FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Islands in the sea were nothing unusual. Islands which didn’t appear on any map were somewhat unusual, though still not beyond belief. Islands which didn’t appear on any map when the surrounding islands had been inhabited for hundreds of years...that was over the line of ‘weird’ by a fair bit.

The first time Gene saw it, he was flying in a plane overhead, doing some aerial observation. At first he thought he’d grabbed an old map, because there was an island where his only showed water. Then he worried that he’d somehow gotten off-course and was flying the wrong way, a perilous position for a pilot. Only when he spotted another familiar landmass was he assured that he wasn’t wrong, it was the map. Except, after landing and looking at all the records he could find, none of them suggested that an island was supposed to be there. And that had Gene utterly perplexed. The island wasn’t that far from Cinnabar Island, which was a population center of a fairly well-trod archipelago; it was beyond reasonable that this one would have been overlooked.

And of course, that had him curious. And when Gene was curious, he explored.

Of course, he didn’t go off without trying to figure things out - he wasn’t THAT foolhardy. Asking around Cinnabar Island didn’t seem promising, though - everyone he talked to confirmed that the island was there, but didn’t seem to know anything about it. No one had been there, or known anyone who’d been there. They didn’t even have rumors about it - nothing about curses, or powerful Pokémon, or shipwrecks or supernatural phenomena. The mystery island was so mysterious there weren’t even any active mysteries.

And that was REALLY strange.

It wasn’t until the night before he was to embark on his journey that he got something...though, he didn’t really know what to make of it. He was just leaving the shop with his last-minute food supplies, ready to take a speedboat out to the island and start exploring...on his way to his motel, he passed by an old man sitting next to a tree, with a bald head, sunken eyes, and a short, coarse beard. He thought nothing of it, until he heard a wizened voice speak up. “You are making a grave mistake, son, to tread where monsters sleep.”

Gene had to stop. That statement must have been directed at him - there wasn’t anyone else around, it was late and most tourists were at their hotels, or bars, or some festive area. Of course, that meant a dozen questions, not the least of which was how this person knew what he intended to do. So he turned to face the man. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean. You intend to go to Isle Aberra.”

“...This is the first I’ve heard of a name for it. The rest of the locals didn’t know anything about it.”

“And there is good reason for that. It is my name for it...and heaven help them if they ever get curious. It will have meant my failure.”

That statement subtly disturbed Gene. He was starting to get the inclination that he was dealing with a psychic...far fewer humans had that gift than Pokémon, but it wasn’t unheard of. And they could be dangerous, especially if riled. “I don’t understand. What’s so bad about this place that it needs to be...hidden like that?”

“There are secrets there that should rest for all eternity, son. I had hoped that they would be gone completely, but they remained...they made their own home, away from us, waiting for their moment…”

“Who’s ‘they?’”

The old man shook his head. “You cannot comprehend them, any more than you can comprehend a hole in the universe.”

Gene frowned. “You’re not making much of a case here, old man. Mysteries and riddles aren’t exactly turning me away.”

“It is clear that judiciousness is not your strength. Do you remember the stories of years ago? What happened on this very island, when fools tried to play god and created one that nearly destroyed everything?”

Of course Gene had heard the stories - the ill-fated creation of Mewtwo was common knowledge all the world around. But something told him that he might get more out of this if he played dumb. “I’d be happy to be enlightened.”

The old man shook his head. “How quickly the world forgets. Son, the old mansion at the corner of Cinnabar Island lays as testament of the folly of those who think themselves too great to be undone. The powers that stand above us are quick to turn on us when we act as fools.”

“It started with one man’s desperation. A daughter stricken with an incurable malady, wasting away towards an inevitable death. He sought a remedy unlike any that anyone had concocted before, one that would deny fate itself. He brought to him several of the greatest minds he knew of to do the impossible. Any thought that he was doing something dangerous or wrong was not within him - as far as he was concerned, the survival of his daughter merited any length.”

“Son, do you know much of the legendaries? The godly Pokémon of this world, who watch over everything and keep the world in order...the true powers of this world do not exist in a manner that mortals can understand. They appear to us in avatars, lending us their power in ways we can comprehend and process. Each of the true legendaries has their own form of avatar, representing the power they possess. One of these is Mew...the legendary of genesis and adaptation. Believed to be the purity of Pokémon existence itself, it was said to have spawned many of the Pokémon we know of today, as well as bestowed upon them the many abilities they possess. It is the power to create, and the power to change.”

“The project head believed this was the key to his daughter’s survival. This power could be used to cure the incurable, to bestow salvation. He knew that this power needed to be directed, that he could not just create a potion to make it so...he needed a mind to guide and control it. So he took samples of the avatar of Mew, used that miraculous biological material to create a new Pokémon...a god molded at the hands of man, to possess all the powers of Mew and more, to possess knowledge and power related to humanity. Mewtwo...the god-child of man, the power of the great legendary of adaptation fused with just enough humanity to reign over it as well.”

Gene found himself shaking at that - THAT was not common knowledge in the slightest. “Mewtwo...was a hybrid?”

“To call it a hybrid is...incomplete. Are the legends truly Pokémon, or do they just appear as such? I cannot say what Mewtwo truly was. What I do know was that it had Pokémon, human, and Mew in its core nature...and it was expected that this would make it a god above all. But as foolish as the project head was, he had designs on controlling this being of unimaginable power, making sure something with dominion over man was firmly at the command of man. Alas, if he had only been less arrogant, the worst may have been averted…”

“As Mewtwo was developing, they were being taught, given knowledge and information. But they were also being restrained, locked up, their behavior dictated to them by an increasingly severe authority. All the scientists were roped in, forced to join in this institution of trying to establish authority over Mewtwo. Some did so eagerly, some reluctantly, but all were guilty of it. And Mewtwo did what any living creature with a sense of self-preservation would do...they began to resist. They had developed from its learnings a sense of what was just, and knew they had done nothing to warrant this kind of punishment. They spoke harshly, resisted with the power granted to them.”

“And the more they resisted, the harsher the punishments became. The project head was ever more obsessed with Mewtwo being their loyal and unwavering servant, and to counter their resistance descended to abuse and torture. He wanted nothing more than a tool to achieve his goals, not understanding that no living creature is as simple as a tool...the actions of many of the others became worse as well. Some refused to go that far...they were punished just as severely. The pallor over the mansion got ever stronger by the day...until the day the terror was unleashed.”

“Mewtwo...they have the power of creation and adaptation. Until then, that power had been suppressed, kept under wraps until the scientists were certain it could be dictated to their whims...but a mind as powerful as Mewtwo’s cannot be restrained forever. They were becoming too powerful...there was no warning when it happened. The machines failed, and a nightmare...a nightmare was released upon the world.”

“What kind of nightmare? I don’t remember hearing anything more than Mewtwo escaping,” said Gene.

“It was all kept quiet...what might have come of it if the world had known…” The old man was trembling slightly. “What no one knew, at the time...the effects of the abuse and torture on Mewtwo, and the psychic energies of chaos and torment from the other assaulted researchers, were giving Mewtwo horrific nightmares. The nightmares of psychics are known to be intense...with such powerful ability to comprehend, they take on a vividness and chaos unlike that of any other. And Mewtwo’s especially powerful mind, able to understand so much...their true deepest fear was the incomprehensible, that which fails to adhere to the rules of logic and reality. When the machine broke, Mewtwo’s power of creation was unleashed...and their nightmares were what they created. Entities which defied all mortal comprehension, creatures that are wrong in every way...the Glitch.”

“The...Glitch?” echoed Gene, without comprehension. This wasn’t something he’d ever heard about...he knew that Mewtwo had escaped in a rather spectacular fashion, that the mansion had been ravaged, but that was all that was ever said about it. Aberrant beings created from a demi-god’s nightmares never entered the picture.

“The living nightmare of Mewtwo was the living nightmare of all within Cinnabar. The Glitch were formless...at first. Shapeless, ghastly things that...appeared as the static of the fabric of reality itself. When you looked at them, it made your eyes ache, your head spin...the distortion was never meant to be observed, the human brain is incapable of processing it. And when one passed through...it did not kill directly, but those that were touched were forever changed, altered in unpredictable ways, their bodies never again truly flush with reality. Humans took on bizarre shapes, lost their minds, gained incomprehensible powers, or simply became something...vaguely disturbing. A few simply disappeared...others killed themselves in the aftermath of their changes. Pokémon...some also gained powers, but some lost them. Some merely disappeared. And in some cases, two became one, a traumatic fusion that led most to suicide. It was a disaster unlike any the world had seen before…”

“Before long, the glitch took new forms. Forms of Pokémon and humans...but they were visibly wrong. The human-shaped Glitches would be distorted somehow, would be unable to speak in a way that could be perceived by human ears, and would have these...things that looked like Poké Balls, but would explode into another Glitch. The Pokémon...their colors were wrong, their voices were wrong, their abilities were wrong, it was nothing more than a convenient shape, another form to take. And even if their shapes were replicant of normal creatures, they all retained that aura of the static of reality, a fuzziness that would appear around them...you always knew one of them was wrong, but it terrified you anyway, you could never trust that the one you saw coming was a true creature.”

“Cinnabar was choked with these aberrations...many believed it was the apocalypse, that they would escape and spread their distortion the world over. It may very well have...if not for Mewtwo. They came, eyes blazing, and...evaporated the Glitch, dissipating them with bursts of incredible power. Pokémon were bestowed with power to harm the Glitch, and attacked them to make them vanish. The human-shaped became aggressive, tried to use their distortion to multiply the Glitch and destroy the defenders...but Mewtwo’s power overcame, and they were eradicated. The one who had been the victim became the savior, before disappearing, leaving to parts unknown.”

“But...it was not truly the end. Some of the Glitch escaped. They made their way over the ocean, dissipating and hiding in the ether. Where they are is unknown, their motive unknown, maybe unknowable, if it even exists in a may that could be understood. They may hide many places...but one is known. Weeks after the event, Isle Aberra appeared. A contingent of Pokéform Glitch had created their own landmass, a place where they could lay in wait...for what purpose, no one could know, they are as incomprehensible now as they ever were. But if that nightmare should ever return...no one must go there. No one must place the world at risk of spreading them again.”

“...All of this...sounds like madness,” Gene said slowly, shaking his head. “I’ve heard none of this ever before, and it...really sounds like it’s something out of a bad horror movie. Why would you even know all this, anyway?”

“Because...I am one of the Distorted Ones.” The old man raised his head, and Gene recoiled as he saw the glittering, hollow blackness in his eyes. “I was one of the fools who started this nightmare...I wish I had never laid a hand on Mewtwo, but I did, ignorantly believing the ends justified the means. I was among the first to be overrun by the Glitch...twisted, ravaged, cursed into this blighted imitation of life from which there is no end. I wish to die...and yet it eludes me...I must find my atonement, wherever it may be, to deliver me from this...and so I cloud the minds, keep them from curiosity of Isle Aberra...but yours, I cannot touch yours...so I only pray that you heed my words…”

Suddenly the form of the old man distorted, like a TV picture interfered with, flickering and spizzing with a low, almost imperceptible hum, before he disappeared entirely from view. A cold wind picked up, sending an extra shiver down Gene’s spine as he stared at the now empty space. He’d had all that curiosity that no one could satisfy...now someone had had an answer for him, and he was wondering if it would have been better never to hear it. Shaking his head, he turned and continued towards his hotel room, knowing he would need to sleep on this before he could determine his course.

---

Gene’s sleep was not the most peaceful, his mind more turbulent than he would have liked. But he woke up with a renewed sense of determination. He HAD to go to Isle Aberra.

Part of him wondered if everything the old man had said was made up. Maybe the old man himself was made up. Ghosts haunted Cinnabar, that was well-known, and maybe one of them wanted to play a funny prank on him, spook the shit out of him and then have a good laugh about it. Certainly, the story about Mewtwo was quite the embellishment over anything else he’d heard, and these Glitch things were beyond crazy. How could something like that exist? Even with Mewtwo’s power, surely that was beyond anything that could truly happen...right?

But the other possibility...maybe it was true. Maybe Isle Aberra did have a colony of those things. And if it did, then that needed to be known. They couldn’t count on Mewtwo to come and finish them off - if Mewtwo had any intention of doing so, they would have already. And if the old man really was trying to play protector, well-intentioned as it was, he was hiding a threat that could go off at any time. A plan of action was needed to try to take them down. And that meant Gene had to figure out if there was any truth to their existence.

If there was...he was definitely putting himself in danger. But he didn’t need to see one directly...all he needed was some evidence. Even if he could find one thing that wasn’t right...maybe he could take a picture of it, or even get a sample, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to touch anything that had that kind of distortion. How contaminable was it? The Glitch certainly seemed able to spread it...but the old man had been fairly close and Gene was pretty sure he wasn’t affected. And if he really was what he said he was, he’d been on the island for a good while influencing the citizenry and they seemed fine.

So as planned, he rented a speedboat and headed out in the direction of the island. Provisions enough for a couple days, though he didn’t expect it to take that long. Some would have suggested riding a Pokémon instead, but Gene didn’t want to put them in danger if there was indeed danger to be found, so it was just him alone heading out there, hoping that he wasn’t making too gargantuan a mistake. Part of him still thought this could all just be an elaborate prank...or maybe he was more hoping rather than thinking.

Navigation wasn’t too difficult - he knew exactly where the island should be, and the seas were accommodating that day. Gene was more at home in the air than on land or sea, but he knew enough about traveling in all three domains. He always tried to be judicious with his explorations, but this felt like one where he couldn’t be careful enough. Whether it was the warning spooking him or a sense of wrongness from how little information he’d gotten from any other source, he didn’t know, but he was glad that nothing else was adding to the pall over him. Indeed, from a distance he could see the island bathed in the same sunlight as all the rest of them, looking tranquil and innocent...could a place like that really be harboring something like he’d been told?

That attempt to dismiss the nerves didn’t last long. The closer Gene got, the more and more he had this unsettling feeling that something was just...wrong with this island. It wasn’t something he could pinpoint, there wasn’t an obvious feature that disturbed him, but the more he looked at it the more it set his mind off. It was certainly possible he was just spooked, that that weirdness from last night and the restless sleep was making him see things or think things that weren’t justified, but he couldn’t shake them no matter how hard he tried to rationalize it...eventually he had to listen to his mind, he didn’t get paranoid normally, and if his brain was saying this wasn’t right, it had to mean something.

That didn’t stop him from continuing to the island, though. So long as he could land on it, he was going to try to. He did take some pictures from afar, but looking at the pictures, the feeling was muted...it was like trying to observe the island from afar, it didn’t unsettle him the way a close-up in-person view did. Would that be the same experience he’d have if he set foot on it? Pictures might not be enough, he’d need actual samples. He’d have to see what he could find.

It was well past midday when Gene got to Isle Aberra; he wouldn’t be back on Cinnabar before nightfall, but he could spend the night on a neighboring island. Something told him he didn’t want to be here overnight. He wasn’t even sure he’d be able to get on it period, but the boat went in flush with the sandy beach he’d aimed for, giving him the belief of its solidity. He still stepped lightly until his foot hit solid ground, then relaxed a bit. It was at least solid, he could walk around, he just needed to be cautious for natural pitfalls like any other place he’d been to off the beaten path. That was normal, right?

That was ALL that was normal.

Oh, sure, Gene couldn’t have told you exactly what was wrong with everything, but everything was wrong. The sand, the grass, the rocks, the leaves, the plants, everything triggered every alarm his brain had to offer. It was a weird disparity - there was absolutely nothing he could have pointed to as wrong with it all, and yet every sense suggested wrongness. He picked up a few samples right away, and each one he knew immediately that it was off in some fundamental way. And the sense he got wasn’t hard to figure out - it was all fake, imitation, replication. Something had recreated an island based on what was around, but some intrinsic quality of it registered as false. Now he was starting to understand why the weird guy was keeping people away - as long as they stayed away, nothing seemed off, but when you got anywhere near, the illusion fell apart.

Gene didn’t stay on the beach, he went forth to venture deeper into the island. Another thing that was creepy was the utter lack of animal life. No Pokémon so far, real or Glitch, but nothing else either - no birds, no insects, nothing that suggested there was anything living here other than plants. But plants needed pollinators...if they were real plants, anyway. Some Pokémon could be pollinators, too, but insects were much better at it. The lack of them should have meant plants wouldn’t be able to flourish, but they looked perfectly fine. It just added to the sense that he was currently in some kind of imitation of reality rather than something truly natural.

As he kept walking, he found his navigation more and more disoriented. Gene was pretty experienced in this sort of thing, he didn’t tend to get lost, but he was finding in harder and harder to tell which way he was going. Several times he thought he was following the sun, only to find it suddenly behind him. His way back to the beach was completely gone, lost in the midst of this wilderness. The island wasn’t tiny, but somehow it felt bigger than it should be, and Gene started to get the sense that he was farther away from his starting point than he should have been as well. Had he made a mistake by venturing away from the beach?

Looking up, his stomach lurched. Yes, yes, he had. The sky overhead...it was now just as wrong as his surroundings. He needed to get out of this place, and fast.

Of course, that was far easier said than done, as turning around, he found himself going through an area that bore no resemblance to his original trail. There were branches and turns where there had been none, the foliage was different, and he seemed to be getting no closer to his destination. Gene willed himself not to panic - panic was the great killer when it came to exploration - but it was hard when his brain was screaming at him that everything around here just wasn’t right, shouldn’t be existing. That made everything worse, the more he was here the more it felt wrong, and the more it gnawed at him.

He finally emerged from the forest, but what he saw wasn’t coast, but cliffside. And over the cliffside was a sight that made his jaw drop and made him dive down for cover. There were Pokémon down below! Or...his heart pounded as he peered out to take a look, trying his best to stay undetected. They looked like Pokémon, but oh, the sense of wrongness was at its peak, and this time it wasn’t even subtle. The creatures had the general appearance of various species of Pokémon, but their colorings were all wrong, not even close to the originals, and each and every one of them had this sort of static that appeared randomly around their beings.

The Glitch. They’re real.

All doubt had been thoroughly erased now...he’d been getting closer with this distorted island but the sight of these Pokémon-imitators was definitive. He scrambled to snap some shots on his cell phone; unlike the pictures of the island, these ones definitely captured some of the wrongness. It still seemed less convincing than the real-life thing, but this was the best proof Gene was going to get of these things being around. Now all he had to do was get away, get back to the boat, and get back to safety…

Backing away from the cliffside, Gene rose up slightly and turned to make his way back into the forest...he didn’t even complete his full turn before yelping and falling back. Standing on the rock not that far away from him was a Charizard, green in color, bearing that distorted staticky aura that the Glitch had. He hadn’t even heard the creature’s approach! It was like his ears weren’t picking up the sound properly, even now the Charizard wasn’t making the kinds of sounds it should have been - not in terms of vocalizations but just the sounds of its presence. Its wings didn’t make any noise, its tail and footsteps seemed to be mute. He never had a chance to learn of its presence if it didn’t make itself known. And now he was face-to-face with something that was a real threat to him, and he had no idea what to do, how to even communicate with it. Would it understand anything he said? Did they even have minds?

He had to try...if it was futile, it wouldn’t matter either way, but he very much doubted he was outrunning a Charizard. “Please, don’t hurt me...I’m not here to hurt you…” That was a technical truth if ever there was one, hopefully they couldn’t divine his original intention. “I’ll just leave quietly, you’ll never even have to know I was here…”

There was a harshness in those eyes, but whether that was intelligence or just natural Charizard bitchiness was anyone’s guess. It made a sound, like a growl or mini-roar, but it sounded so discordant, like a Charizard through a bad radio. It took a couple steps towards Gene, and the human felt a sudden surge of panic. He had to try to get away, try to escape and make it to safety, but his legs weren’t working properly, all he was doing was scrambling backwards and looking up at the green beast in terror. When it reared its head back, he knew instinctively what was coming, and was powerless to stop it...he wasn’t prepared for what burst forth from the Glitch Charizard’s mouth, not a belch of flame but a wave of anarchic nebulousness that flooded the world in front of Gene, his mind twisting at the sight for the briefest of moments he had left.

And then he was enveloped.

Everything degenerated into the most glorious dissonance. His vision swam with pure chromatic static, obliterating all other sight. His ears rang with every sound at once, shrilly screeching through the very core of his being. His body felt like it had utterly evaporated, yet he could feel every possible tactile sensation here and there, switching back and forth so rapidly it was impossible to fathom. He smelled and tasted a litany of smells and tastes all at once, refusing to meld into a singular experience and battering him with a thousand meals at the same time. His mind, irradiated with unreality, shattered into a trillion pieces, then fused together and then fragmented again, over and over, obliterating coherent thought and leaving him with nothing but the infinity of pure sensation that threatened to consume him completely. All things lost meaning, lost even the potential of meaning in the void of antivoid, his self somehow persisting only to BE with the most purity of being that could even have been.

Eternity or instant, time held no meaning in this state...but suddenly, without warning Gene was back. Sort of. He was laying on his back, on the rocks where he had been consumed by the Glitch. The sky above was fully distorted, a dark swirling purplish color that buzzed with chaotic static...somehow, Gene was fully and unwaveringly certain this was how it had looked since he had gotten lost, he just now could truly see it. The same was true of all his surroundings, and he slowly sat up...the bizarre unrealness of them that had just been a vague sense was now stark and clear, in what he could only have conceived of as a visual resonance, a different kind of aura than the Pokémon had displayed but no less out of sync with reality. Gene looked at his own body...it had a taint of that wrongness to it, but not completely, sticking out oddly starkly amongst its surroundings. His clothes were completely gone, anything he had had on him was like it had never existed, and he wasn’t entirely unaltered, as between his legs was some kind of opening...it looked vaginal, and yet there was something about it that looked odd with it, or maybe felt odd with it, somehow his senses weren’t fully independent anymore and things were simultaneously triggering several of them in ways he couldn’t parcel out.

All of this was such a stark departure from what had been, what should have been, and yet...he felt nothing over it, no fear, no panic, no loss, nothing that someone should have felt in a situation like this. He didn’t feel as if he’d become an emotionless being...rather, the events that had just transpired failed to register as problematic in any way. It all seemed just...fine. And that in itself was a bit confusing.

Gene raised his head and looked in front of him now, his eyes on the creature that had just assaulted him. The appearance of the Charizard looked much like it had before, though he could see the distorted aura more clearly than before...but he could also hear things like the wingbeats and footsteps now, it didn’t sound quite like the real thing but oddly close. More importantly, though, he didn’t feel any fear of it anymore, it was like looking at the Glitch Charizard inspired relaxation and contentment…

No. Not Glitch. It came to his thoughts unbidden, almost from outside, but he could immediately sense it was perfectly precise.

‘M

It didn’t sound or feel anything like the literal interpretation of those symbols...in fact it didn’t sound like any sound that could conceivably be made by any real being. It was just the closest thing his brain could come up with to link it to something in reality, a symbol that meant so much more than it looked. It was their kind, emblematic of them in a way that was impossible for Gene to deny. Was he one of them now? No...he was different. He was still a human...he was a human decoupled from perfect synchrony with reality, partially warped by the power of ‘M, but still a human nonetheless, or at the very least such a close approximation that he couldn’t deem himself otherwise. Or so at least he thought. It was all very hard to process.

The ‘M Charizard stepped up towards him. There was a look in its eye, something that was hard for Gene to interpret...there was just too much in it, it was saturated with meaning that was too thick to pierce. It growled at him, that same distorted growl, except this time coming through with an odd clarity into his warped brain. He wasn’t really sure how, but out of it came a number of different things…possessiveness. Intent. Need. Want. And…what could only be a name. <aO). Gene was realizing that a name meant an identity, a sense of self...they were intelligent creatures after all, but didn’t think, maybe couldn’t think in the same way beings of this reality did.

Even as all this knowledge and new understanding passed through his mind, though, he felt oddly muted to it. The only thing that drew him was <aO)...the ‘M Charizard’s purpose and desire for him. Gene was important, somehow, and he didn’t really know how but he felt an unwavering compulsion to serve out that purpose. He crawled towards <aO), wordlessly, shaky breaths as he got closer...he was feeling something, some sort of primal response that he couldn’t quite comprehend, but he was sort of liking it.

As he got up close to the beast, something changed...he saw a strange distortion from the ‘M Charizard’s groin, which on closer inspection was more a slit that parted a little bit to reveal a bizarre visual static within the creature. Gene blinked as he watched something push out of that space...a long, pointed organ, deep purple in color, quite large in size, completely smooth almost to an unnatural degree. It didn’t exactly stun him, somehow it didn’t seem that unorthodox...if they were imitating Pokémon, why wouldn’t they imitate those parts as well? Looking at it, Gene felt that primal response strengthen within him, making his body warm a bit.

Is it...lust?

Perhaps, but not the sort of lust Gene was familiar with...it wasn’t human lust, reality’s lust. It had a different sort of desire, different sort of purpose. Somehow it didn’t feel like it was about reproduction, nor just raw pleasure...but he wasn’t sure what it WAS about, that wasn’t coming to him. Looking up at <aO)’s face, he saw the ‘M Charizard looking down at him, with a deliberate and aggressive gaze. He...it wasn’t quite accurate, Gene’s mind knew on some level that gender had no meaning in these creatures, but like with other things it snapped to the familiar, assigned the closest appropriate analogous designation...he opened his mouth and spoke, another jumble of sound coming out which had an unambiguous meaning to Gene. “Serve.”

Without even thinking, Gene did. His mouth opened, and he leaned forward, pushing himself against the pointed head of that enormous shaft and wrapping his lips around it. The act was one he had never done before, he’d never coupled with a male or a Pokémon, certainly not one with both qualities - technically, though, <aO) was neither, just what his mind interpreted it as - but the act came as naturally and uninhibited as if he’d been doing it twice daily for years. Pushing his tongue against that aberrant flesh, his brain popped a bit at the sudden rush - a taste that reminded him of that void of sensation that had broken him so, that omniflavor that was almost impossible to process. Yet the sensation he would have expected with a Charizard stood out, a heat and spiciness that was warped but still distinct. And he was immediately in love with it, and wanting more...his head started to push further onto that cock, slurping and moaning as he reveled in the taste sensation, one that didn’t seem to ever fade no matter how more he exposed himself to it.

The more he got into it, the hotter Gene’s own body felt, too...not a heat like temperature, or even like the lust he was familiar with, but some kind of prickly heat that spread all throughout him, priming his body for...something, he wasn’t sure what. There was a tingle between his legs, and he idly started to finger himself, utterly forgetting that he shouldn’t have known what to do with equipment like that. It all came so naturally that he never questioned it, never wondered for a second how he had adapted so readily. His mind was completely on <aO), like the ‘M Charizard’s will was his own...maybe in a way it was, who knew what that distortion had truly done to him?

<aO) was starting to get a little more aggressive, pushing on Gene’s head and shoving more of his cock into the warped human’s mouth. It didn’t seem like something longer and thicker than his arm should fit in there, but not only did it, Gene felt no discomfort, not even that much of a stretching sensation. Its sheer presence was certainly there, but it was like they shared space rather than <aO) pushing his flesh out of the way. And Gene got the feeling it could have been twice as large, ten times as large, and wouldn’t have affected him any more than it did now...something about that was reassuring, letting him feel more comfortable in the corrupted lizard’s claws. He moaned louder and longer as he felt it slide in and out, the flavor getting stronger and the feeling getting more intense as <aO) began to thrust more vigorously.

There was a sticky and slick sensation standing out inside Gene’s throat as the oral fucking ramped up. It was like he was feeling something shoot or leak inside him, though like everything else so far there was an abnormality to it that didn’t match any expectation. Perhaps the weirdest thing about all this weirdness was the lack of weirdness - Gene would have thought something so unhinged from reality would have stuck out more starkly, but everything seemed to feel normal, natural, even as he recognized consciously that it wasn’t. None of that disrupted his efforts to pleasure <aO), pushing forward in time with the creature’s shoves and trying to massage his cock with his throat, licking and slurping up the maybe-precum that was spurting out.

The growls and grunts from <aO) were getting louder and more forceful, and Gene could swear that the pleasure the ‘M Charizard felt was being transferred to him. His own pleasure was also coming through, but he was also picking up on how the aberrant creature was responding to what he was doing...it was a surreal feeling, like the other’s mind was intruding on him the same was that part of his body was. And it told him that <aO) was close to reaching the end of his rope, which spurred him to try to get him further, more sucking and swallowing to try to help stimulate <aO) further, his own body shaking at the precipice of orgasm that needed just a touch more of that vampired pleasure to get him there…

The roar that come from <aO) sounded like a distorted, synthesized screech through damaged speakers. The sudden gush of weird fluid pumping into Gene was blazing hot and a hundred other things at once. The taste was powerful and discordant, and lit up his senses to clearly despite the fact that not a drop of it graced his tongue, only pumped deep into him...it was like all of his senses had become global experiences rather than confined to one spot. And the rush of something that he could only interpret as bliss that suddenly flowed through him from the ‘M Charizard set off his own orgasm, his body shaking and twisting in pleasure as he felt another sudden eruption of that omnipotent sensory rush that had consumed him at the moment of his transition. Not quite as overwhelming, though plenty overwhelming...a contradiction that really wasn’t. It wasn’t localized to his genitals, instead being another pure experience that all of him felt, sending his mind loopy for a bit as he flailed about, only kept from flinging himself all over by <aO)’s continued grip on his head as he pumped his weird cum down into him.

His mind settled in again before the pleasure ended, allowing Gene to control himself a bit more. He felt immensely satisfied, a peace and contentment that he didn’t know was possible, like he just wanted to ooze into the scenery and become one with it. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen, he still also had this sense that his purpose hadn’t truly been fulfilled here...there was more to come, and he wanted that more than anything else. This confusing miasma of thoughts all sank in without regard for any of the others, and his mind just accepted it for what it was, not bothering trying to connect it all. Perhaps that fracturing before had given him the ability to bypass any dissonance...maybe he was still fragments simulating a whole, and when two things met that didn’t fit together, they took their own fragment. He didn’t really know, it didn’t really matter.

What mattered was <aO) pulling out of him and pushing him back onto the ground. It was a rather hard push, but didn’t hurt when he landed. He naturally fell back with his legs spread, his pussy bared to the beast, who clearly had intentions with it judging by the look of almost hunger in those eyes. He stepped forward, that thick cock still jutting out between his legs, wisps of some kind of ethereal aura floating off of it, a faint static visible within. His voice growled out a sound that instilled Gene with one sense above all else: “Ours.” Gene still wasn’t sure what to make of it, but there was one thing that stood out above everything else.

He wanted this. BAD.

So he relaxed himself, settled in on his back, and spread himself wider, offering himself to <aO). And the creature pounced, bearing down on him and holding him in place as he positioned himself at Gene’s new entrance, rubbing it and making the human moan and gasp at the multitude of sensations, with heat dominating among the distinct ones. The more he felt, the more he wanted it, wanted it as soon as possible, as immediately as he could get it...it wasn’t just the raw carnal need but also a deep-rooted desire to fulfill his purpose, whatever it was to be. This was more than just good, it was RIGHT.

Though, when <aO) shoved in, right paled in the sudden rush of good.

Gene’s own scream sounded a bit distorted as well, whether due to something natural or unnatural was hard to say. The immediate contrast between empty and full hit him HARD, his body crammed full and feeling like a perfect fit, blazing with heat and yet also a million other things. Even though it wasn’t in his mouth, once again he was certain he could taste it all, and relished it. And once again <aO)’s pleasure was also his, and he knew the ‘M Charizard was in ecstasy as well, filling him with such profound satisfaction that some other creature was being brought such joy from what he was doing.

There was no gentleness when the in and out motion began, but there didn’t need to be. Pain was among the sensations he was feeling, but it was a pain that was there to embellish the pleasure and the rest of the cacophony of responses, not a pain that suggested injury or distress. No, Gene couldn’t have wanted anything less than what <aO) was giving him, the full forceful rutting that came with a creature of such size and power. Were he not impaled and pinned, his thrashing would have carried him off the cliff, and even here he was smacking himself against the rocky surface underneath him in a way that should have hurt but didn’t. His vision was blurred from the visual expression of all that pleasure, but he could see <aO) clearly above him, conquering him in the most primal way imaginable...it was such a thrill, such a rush, no ordinary orgasm could ever have hoped to compare and he hadn’t even reached his actual climax yet.

Something was definitely happening inside him, he could feel it...he could feel <aO) leaking something into him, something thick and goopy, something that was collecting deep inside him as the creature was adding to it. And he was adding to it as well, his body releasing a wetness that was sticking to that burgeoning mass within his body...and that wasn’t all, he could feel something else, but he couldn’t truly understand what it was, it didn’t feel like anything he could recognize, almost like an essence of something he couldn’t put his finger on. Not that it was easy to think or focus under this haze of pleasure he was getting…

His voice was getting higher and louder as the pleasure built up, both his and <aO)’s, the dual delights twining within him and yanking him higher and higher into the heavens. He was being flooded with more than just that sticky mass, more than just the warped lust of <aO), he was feeling all sorts of other things from the ‘M Charizard, a sense of need, a hidden sadness or emptiness, a desire for Gene, a need for the purpose that Gene brought, a rush of emotions of all sorts that were making Gene more and more feel necessary, important somehow to <aO)...no, to all the ’M, they weren’t a hive mind but they were connected, they felt as one, existed as fragments and yet a whole, and Gene was more to them, he still didn’t know how but there was a desperation and determination in what was happening that he could feel to his very core, and he reached out, tried to touch them, tried to tell them to use him and do what they needed to do with him, that he would do whatever it took, he was theirs and would eternally serve them if need be…

It came on in a sudden blitz, suddenly Gene felt that rush of rapturous pleasure racket through him, once again embedding him deep within the void of infinity, but this time he could feel himself flooding the mass within him with so much more of that essence that he couldn’t define, but could feel as fully as any part of his body. And then through that cacophony he could hear a roar, almost like it came from within him, and suddenly his body was pulsing as he was filled further, <aO)’s own essence flooding him, the two mingling together in that thickness within him, swirling into something singular that felt like a bottomless pit within his torso, he could have looked as deep inside him as possible and never seen the true depths of it. All of it was beyond him, his brain cast all thought away to revel in the singularity of bliss he was laying in...all thought ceased, and he sank into a miasma of pure being, carried away from all that was anything into what might have been a nirvana of nothing.

---

Had time passed? Gene couldn’t tell. Time didn’t seem to have much meaning in this warped world...the sky didn’t ever seem to change shade much. Maybe time didn’t pass in the same way here. His own perception of time had moved along in some way, though...he was now in a cave, he didn’t know where, held in <aO)’s arms. He could feel a weight in his body, that thick mass occupying space within him so thick and heavy, he wondered if he could even move.

<aO) shifted, perhaps sensing that he’d roused, pulling him away from the beast’s body and laying him back on the ground. Gene was confused for a moment, and then felt an impulse...a desire to push something out of him, of course it had to be that mass within him. He didn’t fight it, simply let it happen...it felt a little bit like he imagined laying an egg would, but he wasn’t sure if it was really quite the same thing, for one thing he wasn’t sure if it was really coming out of a womb. It slowly moved inside him to his lower passage, each push slow but not really painful or distressing...it just felt like it was a hard thing to remove.

His body opened up for it, legs spreading and pussy stretching to release it. As soon as it emerged from his body, Gene felt a relaxation and a freedom, and a deep sense of completeness...he still didn’t really know what was going on, but he felt like he’d done something meaningful. Looking down, he could see it, a perfect sphere, looking almost like a glass orb with light and dark swirling around, except that was all on the surface...or maybe the surface was what it was like all the way through. Something about it seemed calming to Gene, almost mesmerizing.

<aO) picked it up, holding it gently in his claws. The orb began to glow, as did <aO)...Gene watched with curiosity and reverence as he saw the ‘M Charizard slowly leech from the orb, drawing in a dark and light cloudiness that seemed to be absorbed into the core of his being. The orb slowly shrank as he did, getting smaller and smaller until it was fully consumed, the last of it being drawn into <aO) and vanishing from sight. The glow around the creature faded...but Gene could see something indefinably different about him. It was like his presence stuck out more, like he was just a little more real than everything around him…

The way Gene himself seemed to stand out, he realized.

<aO) looked down at him, and he was surprised to see an actual smile on the ‘M Charizard’s face as he lifted the human up into his arms...not as surprised as he was to hear him actually speak, in a way that wasn’t just distortion that he understood, but actual sound. “Thank you.”

“Ah...what? I...what’s...going on?”

“We are not real enough...not to exist properly in this world.” He brought Gene out of the cave, allowing him to see again the world around him...They were at the top of a huge mountain, and it looked like the world stretched out forever. This clearly was something not truly in sync with the island that he’d landed on...maybe it was a space that was encompassed on that island but was so much bigger inside than out. That would explain how he got lost. “We try, but we are...unable to truly hold onto it, and that keeps us from being able to do anything outside the safety of these spaces we create for ourselves. Unable to truly connect, to truly understand enough to know how to be here...it takes all we have to hold ourselves together. But we can become real enough if we can absorb the essence of reality along with our own...binding them together, we can gain enough reality to exist alongside the natural creatures of this reality. Above anything else, we need that reality, but have been unable to truly get it from anywhere else...trying to touch real creatures normally doesn’t work, it just breaks them. But by imposing a bit of unreality on you...I separated you enough to touch you without hurting you, and freed your essence to flow.”

Gene was starting to understand. “That...that thing I...just laid...that had...my essence?”

“Yes. And now that I have it in me...I can think more like this world, sense more like this world, communicate in a way you can understand with your reality, rather than the essence of unreality I put in you. And I can already feel the desires of my kin who wish to enjoy this reality...they are eager to gain what I have.”

It was all clear now. Why he had felt such desire of purpose...because he was their key. The key to the ‘M becoming part of their world properly, rather than broken aberrations that didn’t belong. He could see it in <aO) as well...he still had that staticky aura around him, it was not as if he had dispelled the disparateness of his entire being, but his sheer presence felt like it fit properly with the world rather than feeling wrong. This was what they sought, and this was what Gene could bring them...his body had the realness that they needed to become real themselves. And he could feel no malice from them...they merely craved to live like other creatures of this world. Perhaps taking the form of such creatures had instilled that in them, the formless aberrations may not have been so benign...but these were, and he wanted to help them.

“So...that means...I’m going to have to make a lot of these, aren’t I? Will I...ever run out of essence?”

“This is the first time any of us have successfully drawn essence...there are many unknowns. But our own essence never seems to fade...so I hope that it is the case that yours does not either. I will watch carefully as we help others become real, and if I sense anything wrong, I will stop it until we know how to fix it. You are too important to us...too important to me...to risk.”

Gene felt himself filled with another sensation...a desire more familiar to his mind. Maybe even love. How surreal, to have a being like this who had only just connected with their world already know the feeling of love...well, maybe that was because Gene knew what it was, and it was his essence in there. “I guess I’m going to have a lot of work to do...there’s a lot of you here, aren’t there?”

“Yes...but our world here doesn’t run at the same pace as yours...at least, not yet. As we become more real, so will this realm that we constructed for ourselves...the more it does, the more it will synchronize with your world. That will require a lot of us to become more real, though. And I will be happy to facilitate your return to your real world here and there in between...it may be good for your essence to do so.”

So he could be here for a while and not be missed...at least, a while in his own perception. “I’m glad for that...but I think I’m going to want to help you all out as much as I can. I feel that longing that you were talking about, that yearning to be more real...I want to help make that happen.”

“You will be a legend among us.” <aO) rubbed Gene a bit on the stomach. “Though I hope you will have time to indulge even the real among us...we are real enough that we can’t create the base for the merging of essences anymore, but I...would like to experience the pleasures of this reality more starkly anyway.”

Gene smiled warmly an he relaxed into <aO)‘s touch. “I think that would be really nice...it’ll be nice to have a break now and then. Perhaps we can go in and I can give you a sample of that right now…”

<Ao) let out a tiny growl. “Your emotions are so interesting...I want to know more of them. Will this show me some of them?”

“For sure, at least a few of them.”

“Well, then...I will take you up on that, Gene.” The green reptile turned back towards the cave, and Gene could sense the excitement he was feeling, a much more familiar version of that emotion than he had shown before. This was definitely not the adventure he had been anticipating, but it sounded like it was going to be the biggest and most important one he’d ever have. And perhaps the most fulfilling, in more ways than one.