| Rio POV |
I am standing in the middle of what used to be a containment room.
Kirlia is hovering beside me like a grudge in formalwear, gently brushing off my fur like she didn't just launch a psychic warhead at me five minutes ago. Trishout, now awake, is curled smugly at my feet, doing that innocent "I just woke up, what'd I miss?" stretch that somehow makes me look like the crazy one.
Across from us, half the professor squad is gathered around a monitor. The rest are recovering from earlier trauma.
Oak clears his throat. "Right. Before any more buildings get obliterated... let's begin."
Professor Birch taps a console, and a rotating scan of Trishout's body lights up the screen, showing flickers of unstable energy pulsing through her frame like a living reactor.
"This," Birch says, "is not normal."
Thanks, doctor obvious.
"No known Pokémon in our world has this signature. Her biology is stable, but the energy readings are... alien. Literally. This creature — Trishout — is not from this dimension."
Rowan adds, "She's saturated with something we've started calling X-energy. It doesn't behave like aura, Z-energy, Infinity energy, or even Dynamax particles. It's... other."
They bring up another display: a time-lapse of a regular Pokémon — a Pidgeotto — exposed to trace amounts of X-energy.
It twitches. Warps. Melts into a winged abomination.
"X-energy is highly mutagenic," Rowan says grimly. "To Pokémon native to this universe, it behaves like a virus — rewriting them at the genetic level. Most can't survive it. Those that do... shouldn't."
Birch gestures toward Trishout, who is now trying to eat a clipboard.
"But Trishout can. She's built for it."
"Which means," Oak says slowly, "our multiverse theory holds. The ultra space wasn't just a rift — it was a door. And something came through."
Everyone looks at me.
Oh god.
Here we go.
"Now, as for you..." Birch continues, pulling up a second chart — one that looks less like a biology scan and more like a haunted ECG.
"Your energy output is off the charts. We originally assumed it was a unique aura adaptation, but it doesn't behave like aura at all."
Rowan frowns. "It's closer to Ghost-type energy, but denser. More aggressive. Almost... cursed."
Bingo.
"It doesn't match any typing we know, but it's compatible with your body," Oak says. "And it interacts with X-energy without rejection. It should have killed you."
Birch leans closer. "Instead... it stabilized her." He nods toward Trishout. "It purged the instability. Forced her into coherence."
Mewtwo, still levitating off to the side like the world's most psychic barista, finally speaks. "Whatever this energy is, it doesn't belong in this world. But neither do you."
I shrug.
They're not wrong.
Rowan folds his arms. "You are, effectively, an unknown variable stabilizing another unknown variable. You shouldn't exist. But if you didn't... neither would she."
Everyone goes silent.
Even Trishout.
Even Kirlia.
Oak taps his pen thoughtfully. "Tell me... what are you?"
I think about it.
I open my mouth.
And then May walks in with a fresh juice pouch and a dead stare. "Don't answer that. Last time he did, we had to evacuate a PokéCenter."
I raise my paw like I'm about to say something profound.
Kirlia zaps it with a tiny No.
Yeah. That's fair.
"Technically speaking," I begin, tail flicking smugly, "I'm just a Lucario."
May already looks like she regrets coming back in.
I gesture lazily to the displays. "I just happen to have intimate access to both Z-energy — on the same level Ultra Beasts do."
"...Of course you do," Oak mutters, scribbling something on his clipboard like 'Lucario = walking Z-ring?'
"And the ghost-like energy?" Rowan cuts in, tone still clinical but slightly more interested now.
"Oh, that." I shrug. "That's something I like to call cursed energy."
May audibly groans. Kirlia covers her face like she's already preparing the apology bouquet.
I continue anyway, because this is my TED Talk now.
"Strictly speaking, cursed energy's core components exist in every living being with emotions — fear, rage, desire, guilt, envy—" I glance sideways at Kirlia "—especially envy."
She flicks her hair like a vengeful pop star but doesn't deny it.
"I just, uh…" I scratch behind my ear. "...stumbled on it during a training session. One that ended with a lot of broken trees and angry chipmunks..."
Birch pinches the bridge of his nose. "Let me get this straight. You have access to energy that fuels Ultra Beasts and a completely undocumented metaphysical power source tied to emotional states?"
"Yup."
"And you found it by accident."
"Yup."
"And you use it like it's a toy."
"Yup, actually, I wouldn't say a toy. More like… an unlicensed weaponized emotional outlet."
Mewtwo clears his throat. "I believe the term is 'walking war crime.'"
Kirlia nods sagely.
Oak sighs. "I need another vacation."
"Welcome to my life," May mutters, sipping her juice pouch, where did she get that one from? Wait, I smell alcohol... Eh, she needs it to be honest...
Birch looks like he aged five years in five seconds.
"…And you're stable?"
"No," May, Kirlia, Mewtwo, and I all answer at once.
Trishout, still curled in the corner, sneezes and lets out a puff of flame.
Rowan glances between us and slowly lowers his clipboard. "This may explain why the X-energy didn't corrupt him."
Birch raises an eyebrow. "You think the cursed energy… shields him?"
Rowan nods. "If it behaves like an emotional counterforce, it might neutralize the effects of foreign energies. Like a metaphysical immune system."
"I am built different," I say proudly.
Kirlia zaps me again.
"That's fair."
May sighs. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he turns into a Mega Lucario, eats a ghost, and punches a timeline."
"…I did eat a couple of ghosts during training..."
Mewtwo takes a step back.
"Hey, don't judge me! Free stat points. And they started it!"
Oak very calmly sets his clipboard down. "Let's take a short recess before the Lucario starts talking about eating living people's souls."
Birch groans. "Too late. He's already halfway there."
May just chugs her juice pouch like she's trying to forget the last five minutes existed.
"This is discrimination! Unjust distrust! Unjust, I say!" I protest, dramatically pointing at nothing in particular like a wronged protagonist in a courtroom anime.
Kirlia tugs on my scarf and zaps me again. Not enough to hurt — just enough to reassert dominance.
I sit down.
May finishes her juice pouch with the weariness of a war veteran. "I'm gonna need a stronger drink if he keeps talking."
Oak scribbles a note on his clipboard. "Subject appears to deflect guilt through melodrama and moral outrage."
"Subject is standing right here!" I yell.
"He also yells a lot," Oak adds.
Birch pinches his nose again. "Okay, great, but can we please get back to why this one—" he gestures at me like I'm a very aggressive tax write-off, "—can safely interact with X-energy without turning into a kaiju made of screaming."
"Because I'm special," I say smugly.
Kirlia zaps me again.
"...Because I'm cursed," I correct.
"Better," she huffs.
I try to speak again.
ZAP.
"Okay seriously, what is this, behavior conditioning?! You gonna start using a clicker next?!"
Kirlia blinks. Then — and I swear on Arceus — she pulls one out of somewhere and clicks it.
Click.
A Sitrus Berry rolls across the floor toward me.
I stare at it.
I stare at her.
"…This is entrapment."
She tilts her head innocently.
May deadpans from the corner. "I think she's crate-training you."
Mewtwo hums thoughtfully. "Efficient."
Wait a minute... "I won't be conditioned like this! Viva la revolution!" I get up and kick the berry away, I can tolerate a jelly yandere, but I draw the line at this debauchery!
Kirlia lifts the clicker.
Click.
A second Sitrus Berry rolls ominously across the floor.
"…I will not be bribed," I say, backing up slightly.
Click.
A third berry.
Trishout perks up, sniffing toward the pile.
I stare at her, betrayal heavy in my heart. "Don't you dare."
She chirps.
She dares.
Kirlia folds her arms, smug little smile blooming like she's just won the Elite Four with a team of level 5 Magikarps.
May slurps her juice pouch and mutters, "At this point, I think she's more dangerous than Rio."
"Excuse you," I snap. "I am a proud, self-sufficient, nuclear able Lucario! And I will not—"
Click.
I pause.
"…One more berry and we'll talk."
May facepalms. Mewtwo turns away in shame. Oak starts scribbling down notes again.
Don't judge me, stats are stats, and I already finished all the food I had stocked up for the monthly limit reset when I started stress eating on the plane...
Word Count: 1452
Imagine getting clicker trained, could not be me.
MC: Hey, I'm not a sub, but 20 berries is 20 berries.
Keep telling yourself that, buddy.