Pokemon: Spiritual Master-Chapter 501: The Escaping Porygon-Z

Night fell.

Roxie's fashion show officially began, and brilliant lights lit up Mauville City as if it were broad daylight.

As Roxie took to the runway, she also subtly promoted the "Youth Masters World Championship."

Even people who normally ignored battle news and only followed entertainment began realizing—the League was cooking up something big.

A world championship covering nearly every youth champion in the Pokémon world... the idea alone sparked immense curiosity and anticipation.

If nothing went wrong, the top ranks of this "Youth Masters World Championship"—even just the top ten or twenty—would surely become iconic figures in their regions, and possibly successors to the Elite Four or even regional Champions.

Online promotions, on-site events... this tournament's popularity would only continue to rise, eventually drawing attention from across the globe.

But Johan didn't feel too stirred by it.

Because he already knew who would be participating.

Rather than worrying about that, it made more sense to... spend more time training, or with his Pokémon...

After watching Roxie's show, satisfied, Johan decided to stay in Mauville City for the night and return to Rustboro the next day.

The next day, April 13th, Sunday.

Clear skies, a gentle breeze, riding through the vast fields—Johan was in a good mood.

Along the way, Beautifly flitted busily, Seedot peeked curiously from tree trunks, and flocks of Taillow soared in the sky, perhaps heading north with the warming weather.

"Roto! Roto!"

Rotom excitedly snapped photos, trying to capture the scenes—though every shot inevitably had Gengar photobombing.

By now, Rotom was used to it.

Beep beep—

As Johan cycled leisurely, his phone suddenly rang.

He pulled over and checked it.

A message from an unknown sender—someone who hadn't even sent a friend request.

[■■■■■]: Can you help us go home?

[[Grain in the Field]]: Who are you?

You never know whether the one messaging you from behind a screen is a human... or a Pokémon.

Having dealt with Mewtwo, Giratina, and Deoxys, Johan was unfazed. Before any consultation, he always verified identity.

Bzzz...

Suddenly.

A soft glow radiated from his phone, threads of light—almost tangible—flowed out.

If you looked closely, you'd realize... these were data streams?

Huh?

Johan gripped his phone tighter. Was it turning into a Digivice?

Seeing digitalization in the Pokémon world—what the hell? Was this a Digimon crossover?

But soon—

The threads of data coalesced into a shape... a Pokémon.

"Porygon-Z?"

Johan blinked in surprise.

When did it evolve?

In games, Porygon2 evolved into Porygon-Z via the "Dubious Disc."

So... was this from Deoxys' space virus?

If that were the case...

Didn't that mean he now had access to the full Porygon evolutionary line?

He could write a thesis on this!

"Roto?"

Rotom and Gengar both looked stunned—Rotom especially. This ability... was just like its own.

No—wait. Rotom transferred through electricity. This one... was using the internet?

Rotom felt a twinge of... existential threat.

Oh no.

Even this job was being stolen now?

Bzzt.

Porygon-Z greeted Johan and Gengar casually, waving its oval arms.

After all, Porygon had first gained sentience and evolved into Porygon2 thanks to Johan and the then-Gastly.

Johan never imagined Porygon-Z would just... come out of his phone.

It wasn't that Porygon-Z couldn't do that—it just... shouldn't have. Didn't it fear attracting Team Rocket?

"Mewtwo sent you?" Johan asked.

Mewtwo had used Porygon-Z to communicate with the outside world.

But Porygon-Z shook its head. Its eyes glowed.

Bzzt—

A transparent screen appeared in front of it, scrolling with dense lines of data.

"Roto..."

Rotom blinked.

This was wild. It could project without any electronic support. Not even Rotom could do that.

Soon—

Ancient-looking glyphs appeared on the screen. As Porygon-Z processed them, they translated into text Johan could understand.

[■■■■■]: I want to go home. Please help us. We want to go home.

Go home.

Johan repeated the words silently.

"So you're the one who sent that message to my phone?" he asked.

Porygon-Z nodded.

Johan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

It was clearly a Pokémon.

But a Pokémon who could communicate online, seemed "aged," and longed to go home...

Many powerful Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokémon had that kind of wisdom—and ability.

Like Rotom.

Rotom could easily possess a phone or computer and send messages.

And as for ancient scripts...

Gengar was a thousand-year-old ghost. Just... with amnesia.

If this was a sealed-and-now-escaped Psychic-type, or an old ghost—it made sense.

"You probably know where the message came from, right?"

Bzzt.

Porygon-Z nodded. The virtual screen zoomed in on a map of the Pokémon world.

It shrank and focused.

"Unova?"

Johan blinked again.

Unova had lots of ancient Pokémon.

Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem, the Forces of Nature, the Swords of Justice, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect...

And even more if you included Psychic- and Ghost-types.

But as he filtered through them all—one name surfaced.

The Meteor-Slayer: Genesect.

It fit with the idea of wanting to go home.

But not certain.

Timeline-wise, the Genesect project should still be ongoing—Team Plasma's Akroma likely still had them in labs.

"So... you want me to help?"

Johan asked aloud, deep in thought.

Porygon-Z tilted its head.

[Who Am I]: Don't you enjoy helping Pokémon?

Johan's lips twitched.

Confirmed.

Mewtwo and Porygon-Z shared a joint account.

But after reading that line, Johan sighed.

"Only if it's within my power."

Helping Pokémon where he could—Johan always lived by that.

[Who Am I]: You can do it.

Great. Now even Porygon-Z was trying to P.U.A. him.

Johan shook his head, chuckling. "Transfer everything you've got to Rotom."

Porygon-Z nodded.

It had advanced AI now, but probably hadn't been "alive" that long. It wasn't likely to track Johan down just to help another Pokémon unless...

Mewtwo had asked it to.

Mewtwo had always been kind to Pokémon who'd been hurt. And it had been changed by Johan too.

Johan asked, "How's Mewtwo doing?"

Text flickered on screen.

[Who Am I]: Waking up. Still needs more time to fully adapt.

Pause.

[Who Am I]: It should've awakened already, but... received some unexpected benefits.

More benefits?

Johan remembered during the Deoxys incident—Mewtwo must've been partially awake, or it wouldn't have tried to help.

He also remembered Mewtwo drawing life energy from Deoxys via Porygon.

So Mewtwo did absorb life energy?

"Alright." Johan nodded. "I was heading to Unova anyway."

With the Youth Masters World Championship being held there, he'd have to go eventually. Helping a Pokémon in need just made it more worthwhile.

Porygon-Z's screen lit up with a smiling emoji.

It was clearly learning how to express emotion.

Johan ran his thumb over his phone.

This unexpected incident had disrupted his schedule a bit.

He'd originally planned to go with Steven and the others just before the tournament started—free private jet included.

Now it looked like he'd have to head out early.

"Unova, huh..." He thought of a few names. "Might need Caitlin's help."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Just thinking about her gave him a headache.

"No—wait. Roxie."

He suddenly remembered the girl he'd just met. As a Unova Gym Leader, her local connections were probably strong.

As he pondered—

Porygon-Z completed the data transfer to Rotom.

"Roto."

Rotom waved its arm, trying to open a virtual screen like Porygon-Z.

No luck—only electricity came out.

Meanwhile, Porygon-Z walked over to Gengar.

"Ka-kaah?"

Gengar tilted its head, scratching its butt.

You need me for something?

Porygon-Z's screen suddenly filled with the word "Gastly" repeated over and over.

Huh?

Gengar looked stunned.

I'm Gengar!

Then—

[Who Am I]: Gastly. Father.

"Ka-kaah?! Σ(дlll)"

Gengar yelped in horror, face pale as a ghost about to go shiny.

Porygon-Z's screen showed a longing emoji as it leaned in closer...

"Ka-Kaah..."

Gengar looked pleadingly at Johan—only to find him recording with his phone.

!!!

Johan snickered internally.

You took all those pictures yesterday—now it's my turn.

Payback!

Viridian City, Kanto—Team Rocket HQ.

"P-Porygon-Z is missing!"

A researcher frantically scanned the database, sweating bullets.

"No wonder data processing's been slow today—"

Others looked shocked, then panicked. Sweat broke out.

Porygon-Z was crucial to Team Rocket now.

In fact, it might've surpassed Mewtwo in practical value.

Now it was gone? Their critical systems were—

"Crashed!"

"Mine too!"

"Why'd Porygon-Z run?!"

"Hurry! Put Porygon on the job—I'm mid-calculation!"

"I already did—but ten Porygon still aren't as fast as one Porygon-Z!"

"..."

Chaos erupted at the lab.

Once you're used to luxury, it's hard to go back.

They'd grown reliant on Porygon-Z's absurd processing power. Even dozens of Porygon couldn't match it.

But things got worse.

"W-we're screwed!"

"Porygon-Z left a backdoor—some Porygon escaped!"

One researcher turned pale.

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They'd never cared much about Porygon before—just a glorified calculator.

But after it evolved to Porygon2, then Porygon-Z—they realized its insane importance.

Now a few Porygon were out...

Full-blown crisis.

"Patch the firewall NOW!"

"What if Porygon-Z sees it and doesn't come back?!"

Everyone was losing it.

"Retrieve the rest—before more escape!"

Even as they scrambled—

More Porygon escaped.

Team Rocket's lab was in total disarray—enough to alarm Giovanni himself.

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Powerstones?

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