"Well, that got me hyped," Orin muttered, taking off his headphones.
He glanced at the time, there were still two hours left until landing. As he looked out the window, he was surprised to see dark clouds swirling outside the plane.
In the distance, forks of lightning danced across the sky.
"Well... it will probably be fine," he said to himself, shifting in his seat.
Now came the question—what to do next?
Should he stay seated and dive deeper into Nexus Academy or Unity Isle videos?
Or should he get up and walk around… maybe even try to find that Trainer he had caught a glimpse of earlier?
---
*What should Orin do?*
• Watch more videos — Learn more about Nexus or Unity Isle.
• Get up and explore — Try to locate the mysterious Trainer on the plane.
[**Choice Selected: Watch more videos — Learn more about Nexus or Unity Isle.**]
---
In the end, Orin felt a bit lazy, so he decided to stay in his seat and watch more videos.
"Seen this one… this one too…" he muttered, swiping through the screen with a sigh. He had already researched Unity Isle and Nexus Academy before, so most of the popular videos were old news to him.
The majority were the usual—documentaries about Unity City's cutting-edge technology, interviews with Nexus alumni, and speculative videos about why Unity Isle had so many Pokémon from every region.
"Oh, what's this?" he muttered, stopping on a new channel. It belonged to a redheaded beauty named Trixie, who was doing a casual livestream while performing magic tricks.
She wore a flowing blue dress that showed off her fit figure and toned stomach.
"So guys, I'm just going to practice some magic today and chat casually," Trixie said with a wink, waving at her audience. Her confidence, beauty, and flair for showmanship had Orin instantly intrigued.
"Oh yes, I'm a 5th year at Nexus. You must be new to the channel, right? Well, I welcome you all the same to the Amazing Trixie's Show," she grinned, reading off a question onscreen. With a flourish, she pulled a Marill out of a magical hat.
Orin raised an eyebrow. "Wow, cool!" he muttered as the chat went wild.
"And why do I always wear blue?" Trixie giggled reading off another question as two Pidgeys flew out from behind her. "Because blue is the color of House Mystic, of course!"
"House Mystic?" Orin repeated aloud, blinking.
"Yep! There are four houses at Nexus that all students get sorted into. You guys didn't know that?" she said, scanning the chat again with an amused look.
"Even I didn't know that…" Orin muttered. He had spent so much time researching how to get in to Nexus, he hadn't thought to look deeper into the actual student life there.
Trixie snapped her fingers, and Marill created a giant bubble, which popped into a cloud of sparkles and more flying Pidgeys. The chat exploded with messages.
"Okay okay, I'll tell you!" she laughed. "There's Valor, Lumina, Eclipse, and the best one—Mystic, obviously," she said with a proud grin. "Each house has its own color, motto, dorm style—basically a whole identity!"
"Huh… cool," Orin said, folding his arms. "If she's in Mystic, then… I wonder what house she was in… she wore yellow and black when I saw her at the Nexus Cup…"
Trixie leaned toward the screen with a wink. "Oh, and how do we get sorted into houses? Well… it's not much of a secret, but I could tell you—"
Just as Orin leaned forward, eager to hear the reveal, the video froze. A loud click echoed through the cabin as the lights flickered violently.
"What's happening?" he muttered, pulling out his earphones—just in time to feel a sudden, invisible pressure slam against his temples.
"Ngh—!" he winced, clutching his head.
Then, as quickly as it came, the pressure vanished. The lights stopped blinking.
"What the hell…" Orin whispered, glancing around.
The rest of the cabin was in a similar state—people rubbing their temples, groaning softly, some still dazed. Confused murmurs spread like wildfire, but no one had an explanation.
A calm but tense voice crackled through the intercom.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We're currently passing through a sudden thunderstorm. Please remain seated and ensure your seatbelts are securely fastened. Cabin crew, please guide everyone to their seats."
The flight attendants, clearly rattled themselves, started moving through the aisles.
"Everyone, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts immediately," the same pretty flight attendant from earlier, the one who had gone over the safety instructions instructed, rubbing her own forehead as she guided passengers back.
"Is this normal? … something just slammed into my mind," Orin replied, concern etched in his face as he secured his seatbelt.
Suddenly—
CRACK-THOOM!
A deafening thunderclap echoed from outside, shaking the plane with a heavy jolt.
Orin stumbled in his seat, grabbing his seat to steady himself as the turbulence worsened. Lightning flashed violently outside, illuminating the cabin in brief white bursts.
"Why am I getting Final Destination vibes?" he muttered under his breath, his anxiety spiking. "No way I'm that unlucky…"
In the opposite aisle, the little girl was clinging to her mother.
"Mommy, what's happening? I'm scared!"
"It's going to be alright, sweetie," the woman murmured, adjusting the girl's seatbelt and pulling her close. "Just some thunder. It'll pass soon."
Orin turned to observe outside the window, it was pitch black save for the sudden, massive bolts of lightning that burst across the sky—silent at first, then followed by bone-rattling booms seconds later.
BZZZZ. BZZZZZ.
He looked down, eyes narrowing.
His backpack, tucked by his feet, was shaking violently.
"Huh?" he muttered, leaning forward.
WOOOSH!
Before he could touch it, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his skull—it felt just like yesterday's psychic attack, like he was in front of his Big Sister again, only much… much stronger.
Not able to withstand it, his mind went blank…
"Arghhh!!" he groaned as he came to quickly, gritting his teeth as he forced himself to ride it out. He clenched his fists, gathering every ounce of mental strength he had to push through.
When the pain dulled to something bearable, he opened his eyes—
—and froze.
Everything was dark.
The cabin lights were completely out. Emergency lighting, reading lights, even the glowing signs overhead—nothing was on.
"What…?" Orin's voice trembled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
It didn't turn on.
The screen stayed dead, black as the void around him.
"What is happening…" he muttered, panic creeping in.
Through the flashes of lightning outside the window, he caught sight of the mother and daughter across the aisle—both slumped over in their seats. Unmoving.
His heart skipped.
Were they… unconscious? or…
Orin turned slowly towards the window again, watching the storm outside.
Pitch-black clouds.
Flashes of white.
And the sound of thunder.
But then—he felt it.
That dreadful tilt.
The unmistakable pull of the aircraft descending—not gently, but fast.
"…Are we going down?" he whispered, eyes widening as his stomach churned.
He gripped the armrests.
"Did the plane shut down completely? Are we… just gliding down?"
He looked around the cabin.
"HEY! IS ANYONE AWAKE?!" he shouted, but there was no reply.
Only the low hum of air rushing past the plane and the remnants of his migraine stayed with him.
BZZZZZZZ!
BZZZZZZZZZ!
He noticed the shaking of his backpack again—it felt much more frantic this time.
CRACK! THUNDER!
"Oh shit, I was kidding about the Final Destination plane thing," he muttered, trying to suppress the rising fear. "I haven't even started my journey yet, I-I'm too young to die!" He said with rapid breaths.
BOOM!
But hearing another loud crackling thunder, made him abruptly snap out of panic, turning him… calm.
He sucked in a deep breath, forcing himself to think.
Fast.
With no one else responding in the cabin,
He had to do something, and it didn't look like he had much time.
---
[Orin Murasaki: did not meet ???]
[Orin Murasaki: gained information on Houses]
[Orin Murasaki Pokemon Encounter Roll: 900-919 out of 1000]
---
*What should Orin do?*
• Check the backpack.
• Find the Captain.
• Go to the mother and daughter to check on them.
• Find the Trainer.
[**Choice Selected: Check the backpack.**]
---
"First time I try flying on a plane and it ends up crashing…" Orin muttered to himself as he hurriedly bent down towards his backpack.
The seatbelt was still strapped tightly across his chest as he opened and fumbled through the vibrating bag blindly.
Around him the cabin remained cloaked in darkness, with only the occasional flashes of lightning casting eerie shadows through the window. His fingers finally brushed against something trembling violently inside.
"This is the psychic dampener?" he muttered in disbelief as he pulled it out. "So the thing vibrating like crazy is…"
He unlatched the container and drew out the object inside.
The Twisted Spoon.
It was shaking violently in his hand, pulsing with invisible force.
"Is it… reacting to something?" Orin asked under his breath, though deep down, he already knew the answer.
This whole situation wasn't normal and this plane crash definitely didn't feel like it was just because of some turbulence.
But even knowing why and what it was reacting to, wasn't really going to help stop the plane from falling right now.
"I should just go and find the Captain first," He muttered ready to get up.
Still, something in him hesitated. Before shoving the spoon back into the bag, he closed his eyes.
The Twisted Spoon helped calm his psychic energy enabling him to look at his surroundings with his mind's eye.
He focused on it.
Just for a second.
And then—
"What the fu—"
Suddenly, the physical world fell away. His vision was submerged in a sea of pure psychic energy—deep, endless purple.
Everything around him—the passengers, the plane itself—was drowned in it. It was like reality had been dipped into some spectral ocean of thought and power.
"Now I know why none of the electronics are working… and why the whole plane's crashing," he muttered, stunned.
It was just like the time Kaddi's psychic energy used to mess with the lights and TV back at home.
But this time, the scale was massive and the consequences weren't just a flickering screen.
The entire aircraft was caught in it, all its electronics disabled, because of this psychic sea.
"This is... a magnitude I didn't even think was possible," he whispered in disbelief. "Where the hell is it coming from? Who could even emit this much psychic energy?"
The sheer pressure of it weighed down on him, the way deep water might crush a diver. It was taking his constant focus to stay conscious, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to push further.
He had to find the source.
The best way was simple: follow the current.
Psychic energy grew denser the closer it was to the source—thicker, harder to wade through, like a mental fog.
He kept his eyes closed, extending his perception outward—and followed the path of greatest resistance.
Toward the heart of the sea.
"It's not coming from inside the plane?" Orin questioned.
His perception pushed outward—beyond the aircraft, beyond the rows of unconscious passengers. Through his mind's eye, the psychic sea engulfed everything around the falling plane, stretching as far as his awareness could reach.
From above, he could see the aircraft gliding downward amidst the violent storm clouds, surrounded by swirling purple energy.
'Ughhh…' He groaned, straining further. He pushed past the turbulence, trying to pierce the wall of thunderclouds above.
And then he saw it.
Just beyond the churning dark clouds, something massive shimmered in his mind's eye—a glowing blue slitted orb.
'Is that… an eye?' he thought aloud.
A huge, radiant blue eye, glowing behind dense black clouds in the psychic sea like a lighthouse in a storm.
But before he could focus any further—
"PIDGEOTT!!"
"SKARRRR!!!"
Loud cries shattered his concentration.
"Ugh…" Disoriented, Orin rubbed his forehead. "Was that… a Pokémon?"
***
A.N.
The choices in this chapter are chosen by the Fiction.live Audience.
There will be an Alternate Path Chapter later for my Supporters to show "What could have been!"
I will not do these for every choice but only for some important/intresting branching paths.
When the Academy starts I will be putting the Advanced Chapters in Patreon for this Story.
If there is a suffiecient support/readers for this story in Patreon I can consider giving you guys polls to make the choices like I do in Fiction.
The last polls for the Questions had sadly very few participants.
Please comment and tell me your thoughts!