Paradise Pokeball System

Turning away from the primary viewscreen, his lab coat billowing behind him like the wings of a predatory scavenger, Colress began to pace again. His movements were frantic, his eyes darting between the monitors.

"Faba, status on the Aether Spire output!" he barked.

"Stability is at sixty percent," Faba replied, his voice dripping with annoyance as he tapped a stylus against his tablet. "But the Necrozma particles are beginning to solidify in the ventilation shafts. If we don't vent the excess energy soon, the entire spire will become a literal crystal cage."

"Then vent it into the DD System holder!" Colress laughed, a sound that held no joy, only a sharp, scientific madness. "He’s a black hole for energy anyway. Let him choke on it. It will only make the Disillusion stronger for our guests."

He stopped in front of a monitor that showed a close-up of Landon’s face as he stepped onto the Luminos R&D tarmac. Colress leaned in, his nose almost touching the screen, his breath fogging the glass.

"Look at him," Colress whispered. "So confident. So protective. He thinks he’s the hero of this story. He thinks he can just walk into whatever timeline he wants and perfect everything in his eyes. He has no idea that every step he takes on that island is a line of code being rewritten in my favor."

He looked at the girls following Landon. A look of genuine disgust crossed his face.

"Prism Energy," he sneered. "A beautiful lie. A stable fusion of biological and spiritual essence. It’s disgusting how neat it is. My multiverse is a jagged, broken mess of overlapping realities, and he dares to walk around with a system that creates a 'Paradise'?"

He turned back to the Ancient Colress, who was still sitting in the high-backed chair, watching him with those milky, unblinking eyes.

"Don't you see, Ancient One?" the active Colress said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial hiss. "Landon isn't just a subject. He’s the cure. If I can harvest his Prism Energy and inject it into the Eternatus core, I won't just be able to open portals. I’ll be able to stitch the timelines back together. I’ll be the one who decides which reality is the 'true' one."

The Ancient Colress didn't speak. He only let out a long, rattling breath that sounded like dry leaves skittering across pavement.

"But first," Colress continued, his manic energy returning as he lunged back toward the controls, "we have to break him. We have to show him that his 'Family' is just a variable that can be manipulated. We have to show him that 'Paradise' is just a Disillusion waiting to be destroyed."

He hit a button, and a low-frequency vibration began to hum through the Axiom Central. Down on the Luminos R&D Island, the Mirage Field began to pulse, thickening the air with the Hero's memories and the sweet, cloying scent of a world that didn't exist.

Colress turned his attention to the seven stasis chambers. He needed a distraction, a creature of pure, refined malice to test the structural integrity of Landon’s energy. His eyes settled on Codename: Rocket.

[ReaderDex Entry: Rocket]

Profile: A notorious career criminal with a deeply sadistic disposition.

Ability: Mind Manipulation. He possesses the capability to forcibly hijack the motor functions and verbal centers of people around him.

"A career criminal with a penchant for hijacking the will of others," Colress murmured, a thin, sharp smile stretching his face. "Let’s see how your Mind Manipulation handles a dose of the Infinite."

With a flick of his wrist, Colress initiated the Trans-Dimensional Infusion. From the ceiling of Rocket’s chamber, two mechanical needles forged from white polymer descended. One was connected by a pulsing black tube to the DD System holder’s tank; the other glowed with the violent, jagged red light of the Eternatus fragment.

"Phase One: Entropic Priming," Colress dictated into his wrist-recorder, his voice tight with anticipation.

The first needle pierced Rocket’s jugular. Instantly, the convict’s body arched, his eyes snapping open to reveal pupils that had dissolved into flickering black static. The Necrozma-infected data from the DD holder poured into him, a liquid shadow that turned his veins into obsidian maps. Rocket’s psychic signature, usually a steady hum, began to fracture, emitting a sound like grinding glass.

"Subject is resisting the Disillusion... wait... there it is. The 'Destruction' code is mapping to his neural pathways. He isn't just a psychic anymore; he is becoming a localized focal point for reality-rot."

"Phase Two: The Engine Spark."

The second needle slammed into Rocket’s chest, directly over his heart. The red energy of the Eternatus fragment surged. The reaction was violent. Rocket’s skin began to glow with a sickly, translucent purple hue, and the air inside the chamber distorted, hissing as the vacuum-seal struggled against the sudden increase in pressure.

Rocket didn't scream. He couldn't. His motor functions were being rewritten by the Galar-particle radiation. His "Mind Manipulation" ability began to leak out of the tank, causing the nearby lights to flicker in a rhythmic pattern that mimicked a dying heartbeat.

"Fascinating!" Colress barked, leaning against the glass, his face illuminated by the hellish red glow. "The Eternatus energy is acting as a recursive loop. It’s feeding his sadism back into his psychic frequency, amplifying it by a factor of ten. He doesn't just hijack bodies now; he dissolves the identity of the person he controls. He is a living Ultra-Virus."

Colress stepped back, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. Rocket sat slumped in the chair, but his shadow was moving independently, reaching out with jagged, claw-like appendages. He was ready.

"Faba! Initiate the transport!" Colress shouted, his voice echoing through the spire. "Drop our 'Rocket' onto the Luminos tarmac. I want to see the look on Landon’s face when his own nervous system starts taking orders from a ghost!"

Faba looked up from his console, his expression neutral. "That will be difficult, Colress."

"Difficult? I have stabilized the causality-link! I have harnessed the power of a cosmic god!" Colress slammed his fist onto the console. "Move the subject!"

"The subject is ready. The island is ready," Faba said, tapping a display and turning it toward Colress. "But the target is... absent. Landon hasn't left the Prisma bubble. He’s currently at a picnic. He’s eating a sandwich, Colress."

The silence that followed was heavy, punctuated only by the wet, rhythmic thrumming of the Eternatus fragment.

Colress’s face went through a rapid series of twitches. His manic grin collapsed into a flat, trembling line.

"INFIDELS! INCOMPETENTS!" Colress roared, suddenly sweeping a rack of glass vials off a nearby table. They shattered, spilling bioluminescent fluids across the void-glass floor. He turned on the Ancient Colress, who didn't even flinch.

"I provide the tools! I rip open the very fabric of the multiverse! I have brought together the greatest minds of five different worlds to build this stage, and he decides to stay home and play house with his petals?"

He lunged at Faba, grabbing the man by his high collar. "Is this your doing? Did your Aether-scouts fail to leak the intel correctly? Did my little prehistoric encounter fail to provide the proper motivation?"

"It’s not a failure of intel, Colress," Faba said, calmly prying the scientist's hands off his suit. "It’s a failure of you. You are trying to calculate a man who operates on impulse and emotion. You are using a super-computer to predict a coin toss."

Colress backed away, his chest heaving. He looked at the monitor again, his image flickering violently.

"Fine," Colress spat, his voice trembling with a cold, focused rage. "Let him eat his bread. Let him enjoy the sun. Every minute he stays in that bubble is another minute the DD System has to spread its roots into the 'Real' world. If he won't come to the hunt, I’ll simply make the hunt so large that his little garden gets swallowed whole."

He turned back to Rocket’s tank, his eyes narrowing. "Keep him in stasis. Keep him hungry. When Landon finally arrives, I don't want a fight. I want a slaughter! Summon more Prehistoric Pokemon as well! We shall infect them all!"