The first thing he noticed was the sound.
A steady, mechanical beep—slow. Measured.
His eyes were too heavy to open, and even the faintest hint of light leaking through his eyelids made the headache spike violently.
Must’ve been a hell of a night drinking…
The thought surfaced automatically, familiar and wrong all at once.
He tried to move his hands.
The sensation was… off.
They moved too smoothly. Too easily. The dull, ever-present ache of carpal tunnel—the one that should have been there after years of precise, repetitive work—was gone. His fingers responded with a fluidity he hadn’t felt since before his job, before the strain, before—
“…Nurse! Maverick’s hand moved! He’s waking up!”
A woman’s voice cut through the haze, sharp with surprise.
The name hit harder than the headache.
Maverick?
That wasn’t right.
His name was Ethan.
Confusion churned as fragments tried to line up—memories that didn’t quite fit, sensations that belonged to a body that felt both familiar and wrong. The beeping grew louder, closer, as if the room itself was leaning in.
He tried to speak.
Only a pained groan escaped his throat.
The door slid open, soft mechanisms hissing as a nurse hurried inside, her expression shifting the moment she heard the sound.
“There we go,” she said gently, moving to his side. “Easy now. You’ve been out for a while.”
Her hand was warm as it steadied his arm, grounding in a way that made the unreality worse.
“Maverick,” she continued, checking the monitor, “do you know where you are?”
“No? What happened?” Ethan asked
“Eevee came to the door in a panic because you colpsed in the yard.”
“I did?” Ethan asks knowing that was likely when he got his memories back… Did he get his wish? He should’ve come with a phone if he did.
“Yes you did, according to the doctors here you seemed to have awoken some psychic potential.”
Psychic.
That… expined the headache. And a few other things he didn’t want to think about yet.
“Where’s Dad?” Ethan asked instead, choosing to trust his instincts as he sorted through the overpping memories—his own, and Maverick’s.
She smiled sadly.
“Come on, Mav. Your father wishes he could be here with you, but he’s busy at work at the research institute.”
Something twisted in Ethan’s chest.
“…My Eevee?” he asked quickly.
Her expression softened.
“He took Eevee with him,” she said. “Your father thinks it’s on the verge of evolving. Since it doesn’t seem to involve a stone, the institute wants to document it—capture a potential moment in history.”
That was enough.
Ethan pushed himself upright despite the protest from his skull, eyes burning with urgency.
“Mom,” he said firmly, surprising even himself with the steadiness in his voice, “if my Eevee is going to evolve, then we need to be there.”
Now.
She hesitated. Then sighed.
“…You’re just like him.”
=====
“Researcher Roberts,” a man in a pristine business suit said coolly, hands csped behind his back, “excellent work bringing in the Eevee for the trials.”
The Pokémon sat on a reinforced table, ears fttened, eyes darting around the sterile boratory. Energy readings flickered wildly on the monitors surrounding it.
“It has more than enough energy,” the man continued. “If our projections are correct, we may be on the verge of discovering a new, powerful evolution.”
Roberts adjusted his b coat, gncing briefly at the Eevee.
“It’s my son’s Pokémon,” he said. “As long as we return it before he wakes from his coma, you can run whatever tests you like.”
The man smiled thinly.
“If this method of evolution works,” Roberts continued, voice low with ambition, “and it’s as powerful as we expect… we’ll be unstoppable.”
He straightened.
“Hail Team Gactic.”
“Hail Team Gactic,” the businessman replied without hesitation.
=====
The testing began.
An Everstone was pced before the Eevee.
Then an Eviolite.
Then—one by one—all three elemental evolution stones.
The Pokémon trembled as energy surged and twisted within it, instincts screaming as something inside of its being cried out in worry. Elemental power escaped unchecked suddenly as eevee cried out in pain.
Then monitors screamed.
Energy readings spiked past red, numbers blurring as arms began to wail. The lights flickered once—twice—then steadied, bathing the b in harsh white.
“Pull the stones back!” someone shouted.
Too te.
Eevee cried out—not in fear, but in pain—as the conflicting energies collided inside its small body. Evolutionary signals overpped and folded in on themselves, stone-based pathways tearing against something older, deeper. The Everstone shattered first, cracking down the center before exploding into dust.
The Eviolite followed.
A shockwave rippled outward.
The lights died.
For half a second, the world went silent.
Then the generators failed.
Darkness swallowed the research wing as emergency systems struggled—and failed—to come online. Containment fields fizzled out with a sound like tearing paper.
Deep underground, something noticed.
A massive silhouette stirred behind reinforced gss, three heads lifting in unison as crimson eyes snapped open.
Hydreigon.
The bckout reached its cell a heartbeat ter.
Magnetic locks disengaged.
The gss cracked.
One cw punched through the enclosure—then another—then the third head unleashed a roar that shook the facility to its foundations.
Steel screamed as Hydreigon tore free.
It burst into the corridor like a living catastrophe, shadowy wings unfurling as it incinerated fleeing researchers in a storm of dark pulses and draconic fury. Walls colpsed. Fire suppression systems detonated uselessly against the sheer force of it.
Above the chaos, emergency sirens finally howled across the institute.
“Containment breach!”
“Dragon—no, it’s an enraged Dragon-type!”
“Evacuate! Evacuate now!”
Hydreigon tore through the upper levels and burst into the open air, its roar echoing across the city as panic spread like wildfire below.
And in the ruined b—
Where Eevee had been—
Something else stood.
First, Vaporeon.
Then Jolteon.
Then Freon.
The transformations came in rapid succession, bodies flickering and reforming as incompatible evolutionary paths forced themselves into existence. Two more shifts followed—Espeon, then Umbreon—before the energy colpsed inward.
With a final, exhausted cry, the Pokémon reverted.
Eevee fell to the floor, trembling, its body scorched and unsteady—but alive.
===
An explosion rocked Veilstone City.
Not a sharp crack, but a deep, concussive thud that rolled through the streets and rattled windows in their frames. The ground jumped beneath hooves and feet alike, and for a heartbeat the entire city seemed to freeze—people looking up, breath caught, instincts screaming that something had gone terribly wrong.
Then came the silence.
Smoke curled upward from the industrial district, dark and uncertain against the sky. No arms yet. No shouting. Just the low groan of settling steel and the distant crackle of small fires struggling to find fuel.
One second passed.
Then another.
And Veilstone’s emergency systems came alive.
Sirens howled across the city, yered and unmistakable—deep, pulsing tones reserved for one thing only.
WILD POKéMON ATTACK.
Red warning lights fred atop buildings as automated broadcasts cut into every public channel.
“Attention all citizens. This is not a drill.”
“A rampaging wild Pokémon is loose in Veilstone City.”
“Evacuate immediately. Seek reinforced shelter. Do not engage.”
The sirens shifted pitch.
A sharper tone cut through the din, followed by a new broadcast—clear, authoritative, and impossible to ignore.
“Attention all registered Pokémon Trainers.”
Civilians scattered for cover as Trainers called out their Pokémon, Poké Balls fshing open amid the chaos.
“Trainers possessing three or more Gym Badges are hereby authorized and requested to assist in containment efforts.”
The voice paused, just long enough for the weight of the words to settle.
“Locate the nearest Pokémon Ranger immediately. Follow all Ranger directives. This is a coordinated response.”
