The scent of trees and old books filled the Oak family lab in Pallet Town.
Skylar stood across from Professor Oak and Gary, the Volcano Badge still tucked in his coat. Misty sat quietly at the side, her eyes serious, arms folded.
But the mood in the lab was anything but peaceful.
"You're certain it was Ace?" Gary asked again.
Skylar nodded. "Yes. He wasn't bluffing. He told me Shadow is after Ash. And that their leader—whoever's really in charge—has something inside him. Something… wrong."
Gary looked to his grandfather.
Professor Oak was silent for a long moment.
Then he sighed and stepped back from the terminal.
"There was a… report," he finally said. "Eight years ago. A meteorite impact in Johto, deep in the mountains. I was sent a classified memo from League Intelligence. Said Shadow handled it. Quietly. Contained some form of… biological anomaly."
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I didn't question it at the time. Shadow was considered a containment force. Efficient. Brutal, but focused."
He looked up at Skylar.
"I thought they were the good kind of scary."
Skylar's voice was low.
"They didn't contain anything."
Professor Oak exhaled.
"I see that now."
He turned to a nearby terminal and began typing rapidly, accessing old records. "The truth is, we let Shadow grow in the dark. We fed them funding. Intel. Blind trust."
Gary stepped beside him. "And now they're using it to erase Ash."
Outside, dusk had settled over the horizon.
Skylar stepped away from the lab and leaned against the fence, eyes scanning the stars.
Misty joined him.
"Do you think he's okay?"
Skylar's jaw tightened. "He's Ash."
He looked down at his PokéBall belt.
"But even he can't fight forever."
Meanwhile – Subsurface Sector Omega, Unknown Location
The air was thick with heat and dust.
Ash Ketchum ran through the ancient steel corridors, Pikachu clinging tight to his shoulder.
He had been underground for nearly a day.
He knew they were closing in.
No signal.
No support.
Just him, and whatever fight he had left.
He reached a ruined access tunnel lined with cracked power cables. It smelled like rust and ozone.
And then—
Footsteps.
Multiple.
Heavy.
From the far end of the tunnel, twelve Shadow agents stepped into view—uniformed, armored, coordinated.
But that wasn't what froze Ash in place.
It was the one leading them.
A tall, cloaked figure with skin pulled unnaturally tight over the face. The eyes were sunken—fully black, no sclera. And something twitched beneath the robe.
Long, glistening tendrils, half-flesh, half-smoke, curled from its back like they were alive.
The figure tilted its head.
"You dug too deep, Champion."
Ash took a step forward, Pikachu crackling with power.
"Then bury me."
The hallway exploded into chaos.
Light.
Shadow.
And war.