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A quiet night wind swept across the Koron Wasteland, cool and comforting.
High above, the sky finally clear after centuries of human industry had faded into history glittered like a chessboard of stars. But what stole the breath was the center of that sky: two moons.
The larger hung pale gold-white, far bigger than the moon Kael rembered from his past life so large it seed to swallow a fifth of the heavens.
The smaller, shy and half-hidden behind the first, glowed a faint rose shot through with hints of violet no more than a third the size of its companion.
Beneath the twin moons, Kael stood before a ragged, cut-open slab of steel the door he'd carved to escape the underground base. His eyes were wide, fixed on the sky.
Before he had rged with this Machop body, when his spirit drifted beyond the atmosphere, he'd caught a fleeting glimpse of this world. He'd suspected he was no longer anywhere near the Earth he once knew.
Seeing it now with stars like spilled diamonds and two moons sailing the void still stunned him.
In his last cycle, when he'd been an Ampharos in a different Pokémon world, the broader starfield hadn't felt dramatically different. He hadn't paid it much attention.
Tonight's view, the sort of spectacle you only saw in science-fantasy movies, struck him speechless.
And it reminded him what his system truly ant.
With it, Death kept its distance. Each new reincarnation a different typing, a different species had turned ordinary human life into a series of sharp, perilous climbs.
The system's datafication made growth almost... chanical: clear stats, fast level-ups, direct power. And the shop those odd items with stranger effects was a toolbox for breaking limits.
Two traversals. Two different worlds. It made him wonder—if the cycles continued—would there be a path back to his original human world?
The chill night breeze tugged him out of his thoughts.
He sighed, rolled his shoulders, and focused. Philosophizing could wait. For now, he needed to plant his feet in this new world, rack up points, and prepare for whatever the next cycle demanded.
Kael stretched, then stepped from the torn steel threshold onto open earth.
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Five hours later...
Tap. Tap.
Footfalls clicked over hardpan, unhurried but clear.
"Finally," drawled a voice, lazy with relief. "Found it at last."
A blond man with sapphire eyes erged from the scrub and stopped before the ruined base door. He gave the gash in the steel a single glance then paused, nostrils flaring at the faint acid tang of lingering blood. His brow creased.
He lifted his left hand and pointed into the darkness.
Vrrrrm—!
tal sang. A Bisharp sprang forward from his side, its bladed arms flashing silver, and shot into the base like a launched sword. The blond followed at a run.
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Ten minutes later, his muttering drifted out of the dark corridors.
"Done for. Absolutely done for. If the Chairman hears about this, I'm dead. I was just a little late... which technically isn't my fault... right?"
With his Pokémon guarding him, the blond had swept the entire underground complex. He had a picture now.
The stationed Pokémon either dead or critically wounded were out of the fight. The humans looked intact physically, but their eyes were vacant, their minds shattered by so status effect. With the current gap from humankind's peak dical tech, recovery odds were... grim.
It didn't matter to him. Not tonight.
His mission was simple: escort Dr. Darr whose research had finally broken through to a more secure facility.
Except Dr. Darr lay in a shadowed corner of a side passage, very much beyond saving.
The mission had failed before it began.
He shivered, recalling the Chairman's stern instructions, and imagining the punishnt waiting back at headquarters.
Thump!
He stomped once, venting fear and anger. Dust skittered across the floor.
Outside again, the blond scanned the empty plains, eyes cold.
"From the wound patterns and environntal residue, the culprit was a Fighting- and Ghost-type hybrid," he reasoned aloud. Odd pairing but in light of Dr. Darr's line of work, not inexplicable.
He knelt, touched a stain, and glanced at a nearby fallen guard-mon.
"Closest patrol corpse has warm blood ti of death about fifty-six minutes ago."
He stood, gaze sharpening.
"With that level of power, and this much ti, they can't have gone far out here."
He straightened, found a trail only a seasoned hunter would notice, and set off at a brisk pace.
He knew the blood-scent billowing from the base would draw the Wastes' night predators. Without him to shield them, the helpless staff and their Pokémon would be easy prey.
But nothing he did for them now would resurrect a failed mission.
On a calr night, he might have spared a few minutes. Tonight, with the killer likely still within reach, he left them to fate.
Moonlight washed over his drifting golden hair as he moved, a ribbon of silver light his Bisharp ghosting at his side like a loyal satellite.
His deductions were sound. Kael hadn't gone far.
If the tracker's route had been correct, dawn would have found Kael squarely in his sights.
Only one problem remained.
The blond man's sense of direction legendary, in all the worst ways.
He jogged confidently... straight the wrong way.
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