

Sample grabbed Mono by her paw and tugged her after him. She gave a yell of disapproval which he ignored as he dragged her down the stairs, allowing her to half-stumble behind him. Once outside he spotted the flier depot, clearly marked by its pidgeot logo, and made a beeline for it. Mono scurried behind him, almost running on all fours.

Unfortunately, like the simisage had said, the depot was closing.

Sample grabbed the nearest pidgeot by the wing. "Wait! We need you."

The pidgeot sighed and rubbed his head feathers. "I'm sorry, but our transmitters aren't working. We have to close."

"But we need to reach Cyan Island," he said. "Government business."

The pidgeot looked down at the exploud's offered badge and raised an eyebrow. "You haven't noticed?"

"Haven't noticed what?" The frustration in Sample's voice was merely met with another raised eyebrow.

"It's come down." The pidgeot stared at Sample's shocked face. "Where were you when it hit? The whole city trembled!"

Sample looked down at Mono and let his badge drop to his side. Cyan Island had crashed? Did that mean Luma and Magenta had as well? One thing would be for certain. If the meowstic was aboard, he wouldn't have survived that.

And with no signal, he couldn't let Hertz know the bad news either.

...​

Pixel stared up at the sky, barely breathing as she desperately waited for any sign of Retro. Switch, Vector and the unown were also silent, none of them wanting to make a sound perchance they missed any sign of the mew. It felt like an eternity had passed since the earthquake shook the jungle. Not seeing or knowing what had happened to their friend left her feeling physically sick.

Then, finally, a hint of pink appeared above the cracks. In a flash, the mew floated before them, her face twisted with worry. Her eyes were distant as her mind was elsewhere. The words she spoke made Pixel feel like she were stuck in a dream.

"The drifting continents are gone."

Pixel shook herself as the words registered in her mind. "What?"

"They're gone," Retro said. "They fell. I saw... I saw Cyan Island just... drop from the sky. And Luma. It hit the ocean."

"Luma Island?" Switch took a step towards her but Retro didn't appear to even notice he'd spoken. "But that means... What about Circuit and..."

"I don't know what's happened," said Retro. "They just fell. I tried to get higher to see if I could see Magenta Island but I can't. I think... I think they've all crashed!"

She put her paws to her head and slumped to the floor. The unown rushed around her, shouting their concerns. Amp reprimanded them into silence and ushered the mew to her feet.

"Come on. Let's get you inside, you need rest."

Pixel watched the group of unown lead Retro back into the cavern, their voices fading away to be replaced by the rusting of leaves in the breeze. It felt so surreal.

"I had friends on that island," said Switch.

It had to be a dream.

"How do I know they even made it off?" he went on. "I can't even contact them. This stupid power failure has shot out my phone signal."
Pixel balled her paws into fists and screwed her eyes shut, but the tears still managed to leak through. "I've lost my home..."

Switch and Vector were silent, but she could feel them watching her. Neither knowing what to say. Despite their presence, she felt lonely. Lost. Helpless. More tears broke free, but she didn't wipe them away.

"I've lost my family, Nano, Chip, Leaf... and now my home..."

Vector's warm paw landed on her shoulder and she opened her eyes just in time to see him slip away into the cavern.

The cavern. Surrounded by black, violet-leaking cracks.

She didn't want to even look at them.

Screwing her eyes shut, she followed after Vector, not opening her eyes again until she was back inside the tunnel. When she entered the control room she found Retro sitting on the sofa, her paws folded in her lap. That dream-like look had left her features to now be replaced by one of distress.

Vector stood on the other side of the table, watching her, his paws flexing and relaxing as he searched for something to say.

Like the unown, Pixel just looked between the meowstic and the mew. Retro wasn't even looking at him. Her mind was still elsewhere, warring as she struggled to come to terms with whatever freak events had just unfolded.

"Do you want to help me?" Vector finally said. "The offer's still there. I'm going into the Fracture regardless, but you've seen what damage it can do."

"X-actly!" said X. "Believe me, you have my help. I want to see that thing gone!"

"Me too," said Amp. "I don't know how I can help, but... I'm sure we can think of something!"

The other unown were silent, watching Retro as she silently stared down at her paws.

"Then let's go," said Vector. "Whatever is inside the Fracture, if we can stop it -"

"I'm thinking," she said.

Everyone looked round at the mew. She sighed and let her paws fall beside her onto the sofa.

"Give me time," she said. "I'll come up with something."

"How much time?" Vector spoke oddly softly. "Because it's pretty obvious it's responsible for those islands crashing. They've been flying for centuries. For all three to just crash like that-"

"Morning," said the mew. "We'll discuss a plan of action in the morning."

Vector watched as Retro left the sofa, vanishing into the small tunnel to her room. When he heard the door close he looked back over his shoulder at Pixel and Switch.

"I suggest we all get some rest," he said.

As Vector vanished to his room, Pixel wiped a paw over her eyes. Rest... she didn't think for one moment she'd sleep that night. Even though she hadn't witnessed it, she kept seeing Cyan Island crashing towards the ground, her mind living the worst case scenario as she realised just how fortunate they were that no one was on it.

But as she looked at Switch a feeling of dread spread through her as it really struck her that the other two island's inhabitants may very well have not been so fortunate.

 

[DreamSayer]

I finally sat down to review chapter one. I'm not an expert reviewer so this may come off as lackluster from me.

So far, it seems impressive enough to keep my attention. This is the first glitch based story I've read so please bear with me.

The atmosphere of the story has an overall spookiness to it. We have this Matrix like world that is being ravaged by the fracture; a huge error caused by faulty windows software. Sorry, I kid. Anyway, the biggest question is what exactly caused the fracture? Was it an accident? Or was it caused by someone? And why did it drag unwilling humans into the pokemon world? So man questions.

RIP Monday Night Raw. Too bad he didn't get fleshed out enough for anyone to feel sorry for his loss. Maybe he isn't even dead. Maybe he came back in a later chapter? I'll have to read the rest of the story to find that out.

Vector on the other hand seems interesting. I'm not sure if he's the main protagonist, but I can tell that he has an important role to play. It's also weird that he suggested a plan but wasn't willing to go through with it. In the end, he made the right choice. That is until the light swallowed him up. The way he reacted as he was being devoured felt so real and spooky. I almost don't want to imagine it.

That's just the prologue so far. I'll get around to reading the rest later. For now, I can say that I like what I'm reading.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

.

Thank you for reading, and for your feedback =D I got a little confused when you said Monday Night Raw, as I do watch that XD (although I am WAY behind and have loads of catching up to do lmao)

I really value your feedback. Your description of how Vector being engulfed made you feel, and the questions that the events have brought up, is really encouraging to me =) I hope you continue to enjoy the rest!

...

34 - Glitch City​

Not a single light penetrated the dingy windows of the cavern. Before everyone had retired to their rooms, the unown had gone around lighting candles to help Pixel and her friends find their way around should they need to. Light flickered in the hallway from the candles that had been left alight, most of Pixel's friends choosing to extinguish the ones in their rooms in favour of sleep. But instead she was lay awake, watching the distorted shadows tremble on the ceiling, cast by her candle's flickering flame that had eaten away at most of the wick, leaving a pool of wax on the stony floor.

She had no idea how much time had passed. It was impossible to tell. No power, no clock, no signal to her head set. The entire cavern felt primal, and served as a constant reminder that very soon they may be breaching the Fracture. She couldn't sleep. She didn't want to sleep. Sleeping would just make things happen faster.

A soft sound made her ears prick up and she turned her head to look at the doorway. The familiar shadow with its pointed ears bounced past just before Vector's white and black form flashed into view, only to vanish again into the shadows. For a moment she wondered if it was actually morning. It wasn't unfeasible that the jungle would block out most of the early morning light, but she brushed the idea aside. The cavern was much too quiet, and she couldn't help worrying the meowstic was trying to put his plan into action alone.

She pushed herself up and crept out of the room, following Vector's trail into the main room. Part of her expected him to not be there so she jumped slightly when she saw him huddled in the corner of the sofa, his blue eyes fixed on her.

She ventured over to the sofa and sat against the arm of the chair opposite him, pulling her feet up beneath her.

"Can't sleep?" she asked.

He shrugged and looked away from her. Silent. As silent as the very room they sat in.

From here she couldn't even hear the soft snores from their sleeping friends. No hum from the computers. If she listened hard enough she could just make out the crackling from the candles on the table beside them. The flames seemed to give Vector's white fur a flickering, pale orange hue.

"I often wonder what would have happened if I hadn't joined Bridge." His voice made Pixel jump and her eyes snapped back up to his face. "If I'd just stayed home. Would any of this have even happened?"

She waited patiently for him to elaborate, but he was silent again, just staring at the candles as he hugged his knees to his chest, both his tails fastened tightly around him. He looked scared. Not that she could blame him.

"You can't keep blaming yourself," she said.

He shrugged again. "I have my reasons, Pixel. Just like I had my reasons for joining them, and it all went horribly wrong."

"It was an accident..."

She looked down at her paws as she toyed with the hem of her scarf. He'd already heard it before and even though she thought it was helping, his stoic expression told her it wasn't. He already knew it was an accident, and accident or not, it didn't change anything.

So she decided to change the subject. Something that wasn't about the Fracture. Something to take both their minds off what was soon to come.

"What did you used to do?" she ventured. "Before you joined Bridge?"

He took in a long breath and leant his head back against the arm of the sofa. "I was a recluse."

She looked up with a start. "What?"

"Like I said. I rarely went outside. I spent all day playing games and messing about with mechanics."

"Why? Because of your allergies?"

"That played a part." He ran a paw through the fur between his ears and sighed. "I didn't exactly have an easy time at school. Kids would tease me because they thought I was weird. If they weren't mocking me because of my interests they were making fun of my markings." He caught the confused look in her eye and aimed a thumb behind him. "Those stripes across my back are normally dark blue."

Pixel's eyes widened with surprise and she nodded her understanding. She'd assumed he had those stripes because of the virus but she decided not to mention it.

"Did you ever go to school in the city?" he asked.

"No, it wasn't easy for us. Someone would fly up onto the island every day."

He snorted and looked back at the table. "You're lucky."

There was a long pause between them, and Pixel found herself mirroring him as she hugged her knees into her chest. It was a long time ago, but she remembered those lessons with the little floette. Five times a week she flew up onto the island by pidgeot. The class was small, made up of the nine pokemon that were of a close age to Pixel. She loved those lessons. Times spent laughing with Retro, Leaf, Nano and Chip while the floette good-naturedly told them to pay attention.

"I really wanted friends," said Vector.

She looked up at him again, but his eyes were distant, reflecting the candlelight.

"Instead it got to such a degree I couldn't bring myself to go back to school," he said. "I had to be taught at home. By the time I was to apply to college I couldn't do it. I stayed home and taught myself. Hours and hours spent on a computer learning robotics, mechanics. Reading about engines. Staying up all night playing games and talking on forums with pokemon who had the same interests as me. Pokemon who couldn't see what I look like..."

Candlelight reflected off tears in his eyes. She wondered if he even knew he was talking to her any more.

"Then the humans arrived," he went on. "No one wanted them here, and I sympathised. It wasn't their fault, they're not here by choice. Those poor creatures were desperate to get home, back to a world where they fit in. If there was anything I could do to help I would do it. So I started designing things and discussing them with friends I'd made but never met. None of my ideas worked, but they got the interest of a pokemon named Raw. I chatted with him for a few days and he invited me to join his team. He wanted to meet me..."

"And... you did?"

He glanced up at her, meeting her eyes briefly. "He was the first pokemon to not even comment on my stripes."

"And I'm sure he won't be the last." Pixel gave him a warm smile. "Plus, you have friends now. You've got me, Switch, Retro, N00b..."

A smile spread across his lips. One that lit up his entire face. She couldn't help but smile back and for a moment everything felt fine. The mission was wiped completely from her mind for just that moment, then it all came rushing back. The falling islands. Leaf. The cracks.

"Pixel, are you okay?"

She looked back up at him and forced a smile. She wanted desperately to keep those memories at bay.

"I'm fine. Just... I kinda wanna take my mind off things, you know?"

He nodded stiffly. "I get that."

She released her knees to lean back on the arm of the chair and clapped her paws together.

"I know! After all this is over, what do you want to do?"

His eyes went distant and he diverted his gaze to the wall. "Pixel, I don't think I-"

"No!" She caught him in a glare and shook her head. "We're not thinking like that. Let's say everything is going to be okay. The Fracture is gone, the virus is gone. What do you want to do?"

He stared back at her and as the initial alarm left his eyes she felt her glare melt away. It was such an intense stare but it didn't make her feel uneasy. She wasn't sure when she'd stopped feeling uneasy. His two tails twitched then flopped over the side of the sofa as his eyes searched her. Whatever he was looking for she didn't know. To her it was just a simple question but maybe he'd not thought that far ahead?

Switch wanted to see the Analog Isles.

She wanted to get her investigation team back together.

Maybe Vector had no plans. Maybe he'd felt there was no need to make any.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and was about to apologise when the meowstic clambered towards her and caught her in a kiss. He trailed a paw over the fur on the back of her head and neck, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him, relishing in his closeness. When he pulled away, he nuzzled her cheek and pulled her into him.

She felt herself relax in his arms and she buried her face into his soft fur.

When he spoke, his voice came out as barely a whisper. "I want to be with you."

That lump rose back into her throat, bringing with it a choked sob as the very thoughts she'd been trying to shut out came back like an avalanche, creating a massive barricade that chilled her to the core. She snuggled into him, hiding her face in his ruff as his paw brushed slowly up and down her back, but it couldn't soothe away the rising dread and uncertainty that only intensified with every second that ticked by.

...​

It was still dark when Pixel next opened her eyes. At some point she'd fallen asleep but she had no idea how long for. The candlelight gave enough light to go by and she found herself still lying in Vector's arms, his blue eyes locked onto hers. He brushed a paw over her cheek and gave her a weak smile.

"How long have I been asleep?" she croaked.

"You were asleep when I got here," came Switch's voice.

Her spine stiffened and she craned her neck around to see Switch huddled in his talonflame form by the tunnel's opening. A quick glance around the control room told her everyone was awake but her. Retro was sat in her computer chair, sprawled over her desk with a mug of juice. The only real activity came from the unown who busied about the room gathering supplies together.

"We were going to wake you both soon, actually," Switch went on.

Pixel pushed herself up and leant back against the sofa beside Vector. "You're gathering supplies?"

"Yes," said Retro. The mew turned her chair to face her. She looked like she hadn't slept a wink. "I was thinking about it most of the night, what Vector suggested. And I've decided I agree with him."

Vector's eyes widened with surprise.

"We do need to stop it," Retro went on. "And if there's a chance he can erase the problem at its source then... then stopping him would be wrong."

"So we're going to the Fracture?" Pixel asked. "All of us?"

Retro nodded sullenly.

"When?" asked Pixel.

"As soon as you two are ready to go. We've been busy for the past..." The mew rubbed at her temples and sank into her chair. "I don't even know what time it is..."

"We might have an idea once we're out of this tunnel," said Switch. "My guess is it's daylight."

He didn't look up at any of them. Just huddled in the tunnel's mouth with his feathers puffed out. Pixel didn't know what the reason was, but if she were to guess it would either be recent events or just being uncomfortable being underground. He had been forced to spend most of his time as a talonflame simply due to size constraints, and bird pokemon weren't exactly cut out for living underground.

"Well, I'm ready now," said Vector.

Pixel's heart lurched into her throat and she looked around at him.

"To be honest, I just want to get this over with," he said.

She clasped a paw to her chest and looked away. It was happening now. Soon they would be at the Fracture, and the thought of what might happen, the sheer uncertainty of it all, filled her with dread.

"Don't be so hasty," said Retro. "I do have requirements, and if you want our help you need to follow them."

Vector stared unblinkingly at her and his paws balled into fists. Nevertheless, he didn't say anything.

"When you go beyond that wall," Retro said slowly, "you take a wireless communicator with you. That way, all being well, we can stay in contact."

"Communications are down," Vector said with a flash of his canines. "Or did you forget that?"

"Oh, I didn't forget." She reached into her bag and pulled out a large lump of plastic. Rectangle, like a very blocky phone with a chunky antennae. "This is a walkie talkie. I have three, and they all work together. You are to take two in with you, just in case one gets damaged."

A hint of confusion spread over his face as he stared at the device. The mew's revelation of owning such an outdated technology had taken him by surprise, but such things no longer had that affect on Pixel. Retro had always lived up to her name.

"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll take your 'walkie talkie'."

"Good!" Retro floated off her seat and bobbed towards the tunnel. "If Pixel's ready, we'll leave."

Pixel stared after her for a moment before sliding off the sofa. Vector was already on his feet and he fastened his paw around hers. It made her feel a little more at ease.

"How are we getting there?" she ventured to ask.

"Teleport," said the mew. "I can't get us all there in one go, however. Moving blindly would be a disaster. I might land us amongst all those cracks, so we'll have to go with caution." She glanced back at them over her shoulder. "It might take a while."

Switch ducked aside to let Retro pass then twisted awkwardly around to move into the tunnel.

Light was already visible at the end of it, the sun's golden rays flowing through the jungle's canopy and lighting up the various flora. Crack after crack competed against the sunlight with its ultraviolet glare, several new threads warping tree branches and distorting the thick ferns and vines. A large branch lay across their path just outside the outcrop's cave.

"I feel like it gets worse with every passing second," said Switch.

He spread his wings out in a stretch, causing his spine to pop and he let out a long sigh.

"Well, hopefully soon this will all be over," said Retro.

She looked up at the canopy and turned on the spot, searching through the trees and humming to herself in thought. Finally she nodded and turned to address the group.

"If you're ready, we're going to begin teleporting. I should warn you if you've not done it before it might make you a little sick."

There was a flash of pink and Pixel found herself engulfed in a large bubble along with the rest of her friends. There wasn't much time to process it as the world distorted around them, then vanished briefly before it appeared once more. More trees. More jungle. A pause as Retro calculated her next move.

Switch groaned and leant back against the bubble, his wing feathers pressed over his face. The mew gave him a sympathetic smile before she moved them on, and the world distorted again.

...​

The sun had moved across the sky by the time they reached the Fracture. Trees and cities had made it very hard for Retro to navigate her teleportation around the cracks. Despite being immune to the virus none of them had wanted to take any risks with the cracks. They worked in a different way and fear of the unknown had encouraged them to proceed with caution.

Once freed from the bubble, Pixel stepped forward and looked up at the wall of static. It was surrounded by those cracks. They were thicker than she'd ever seen them, slicing through trees and buildings that had long since been destroyed by them. The very ground itself looked like it had been sliced to bits. Deep, violet grooves ran through the ground like a web making it look like chunks of earth were merely floating in a void. She cautiously stepped over one as she made her way towards the wall of static.

Numbers raced up the wall, changing so quickly she could barely take it in. It was just like the distorted code that rose up from those egg shells, only much denser, hiding whatever lay beyond the Fracture's wall.

"Don't be so hasty!" Retro appeared beside her and thrust the large walkie talkie into her paws. "I want to double check these work first."

Switch, now in his human form, removed his hand from his head to take the second one. All colour had drained from his face and hadn't returned quite yet.

The mew warped a few feet away and spoke into her handset. Static crackled from Pixel's device, followed by Retro's voice.

"Can you hear me?"

Pixel felt a smile spread across her face and she pushed the large green button before replying. "I can hear you."

"Good." The device crackled for a moment, then, "Switch? You didn't answer me."

"I can hear you loud and clear," he mumbled.

Pixel was pleasantly surprised she could hear him coming through her handset as well.

Retro warped back and looked at each of them in turn. "I can't deny I'm worried sick. But I wish you all the best." She paused and fumbled with the handset. "Go save our world."

X darted over her shoulder and stopped in front of her face. "Yes, and please! Be x-tra careful!"

Amp let out a long groan and bobbed in a way Pixel assumed meant he was shaking his head. "Puns at a time like this, X?"

"I was being x-tremely sincere, actually."

Pixel smiled at them then took Retro's paw in her own. "We'll try our best. But should anything happen, please find Nybble and Byte. I'm worried about them."

"Oh, yeh," said Switch. "They'll probably be with Connor by now. If you go to Spool City and look for a trubbish named Kurg, he'll show you where his hideout is."

Retro narrowed her eyes and frowned. "Don't talk like this."

Pixel gave her paw a squeeze then stood back and faced the wall of static. She gave one last look at the mew and unown, then looked up at her two friends. Vector fastened his paw around hers and gave her a reassuring nod.

Switch smiled warmly and slipped the walkie talkie into one of his trouser pockets.

"Let's do this together," he said. "On three. One... two..."

They stepped through the wall and immediately Pixel could feel her fur standing on end. A low hiss reached her ears and everything turned black. But she could still feel the ground beneath her feet and Vector's paw fastened over hers. She still kept walking.

Then light.

Light was leaking down above them, through the static wall that expanded over them like a dome, criss-crossed with a thick net of cracks. Surrounding them lay a city in ruin. Buildings with their roofs caved in, crumbling skyscrapers sliced through with cracks, vehicles discarded beside the road and against walls where they'd been tossed by the explosion, twisted and bent lamp posts, blank billboards, and in the distance a warped antennae no longer blinking its light.

Desolate.

A loud crunch startled Pixel so much she squealed. She span around just as Switch lifted his foot off a splintered piece of hollow metal. A wing broken free from a body that resembled a small helicopter.

"It's one of the drones," said Vector. His voice and that crunch amplified just how silent it was in this place. Not even a breeze drifted through it.

"They didn't get very far, huh?" said Switch. He turned to look back at the wall and reached out with his hand. "Well, there's no going back now. This is rock solid."

Both Pixel and Vector copied him, the cool surface penetrating her fur. It felt just like a stone wall. She swallowed drily and stood back from it.

"We should let Retro know we're through at least." She lifted the walkie talkie to her mouth and pushed the button. "Retro, we're through."
Silence. Nothing but silence.

Her heart sank and she looked up at Switch. "I don't think I'm getting through to her."
A look of concern creased Switch's features and he pulled out his own device. He barked a few 'hellos' into it, receiving nothing back. With a sigh, he stuffed it back into his pocket.

"Unfortunately, it looks like that wall cuts off all communication." He scratched his head and looked back down at the damaged drone. "That would explain why those drones didn't get very far."

Pixel followed his gaze along the static wall. A few feet away lay another two drones and what looked like a camera.

Vector placed a paw on her shoulder, drawing her attention back to him. "Since we can't get back out, we might as well do what we came here for then."

Switch had picked up the drone and was turning it around in his hands. He looked over at the two pokemon and quickly placed it back on the ground.

"I guess you're right." He trotted after them and folded his hands behind his head.

With every step they took, something seemed strange. Pixel wasn't sure if it was just an illusion created by the unsettling element of the place, but there was something really not quite right. She scanned her eyes over the passing buildings, eyeing the windows. Some still had paper signs behind them advertising games and movies that were long outdated. This was a city frozen in time.

"Wait... guys..."

Switch faltered behind them and they stopped to look back at him.

"What?" Pixel asked.

"The door..." He pointed at the skyscraper beside her.

When she turned to look, a gasp escaped her throat. The door was gone. Just a wall of stone with the building's number placed beside where the door was meant to be.

"I thought something looked weird," said Vector. "Why would the door be missing?"

"I don't know." Switch moved closer to them, tracing his eyes over the buildings. "I keep thinking I can see something moving, but... it's the doors!" He span to look back at the skyscraper. "They're moving!"

Pixel followed his gaze and her jaw dropped. The door was back, right at the edge of the building. She shook her head and moved backwards, her eyes locked on that door. With every step she took it moved, and not consecutively. It either leapt a few feet back and fro from the number, or vanished entirely. It wasn't the only one either. Every door around them either moved with every footstep or just warped randomly along its wall.

"I don't like this at all," said Switch.

"Neither do I," said Vector. "But like you said, there's no going back. We need to find this source and erase it."

"I know. I know." Switch fastened his hands back behind his head and began to whistle a cheery tune as he strode along beside them.

Vector narrowed his eyes at him. "What are you doing?"

"This place is really giving me the creeps," he said. "I thought I'd at least try to add a bit of cheer to this awful silence."

 

[Chibi Pika]

HOT DAMN.

Chapter 33 holy crap! One bombshell after another. o__o The sheer scope of the catastrophe and the horror of seeing the continents fall and the crisis facing the medical quarantine and just how crippled everyone was by the loss of communication—all of it hit with the the impact of of dump truck without letting up.

And then OH GEEZ “34: Glitch City” I’M NOT READY AAAAAAAA. ****’s about to get real!

First of all, that conversation between Pixel and vector was just heartbreaking. Especially this part: “He already knew it was an accident, and accident or not, it didn’t change anything.” Pixel’s trying so hard to make him feel better, but there really is no way to reassure someone in this situation. When your accident was indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands.

And man. Chills. I was actually surprised by how… normal the city was. A desolate, forgotten landscape, but largely whole and intact—nothing like the shattered, broken mess that System had become. I was expecting a distorted and incoherent mess of a city melting into code. But instead… it’s calm and quiet and yet… wrong. And then the distortions start.

I’ve got a feeling things are about to get a whooooole lot more messed up in the next chapter.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[DreamSayer]

I finally got my lazy *** to read the second chapter. I was thinking of making a cumulative review but I’ve decided to just be reviewing the story chapter by chapter. Anyway, let me get on with it.

The second chapter was just as good a read to me as the last one. This chapter introduced a handful of characters to the table.

We have Leaf the ivysaur, Nybble and Byte the emolgas, Pixel the mawile and lastly, Switch the human talonflame. However, this chapter was more focused on the latter two.

The chapter went from Pixel going to Raster Town to get some info to them being chased down by a mob. The fight against those gabite gangsters was really funny. They didn’t even stand a chance at all. Well, more or less anyway. That’s what they get for being scumbags. The whole scene felt like watching a western and even the location felt just like that.

I’m curious about the mystery behind the disappearances of those three pokemon that Pixel mentioned. Especially that Mew. But I’m sure that was revealed later on in the story as I will soon find out if I continue reading anyway.

We also had some light shed on how humans live in this pokemon world. While some remained humans and some became pokemon, others have the power to switch forms. And I can’t help but get the feeling that the human other than Switch that’s able to switch forms is going to be an antagonist at some point. At least, that’s what things currently indicate anyway. I wonder if I’m right though.

Anyway, I don’t have a whole lot more to talk about, so I’ll just end my review here. I’ll soon be reviewing the third chapter whenever I’m done reading it.


Review for Chapter 2
This chapter shed some more light on the virus. We got to know more about the way it affects pokemon by changing their typings which can lead to negative reactions in their bodies. I wonder if that’s such a bad thing though. What if the virus ends up benefitting a pokemon more and makes them stronger instead? That’s not beyond the realm of possibility, is it?

There’s also the fact that the charmander that Pixel is looking for could be the one that was shown among those recently infected by the virus. I use the word could because I know you could troll the readers by making it a completely unrelated charmander. I’m not implying that you did, but it’s definitely something I could see myself doing.

We also got introduced to Switch’s gang and I find them to be quite likable. I can clearly see that n00b is meant to be a comic relief character. I just hope that won’t be all there will be to him.

There’s also the mystery behind Switch’s real name and his past continues to remain ambiguous. At least he’s not stuck in a pokemon form for the rest of his life unlike his peers.

I agree with Connor that they shouldn’t be focusing on just getting more and more members. Even though there is strength in numbers, too many cooks still spoil the broth. Sometimes, it’s best to remain a small number.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

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.

Thank you both for your feedback and support =D I love reading your reviews!

...

35 - Missing Number​

No amount of time spent in this place could get them used to the changing doors. It was just too eerie. Each time one moved set Pixel on edge. She didn't understand how Vector could just tune them out like he did. He just kept walking, scanning his eyes over everything they passed, searching for something that none of them even knew how to identify.

They had to move slowly, keeping one arm outstretched since on several occasions they'd reached an invisible wall that had forced them to walk into the road or take a different path entirely. It had given rise to a lot of confusion as the invisible walls didn't make much sense. They just appeared, like solid invisible buildings in the middle of their path or jutting out from one of the stone walls.

In the short time they'd been there, Switch had changed from whistling to humming, but his voice wavered with nerves which only served to unsettle her further. She wound her scarf around her paws while she tried to spot anything that might key them in as to what they were actually looking for.

Vector stopped abruptly in his tracks and his ears stiffened.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

Switch immediately stopped his humming, plunging them into silence. The three of them stood there, straining their ears against nothing.

"I'm sorry," said Pixel. "Maybe you imagined-"

"Shh!" Vector placed a paw on her arm and inclined his head on one side.

A sob. Pixel's heart leapt into her throat. It was very quiet. Almost inaudible. If it weren't for the city's unusual silence they would never have even heard it.

"Do you think there's someone in here?" she whispered.

"I don't know." Vector released her and slowly moved across the road, following that heart-wrenching sob. Before he even reached the other side, the sound faded. He crossed his arms and grunted. "Great."

"I don't know if I want to follow it, if I'm honest," said Switch. "I think it's fairly safe to say no one's alive in this place."

Another sound reached their ears. An explosion, or the build up to it. Pixel braced herself for an impact, but before the noise could even reach a crescendo it stopped, followed by that sob.

Vector scurried over to the sidewalk and vanished around the bend. Pixel shook her head in disbelief and followed after him. There was no way she was losing him in this place. Switch's heavy footsteps resounded after her, unusually loud. Part of her wondered if they should even make any noise in this place. If something was alive there was no saying it was on their side. Making a sound would only give them away.

When she found Vector again he was standing in a square. Empty market stalls lay scattered around, the wooden structures splintered and sticking out in dangerous, jagged points. A strange form lay against one of the stone walls. A pokemon, or what used to be one. The lower half of its body had turned to stone, but the upper part still resembled a throh in every way. Lying before him was an egg.

Vector stared at the throh, his jaw hanging open as though he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He took one tentative step towards him and cleared his throat.

"Raw?"

The throh turned his neck stiffly but when his eyes landed on the meowstic they widened with a mixture of fear and surprise.

"Vector?" He shook his head slowly. "What... what happened to you?"

Vector flexed his paws as he stared at the other pokemon then glanced away. "It's a long story. Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know," said Raw. "That bomb didn't hold out long enough. Something triggered it. We all got... tossed into the air and when I finally landed I was transformed into this." He gestured to his grey lower half. "Right here it's just me and Sprocket."

Everyone's eyes went to the egg.

"Poor kid," said Raw. "I just can't watch this any more."

Vector took a step back as the egg began to glow, pushing Pixel towards the wall. Egg shell exploded out in all directions with a deafening roar then froze in the air, the sound coming to a sudden stop. Amongst the debris lay the small form of a pachirisu huddled into a ball with her paws clasped over her head. Her tiny body shook with sobs. There wasn't a single hint of the virus anywhere on her body.

Pixel took a step towards her, but Vector held her back. He'd heard it before she did. A sucking sound grew in intensity and every piece of shell flew back towards her into the perfect, unblemished form of an egg.

Switch hugged himself and looked around nervously. "Oh, I want to get out of this place."
"You and me both, brother," said Raw.

They fell into silence again, eyes drifting from the egg to the throh and back. Vector's paws twitched and he took a small step towards his friend.

"Raw... I can fix this."

"No." Raw stiffly raised a paw. "Save the world first, then worry about us."

Vector stuttered with confusion but Raw waved him off.

"I don't know what happened after that explosion," the throh said. "But seeing you all white like that is enough to tell me something's gone wrong. You didn't come inside the Fracture with us, did you? Maybe that was a good thing. We clearly made a mistake. But listen... there's a lab. You know there's a lab. I always thought they had something to do with all this. They were meant to be investigating and curing diseases, but they were awful secretive. There's no hacking their systems now, it all got wiped out. But before it did, I got curious and I found something." He looked up at them, locking his eyes onto Vectors. "They were trying to make something. A pokemon."

The egg exploded again, the shell freezing in the exact same spot it had before. Sprocket's sobs cut through the silence making Raw visibly flinch.

"I didn't find out anything else," he said. "I got too scared to keep searching. The thought of artificially making a pokemon turned my stomach. It saw the end to my hacking days. There are some things better left uncovered."

Switch tensed and his face creased into a frown. "A lab?"

"Aye." Raw nodded. "Sounds perfectly innocent enough, huh?"

"There was a lab where I was staying..."

Switch's voice sounded oddly distant. Pixel looked up at him but he stared blankly across at the splintered market stalls.

That sucking sound cut through the air, engulfing the pachirisu once more and bringing her sobs to a sudden halt.

"Where can we find this lab?" Vector asked the throh.

"I had it memorised," said Raw. "It's somewhere near the centre. Keep following the main road and you should reach it. But I must warn you, if it were the lab that blew up I don't know how much of it is left standing."

Vector nodded. "All right. We'll get to the bottom of this. You'll get your body back." He looked down at the egg and his paws twitched. "Both of you."

It wasn't obvious if Sprocket had heard him, but Pixel really hoped she had. That hearing it would give the frightened pachirisu some hope. They turned away from the two pokemon and Vector gave one last glance back before they rounded the corner back onto the main road.

...​

There it was. The lab. Its size and appearance intimidating in the ruined city. The roof lay caved in at one end and the wall beneath it had crumbled away. However there was no reaching that end of it as an invisible building blocked their path.

"I guess we have no choice but to use the door," said Pixel.

"I wouldn't want to walk through a crumbling wall anyway," said Switch. "Who knows whether it'll just come piling down on top of us?"

"He makes a good point," said Vector. "But we might have another problem."

He eyed the door as they approached it, watching as it slipped along to the left where it eventually stopped beyond the invisible wall.

Vector let out a frustrated breath and moved towards it, but the door vanished and reappeared behind them at the far end of the building. Pixel watched it advance towards them as though it was stalking Vector, but when the meowstic looked back and tried to reach it, the door moved back the way it came.

Switch stroked his chin in thought. "Hang on, let me try something."

Vector looked from Switch to the door as the human paced back and forth. With every step he took the door vanished and reappeared somewhere else on the wall, but not once did it appear directly before them.

"It seems to behave differently depending on who's moving," said Pixel.

Vector threw his arms in the air. "Oh, this is so frustrating! I'm just gonna blast our way through the wall!"

"No!" Switch grabbed his paw and tugged him backwards. "Don't! You've seen the state of it! You might bring the whole building down!"

Vector growled through his teeth and tugged his paw back from Switch's hand, but instead of lashing out at the wall he took a steadying breath and brushed his arm down.

"Fine," he muttered.

He looked the building up and down, searching for another clear way inside. Pixel glanced back at the door perched several feet away from them and took a step towards it. The door slid along towards them. With another step it warped and appeared on Vector's left. Its unpredictable movements were impossible to work with. She let out a small sigh and edged towards Vector, but as she moved the door stopped right before him.

He glanced at her and muttered, "Don't move."

It wasn't clear if he was talking to her or the door. He grabbed the handle in one paw and shook it, muttering under his breath. The door was locked tight. He raised his paw and brought it crashing down on the handle, shattering it free from the wood and sending it with a deafening clatter onto the concrete where it bounced away behind them.

"Subtle," said Switch.

Vector didn't so much as look at him. He slipped beyond the door into the laboratory.

Pixel and Switch exchanged glances and he waved towards the opening.

"After you," he said.

She gave him a smile then rushed for the door.

Which moved.

Her heart sank. It was going to take them forever to get inside.

"It's split us up," she said.

"Don't worry, I have an idea," said Switch. "But you'll have to forgive me."

"Forgive you?" She looked up at him to press for more information but instead she let out a squeak as he scooped her up off her feet.

"This is the only way I can think of for us to stay together," he said. "Just pretend we're flying."

She fastened her claws into the shoulder of his jacket and looked back over her shoulder at the wall. It was impossible to imagine they were flying. It was nowhere near as smooth. With every step he took she felt herself jostled against his chest. She focused her attention on the door, watching it vanish and reappear randomly. He'd move left and the door would warp several feet to the right. He'd move right and it would move beyond the invisible wall. Back to the left sent it further beyond the wall to stand alone amongst the crumbled debris.

It was too risky to take more than one step. If he went too fast they would risk missing the door entirely. After what felt like an eternity, they heard Vector's voice beyond the wall.

"Don't move!"

Switch froze, clutching Pixel to his body as they both stared at the door two paces to his left.

It vanished and reappeared so it was directly in front of them. Vector's blue eyes leered at them from the doorway.

Switch didn't wait around to ask questions. He ducked through the door and once inside he set Pixel back down onto the ground.

"I'm sorry about that," he said. "I do try to respect boundaries here since, you know... you're not pets like back in my world."

Pixel brushed down her scarf and gave him a small smile. "It's okay. You do bounce a lot though."

He grinned and folded his arms behind his head. "I've always been told I have a spring in my step." His smile fell and he looked back down at Vector. "So, how did you know where the door would end up?"

"Easy," said Vector. "When I walked down this corridor it appeared right before me. I guess, somehow, the building wants me out. I tried it a couple of times and I was going to tell you to wait right where the door appeared. Finding you directly outside it was just a coincidence."

"Huh! Impressive." Switch looked back at the open door. "I guess it'll be easy to escape if we need to then?"

"I guess." Vector turned away and began marching down the corridor.

Pixel and Switch fell into place behind him, eyeing up the walls as they passed. Noticeboards were nailed to the walls, filled with old notes about events long since past, or information on hygiene and diseases. The thought of any viruses or bacteria lying in spilled pots beyond those walls unsettled her greatly.

They reached a set of double doors at a crossroads in the corridor. Beyond that door was a large room and on either side of them the corridor stretched out on either side, lined with door after door. Vector took the left one and Switch immediately stopped him.

"Do you have a plan?" he asked.

Vector looked back at him and shrugged him off. "Yeh. I want to go to the explosion site."

"And what if it caves in?"

A small grin spread across Vector's face and he laughed. "Are you forgetting I smashed your foot free of rocks? I think I could deflect a cave in."

"Yes. You might be safe," said Switch. "But what about us two? We'd be crushed."

Vector looked from Switch to Pixel and his smile fell. His eyes softened with worry and he let his paws relax at his side. "You don't have to come with me. In fact, don't. I'll go and explore then I'll meet you back here and tell you what I find."

Pixel placed a paw on her chest and looked over his shoulder down the dark corridor. She could see the pile of debris at the end. The faint light leaking in through the crevices in the wall. If that was where the Fracture happened then that might be where the source was.

"No," she said. "I'm coming with you. I told you I would. You're not doing this alone."

He locked his blue eyes on hers as he searched for a response. There was no sign of anger on his face, but his two tails swished from side to side stirring up the thick dust that had settled after the explosion. Finally they returned to their default position behind him and he took her paw in his.

"I can't guarantee your safety," he said. "But I get the feeling you'll just follow me anyway."

A small smile played at her lips and he returned it before he turned to advance down the corridor, letting her fall into place beside him.

Switch looked around nervously then ducked through the doorway to follow after them.

"You're coming too?" Vector asked.

"I've come this far haven't I?" said Switch. "I might as well see it all the way through."

Unlike the doors outside, the ones along the corridor remained static. Each small window showed nothing but darkness and in the end Pixel gave up trying to see beyond them. They were all locked shut and Vector had no interest in bursting through them. His focus was on the crumbling structure at the end of the corridor.

The closer they got to it the more light there was to go by. She could now make out the signs above the doors. 'Berry Treatment'; 'Poisons and Antidotes'; 'Burn Lab'. Then one room caught Vector's attention. 'Evolution'.

His brow furrowed and he released Pixel's paw to peer inside. "The wall in here is blown in."

"That's not surprising," said Switch. "We're right near the explosion site."

"Evolution," Vector muttered. "They were trying to make a new pokemon... I wonder..."

He tried the door, but once again it was locked. He braced himself to strike it, but Switch nudged him aside.

"I've got this one," he said.

He brought his boot down against the woodwork, creating a sickening crack as the wood splintered around the hinges. Another kick saw the door thrown backwards into the room.

"There," said Switch. "I thought I'd save you the effort."

Vector looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "You could have brought the rest of the building down on us with that little stunt."

"And your counter attack would have been perfectly safe?"

The meowstic shrugged and slipped into the room, treading carefully around the shattered door.

Pixel followed after him, her eyes scanning over the room and taking in the mess of paperwork, crumbled rock, broken tables and scattered elemental stones.

"You think this is where they were making that new pokemon?" she asked.

"I think it's very likely," said Vector. He lifted a small, round stone out of the debris and turned it around in his paw. "Looks like they were covering every aspect of it too. They even have mega stones."

"Maybe they were trying to make a mega meowstic?" said Switch.

Vector frowned at him. "Is this really the time to make jokes?"

Switch simply shrugged.

Pixel gathered up a fallen notebook, sending a few loose pages back to the ground. She flicked it open and glanced over the first page. A large, red 'confidential' stamp was printed right beside the title.

"Finding the missing link," she read. "A confusing mystery in evolution."

Vector appeared at her side and looked over her shoulder, his eyes scanning over the title. Switch scooped up the torn pages and leafed through them.

"Whatever this missing link is, they did thorough work," he said.

The room dimmed and warped around them, and Pixel let out a gasp when she found herself standing in a dark room lit only with ultraviolet light. The file was no longer in her paws but the room was littered with papers that in this light seemed impossibly white, and Vector's fur seemed luminous under the light from the dark sky. Something glittered red in the corner and she looked up at a statue of a persian, its eyes blinking from red to green and back.

"Where are we?" she asked. "This... this isn't the lab..."

Switch stooped to grab some of the papers off the floor. "These are different to the ones you dropped," he said. "This... this is talking about mew."

She tentatively grabbed one of the papers and swallowed drily. She couldn't even read the title. It was in some language unknown to her.

Vector took it from her and turned it around to view it from every angle. "This makes no sense. What language is this?"

"It's a human language," said Switch. He leant over him and pointed at the title, "'The Mystery of Mew – Cloning from a Fossil.'"

"Mystery of mew?" Vector repeated with a snort.

"I think we're in my world," said Switch slowly. "Back in my world... mew is classed as a 'mirage'. Humans claim to have seen one but... it's been dismissed as a legend. They don't exist."

"That's why you were so surprised when I told you about Retro!" said Pixel.

"Exactly. But what I don't understand is how they can clone something no one has ever confirmed to exist." He leant back on a dusty table and scanned over the documents in his hands.

Pixel and Vector waited patiently for the human to explain, straining their ears to pick up what he was muttering beneath his breath. Pixel found her eyes wandering while she waited. The room looked just like any other lab, but everything was broken. The wall was blown through just like the room they'd been in before. But that persian statue unnerved her. Sitting, staring, its eyes flashing from green to red, looking like it would pounce at any second.

"They found a fossil," Switch finally said. "They were trying to clone it from one of its hairs. But where..." He lowered the papers and looked over at the rubble. Then he stood and rushed from the room.

"Wait!" Vector bolted after him.

Then the room warped once more and Switch froze in the corridor, stumbling to stop himself crashing into the wall.

"Well that was fortunate," said Vector. "I don't trust this place one bit."

Switch placed his hand on the wall and shook his head. "Me neither. Why were we just in my world?"

"If this is where you came through then it kinda makes sense," said Vector. "I think we're closer to your world than we realise. Those invisible walls..."

"They're buildings," Switch finished.

"Yeh. I kinda worked that out before you took off. You could have got stuck in a wall or something if we came back. We need to move carefully if that happens again."

Pixel felt a chill run down her spine at that thought and she shook her fur violently. "I really want to get out of here."

"Well, we need to suss this out first." Vector moved back into the room and retrieved the dropped file, flicking it open to the first page. "Finding the missing link," he read. "All pokemon lay eggs and hatch young, but one particular pokemon had confused us for centuries. Kangaskhan. This pokemon, which is only female, always hatches with a joey in its pouch which remains with it all the way through into adulthood and then death, never ageing but seemingly sentient. Why is this? We intend to find out."

"So they were researching kangaskhan?" Switch scratched his hair. "Back in my world we see the joey as a symbiotic parasite that every kangaskhan carries."

Vector was flicking through the pages, quickly scanning over them. "This says one of their theories is that the joey is actually the male and the two have never separated. Listen to this – 'During mega evolution, the joey leaves the pouch and fights with the 'mother'. This is evidence that somehow the joey can be separated. That it is actually a separate entity.'"

"Were they actually running tests on a kangaskhan?" Pixel asked.

"Yes. They had a volunteer. I'm just skimming over them, they seem pretty generic." Vector's expression had grown bored and he looked like he was about to put the folder down, but then something caught his attention and his eyes widened. "Looks like they never finished the experiment."

"Well, this place did blow up," said Switch. "I imagine a lot of experiments were left unfinished."

"Maybe some of the loose pages finish it?" Pixel offered.

"There might be. This is dated a week before the explosion," said Vector. "They had removed the joey and were keeping it separate from the kangaskhan to see how it reacted when it was alone. Three scientists were left during night shifts to monitor it and to try to avoid any adverse effects." He looked over at the rubble at the end of the corridor. "And they were doing those tests in the evolution research lab."

He tucked the folder under his arm and moved over to the pile of rubble at the end of the corridor.

"You don't seriously think they're linked to that explosion?" Switch asked. "It was just a kangaskhan."

Vector adjusted the folder in his grip and tried to clamber over the crumbling rocks. Switch gave a heavy sigh and shook his head.

"All right, fine," he said. "But if we get crushed..."

He shrank down into a talonflame and rose into the air, grabbing Vector in his talons. The meowstic let out a small yelp of surprise but he wasn't in the air for long. He was deposited into the wide lab space and was soon joined by Pixel and Switch.

Before any of them could take in the room it dimmed and they found themselves in that ultraviolet world. Another persian statue stared at them from beside the crumbled mound through a pair of blinking eyes. The whole room was filled with large glass cylinders, their surfaces cracked and shattered. Glass littered the floor amongst pools of dried blood that looked alarming under the ultraviolet rays. Above them was a gaping hole where the roof had been blown in during an immense explosion.

Switch was shaking from head to foot and he ran a hand through his red and brown hair.

"I can't handle this," he muttered.

Pixel looked up at him with a sympathetic nod and clasped her paws together as she looked over the room. One of those cylinders wasn't like the others. It was lying in total ruin, sharp shards of thick glass sticking up from the base. She moved over to it and ducked to read the sign just below where the glass would have met the metal.

"I can't read this," she said. "I think it's in your language again."
Switch joined her and when he read the sign he let out a low groan and rubbed a hand over his face.

"Mewtwo," he said.

Both Pixel and Vector looked up at him and she wound her scarf around her paws.

"I've not heard of a 'mewtwo'," she said.

"No, I guess not," said Switch. "Neither have I. I'm guessing, like porygon, it's man-made."

"So you humans were creating pokemon?" Vector grunted.

"Apparently." Switch stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked over at the state of the room. The rubble. The glass. The blood. The destroyed roof. "But I'm guessing it backfired."

The room warped around them once more, bringing them back into the evolution research lab. Tables scattered on the ground burnt and broken, the floor littered with paperwork most of which was singed black, shattered computers and what looked like two beds covered in a glass casing, each one beside the remains of a large ECG machine that lay in pieces on the ground. One pod was cracked while the other looked like it had been blown open as something tried to escape. Pixel wondered if it had been the kangaskhan.

"Hey, guys." Switch was looking down at the papers on the table, spreading them out with one hand. "Did you know every pokemon species is numbered?"

"What do you mean?" Vector joined his side and took one of the sheets.

"This lab. It has every species catalogued and numbered. My world does the same thing, but it varies depending what country you're from. They've highlighted the kangaskhan."

Vector narrowed his eyes at the list. "So they have."

Pixel peered over his shoulder, noting the arrow beside the kangaskhan's name. "'Missing Number?'"

"I guess that's what they were calling the joey." Vector placed the list back on the table and looked back at the two beds. "It's a shame we'll never know exactly what happened here."

He moved over to them and pulled himself up to look inside the one that was cracked. His eyes flew wide open and he backed away from it, his paw going to his chest.

"Is... is something still inside there?" Switch's voice came out oddly high and his golden eyes went to the cracked pod.

"It's the kangaskhan," Vector managed. "What's left of her anyway."

Mama?

All three of them stiffened and twisted their heads to pinpoint the child-like voice.

Mama!

But it was impossible. It seemed to be screaming from everywhere at once.

Mama! Mama! Mama!

The computer monitor beside Switch sparked and the tower lit up, noisily humming to life. The speaker crackled and popped, drowning out the eerie voice, then a recording broke through the static, the words coming out in bursts as the audio cut at odd intervals.

'Something's going wrong!'

'Nothing's ... wrong. It's fine.'

'No, the kangaskhan! ... heart's stopped!'

'What are you talking about? She was fine five minutes ago!'

'... to the emergency room! Stat!'

'What about the joey? I can't ... it! It's gone savage!'

'Then leave it! We ... to hurry!'

'No! Mama! Bring back my mama!'

Banging. Crackling. Shattering glass.

The voices in the audio merged together as panic increased, interspersed with banging and screaming from a tormented child. The next comprehensible words were; 'Fire!' 'There's a fire!' 'Get out of here! Now!'

Then the audio cut out.

Silence.

Pixel's breath came in heavy bursts and she was aware of her friends' breathing as each of them stood, motionless, bracing themselves in case something else happened. The broken computer had fallen silent, its monitor no longer sparking.

Mama?

Everyone's breath froze and their eyes went back to the pods. They now seemed a lot more ominous than they had previously.

Pixel took in the shattered casing, the damaged ECG machine with its frazzled wires. The audio played through her mind and she could almost see the chaos playing out in the room. The source of that fire. But what had exploded?

Exploding eggs.

That blood.

Her paws flew to her mouth as she tried her best to block out the image of that kangaskhan joey meeting the same fate as the pokemon that hatched from those eggs.

All this was the result of a terrible mistake.

The Fracture hadn't just started with that explosion. It had started the day that joey had been separated from its mother.

 

[Jirachi100]

Yay, you know it's pronounced "Missing Number" and not "Missing No"! I get annoyed when I hear it mispronounced. I learned the abbreviation from the "No. 2" pencils I had to use at school. XD

The computer monitor beside Switch sparked and the tower lit up, noisily humming to life. The speaker crackled and popped, drowning out the eerie voice, then a recording broke through the static, the words coming out in bursts as the audio cut at odd intervals.

'Something's going wrong!'

'Nothing's ... wrong. It's fine.'

'No, the kangaskhan! ... heart's stopped!'

'What are you talking about? She was fine five minutes ago!'

'... to the emergency room! Stat!'

'What about the joey? I can't ... it! It's gone savage!'

'Then leave it! We ... to hurry!'

'No! Mama! Bring back my mama!'

Banging. Crackling. Shattering glass.

The voices in the audio merged together as panic increased, interspersed with banging and screaming from a tormented child. The next comprehensible words were; 'Fire!' 'There's a fire!' 'Get out of here! Now!'

Then the audio cut out.

Silence.

I've heard of Kangaskhan getting angry if you mess with the joey, but I've never heard of what happens if it's the other way around. Seems pretty much the same except so much worse.

Also, yes, I understand why the joey is Missingno. It's possible to evolve it into Kangaskhan. It just... somehow makes sense.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

.

Thank you for your feedback =D I got the idea when the Missingno I used to catch would evolve into Kangaskhan. The fan headcannon on the internet helped a lot too XD I prefer Missing Number as a pronunciation as well, lol.

...

36 - Erased​

No one knew how long they'd been stood, frozen, staring at those pods. The eerie voice had faded away, leaving them stood in complete silence.

Pixel just wanted to get away. The audio recording kept playing back in her mind, coupled with the graphic image of the poor kangaskhan joey frantically trying to get back to its dying mother.

Things still didn't make sense, but the Fracture had something to do with both worlds. Something that linked them both together. Two explosions, both the result of terrible experiments that should never have been done in the first place.

Her spine stiffened as soft rustling reached her ears and she braced herself to flee. The rustling was coming from the shattered pod, growing more static with each burst. Then something leapt out of it, a ball that appeared to be made out of the same substance that surrounded the Fracture. White and grey static filled with a distorted code that moved and changed. As the sphere floated up into the air it shifted shape to an hourglass, then a cone, then a sphere again as it bobbed away.

"What is that?" Switch asked. "A pokemon?"

"My guess would be the first virus victim," said Vector.

He moved over to it slowly and the static blob froze, its form becoming square.

"You're the kangaskhan joey aren't you?" said Vector. "They called you Missing Number?"

Mama!

The child-like voice crackled and popped unlike the previous frantic cry.

"I thought so. That explosion trapped you like this." He gestured to the static form.

The square's base leaked out to the side forming a backwards L.

"Look, I can help you," Vector explained.

No! Mama! You killed her!

The L span into the air and rushed overhead, doubling back to charge at Vector.

Just leave us alone!

Violet cracks shot from its body like lightning and Vector was forced to duck as Missing Number shot over his head like a dart, vanishing beyond the crumbling wall.

Vector pushed himself up onto his knees and stared after the retreating anomaly, aghast.

"Well," said Switch. "Looks like we found the source. A tormented child, or whatever the joey is, stuck in... this... I don't think it can even be explained!"

Vector shot over to the debris and vaulted over the mound.

"Wait! Vector!" Switch took off after him.

"Sorry, I can't lose it!" Vector called back. "I need to erase it, and not just for our benefit but the kangaskhan's as well!"

Switch tutted loudly and shrank down into his talonflame form.

"I don't want to lose him in here," he told Pixel. "Climb on. We'll chase after him."

She scrambled onto his back and clutched his feathers tightly as he rose into the air. Her heart was pounding in her chest. It was all too much to process, and now, as Vector chased after Missing Number – an entity that could generate those horrible cracks – she was really beginning to wish this was nothing more than a bad dream.

More questions were forming in her mind now. Was Missing Number the source of the Fracture or simply just a part of it? A living part, sucked into its mess like Raw and Sprocket? Was it really worth fighting this thing if the source was elsewhere?

Switch flailed his wings and doubled backwards as he met an invisible wall and Pixel screamed as she almost slipped from his back. Once he regained his balance he threw her a quick apology and turned his sights back on the meowstic.

Vector had chased the anomaly into a park where the flickering, warping mass of static threw more bolt-like cracks at him. Unlike the ones that filled the world outside the Fracture, these ones vanished as quickly as they appeared. The damaged, surreal world around them was unfazed by the ultraviolet lightning bolts, the surrounding structures accepting them like a mere breeze.

"He can't even get close," said Switch. "If he can't touch it then he can't erase it."

"Then what do we do?" Pixel asked. "All my attacks are close range as well."

"Then get ready to jump off," he said. "I have an idea."

He swept towards the ground and when he was low enough, Pixel released his feathers and landed awkwardly beside a ducklett-shaped topiary.

Neither Vector nor Missing Number were aware of her, but she could see them clearly. Vector rolled to the left as another bolt struck the ground where he'd been standing. Back outside, the cracks had no effect on him. But like her he was clearly doubting whether or not they could hurt him inside the Fracture, and finding out just wasn't worth the risk.

Above them, Switch hovered in the air, his feathers glowing as an intense heat radiated from his body. Pixel ducked further behind the bush to shelter herself from it, silently willing Vector to get out of the way. He looked up at the talonflame, realisation spreading across his face, and dived to the side.

Missing Number let out an ear-piercing shriek as the heat engulfed it, its voice rising and crackling until it began to sound like a speaker bursting with interference. Pixel clasped her paws over her ears to shut out the shrill, mechanical whine, but her eyes never left Vector and the strange, boxy, L-shaped anomaly. More and more violet bolts shot from its body, spreading over the benches, the motionless grass and trees. One of them brushed against Vector's white fur and he let out a yell, then froze as the bolt harmlessly moved through his body.

The look that crossed his face was a mix of frustration and relief and he snapped his attention back on Missing Number. His body became as taught as a coiled spring as he prepared himself to pounce, watching and waiting for Switch's attack to subside.

That awful cry reached a crescendo and the static body warped. Twisting and shrinking, coiling and growing. Then it exploded out to the sides as the heat dissipated, becoming more solid. Vibrant colours spread across it as the shrill electrical cry filled the air. Two wings appeared at its side as its body took on the form of a bird. Its beak was long and narrow, its wings sharp and jagged and giving off flames. Its long, ribbon like tail spread behind it, almost identical to the long feathers cascading down its back from its head.

It threw its wings out to the side and the static cry rose and fell almost melodically, then a new sound joined it. Two electrical pings, followed by a constant static fuzz.

Switch landed beside Pixel, his eyes wide with terror. "Did... did I cause that?"

The static fuzz rose into a short, buzzing growl, then Missing Number spoke, but this time the words appeared in front of it, marred by corrupted code. Its voice was still child-like, but oddly mechanical. But what stood out the most was its beak never even moved.

Thre4t d3tecTed. N3w f0rm t ken. N0w ccessinG dUmp m4trIx

Switch's beak fell open. "What on earth is a dump matrix?"

dUmp m4trIx cce55ed. CorrUpt3D fil3z wiLL b3 eras3d. DeleTing iN 0N3... Tw0...

Missing Number's long beak opened wide and shot out a stream of electricity straight at the topiary. Pixel leapt aside while Switch frantically flapped his wings in a desperate bid to escape. The topiary shattered to pieces and Switch found his legs and tail caught in the spray of electricity. A loud shriek flew from his beak and he crashed back down to the ground with a sick thud.

"Switch!"

Pixel threw herself towards him and reached out a paw to touch his wing. Immediately he returned to his human form and his eyes went to his watch. The screen was filled with black and white static, dancing over the display like a snowstorm.

She shook her head. "What..."

"Pixel, move!" Vector threw himself at her, sending them both rolling along the ground.

She looked back at Switch, and right where she'd been sitting rose a spiral of flames.

Missing Number turned its head and fixed its lifeless eyes on them.

D3tect3d r0gue ntIviru5 pR0graM. PR0graM i5 maLfuNcti0niNg. ERR0R. DeleTing...

It opened its beak wide in a terrible screech and fired a beam of ice. Vector shoved Pixel to the side then raised his paws, bringing up a barrier of light that deflected the attack back to Missing Number. The blow struck home but all the bird did was shake its head and ready another attack. This one deflected back and struck it in the wing and the bird didn't so much as flinch.

"I can't keep doing this," Vector told Pixel. "If I keep countering its attacks we're never going to erase it."

"But... I don't know what to do," she said. "All of my attacks are close range."

Her eyes went back to Switch, his beak hanging open as he panted with the effort of standing, his legs buckling beneath him as his form switched back to human. Tears stung at her eyes and she retreated backwards, away from the monstrosity that floated before them.

"Pixel!"

@tt4ck pRovInG inEff3cTivE. Ch4NgIng t@ctiCs

She rubbed a paw across her eyes and sobbed. It felt hopeless. What could she do? How could they possibly fight this thing?

"Pixel!

The panic in Vector's voice made her eyes snap open. A streak of ultraviolet shot towards her, lifeless eyes fixed on her over a dagger-like beak. She span away from it towards the monstrous bird, her horn arcing upwards to strike it under the chin.

Missing Number gave a deafening shriek as it rolled away from her, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor mere inches from Switch.

D3tecTed Thre4t inCr3a5E. ShuTtInG D0wN sYst3M

Ultraviolet bolts fired from its body towards the sky. The static forcefield over the Fracture dimmed, plunging them into darkness. The only light coming from above them now was ultraviolet, just like the laboratory in the human world.

Pixel's heart leapt into her throat and she glanced around them at the dark park, expecting to see one of those persian statues with its blinking eyes. But everything looked the same. The shattered topiary still lay in pieces beside Switch's motionless body.

What did it mean by 'shutting down System'? She swallowed drily as she feared the world outside may be much worse than when they entered the Fracture.

Missing Number hunched forwards, fixing its eyes on Pixel and Vector. It opened its beak and let out that melodic, static cry, pinging before it ended in a long fuzz that seemed to come from all directions.

"We've seen its attacks," said Vector quietly. "It can only go for one of us at once."

Pixel felt a small jolt in her mind as his words sank in. One of them at once. That meant she needed to distract it so he could get close to it.

If that was the case, then she had to hope she was its next target.

She took a deep breath then rushed towards it, keeping herself in its line of vision. It kept its eyes on her and as she turned away turned to follow her and opened its beak wide. Flames spewed from its beak and she ducked, feeling the heat as they coiled behind her. She was close enough to strike it now. As she brought her horn up towards it she could see Vector out of the corner of her eye, rushing at it with his paw outstretched.

Its attack stopped abruptly as it turned its head round and screeched, flapping its wings as it leapt aside, narrowly avoiding Vector's paw. Her horn struck its chest and it stumbled backwards, flailing, the flames from its wings licking her fur.

She readied herself for another attack. If she could just knock it off its feet, send it to the ground, it would have no time to dodge.

The monstrosity's body jerked towards the ground and it let out a panicked shriek. Another scream joined it and Pixel looked down at Switch, his arms fastened around Missing Number's legs. Electricity coursed through his body and his face creased with pain.

Vector wasted no time. He rushed at the monster and grabbed its wing in one paw. The feathered form retreated backwards, shrinking down into itself. That horrid screech became more and more mechanical, forcing Pixel to cover her ears.

Then it cut out into a static fuzz.

Mama? Mama! Mama!

Light exploded through the ultraviolet, dazzling her eyes so much she had to screw them shut. But it wasn't enough. She dropped to the ground and curled into a ball, clutching her paws over her head.

That child-like cry faded away and the light dimmed with it, finally settling at a level that resembled daylight. She blinked her eyes open, and when they adjusted to the brightness she found herself lying in a ruined city with a clear view of the blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds that briefly blocked out the sun.

A soft breeze whipped through her fur and she felt her lips curl up into a smile.

"It's gone," she breathed.

Erratic snuffling drew her attention from the sky to Switch who was jabbing at his watch with one of his talons. When his form switched back to human, he scrambled across the floor and crouched beside a blue meowstic lying face down in the grass.

Pixel's eyes widened and she pushed herself to her feet. "Vector?"

Switch placed a hand on his head and ran it down over his shoulders, brushing over the two dark blue stripes that cut across his back.

"Come on, buddy," he whispered. "Don't do this to me."

A painful lump rose in her throat as she watched Switch scoop up Vector's limp body in both arms. He lowered his head to his chest and let out a strangled sigh.

She clasped her paws together and edged over to him. "Is he...?"

"Barely."

Switch stood, his legs wobbling as they strained to hold his weight, and hugged Vector to his chest. His golden eyes glistened with tears and he opened his mouth to say something to her, but was cut off as a flash of pink appeared a few feet away from them.

"It's gone!" Retro vanished again and reappeared beside them with the three unown floating around her head. "The Fracture's wall! It's gone!" Her eyes went down to the meowstic in his arms and they widened slightly. "What happened? I thought once the virus had gone..."

"We'll explain later," said Switch. "He needs help."

Retro gave a curt nod. A pink bubble formed around them and in a flash the world warped and reformed at the site of Central Meta Hospital.

Pixel's heart sank. This was the last place she wanted to see.

The whole street was teaming with pokemon, their frantic voices melding together as they searched through the crowd. More and more of them were gathering onto the street, flooding through the reception and pausing to look down at their bodies with fascination. Bodies they thought they would never see again.

Pixel couldn't help but shake her head in wonder. Vector had done it. The destruction of the Fracture erased the virus.

"How on earth are we meant to get through here?" Switch asked as he tried to avoid being jostled in the crowd, clutching Vector protectively to his chest.

Pixel clutched onto his knee, keeping an eye above her as they passed by the larger pokemon who weren't being too careful with where they put their feet.

"Hey!" Switch roared over the din. "Does anyone work here?! We need help!"

The pokemon standing closest to them looked over at him then stepped aside, watching with curiosity as the human moved through the crowd clutching his unconscious friend.

"Any doctors?!" Switch shouted. "Anyone?!"

The closer they got to the door, the more rowdy the crowd became. Retro appeared beside Pixel, throwing a bubble over her before a rhydon crushed her beneath his foot. The large rock pokemon looked down with surprise and gave her a heartfelt apology.

Before Retro could give Switch the same treatment, two green paws reached out from the crowd and plucked Vector from his grip.

Switch's eyes widened with fear and his lip curled into a frown. The crowd parted and several pairs of curious eyes looked between the human and the gallade. One of the three pokemon neither of them had wanted to see. Pixel's heart did a flip and her paws went to her mouth as she stifled a yell.

"You wanted a cure," said Switch bluntly. "You were right. He had it."

Hertz met Switch's eye then looked back down at the limp meowstic. Shifting him onto one arm, he adjusted his stethoscope over his ears and placed it on Vector's chest. After a long, tense moment, he looked over his shoulder and shouted into the reception.

"I need a respiratory doctor in critical care! Now!" He turned back to Switch and Pixel and gave them a solemn nod. "We've got no power but I assure you we'll do what we can."

Switch stood watching after the gallade, dumbfounded.

Retro peered over his head. "That's the doctor you were telling me about?"

Both Switch and Pixel nodded.

"I was really expecting him to throw us into prison," said Pixel.

She took off after the gallade, dodging through the crowd that filled the reception. The crowd parted as Switch pushed through behind her, allowing them enough space to flow out into the empty corridor after Hertz.

 

[DreamSayer]

REVIEW FOR CHAPTER 3
Well it seems like that Charmander may not have been the one they were looking for. But man! That virus sounds really horrifying! I hope they find the cure soon because those guys aren’t going to last long, that’s for sure!
Even more that happened was the fracture opening up and Pixel fainting because she couldn’t handle it. I hope she got caught on time though and I also can’t wait to see what happens to Vector.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

.

Thank you for your feedback =D the virus is horrifying D= I don't think I knew about the Alolan forms when I wrote this, but it would have been interesting to incorporate them somehow since they're technically adaptations. Hmm...

...

Epilogue​

The rhythmic beeping from the heart monitor was the only noise in the ward. Pixel sat on a plastic chair, slumped forward with her arms folded beneath her on the bed. She'd refused to leave, spending nights sleeping in the hospital waiting room. It had taken two days for the main control deck to be repaired. In the meantime it had been touch and go. The life support machine they'd wired Vector up to had been battery powered, and a raichu had come in to charge it up every couple of hours. Pixel had been certain it was the same raichu they'd fought with only a week or so earlier, but if he recognised them he didn't show it.

The mattress shifted and Pixel's eyes fluttered open. A paw brushed her head and she looked up at Vector as he stretched out his arms. His face creased as he flinched and retracted his arms back in towards his chest.

A huge smile spread across her face and she propped herself up on her elbows. "Vector."

His blew eyes opened and he pushed himself up as he looked around the room. When his eyes fell on her he relaxed and rubbed a paw across his face.

"Where am I?" he asked. "What happened?"

"After you defeated Missing Number, you... well... we had to rush you to hospital." She watched him look around the room again. "It's Central Meta. You'll be surprised. The doctor who was after you... he saved your life."

"Really?" His eyes widened briefly and he looked down at his paws. "So the antivirus has gone... does that mean...?"

Pixel nodded. "System is back to normal. Well... there's damage, but those who had the virus have recovered."

"Recovered, eh?" He rubbed a paw against his chest. "Then why am I still sore?"

"They think the antivirus did some damage. They found blistering on your lungs, but they're trying their best to fix it."

He pushed himself up and adjusted his pillow so he could lean back against the wall. Once he was comfortable he yawned widely and took the glass of water Pixel offered to him.

"So how is everyone else?" he asked.

"Switch is fine. He went back to Spool yesterday, but he wouldn't leave until the doctors assured him you were okay."

He chuckled and sipped at his water. "He's not a bad guy."

Pixel smiled. "No, he's not. He's been worried sick. Chip's recovered from the virus too and she's with Retro and the unown now. They've gone back to the Binary Jungle since Cyan Island is still grounded. I'm not sure they'll ever get them up in the sky again."

"Well, they got them up in the sky centuries ago so there must be some modern technology that can do it."

He took another sip of his water then leant towards Pixel to set his glass back on the table. Their eyes met and he raised a paw, brushing it over the long fur beside her face. She let out a happy sigh and leant her cheek into his paw, feeling it trace over her cheek and jaw.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she said.

He leant towards her but she raised a paw to stop him.

"I have some more news for you. I think you'll want to hear this."

He raised an eyebrow to prompt her to continue.

"Your group, Bridge. They're all alive and are assisting with an investigation in the ruined lab. They've found something they think might lead back to the human world."

"Wow." His eyes widened and he gave a small laugh. "That's... that's amazing."

"I know. They're keeping quiet about it though so we don't know any real details. I think they want to avoid causing too much fuss perchance it's nothing. Also, some might think it poses a threat."

"Then how do you know about it?" He paused and looked around the room before lowering his voice. "N00b?"

"Actually... we have Retro to blame for this one. She got curious about the mew cloning experiment the humans were doing. It made her wonder if that's why she was immune to the virus and she decided to go investigating. She stumbled upon Bridge's discovery and was told to stay quiet. She only told us because we were there."

"Well... looks like all this has finally come to an end then." He ran a paw over the fur between his ears and sighed. "It's all over..."

He locked his eyes on hers again and held them as he brushed his paw over her cheek. Then he leant forwards and caught her in a kiss, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her towards him until she was perched on the edge of the bed. He broke away and trailed small kisses over her cheek and down to her shoulder, then stopped to nuzzle into her fur.

"Did they say how long I was going to be in here?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. I don't think they know. But since you're clearly better then... I can't imagine too much longer."

He met her eyes again and stroked his paw over her arm. She caught it in her own paw and gave it a soft squeeze.

"I really need to get some lunch. Is there anything you need? I'll bring it when I come back this afternoon."

He leant back against the pillow and yawned again. "Just something to read." He gave her one of his warm smiles that made his whole face light up. "And yourself."

She felt a blush spread over her cheeks and she slipped from the bed and made for the door.

...​

Hertz looked away from the meowstic's window and turned down the corridor as he flicked over his medical notes. He'd not seen a condition as severe as Vector's before, but he was confident he was making good progress.

He passed by Sample and Mono leaning against the wall and Sample kicked back from it and cleared his throat.

"You gonna do something about that mawile and her friends?" Sample asked a little too loudly.

Hertz looked back at him. "Hmm? No, I wasn't planning on it."

"But they broke into the hospital," said Mono. "Not to mention started a rumble and smashed a window!"

"While that may be true," said Hertz as he turned to continue down the corridor, "they succeeded in doing what I couldn't. I think saving the world is a good enough excuse for the little inconvenience they caused, don't you?"

...​

One month later...

Pixel stood between Vector and Retro, peering between N00b's ears while craning to see past the pokemon in front of her. The portal looked like a black tear amongst the debris of the laboratory. It leaked an ultraviolet light like those cracks, but allegedly posed no threat. The marowak pacing back and forth before it spoke clearly into a megaphone.

"Thorough investigation has gone on beyond this portal and we can confirm that it does indeed lead to the human world," he said. "However, I want you all to know before you go back that your world has also been affected by its own virus outbreak. The city beyond this portal has been reduced to ruin, but we can assure you any trace of a virus is gone. The humans were affected in much the same way as the pokemon were here. Their forms were changed into that of pokemon, but they are now returned to their normal state. How do we know this? Because we asked."

A few cries came from the group of pokemon as they retreated back from the nearest humans standing amongst them.

The marowak raised his paw and shouted through his mega phone, "Calm down, don't worry yourselves! We already know the virus can't cross the species barrier. The humans were with us way before the outbreak." When the crowd had calmed down, he went on, "Since humans are still pokemon here, we ran a test to see what would happen when they go back. Our volunteer's form reverted to that of a human the moment they stepped through the portal, so we can rest assured your forms will be returned to you very soon. As for the humans back in your world, they are also conducting their own experiments on the other side of the portal, and are eagerly awaiting your return. Firstly, the ones still in comas will be entering first, then those who are conscious will follow."

N00b sobbed and looked up at Connor. "Well... looks like you're finally going home."

"I know." The pikachu's eyes widened. "I can't believe it."

"You sure you don't wanna stay?" asked Byte. "I can teach you some electric attacks."

Connor waved the emolga off. "No, thank you. I've been waiting for this day for years."

"Aww, I'm gonna miss you, Connor boy." Snippet the leavanny dabbed her eyes with a tissue. "You take care now, okay?"

Her eyes flew wide open when Connor span and threw his arms around her waist. Tears shone at the corners of his eyes and he wiped a paw over his nose as he pulled away.

N00b shook his head sharply. "No, no! Don't you cry! You're gonna set me... aww!" He screwed his eyes shut as tears trickled over his muzzle and sobbed loudly.

Switch leant forwards and ruffled the lillipup's ears. "You know it's for the best, buddy."

N00b nodded. "I know, I know. But if you can... you know... visit on holidays and stuff."

Switch laughed and turned to Connor, pulling an envelope from his pocket.

"If you wouldn't mind," said Switch. "The directions are on there. Please pass that on to my parents."

Connor looked from the envelope to Switch. "Wait... you're really not coming?"

Switch shook his head. "I've got a life here. Everything my parents need to know is written in that letter." He gave Connor a fond smile. "You take care of yourself, okay?"

Connor stared at him for a moment then nodded, returning his smile. "Thank you, everyone. For everything."

They watched the pikachu as he went to join the crowd of humans. Wheels rattled over the concrete as beds were dragged towards the portal and guided through to the other side.

Diode and N00b snuffled and dabbed at their eyes.

"I can't believe this day's finally come," said Pixel.

"No," said Vector. "Neither can I."

"So Switch, why-"

Pixel looked around through the crowd and spotted Switch's retreating form. She quickly apologised to Vector and ran off after him.

"Switch!"

He stopped and looked back at her.

"Why aren't you going home?" she asked.

He chuckled and leant back against a tree. "I thought you didn't want me to go home."

"I don't," she said. "But that's just me being selfish. It's your home. This might be your only chance to go back. They're going to try and close it after."

He shrugged and looked over at the crowd. "To be honest, I see this place as my home now. It's kind of a long story, Pixel, but before I got sucked into this world I was already running away from home. I'd got fed up of life in my town. It wasn't easy. I didn't have any friends. One day I decided to just leave. To go and find myself. I'd managed to make it all the way to Cinnabar Island when that explosion hit. I found myself in this world and at first I wanted to go back, but after a while I made friends. I even made a living for myself. The one thing I do regret though is that I never had a chance to tell my parents I'd made it to Cinnabar Island. Surely they know by now that I was in that explosion, so I sent Connor with a letter to tell them I'm okay. I'm alive and I'm staying here."

She looked back at the group of pokemon, the marowak's voice cutting over the noise.

"Form an orderly line! An orderly line!"

"Besides," said Switch. "I can't break N00b's heart twice. He's already got one human leaving him."

Pixel laughed and clasped her paws behind her back. "So what are you going to do now he's going home?"

He made a thoughtful noise and gave her a wink. "I think I might join an investigation team. Do you know any?"

A huge smile spread across her face.

"Hey, guys?" Vector waved at them. "Connor's going home. Don't you want to see him off?"

Switch gave a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "All right. I'll watch him. But get ready to see a grown man cry, okay?"

They rejoined the crowd and Pixel stood between Retro and Chip. The buneary gave her a fond smile and looped an arm around her shoulders.

The flow of humans walking into the portal caused tears to well up in Pixel's eyes. She wiped a paw across them and looked over at Switch. He'd adopted his talonflame form in an attempt to blend in, but the tears were clear in his golden eyes. She made sure not to miss the small pikachu dressed in a suit slip through the portal. He never even looked back.

When every last human was through, the marowak and members of Bridge pulled up a hazard ribbon, cutting off access to the portal.

Pixel found herself swept in the crowd on the way out of the ruined city.

"Well, this has been an x-tremely emotional day," said X.

"You're telling me," said Amp. "I don't think I've cried so hard in my life."

"Hmm." Switch folded his arms behind his head. "I'm gonna miss Connor, but I'm happy for him. It'll be interesting to see what this world is like now. All the cases I took on for Luma Island were hate crimes towards humans."

"Yeh, they got cast aside," said Pixel sadly.

"I can't really remember what life was like twelve years ago," said Retro with a laugh. "What did we do?"

"Solved cases that were swept under the rug," said Pixel. "Took on small requests."

"Weren't you looking into the human's mew cloning?" Switch asked her.

Retro waved a dismissive paw. "Oh, I've dropped that. There's no possible way I can find out if more mew were immune to the virus since they all live in the Analogue Islands, and the virus never made it that far. Since I can't find out any more, I've decided to get an investigation team up and running again."

"That's great!" said Pixel. "I was hoping to do that too!"

N00b skipped up beside them. "Well first thing's first, you wanna get your island back up in the air, right?"

Switch looked down at him with a start. "N00b, I really don't think you should toy with a flying island."

"I made a flying car!"

"Yes but that island is a lot bigger!"

N00b tutted and looked away from him. "You've got no faith in me."

Retro laughed. "I'm sure they'll get it back up there somehow. In the meantime I was thinking of going back to the Binary Jungle."

Switch grimaced and Pixel hid a smile behind her paw.

"Can we find somewhere a bit bigger?" she asked Retro. "Somewhere that could at least accommodate a talonflame?"

"Oh!" Retro clasped her paws behind her back and floated up in front of Switch. "Thinking of joining us, are you?"

"If you wouldn't mind," he answered.

Vector closed his eyes and snorted. "I don't think he would have given you much choice."

N00b bounced up and down on his toes. "Well, if Switch is joining, I'm joining!" Diode waved frantically and N00b nodded. "So is Diode."

"Well, we need all the members we can get," said Retro. "It's not an easy job. I think we'll be the first investigation team to reform."

"Oh wait! I have an idea!" N00b trotted backwards as he talked to the mew. "We can use Connor's old base! I'm sure Snippet won't mind!"

"Oh wonderful!" Switch beamed. "We'd have a maid!"

"Hey! Snippet's like a mother to me. Don't call her a maid!"

Retro laughed again. "If Snippet won't mind, then we would love to use Connor's base."

"Excellent!" Switch stretched languidly. "I can fit in there in either form."

As they walked on, Vector slipped his paw into Pixel's and she looked over at him, catching his eye. He gave her a warm smile and edged closer to her, turning his attention to the sky. She followed his gaze and felt happiness swell up inside her.

No more cracks. They had a perfect, clear view of the sky.

"You know what would be nice?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"Relaxing in a sunbeam."

...​

A/N - Whew! I am sorry for slacking in getting this all uploaded. But here it finally is! I hope you enjoyed it =D thank you so much all who have read, and all who left feedback! I really appreciate every view!

Fairly soon, I'll be uploading a new 'fic set in the same universe. It's not exactly a sequel, but if you enjoyed this story please feel free to check out my new one which will be titled System:Reboot =D

 

[Jirachi100]

I enjoyed this story and I might read System:Reboot that you just mentioned. This was the first time I was interested in a fanfiction.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

I enjoyed this story and I might read System:Reboot that you just mentioned. This was the first time I was interested in a fanfiction.

Thank you so much! =D I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and even more so as a first for your fanfiction reading! There are some great fanfics out there that are definitely worth reading so I'm sure you'll find more =D Thanks again, and maybe I'll see you around my next fanfiction thread!

 

[Chibi Pika]

Oh man! I'm actually super torn about that ending. On the one hand yaaassssss Missingno. But on the other... man, it feels like there are still a lot of unsolved mysteries surrounding the Fracture! We know how Missingno. got corrupted, and that it overlapped with the Mewtwo project in the human world, but not why those experiments had reality-distorting effects. Was System already a digital world of sorts, or was that Missingno’s influence? And if that was Missingno’s influence, why did the creation of something that was never meant to exist cause everything around it to behave like code? Did the experimenters attempt to digitize it to remove the problem? Did that backfire, causing an overlap between real space and digital space? And how does the Mewtwo project factor into all of this? (They both take place on Cinnabar Island, so there’s that.) This is the main reason I suspect that System was already digital in some way to begin with, but it wasn’t confirmed or denied.

All that said, I still really enjoyed the way the reveal played out, even if I wish there had been more reveal. The lab flickering between dimensions was hella disconcerting, and it was fascinating watching the characters attempt to piece the clues together, especially in that moment where they realized that they were in the human world. Tons of other details came together for a powerful impact, like that poor Pachirisu constantly shifting between Pokémon and Bag Egg (nonstop for months??? No wonder her spirit was so broken) and the non-contiguous space inside and outside buildings (which references the fact that Glitch City literally happens in-game because of an incorrect door call warping the player to an invalid location, which is why it can only happen in certain areas, otherwise you’ll just get ported to the corresponding door for that map.) And the fight against Missingno. was super tense as well! (Especially once it started spamming Sky Attack.)

Also, it kind of felt like Hertz and co. were set up to have a bigger role in the plot than they ended up actually having (after that one skirmish on Cyan Island, nothing really came out of their quest to hunt down Vector throughout the rest of the fic). But I did like getting to see them one last time in the Epilogue, where Hertz accepts everything that happened and doesn’t care to press charges. In the end, all he really wanted was a cure. Nothing more, nothing less.

Glad to see Switch didn’t go back to the human world (even if he’d made it pretty obvious that he had no intention of doing so.) And the story ends with everyone coming together to form an investigation team! It often feels like adventure stories leave off with nothing for the characters to do, but here there’s no much more in store for them! So much of the world to see, mysteries to solve (and islands to fix ) It’s a satisfying point to leave the characters we’ve grown to love so much. I’m so glad I read this, and can’t wait to see what you’ve got waiting for us in System:Reboot.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

.

Thanks, Chibi!! =D I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! If I ever attempt a re-write for this story, I'll try to explain a bit more. There was more to add about Retro's immunity via Mewtwo but I couldn't really think of a way to seamlessly add it in. I do really like this story, so a re-write isn't impossible given the length of it =) And digital was definitely the theme I was going for. It fit the idea of glitches effecting the world really well. But whether or not the characters and world are actually data... even I'm not so sure on that one XD Thanks again!

 

[DreamSayer]

Review for Chapter 4

For the first half of this chapter, i'm glad to see that Pixel is feeling well and got away with nothing but a headache. Switch left her with his contact info, though i wonder if he'll tell his other underground goons about it. Leaf sure must care a lot if he left their floating continent alone to come see how she was doing. Though, he left it completely unguarded. Unless the security is really good, any idiot who can fly can just go up there and take it away.

The second half has a somewhat suggestive dark atmosphere to it. These hospital guys, while a bit understandable, are willing to experiment on a patient and possibly kill him over nothing but a hypothetical conclusion. I think it's a bit too soon for them to start experimenting on the poor meowstic. There's just not enough evidence to suggest that it's the virus that changed him. If an immunity to the virus was possible, there'll be clear proof of that in his blood samples. Either way, i can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[DreamSayer]

Oh boy! About time someone prevented that meowstic from becoming a a horrible experiment gone wrong. Quite a relief that they're going to go save him and probably succeed. I don't know why I was expecting a dark turn of events to happen so soon. Haha. Well, I'll read ip later to see how their plans worked out.

 

[Ambyssin]

System:Reboot got me wanting to read this because sci-fi shenanigans. I know I'm a bit late here, and I’m not going through the whole thing right away. I’d like to pace myself with this one. I only read the opening 3 updates, but I’m intrigued. There’s a lot of foundation laying for interesting conflicts: the long-standing human presence, this virus and its type-changing effects on Pokémon, and the relationships b/w the Pokémon and the humans that are stuck there. I don’t have a clear idea of where this is heading, but that’s fine. If there was any issues I had, it seems like, at least in the 3 parts I read, there isn’t a ton of characterization given to Pixel and Switch, other than some basic tidbits. This could easily change, of course, and I don’t know who else would be considered a main character at this point. But it seems like smaller characters (N00b, for example) got a bit more wit and personality in their few lines compared to the mains.

Overall though, this is shaping up to be very entertaining. As for the individual parts I read...

Prologue
-Okay, well, guess we dive right into the action here. Doesn’t take long to encounter this glitch area, does it? I like the words and numbers factoring into the environment to give it this sense of corruption. I was expecting something Phazon-esque, for some reason.
-And things go belly-up rather quickly. Poor Vector. How will he ever find the computer room like that? I’ll shut up now.
-But I do like the freaky ripples that seemed to resonate out of the Fracture as a result of the explosion (at least, that’s what it seemed like).

Ch 1
-Besides the odd juxtaposition of character names (Leaf the Ivysaur, but everyone else has names inspired by electronics), apparently these guys have their own (artificial?) continent that they can maneuver? That’s really unique. Easy to take the spaceship route, but a maneuverable bit of landmass is original in my book.
-Starting out in a desert area, I guess? Makes me think Pixel’s walking into more of a saloon. There’s even an escalating argument. All we’re missing is the pistols and “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.”
-That’s a unique premise. Tying some sort of strange sickness to the presence of humans and having it cause some enmity. I do appreciate it getting shown off in the bar scene as opposed to explained via exposition dump. Though the Talonflame transformation took me by surprise. Then again, I guess things would be awkward if the humans had nothing but their fists to defend themselves against monsters.
-Wait there’s a missing Mew too? Geez, this is so much excitement to start things off. My heart can’t take it!
-Hmm, I find Switch’s description of his interesting condition a bit too convenient. Like, if he’s just bluntly answered “Science,” I’d have liked it more.

Ch 2
-Doesn’t take long for us to see that this investigation squad isn’t picture perfect. It’s early, but I feel like Leaf’s and Byte’s different takes on humans may cause a rift in the future.
-That’s a pretty stark contrast b/w the investigation squad and these Gateway guys. There HQ is very run-down and antiquated. They seem to keep entirely to themselves. And their leader, Connor, doesn’t strike me as a friendly face, at least compared to Leaf. He totally shuts down when Switch asks what his problem is. Hard to believe that’s the guy that apparently made the watch. In any case, I like the contrast, though I think there were a few parts of descriptive narration I was iffy on. For example:

The small room housed two long desks each holding up computers that were retro in design compared to the holographic screens most pokemon operated, however only two were currently occupied.

Maybe I just read this wrong, but it makes it sound like there are only two computers, and thus they’re both being used. Which would make the “only two were currently occupied” unnecessary? But I don’t think that was the intent.