Chaldea Security Organization
Chaldea was in chaos.
One moment everything was fine, and then the next, an explosion knocked out the power, and alarms started ringing all over the place.
Ritsuka's chest burned as he pushed himself to run as fast as he could to the control room. Alongside him was Romani, who was equally desperate to reach the same location. Ritsuka was running slightly behind him, as he was still new to Chaldea, and he could not remember the exact location of the control room.
In his peripheral vision, he could see chat was scrolling at a breakneck speed, but he barely acknowledged them because now wasn't the best time for distractions.
Mash.
She was in the control room, the same room that had exploded and caused the power outage.
Part of him wondered if she had survived at all, but a feeling tugging at the back of his head was screaming at him to see if she was okay.
He felt that if he chose to accept the evacuation orders like Romani advised him, then he would come to regret it for the rest of his life.
He needed to see her.
[So remind me again, why is Gudao ignoring the evacuation orders and running TOWARDS the danger? ]
[Don'tTouchMyBuns!: Because, he's a reckless idiot. ]
[Worse. He's a reckless idiot in love. ]
[I really hope Mash is Ok. ]
Finally, after what seemed like hours of running, they stopped in front of the door that led to the control room. Even at this distance, he could feel the heat emanating from the metal slabs in front of him.
Romani winced as he got closer to the door, the heat causing a trickle of sweat to pour down his temple.
The automatic doors opened, and a wall of intense heat slammed into their faces.
The once pristine, sci-fi environment now lay in ruins, its calm blue coloring now engulfed in red-hot fire.
"Shit. Stay here, Ritsuka; I have to go check for survivors!"
Romani takes some time to inspect the various bodies strewn around them.
[Horses-R-Lame: what in the name of Arceus is going on here?!! ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): Oh shit its Horse! ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): erm… i mean… Nothing to see here, officer. ]
[Horses-R-Lame:
Iono, I stepped out for less than 10 minutes to take a pee break and now there are sirens blaring at full volume! ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): I uh… you see… this is uh… ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): dammit! I can't do it!! @Moostache!! Where are you?! HALP!!! ]
[@Moostache!! ] x100
[Seriously!! Where the heck is he?! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: Don't worry guys. I got this. ]
[MalasadaMayhem: Welcome back @Horses-R-Lame. Don't mind the red flashing lights. That's completely normal. ]
[Horses-R-Lame: Uh, I don't think anything being on fire can be considered NORMAL. ]
[MalasadaMayhem: Fire type specialists would beg to differ.]
A piece of rubble from the ceiling crashed nearby, startling Ritsuka and everyone in chat.
[Horses-R-Lame: Fuck, this place looks like the aftermath after someone pissed off a cluster of Electrode! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: In the wise words of Cooking Mama, Do Not Mind.]
The camera, as if finding the interaction amusing, decided to zoom in on a woman's body nearby. She was wearing the standard uniform for female Chaldea staff, a dark gray uniform adorned with silver downward stripes that separated the darker color from the orange-colored area near the shirt buttons.
She would not have looked out of the ordinary in a normal setting if it wasn't for the blood staining her uniform. The poor woman's head had been splattered into a mess of blood and gore by a piece of concrete that fell from the ceiling.
Her fingers, much like a freshly butchered chicken, were twitching, completely unaware that the body it was attached to was already dead.
[HippityHoppip650: Oh, I think I'm going to be sick. ]
[GroundHippowdon: Crap. We are so banned. ]
[Horses-R-Lame: IS THAT A DEAD BODY?!! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: No. You didn't see anything. :Madagascar penguin meme: ]
[Horses-R-Lame: Dude. I have eyes. I can see very blatant TOS violations in front of me when I see them!! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: There are no dead bodies in Ba Sing Se. ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: P-Please don't ban Gudao Mr. Twitch Moderator, he is my life… please don't…]
[Horses-R-Lame: I-I'm sorry guys… But I can't let this slide… ]
[MalasadaMayhem: …oh well. I tried. ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: .·°՞(≧□≦)՞°·. ]
[JigglyWiggly: It took 3 years, 3 long years of us being a wholesome channel and community with a bright future. Oh well, we had a good run. It was nice knowing you guys. ]
Romani came back, a somber look on his face, "No survivors. Only Chaldeas is safe."
[How awful… ]
Frustration was now visible on Romani's face, his fists clenched in fury, "This was where the explosion originated. This was no accident. This was sabotage."
[It was Lev wasn't it? ]
[Romani said there were no survivors. Lev was in the control room. He's dead. And so is Olga and… Mash.. ]
[ShortShorts_QUEEN: … ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: ... ]
Then, a woman's voice came to life through the speakers.
" Generator operation stopped.
Power level critical."
" Switch to the backup generator, error.
Please make switch manually. "
" Containment wall will close in 40 seconds Those who remain in Central Area, evacuate immediately. "
"Crap." Romani then turned to Ritsuka, a dead serious expression on his face. "Sorry, Ritsuka, this is where we part ways. Chaldea cannot afford to lose power. I'm going down to the underground power station; there's still a chance for you to evacuate. Please, do not be a hero; save yourself."
With that said, Romani left the control room, sprinting as fast as he could to the underground power station to stop the shutoff and leaving Ritsuka alone in the burning room.
[Bro! If you won't listen to us, listen to your new friend! EVACUATE! ]
" System switching to the final phase of Rayshift. "
" Coordinates, AD 2004, January, 30th, Fuyuki Japan. "
" Laplace shifting protection established. Singularities additional factor slot secured. "
" Unsummoned Program Set. Please start final adjustments. "
Ritsuka clenched his fists, he can't just give up on her, he needs to look for Mash until the very last minute.
[Oh no, I know that face. ]
[Gudao for the love of…]
[PerfectlySaneHex: Ritsuka... Please go home… I can't bear to see you in danger… please… ]
Ritsuka went back on track and continued to search through the blazing inferno and rubble in search of Mash.
✦✧✦
Unova Twitch Headquarters
Jerry, or rather Horses-R-Lame, had been a fan of Gudao for a long time. Sure, he was technically assigned to monitor him to make sure he didn't accidentally leak someone's personal information again. Although, that fear became less and less of an issue as the years passed by, mainly due to Gudao's work ethic.
After the whole fiasco that happened where he inadvertently doxxed real people by playing his world's Pokémon games, he went above and beyond to ensure he always stayed Terms-Of-Service compliant. That incident had been a huge scandal back in the day, one that had caught the attention of the whole world, as Gudao had dropped a massive bomb on their world all those years ago.
It got so bad that even Interpol got involved, and they demanded that Twitch Inc. shut down his channel due to the fact that the very protagonists of the game he played were in their protective services.
If he were just a random nobody from their world, the company would have bent the knee, but luckily for Gudao, he was special. The CEO of Twitch himself had stood firm that he would not take the stream down, as this was a first contact case with an alien world that had already grown massively viral across the known Pokémon world.
Plus, the streamer was a teenager, a literal child who was only playing what he thought was a game with fictional characters. So he was also effectively immune to any penalties due to his age, thanks to a certain law that was passed in Galar a few years ago and was later adopted into the wider world.
Interpol, the so-called protectors of children they proclaimed themselves to be, backed off, but not without exerting their influence as bureaucrats and using their extensive legal powers to send a permanent Interpol agent to monitor not just Gudao's stream, but also everyone working at Twitch Inc. and their activities.
Gudao, after hearing just what kind of mess his stream revelations caused in their world, was compliant with the new restrictions forced onto his channel. Being the genuine guy that he was, he even issued a public apology for the mistake and promised never to play what he called the "mainline Pokémon games" or the spin-offs which include humans on stream again.
Everything went great afterward.
Just like he promised, Gudao stopped playing the game "Pokemon White" where he was and started to focus his channel on just sharing information. From that day on, he played games that weren't Pokémon-related, watched non-Pokémon-related videos and—undoubtedly the greatest peace offering he gave to their world— showed them the rich and extremely complicated biosphere of fauna, flora and other living organisms native to his world.
In their world, Pokémon and humans had been living side by side for generations.
This wasn't always the case, as humans had the habit of starting wars for petty reasons, while dragging innocent Pokémon into the mess with them and causing devastation and tragedy for all parties involved. These wars, while short compared to the ones Gudao described were like on his side, were still devastating to civilization and culture as a whole.
There are numerous instances in history where wars erased hundreds or even thousands of years of knowledge due to the scale of the conflicts. One of these missing pieces of knowledge was the origin of terms they used to describe Pokemon with. Take Ponyta for example, It was often described by both scientists and normal people alike as a "Fire Horse" Pokémon.
People know what the word "horse" refers to when they talk about it in discussions, but it has always been used to describe a Pokémon rather than an actual living organism.
Gudao's greatest contribution to their world was putting names to the faces of the descriptors used for Pokémon classification.
The book-flipping ASMR streams, alongside his "IRL Earth Tour" streams, as he called them, had single-handedly restored what many historians and scientists alike speculated was lost information.
Experts from all over the world, using the scraps of information that did survive the wars of the past and the information that Gudao presented to them, formed a hypothesis: that animals like those on Earth once roamed their world alongside people at some point in the distant past.
Yet despite these massive world altering revelations, the crazy thing was that all Gudao was doing was reading text off his college biology textbook, reading articles online and going to trips to the local zoo while pointing a camera at the animals on display.
Which was why it was also tragically ironic that the reason why this simple GoPro, which contributed massively to their scientific world, was broken by the very same creatures Gudao was observing. A gorilla, if he recalled its name correctly, had spooked Gudao during his last trip to the zoo. He had made the mistake of smiling at it when showing him off to chat, which was a bad idea since Gorillas saw that expression as a form of aggression, and so, the animal slammed into the plexiglass window, causing Ritsuka to drop the camera on the concrete floor, ending its life.
The tragedy and mourning of his GoPro aside; everything had been going well.
That was until the kidnapping incident.
Gudao himself wasn't breaking any TOS rules; as he was minding his own business when he was kidnapped live on Twitch.
If they had banned his channel for that, they could have actually hurt Gudao. They might not have been able to contact his world's police in time to save him, but some video evidence would still be better than nothing, and it could still be used against the perpetrators when their world made the attempt to contact Earth.
The technology existed, and the kidnapping incident caused every league in the world to work on a solution, possibly to find a way to present the evidence to someone from Gudao's world and help serve justice to the criminals who took him.
Thankfully, his stream came back online and showed him in perfect health. With his safety confirmed, many thought they would be back to how things were, but with a mobile set up. Unfortunately, this upgrade proved to be something that would test the patience of Twitch staff and the other entities observing Gudao's channel.
It began when Gudao walked into a room and saw someone in the middle of pulling up their pants after having finished doing something… intimately personal with themselves. Based on the events of the last 24 hours, Gudao didn't seem to be in control of the camera, so he was not at fault, but it was still concerning.
Emails were exchanged, and everyone collectively decided to turn a blind eye to the incident. Though they did send a Porygon to change the title of the stream to include the R18 rating.
They were being very lenient towards Gudao after years of great behavior combined with the cultural, historical and scientific significance his stream now held, but the graphic visuals of a real corpse crossed the generous line they drew in the sand.
Jerry really hated this part of his job.
Gudao was not at fault for any of this, but this level of graphic violence broke too many of his company's TOS. As a moderator of Twitch, he was now obligated by the company to pull the plug on Gudao's stream in order to protect the company image.
His phone rang. He grimaced when he saw it was a message from the Interpol agent assigned to Gudao's stream.
'Pull the plug.'
It was a simple and to-the-point command, as expected of a cop.
Jerry sighed and typed the message he would send to the Pory-Squad. Because of the special status of Gudao's channel, on top of being heavily restricted, his channel was also heavily protected from any bad actors attempting to take his channel down.
So there was a list of commands and procedures that only he and a few others had access to that would allow for Gudao's channel to be banned.
Jerry typed the last character of the simple command that would end his favorite streamer's channel.
It was done; now all that he needed to do was press the enter button, and it would all be over.
Jerry paused for a moment and looked at the screen once more, grimacing as he saw Gudao running through the hellscape he had found himself in. This was not what he expected to see when he imagined banning Gudao's channel all those years ago.
The strong weight of depression and responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders as he took in what would likely be the last time he would see Gudao live. Jerry cringed, realizing that had been a very poor choice of words on his part.
"I'm sorry, Gudao, but my hands are tied. I hope you will understand. I wish you the best of luck, and you better get out of there alive, you reckless idiot." Jerry pressed the "enter" button; the deed was done.
"…"
Jerry looked at the bottom of his monitor and saw that a minute had passed, and yet, Gudao was still visible on screen. He repeated the process and pressed enter once more. He waited, and waited… Why hadn't the Porygon taken down the channel yet?
A message popped up on his screen, and reading it just made him more confused.
[OBSTACLE IN THE WAY. BAN IMPOSSIBLE.]
That… was odd. The Pory-Squad assigned to Gudao's channel were the best and most experienced Porygon in the company. It was led by an alpha Porygon 2, and it always delivered whenever it was given commands. What could have possibly stopped them from completing their jobs?
A buzzing noise startled him; it was his company-issued poryphone. Picking it up and unlocking the lock screen, he read the message that was sent to him.
The Interpol agent was bitching at him.
'Why is his stream still online?! Take it down now!'
Jerry rolled his eyes at the message that uptight suit sent him, then rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
However, he quickly ran into a problem.
His browser had become unresponsive.
He could move his mouse around, but he couldn't click or type anything on the Twitch tab he was on.
"What the hell is going on?"
Suddenly, a message popped up, and it was then that he realized things had just escalated beyond a simple Terms of Service violation.
[CEASE.]
"Ohhh no. Ohhh no." This was bad, this was very, very bad. Someone had hacked their servers and was actively preventing him from banning Gudao.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, "it's alright, it's alright, this is why we have procedures. "
Without wasting time, Jerry did all that he could to try and wrestle back control of the system, but despite his efforts, he got no results to show for it.
He tried to send a message to his coworkers, but his mail app, company message app and every other form of communication was bricked.
With all other options exhausted, he decided it would be best if he got up from his chair and let everyone know directly.
However, before he could, he heard a voice in his head.
[ENOUGH. ]
A sharp pain impaled his temples, his vision doubled, and fell back into his seat, the chair squeaking and groaning due to the inertia and weight of his boddy falling on top of it. The suddenness of the phenomenon caused his heartbeat to beat faster than a Yanma's wing flaps.
Gasping for breath, he looked around the room in a panic. His ears buzzed in pain, nearly causing him to faint.
Then he stared at the computer screen and he saw the ominous message from the hacker displayed in all caps.
[THEE AND THY ILK SHALT NOT INTERFERE, NOT THIS TIME NOR EVER AGAIN. ]
Jerry blinked, and he was no longer in his office.
He was now in a void.
Nothing besides himself existed for miles.
Then, he sensed a presence.
A strange white quadrupedal Pokémon appeared before his eyes. It didn't walk, float, flew or teleported to where he was. It just "appeared" like it had always been there but he hadn't taken notice of it until it wanted its presence to be known.
He had never seen anything like it.
Jerry blinked again, and he immediately regretted it.
His eyes widened in terror as he saw the unidentified Pokémon, who was previously about 3 feet small, was now equal in size to a mountain. Its colossal red eyes were looking down upon him like an alpha Rhyperior staring down a mere, singular Joltik that was abandoned by his colony.
Jerry could feel the immense pressure emanating from the titan before him.
He was being judged.
The void that surrounded him suddenly began to shift, it latched onto his arms and legs. Then they started to slowly crawl up his body.
He tried to scream but felt no words come out, was he in space?! Was he dead?! What was going on?!
The darkness crawled over him until, it enveloped him in a cocoon of shadows.
✦✧✦
Meanwhile, back in Chaldea
There was fire and rubble everywhere he looked.
Ritsuka carefully navigated the area and looked at each individual cylinder that held the Master candidates like him. Some were passed out, peacefully resting inside their pods, while others had very ugly bruising on their faces and leaking blood from their mouths and noses. A few were in such a horrendous state that it caused Ritsuka to gag.
[How are we not banned yet?]
[Dude! Shut up! Don't bring attention to it! ]
[But its so weird to see Gudao's channel still up after 3 minutes of him navigating burning ruins filled with corpses, meanwhile, Twitch took down Yoguu's channel after she accidentally showed a bit too much sideboob when she was adjusting her camera in less time than I could blink. ]
[Maybe he got a "Charlie Horse", what Gudao calls a cramp, from working on a desk all day and can't ban us due to the pain? ]
[I<3HorsePKMN: It would be a fitting punishment for that horse hater. ]
"MASH! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Ritsuka pushed his ears to the absolute limit in hopes of hearing her voice.
Nothing, or so he thought.
"Fou!"
Ritsuka whirled around and barely managed to see Fou run around some rubble.
[Oh no! Fou is here too?!! (ó﹏ò｡)]
[Gudao! Take Fou and get out of there! ]
Ritsuka didn't question it, he followed the small creature's path. He froze in place when he saw the grisly sight in front of him.
His face morphed with horror and anguish as he saw the cute, if a bit weird girl he had met earlier, pinned under a massive block of stone.
A large puddle of blood was leaking from under her body.
[Oh… oh no.]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): ∑(; °Д°) ]
[Mash noo!! ]
[__Red__::scared Ash emote: ]
"...Sen… pai…"
Mash's weak voice brought him out of his shock, and determination took its place.
"MASH! Don't worry, I'll get you out of here!"
[How?! That rock is huge!]
"...It's All…right. You can't…save…me. Don't mind me, please… Run."
[ShortShorts_QUEEN: Listen to her! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN! ]
Without hesitation, Ritsuka moved toward the giant boulder that was crushing Mash's body.
[Fyre&Flamez: Wait! Don't touch that! It's hot!]
The warning from chat never reached him, as he had a single focus on his mind, save Mash.
His skin sizzled like bacon on a skillet, as his bare hands made contact with the scorching hot stone.
Ritsuka grunted in pain and pulled away his hands from the hot surface. He looked at his hands for a moment and was shocked to see the palms of his hands were covered in 1st degree burns.
[PerfectlySaneHex: ｡°(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞°｡ ]
[Fyre&Flamez:That's what happens when you try to touch a heated rock with bare hands.]
He didn't care, powering through the pain. He covered his hands with his coat sleeves and desperately tried to lift the massive burning stone, completely ignoring the pain of his skin peeling off his hands.
[He just won't give up… ]
[Junior_Researcher: This is asinine! That rock looks like it weighs actual tons! The human body cannot lift more than a certain weight without dedicating years of their life to temper their bodies alongside fighting type pokemon, something which Gudao lacks! He's just throwing his life away for a girl he just met! Unbelievable! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: Ugh, I never thought I would find myself agreeing with @Junior_researcher, but he's right. It's impossible for someone like Gudao to lift this.]
[Ranger75: And even if he did, what's that going to accomplish? Mash was crushed! Moving her safely out of this inferno is not possible without a gurney… she's not going to make it.]
The voice of the woman from earlier blared all around the furnace that was once the control room.
" WARNING ALL OBSERVATION STAFF. Chaldeas' state has changed."
" Now rewriting Sheba's near-future prediction data."
" Unable to detect the existence of mankind 100 years in the near future on Earth."
" Unable to confirm human survivors. Unable to guarantee mankind's future. "
[Dunno what the heck that AI lady is saying, but it doesn't sound good. ]
"Ah. Chaldeas… has turned bright red. No nevermind, that- "
Suddenly, the sound of heavy metal doors slamming shut echoed inside the room.
" Central Area sealed."
[Welp… too late to evacuate now.]
[Nooooo!! Ritsuka! why didn't you listen to us?!]
"...They shut off, the area. …Now, we can't get out. " Mash turned toward Ritsuka, guilt shown on her face, "I'm sorry senpai…, it's all my fault… "
"Don't worry, we'll figure something out. "
[They are both fucking cooked.]
[PerfectlySaneHex: Don't blame yourself Mash. You did nothing wrong… (◞‸◟,)]
Ritsuka sits down next to Mash, he might not be able to save her, but he can at least keep her company during her last moments.
After a moment of comfortable silence, Mash spoke.
"Senpai…"
'What is it, Mash?"
"You can't see… the sky… at all… from here… "
His brows furrow in confusion before, "Mash?"
"...I wanted to see it… "
[Has… Mash never seen a clear sky before?]
[How awful… I can't even imagine what that would be like. ]
Ritsuka quickly realizes the gravity of her words, he looks at the ceiling.
"You're right! Because there's always a blizzard here. I want to show you the sky. Mash."
" Coffin Vitals: Masters. "
" Baseline not reached. "
" Rayshift requirement not met. "
" Searching for qualifying Master… Found. "
" Candidate No. 48, Ritsuka Fujimaru
Reset as Master. "
" Unsummon Program Start. "
" Spiriton Conversion, start. "
Suddenly, both Mash's and Ritsuka's bodies began to glow and emit particles of light.
[Woah What is happening!?]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): IDK!! ]
[Their bodies are glowing!!]
"Um… senpai. I'm sorry… but… Would you mind… Holding my hand?"
"Sure. Here." Ritsuka holds Mash's hand with both of his blistered hands.
[Guys, that is very sweet but the room IS COLLAPSING ON YOU! ]
[Man, I'm gonna miss you Gudao… and you too Mash. Even if we only met you for a brief time. ]
The ground shook beneath them, but they paid no mind to it. Because all that existed at that moment, was Mash and Ritsuka.
"Rayshift starting in 3… 2… 1. "
"All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation. "
Suddenly the world shifted.
Ritsuka's eyes saw a swirling white portal and a felt a pulling sensation, like his soul was being pulled from his body, while at the same time, he felt like he was falling from a tall building.
Meanwhile, the Pokémon world collectively held its breath as all 50,000 of his viewers could visually see what Gudao was feeling. No one could talk, no one could type, or think. All they could do is observe the strange lights flashing on their screens.
The screen faded to black, leaving many wondering if this meant that Gudao was dead and that stream was over.
That sentiment only lasted for a moment as the following words displayed on the screen.
[h1]Singularity F: Fuyuki[/h1]
The screen changed again, and this time it showed a bewildered Gudao, sitting on his knees in the middle of a mangled asphalt road.
No one said anything at first, as they all were collectively taking in the new scenery in awe and horror.
Then, a message popped up, startling everyone who was watching the chat.
[GudakoBot: "First Rayshift "Achieved!! Gudao's Merch store is now unlocked!! Get your official Fou plushies for only 2,000 pokedollars!! First 100 customers get 25% off!! GET EM NOW!!]
Yoguu: A twitch streamer from Sinnoh who was also a part-time Pokemon Contest participant. [ISPOILER]She is the parallel, reverse gender version of the man who helped found one of the largest Vtuber agencies in our world in 2020.[/ISPOILER]
New Usernames introduced this chapter:
I<3HorsePKMN: Username loosely inspired by protagonist of Pokemon Streamer's Nightmare by Bliblies.
Horses-R-Lame: A Twitch mod assigned to monitor Gudao's stream by Twitch. He used to dislike pokemon who were classified into the "horse" classification.
He was in Gudao's chat before I<3HorsePKMN, so naturally everyone came to know him as Horse, much to the chagrin of I<3HorsePKMN.