Prologue (The Convergence Plan)

“It is time. You must go.”

Helis stared into his mother’s sorrowful eyes. Tears streamed around her snout and down her neck. Her crimson mane was frazzled, her black fur was matted, and her pointed ears were drooping. She held his paws with her claws as delicately as she could. Her shadow loomed behind, shifting and swaying with the errant flames that lit up the sky. 

“Mom, why?” he asked quietly. “Why can’t I stay?”

“You are our last hope, Helis. I’m sorry.” She pulled him close for one final hug. Her tears began rolling down his fur. “I wish you didn’t… I wish… we could be together for just a while longer.”  

Helis didn’t want to understand. He wanted to be blissfully unaware of his importance to this world he was born in. He wanted to be free from the shackles of his cursed blessings. Above all, he just wanted to feel normal. 

But he also knew that there was no more normal in this world. The Kulath he grew up in was gone. An era of constant war between the Exalted had torn apart not only the inhabitants of the planet, but also the planet itself. Every passing day, the sky collapses further. The continents sink deeper. The air becomes more polluted and the waters more poisonous. There were likely less than two generations remaining before Kulath would become an uninhabitable wasteland. 

Helis was the last remaining Exalted on Kulath. Born at the tail end of the wars, he was too late to witness the mutually assured destruction of the previous generation of Exalted warlords. The Exalted were gifted at birth with the blessings of the Creation Trio, and they possessed an innate power to create strange realms from their pokemon energy alone.

“Hurry up and get the kid in the dimension pod already! Lord Palkia is not known for their patience!” 

Helis’s mother relinquished her grasp on him. She lifted her ruby pendant off her neck and put it around his own. Helis had never seen his mother without that pendant before. He looked down and nudged at the gemstone with his paw. 

“This is goodbye,” his mother croaked, choking back sobs as she attempted a crude smile. “I believe in you, my child. Save our people.”

Almost immediately, several pokemon in blue armbands began descending upon Helis, shoving him toward the pod behind him. 

“No… Mom…” he whimpered. He resisted with all his physical might, but it was futile. The pokemon were too powerful.

The transparent lid of the capsule was forced shut with Helis crammed awkwardly within. He wriggled around until he faced outside. There was a flurry of muffled shouts as the operators got in position to power the dimension pod. Suddenly, a blinding white light enveloped his peripherals as he began fading in and out of consciousness.

A robotic voice pierced his senses.

Departing: Dryvas City, Kulath, Universe 1574 

Destination: Haven, Ferronia, Universe 3568

His final vision of Kulath was of his mother with her claws to her chest, sobbing inconsolably amidst the chaos.