The spatial rift spat us out. The Ultra Wormhole snapped shut with a crack of dispced air, and my boots hit the scorched concrete of the containment block.

  My momentum was gone. My knees buckled, and I hit the floor. The adrenaline crash from dropping my Penultimate form hit my nervous system like a sledgehammer. My shirt was shredded, and my chest throbbed with a dull heat where the corrupted Hydreigon had rammed me.

  "Landon!"

  Nemona and Grusha were at my side before I stopped sliding. They gripped my shoulders, pulling me into a sitting position. Lusamine stepped in front of us, her eyes scanning the devastated room.

  The containment unit was a war zone. The dampening grids lining the walls were sparking and shorted out. The vault doors of the communal cells had been torn off their hinges.

  The seven dangerous convicts were gone.

  With a fsh of light, Nurse Joy materialized from my chest. She didn't waste a second. She pulled a new kind of Super Potion from her inventory, knelt beside me, and began spraying the cooling mist onto my bruised ribs.

  "The breach is sealed," I rasped, wincing as the medicine went to work. I looked up to see Looker rushing down the corridor toward us, fnked by a squad of guards. Anabel stood right beside me, having just stepped through the portal with us, her chest heaving as she processed the wreckage. "But we lost the targets."

  "What do you mean we lost them?" Looker demanded, his boots crunching over the broken concrete as he paced up to our group. "All seven inmates?"

  "Every single one," I confirmed, letting Nemona support my weight as I stood up. "An alternate Colress orchestrated the jailbreak. He used the temporal anomaly to steal your psychics for human experimentation. He brought a corrupted Hydreigon to test my limits. I couldn't beat it. I had to trigger an emergency retreat."

  Looker ran a hand over his face, his expression turning pale. "Colress. We have files on our native variant, but if this one has mastered dimensional travel and biological augmentation... we are facing a syndicate threat on an unprecedented scale. He now has seven master-level psychics to dissect and experiment on."

  "Things just got a whole lot worse," I warned him. "Colress is building an army. He actively wants my System, and he knows I am a hybrid. He is going to come for us eventually."

  Anabel stared at the fading bruises on my chest, the reality of what she had just survived finally setting in. Her professional composure was fracturing. "Looker, if he can engineer a Pokémon capable of beating Landon in a brawl, Interpol is completely outcssed. Our standard tactical teams will be sughtered."

  "Which is exactly why we are changing our approach," Looker stated, his voice dropping into a commanding register. He turned to face the elevator banks. "We are moving to the briefing room. Now."

  Ten minutes ter, I was sitting at a conference table in the command center. Joy had patched me up enough that I could breathe without wincing. My girls stood behind my chair, a united front against the Interpol brass.

  Anabel leaned against the wall, her purple eyes locking onto mine.

  "We need to address the elephant in the room," Anabel said quietly. "Landon, I was right there in the thick of it. I stood inside that localized stadium and saw Nemona encase herself in cosmic fire. I watched Grusha manipute a gcier. And I just saw you transform into a fourteen-foot hybrid with my own eyes."

  She crossed her arms, looking at the girls. "Your system doesn't just capture people. You are actively rewriting their biology. You are granting them powers through these Skins. Everything about your system requires the blind trust of the person being captured. They have to surrender their entire freedom to enter Prisma, a pce I cannot even verify. It is a one-way trip into a pocket dimension."

  "That is exactly what makes it a sanctuary," I replied.

  Anabel stopped pacing. She looked at Nemona, who was vibrating with battle energy, and then at Grusha, whose cold exterior hid a fiery passion for the upcoming fight. She looked at Lusamine, who stood tall and unbothered by the scrutiny.

  "I cannot deny the results," Anabel finally admitted, her shoulders dropping. "Only individuals with a true desire to break out of their shells could wield that kind of power without losing their minds. I still despise the mechanics of your people-collecting, Landon. The requirement of absolute surrender rubs every w enforcement instinct I have the wrong way. But you are the only chance this world has against Colress."

  "Interpol will cover your tracks, and we will fund your training initiative," Looker interrupted, stepping up to the head of the table. He tapped a command into the console. "But fighting holographic dummies or standard Interpol guards isn't going to push your girls to their limits. If we want to unlock the higher-tier abilities of their Paradise Ball Skins, we need genuine, overwhelming pressure."

  Looker activated the table. A holographic map of a cssified isnd materialized in the room.

  "This is an off-the-books bck site," Looker expined. "I am moving you and your companions there immediately. I am using my administrative authority to enact an emergency draft. We don't have time to vet a proper strike team. To beat monsters, you need to spar against the most ruthless fighters I can acquire on twelve hours' notice."

  Looker swiped his hand across the console. A row of personnel dossiers popped up.

  "I am bringing in Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion, to act as our expert and historian," Looker started. "Since Colress is pulling corrupted, extinct Pokémon from alternate timelines, her knowledge of ruins and mythology is vital. She is calm, but she will absolutely crush you in battle."

  Nemona pumped her fist, a massive grin spreading across her face. "Yes! The Champion!"

  "But Cynthia is the only polite opponent you will face," Looker warned, pulling up the next file. It showed a man with wild hair and oversized sungsses. "This is Guzma. Former boss of Team Skull. I am bailing him out of a holding cell for this. He is a street brawler who doesn't respect the rules of a standard battle. He will cheat, and he will actively try to provoke you."

  "Good," Grusha said coldly. "Syndicates don't py by tournament rules."

  Looker nodded, swiping to the next file. A girl in a red uniform with dead eyes appeared. "Courtney. Former Team Magma Admin. She is currently on a monitored work-release program. She is obsessive, deeply unstable, and her battle style focuses entirely on psychological warfare and terrain destruction."

  The next file showed a girl with a pink bow and a toxic smile. "Kra. A Poison-type specialist. She is competitive, entirely unhinged, and will use every underhanded tactic avaible to win."

  Another swipe brought up a feral woman with a massive cape, followed quickly by a red-haired boy with a furious scowl.

  "Zinnia," Looker listed off. "A draconid lorekeeper. She is unpredictable and fights like an animal. And Silver, a trainer who despises weakness and will punish any hesitation your team shows with extreme prejudice."

  I stared at the holograms. Looker wasn't kidding. He was literally building a gauntlet of maniacs and cutthroats to tear us apart on that isnd. It was the perfect crucible to force my team to evolve.

  "And finally," Looker said, pulling up the st dossier. "I needed someone who actually understands the mechanics of synthetic monsters. I contracted a mercenary. He is expensive and ruthless."

  The hologram resolved into the image of a hardened adult. He wore torn clothes and had sharp green eyes. A mop of blonde hair fell over his face. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, his posture radiating a lethal intensity.

  "His name is Gdion," Looker stated. "He utilizes a cssified synthetic beast known as Type: Null. He doesn't py well with others, but he gets results."

  I looked at the hologram, taking in the mercenary's intense gre.

  Beside me, Lusamine leaned forward to inspect the glowing file. She tilted her head, her blonde hair falling over her shoulder. She stared directly into the face of the man who, in another timeline, was her own flesh and blood.

  "Gdion," Lusamine murmured, testing the name on her tongue. She stared at his sharp green eyes and the blonde hair that so closely matched her own.

  For a split second, the room felt completely still.

  Then, Lusamine simply shrugged, leaning back in her chair with a dismissive wave of her hand.

  "I have never heard of him," Lusamine stated ftly, completely unbothered. "But if he understands synthetic Pokémon, he will make a suitable sparring partner for Nemona."

  I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. The timeline divergence was absolute. Without the Aether Foundation, Gdion had clearly grown up on the streets, becoming a hardened mercenary. And Lusamine had zero maternal recognition of him, but she might not even be who his mother was in this timeline. It was a staggering realization of just how fractured this jump here had made everything.

  "Then the roster is set," I said, looking back at Looker. I cracked my knuckles, the thrill of the upcoming gauntlet finally overriding my exhaustion. "Get your maniacs to the isnd, Looker. We will be waiting for them."