Rainbow light connected Steven and Metagross. When the glow faded, Mega Metagross appeared in all its glory!
Its form became far more ferocious, its four massive steel claws transforming into giant cantilever arms, like an unfeeling fortress of battle!
Following that, Mega Metagross displayed devastating, unstoppable power.
Its "Bullet Punch" struck like a cannon, its "Earthquake" shaking the entire battlefield. It charged through the arena with an overwhelming presence, practically ending the Double Battle through sheer crushing force!
After the battle ended, Lance stared at the screen, stunned once again.
Another Mega Evolution!
And the aura of pressure and raw power that this Mega Metagross displayed was absolutely comparable to Wallace's Mega Gyarados from before!
This power that transcended ordinary evolution was truly astounding.
He noticed his own desire for this force growing stronger and stronger.
At the same time, with the battle's conclusion, Team Magma executive Maxie threw down some final threats before hastily retreating with his battered remaining forces.
"Handled," Steven recalled Mega Metagross and regained his composed expression. "Thanks to you, Lance. I'm going to check if the rest of the facility is secure." With that, he headed off in another direction.
Lance was about to leave as well when he suddenly noticed the corridor that Gladion had entered earlier.
He guided his character over.
At the end of the corridor was a half-open metal door, and inside appeared to be a secret research lab.
He pushed through the door and immediately saw Gladion standing before a massive transparent container, his expression complex as he stared at what was inside.
"You came," the dialogue box appeared, and Gladion didn't turn around, as if he'd known Lance would arrive.
Lance walked closer and peered into the container. Inside, suspended in pale green nutrient fluid, was a Pokémon he'd never seen before.
Its entire body was silver-gray in color. Its head was completely covered by massive silver metallic armor with various tubes connected to it. Its body was skeletal, its limbs bound in chains. It looked both mysterious and somehow familiar to Lance.
"This is..." Lance pressed the interaction button to ask.
"Type: Null," Gladion's voice was somewhat somber. "Or rather, a failure, an incomplete form."
"I originally thought Team Magma attacked this base for this... but it seems they had a different objective. Thank goodness you arrived when you did."
He turned to face Lance's character:
"That Silvally you encountered earlier, the one that can freely change its type, is the completed product of a classified project from the Aether Foundation, codename 'AR-SYNTHESIS.'"
He turned back to look at the Pokémon in the container, his voice wavering slightly:
"This one... is one of the experimental specimens from the same project, codename 'BEASTKILLER.' Compared to the completed product, it underwent experiments under far more extreme conditions and endured much more suffering and pain. Those people never cared about how their 'experiments' felt."
Gladion paused, looking back at Lance.
"However, I can tell you're different from them. You're strong, and your eyes tell me you genuinely love Pokémon. If it's you... Perhaps you could give it a different future."
Red text appeared in the dialogue box below, accompanied by choice prompts!
[Gladion wishes to entrust Type: Null to you. Do you accept?]
[Yes / No]
Lance looked at this prompt and his heart skipped a beat.
Could he obtain this Pokémon?!
Although this was a lower form, thinking back to that Silvally he'd encountered, its evolution, Lance gasped at the memory of that terrifying ability to freely switch types during battle to counter opponents.
There was such a good deal?!
He barely hesitated at all, immediately moving his mouse and clicking [Yes].
However, Gladion didn't immediately hand him a Poké Ball.
"Hold on," Gladion's voice became serious. "To earn its recognition, you must first prove to me that you possess both the strength and the resolve to battle alongside it! Come on, show me what you're made of!"
The screen went black instantly, and the battle music became intense!
[Opponent Gladion sent out Silvally LV75!]
That familiar, imposing Silvally appeared across from him, its level an astounding 75, well over a dozen levels higher than Lance's highest level Gyarados!
Lance: "???"
His current team averaged around level 60. Even when they were at the same level, he couldn't beat Gladion the first time. How was he supposed to defeat a level 75 Silvally now?
Even without it switching to a resistant type, he couldn't damage it!
The battle was completely one-sided.
Even though Lance sent out his strongest Gyarados, Silvally simply switched its type and launched a first-strike "Thunderbolt," instantly one-shotting his Gyarados.
The screen went black, then lit up again, and the defeat message appeared along with Lance's stunned silence.
Damn, it was a one-on-one battle after all!
In the game, Gladion recalled Silvally and shook his head: "It seems you're not ready to harness its power yet. Come find me again after you've grown stronger."
With that, he ignored Lance and turned back to stare intently at Type: Null in the container.
Lance looked at the screen, honestly a bit speechless.
He thought this was going to be a gift for the player, but it turned out there was a test... and the difficulty was absolutely ridiculous.
To one-on-one defeat a level 75 Silvally was almost impossible to conceive.
It looked like the path to obtaining this powerful Pokémon was going to be a long one.
Today's gaming experience had made Lance suddenly realize something important.
The immediate priority wasn't just raising levels and strengthening his Pokémon team, but finding strategies to handle various situations had become more crucial than ever.
Whether it was for conquering Mossdeep Gym or for eventually passing Gladion's test and obtaining that Type: Null.
He glanced at the silent Type: Null in the container, then thought about that unreachable level 75 and the two powerful gym leaders in the gym, and took a deep breath.
The road ahead was long.
He needed to find a way to continue grinding levels and catch more, stronger Pokémon. His current team wasn't cutting it anymore.
But the problem was, he hadn't really seen many Dragon-type Pokémon along the way.
Would he have to settle again?
The corner of Lance's mouth twitched.
At this rate, he, the supposed Dragon-type Expert, might end up becoming an expert in some other type instead.
While Lance was troubled about his next steps in the game, in the real world, Cynthia was facing her own dilemma.
Her investigation into "New Island" had hit a dead end.
Despite using her connections and resources as Sinnoh Champion and a mythologist, consulting the League's classified files, ancient regional chronicles, and even some inconvenient gray-market channels, the results were either "location unknown" or that "New Island" seemed to have been hidden by Team Rocket, or simply didn't exist.
But given her previous experiences, Cynthia leaned more toward the first possibility.
She sat at her desk, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the surface, her brow furrowed. All conventional methods seemed to have failed.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, she quickly picked up a specially designed, heavily encrypted communication terminal, and her fingers flew across it.
She didn't make a direct call, but instead sent a connection request encrypted with a complex scrambling code.
After a brief pause, the terminal flickered a few times before finally establishing the connection.
The image wasn't very clear—just the lower half of a face hidden under the shadow of a hood, with streams of green data constantly flowing in the background.
"Cynthia? What's up?" A young voice came through, tinged with curiosity. "Got new info on that game?"
"No, Emma," Cynthia got straight to the point, her voice serious. "I need you to help me look up a location."
"A location?" The voice on the other end sounded puzzled. "Cynthia, you can handle that yourself, right?"
She could understand why Cynthia would ask for help investigating the creator of the game, but tracking down a location seemed like something Cynthia could easily manage with her connections and knowledge.
"It's an island called New Island, probably somewhere in the Kanto region. It's connected to Team Rocket."
Cynthia's voice remained steady. "That's all I know. I need its exact location and all the details you can find. The more specific, the better."
There was a brief silence on the other end, followed by the sound of typing. A moment later, Emma spoke again.
"New Island… Let me check. If it's tied to Team Rocket, it makes sense that the League database and geographical records wouldn't have anything on it. But I just checked the black market intel, and there's nothing there either."
Cynthia could hear the confusion in Emma's voice. "Where did you hear about this place?"
Emma paused, then a realization hit her. "…It's from that game, isn't it?"
Cynthia didn't deny it. "Yeah."
"I knew it." Emma's voice took on a more serious tone, with a hint of competitiveness. "Ever since you asked me last time, I've been working non-stop, trying to break into that game's core database. I'm trying to figure out what secrets it's hiding."
Her tone grew more intense. "But I'll admit, I'm running into something big this time.
The encryption is stronger than anything I've ever dealt with before. The whole structure is… weird. It's not like anything modern tech should be capable of."
She paused, her voice growing darker. "The firewall is insane. A few times, I almost got reverse-traced. It's like… this tech shouldn't even exist in this world."
Emma's excitement started to come through in her next words. "So, give me some time. I'll find a way in. And about this 'New Island' you mentioned, I'll check the deep web and some other… more unusual places. Maybe I'll turn up something."
"I'm counting on you, Emma," Cynthia said, her voice firm. "If you find anything, let me know right away. This is really important."
"Got it, wait for my update, Cynthia. Later."
With that, the communication cut off, and the screen went dark.
Cynthia also set down the terminal and let out a soft breath.
She looked out the window. Night was deepening, and whether in the game world or the real world, everything seemed shrouded in mystery.
But she would definitely unveil these mysteries.
As for now...
She thought for a moment, picked up her phone, and entered a series of numbers.
At the same time, Lance's mood had been somewhat gloomy.
He was thinking about whether he should head into the wild to grind levels or search for more clues about Mega Evolution when his phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID read... Cynthia.
Lance was mildly surprised and answered the call. Cynthia's unmistakable voice came through immediately, calm as ever: "Lance, am I interrupting? How far along are you in the game? I've stumbled upon something strange and thought we could compare notes."
"What a coincidence, I just ran into a bunch of weird stuff and was about to lose my mind over it," Lance sighed.
He had actually been hoping for someone to talk to, so he launched into a detailed account of his recent experiences.
From the odd happenings at Shoal Cave, his encounter with Tate & Liza, discovering the legendary Pokémon frozen in ice, to meeting Regice, then Wallace's sudden appearance, the overwhelming power of Mega Gyarados, and the crushing defeat at Mossdeep Gym due to their double battle tactics and Mega Gardevoir.
And that wasn't even the half of it. He also recounted the events at the Space Center, Steven's terrifying Mega Metagross, and finally Gladion and that mysterious Pokémon, Type: Null, not to mention the impossible challenge of the level 75 test.
Lance went over everything in detail, with special emphasis on Wallace's and Steven's Mega Evolutions. His tone was full of awe, almost like a mix of surprise and longing.
"…That kind of power is beyond belief.
A Pokémon that's been trained to perfection, then goes through Mega Evolution, becomes so powerful, it's almost like it's on the same level as legendary Pokémon," Lance said, wonder evident in his voice.
"Now all I can think about is how to get my Gyarados to do that…"
When he mentioned the massive Pokémon frozen in ice at Shoal Cave, he made sure to stress it: "…Tate & Liza said it was Regice, the Ice Titan, and they said it's similar to Regirock, the Rock Titan I found in the desert."
Cynthia had been listening quietly, but the moment Lance mentioned "Regice" and "Regirock," she gasped and interrupted him.
"Wait! You said Regice? And it's connected to Regirock?"
"Uh, yeah, that's what they told me. What's up?" Lance asked, confused.
Her voice took on a sense of urgency, as if a lightbulb had gone off in her mind: "The desert! That huge palace in the desert! On the top floor, I saw this strange mechanism with several indented symbols.
One was clearly shaped like a rock, and another… I couldn't quite figure it out at the time, but now that you mention it, it was definitely shaped like ice! So…"
Her words sped up, her thoughts coming together: "That mechanism probably relates to these legendary titan Pokémon! Regirock, Regice… and maybe more! Every time one of them awakens or appears, it activates the corresponding symbol!"
"I already encountered an Electric-type Giant and triggered the lightning symbol!" Cynthia added.
Lance went still. He hadn't realized that his experiences in the desert could be connected to Cynthia's previous findings.
The game's world felt even more expansive and intricately designed than he'd imagined.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones