Author's Note: This story is a direct sequel to "A Crack In Reality (2024 Remake)", so it is highly recommended that you read it before reading this one. Enjoy![]
My legs grow tired as they carry me through this darkened maze of madness. I’d lost the energy to run at this point, slowing down while figuring that my tormentor would find me anyway. No matter which way I took, which method I tried, I knew that there was no true exit to the maze. If there was one, he would shift it away from me. If there wasn’t, then he would give me the illusion that there was, leaving me bereft of all hope before he swooped in to collect his prize. The rules never made sense, constantly changing as that bastard found new ways to make the gauntlet as unfair as possible. He always liked to play this game of cat and mouse, tracking me through his…playroom or whatever the fuck this was. The space had to be endless. There was only one thing I had to keep in my head. Keep moving and don't hide, because he was God here and he would know.
Soon, I heard it. A vague, insistent noise sounding from far off. Against my better judgment, I began to follow the sound. I may as well have been a sailor falling for the call of a siren, but I didn’t care at that point. It was only a matter of time before the monster would find me so I wanted to look into whatever the noise was to learn if this was another of his tricks. The noise soon became louder, the sound of high-pitched, monotonous crying. It set my teeth on edge. I took a right at the end of the hall, passing down another, then a left, starting to move faster, ignoring the odd, corroded twists of pipe and wire in some of the rooms I passed, or the suggestive, soggy mounds of…something.
The crying kept getting louder, soon turning into a cacophony of pain as I got even closer to the source. I pounded down a hall, trying my damndest to ignore the growing dampness of the walls and their changing textures. Broken plaster over old, greenish bricks, floor going from broken vinyl, to concrete, to dirt. I began to run once more as I got further towards the sound, my steps now squishing as I bolted over what seemed to be pulsating flesh. I quickly came to a halt as I noticed what seemed to be barbed wire snaking past one of the corners, seemingly leading towards the sound. The sound of the helpless, angry crying. It was very loud by this point. Darting around the corner, I froze upon coming into contact with the source of the wailing.
The source was a Hydreigon. My Hydreigon from Pokemon White, mutilated to a point of being near-unrecognizable. Multiple fresh wounds were visible on its body, muscle and bone protruding from every agonizing angle. Snaking through these wounds was the barbed wire I noticed earlier. More of the wire was wrapped around its arms, practically juicing them of bodily fluids while it wormed its way even deeper into the mouths of the heads. All three of the heads and all six of its wings were pinned to the wall with rusted nails, no doubt causing infection to run rampant throughout the somehow still living dragon. Utterly shaken by the sight, I had only just noticed that there was something written above the body, seemingly in the Pokemon’s own blood. A single phrase.
“GAME OVER”.
I quickly turned around only to be greeted by a cold, metallic hand wrapping around my windpipe, lifting me up before throwing me into the wall, right next to Hydreigon. Pain swam through me in torrents, my vision coming back into focus as I saw that “he” was here. Maverick had found me. Slow, hard steps made their way towards me and all I could do was wait for the real pain to begin. The metal menace stopped right in front of me, taking some time to look up at the morbid dragon body. His claws cupped its face, the screaming still ongoing. My ears reverberated as his voice boomed.
“Such a wonderful family reunion, wouldn’t you agree?”
You know how people say that you only feel pain in a serious injury when you finally notice it? They lied. For as soon as Maverick stomped onto my knee, my leg bent backwards in the worst way possible. My screams were soon added to the Hydreigon’s agonizing acapella as right after, the lavender cyborg proceeded to break my other leg in much the same fashion. The pain was an indescribable one, one that no one would wish on their worst enemy. I wasn’t even granted the mercy of letting it fade as I felt Maverick grab me by the neck once more, my yells suddenly cut off by the lack of oxygen.
“It’s sad,” I heard him say.
“You almost made it that time, Jack”.
I was given no time to respond before my screams were drowned out by the cold steel of the living glitch as I felt Maverick begin to jam his claw down my throat, grasping at tissue before slowly and agonizingly begin to pull. Soon, life began to leave my body as he yanked, pulling my throat out alongside my tongue. leaving my wails of pain to slowly fade as the Hydreigon once more took center stage as the emissary of vocal despair. I was dropped to the floor, watching with fading vision as Maverick walked away from the atrocities he had committed before all went black.
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I heard another scream, this time mine once more as I sat up in my bed. That was the worst my nightmares ever got, leaving me shaking and sweating like a sinner in a cathedral. I noticed sunlight starting to fade in through my curtains, realizing that it was early in the morning and that I might have accidentally awoken a neighbor or two. I sighed, really not caring as I knew they would never really understand if I told them the source of the scream was a nightmare involving Pokemon of all things. Slipping out of bed, my steps were slow and quiet as I slipped the curtains back and took in the sun just beginning to rise on the horizon. It was a nice reminder that I was back in the waking world and nothing would get me, save my own anxieties.
At least that’s what I thought as I walked into the bathroom and turned on a cold shower, stepping in and attempting to wash away said anxiety. It never worked every other time I tried, but it wouldn’t stop me from doing it since it just felt right. A placebo by any other name, really. I closed my eyes, letting the water run through my uncut, chocolate hair and shuddering as I recalled the events that lead me to becoming so paranoid. I wanted to finish my Pokedex in Pokemon White and found that one of the ‘Mons that I needed was a Genesect, one that was pretty much unobtainable in any legit way. So, I went for the illegitimate way and used the DNS Exploit that allowed a player to obtain events that had been discontinued. Using this method while going for a Genesect lead to everything going wrong, the Genesect seemingly becoming sentient, and even having the thing break out of the very game to try and kill me.
I could never be sure of that last part, wondering if that maniac was actually still gunning for me or if I had just experienced one hell of a hallucination at that moment. I’d be tempted to say it was just a figment of my fragile mind, if it wasn’t for the various scars that the cyborg bug had left on my body. Every so often, I’d wake up from my nightmares with a few scratches or sometimes even a bruise on my arms and legs. They weren’t random, either. Maverick actually made sure that the cuts were clean and even, making it look on the outside that I was someone who cut themselves. I can tell you right now that I am not that kind of person and never will be. But his efforts seemed like they weren’t in vain as during those rare times I actually went out into public, people would notice the scars on my arms and legs and actively avoid me. Some had looks of ire emblazoned on their face while many more were plastered with pity. Pity for a man going through a situation they would not even begin to comprehend.
Rubbing my arms to feel for the marks that Maverick left, I was taken aback slightly upon looking down. The scars seemed to have faded away, on one of my arms at least. Not a trace of them left excluding the typical light patches of skin associated with healing wounds. Checking my legs, I saw that those marks were very much still there. The same could be said of the marks not on my extremities, but what mattered wasn’t that. The fact that they were gone on one arm was interesting, if not eerie. I would have had more time to think about this mystery if not for the sudden loud breathing emanating from outside my shower curtain. A metallic, somewhat glitched breathing. My heart began to race as I looked up, immediately noting the faded shadow of a Genesect. Its claw slowly reached for the curtain, almost wrapping around and granting me a view of the limb. My mind then decided that waiting for the pain was just as bad as being subjected to it, forcing me to yank the curtain back myself.
Nothing. Nothing was out of the ordinary save for the startling amount of water now pooled on the floor around the tub. A mess for me to deal with later I figured as I slowly came down from my fear-induced dissociation, finally getting out of the shower. A quick dry off and an outfit later, I finally escaped that stuffy bathroom and headed back to the bedroom to just lay back down. I didn’t fall asleep, but I wanted to. At least I wanted to close my eyes and not have my heart rate spike every time my brain yelled at me that Maverick would get me if I did so for too long. Still my eyes did flutter for a little bit, even shutting for a prolonged period of time. However, a loud bang re-awakened me, with the rapid hard footsteps that followed ensuring that I would not be closing my eyes for a good while. Quickly rushing down the stairs, I was greeted with something that I was no stranger to. A message carved into the wall; another of the bastard’s favorite methods of mentally testing me. This message, though…It was brief.
“Something...Something’s following me…”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but not for the obvious reason. I might have assumed too quickly but it almost seemed like Maverick was afraid of something. It left me in a bit of shock if I’m honest. With how menacing he was towards me, I would have never guessed that anything could frighten him. Even then, the message could have been one of confusion instead of fear. It didn’t really matter to me at the time though. If anything, I might have felt some odd sense of satisfaction upon seeing the words scratched into the walls. To know that the monster under your bed has its own demons was almost empowering.
That feeling only lasted for a few days, however.
Over the next couple of days, I found that I didn’t have any nightmares whatsoever. Not only that, but Maverick’s presence in the waking world was subtle; almost non-existent, even. The only things that informed me of him were the fact that all of the scars on my body were almost completely gone. There wasn’t a single sign that I had been marked by that madman anywhere; something that I was both grateful for, but also confused to no end about. The main thing that truly showed me the Genesect’s status were the messages carved into my house’s walls. Not only were they slowly getting more and more faded, but they were also getting desperate. Almost…panicked.
“What is this presence I’m feeling?”
“Can…Can it see me…?”
It was the last message that unnerved me the most, however.
“So this…This is how I…was brought back to…Why am I…in so much…pain”.
I can’t tell you why, but the last message scared the everlasting shit out of me. If something can make Maverick afraid, then whatever it was was something that I did not want to deal with in any way. It did make me realize something, though. Whatever kind of supernatural entity Maverick was, he was linked to me pretty much by the hip. The weaker my mind got, the more he was able to infiltrate it. I suppose it only made sense that the weaker he got, the more my wounds would heal. At least I think so. Like I said, I have no idea what kind of force he even was. Either way, the carving sent chills up my spine.
That night…that night was probably the worst of my life. Even more than Maverick coming into my life.
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My eyes slid open only to be greeted by darkness. Looking around, I saw that it was only the sky that was shrouded in black, but I just as quickly noticed that I was on an island. Looking back, I noticed that the ocean waters were still, almost stagnant with how little they moved. No noises either. Getting to my feet, I looked around further. The patch of land I was on was miniscule, only housing a few trees and a small building that looked oddly familiar. It was only when I saw the dried patches of blood smeared on the grass and one of the trees did I realize where my nightmares had dropped me, my heart rate jumping as soon as the connection was made.
This was the P2 Laboratory. The lab in which Genesect was created. This was where my life spiraled out of control. My stomach twisted into knots just staring at the building. I knew that I was going to have to go inside, but I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to it. With heavy steps, I moved towards the door, fully expecting to have to enter a certain password just to gain access. However, I was surprised by the door automatically opening, although it was slightly jittery. Stepping inside, I saw that the scene wasn’t all that different from the day Maverick was awakened. Blood splattered on the walls and the computer server and a general mess made of the small lab. One thing threw me off, though. The various Genesect parts I had encountered in the game were missing. Not an arm in sight.
Searching through the lab didn’t turn up much. The notes left behind were unrelated to the creation of Genesect and the computers wouldn’t turn on no matter what I tried. I was only left with more confusion as I investigated. Was it Maverick that was doing this? If he was, he was doing a rather sloppy job, to be honest. I would have seen at least one mutilated creature by this point that would have me on my knees and vomiting, but this was subtle. Too subtle for that mechanical maniac. He always liked to be in my face, so I figured that this wasn’t his work. This dream was the work of something else. Perhaps the entity that he seemed to be afraid of. If subtle was the name of the game, I would have to change up my tactics.
I was rewarded immediately as I had discovered a switch hidden on one of the walls in plain sight. It was colored nearly the same as the wall itself, with a slight discoloration being the only clue to its existence. Pushing it, I was greeted with the sound of a wall sliding out of place, revealing some kind of secret entrance. Throwing caution to the wind, my steps echoed as I blasted down a flight of stairs, emerging in what seemed to be some kind of secret laboratory. The first thing I noticed was the temperature. It was as cold as a bad winter and I had not one jacket to my name. Deciding to just keep moving to keep my internal temperature up, I began to search through the various files and documents in this hidden area.
I would like to say my search was smooth and stress-free, but that would be far from the truth. It wasn’t long before I noticed just how quiet everything was. No humming computers, no leftover science experiments, not even the static that follows in the wake of silence. The only sounds I could make out was my own breath and my footsteps echoing in the empty research area. Progressing into the testing rooms seemed to cause the freezing cold to bite even harder as I investigated what seemed to be the bedroom for a subject. Oddly, this was the only room to have the lights on. The walls were eerily sterile and cold to the touch, leaving me to wonder just what Team Plasma was doing down here. I then noticed the bed at the far side of the room, spotting a pair of orange ears sticking out from underneath the sheets. I walked slowly, cautious not to wake whatever was in the bed and slowly slipped the cover off.
It wasn’t what I thought it was. It was a Victini plush toy, but that isn’t what caused me to stumble backwards. The plush was tightly gripped by the decayed, mummified body of a Team Plasma scientist. His eyes and mouth were hollow, dripping with a pitch-black ooze that slid down and stained his lab coat. I scrambled onto my feet and ran for my life out of that room. What the fuck could have done that to a human!? I hadn’t a care in the world as I dashed through the halls of the secret lab, seemingly lost in a maze of test chambers and research stations. Each one I found was always decorated with more of the scientists’ drained bodies and even several Pokemon. With what little rationalization I still had while running, I noticed that barbed wire was snarled in several of the corpses. A possible sign of who or what could have been responsible for this.
I thought this at first before I quickly came to the conclusion that this was not Maverick’s M.O. He wasn’t the type to just take what he needed and then go. He would make the pain last. He would leave me and any other figure in my nightmares screaming in utter agony. Whatever did this was quick. Efficient, even. And I was willing to bet that whatever it was was the thing that seemingly scared the living daylights out of Maverick. My legs grew tired as they carried me through this darkened labyrinth. Like my last few dreams, I’d lost the energy to run and couldn’t help but stop at some point. As I caught my breath, I chanced a glance upward and was greeted with a spine-shivering sight.
A stasis tube lay in front of me. Inside and seemingly shut down was Maverick. The hole in his head and missing left eye gave away that it could be no other. The same black slime that I found on the bodies drenched the floor around the pod, accompanied by that ever lovely wire. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The fact that my tormentor was seemingly neutralized left me feeling an odd sense of guilt. I couldn’t help but speak out loud as I continued to stare at the tube.
“What…What could do this to you, of all people?”
I was given an immediate answer as Maverick suddenly slammed a claw against the glass, causing me to jump back. His head slowly rose, his eyes opened, and the trademark smile of a Genesect painted itself across his face. I only just noticed the cracks he had made before he slammed his claw into the pod wall again, breaking free and flooding the floors with water. I watched, practically bolted to the spot in sheer disbelief as the water mixed with the dark sludge, dragging it along for the ride in a literal wave of darkness. Maverick’s voice boomed throughout the halls, sounding like multiple people were speaking at once.
“You want to know what could do this to me? You want to know how even a god can be bound in chains?”
The only thing I could do was quickly scramble backwards, my fear debilitating as I couldn’t feel my legs. The Lavender Weapon continued.
“Every time I’ve come after your head, Jack, I thought it was because I wanted revenge. It turns out that I’m no better than you. A puppet with no strings being led through a black maze. I thought mine was the power of a god, but it was something far, far more ancient. Far more powerful”.
I watched in utter shock as more of the black ooze leaked from Maverick’s orifices, creeping and crawling its way down the Genesect’s body until it was pitch black. The monster was now nigh-impossible for me to see, but only for a moment. For as soon as the substance fully engulfed him, a pair of pale, ice-blue, pinprick pupils appeared where his eyes were. My adrenaline finally kicked into overdrive as I bolted up from the floor and fled for my very sanity, hearing Maverick laugh all the while before I encountered the worst thing I would find at that moment. A dead end. Slushing, gurgling noises built up behind me as I turned around, only to be greeted with a claw around my neck. Maverick squeezed as hard as he could, practically juicing me of oxygen. I was able to spurt out one last thing.
“Who…what…are…you…!?”
The pitch-black menace chuckled before speaking.
“We are everything. We are nothing. We are the Alpha. We are the Omega. We are the darkness of eternity, the infinite black waiting to consume every last mote of life in the universe. What we cannot understand, we consume. What we cannot consume, we destroy. No matter where you run or where you hide, all shall be lost to The Void”.
I knew that no matter what I did, this thing wouldn’t let me go. Feeling my vision going dark, I couldn’t keep up the struggle anymore, feeling my limbs almost going limp before the entity’s grip suddenly loosened. Air quickly breached my lungs, granting me sight once more. My vision was filled with the sight of a sharp, purple claw piercing through the back of the blackened Genesect. It’s grip completely slackened, I was able to squeeze free and saw that my savior was, to my surprise, Maverick. The real Maverick. He looked like he had been through hell, the metal on his body now jagged and sharp. Pulling out his claw, he then proceeded to blow away the entity with a Techno Blast, leaving me to duck and barely missing the beam taking my head off. When I looked up, the imposter was gone, leaving Maverick standing over me. The fear slowly built up as he walked over to me. I closed my eyes, waiting for him to inflict all kinds of pain to me, but was surprised by him laying a claw on my shoulder. His voice was surprisingly calm.
“As much as I would love to split your skull open for what you did to me, we have a much bigger problem on our hands to deal with”.
“P-problems like what,” I asked.
Right behind him, I saw the black ooze begin to gather and rise out of the ground, forming into a rather familiar shape. A Victini, with the same pale eyes as the Maverick clone.
“That,” Maverick stated flatly.
He then proceeded to jam his claw into the wall, tearing open a path for us to escape.
“Let’s get out of here,” I stated.
“Gladly,” Maverick replied.
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Slipping into the crack back into reality, I found myself waking up still in bed, sweating but with no new marks on my body. Staring up at the ceiling, I recounted the horrors that I had witnessed. What in the hell was that Victini thing and how did it know so much about Maverick? Unless…it’s the reason why the Genesect came back wrong? The so-called “Void” seemed to be something on a completely new level. By now, I had already figured that abomination was the cause behind all of the drained corpses throughout that lab. What did it want though? And why did the name sound so familiar?
“It wants the one thing it can never have,” I suddenly heard, looking over to find Maverick completely manifested in front of me. I could only stare in shock as the cyborg continued.
“Energy. The spark. The pulse of life”.
I slid out of bed looking, looking Maverick over. He seemed much more stable, almost normal in terms of his presence.
“If you’re wondering how I know,” he began.
“I did some research of my own. Turns out The Void is an old legend in my world and a glitch in the games that you used to play”.
Racking my brain for what little Pokemon-related trivia I still had, I finally recalled why The Void was so familiar. The Void was an area in Diamond and Pearl that could be accessed via the Surf glitch or “Tweaking”, as the community called it. Using it was a good way to get Darkrai or Shaymin in those games if one had no other options. Hell, I had used it back in the day to grab Shaymin since I missed the event drop. But from what Maverick was telling me, in the Pokemon world itself, The Void actually existed and was a somewhat understood concept. Apparently, The Void might have been a dimensional hub of sorts; a nexus for various realities and other dimensions. Several reports of people who had gone missing could have been linked to The Void and some even considered it to be the missing link between the Distortion World and the Hall of Origin.
When Maverick stated that he had done “research”, I eventually pieced together what he was implying.
“You said The Void is a reality nexus, right? Does…does that mean that…?”
“Yes,” he stated with a nod.
“Thanks to your meddling, I was embedded with Void energy at some point, giving me the power to access it and jump into your world. I thought the power to be my own, but it seems that we were both fools in the end”.
I walked over to my computer, trying to grasp just what in the world I was hearing. Other realities existed, the Pokemon world was one of them, and now a malevolent force had seemingly taken it over and might have been getting ready to make a move on other worlds. Maybe even mine. I was at a loss of what to do. I couldn’t just let this information sit in my head, but at the same time what could I do? I certainly didn’t have the power to fight back against something that ancient.
“W-what do you expect me to do about this? I can’t-”
I was suddenly interrupted by Maverick slamming his claw down on the table, scaring the daylight out of me as he stared into my soul.
“I expect you to help me find a way to fix this mess before we both lose our homes. Luckily, I might have found someone who can help”.
He then proceeded to pull up a tab on my computer, leading to a Pokemon blog run by somebody named Michael Hollander. I asked how a kid could help us before he pointed out a certain link on the page. The link was titled “Brothers to the End” and seemed to be some kind of story.
“Really,” I incredulously said.
“A horror writer?”
“A horror writer…who’s had a similar experience when it comes to supposedly fictional entities suddenly becoming real”.
Staring at the Genesect in disbelief, I figured that I had to humor him otherwise he would kill me on the spot. The humor of the situation soon left as I read through the post however. Apparently Michael was a Pokemon fan who had been playing through Pokemon Sun when it released and had some rather odd experiences with his Pikachu. Things took a turn for the worst after he encountered the UB-possessed Lusamine. During this battle the Pikachu, named X, took several hits that should have caused him to faint, but stood standing because of his extremely high friendship level. After the battle however, the Pikachu had died and it drove Michael into a guilty mess. The poor kid nearly hung himself over the debacle, but was saved by his Pikachu plush animating and telling him to stop. The plush apparently was possessed by a thoughtform that he had accidentally created and considered itself “X”. Michael was apparently inspired to start the blog soon after the experience and kept posting frequently about his new “brother”.
If Maverick wasn’t playing a trick on me, then this Michael Hollander might have been our only chance to get some help. If the posts about the thoughtform’s experiences after “death” were what I thought they were, then we might have had a chance. That Pikachu was tossed into The Void and lived, which meant that the entity had to be lurking somewhere around Alola. And thus, in Michael’s copy of Pokemon Sun. My decision was made. I opened my mail and proceeded to compose a letter to the kid.
“To Mr. Hollander,”
“Hello. I’m hoping that the subject line caught your attention because this is truly an urgent situation. My name is Jack Stevens and about a week ago, I stumbled upon a story of yours. Your supposed supernatural experience involving a Pokemon game. At first, I figured that you were a writer just trying to toss another random scary story out into the web. But the more I read through your experiences, the more I realized that we had something in common: we both have something supposedly fictional haunting us. So, I decided to contact you and share with you my story. One far less heartwarming and far more traumatizing. It is attached to this email, so please give it a read. Seeing what you supposedly have should help its contents make more sense. Please get back to me as soon as possible. I don’t have much time left.”
“With regards,”
“-Jack ‘Nova’ Stevens”
With the email composed, I hit send and sat back, finally taking the time to really contemplate my situation. It was one that I could never truly bring myself to believe fully. Hell, I still don’t believe most of it even happened. All I knew was that Michael and X were the key to stopping The Void in its tracks. As cliche as it sounds, he was our last hope and if he didn’t respond, I had no clue what would happen. At least I say it’s cliche, but I stopped believing in those after my experience with Maverick and living with an actual Pokemon haunting me. It was just something that I got used to eventually, throwing out the notion of “unbelievable things” over time. Even looking back on it, I still remember the words I said to myself.
No matter what happens in your life, things can always get weirder. And no matter how cliche a scenario may seem, nothing is cliche when it’s happening to you.
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The Chronicles of The Void[]
Part 1: Brothers to the End (2023 Remake)
Part 2: A Crack In Reality (2024 Remake)
Part 3: Below Zero
Part 4: The Oncoming Darkness
Part 5: Dreams of My Deathly Cold Demise (You are here)
Part 6: The Stillness of Eternity
Epilogue: Of Hearts and Hope