am i the only one who thinks Hyperspace Lumiose is one of the more terrifying concepts in pokemon? like, i get that they explained what it is, but i don't think they fully DID, y'know?
like, it's a dream. it's consuming the world. it's a liminal hellscape version of reality. the people and pokemon there stop existing once you leave but if you bring them out with you they keep existing. the people in there are barely lucid but wonder if they're dead. an actual dead man approaches you on multiple occasions. everything there both is and isn't real until they step outside or the gate closes. like it's some sort of twisted nightmare occupying a space between Dreams, Unreality, and the Afterlife, and i feel like the implications for such a space are HUGE
Have a funny gif to make up for the upcoming headache 🫶
Also, please lmk if I should continue this! It started out as an English assignment, I just changed the name and setting lmao.
The wind screamed across the summit of Prism Tower. The light from the strongest mega users from the streets below painted the metal framework of the tower in flashes of white as Lumiose City watched in terrified silence.
The portal churned, snapping you back to reality. It was massive up close, easily twice the width of the tower’s observation platform. Dark violet energy spiraled around its edges while cracks of black lightning flashed across its center like a storm trapped inside glass. Every pulse of energy made the tower tremble. Korrina stared up at it, squinting against the violent wind.
“…Yeah,” she muttered. “That’s definitely worse than the last reading.”
Beside her, Urbain checked the glowing screen of his scanner again. The device chirped continuously as it struggled to keep up with the unstable energy readings.
“Mega energy concentration continues to increase,” he said.
“How bad?”
“At the current rate, the distortion will destabilize the surrounding airspace within the hour.”
Korrina grimaced.
“So… really bad.”
But the moment you looked down-
Your breath caught.
Seeing the portal from the plaza had been terrifying, but seeing what it was doing to Lumiose City was equally horrifying. Smaller portals were popping up everywhere, threatening to take over. The energy rolling off it pressed faintly against your thoughts, a strange, uncomfortable pressure behind your eyes.
Your hand drifted to the Poké Balls at your belt, several of them shifted uneasily.
Except one.
The ball containing your Meganium rested warmly against your palm.
“The source of the distortion lies beyond the gateway,” he said.
Korrina sighed.
“Meaning we have to go in.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward you.
“We enter together.”
You didn’t hesitate.
“I’m in.”
In the plaza…
The Lumiose plaza had become a sea of mega users.
The Wild Zone border still surrounded Prism Tower while multiple well known Lumiose groups scrambled to monitor the situation.
They all watched the sky.
Everyone watched the three figures standing at the top of the tower.
Corbeau had forced his way as close to the tower as the zone would allow, his gaze locked on the platform high above. The portal pulsed again. Brighter, louder.
Corbeau felt his stomach twist.
“…This is a terrible idea,” he muttered.
Back on the tower…
The wind intensified as the portal grew more unstable. Urbain stepped toward the center of the platform where the swirling energy dipped closest to the metal surface.
“When we enter, stay close,” he said.
“Got it,” Korrina replied.
You adjusted the Poké Balls at your belt.
“Ready.”
The portal pulsed again, harder. The air around you screamed.
“Now!” Urbain shouted.
All three of you ran. The moment your foot crossed the threshold- the world vanished. Light exploded across your vision as gravity disappeared, you felt yourself falling through endless darkness.The sound of wind vanished.So did the tower. So did Lumiose.Everything collapsed into silence.
Then-
You hit solid ground. Hard. Your shoulder slammed against smooth stone as the air rushed from your lungs. For a moment you could only lie there, stunned.
When your vision cleared, you realized where you were. The forest stretched endlessly in every direction. Below you, black stone formed a circular arena suspended in an endless void of swirling violet fog. The ground pulsed with the same unstable Mega energy as the portal.
This was no place in Lumiose, this was something else entirely.
Something is wrong. Very, very wrong. You slowly pushed yourself up.
“Korrina?”
Your voice echoed across the empty arena, no answer.
“Urbain?”
Still nothing. Your chest tightened.
You were alone.
A sudden chill swept across the battlefield. The shadows around the arena twisted. And then something emerged from the darkness. Two glowing blue eyes opened in the void. A long white form drifted forward slowly, its shadow stretching across the battlefield like living smoke. The nightmare Pokémon descended silently.
Darkrai.
The air turned ice cold. Your Poké Balls shook violently at your belt. Darkrai’s voice didn’t echo, it whispered directly inside your mind.
Intruder.
The shadows surged. Your battle had begun.
Back in Lumiose…
The portal above Prism Tower exploded with light, two bodies were thrown violently from the distortion. They hit the platform and rolled across the metal floor. Gasps rippled through the crowd below.
Corbeau pulled out his phone sharply.
“Korrina?!”
Korrina pushed herself upright, coughing as she struggled to catch her breath. Urbain groaned beside her. But Corbeau’s eyes were already searching the platform frantically. Only two figures stood there. Not three, two. Someone hadn’t come back.
His blood ran cold.
By the time Korrina, Urbain, and Hoopa had gotten down from the top of the tower minutes later, Corbeau was already waiting. His voice hit them like a blade.
“Where are they?”
Korrina froze, and Urbain’s silence said everything. Corbeau’s stomach dropped.
“…You didn’t bring them back.”
“They didn’t come out with us,” Urbain said.
The words barely left his mouth before Corbeau snapped.
“What do you mean they didn’t come out with you?!”
“The portal pushed us out,” Korrina said quickly. “Something inside forced us back.”
Corbeau stared at them in disbelief.
“So you left them in there alone.”
The portal above Prism Tower pulsed again. Violently. Korrina looked up, dread creeping into her voice.
“…They’re still fighting.”
Corbeau clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles went white. Then he whispered the one thought none of them wanted to say out loud.
"I have been blessed to see the people of the city grow closer to all their new Pokemon neighbors."
"It is as you young ones once said - a joining of X and Y axes that were never meant to meet." - AZ
Spoilers for the plot and ending of Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
The picture above is Floette's Mega Evolved Eternal Flower. Right away we can see that the triquetra emblem on it has burst out of the flower and now surrounds it. But there's something else.
It might be easier for a person who does 3D modeling to notice, but the Mega Eternal Flower looks like a 3D diagram of the X, Y, Z axes, with the blue lines on the outer petals providing the grid-like appearance of a coordinate area.
The Kalos games use the XYZ axes to symbolize people with different perspectives coming together. From an Iwata Asks interview:
"Masuda: The X and Y represent the x axis and the y axis.
Iwata: X is the horizontal axis and Y is the vertical axis.
Masuda: Right. The world holds people with all sorts of ways of thinking, and you can get a sense that they exist in different dimensions. But if you think of them as people who think on the x axis and people who think on the y axis-horizontal and vertical axes-then they intersect somewhere." (emphasis added)
Of course, AZ talks about the people of Lumiose City growing close to the wild Pokemon in their city. But a big part of Z-A is growing close to all of these wacky and sometimes off-putting characters, from a yakuza man who loves community service, to a spoiled rich socialite with no respect for personal space, to literally Team Flare.
These paths were never meant to meet. It's crazy for the yakuza, the local dojo, and the country club elites to work together. But they do.
And when Mega Zygarde fires its ridiculous mega-laser at the end, it shines the letters "XYZ" as overlapped letters in one symbol, bringing the metaphor full circle. These lines that were never meant to meet...met.
Those axes, those representations of the three dimensions, intersected. But what do you call it when you continue adding axes? Continue the story after Z-A ends, with even more dimensions than three?
That's what hyperspace is. It's a bizarre extra-dimensional space that is incomprehensible to the mind as a three dimensional world is to flat drawing.
In addition to being an extradimensional realm of its own, hyperspace is often used in fiction as a shortcut to conveniently fast travel to other places in three-dimensional space, like Hoopa's portals.
What new friends will intersect with Team M-Z in Hyperspace Lumiose?
