Virus Evolution: Pokémon, Marvel & Beyond

"From here on, every battle will be hard-fought. And the city bases each of you command… will be among Umbrella's most critical frontlines. Be fully prepared."

—Parallel Lucius's voice was calm, yet resolute.

"Yes, sir!" the cadre answered in unison.

Parallel Lucius scanned the conference room. Reflected in his eyes were the familiar faces of Paul, Harry, Vicious, Ariana, Tabitha, Dee, Jupiter, and Ghetsis...

These were the subordinates he had painstakingly gathered over the years through various means. They now stood as the commanding officers of Umbrella's city bases.

Though the bases had been fortified to near perfection, defense alone would not suffice, not against system-bound invaders from another world.

Lucius's lips curled slightly. He had already calculated his next move.

"Commander," Ariana suddenly asked, "who exactly are we up against?"

Even as Umbrella stood as the dominant power in this world, their opponent this time was an enigma. No one yet knew who, or what, they were truly facing.

To manipulate infected lifeforms on a global scale... that kind of ability was no trivial matter.

"Most likely... invaders from a different dimension." Lucius nodded. Beside him, Colress pulled up the data and began explaining the temporal distortions observed in the Oblivia timeline.

"Invaders from another world?" Vicious stroked his chin thoughtfully. Having once dealt with Celebi, he was no stranger to interdimensional phenomena.

"Are they Pokémon?" Ghetsis asked, brow furrowed. "Or some kind of organized force? If they came from Oblivia, then the rebels there must be involved."

"We can't confirm that just yet," Colress replied. "We need more intel. But based on our satellite data, the earliest irregularities did appear from Oblivia's direction."

"So it is tied to the rebellion, then," Tabitha murmured, exchanging a glance with Dee. Their former leader, Maxie, had defected to the rebel side. Given who they were dealing with... nothing would be off the table.

As the room filled with overlapping voices and speculation, the holograms of those seated around the table suddenly glitched—distorted, as if some unseen force was jamming the signal.

"What's going on?" Lucius turned to Colress.

But Colress didn't respond. His expression had frozen mid-thought.

Then, just as suddenly, the interference vanished. All images on the conference feed stabilized.

But now, every single face turned to Lucius in eerie unison. Their eyes were vacant. Their movements, perfectly synchronized. The air turned cold.

Lucius's pupils contracted.

This… wasn't supposed to happen.

Then, as if possessed, Paul, Harry, Jupiter, and the rest all spoke as one:

"When you think of me… you become me."

Yes. The moment they learned their enemy hailed from a parallel world, they had unknowingly established a metaphysical link to Lucius himself.

And all at once, everyone, except Parallel Lucius, who was shielded by the System's rule, had been infected by the Old One Virus.

Seeing the uneasy frown forming on Umbrella's leader, so familiar, so unmistakably his own face, the real Lucius was stunned.

That face... It was identical to his in his past life.

What was going on?

Could it be… he wasn't the only one who had crossed over?

Ever since encountering that otherworlder in the Ultra World with a so-called "100% Capture System," Lucius had realized: he wasn't unique.

There were others. Many others.

Each of them bound to a different System.

This time, he had prepared in advance, knowing his opponent also wielded a Virus Evolution System—

But he hadn't expected… it would be himself.

Could this be what Dialga meant?

That every time the past is altered, a new timeline is born?

No wonder the System had instructed him to destroy this world.

This was his directive, to reconcile past and future by force.

"…Hmph."

With a cold snort, Parallel Lucius's body disintegrated, vanished without a trace.

In that instant, the Umbrella officers, now puppets of the Old One Virus, acted in unison.

All at once, they triggered the mechanical barricades in their respective bases.

Then, using encrypted command codes, they remotely wiped out the Pokémon control biochips embedded in their own experimental units.

Across the battlefield, elite modified Pokémon, those leading the charge against the infected swarm, suddenly froze mid-attack.

Their minds went blank.

Their biochips had been fried remotely, inflicting irreversible damage to their brains.

Not that it mattered.

They wouldn't need to think anymore.

BOOM—

A deafening explosion shattered the skies.

Flames shot high into the heavens, flooding the sky with blinding light.

A towering, gray mushroom cloud laced with lightning slowly rose into the air.

The shockwave obliterated Cerulean City, its surrounding mountains, rivers, and all.

Umbrella's Cerulean City base had self-destructed.

And it wasn't the only one.

Simultaneously, in various regions; Cerulean, Violet, Petalburg, Canalave, massive mushroom clouds erupted into the sky.

The force of their blasts triggered earthquakes and tsunamis.

The sky itself was dyed a searing mix of flame and ash.

In a single, coordinated moment, every advanced Umbrella base across the world was reduced to cinders.

Of course, only the highest-tier bases were equipped with such catastrophic self-destruct protocols.

Smaller, less significant installations lacked both the secrets and the self-destruction mechanism.

These blasts didn't just raze cities, they annihilated nearly every modified mutant Umbrella had stationed there.

Even the most powerful mutated specimens, the commander-class variants, stood no chance against destruction rivaling a nuclear strike.

And naturally, the infected creatures attacking the bases weren't spared either.

Any within the radius of a detonation was reduced to dust.

...

Orange Archipelago, Umbrella Underground Headquarters

A bolt of white-hot plasma cannon fire streaked through the chamber, slamming down beside Colress.

The air rippled with residual energy, but no explosion followed.

Silence.

Colress, head shaped like a satellite dish, stood unshaken.

A shadow flickered across his eyes.

In his hand, a swirling mass of black mist coalesced—shifting, writhing, wrapping around a glowing core of energy.

It was the plasma cannon blast.

Suspended. Contained.

The kind of attack that could vaporize a human in an instant, reduced to a toy in his grasp.

"Well done," Parallel Lucius said, discarding the plasma launcher in his hand.

His appearance had changed.

No longer a black-haired youth, he now towered over two meters tall.

Muscles sculpted to perfection, each line brimming with explosive power.

But what caught the eye most wasn't his body.

It was the Pokémon floating behind him.

Barely half a meter tall, it had no legs, just a rounded body with stubby arms that hovered slightly apart.

Two golden rings dangled from the twin horns on its head.

Lucius recognized it instantly.

A Mythical Pokémon in its sealed state—Hoopa.

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