Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Alright, let's keep that catchup train going and just jump right in with…

Chapter 77

Spoiler

It wasn't quite the level of chaos Seifer had seen in the shaky videos of Venish, but that wasn't for lack of trying. Various muscular pokémon ran down the main street, tossing small seeds at nearby shops and restaurants. A few lobbed the seeds up toward buildings with higher floors. Seifer quickly realized they were blast seeds when assorted vines and bushes caught fire. The flames raced along the greenery. Embers and fireballs leapt from one building to the next.

A little surprised that this track is playing in a small rural town, though I suppose stuff is just casually catching fire everyone, so good enough in terms of being a match for necessary tension.

Noctum? We need backup!" Seifer called, keeping his distance from the Medicis and instead shooting targeted Hydro Pumps from his forehooves to take out some of the fires before they could spread too far. "Preferably people who can put out fires! Tulpise is under a blast seed siege!"

"Uhh, what about, y'know, people to fight with you?"

Seifer: "Yes, yes, that too obviously, but look, someone needs to keep the town from becoming a giant ash heap, and muscle alone isn't going to cut it!" >_>;

"Protecting civilians comes first!" Seifer barked, galloping down the street. An orange blur streaked by him and sent a machoke tumbling head over heels into a pair of stunky. All of them were out cold.

"I'll do what I can, sir," Quetzal said, before zipping further down the dusty road. Seifer slowly followed him, satisfied his Hydro Pumps had calmed most of the fires immediately around him.

Ah yes, cue the theme music for Quetzal there:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPl_1RpBK_4

Glass shattered a few dozen meters away. Fireballs erupted from broken windows and screams filled the air. Seifer galloped in that direction, only to skid to a halt. A bright red Focus Blast whizzed by him, striking a flower shop. Dirt, mud, and bits of ceramic pottery doused the keldeo, who staggered away in a daze.

"Bros, check it!" A sawk pointed right at him while waving his left arm around frantically. "It's the keldebro the boss told us about!"

Seifer: "Keldeo. And I'm sorry, but who are you criminal scum again?"

Seifer stiffened. Of course the Medicis would know who he was. Yet it sounded like they were actively looking for him.

I mean, yes. Such is life when they're getting commands relayed by Paradox.

"You got a sweet bounty on your head, brosephina!" Sawk flexed. "And my squad's gonna bag— waugh!"

A giant, fluid-filled, muscular arm picked Sawk up and tossed him at a couple of charging throh. They all rolled to a stop in the muddy remnants of some sort of fountain.

Wait, wait, wait. When did they get a Buzzwole on the team again? Like I vaguely remember there being one in the aftermath of the Chernabog fight, but... .-.

Seifer kept his distance from the source of his aid: the giant muscle bug that Team Bastion recovered after beating Chernabog. What was it called again? Buzzweight? Buzzoff?

Oh, so it's one and the same. Have we really not seen him in action all this time since then?

Bah, he didn't have time for this!

"Hey, you! Can you put out fires?"

"Ja, little pony boy! Who do you think you are talking to?"

>dat German accent I snerked.

Is he meant to talk like Schwarzenegger, too? :V

"Get the keldebro, bros!"

The massive muscle bug hefted up a huge chunk of dirt and soil in his fluid-filled arms and hurled it at some oncoming hawlucha and heracross. It barreled right into them and carried them straight toward a burning building. The dirt exploded, miraculously putting out the flames.

Huh. I didn't realize that the Medicis were so heavy on Fighting-types, unless this is a specific chapter of their organization. Since Carpaccio is most decidedly not one himself.

Seifer stared ahead, blinking. "I, uh— sure. That'll do. Keep doing that!"

"For Buzzwole Biff, it is walking cake!" Biff scooped up another giant chunk of ground in each arm and raced forward, propelled by his buzzing wings. Seifer galloped after him, only to turn right at the junction by the destroyed fountain. Several Medicis lay unconscious already, orange sparks suggesting Quetzal had gotten to them first.

>Buzzwole Biff Okay, so what's the story behind that name there? :V

Goodness, the zapdos was far faster than Seifer remembered. Whatever the Phantom had done to him had given him quite the power boost. Thank goodness he's back on our side. The keldeo shot up toward an apartment balcony with Hydro Pump jets from his hooves. He figured he'd get a better sense of where people were who needed rescuing from higher ground.

inb4 he just looks around and sees a sea of flames in all directions.

"Cid, what's your Dynascan telling you?" Seifer asked. "It's a mess of smoke and embers around here. Where are the civilians?"

"You're not going to believe this... but they're rapidly leaving city limits!" Cid exclaimed. "Most of the people I'm sensing left are you and the Medicis!"

Wait, how is Cid's Dynascan able to distinguish that so easily anyways? Is it tapping into some sort of biometric database that Polaris built or something?

Seifer's jaw slackened. To keep his composure, he shot a Hydro Pump from his balcony vantage point. It snuffed out a pair of blast seeds hurled by more hawlucha before they could strike a bookstore. "What do you mean? How could anyone possibly evacuate a whole city that fast?!"

"There were some powerful spikes in psychic energy," Cid said.

Can't tell if that's Gene, Jade, or someone else entirely.

"Then why didn't you say something!" the keldeo huffed. He shot into the air again, deciding the vantage point was useless if most of the civilians were gone.

"Shoot him out of the sky, brocaholics!"

>brocaholics

Seifer: "Seriously! Lay off the jock speak already! Even before you being criminal scum, this is why nobody likes the Medicis!" >_>;

Seifer immediately recognized the voice: a certain megaphone-touting grapploct who'd rioted in Venish and Casaroja. But he had little recourse against three blast seeds hurtling toward him. Seifer braced for an explosive impact, only for a giant dirt clump to strike the seeds instead. They still exploded, knocking Seifer from the air and into the ground with a much rougher landing. But the dirt blocked the worst of it... in return for giving him yet another dirt shower. His pelt was now more brown than tan and blue.

Yeesh, Mr. Paid Agitator packs quite the punch there.

Seifer: "Oh, that tears it!"

"Bros, look at the bug bro's gains!" A poliwrath gripped his head in surprise. "He's totes cheating! Or living the dream! I wanna marry hi—"

Priorities. Though I suppose that's one sign that these Medicis aren't the main event in this chapter.

Quetzal sped up behind Poliwrath. An electrified kick sent him careening down the dusty road, knocking over other Medicis like bowling pins. "This is ridiculous!" the orange zapdos huffed. He easily jumped out of the way of a skuntank's Sludge Bomb. Moments later, Biff had grabbed Skuntank by the tail and hurled them over a smoking building.

"Nein. Is good workout." The buzzwole flexed. "Biceps and triceps feeling good!"

Which is going to age terribly once the Paradox Volcarona rolls up, I can already tell.

"No, I mean this... opposition!" Quetzal stood on guard while Grapploct frantically pointed at them with two of his tentacles. "It's a farce!" He glanced at Seifer. "Are we sure we're not getting baited into a trap?"

Seifer: "No! But Igneous insisted this was where the Eterna Empire would strike and the town's clearly in trouble!" >_>;

Seifer pointed his horn forward. An Aura Sphere rifled out, striking a pignite in the stomach and sending them rolling back. Grapploct fell back toward the remnants of some outdoor café, waving his free tentacles around angrily.

"It's hard to be sure of anything," the keldeo admitted, frowning. "And where the heck did Igneous go? I thought he was supposed to be behind us?"

Ah yes, that impromptu grudge match with Xeromus was certainly well timed.

It was then that loud static erupted from Seifer's X-transceiver. Ears folding, Seifer winced. "Cid, what are you doing?"

But it wasn't Cid that responded. Instead, Igneous greeted them with a frantic cry of, "Imperial robots outside the city!"

Quetzal: "Yeah, this is totally a trap, just saying-" OvO
Seifer: "Cid! Give us more details here!"

Quetzal immediately stood at attention. "Where outside?"

"Heading for the stat— ****!"

Igneous' line abruptly cut to static. Quetzal looked at Seifer expectantly. "Well?"

Seifer: "... It's going to be right behind us, isn't it?"

"Higher ground first!" Hydro Pumps propelled the keldeo into the air.

"Ugh, easy for you to say!" Quetzal flapped his tiny orange wings in annoyance, before Biff swooped in, plucking him from the ground and carrying him up toward one of the city's taller buildings.

Seifer saw the volcarona robots approaching the city. "Do any of you recognize that weird bubble attack?"

>Seekerpede

Oh, is that what that Centiskorch boss Widget piloted a while back was based off of?

"Can't say that I do," Quetzal responded. He lightly pecked Biff's shoulder and somehow the buzzwole got the cue to fly toward a different roof further away from the robots. Seifer flew after them with Hydro Pump jets. The robots' approach was surprisingly slow, so the team was able to gain several more buildings worth of distance from them. They stopped in the middle of a rooftop terrace.

"But we should call for backup. Cyril, are you there? Who can head over to Tulpise?"

Frantic shouts came from the ground, along with a number of pokémon pointing. Except they were pointing in the opposite direction of the volcarona. The keldeo noticed something yellow poking out from behind a building. Then gray light filled the yellow.

Seifer: "What in the-?"

"Down!" Seifer shouted, blasting Hydro Pumps from his hooves to get off the roof. Biff grabbed Quetzal and flew after Seifer. Moments later, a large Flash Cannon rippled through the air, tearing shingles off roofs and flinging branches and vines around haphazardly.

All:

Seifer: "Okay, this was a trap!"

"What the hell is that?!" Quetzal cawed, orange feathers puffing up. "It looks like a giant meltan! Don't tell me the empire's pincering the city!"

But Seifer followed the Flash Cannon until it caught one of the volcarona robots by surprise. Two of its orange, triangular wings folded back slightly. Its orange mechanical eyes flashed yellow. The other robot hovered toward it.

Oh, that's Shimmer in action, isn't it?

"I think that one's on our side?" Seifer said, landing atop another roof. The giant robot meltan was already moving around the city's perimeter to flank the volcarona bots.

"Do you still want that backup?" Cyril asked. The X-transceiver crackled, but Seifer didn't know if it was a lousy connection or all the wind getting kicked up. "It looks like these volcarobots are in the same encrypted data file as Iron Jugulis. They're Iron Moths."

I do wonder if they're going to somehow learn just how these things were made, or if they're just going to casually blow up one of Team Bastion's classmates in this battle.

Igneous: "Look, just saying, almost everyone from Horizon Gardens was a dick, so it's not the end of the world if we lose a few of them as collateral." >_>;

"Hold that thought." Seifer glanced over his shoulder to make sure Biff and Quetzal were with him. "Cid, what are you sensing in the city?"

"I'm pretty sure it's mostly Medicis outside of you guys," the orbeetle replied.

"Then we're passing on the backup," Seifer said. "If the civilians were evacuated, then let the giant meltan slug it out with these Iron Moths.

Ah yes, the standard operating procedure for every Kaiju throwdown. Even if it's hard to really blame the gang here, since... yeah. Would their attacks even be able to accomplish anything against them?

"Hang on," Cid cut in. "I'm sensing peculiar psychic energy near Melmetal."

"Melwhonow?" Seifer raised a brow.

"The giant meltan," Cid said. "In any case, the energy's quite similar to the spikes I sensed when the population was disappearing. So— hang on. What was that, Scarlett?"

Oh, so that's who yeeted all those civvies elsewhere. Though I didn't think that Melmetal had Psychic abilities, so I'm not fully sure what just happened there.

"There they are, bros! Get 'em!"

"We're being tailed!" Quetzal pointed a leg down toward the ground. The megaphone-wielding grapploct pointed a tentacle at them. Several blast seeds hurtled through the air toward them. Seifer leveled his horn. An Aura Sphere whizzed through the air. When it struck one blast seed, the ensuing explosion triggered the other ones.

Seifer: "Bah, I knew that I shouldn't have passed up on learning that Aerial Ace TM. Since boy would it be handy right now." >.<

"Move!" Seifer fired Hydro Pumps from his hooves yet again, heading for the eastern end of the city. Both Iron Moths spun in place in the distance, kicking up fireballs to try and scorch Melmetal.

"Shimmer! Scarlett thinks it's Shimmer!" Cid cried.

Oh. Well. I suppose that that explains the psychic spikes. Though just how much did Dermezel soup him up anyways? .-.

Seifer landed on a square-shaped roof and galloped across it, watching Melmetal spin away, deflecting whatever flames it could. "I don't follow."

"Igneous and Scarlett met Shimmer at Horizon Academy and he told them he was working on something for Tulpise," Cid hurriedly explained. "And, well, where do all the meltan work?"

Seifer: "I have so many questions right now." .-.
Cid: "Worry about it sometime when you're not in the firing line between multiple giant robots!"

"Okay, fine!" Seifer reached the end of the roof and shot back into the air. He landed on another nearby roof and continued galloping. "Makes sense to me! Then we'll leave it to him, I guess!"

He felt a bit bad about it. All the beautiful greenery of the city was worth defending. But the resistance had much more important things to worry about.

Ouch. Ice cold. Though I suppose that if Shimmer wanted help managing property damage, he should have asked for help.

The keldeo was going to fly off with another Hydro Pump when he spotted a large Flamethrower shooting straight up in the air off in the distance. It wasn't anywhere near the Iron Moths, which were still back at the station.

"Did you see that?" Quetzal called, still uncomfortably cradled in Biff's massive buzzwole arms.

Seifer nodded. "If it's not the Iron Moths... then it might be Igneous!

What are you up to right now anyways, Iggy?

"Bumomomomo!" Melmetal thumped its chest as the two machines crashed into one another and fell to the ground. From his vantage point atop one of the mossy Tulpise roofs, Shimmer afforded himself a small smile. Who would've thought Arianna could wrangle all the meltan together into this hulking giant? And it was holding its own despite these volcarobots — Iron Moths, according to Demerzel — packing fire-type moves.

I'm guessing that that's a side effect of being D-Maxed. Though ohai, Arianna. I see that Dermezel also made you an offer you couldn't refuse as well.

"Don't get cocky," Shimmer called. He did his best not to move too much. The strange metal prongs spiraling around his horn were delicate, according to Arianna. And the gardevoir had no idea what would happen if they were to lose control of Melmetal. "Strike while they're down!"

Ah yes, risking another giant Pokémon going stomping around on a rampage. Or at least I think that's the implication there.

The ponytales funneled a bit of psychic energy toward his horn. His controller lit up. Yellow lightning churned around Melmetal's lugnut hands. It charged down the Iron Moths, but one spun off of its counterpart, buffeting Melmetal with fireballs.

"Defend!" Shimmer's horn sparked. Melmetal held up its electrified hands, absorbing some of the flames, but not all of them.

And the other Iron Moth had enough time to right itself and spew flames at Melmetal's right leg. "Bumo bumoooo!" Melmetal lifted its leg and slowly fell backwards.

Actually, wait, what is Melmetal's dialogue based off of? Is that what it says in the anime or something?

"Idiot!" Shimmer funneled more energy into his horn. A pink barrier stopped Melmetal's fall. Melemetal stomped its right foot down, smothering the flames with dirt and soil until they weren't a problem.

[Stand down! This city belongs to the emperor!] one of the Iron Moths declared, its triangular wings crackling with electricity of their own.

Shimmer stiffened. That voice. He recognized it. But from where?

Wait, implying that this is one of the Eternians from Venish, or...?

The ponytales shook his head. No time. Melmetal had to act first. Shimmer's horn lit up. Melmetal lunged, using the foot it smothered in soil to deliver a swift kick to the electrified Iron Moth. The High Horsepower looked quite devastating, cracking three of its wings and sending it skipping back along the ground.

[Jean!] the other Iron Moth cried. It immediately retaliated with a whirlwind of fireballs. Melmetal had little it could do against the Fiery Dance, stumbling away as fireballs peppered its gray body.

Ah yes, so that's why Shimmer found those voices familiar. Time for the horrifying realization of just what these things are made out of.

Wait, Jean? Shimmer's gaze fell to the mossy roof for a moment. Then his eyes widened in shock.

Jean was a classmate. A volcarona classmate. And with a twin brother, to boot! Did that mean... the emperor had turned them into robots?!

So... I take it that Paradox just has a Biobliterator (or whatever the Paradox-themed rename of it would be) chilling in his basement?

[Jean, activate healing protocols!] the Iron Moth declared. It was already gathering flames for another attack.

[I know, Dean!] The synthesizer dampened Jean's growling.

>Jean and Dean

I mean, those names do scream ‘sibling’ pretty hard when paired together.

Shimmer's ears flicked at the mention of healing. He sent another psychic ping to Melmetal, but Dean was faster, spinning around in another Fiery Dance. Shimmer swapped to defensive measures of his own. He pointed his horn toward the attack. A pink barrier appeared and caught the fireballs like fish in a net. Shimmer flicked his head right. His barrier shot the fireballs back toward Dean. Startled, the Iron Moth fired hastily conjured poison globs to snuff its own Fiery Dance out.

Unfortunately, Shimmer had neglected Jean, who hovered right back to Dean's side. There were still some cracks in its armor and wings, but it had clearly healed.

Shimmer: "Okay, seriously! What the hell?! I thought that these were robots! Since when do robots heal?! And how did Jean and Dean get turned into these?!"

This wasn't good. Maybe Shimmer could make a plea toward the classmates who were still inside? Arianna had said her silly device could project through Melmetal. It was time to put that to the test.

I'll heavily take the under on that, Shimmer. But you're welcome to try, at least.

"What do you two think you're doing?!" Melmetal bellowed, amplifying Shimmer's voice enough to almost make the ponytales stumble back on the rooftop in surprise.

The Iron Moth's mechanical eyes flickered. [That voice... Shimmer?] Jean's triangular wings buzzed a bit faster. [What are you doing?]

"I asked you first!" Shimmer countered through Melmetal. "Tulpise is your home! Why are you out to wreck it?"

Whelp, time to see just how far gone these two are.

[What good is there in protecting a home built on a bed of lies?] Dean spat. Flames danced around the Iron Moth's orange wings. [Your whole family's been lying to everyone! And you've got the gall to act like you're the hero in all of this?]

I mean, it's Shimmer, so...

Shimmer's nostrils flared. The nerve of these two! He gathered energy in his horn. Melmetal quickly spun its electrified hands around and socked both Iron Moths before either could unleash an attack.

"So, because of my mother's mistakes, a whole city needs to be leveled?" Shimmer spat. Melmetal stayed close to them, raising its right leg on Shimmer's orders to strike with another High Horsepower. "Where's the sense in that? Look at yourselves! You're being used!"

Oh the sheer irony of that last line. Like you just know that this is going to be much harsher in hindsight once everything comes out with Dermezel as it inevitably will for a Kuja expy.

[We're making a difference!] Jean said, shooting fireballs around haphazardly. [The world needs Eternatus! Paradox will be a better leader than you could ever dream of!]

Even if they're technically right about at least one of those three statements.

Melmetal stood tall under Shimmer's orders, enduring the Fiery Dance to bring its earth-encrusted foot crashing down onto Dean. The Iron Moth cracked and splintered. Three of its wings broke off. Shimmer winced. He hadn't intended to strike that hard. Weren't ground attacks supposed to be neutral on volcarona? Did Iron Moths actually have a different type?

>Ground attack on a Fire/Poison-type

[Dean!] Jean's triangular wings glowed bright orange. It unleashed another fireball whirlwind. Shimmer's horn glowed, producing a psychic shield to deflect most of the Fiery Dance. The ponytales had a golden opportunity and needed to leverage it now. He was the one in control.

Shimmer's... going to wind up killing his classmates, isn't he?

"Enough of this!" Shimmer declared through Melmetal. He had it step down a bit on Dean. Not enough to do anything, but the grating of metal echoed across the field. "Stand down and I'll let you have your brother back. There's no point to fighting. I know you're here to kidnap people for Eternatus' army, so I evacuated the city!"

[What?] Jean's hovering dropped a bit. [H-How did you—]

Yeah, Fraud is going to be thrilled to discover the sorts of info Dermezel has been passing along to Shimmer. I can already tell.

A purple and red streak shot past Jean. Pierced Melmetal right above the hexagonal gap in its chest. Then it slammed into the ground behind Melmetal, revealing something... vaguely like a helmetless version of the strange creature Shimmer had seen on PV. Only much more purple and red. And entirely mechanical.

Melmetal buckled. It dropped to one knee.

"Bumomomoooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Ah yes, Prowler music from Spiderverse. Only a sign of good things that can come from this. Though what on earth was that? A Pokémon version of Metal Sonic?

Shimmer's eyes widened. Meltan were falling out of Melmetal by the dozen.

It shrank down and down. Melting into a gray puddle of inert meltan. Shimmer's nine tails frazzled. He looked between the puddle and the thing that had brought Melmetal down with a single strike.

Shimmer: "Wh-What the hell was that thing?! It can do that?!"

[Huh?] Jean's wings buzzed erratically. It was just as confused.

[Mission parameters have changed.] The new machine turned back to Jean. [Capture them.] It pointed a red talon at the meltan.

[But the emperor said—]

The newcomer's cheek bolts crackled with purple energy. [Mission parameters have changed. Capture them or I will terminate you.]

Yeesh, Prowlervally isn't screwing around here.

Jean's electronic eyes flickered yellow. Her wings produced green beams. Green bubbles trapped swathes of meltan at a time. They hovered to Jean's side.

Shimmer's heart pounded in his chest. He backed up across the roof. How had the script flipped on its head in just a matter of seconds?! He had to get Demerzel here. And Arianna. They had to get him out of h—

So it was a trap all this time.

The ponytales jumped back. Slivers of his white hair drifted in front of him, revealing the mechanical beast standing right where he'd been moments ago. Purple and red energy crackled in its talons.

"Wh... at..." Shimmer staggered away. He was at least a couple of hundred meters away. How could this thing have closed the distance so quickly?!

>dat art

Oh hey, it really is Metal Sonic as a Pokémon.

[Hostile unit identified.] The machine's electronic eyes glowed red. [Surrender in the name of Emperor Paradox.]

Shimmer concentrated as hard as he could. "Demerzel? You have to get me out of here! We have a problem! I'm in danger!"

[Hostility still detected. Proceeding with termination.]

Shimmer: "Dermezel?! Anytime would be nice right about now!"

It shot toward Shimmer, purple energy intensifying around its forelegs. Shimmer desperately fired a Psybeam, but the machine quickly dodged left. It dodged right from Shimmer's follow-up.

"Demerzel!"

The machine suddenly stopped. It looked over its shoulder. The pixels in its eyes spun around like loading icons.

[Mission parameters have changed.] It jumped away from a dumbstruck Shimmer. [Returning to base.]

Wait, that thing specifically stopped because Shimmer called out for Dermezel, didn’t it?

Shimmer: "What- What on earth just happened?!"

What? That was it? This thing was just going to leave him? It was out for his blood not even a second ago!

Shimmer shot another Psybeam, but the machine lunged off the rooftop. The ponytales staggered forward, heart racing. What had it seen that prompted such a hasty retreat?

My money is on a higher-priority target. Or else the reason floated in the last block.

It didn't take much searching for Shimmer to find what he was looking for: a large pillar of gray and yellow distortion in the middle of the field. And it was spreading toward Tulpise!

"Demerzel, the city's about to be overtaken by a dungeon!" Shimmer ran back and forth across the grassy rooftop, pointing his horn in any direction he could think of as if it were a dish trying to find a signal. "Melmetal's lost. Get me out of here!"

The ponytales waited for a few seconds before a strange jolt rattled him from horn to tails. A jolt that only came from Demerzel's teleportation.

The linked music syncs surprisingly well with this scene as things go progressively more pear-shaped. Kudos on that.

Igneous dropped to the ground, watching the strange green beam sail overhead. It ended as a green bubble that popped. Try as he might, the grovlazzle couldn't figure out what attack that was. A weird Signal Beam, perhaps?

He caught more green light in the corner of his eye and dashed right. Green beams streaked by him, turning into more popping bubbles.

It was time to get moving. Figuring the city was more important to whatever machines were coming, Igneous doubled back. One of the robot volcarona shot one last green beam at him, but Igneous easily outran it with some timely propulsion from his fiery wings. They dissolved into this back.

Yeah, about that, Iggy...

When the bots didn't turn back around, Igneous figured it was safe to coordinate with the others. "Guys? The robots—"

His X-transceiver greeted him with harsh static. Igneous immediately shut it off, spun around, and spat Bullet Seeds behind him.

"Piss off, Xeromus!" he growled. Who else could disrupt his comm line?

Oh, so this is who Prowlervally saw to turn their attention away from Shimmer, huh?

Instead of chains or a canine-shaped shield, however, his Bullet Seeds slammed into bulky static cubes. They broke apart into tiny black and white pixels and scattered to the wind.

[OMEGALUL! This (ADGE BREAK) is already over! No bathroom breaks h— UP START B A UP UP DOWN!]

The static gave way to Ahsen's disjointed discs pulling themselves in different directions. A skeletal kabutops head briefly popped in and out of existence.

... Or it could be Ahsen deciding to poke his head in. Boy has it been a long time since we saw him.

Igneous stepped back. He conjured his honedge in his right hand. Xeromus alone was enough of a problem, but Ahsen, too? Igneous was in way too far over his head. He couldn't afford a repeat of Venish. It was time to cut his losses. The grovlazzle had to regroup with someone. Anyone.

[LEFT LEFT L—] Ahsen stopped jerking. [Oh? Trying to (ALT-F4) your way out of this? Where's the (START9) in that, (FRIEND OF THE STREAM)?] More static ran along Ahsen's arms, briefly turning them into L-shaped, pixelated cubes. [This is the (MOMENT) you've been waiting for! Time for (HELIX) to take the stage!]

>Time for (HELIX) to take the stage!

I'm not sure what's about to happen here, but I already know that it's not going to be any good.

Ahsen descended into shouting more directions, his discoid body flopping about to and fro. Igneous seized the opening, swiping Honedge upwards on instinct. A fiery crescent struck Ahsen and set him ablaze. He dropped to the ground, twitching and spasming in a mess of strange static and occasional bones— wait, was that an aerodactyl skull in place of Ahsen's head? What the hell was this omen?

That would be a Missingno, Iggy.

Igneous: "So, uh... yeah, I'm pretty sure that mission to save Tulpise is well on its way to being an epic fail right now."

[(LIT AF!) (LIT AF!)] Ahsen's tone was surprisingly gleeful for someone who was currently on fire.

Damn it, I have to get out of here! The grovlazzle's wings flared to life. He started heading further away from the city. If there was ever a time for Scarlett's singing to help him out, it was now.

Igneous didn't get more than a handful of meters before a pillar of distortion erupted behind Ahsen, who'd somehow managed to put himself out and return to shouting directions. Two beady red eyes pierced through the distortion, then Igneous saw a tan, wispy silhouette.

Wait, wait, wait. That's Zodiark?!

The cloud daemon! It was here?! And it had crystals growing on its legs.

Damn it, had it gained some sort of power?!

I'm... pretty sure that's supposed to be Tera Power, so... uh... yes. Yes it did, Iggy.

At the same time, the ground trembled. Igneous glanced over his shoulder and thought he saw a gray, hulking blob stomping around Tulpise's outskirts.

This was way too much. The grovlazzle didn't have time to search for Cid and Scarlett. So, Igneous did the one thing he could think of: tilt his head skyward and belt out a Flamethrower. With any luck, it'd serve as a flare to signal there was trouble.

Igneous: "Okay, I realize that that might not have been as effective as I'd hoped when there's an entire freaking city on fire in the background, but I'm short on options here!"

The cloud daemon took that as a signal to go on the offensive. Its wispy form shimmered. The air around Igneous grew thin, as if the daemon was sucking it all up to make a vacuum. Igneous backpedaled. Honedge vanished into orange mist.

A gray flash erupted to Igneous' left. He barely managed to avoid it. The grovlazzle's fiery wings shot him away from the daemon.

These weren't conventional strikes Igneous was dealing with. He flew just a bit over the grass, weaving behind sudden bursts of gray and silver that matched the crystals on the cloud daemon's legs. The grovlazzle stole glances backwards to see Cloudy gliding toward him. Its crystals sparked at the same time as the strange energy bursts.

We're... going to find out what happens if someone gets hit by one of those, aren't we?

Where were Cid and Scarlett? Surely, they must've seen that Flamethrower. "Help!" Igneous shouted. "Scarlett, start sing— gah!"

Igneous rolled right to avoid a crystalline burst. He flicked his right hand back, hurling a fireball at Cloudy. The grovlazzle didn't hear anything to suggest the attack hit. Could it even hit? He couldn't do a thing against it back on the train. But it was entirely a cloud then. It had crystals, now! That had to mean something.

Yes. It got stronger. Since it obviously couldn't do this back on the train.

The grovlazzle dove down. Skidding across the ground, he spewed Bullet Seeds at Cloudy's right foreleg. But hexagonal crystals materialized out of nowhere. The Bullet Seeds vanished the moment they hit the crystals, like they'd never even existed to begin with.

[Your (START9) flavor is all wrong!] Ahsen buzzed, though Igneous had no idea where he was.

Oh, so Iggy's going to need to play along with whatever Ahsen wants him to do, huh? Since I'm getting the feeling that this is where things are going in short order.

Cloudy's crystals flickered asynchronously. It produced something between a roar and a garbled wail, but its voice was so heavily distorted that Igneous could hardly tell what it sounded like.

Still, the force of its voice along was enough to blow Igneous off his feet. As he tumbled back, a dusty trail superimposed itself over the grass. A thick forest flickered in and out all around Igneous.

He watched patiently from the cover of the thick trees as the riolu jogged down the path, beckoning the ice vulpix to follow.

Oh boy, the visions are back. Time to pay attention to try and see if any hints regarding how it relates to the gang in the present day can be teased out.

Igneous forcefully shook his head. Focus, damn it!

Cloudy's eyes flashed gray. Igneous dove out of the way of more crystal flashes. He spat a few Bullet Seeds at Cloudy's right foreleg, then switched to a Flamethrower heading for its left. Igneous smirked when the hexagonal barrier appeared to snuff out his Bullet Seeds, leaving his Flamethrower to strike the crystals.

Igneous: "Wait a minute! I think that just might work!"

A bell-like chime echoed across the field, alongside another garbled wail from the beast. Gasping, Igneous dropped to his knees. He threw his hands over his head.

His insides were on fire! And not in a healthy way, either!

Yeah, turns out that taking swings at the likely source of your freaky Morpho Knight powers is a bad idea. Who knew?

Nickie's Powder Snow caused a trapinch to slip and tumble toward Tessa, who hit it right in the face with a Force Palm.

"I yield! I yield!" Trapinch squealed, trying to bury his head in the ground.

I wonder if this was their analogue to Jangmo-o, there. Or if I'm reading too much into things.

Igneous doubled over in pain, gripping his stomach. Something's... tearing through my insides! He looked up at Cloudy.

"[This is your reality.]"

Oh hey, you're getting in on the hovertext fun and games, too. Though I see the Ominous Hindi is back. I guess that's a sign that Zodiark is from Ginnungagap? Since that's where we've see the Ominous Hindi originate from in the past in this story.

What? There Cloudy went, speaking nonsense gibberish again. Igneous had to fight it. Stand up!

Cloudy's crystals flickered. An even more intense weight gripped Igneous stomach.

"Nice one, Nikkie!" The riolu held out her right paw for Nickie to high five. Except the ice vulpix faceplanted when she tried to reciprocate. Tessa's aura feelers shot up in alarm. "Ah, right! Sorry! Forgot you're still getting used to the 'all-fours' thing."

Ah yes, more AU flashbacks in action here.

Chuckling, the volcarona finally made his presence known by hovering out from the dense trees. "Sharp work, you two. Don't think we've had a duo solve the entrance test that fast before."

Igneous dropped to all fours, tucking his head down against his chest and screaming, "Get out... of my head!"

Oh, so Iggy was the analogue to Metagross in POV-2020's version of GL's storyline, wasn’t he?

"[This is your reality.]"

Cloudy was getting closer. Closer. The air around Igneous was thinning. Warping. More and more it felt like he was in the forest and not the field outside Tulpise.

"[Your fate is unavoidable.]"

Well then. That got creepy and ominous fast. Though I suppose that Nova's insistence that everyone's choices matter is going to become plot-relevant really fast, since... yeah. Zodiark there is basically bluntly telling Iggy the opposite message in live-time.

Igneous' vision flooded with hundreds and hundreds of butterfree wings, falling away to reveal a strange specter with hair like Leo's that blocked part of their face. Giant shadows coalesced around the specter, forming a gray and gold dragon's head.

"■■■■■■■■, strike them down!"

Ah yes, so this is what Prisma-2020 looked like, huh? Though wait, who on earth was her Necky? Since the blanked-out name there has just the right number of letters to line up with 'Necrozma'.

Actually, wait.

>gray and gold dragon

So it's something involving Giratina.

The pressure suddenly lifted. The air stopped thinning. Igneous' ears rang, but he was vaguely aware of wet and squishy ground around him.

"Igneous! Are you okay? Say something!"

That was Seifer. The keldeo was back from the city? Grunting, Igneous tried to push himself up from the ground. Cloudy was roaring again, however. The grovlazzle braced himself for another painful, trippy vision, but it didn't come.

Igneous: "Ugh, god. That went through me worse than day-old Venishian seafood."

Seifer: "Look, there's obviously a long story behind this, but it can wait right now!" O_O;

Instead, he heard music. And there were vocals, but Igneous' ears were still ringing. He couldn't quite make them out. But it didn't matter. The message was loud and clear.

Scarlett was here. Her words could protect him. Protect all of them.

You... probably should not bet a lot on her protection holding out for long, Iggy.

Breathing heavily, Igneous got back to his feet. His flames stirred in his gut. Seifer shot him a worried look.

"I'm okay. I've... got this."

Narrator: "He absolutely does not have this."

Honedge appeared in Igneous' right hand. He shot forward, gripping Honedge tightly. Cloudy's expression was unreadable, but its crystals flashed. Igneous held Honedge up... and parried the crystal bursts!

His fiery wings propelled him toward Cloudy's right foreleg. Igneous slashed at the crystals with Honedge. They didn't shatter, but there was a satisfying claaaaaaaaang and they darkened considerably. Cloudy roared, but Scarlett's singing kept Igneous' head clear as he zipped around to Cloudy's right hind leg and struck again.

"Tum... hara!"

Igneous: "Wait, that is a good thing that just happened, right?" ^^;

Cloudy's body rippled and pulsated. Igneous kept up his charge, striking each of its left legs in quick succession.

[WTF?]

Igneous saw Ahsen flopping around in a panic... and Xeromus watching from behind the glitchy mess of floating discs.

[There's no (PRESS F TO PAY RESPECTS) here!] Ahsen's arms turned into bony aerodactyl wings. [You can't (BAN HELIX). (CHAT) is too (STRONK)!]

Igneous: "Okay, yeah. I really shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

The grovlazzle U-turned in midair, doubling back toward Ahsen. "I've had... enough out of you!" Igneous snarled, flames swirling around Honedge. Ahsen tried shooting balls of pixels at Igneous, but he rolled left, then right. He swung Honedge upward, slicing Ahsen's discoid head in half and knocking it away from his body.

Ahsen's body flew around haphazardly, flailing its arms around. Pixelated tendrils pulled the halves of its head back together.

Igneous: "Oh you're kidding me..."

Igneous locked eyes with Xeromus. He had Scarlett's power backing him up. He could put a stop to them today. Make sure they never bother anyone again.

Ah yes, Gene will be thrilled about this, I'm sure.

Wings flaring up, Igneous divebombed the corrupted silvally. Yet Xeromus' gray eyes were filled with admiration.

Wait, is... is... Xeromus actually going to die here? .-.

Snarling, the grovlazzle thrust Honedge at Xeromus as hard as he could manage. But all Igneous did was pierce through black smoke and slam into the ground. Grass and soil erupted around him. Igneous grabbed Honedge out of the dirt and spun around to find Ahsen and Xeromus had regrouped by the cloud daemon's sides.

"You can bear your fangs at fate all you want!" Xeromus's chains rattled on his legs. "It will not change anything!"

Yeah, I should've figured.

Shadows burst forth from Xeromus' legs, swallowing the trio up and leaving Igneous staring across the field at a dumbfounded Seifer. And that beefy buzzwole guy bridal carrying Quetzal.

Igneous had several questions, but Scarlett's singing quickly faded. And with it went all of the grovlazzle's second wind. Honedge vanished as Igneous dropped to one knee.

Igneous: "... Ow."

The ground shook once more. Then a pillar of purple and red distortion erupted from where Xeromus once stood. It reached and clawed at the grass and dirt, slowly spreading toward Tulpise.

Seifer and the others managed to get around it. Panic spread across the keldeo's face. He was trying to think of something. Anything to stave off the distortion's advance.

Whelp, I suppose I should get my

s in the chat ready for Tulpise.

It wasn't worth it. Igneous was spent. He imagined the others were tired, too. They had no choice but to leave.

"Outpost," Igneous rasped. "We must... go back."

Alas, Tulpise. We hardly knew ye.

CDL: Medium Insectoid Abduction Unit, Iron Moth Mechanized volcarona adapted to capture small designated targets. It sounds like the emperor was experimenting with ways to modify Bug Buzz from an attack that produces sound waves into a means of ensnaring an enemy and sealing them in a bubble. Frankly, I'm not sure where the link is or how you can jump from point A to point B on that one. But Eterna energy loves to work in mysterious ways.

Oh, so that's that bubble thing that we saw them do in battle.

~Nurtured Destiny: Zodiark Dreamweaver~
The Affirmer is neither mortal nor god. Through transcending space and time, He has evolved beyond the very notion of life and death. He is now the only one capable of rewriting reality's single, ultimate Truth.​

I... have no idea how in the hell the gang is supposed to deal with that, but hey. If TTGL could find a way to do the impossible and see the invisible, I'm sure we'll eventually get there. ^^

Path of Valor Almanac
"Yeh tumhara aasliyat hain," is Hindi that loosely translates to "This is your reality." Similarly, "Tumhara kismat apariharya hain," is a loose Hindi translation of "Your fate is unavoidable." My thanks to ExplosiveTurkey, of PMD: Canon Breakage fame for his assistance!

Oh, so that's where you got your translations from. I'll have to keep that in mind if/when I ever need Hindi dialogue for one of my stories.

Boy, where do we even start on this chapter? Though I suppose this is a good one:

I kinda get the vibe that Team Bastion just has a terrible batting average with these "everything changes" arcs, since... yeah. I mean, it wasn't as big of a disaster as Venish, but this wasn't exactly a happy outcome for anyone on the protagonists' side. Lots of tantalizing hints in the air for things yet to come in the future, especially for whatever's going on with that GL AU sequence and what's now belatedly occuring to me to probably be a vision of Volo from PLA. I'll have to keep an eye on where things go from here, since it feels almost as if the plot got blown wide open... again.

As for critiques... I'm not really sure if I have any. Maybe some parts could've been a bit more generous about hints of what's going on or whatever, but hey, this story has gotten a lot of mileage just dripfeeding little slivers of the truth in the past, so I suppose there's an argument to not fix what's not broke.

Good work, @Ambyssin . I'll be looking forward to seeing where things go from here, since boy are there a lot of places where the dust could settle from all of this, and it'll be quite the ride to see where it winds up going. ^^

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, took a while for me to get this up here, though hey, at least I'm feeling less sick than I was when I wrote this originally, so all the more reason to press ahead:

Chapter 78

Spoiler

Entry 2201
The newcomer has spoken with a couple of Sages. They said it was just simple questions. About the world. About the Sages. About me. Apparently she ran away from her home.

Otherwise, she's kept mostly to herself. Something about her aura feels familiar. Even the term "lunala" tickles the back of my head. And yet I'm not sure why.

Oh, so Chiron was also secretly a Giratina too, huh?

I should try talking to her. Suicune and Reshiram both asked I use a gentle approach, though. Hence, I've left her to her own devices. How much longer do I do that for? They didn't specify a timeframe for this "gentle" approach of theirs. It's rather frustrating...

That... doesn't bode well for how well Chiron and Bahamut were getting along shortly before the great sealing of Eternatus.

Days of stumbling across the Qliphoth half-blinded were finally behind Necrozma. He had started to fear the remaining Needles were gone. That his power was taken by the one he'd sensed fragments of his light within.

Ominous Bayo 3 BGM is ominous there.

That infernal drakloak. Necrozma didn't know what she thought she was doing. Why her aura had traces of his beloved. But he couldn't find her. And Necrozma couldn't get a lock on a single Needle.

... That finally changed. After slowly drifting from planet to planet within the Qliphoth, he found one composed of bare, labyrinthian tunnels. Dim crystal chunks lay in dirt walls. Twinkling between pillars of wood and metal.

Oh, wonderful. So Bahamut's undead corpse is going to get a powerup to make everybody's lives harder.

He lumbered through the abandoned mine. Its purpose long past fulfilled, it was left to decay and disarray. The same thing that was happening to his home. That was why he needed his power back. To protect it— no, save it.

Wait, his home? As in Etherium, or...?

The light he sensed got brighter. Warmer. A beacon that drew him through the tunnels. Made every step a bit less painful.

Yet there was a problem: a soul. A single one he sensed by his power. Paradigm energy dwelled within it. A wretched daemon, sniffing around what was rightfully his. Had that so-called emperor ordered the soul to approach the Needle? Study it? Try to pull it?

Ah yes, cue the ranting about 'give me back my light' in 3... 2...

Necrozma would show them. He would strike with unrelenting force to repel them. His crystal tendrils rippled. He silently wound up, then struck the ground underneath him. His crystal tendrils pulsed with psychic energy, keeping the walls and roof of the cavern rooted in place. There would be no collapsed tunnels here.

Instead, Thousand Waves rippled across the ground. Necrozma flew after it, to follow his surprise attack. The emerald energy carried forward, until the Needle's glimmering blue gem shined ahead of him.

Or he could do that. Though I will heavily take the under on that Paradigm operative really being gone.

The Thousand Waves struck the armor-clad knight standing in front of it. He skidded across the orange, uneven ground. He struggled to maintain his grip on his incandescent blade.

Necrozma's core flickered. The knight tried to raise his blade, but psychic blasts buffeted it, knocking it further back. Red dust and gravel kicked up all around him. This knight was clumsy and awkward. Unaccustomed to the Paradigm shard he held.

Oh, it's Gio or whoever that was who popped in in Venish, isn't it? Since this sure reads very similarly.

"Pathetic." Necrozma's tendrils rippled under his shadows. Concentrating a bit more, he realized the aura beneath the knight's armor was familiar. However, it stirred no emotions. Only faint memories of prior weakness.

After a few seconds, Necrozma made the connection.

The knight was another of his past mistakes. He destroyed Mewtwo's creator. Necrozma was sure of it. Yet here he was, clad in armor with a strange energy. Another case of Eternatus twisting the rules. Bending nature in ways it didn't deserve to bend. Which was why Necrozma needed to destroy Eternatus.

Yuuuuuuuuuuup. Though I suppose that would explain why he was there in Venish in the first place if he's also a part of Paradigm.

The Paradigm was merely fragments of the Universe. The unfathomable power at the center of Eternatus' existence. And the very thing that made it so difficult to destroy.

Another Universe fragment would be his. And the Needle this knight was foolish enough to protect would follow. This mistake would not escape. He wasn't Mewtwo. He couldn't teleport. Necrozma had him.

Yeah, see, the fact that you're feeling this confident makes me think that you're going to get cockblocked, Bahamut. Since being cocky going into battle is always a dangerous state.

"You sought power through control of others." Necrozma flicked his right hand. A blade of light appeared. "You were doomed to fail from the beginning. You never had power of your own, human."

The knight shot Icicle Spears forward, as if to defy Necrozma. But they were tiny slivers, shredded into mist by a single swipe of his light blade. More sword-shaped Photon Geysers formed over the knight.

Bahamut: "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this."

"I will show you real power!" Necrozma curled his crystal fingers. The swords descended.

... And landed in the ground, kicking up more red dust. Necrozma looked around, at the vessel-like rocks weaving all around him. Pulsating with orange fluid like a buzzwole's arms.

He just had to concentrate and— there!

Necrozma fired a bevy of Thousand Arrows to his right. Several electronic shouts filled the air. The metallic remnants of those stupid Eternatus Troopers fell into a haphazard pile of scrap metal. Necrozma kept concentrating... but the knight's aura was gone. Some speedy robot must have charged in to give him cover to flee.

You sure that Gio can't teleport now, Bahamut? Since that was a suspiciously clean exit there.

"No matter." His crystal tendrils carried him across the orange ground. A single Plasma Fist broke through columns of rock, revealing the Needle buried in the middle of other orange-fluid filled rocks.

Latios appeared in a puff of black smoke by what passed for Necrozma's right shoulder. Glanced at him with empty blue eyes.

I suppose I should be less surprised there given that we already have his counterpart Legendary floating around, but...

So, does this mean that we're going to see Bahamut pull Sanic antics in the future?

"This is what the world needs. I must have all the power."

He reached toward it.

"Hello again, Suicune."

Oh, so that's what he freed from the Needle. At first, I thought that it was Latios, but noted.

The ocean gently lapped against the shore. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Chiron watched the sand darken with each wave, then brighten when the water pulled away. It was almost hypnotic, especially with the sun shining down on her.

"Everything okay?"

Oh hey, FF9 music. It's been a while since we've seen it make an appearance in this story.

Chiron looked up. Suicune sat on the water, like it was nothing. She was well aware suicune were capable of that from the ones she'd encountered within Eternatus. But this was her first time seeing one under natural light. She never realized how beautiful the sparkling head crystal was. Her mane glistened, too. Blue hair flowed with the cool ocean breeze.

"Yeah. Sorry, just... thrown off a bit." Chiron rubbed the right side of her head. She had to choose her words carefully. These Luminous Sages were still feeling her out and getting a sense for her intentions. "We didn't have a lot of," she gestured at the ocean with her wing, "this where I'm from."

Oh right, Yuna sees a vision every time a needle is pulled. Boy is that going to be alarming for her once she puts two and two together.

"Ah. Yeah, it's really something, huh?" Suicune turned around, ribbons fluttering. Chiron resisted the urge to laugh. The butt ribbons ruined Suicune's regal appearance, in her opinion. If this Bahamut fellow really did craft the Sages from light, he could've at least made some design alterations.

Oh, so just like the souls of Pokémon from GL, I see. I wonder if they can similarly be absorbed like in that story.

"So, uh, you used to be a different pokémon, right?" the lunala asked to distract herself. "Was the water a big part of your life before you took this job?"

Suicune nodded. "Would you believe me if I said I was a dreadnaw?"

Chiron blinked. Truthfully, no. She remained silent.

"Pfbt. That look on your face tells me everything."

Well that's a big change. Not as big as Jade going from Salazzle to Lugia, but still.

The lunala ducked her head under her left wing. How embarrassing. A few weeks outside the Qliphoth and she'd forgotten how to mask her facial expressions? Matriarch would—

... No. Stop. She left Eternatus for a reason. This didn't matter.

Narrator: "It absolutely did matter."

Lifting her head, Chiron said, "It is a strange leap. I mean, I guess you're still four-legged."

"But dreadnaw isn't a picture of beauty and grace." Suicune pivoted to wink at Chiron.

I dunno, she sure seemed to have taken quickly to it after the makeover.

"Is that what your, um, Sage title is?"

"The Sage of Grace, yes." Suicune bobbed her head. She strode across the water. The small waves passed around her legs like they weren't even an obstacle. "In its natural state, water is graceful. Always flowing. Drifting. Cascading."

Wait, how did Bahamut go around picking those Sage titles anyways? Since he seems to have been all over the board for attributes he felt ought to be associated with his servants.

She flicked her right forepaw, kicking up some ocean spray that showered the sand in front of Chiron. The wet grains glistened even as they quickly dried up.

"Right." Chiron stared at the drying sand. Suicune made sense, and yet the lunala was still confused. "But what does grace have to do with protecting the planet?"

Oh, so that's how Bahamut chose those titles. Even if I'm now curious about his logic here myself.

Flummoxing, Suicune stumbled a bit. Which was enough to break her water-walking powers, as she fell forward with an audible splat. Chiron raised a brow at the Suicune-shaped imprint in the sand left behind when Suicune got back to her feet. And it was really hard not to laugh at the sand and silt caking Suicune's face and hair.

"Was it something I said?" Chiron mused.

I suppose that's one way to tell that Suicune hadn't really considered the question herself in the past.

Suicune did her best to look unphased, shaking the silt off. "I honestly asked my teacher the same question." She twisted her neck and a blue diamond on a chain swiveled out of her hair. It had that same eight-pointed star Chiron saw on the back of Bahamut's head. Other Sages had different-colored gems with the same symbol and she wasn't sure why.

"And I assume you got an answer?" Chiron said.

Oh, so that's what the heads of the different needles look like, huh?

"Bahamut feels that if we carry ourselves with grace, we're less likely to come to blows," Suicune explained. Finished shaking off the sand, she walked onto the shore. A wave swept away half the trail of pawprints she left behind.

"I see." Chiron folded her wings over her torso. "And not fighting is... important."

"Yes." Suicune glanced skyward. "More than anything, Bahamut wants this world to be as tranquil as possible. That's why the Sages exist."

Well, that worked out well for the present day. And I suppose it answers the question of the world that Bahamut is so invested in saving.

Chiron frowned. She envisioned a togekiss in the back of her head.

"You must keep Eternatus as peaceful as possible. Fighting will only serve to draw the Renegade toward us and ruin everything."

Um, yeah, funny story about that, Bahamut...

"Isn't it our nature as pokémon to fight, though?" Chiron wondered, trying to shake the memory out of her mind.

"You mean, like, for sport?"

"At the very least."

Suicune shrugged. "Bahamut doesn't see it that way. He dreams of a world where battling isn't necessary."

Oh, so that's why Etherium's Pokémon are crazy-underpowered in their natural states. It's literally the sort of world that Bahamut wished to exist.

Chiron looked down. Why would pokémon even have powers, then? It was completely at odds with Bahamut's way of thinking.

"Something wrong?"

The lunala stiffened. "Hmm?" She shook her head. "I'm fine. Just thinking."

Simple. Bahamut wasn't the one to write the rules first, Chiron. He's just attempting to revise them.

"About your home?"

A single nod.

Suicune slowly slid onto her belly. "But you fled from there, right? Was battling that big of a deal?"

Chiron sighed. "In a manner of speaking."

I can't tell whether or not the implication is that Chiron bounced right after Matriarch went offline or not, since given that we know that there was a violent free-for-all afterwards... that would be as good a time as any to want out from inside Eternatus.

"Well, if the place made you so unhappy you had to leave, maybe you ought to give our way of thinking a try," Suicune said. She traced a forepaw in a circle through the sand. "See if it's really that strange or not."

Chiron wasn't sure it was that simple. Keeping a low profile was important, though. She wasn't looking to upset Bahamut. Better to play along while she continued to feel things out.

Even if it did sound strange, Chiron doubted it was worse than remaining Archbishop.

Okay, yeah. That more or less confirms it.

"Gah!"

Yuna's head shot up. The drakloak furiously rubbed her eyes, then pulled her hands away.

Damp? Why were her hands wet?

Ah yes, dipping back into Xenoblade music again, I see. Though I should actually keep this song in mind for if I ever stop being lazy and go back to work in musical potholes into OaT.

... Oh, she had dropped down onto a towel.

Right, I'd finished showering. Yuna looked over her shoulder. Steam faded from the glass shower door. Water droplets trickled down into the shower basin.

Wait... did she not realize that she just had a vision of her life as Chiron?

She wasn't sure whether to count her blessings that she didn't pass out while showering. The fact that the Phantom — they were calling it Necrozma, apparently — had another Needle was quite alarming. However, it wasn't like Yuna could do anything about it right this second.

Okay, nevermind, she realizes it. Though I wonder if she should've been described as being a bit more tense and shaken, since we don't really get that much of an "alarming" vibe up to this point.

Sighing, the drakloak picked herself and her towel off the floor. She finished drying off and tossed the towel into a wicker basket sitting in the corner by chipped green ceramic tiles. Yuna floated toward the door and pushed it open.

Who to tell first? She doubted everyone was together at the moment. Yuna turned right and floated down the hall. Hopefully she wouldn't get turned around trying to find her way back to the restaurant.

"Couldn't you, y'know, just make a rift to it?" Reshiram pointed out.

"Tis true! Work smarter and not harder," Rayquaza added.

They do have a point, just saying, Yuna.

"Right." Yuna rubbed the front edge of her rectangular head. She was about to call forth a small rift when faint golden light appeared at the other end of the hall.

I think someone's coming. Yuna straightened up a bit. Her ectoplasm shriveled the moment she realized the gold light came from a familiar dusknoir.

Yuna:

Vegna: "Yes, yes, very startling, I know, but we don't have time for this, Princess."

It was hard to read his single eye, but Yuna afforded herself a guess.

"Looking for me?" Vegna looked at his right arm. Golden embers trickled off of it, dissolving against the walls and floor. "Necrozma found another Needle."

Yuna: "Tell me something that I don't know. (Also, what on earth is up with your arm?)" -_-;

"Yeah." Yuna's shoulders sagged. "I don't suppose you and Gene have come up with some way to stop him yet?"

Vegna turned away from her.

"I'm going to go with 'no,'" Reshiram said.

Cecil: "Maybe even a 'hell no', there." .-.

Yuna floated toward him. "So, what now?"

The dusknoir continued down the hall, saying nothing.

"Okaaaay." Yuna followed him. Maybe he was looking for somewhere private— okay, yeah, he literally just went into some random door on the left. Yuna stopped in the doorway. It was an empty room, save for a broom and a dustpan. Given the dust sprinkled on the floor, the room hadn't served a purpose for quite a while.

Yuna: "Um... Vegna? What are you doing?" ._.;

"I have sought for a joy without pain, for a solid without fluctuation," Vegna said, crossing his arms. His eye dimmed. "Why will you die, O Eternals? Why live in unquenchable burnings?"

"Huh?" Yuna tilted her head.

"He was fond of a particular poet from Earth," Vegna explained. "Bahamut wrote most of the poems in his journal."

Oh, so William Blake or some analogue to him existed in whatever universe Bahamut originally hailed from.

"He'd recite stanzas from them to us all the time," Reshiram said, nodding in the back of Yuna's head.

"It was so boooraaaaaaawming."

Prooooobably a good thing that he's not around to hear that, just saying. ^^;

Yuna shoved Cresselia out of her mind before could yawn again. What did any of this have to do with stopping Necrozma? "Is poetry the key to beating him? Force him to remember things he liked?" Stopping him with the power of positive memories sounded like something right out of Shaymin the Wanderer's Super Darkness Crisis.

Ah yes, so that's our in-universe equivalent to PSMD there.

"The best thing we can do against Necrozma is stall him." Vegna tapped his right index finger against his left arm. "Stall and find Needles before him. His power is too great. Not even Mewtwo can stand up against him."

Yeeeeeeeeeah, that problem didn't exactly get any better now that he has another Needle under his belt.

That wasn't what Yuna needed to hear. Vegna had basically given up before taking a solid crack at anything! "Then why go through all the trouble to find us?" The drakloak leaned against the doorway.

"I had to." Vegna squeezed his arms. There was an uncertainty in the dusknoir's voice Yuna hadn't heard before. "And you didn't let me finish," he added, a bit more like his rigid self.

Yuna: "I mean, you basically explained that we're up against an enemy where we're just completely screwed if we get into a direct confrontation, so I'm not sure what else there is to add there." >_>;

Yuna reluctantly gestured for him to continue.

"If we want to defeat Necrozma, we must reunite Phantom with soul." Vegna held his hands up and squished them together.

"You can do that?" Yuna eyed Vegna skeptically. She heard about the necromancy thing, but if Bahamut severed his soul ages ago, it would be long gone.

Oh, so like fighting Tubba Blubba from PM64. Though Vegna knows where to find this soul, huh?

"A soul cannot be erased." Vegna turned and braced his left hand on the wall. "I would stake my necromancy title on that fact. Bahamut's soul is still out there. Perhaps it passed to this 'Overworld' realm, but I strongly doubt it."

"I bet he thinks pulling more Needles will force the soul out of wherever it's hiding," Reshiram said. Yuna decided to pass that theory along to Vegna, who nodded slowly.

... Or it could fail and just free Eternatus for nothing. That's also possible, too.

"That's my deduction." He tapped his index finger against the wall. "Necrozma reacted violently to the Needles I pulled, after all."

Makes sense.

"Hold it!" Reshiram's fur puffed out in Yuna's psyche. "He said Needles. Like more than one!"

I'd recommend emphaizing the 's' in 'Needles' from Cecil there. Though I'll admit, I didn't notice that at first from Vegna's dialogue, either.

Yuna blinked. "Hang on... Needles?

I thought it was just Zekrom." Vegna pushed himself away from the wall. His hands flickered gold. Griffon and Talonflame touched down on the dusty floor, spreading their wings in unison.

Alright, time to see who else Vegna's got chilling around in his soul collection.

"Lo! I unfold my darkness," he declared. "And on this rock, place with strong hand the book of eternal brass, written in my solitude."

Poetry was not what Yuna needed to connect the dots. The drakloak rubbed her forehead. "These two are sages? There's no way. I mean, Talonflame's a fer—"

Talonflame opened his wings and screeched.

"Aww, there, there." Griffon draped a metallic wing over Talonflame. "She didn't mean it."

Wait, whaaaaat? Are those two incognito or something? Since I certainly wasn't expecting to hear that.

"Much like the blabbermouth half-lugia, these two were already corrupted." Vegna gestured to Talonflame. "Victini, Sage of Victory." He then pointed at Griffon, but the corviknight beat him to the punch.

"Raikou reporting in!" Griffon saluted with a wing. "Apparently. Don't remember diddly squat about those days."

That's... quite a transformation that Griffon went through both ways. Though I suppose that means that had the gang not intervened with Jade sooner, that she'd have gone back to visually just being a Salazzle. It makes me wonder if we'll one day see Cecil as a Hydreigon again.

Yuna's eyes slowly widened. There's no way...

"Hmm. I doth recall Sir Raikou having a mouth on him," Rayquaza said. "Not in the same way Dame Lugia did, either. He would mouth off at Bahamut. She would crack jokes."

Somebody got Photon Geysered on the regular, I can already tell.

"Can you prove that?" Yuna squeaked.

Griffon cawed with laughter. "What kind of hack d'ya take V for, huh? Proof's in the journal-flavored pudding. My name shows up there." The corviknight puffed out his chest. "I'm Baha-famous!"

Wait, as 'Griffon', or...?

"And we're done here." Vegna snapped his fingers. Both his birds vanished in flecks of golden light. "Satisfied?"

Now it was Yuna's turn to brace herself, only she used the doorframe. "I guess so."

Yuna: "How on earth does nobody notice these things?!"

Vegna: "I mean, having a reputation that makes others not want to get too close helps a bit." ^

What had they been talking about originally?

Right, a way to stop Necrozma. "So, there's really no other way besides Needle hunting?" Yuna found that quite dangerous if it would bring them to further blows with Necrozma. "Couldn't we just let him get the others and search for the soul?"

Yuna: "Since, if fighting with him directly is already hopeless now..."

Vegna: "Yes, but it's at least survivable. If Bahamut grows too strong, that's not something that can be guaranteed."

"The more he has, the stronger he will be, even after we strip his invincibility," Vegna said. "He attacked you with the techniques of the Sages he acquired, did he not? You're only worsening your odds by letting him get Needles."

Yes, that would also be a good reason to not want Bahamut to get too many of the Needles.

Yuna wasn't sure how big a difference it could really make. "I mean... Bahamut was already strong enough to sink an entire island. What could a few extra Sages do for him?"

"More attacks for him to use, obviously."

Silence followed. The two ghosts stared each other down.

Also, wouldn't that imply that Bahamut is presently less strong than back in his island-sinking days? Since you'd think that you'd need every little advantage you could get against him, Yuna. ^^;

"Forgive the discourtesy of my curt response." Vegna leaned against the wall again. "It's a risky situation no matter what. The journal suggests Bahamut was consumed by rage leading up to his death. Reviving him... could revitalize that anger and aggression."

Vegna: "I mean, the alternative is that he curls up in a corner and cries over his personal losses, but... yeah. I'm not going to bet on that one."

"As if what he did to Gene wasn't aggressive?" Yuna countered. Vegna's expression was too tough for the drakloak to read. She'd need the direct approach to get more out of him. "Is there something you're not telling me?" Yuna did her best to look as tired as possible. "I'm sick of making decisions without having all the information."

I mean, yeah. He almost certainly is. Not that I'd really trust on Vegna of all Pokémon to shoot straight.

"I pulled the first Needle." Vegna looked down at his right hand. Golden fissures enveloped most of it. He squeezed his hand shut. The cracks sealed themselves. "Every subsequent one has worsened the destabilizing. It's getting harder and harder to keep my body together."

Yuna saw where this was going. "This big idea of yours... you won't be around to see it through to the end."

A single nod.

... Oh.

"Figures." Yuna rubbed her temples, torn between a couple of different responses. She could've told him it was easy for him to float there and throw out crazy ideas. Yuna didn't like Vegna. It was hard to feel bad for the guy.

"I'm not expecting any pity," Vegna said, as if he'd read her thoughts. "I made a lot of bad decisions in my youth." He glanced at his right hand again. "It took time for the consequences to catch up to me, but I don't intend to run from them."

That's certainly different than how the stock protagonist would react to receiving news like this, though I suppose that it is hard to judge Yuna for feeling that way considering how Vegna's been kind of an ass throughout the story to others.

"A lot of decisions? What else besides the Needles?" Reshiram wondered.

"What do you mean by that?" Yuna asked Vegna.

"Using my new abilities for my own benefit," the dusknoir replied. "A path that eventually led to me becoming an executioner for the Kingdom of Radiance." He crossed his arms and bowed his head. "And, at first, I was more than happy to carry out that task. But as the years went on, a deep unease gripped me that only grew over time."

Ah yes, we're just getting all the skeletons out of the closet, aren't we?

"Unease?" Yuna tilted her head. "About?"

"Radiance's royal family." Vegna floated up to Yuna. "I'm hardly a pure soul. Yet at the time, I couldn't shake the sense there was a dreadful rot at the center of the kingdom. So, I put in the effort to transition from working in the prison system to the courts."

I mean, he's not wrong there.

Yuna raised a brow. "All so you could conduct your own investigation?"

"Did Paper Boy not offer you a glimpse at the fruits of my labor?" Vegna shrugged. He looked ready to push Yuna aside, so the drakloak gave him the space to float out the door.

"So, what? You'll do what you can to help, then leave us to clean up the rest of the mess?" Yuna said. She kept her distance, but still gave a disapproving look. After all, Vegna having Igneous take all that evidence to Sakaki hardly qualified as helping.

Yuna: "Since, really. That's the least you could do right now if you're expecting us to mourn you when you're gone." >_>;

"I'm hardly thrilled about it, either." Vegna's shoulders sagged. Some of the golden cracks returned on his right arm. "But it cannot be avoided."

They were talking in circles. Yuna couldn't come up with anything else, other than, "Fine. Whatever. But when we find new dimensional anomalies, those take priority. So, if you want the Needles salvaged that badly, you'll have to do a lot more to help."

I'm... not convinced that the two are really separate processes from each other, Yuna. Since these MacGuffin quests have been growing more and more intertwined with time.

The dusknoir didn't respond at first. He made an effort to hide his right arm. "There's a ferocity about you I never saw when you were a dreepy."

Yuna held tough at his attempts to unnerve her. "You didn't see me much as a dreepy to begin with."

"Valid point." Vegna... chuckled? Yuna didn't think he was capable of it. "Do not let it slip away. Because continuing down this path will lead you to discover several horrible truths. And without that tenacity... the weight of those truths will crush you."

Translation: Yuna's going to have another bluescreening period or two in the future, since... yeah. This is the break that she's had from the plot so far, and even then, she's still been hard at work playing Ms. Resistance Recruiter.

Vegna floated away before Yuna could press him on that. The drakloak tried flying after him, but Vegna was faster. She stopped by the door to a metal stairwell, watching Vegna float up through a gap in the middle of the stairs.

What did he mean by that? Did he have a premonition?

More like 'he already knows stuff and is doubtful about how well you'll take it'.

"I didn't think necromancers doubled as fortune tellers," Reshiram said. "But 'horrible truths?'" He shuddered in Yuna's mind. "Something about the way he phrased that doesn't sit right with me."

Yuna wasn't sure if that meant Vegna lied... or something completely different. And the conversation tired her out enough to where she didn't want to fall down that raboot hole.

"At the very least, thou shouldst inform thine allies of this latest Needle pulling."

Right. Yuna slowly hovered up the stairs. That much, at least, was easy to do.

Just in time to find out about how Tulpise no longer exists as a city. Wonderful. ^^;

Crisp air brushed Igneous' scales. Soft grass crunched under his feet. The grovlazzle trudged across the grassy hills surrounding Horizon Gardens, craning his head up to take in as much of the setting sun as he could.

Try as he might, he couldn't get that forest out of his head. It was disturbingly familiar. So were the pokémon he saw in it. But why? Outside of one of them sharing a name with a certain toxtricity, he had nothing.

However, the forest remained a nagging unease. Its large trees and thick brush kept popping up in his mind. So, after giving a report on what happened in Tulpise, he asked someone to rift him over to Horizon Gardens. Igneous figured the empty grass fields could help clear his head a bit.

Ah yes, and we FF8 music nao, too. I'm surprised that Iggy would consider Horizon Gardens' surroundings to be a comforting place, since he kinda gave off the vibe that he didn't care for it as a student.

It wasn't working as intended. Igneous kept seeing faint outlines of large trees. Or a specter of a riolu running in front of him, arms stuck out to the side.

Why? Igneous rubbed his head with his claws. Why won't it stop? What had that cloud daemon done to him?

Showed you visions of a past life of yours. Or at least, that's my operating theory at the moment, especially considering that one song that was chosen to accompany one of the past visions of its ilk.

It had to be some sort of psychic trick. Maybe if Igneous went to Gene, the mewtwo would find something?

Igneous' snout twitched. Fruity and sweet, but also bitter. Nearby wine? Was someone out picnicking? He had to make himself scarce. But when he turned to head down the hill and back toward Horizon Gardens, he noticed glistening white out of the corner of his eye.

The grovlazzle crept closer and spotted nine messy tails... and the white-furred ponyta— or ponytales they came from. Shimmer tossed an empty bottle over his left shoulder. It bounced along the grass and rolled to a stop by a couple other empty bottles.

Ah yes, Shimmer is taking his mission's failure well at the moment.

Igneous didn't get the chance to consider his next move, because Shimmer abruptly turned around. Recognition flashed in his eyes. Then he squinted. "Are you stalking me?"

"No." Igneous held his hands up. After Tulpise, he didn't want to deal with any more psychics poking at his mind or squishing him against the ground. "You were in Tulpise, right? So was I. I guess we both had the same idea."

Shimmer: "Hrmph, lucky me, then." >_>;

They silently stared each other down. Eventually, Shimmer gave a small huff. He pivoted back around, flicking disheveled white hair over his shoulder. "I'm not sharing." Shimmer levitated another wine bottle up and yanked the cork off. The pop drew a wince from Igneous.

"Maybe you should slow down?" Igneous cautiously approached.

He's already drunk or on the verge of becoming so, isn't he?

"Why? I've got Pastel Veil." Shimmer rolled his eyes. He took a swig from the bottle.

"Right." Igneous kept walking until he stood over Shimmer. "But I doubt your liver's appreciating this."

Huh, interesting dichotomy about how being able to shrug off poison would help tank intoxication but not the long-term effects of substance use. Though at least he's drinking wine and not doing lines of cocaine Stardust right now.

Shimmer paused in the midst of tilting the bottle. His eyes darted between the grovlazzle and his wine. Grunting, Shimmer set the bottle down. "What does it matter? I'm nothing but a failure."

Huh, I didn't realize how much Shimmer and Igneous paralleled each other in terms of being failure knights with parental + personality problems. I suppose that was the reason why they were paired for this scene to commiserate.

Somehow, Shimmer sounded more dour than he did back in the library. Igneous figured literally looking down on the ponytales didn't help. He quickly sat down, bending his knees to lean against them. "Tulpise that rough, huh?" It was the most logical conclusion he could draw.

"Did you bring the materials I gave you to the Beacon or not?" Shimmer refused to meet Igneous' gaze.

Igneous: "I mean, I at least managed that much? It can't possibly hurt, right?"

Shimmer: "After what happened in Tulpise, I'm suddenly not so sure about that anymore."

"I did. Then we went to Tulpise." Visions of the forest flooded Igneous' mind again. "We had," he shuddered, "our own issues to deal with there."

"Well, you must've had a better time with your 'issues,'" Shimmer huffed. He levitated up the bottle again, ready to take a drink from it.

Igneous: "God, I wish."

"Hard to say. My 'issues' got away," Igneous admitted. And left a present in my head.

Frowning, Shimmer gulped down some of the wine. "Getting away is better than destroying your meltan titan and Imperial robots making off with all the meltan that formed it. Because that's what happened to me."

You're missing a couple words from Shimmer's line there, there's a few possibilities that can fit, but I threw in the two that felt most natural.

Also, you are never, ever going to convince me that you're unintentionally channeling MonolithSoft at this point in the story from that music link. >:V

Igneous' tails and head leaf briefly ignited. "****! ****!" He turned around and swatted the grass where his tails were before it caught fire. The grovlazzle stiffened. "I, uh—"

"See?" Shimmer swallowed another mouthful of wine. "You think I screwed up, too."

Igneous: "Okay, yeah, that's- really, really bad there."

"I was surprised." Igneous shifted his weight uneasily. "Didn't know the meltan could... make a titan or anything."

"And now Eternatus' forces have it," Shimmer said, ears folding. God, the self-loathing in his voice. It was... scarily familiar to Igneous. "I'm supposed to be stronger. To have the power to make things happen. And I couldn't do a damn thing to stop that machine."

Oh, so I was right about the two paralleling each other. Since even Igneous is noticing it, too.

Igneous wasn't sure if he was meant to press for details. He settled on a reasonable approach. "You mean machines, right? There were two of them."

To his surprise, Shimmer shook his head. "There was a third. It showed up out of nowhere. Struck Melmetal down in one attack." The ponytales looked down. His eyes were full of fear. "It was going to kill me if that distortion hadn't erupted out of nowhere and forced it to retreat."

Yeeeeeeeah, Shimmer has a ways to go before he's hardened enough to become a proper member of Team Protagonist, since them almost dying is just another Tuesday for them at this point.

The grovlazzle wasn't sure whether to talk about his role in causing that distortion. Everything surrounding Xeromus and the cloud daemon hurt to even think about. Instead, Igneous asked, "What did that machine look like?"

Shimmer shuddered. "Kind of like that lunatic helmet-wearing mutt they keep showing on the news." He bit his lip and nervously dug his forehoof into the grass. "If you took the helmet off and made him really purple and red."

Igneous: "... (Wait a minute, that sounds just like... Widget.)" ._.

Igneous sucked a sharp breath in. That sounded like Widget! But the silvally was still at the outpost. Had Paradox made another one?

Yeah, I figured. And worse, Igneous. He's made a better one.

"What's with that look?" Shimmer frowned. "Don't tell me you know about this?"

"N-No." Igneous held his hands up. "It surprised me. That's all." He had to save face. "It sounds like a rough situation. I'm sure you tried your best."

Shimmer: "Which isn't exactly making me feel better right now, since 'best' for me is apparently 'epic failure'."

Shimmer sideyed Igneous. His nostrils briefly flared, but then he lowered his head. "Easy for you to say." Shimmer glanced at the wine bottle. "You're actually competent."

Narrator: lol. lmao.
Igneous: "Okay, on the one hand, yes. On the other, was that really necessary?!"

Bingo. Igneous had an in. Though the grovlazzle weighed exactly how much he wanted to tell Shimmer. Bringing the Ryujin up was out of the question. Could he tiptoe around that? What if Shimmer's power boost came with some sort of ESP lie detector?

No. Not even Gene's that good.

He sighed. Igneous stretched his legs out. "I'm not."

Igneous: "Whelp, here goes nothing..."

Shimmer looked unconvinced. "I put up a good front." Igneous looked down at his orange and yellow belly. "Well, I put up a good front before this."

The ponytales slowly turned around. Igneous piqued his interest. Good. He could continue.

"My mother died from a poisoning several years ago," Igneous said. He didn't leave any time for that to linger. "A poisoning meant for my father. Because of an investigative piece the Beacon was working on."

I'm... not sure how much the 'investigative piece' part is true or not, but this is directionally true, at least? ^^;

Shimmer frowned. "But he's a nidoking."

"The poison was seventy-five percent pure salazzle venom," Igneous replied. In truth, he had no idea what the poison was. But it probably involved salazzle toxins. "My dad didn't even tell me until Mom ended up in the hospital. I had to watch her slowly wither away."

Yeesh, no wonder why Igneous still has a thing against his dad to this day.

He rested his hands on his knees. "I thought I could avenge her. I was stupid enough to try and challenge the kingdom's criminal underworld."

Thus how he became a literal Einhänder. Though who were those? The Medicis? Other Ryujin?

Shimmer blinked. "You're still here, though."

"I lost an arm for it." Igneous rubbed his right arm with his left. "Before these... mutations, I always had a prosthetic." A damn good one, judging by the shock on Shimmer's expression. "My garchomp bodyguard is the only reason I survived. But it caused everyone at the Beacon to lose faith in me. To doubt I'd make a good replacement for my father when he decided to retire."

That... wasn't just the Beacon that it messed you up with, but let's not get into that in front of Shimmer there. ^^;

The grovlazzle guessed Shimmer's next question before he could ask it. Holding up his right arm, he said, "No one in my family had anything to do with me attending Horizon. That was entirely me. I took Mom's life insurance payout for myself and enrolled on my own.

"And, well, you might've heard claims I was involved with the problematic concert in Venish." Igneous hunched over again. "So, clearly, I'm not as put together as you think." He shook his head. "We're both screw-ups."

Silence followed. Though he didn't meet Igneous' gaze, Shimmer was contemplative. And he hadn't picked up the wine bottle again. A part of Igneous wondered why he was spilling his heart to Shimmer of all people. But if this day had made anything clear, it was that the two had more in common than he realized.

Because you feel sorry for him and see part of yourself in him? I mean, the second half of the paragraph more or less says as much.

Igneous tilted his head. "Hmm?"

"I just want to give up." Shimmer pawed at the ground with a forehoof. "I don't know a thing about battling competently or keeping people safe. A power boost is meaningless if you don't know how to use it properly." He hung his head shamefully. "Two of our classmates were inside those Iron Moths. Eternatus' emperor... has brought them onto his side."

I actually don't remember whether or not Igneous already knows about the snatched classmates or not. I suppose this will be as good a time as any to get a reminder.

The grovlazzle decided not to bring up that he knew that already.

"Don't you get it? Do the math." Shimmer squeezed his eyes shut. "If the emperor's using our classmates against us, then that means..." He grimaced. "That means..."

Igneous recalled Artemis' report from Operation Follow Me: Xander was the first to turn to Paradox's side. He bowed his head. "Right. Your boyfriend."

Oh right, he does remember. Though I guess Shimmer has already put the dots together for what's become of Xander, even if I can already tell he's going to be shocked at the sheer gusto at which he flipped.

Shimmer laughed bitterly. "Yeah. Sure." He shook his head.

"Is there a problem?" Igneous raised a brow.

"Yes." Shimmer's brow furrowed. His expression was painful. "Xander and I... we were a total screw-up of a couple."

I... did not realize that, but I suppose I should've seen it coming. Especially from the way that Xander just didn't give a second thought to Shimmer after joining the Eterna Empire.

That was a bold claim to make out of the blue. Igneous could see Shimmer's desire to explain himself, and held his tongue.

"There wasn't love there. Only lust." Shimmer waved his right foreleg dismissively. "Most of what we did was just... flaunt our status in public or get busy with one another. That's not a relationship." He sounded embarrassed... for himself. "That's barely even 'friends with benefits.'"

I do wonder if this should've been foreshadowed a bit more earlier on in the story, but you can't say that there weren't signs of it from Venish and onward in retrospect.

Igneous never did like the sylveon. Total prick, in his opinion. He wouldn't be surprised if Xander craved the status and power that came with being the crown prince's consort. "You guys have been together for a few years, though..."

"Yeah. And I hate that I'm just struggling with this now." Shimmer smacked the ground with his left forehoof repeatedly. "But it's all I can think of... now that I realize how much of an idiot I am. If I was smarter, maybe I'd have picked up signs earlier. But he was really good with—"

"Dooooon't need the details." Igneous waved his hands in front of his face. The grovlazzle already knew more than he wanted to. He'd seen copies of the harassment complaints lodged against Shimmer and Xander that Sakaki had gotten his hands on.

Yeeeeeah, you're really priming us to enjoy seeing Xander get rekt down the road there.

Shimmer blinked a few times. "Right. Yeah. Stupid of me." He shrank back slightly. "Point is... this is beyond me. I should give up, but I'm stuck working with Demerzel."

Did that have to be the case, though? If Yuna went through the trouble of gathering up new recruits, why couldn't Igneous do the same thing?

"Then work with us instead."

Well, that was certainly direct there.

Shimmer's tails poofed out. It was an amusing sight.

"I— that's—" Shimmer's eyes darted around. "Demerzel's psychic powers are strong. He could track me directly to you guys. I think?"

"We have a strong psychic of our own," Igneous claimed. He could've very well been setting himself up to get cursed out by Gene for offering up the mewtwo's services without permission. But Igneous would take any extra leverage he could get.

Yeeeeeah, considering how Dermezel himself is in an arrangement with the Eterna Empire and they've been looking for Gene...

"And I'm still Crown Prince," Shimmer mumbled. "I have to... keep tabs on Mother."

Igneous didn't see the problem with his offer. "You'd have more resources if you worked with us."

The conflict on Shimmer's face was clear as day. Igneous wasn't going to force him into anything. "You don't have to decide right now. I'll give you space if you want it."

inb4 he waffles for like 5-10 chapters, comes around and joins, and then things promptly go straight to hell for the Resistance since Gene's location inadvertently gets outed. Like it just feels like the sort of cruel knife twist you'd pull given your batting average with your characters in this story.

Before the grovlazzle could move away, Shimmer scooted to his side. "Don't. Please."

Igneous' tails almost caught fire again. "Shimmer, what're you—"

"Sorry." The ponytales' tails curled around his hips. "I just— this feels like the first time someone's been genuinely nice to me. No ulterior motives or anything."

I mean, considering his definition of 'friends' in the past... he might not be wrong there. .-.

Technically Igneous could counter that getting Shimmer into the resistance's ranks was an ulterior motive. But it was more that Igneous empathized with Shimmer's struggles. Kind of like Scarlett, huh? They'd all made bad decisions because they didn't want people to see them as screw-ups.

Well then.

Though I suppose this means that we'll be seeing these three around each other quite a bit from here on out.

Igneous shrugged. "I get it. This ****'s weighing down on all of us."

Thoughts of Xeromus raced through his head. Igneous did his best not to flinch.

"Guess it helps to have people you can relate to." The grovlazzle scooched right next to him. He misjudged his distance and bumped his side with Shimmer's. They fixed their wide eyes on each other.

"My bad." Igneous repositioned slightly. "Head's still a bit cloudy."

"Right." Shimmer rubbed his forehooves together. "Same here."

I smell a ship in action, even if I'm pretty sure that Iggy's got more of a thing for Scarlett right now. inb4 this turns into an "I love all of you" situation

An awkward silence followed, until Shimmer whispered, "Would your, erm, team really be okay working with me?"

Igneous nodded. There was the whole Ryujin issue, but that was something he could address later. If Gene could uncouple Shimmer from Demerzel's ESP, that would make things much easier.

... Wait, just how much of this conversation did Dermezel listen in on anyways? Since if Shimmer's wearing a headset or something that has a mic...

"Then I guess," Shimmer took a sharp breath, "we can give it a try."

It was far from an enthusiastic embrace of Igneous' idea. He opted for an equally muted response. "Nice." He didn't stand up. "We don't have to leave this second, though."

Shimmer offered a thankful nod. "Why did you come here, anyway?"

Shimmer: "Since really, I thought that you hated this place based on how you acted as a student earlier in the story."

"To clear my head." Igneous scratched it with his left hand. "Though this... didn't exactly help."

"Ah." Shimmer looked guiltily. "Well, I guess... we can sit here in silence?"

Igneous raised a brow. "Like actual silence? Or 'guzzling wine' silence?"

Shimmer: "Either is fine with me, really. Though I'm the one with Pastel Veil, here."

The ponytales flinched. He glanced at the wine bottles. His horn sparked. They rolled up the hill. "I'll recycle them properly," Shimmer mumbled. "Promise."

Tongue clicking, Igneous pivoted in the grass. "All right. Silence it is." Except the grovlazzle lay on his back, resting his head against his hands. He looked out at the setting sun, trying to keep Xeromus' words and the strange visions from seeping into his thoughts.

Whelp, we have our answer there. Even if I'm a little unsure whether we're going to end on this cute note, or if something's going to come along and wreck it inside Iggy's head.

Igneous found the team a new ally. Sure, there might be some growing pains. But there was strength in numbers, right?

This is a good thing.

He hadn't realized Shimmer lay down next to him until silky hair brushed against his side. Igneous didn't move.

It's a good thing, he told himself again. We can... help each other.

Okay, yeah, you're totally floating a ship between these two. Even if it's going to get awkward fast once Scarlett re-enters the picture. Though it's a bit weird-feeling to see Shimmer in an actually cute scene for once without him either being an ass or there being some sort of foreboding undertone to things.

Alright, time for that recap. I take it that this was a cooldown chapter given that things... uh... didn't exactly go well for the team last chapter, and I suppose they didn't in the earlier part of this one either. Since it seems like the primary focus was just taking a step back and trying to figure out "where do we even go from here?" oh, and the reveals about Vegna. Like there's a surprising amount of stuff that came out now, and it definitely recontextualizes some things from earlier in the story. I had a handful of critiques regarding missing words or bits that I felt could've had a bit more description than they did, but otherwise things were put together very well.

I do wonder if there should've been a bit more foreshadowing earlier in the story as to Griffon and Talonflame's true identities or what was really going on between Shimmer and Xander, but eh. It works well enough, and if you squint hard enough, I suppose you can see some things in the past that make sense in light of those reveals.

Though good job as always on the chapter, @Ambyssin . It's been a long while, but it's a bit of a liberating feeling finally being caught up with this story again, and I'm eagerly awaiting where things go from this point. ^^

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Alright, almost there with getting caught up with this version. Though let's belt out that review of…

Chapter 79

Spoiler

Two weeks went by in a hazy blur. Perhaps because the outpost buzzed with activity. The monks kept their eyes out for anomalies, but came up empty. Gene and Vegna worked with an Aeon platoon to deal with tracking Necrozma. The only reports so far were of the Phantom jumping through rifts, followed by long stretches of purposeless ambling. It led the resistance to conclude that, unlike their rift makers, Necrozma struggled to conjure portals.

Wow, that's quite a timeskip ahead. Though that mix of the P3 dorm music is definitely catchy.

Cyril made plans to try and create a machine for tracking anomalies with the help of the two Red Chain fragments the team had. But there were issues making sure the fragments could remain stable in such a machine. Or something. Most of that technical jargon went over Yuna's head. Probably, Seifer's, too. Yuna figured that, given the talk around the outpost, the keldeo hung around Cyril for different reasons.

I can already tell there were a few nights where their neighbors were having trouble sleeping from the racket.

Cid was happy to have a handful of skorps assisting him with all the monitors. It actually gave him a bit of breathing room. He asked Yuna if he could puruse Bahamut's old journal and she directed him to Vegna. Perhaps the orbeetle wanted to compare what was written with his own past research?

The big oddity was Shimmer. Igneous apparently got permission to explain Shimmer's situation. Yuna felt a pang of sympathy, but never got to talk with him. Since Gene insisted on more rest before he seriously exerted himself, Shimmer mostly kept to himself. Only appearing when he had to eat. He was polite, yet stiff. At least, compared to what Yuna remembered. Nikki always studied him skeptically. Yuna worried if it was the toxtricity's old grudge toward the so-called ponytales.

Oh huh. Shimmer's already on Team Bastion or whatever we're calling it now. Would've thought that we'd see more of the moment where he came aboard, but eh. If it works, it works.

With everyone finding things to keep them occupied, that left Yuna with training. Something she'd never done much of in her life. But something she sorely needed. Not in the sense of bolstering her own limited attacks, but in keeping the shadows firmly under control. And calling on Sage powers faster.

To her surprise, Alder proposed she train in tandem with Leo. The drakloak hesitated to have her son do that. But the psychic braviary emphasized the importance of Leo learning to control the powers his plates gave him.

Yeeeeeeeah, considering the power scales some of your opponents are rocking, it really would be a bad idea to keep Leo perpetually in "Team Mascot" mode.

Today was one such training session. Yuna hovered over some metal platforms Guzzie Jr. had separated off his main arena. She focused on the Soul Dew's light. A small Fusion Flare formed over her head. After a moment's hesitation, she hurled it toward the cosmic arceus. His wheel shifted from gold to a sparkling ocean blue. Leo melted into a puddle. The Fusion Flare sphere harmlessly passed by him.

Oh, well. TIL Leo can do that with the Splash plate. Getting some vibes for how Zena can do something similar to this in HoC thanks to her connection to the Water Plane or whatever it's called.

Yuna curled her right hand. The Fusion Flare erupted. Leo reformed from the puddle. "Fast, right?" His starcloud tail wagged. "Now, water attack thingy go!"

>dat dialogue Well, he's definitely still in his "mental 5-year old" phase.

His blue wheel flashed. Water burst from the ground directly underneath Yuna. Meeping, she shot forward. White Quick Attack energy trailed behind her.

For a brief moment, the platform and water columns stopped. Had they... crystalized?

No, wait, that didn't make any sense. The columns splashed water all around, then disappeared. Yuna rubbed her eyes. She must have imagined it.

Narrator: "She absolutely did not imagine it."

"Ah, splendid!" From beside the platforms, Alder clapped his legs together. "No soaking of the peanut gallery, Leo. I'm impressed!"

The cosmic arceus looked around, eyes sparkling. "You have peanuts?"

Somebody has his priorities straight there.

"Ah, no." Alder's pink head feathers drooped. "That's an expression."

"Ohhhh. Right." Leo nodded. Yuna frowned, uncertain if Alder's correction actually stuck.

I mean, it obviously didn't, but you probably have bigger things to worry about right now, Yuna.

"What now?" The drakloak drifted to the ground and stretched out for a quick rest. "Junior's going to open his arena soon, right? I'd rather not practice around all those people." She gestured vaguely toward the empty stands. Not to mention the noise.

"Hmm." Alder stroked his chin with a wing.

"Anomaly identified! Anomaly identified!"

Well, that was a short two-week lull in the story (which I'm now just realizing is a meta parallel to how long it takes to get out a new chapter). Time to get neck-deep into cosmic trouble again.

With a holler, Yuna's body shriveled up into her head. "Owww..." Yuna's head flopped over. "Not so loooooud. We keep these X-transceivers by our heads, Skorp!"

"Aw, shucks. Sorry 'boot that!" Skorp laughed nervously. "Guess I got a bit excited, eh. First time 'n all that."

So wait, did everyone in the base just get deafened by that overeager Skorp there? ^^;

Yuna: "My ears!"

I can tell. Yuna slowly managed to pop her body out of her head. Guess they knew what they'd be doing. At least she was well-rested this time.

"Brother Kora's agreed to go with the scouting team like we discussed?" Seifer asked over the X-transceiver line.

"Yepperino," Skorp chirped.

Oh, well that's definitely different. Though I wonder if he's going to get taken over by Vince again while out in the field.

"Great. If they can stabilize the rift, we can know what we're getting into," Widget said.

"Where is it, though?" Valkyrie wondered. "At least, on our side of things."

No response at first. Frowning, Yuna hovered off the ground. "Uhh, guys?"

"Sorry." It was Cyril. "Needed to know if Gene was online."

"... It's Earth, isn't it?" Gene was terse.

Well, Gene is taking this well

Yuna: "Wait, but does it really matter if it's on earth since there's apparently like a billion of them floating around out there in the omniverse?" ^^;

"Kanto, specifically."

"Which part?"

"Indigo Plateau."

Oh. Well. Even with AU dynamics going on, I can see why that would get really, really awkward and uncomfortable for Gene in short order there.

Yuna looked toward the aurora on the horizon. Who names a plateau after a color? She then had to imagine an invisible hand muzzling Reshiram before he could give her an answer.

Game Freak and its localization offices, bring it up with them, Cecil.

Gene's sigh echoed through Yuna's X-transceiver. "We better hope that anomaly's outside the Pokémon League. Otherwise, we've got problems on top of problems."

Yuna: "Wait, I'm not sure if I follow though. Why would it be such an issue if the anomaly wasn't right next to this 'Pokémon League' again?" ^^;

"Pokémon League?" Yuna said. She glanced at Alder, who had landed on the platform and was furiously flipping through one of his books.

"A system where humans train pokémon to battle for sport," the psychic braviary declared. "It's near ubiquitous for worlds where humans and pokémon coexist!"

>near ubiquitous

That actually makes me wonder if we're going to run into some world with humans and Pokémon together that doesn't follow a normal mainline setup. Since I can see that qualifier there.

Yuna quirked a brow. Battling for sport wasn't an issue. They did plenty of that in Aeon. Tests of strength and whatnot. But what role would humans have to play in that?

"Thou hast seen it with thine own eyes," Rayquaza piped up. "In Malie and LaRousse. Humans partnering with pokémon."

I dunno, Yuna responded. Molayne and Liza felt more like... bosses with pokémon employees.

I mean, to be fair, if their "employees" ever went on "strike", they'd be fairly limited in what they could do back to them.

The X-transceiver crackled again before Yuna could say anything else.

"Yiazmat reporting with the scouting team. The anomaly is immediately behind a very large building at the center of this structure. Not seeing Eternatus Troopers, but humans have the area cordoned off."

Oh, that's why Gene was freaking out about whether or not the anomaly was near the Indigo League. The rest of the plateau is a pain to get to and the Kanto Champ and E4 would be the only trainers anywhere close by with a fighting chance of holding off the Eterna Empire if they came barging in.

Well, that sounded bad. If the people there already knew about the anomaly, they could alert the emperor!

"Assuming they haven't already," Reshiram pointed out.

Not helping!

"Sorry..."

Wait, wait, wait. Is this Earth inside Eternatus? Since I did a bit of a double-take at these humans notifying Paradox about the anomaly. I think that that was the implication, though admittedly it took me a while to gather that this was what it was getting at.

Yuna gestured for Leo to come to her side. "Let's get ready, Leo. We might have to move fast."

The cosmic arceus trotted through the air, nodding. "I'll puddleify if I have to!"

Sighing, Yuna forced a smile. "It's liquify, sweetie."

"Right, that too!"

-snerk-

Never change, Leo. o<o

"Okay." Gene wasn't quite as terse as before. "Not the worst case scenario."

"We still need a plan," Widget countered.

"Cyril will go and provide an illusory cover for the scouts," Gene said. "We'll break into Teams Bastion and Bureau based on what they find. Bastion'll head in the rift with Yuna and Leo. Bureau will stay behind to ward off any Troopers that drop by."

Okay, yeah. I'm going to just assume that this is just Gene's earth until something comes along to firmly prove otherwise.

He paused. "Any objections?"

No one spoke up. Yuna put Cyril's disguise collar on Leo, turning him into a dreepy again. He floated onto Yuna's head. The drakloak buckled briefly. Deeeefinitely heavier than before. She straightened herself up. "Heading back to the restaurant. You coming, Alder?"

"Yes, of course." The braviary placed the book back in his white head plume and flew after them.

So Leo's regaining mass as he gets more plates. I vaguely remember him getting bigger after getting his first one, so I suppose that it makes sense.

Indigo Plateau wasn't indigo. In fact, there were hardly any shades of blue to speak of! At least, that was Yuna's impression as her eyes traced the gray stone walkway past rows of empty pop up shopping booths to a stone staircase. It climbed up to a gold, circular building. A stadium, judging by pictures Yuna had seen.

INDIGO POKÉMON LEAGUE: HOME OF THE INDIGO AND SILVER CONFERENCES

Hanging underneath the gold sign was a "TEMPORARILY CLOSED." Hastily placed, judging by how it dangled from frayed ropes.

Ah yes, another musical reminder that I should really get into R&C sometime. Since I remember having a lot of fun with the demos of the various PS2 games from the series while growing up.

"Indigo Plateau my ass." Nikki rested her hands behind her head. "More like 'False Advertising Plateau.'"

Seifer rolled his eyes. "We're not here to judge its outer appearance."

"No duh." The toxtricity's mohawk frazzled. "You put this **** next to its name and anyone's gonna sit back in their chair and say 'My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.'"

Seifer: "Look, just. Pretend that it's indigo-colored or something, alright?" >_>;

"Isn't that a bit dramatic?" Yuna said, raising a brow.

"It's making a point." Nikki jabbed an index finger into Yuna's ectoplasmic torso.

Nah, she's being dramatic. >:V

"Shh!" Cyril glared over his shoulder. "Invisibility illusion doesn't work if you keep yapping it up. I'm concentrating, here."

Nikki pantomimed zipping her lips shut, then tossed the imaginary key over her shoulder.

Yuna hovered next to her, studying the humans scattered around the grass at the facility's perimeter. Their blue uniforms reminded her a bit of Molayne's. I guess it's still the local police.

Huh. Police in Japan really do have blue uniforms. TIL.

"Strange. You'd think by now the empire would do something," Reshiram said. He paced around in Yuna's mind. "Unless they're monitoring things from afar?" His fur puffed out. "You don't think we're wandering into an ambush, do you?"

The drakloak bit her lip. Wouldn't they have attacked our scouts, then?

"Not if they realized the people they're really after hadn't shown up," Reshiram countered.

That thought that this might be an ambush didn't occur to me until just now, but if they already pulled that gambit once at Tulpise...

Yuna hovered faster. She didn't want to entertain the possibility that the empire had strong aura readers waiting in the wings. Besides, wouldn't Gene and Cyril have covered that?

A familiar jagged purple rift lay ahead of them. Out in the open, pulsating with static. The humans kept their distance. Assorted growlithe, arcanine, and houndoom whimpered whenever the officers tried to get them to sniff the ground close to the rift.

>police Houndoom

I actually don't remember how often that's appeared in the actual series or not, but I suppose they are canine Pokémon and not particularly rare around Kanjoh, so...

Though does that mean that there are also police Riolu and Lucario in other regions?

Taking deep breaths, Yuna prepared herself for what was ahead. Another big city, apparently. A place called Wyndon. Things were calm, yet hectic, according to Koraidon. Which could have meant any number of things. But put that together with the anomaly core giving off a signal from a highly populated part of the city... and Yuna couldn't help but think about the Butterfree Effect's warning.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5vd5cE3n0M


Wait, Wyndon's in Kanto on Gene's Earth? Was it always like that? .-.

She glanced at her hands. No shadows. No reaction to the rift. Good. Her training was paying off.

"I don't recall your shadows appearing solely because of the anomaly rifts," Reshiram said.

Let me have this, Yuna hissed, sending Reshiram scurrying from her mind.

Wow, rude, Yuna.

Cyril stopped. The cosmic zoroark made a few hand gestures... which Yuna hadn't the foggiest idea how to interpret. She tilted her head. Cyril appeared irritated. He scratched his right ear, then covered his snout with his hand.

"It's going to be a handoff." Cyril's muffled voice came through the X-transceiver. "You guys will swap with the scouts, except for Brother Kora. Capiche?"

The trio nodded.

Yuna: "Wait, I'm sorry. Why are we doing a handoff again?"

"Once you're there, you'll follow him to the anomaly core," Cyril continued. "Then try to get a sense for how much extra help you need."

Yuna: "Right. That would be a good reason to do a handoff, really."=

Seifer shifted uneasily. The keldeo walked up to Cyril and whispered into his ear.

"Get away from it if your X-transceivers don't work, then," Cyril said. He knelt down and pecked Seifer's cheek. Seifer's face reddened. Nikki snickered. Yuna frowned at her. The toxtricity simply made a kissy face, earning glares from both the guys.

I mean, you did walk straight into that one, Cyril.

"Ready for the exchange."

That was Koraidon. Cyril hopped to attention and guided them toward the rift. He kept as far from the police dogs as he could, then eventually dashed across the grass. The trio hurried after him.

Unlike other anomalies, this one greeted the team with... chilly air? Strange, but Yuna would find out the reason soon enough. Cyril pointed to the jagged rift.

Whelp, guess that confirms that we're dealing with the Icicle Plate here.

Nodding, Yuna checked to make sure Leo was balanced on her head. Then the drakloak flew through the portal.

The result was the inverse of her previous anomaly jumps. Instead of shifting from dark to light, she'd gone from daytime to nighttime. Though there was still a fair amount of flavorfully colorful light several meters away. Courtesy of bright signs advertising fashion boutiques, hair salons, and restaurants like "Bob's Your Uncle."

Huh. I actually wonder if this was just a flat-out spatial portal that shortcutted from Kanto to Galar. Since that mention of going from daytime to nighttime seems to indicate that Yuna's not even in the same time zone anymore.

Chills rippled through her ectoplasm. Yuna rubbed her hands together. "Cold..."

"'Mon up." Nikki strutted past, taking in a deep breath. "Crisp air like this is great!" She stretched her arms up. "Tells us we're alive!"

Yuna: "No, I'm pretty sure that this weather is telling me that I'm going to go into torpor if I don't warm up nice and quick."

The toxtricity took one step onto the stone walkway in front of the rift, then abruptly jumped back. "Gah! Hot!" Her mohawk frazzled. "The hell is this?!"

"A heated walkway." A cyclizar stood on it, happily swishing his tail back and forth. "Isn't it lovely? The power of science is amazing!"

Wait, those exist canonically in Wyndon? Or is that something cooked up to show off the AUness of this Wyndon?

Yuna tilted her head. That voice... was Koraidon's? "Did you take one of the disguise thingies?"

"Of course. Can't go causing a scene." Koralizar clasped his hands together and bowed. "It would be quite un-zen of me."

Wait, he can do that? Or is that just something that Legendary Pokémon in general are capable of in this story?

Leo hovered off Yuna's head and reached a fake dreepy hand out to touch the stone. "Oooooh! It is warm!" His eyes sparkled. "It's a magic path, Mom!"

"Magic schmagic." Nikki crouched on the edge of the grass and poked the pathway with a twig. "Probably some dumb human technology."

Something something, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, something something.

"Yes, yes." Seifer walked onto the path, shaking his head. "We can marvel at their wizardry later." The keldeo looked at Koralizar. "You can guide us toward the core, correct?"

"Absolutely." Koralizar nodded. "Happy to go as fast or leisurely as you want."

Yuna: "Yeah, no, I literally can't feel this 'heated path' right now, we're going to speed this up." >_>;

"Let's make it quick." Seifer impatiently tapped a hoof on the ground. "We don't want the others staying around Indigo Plateau for too long."

Yuna nodded. She picked Leo up and placed him back on her head. The drakloak flew after the others. Their path followed a still river along the outskirts of a city whose colorful lights were mainly hidden by relatively tall brick buildings.

"More like Venish than LaRousse," Reshiram said. "Has a certain rustic charm to it."

Oh, well I guess that's one way to tell that Venish's architecture was fairly Venetian from the point of comparison there.

She had a hard time drawing that conclusion just from brick buildings and a river. But then colorful sparks danced across the sky in the distance.

"Whoa!" Leo wiggled excitedly atop Yuna's head. "It's like a rainbow of Fire Blasts!"

"They're fireworks," Seifer said, galloping beside Koralizar. "And a lot of them, too. We're not arriving in the midst of some sort of festivity, are we?"

I mean, you obviously are, but now I'm curious myself. And ditto if we'll get a Buddy cameo at some point, even if it's been firmly deconfirmed for this chapter.

Nikki held her hands up by her eyes in mid-stride. "Does 'Pokémon World Coronation Series' sound like a festivity?"

The keldeo tripped, nearly stumbling to the ground. He managed to keep his balance, albeit falling back to Nikki's side. "It sounds... like they're crowning a monarch!" Seifer frowned. "Which wouldn't just be a festivity, it'd be a historical event! Do you have any idea how many people attended Isola's coronation?"

I went and BPed this, and... we're in an animeverse? Since this was apparently a thing in Journeys.

"Pfbt." Still running, Nikki rolled her eyes. "I couldn't give a rattata's ass about that!"

Yuna was still confused where Nikki had even pulled that phrase from. "How do you know there's a coronation?"

The toxtricity pointed ahead. Amidst all the fireworks was... a flying wailord machine?! At least, it was big, round, and blue like a wailord. But it had a screen on it with some sort of gold sigil. The phrases "Pokémon World Coronation Series," "Wyndon 2020," and "Opening Ceremony, Sponsored by DENSOKU and Mach Motors" flashed by one after the other.

>Wyndon 2020

Damn, we even went back in time by 4 years. Unless if we're still in "2020" since that's what things were in Etherium at the start of this story and we've moved forward all of like a month and a half at this rate.

"Do coronations usually have opening ceremonies?" Yuna wondered. Again, she and her friends could effortlessly read what was on the flying wailord machine. It wasn't a coincidence. It had to be her.

She glanced at her torso. No shadows. Was this a part of that chaos the Butterfree Effect claimed she spread?

"Oi, Princess, keep up!"

Huh. Catchy BGM is catchy. Though time to find out who said that.

"C'mon, Mom!"

Leo tapped the edge of the drakloak's rectangular ahead. Nikki waved at her from several meters away. Yuna hovered after her.

Right, should've figured it was Nikki from the speech pattern.

By now, things were much brighter. Both from the closer fireworks display... and the positively massive circular building underneath. Red and white light spilled out over the stone walkways surrounding it, as well as the river that curved around it.

"Hot damn." Nikki slowed to a jog. "Look at all those people. No chance we're getting through something like that without a whole tauros herd." Smirking, the toxtricity rolled up her sleeve. "Or I could Boomburst 'em into a collective evening nap."

I suppose that that's one way to tell that Yuna's never seen a modern-style arena before.

Seifer's tail scrunched up. He, too, slowed his pace. "Let's not default to assaulting the humans, please."

"Speaking as a monk, I must concur," Koralizar added. "And I don't think it wise to bring a keldeo toward all of those people. We'll attract far too much attention."

Nikki's mohawk frazzled. "Then why'd we bring Pony Boy along instead of, like, Chompy?" She hiked up her leather jacket. "And what was the point of scouting ahead if you can't tell us there's a giant roadblock."

Seifer: "In my defense, we didn't exactly have any expectations for what we were going to find on the other end." -_-;

"Would you believe me if I told you the crowd wasn't there before?" Laughing nervously, Koralizar scratched his head.

The toxtricity glared at him.

"It's the truth though." Koralizar rested on the railing beside him, staring at the river.

Wait, how long ago was Kora here, then? Since you'd think that it'd take a while for a big crowd like this to fill in.

Yuna continued watching the fireworks display. The bright, colorful bursts were practically hypnotic in the way they erupted against the night sky. Cool for sure, but she doubted she could simply fly toward the place undetected.

"What about the oppaaaaaawmsite?"

Cresselia's yawning made Yuna's tail crinkle. The opposite? Like going down?

"Undaaaaaaawmground."

The drakloak looked down at the path. Phasing through the ground? That would be an awfully long way to travel through. Did she have the strength to pull that off?

"Hey, um, one of you tech people?" Yuna mainly addressed the X-transceiver. "There's a giant crowd by this big, uh..." She blinked. "That's another stadium, right?"

Nikki nodded.

"Okay. So, do you think there's something underground I could phase into?"

I mean, if Wyndon is taking after its source of inspiration, there should be an entire subway system for you to work with, so...

Yuna waited for some sort of response, though she didn't know which resistance member would have an answer. Assuming any of them did.

"Gotta be a sewer system, then." A response from Valkyrie wasn't what Yuna expected. "Just like when we had to get past the protestors to Casaroja's railyard."

"That'd be my guess, too," Cyril added. "If you're looking for a way to get in underground, that's your best shot."

Whelp, no Tube in this Wyndon, then. But I suppose that would make sense as a way to get in.

Seifer tapped a hind hoof against the path. "You're going off on your own?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Yuna gestured to the fireworks display in the sky. "Because flying doesn't strike me as doable."

The keldeo opened his mouth to respond, then promptly shut it. "Fair. I guess... back off if you think there's trouble?"

Narrator: "They will absolutely not back off. Or at least not in time for it to be relevant."

Yuna nodded. That was doable. She reached up and passed Leo over to Nikki. "C'mon, seriously?" The toxtricity held the fake dreepy at arm's length. "Why do I gotta look after Squirt?"

"Because you were standing next to me," Yuna mused. She rubbed her hands together again, then dove into the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't proofed against ghost phasing like LaRousse's collider room. Yuna easily phased into the ground. She didn't have to push that far through rocks and soil before spotting rounded tunnels carrying water and big metal cables in different directions.

Wait, how does phaseproofing even work in PoV's omniverse anyways?

"Hey, can you guys hear me?" she whispered, popping out of the ceiling. Yuna kept close to it in case she needed to phase back inside.

"Loud and clear," Noctum chirped. "Did you find some sewers?"

"Yeah." So far, it was a straight shot. The only lights were occasional small blue ones. And a couple of the bulbs had gone out. She wondered if any pokémon that liked dark, damp places actually lived down here.

That would be wholly unsurprising to me given the existence of the Castelia Sewers in B2W2.

"But how wouldst they get any food?" Rayquaza asked.

Yuna simply shrugged, then continued forward. To her relief, the sewer remained empty. No humans. No pokémon. Just dark water passing by underneath and blue light glinting off metal pipes and cables.

"Find the stadium yet?"

Yuna: "I barely started going forward!" >.<

"No, Nikki." Yuna was pretty sure the group stopped a good distance away from it. "Though I guess there are more tunnels going straight up? With ladders and stuff."

"Probably leading to manholes on the streets," Cyril said. "I think that's a good sign? A stadium's bound to have a lot of manholes by it."

The drakloak kept going forward. "Then should I try going up?" What if she popped out of the ground and hit a human's shoe? She could cause a panic!

Nikki: "Wait, but wouldn't that be a good thing since you could just retreat back into the sewers and it'd thin out the crowd-?"

Yuna: "Nikki, no." >_>;

"When we went to the train station, we found some sewer entrances for employees," Valkyrie responded. "Try looking for doors or staircases."

Yuna: "I feel like I should be asking more questions about how these layouts are so similar across wildly different worlds, but whatever. Good enough."

Doors or staircases, Yuna mentally repeated to herself. She swiveled her head around, looking for anything that wasn't just a ladder going up or some other big sewer tunnel. Seeing nothing, Yuna flew forward at a slower pace, keeping her eyes peeled all the while.

Eventually, one branch point had no water coming out of it. And was halfway between the base and ceiling of the sewer. Yuna cautiously approached and was rewarded with a metal door. Black and yellow bars ran across it. She floated up to it and pressed a hand against the metal. After recoiling from how cold it was, she put her hand back on it... and successfully phased it through. The rest of Yuna followed her hand through into some sort of dark shaft.

Up it is, then. Yuna quickly ascended, passing metal beams and girders. Eventually she saw the base of a metal cube approaching. An elevator, probably. Like the ones at Cyril's outpost.

Whelp, time to see what on earth Yuna just got herself into.

She easily phased through the bottom of the elevator. Yuna didn't stop to take in its sights other than how shiny its white floor was. She could practically see her reflection in it.

Ah, soundtrack from the R&C reboot game, huh? Duly noted.

The drakloak phased through the gray elevator door into a dimly lit corridor. She passed by empty, gray metal walls. Light trickled in through cracks in a closed door at the other end. "Okay, I'm—"

Yuna's X-transceiver flooded her head with static. She abruptly stopped talking and it went away. If she lost the signal, that had to mean she was close. But how close?

Hesitantly, she glanced at her torso. Her shadows pooled at the base of her tail. More toward the left. Yuna took a breath to steady herself. A quick enough glimpse was all she needed. Let's get it over with quickly.

Well, at least she's not losing any time in zeroing in on where this new anomaly is.

She darted for the door on the other end, easily phasing through it. Bright blue and white light forced her to shield her eyes. It was another hallway. The white, pristine floor ended abruptly by a gray railing with glass underneath. Probably to keep smaller people from falling down to the other hallway below them.

And there were people walking around down there. Yuna hastily looked left and saw multiple humans with uniforms similar to the ones the Indigo Plateau people wore. They had arcanine and boltund standing guard beside them. The police are here?

I can't tell if those are cops or Macro Cosmos security. Since there would be a strong overlap in the Pokémon they'd field.

Her shadows were trying to swing her tail in the officers' direction. And it didn't take long for Yuna to realize why.

They stood in front of a door made of a heavy-looking black metal. There was a very large lock and some sort of screen underneath it. Both of which had ripples of distortion running across them.

"Oh no," Reshiram squeaked in her mind. "The core... is inside a vault? Why does a stadium even have a vault? Look at it! It's practically as tall as Jade is!"

I mean, I saw/read AKIRA. Guarded facilities in/around stadium complexes are always a bad sign since there's often something inside that really, really shouldn't be let out.

Arcanine and Boltund locked eyes with her. Both started to bark at her. The officers' heads whipped in her direction.

"Are you lost, little drakloak?" He reached for a radio attached to his belt. "Do you have a trainer?"

Yuna didn't dare open her mouth. Even if it was just a couple of policemen and their dogs, this counted as trouble for her. It was time to double back to the others. As she turned around and got ready to phase back through the door, however, one of the officers shouted, "Wait, Drakloak!"

Ah yes, cue the theme song:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DebmlHgAvko

"I'm getting the sergeant on the horn," the other said. "We oughta sweep the sewers."

Yuna phased her way back through the door, ready to quickly retrace her steps back to the others. But the moment she got through the door, her shadows swung her tail forward. Squealing, Yuna righted herself... and found a familiar purple figure standing in front of her.

"You're early, Yaldabaoth."

Well then. I had a feeling that this lull wouldn't last, but I certainly wasn't expecting that.

Yuna: "Oh, you're kidding me."

GL Exploration Log: Wyndon, Galar (Dimension POV-0773)
The novelty of being in PokéLondon wore off with, like, the fifth Wyndon I visited. This one's pretty par for the course. Macro Cosmos already folded in the wake of their CEO deciding to unleash Eternatus. The various subsidiaries were taken up by competitors or became government-controlled utilities. Nothing special there. But, hey, Parliament seized all that Rose doofus' assets. So, that's different from the last few!

Okay, yeah,

wrote this entry. I can already tell from the explicit comparison to 'London' there.

I guess if I had to list anything that actually sets this one apart, it'd be that it's a good deal foggier than other Wyndons. Quick internet search suggests they average about fifty to sixty days of sunlight a year. Which ain't going to jive well with my inner light dragon. Despite the gloomier weather, this Wyndon's a popular spot for hosting the Pokémon World Coronation Series. It functions more like the Olympics in this universe. Every four years regions send their best trainers to compete for the gold. How they pick them ranges from actual qualifying tournaments to just sending off gym leaders and their elite four and calling it a day.

Not a tea guy, but the biscuits are a solid seven out of ten.

Yeah, I knew it. Though I suppose that's a sign that it won't be much longer before

joins the plot proper, since we've already seen him poking around a bit in past chapters.

Path of Valor Almanac
The dimension number is the national dex number for Silvally. Which wouldn't be terribly significant on its own, but I used it as the uniform number for my character in Pokémon Sword.

Come on... Buddy cameo next chapter, you know you want to...

Though that was definitely a bit of a change of pace, definitely a bit slower than a lot of other chapters have been lately, though I suppose we do still need to pick up the pieces from Tulpise no longer existing as a city narratively, and the outro definitely made it clear that the peace and quiet this chapter isn't going to last very long.

In terms of criticisms, I do wonder if it really made sense to offscreen as much stuff that happened over the two weeks in-setting as it did. Like most of it seemed decently justified for just handling with a summary, but not showing Shimmer's first impression with the Resistance or the broader group coming to terms with the debacle in Tulpise definitely felt like a bit of a missed opportunity. But eh, it's your story, and I suppose I can't fault you for if you felt that one-and-a-half chapters of mostly just grappling with more aftermath was really interesting for readers to deal with.

And kudos again, @Ambyssin , you definitely didn't make it easy to wait for the chapter after this one with the way you left things on quite the cliffhanger note there.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, going to do something that I haven't done in a long time and review a chapter of PoV on its actual release date (well, it took a day or two to get this final posted version out in the wild, but close enough). So let's jump right into the part where PoV becomes a trainerfic in…

Chapter 80

Spoiler

These Overseer guys really want me keeping up with these audio diaries. All part of the healing and adjustment process, they say.

But healing from what? Leaving my home? Since we struck that deal, I've had time to mentally prepare myself. I knew this would be a big change. And change and I tend to go together like ice cream and horseradish. Which I only tried on a dare, for the record!

... Wait, what am I saying? No one's going to listen to these but me.

This... sounds an awful lot like

from that overall "voice", just saying.

Gah, c'mon. Focus, dummy. You're supposed to be talking about what it's been like in this Overworld place. Deep breaths.

Right. Okay. So, like, it's really abstract and esoteric. Still haven't pieced together how the Overworld works or anything. I've seen a fair few Overseers. Some of them give off the vibe they know me. Or heard of me. Apparently, there are actually a few reformed Dark Matters amongst this group. So, uh, that's something. And a couple of 'em go by "Diyem," which is, like, the kind of dumb name I'd come up with for a pokémon I caught in one of the games way back when I was human. Whatever floats their boats, I suppose.

Okay, yeah. This is

. Though I suppose that this is a sign that POV-2020 is adjacent to HOC-2017 or whatever its universe designation is or one of the Blacklight universes since I'm not sure if there are settings with 'Diyem's, let alone 'Diyem's that are Dark Matters outside of things that Namo has been involved in writing in some capacity.

Though wait, does that mean in a hypothetical Spanish/Italian translation of HoC, that Diyem would be called something like 'Emmeo'?

If I'm being honest, it kinda feels like I'm back in high school. Except I'm the new kid who transferred in in the middle of the semester.

I mean, if who wrote this is who I think it is. Considering what his high school experience was like. That's... uh... not a positive sign at all for what this was like here.

Despite the countless voices stacked atop one another, the Butterfree Effect's words were sickeningly sweet. Somewhere in the back of Yuna's mind, she knew to expect them when the warning about the latest anomaly blared up. Just not this soon.

Ah yes, just casually trotting out the music from the final walkup to Zanza in XB1. Totally not an ominous sign here. Even if the demiurge in this particular encounter is the protagonist.

Then again, this was the fastest she'd located a core. Sort of.

"It is as I said before." Butterfree Effect folded their hands behind their back. "Even with an early arrival, our meeting was written into the stars."

So... no visions of the future mechanic for Yuna to kick fate where the sun don't shine? Or is that something that's still in the pipeline for her? ^^;

Yuna frowned. Wasn't the whole reason they sent Walking Wake after her to avoid this. "But you tried to kill me and my friends."

"Whether your drakloak shell won or lost that battle mattered not," Butterfree Effect responded. "The end result was always another meeting. No matter what questions you conjure, the answers still lead to a single outcome."

I mean, at least that's a good sign that Yuna's personality wouldn't get overwritten by Yaldabaoth overtaking her? Maybe? Since the Butterfree Effect's phrasing there implies that in the grand scheme of things, that Yuna's Drakloak body is functionally just a cosmetic skin for who she really is.

She strained to stop her tail from lashing at Butterfree Effect. Yuna wasn't interested in retreading their tired riddles. If this was another projection, they couldn't do anything to her, anyway.

"Okay. Well, glad to satisfy your predictions," Yuna deadpanned. "Enjoy standing in this dark hallway alone."

As she floated past, however, Butterfree Effect cut back in front of her. They hadn't taken any steps. Moved any muscles.

... Did they even have muscles?

Guess the projections can teleport.

Yuna:

"Seriously, could you make this any more creepy or uncomfortable right now?" >_>;

"Returning to your puppet's friends?" Butterfree Effect nudged up their mask. "You can brainstorm all you want. It won't change your situation. Or this world's fate."

I... take that comment about the Butterfree Effect's commentary being a positive sign, really.

Though hey, the last time I saw a demiurge just chilling in a host's body, said host was still around to go and do things once they separated with a bit of help? So maybe that'll happen to Yuna, too?

There was that Xeromus-esque claim about futility. Yuna continued silently down the hall. Again, Butterfree Effect warped in her path.

"They've heightened security for this event." Butterfree Effect's mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw emergency lights flickering inside it. "Because the previous gold medalist disappeared suddenly and unexpectedly."

Oh, well that's not ominous and worrisome at all.

Though I wonder if that gold medalist was Ash, there.

Yuna took a deep breath to keep her shadows in check. Though still pooled around the base of her tail, they were at least behaving themselves. "I bet you had something to do with it."

"How flattering." Butterfree Effect was amused, despite their distorted voice. "However, I am as much a bystander in this as you." Static encircled their arceus-like hair. A strange red and white hat with an unfinished triangle appeared atop their head. "They claim this young man was 'betrayed' by those he thought closest to him. And then he vanished in the aftermath."

I see that even PoV isn't immune to the horrors of Ash Betrayed, though I suppose I should've seen this coming from the literal TPP content like 40 chapters ago.

Yuna: "... An Ash Betrayed universe? Really?"

Butterfree Effect: "Well, yes. Our story does run on memes and absurdism a good chunk of the time, but anyhow..."

Butterfree Effect snapped their fingers. Static pulses ate away at their hat, replacing it with the arceus hairdo once more. "Perhaps such a tale makes you nostalgic, Yaldabaoth?"

Yuna: "Seriously? Would it call you to just call me 'Yuna' for once?"

Butterfree Effect: "Tch, why beat around the bush? We both know who you really are, after all."

A powerful tug gripped Yuna's lower half. For a moment, her vision blurred. Clear blue skies painted over the hallway. A wrecked temple with jagged, broken pillars grew further away from Yuna.

Ah yes, just casually flashing back to the last Volo quest from PLA.

She squeezed her eyes shut and smushed her cheeks with her hands. "No idea what you're talking about," Yuna said, doing her best to wear a stern expression.

The Butterfree Effect sighed. "As predicted." They folded their hands behind their back again. "You're right. It's not an entertaining tale. In fact, I've seen 3,741 worlds just like this. And they have all turned out the same way."

I... don't even want to know if there's really that many Ash Betrayal fics floating around out there or not.

Yuna fixed her gaze on the door leading back down to the sewers. Would Butterfree Effect follow her there if she left?

"Stagnation. Decay." The projection popped into Yuna's line of sight. "Left to wither away into nothing."

Shots fired at all the deadfics floating around out there, since... yeah. That more or less accurately describes the world of a deadfic.

The drakloak headed forward again. She drifted left, thinking the projection would move to cut her off. Except Butterfree Effect didn't. So, when she swerved right, they were there. Standing right in front of her and nudging at their mask.

"You are an open book, Yaldabaoth." Their mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw a reflection of her own inky black shadows in it. "Your moves are as predictable as your inability to accept the truth."

Is she even cognizant of the truth right now? ^^;

Yuna finally spat some dragonfire at Butterfree Effect. It washed over the projection, dimming them, but failing to snuff them out entirely. "If this is really so predictable, then why are you wasting your time talking to me?"

The shadowy reflection faded from Butterfree Effect's mask. Instead, there was a faint drakloak silhouette attached to it. That faded just as fast as it appeared. "All right. To the puppet, then. Yunavresca, was it?"

Butterfree Effect: "Yeah, you know how in Xenoblade 1 there was the whole thing about the protagonist being indwelled by a malevolent demiurge figure for the first 60 hours of gameplay? That's you right now."
Yuna: "... That's- That's not actually canon, is it?"

Great, they knew her name. Somehow. Yuna shot more dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and sped forward. This time they reappeared directly in front of the door, casting an odd purple glow against the otherwise dark gray metal.

"Do you think it's fair," Butterfree Effect began, "for so much suffering to be spread across all of reality?"

I swear, this is going to turn into something like an advertisement for the White Ending from SMT4 at this rate, I can already tell. Since this feels a lot the sales pitch that the White gave to just end everything in that game.

Yuna's shadows tugged on her lower half. She wasn't sure if they wanted to lash out or were encouraging her to keep going, even if it meant flying into the projection. Something she was still nervous about. If they could teleport around, were they truly powerless?

"The truth of reality is one of stagnation." Butterfree Effect's mask again swirled around into a purple void. "Every universe is destined to fade away into nothingness. The souls siphoned by the Overworld where they will slumber for eternity."

Something, something, Grovyle literally gave a definitive rebuttal to this general train of thought in SE5. Which Yuna has likely been exposed to in some capacity thanks to Shaymin the Wanderer being a thing in Etherium.

The void shifted. Tiny hands held feathered quills that scribbled across Butterfree Effect's distorted face. "Thousand arms crumble away. The storytellers lay down their pens or canvases." The hands tossed the quills away and simply tapped at the air. "The keyboards go silent." At last the hands merged into an open book that promptly slammed shut... and reformed their arceus wheel mask. "Whether gradually or abruptly, the story always ends.

Boy are we getting really meta right now. I wonder how much of this you putting voice to occasional "god, I'm never gonna finish this" gremlins, since this feels like some prime

material for fanfic writers in particular.

"Worlds without gods fizzle out." A sun appeared in the center of their mask, only to be extinguished like a blown out candle. "Those 'blessed' with divinity will see it abandon them. Or turn to destruction. Or be seized by those with malice in their hearts."

TL/DR:

Butterfree Effect warped directly in front of Yuna. The drakloak instinctively recoiled as they snapped back to the door. "Why does this happen, Yunavresca?" They stared her down. The dim room warped their mask even more than usual. "You now know of the Overseers. How can such a powerful group choose to stand by, letting each and every world meet their end?" They shook their head. "No, more than that, insist that these ends are necessary for some sort of cosmic balance?"

Because in the end, the Overseers are fictional entities in themselves that have no control over whether or not the creators of various Pokémon stories keep their tales going or not?

I mean, even in real life, stars burn out and die and from the best we know of, universes too will succumb to entropy. It's just a part of reality.

"I..." Yuna thought she had a retort at the ready, but her voice trailed off. Her gaze fell to the floor.

The shadows tugged on her lower half again. As if they were chewing her out for even listening to this thing. The drakloak needed to leave. Yuna spewed dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and shot forward. Panic welled up inside as the purple, distorted figure grew closer. They hadn't moved. What would contacting them do to her?

And yet, Yuna didn't slow down. In fact, she sped up. Was she getting lighter?

Ah yes, Yaldabaoth has decided that Yuna has heard enough and needs to get out before messing up his rebirth or whatever.

Before Yuna knew it, she was on the other side of the door. As if she'd phased through both Butterfree Effect and the door in one shot. And shadows were trailing off her body. Yuna glanced at her hands, then decided she could ruminate more when she was back with the others.

The drakloak began to descend when she glanced purple flickers in front of her. Her tail crinkled up upon seeing the Butterfree Effect standing sideways on the wall.

Yuna: "Are you kidding me?! What on earth does it take to lose this guy?!"

"Unfortunate." They folded their hands behind their back. "But expected." A distorted sigh followed. "Poor little puppet. Burdened with the illusion of choice." They nudged their mask up. "Let me make this simple, then, Yaldabaoth. You want to reach the core, but the vault is designed to withstand pokémon attacks."

Butterfree Effect lifted their right hand. "And the missing, 'betrayed' human is inside, bathing in the core's energy as we speak alongside one of the creatures your puppet knows as Phantoms."

I can't tell if this is going to be amazing or really, really cringe. Maybe both at once.

Yuna swallowed hard. A Phantom was already here? And inside the vault, too?

"You've seen how many people are here for these festivities, Yaldabaoth," Butterfree Effect continued. "So, what will you do? Will you open the vault and allow the Whisper of Ruin to rampage through this stadium— nay, the whole city? Or will you wait... all the while running the risk of more cores gathering more power and endangering other realms?"

Oh boy, what a choice there. There's... a third option that's not being presented here... right?

They had both arms raised. "Surely, you understand now. The result is the same no matter what choice you make. Chaos leads to suffering." Butterfree Effect shook their head. "Reality's truth is unavoidable... unless you stand aside and allow me to affirm all phenomena. My Eternaverse will inscribe a new truth for reality. One where all souls are free from burden. From suffering."

Since there is an absolutely terrible track record of promises like these actually panning out in fiction.

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and flew down the empty shaft. After a few seconds, she forced her eyes open. No eerie purple glow. They hadn't followed her.

What if she phased through the door to the sewers? The drakloak headed through it. A quiet sewer tunnel greeted her.

No sign of Butterfree Effect. Perhaps Yuna had gotten far enough from the anomaly core? Maybe if she checked her X-transceiver?

"Hello?" Yuna whispered. "Anyone there?"

Yuna: "Since I think that I'm having a bit of an existential crisis right now and could really use someone to talk to..."

"Cripes! There you are, Princess!" came Nikki's hasty response. "The hell happened? You went silent on us for a while."

Oh, so Yuna was just spacing out in the middle of that whole Butterfree Effect encounter, huh? ^^;

Yuna sighed in relief. "I found the core. But it's locked in a vault."

"Pfbt. So?" Cracked knuckles came through Yuna's speaker. "We'll bust it open."

Yuna: "Um... yeah, about that. Things... aren't going to be quite as straightforward as that." ^^;
Nikki: "And just what's that supposed to mean?"

The drakloak shuddered, recalling Butterfree Effect's warning. "I don't think it's going to be that simple." Her shoulders sagged. "I'll explain more when I get back."

She took a deep breath as she flew deeper into the sewer tunnel. It'll be okay, Yuna told herself. Even with all the dumb destiny talk Butterfree Effect spewed, there was one thing they hadn't brought up: this wasn't Yuna's decision to make alone. There was a whole team she could run this by.

This wasn't an impossible situation. They'd come up with a plan together. Yes, there was still a way for this to work out.

Igneous walked silently on the gravel path, ignoring rows of tombstones on either side of him. A small part kept urging him to leave the cemetery. If Sakaki was here, things would only be awkward. Why was he even entertaining his dad, anyway? The nidoking had an important story he was supposed to be working on. All of this would prove nothing but a big distraction.

Ah yes, AA6 music. Wasn't expecting that one to make an appearance here.

Nevertheless, the grovlazzle put one foot in front of the other. The tombstones got progressively bigger until Igneous reached the back of the cemetery. He gazed at the oddly large brick wall. Why was it so tall? It wasn't keeping out graverobbers. Not flying ones, at least.

It's a privacy measure, perhaps? I mean, your dad is a mob boss, so...

He looked left. Sure enough, Sakaki stood several meters away. He faced a white marble tree with leafy wreaths wrapped around them. As Igneous approached, he glimpsed the words carved into the base of the statue.

REINA. BELOVED WIFE, MOTHER, AND TEACHER.

Ah yes, time for things to get really

really fast.

Igneous had seen it over and over again through the years. He thought he'd gone numb to it. But with everything that happened since Venish, Igneous couldn't push the memories out of his head.

A withering sceptile lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by vases of assorted flowers. IV lines jabbed in her arms. Rammed up her legs. Strange liquids dripping into her lines. Machines beeping and hissing in the background. Breathing for her. Keeping her heart beating because she'd lost the strength to do so.

Didn't have to wait long at all for the mood to set in, really.

"So, you showed up after all."

The grovlazzle jolted stiff. Sakaki was looking right at him. Igneous noticed the bouquet of flowers on the ground in front of the statue. Freshly picked tulips. His mother's favorite.

"Yeah," Igneous didn't take his eyes off the flowers. He didn't want to talk with Sakaki, but staying silent wouldn't get the nidoking to leave any faster. "Surprised you remember."

Ah yes, time for the awkward moment between two people who don't particularly like each other very much brought together by grief.

Sakaki stuck his hands in his blazer's pockets. "I've brought her some every three months." There was a bit more fatigue as he added, "Which I'm sure you never noticed."

Igneous had to stop himself from curling his hands into fists. "Can you blame me? You replaced her so quickly."

Just noting the family drama in action here. Though I suppose this would explain a thing or two about why Igneous is so frosty with Kyoko.

Silence. Sakaki turned away from him. "She would've wanted me to move on."

"Not within a few short months!" Igneous snapped.

Sighing, Sakaki folded his hands behind his back. "Everyone grieves differently. Your stepmother was there for me when I needed her. I can't expect you to understand. You were... lost in your own spiral."

I mean, considering how Iggy lost an arm before ultimately somewhat coming to terms with his mother dying... yeah.

Wincing, Igneous forced bitter, familiar images of lying on a cold floor, staring at the stump where his right arm was supposed to be from his mind. He couldn't think about that. Not now.

"It didn't occur to you... how it might've come across to me?" he muttered.

"Every time I tried to talk to you, you weren't there."

I mean, Iggy does seem to be a master at failing to communicate in this story, so... I'm pretty sure mob boss dad has a point there. ^^;

"Because I was finding out who was responsible." Igneous' head leaf simmered. "It was meant for you." His gaze fell to the ground. "They wanted to poison you. And you just let her open that envelope."

"How was I supposed to—"

"Weren't you the one who had your underlings screening your damn mail?!" Igneous growled. Embers smoldered on the ends of his tails. He realized this and promptly turned out. "Y'know what? Forget it. This was a mistake."

Um. Iggy, not to cut into your moment blaming dad for your dead mom problems, but that should make you two very, very worried about whether or not there are moles within the Ryujin Clan considering that there are alternative explanations for that epic fail beyond 'incompetence' there.

"Chiaki."

"It's Igneous." The grovlazzle stomped off without another word.

With every row of tombstones, his mood soured further. Not toward Sakaki, though. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Igneous rapped the side of his head with his claws. Clearly, Sakaki did still value her. He wouldn't pull off empty gestures just for Igneous' sake. The nidoking abhorred wasting time on such frivolities.

Oh, so he's making an

face, huh?

Which means I'm the problem. Igneous kicked a pebble and watched it tumble down the gravel path. He approached it and kicked again. It rolled past the security kiosk with a sableye fast asleep inside and through the open gates.

... Where it stopped near a gray-white, fluffy hoof.

Igneous tensed. "What are you doing here?" He walked faster. The grovlazzle doubted Shimmer's mere presence meant there were paparazzi or anything nearby, but a tiny part of him feared it nonetheless.

Well. Let's hope that Sakaki's proper job isn't an open secret in Radiance, otherwise this moment is going to get really, really awkward for Iggy in short order.

Shimmer nudged his head right. A latias with glowing blue, speaker-like wings leaned against the other side of the stone wall. She turned her head slightly and waved to Igneous. He dumbly waved back while trying to locate Scarlett.

"We might've overhead what you were saying to Gene," Starlene admitted, poking her claws together. "I know you asked for space. But someone wanted to make sure you were okay." She paused, looking over her shoulder. "From a respectable distance. Decent compromise, right?" Starlene wiggled her claws with enthusiasm that progressively dimmed the longer Igneous stared blankly at her.

Igneous: "Wait, but I thought that Shimmer was more or less catatonic for the past two weeks from the aftermath of Tulp-"

Shimmer: "Igneous, that was two weeks ago!" >_>;

"I thought she was up to something fishy," Shimmer said, his fluffy tails twitching. "So, I followed, too."

Silence. Igneous' gaze drifted to the cemetery wall. He couldn't snap at them. He'd already done badly enough with Sakaki. The grovlazzle trudged toward Starlene, not meeting the latias' gaze. A pink flicker was all that told him Scarlett recalled her. He waited for the dragonair to ask if he was okay, but she stayed silent. Still respecting his boundaries, he supposed.

Sakaki: "Chiaki, we're going to need to have a talk about this afterwards."

Igneous: "I mean, I'm pretty sure that we brought Shimmer up to speed about everything over the past two weeks? So we should be fine... I think."

Igneous leaned against the wall and looked up. A thick layer of clouds hung overhead. The kind of dark clouds that threatened to drench the area, yet somehow held back.

"Should we... ask to return?" Shimmer wondered. The ponytales paced slowly in front of Igneous.

"Not yet." Igneous took a deep breath. "Need... a bit more time."

That drew a slither from Igneous' left. "I suppose there are a couple of meanings behind that, huh?" Scarlett whispered.

Igneous: "Probably, but- I just really need to be alone right now, okay?"

Igneous didn't reply. He could say something. Scarlett at least had a vague idea of what was happening. She was offering him a chance. So, why couldn't he just come out and explain himself?

It had to be the memories. Igneous didn't want to grapple with them. The only way to suppress them was not to talk about it. That was how it worked.

"The spirit never forgets."

Xeromus' words sent a shudder down Igneous back. His claws scraped the stone behind him. Igneous tucked his head down and closed his eyes.

And more AA6 music. Did you replay it recently or something? Since you sure seem to be on a kick for it this chapter.

"I lost my mother several years back," Igneous whispered. He tensed, waiting for the memories of that dim, flower-filled hospital room to flood in. They held off. And the others weren't responding. That was his cue to keep going. "Shimmer's already heard about it. My father was working on a big Beacon piece. Someone didn't like that. They sent him mail in a poison-laced envelope."

He glanced left. Saw the confusion on Scarlett's face. "The kind of venom that can work on a poison-type. Like salazzle toxins."

The "Oh" formed on Scarlett's lips was clear even without her saying it.

So wait, what is the normal concentration of poison from Salazzle poison delivered naturally? Since Reina quite literally just shriveled up and died from the dose she received from that envelope.

"The point is... my mom opened the envelope. Inhaled the venom." Igneous' claws scraped the wall again. "Both my parents hid it from me. I thought Mom was looking a bit frail, but she always played it off." He sucked in a hard breath. "Until I found out she was in intensive care at the hospital." Igneous closed his eyes again. "It was slow. Looked painful. Dad kept her on life support for a month... mostly because of me. Because I... I loved my mom. I couldn't lose her.

"My dad... went to other people to grieve. But not me." Igneous stared at his orange and yellow belly. "I poured myself into figuring out who was responsible. Tried to go after them myself." He held out his right arm. "Lost an arm because of it."

Along with the respect of much of the Ryujin Clan, but let's not get into that right now.

Though I'm just realizing that this is the story parallel to the scene where Shimmer opened up to Iggy a couple chapters ago right outside of Horizon Gardens.

Scarlett's eyes widened in realization. Igneous rubbed his right arm. "I had a great prosthetic. Only a couple of people at Horizon knew the truth before that explosion in Venish."

... And plenty of Ryujin. Not that they had to hear that part.

Yeeeeeeeeah, let's not get into Iggy's mob ties right in front of everyone right now. That would probably be wise. ^^;

"What I didn't tell Shimmer was that, while this all happened, Dad found someone else." Igneous' brow furrowed. "A well-known salazzle fashionista. Married her within a few months." He shook his head. "I haven't been able to forgive him for it. It felt like he'd left me and Mom behind."

Boy would it be awkward if Sakaki just walked in on him right about now. Since I'm pretty sure it wasn't described that Iggy put a whole bunch of distance between him and his dad. ^^;

He paused, wondering how much further to go. The only other thing Igneous needed to say was—

"So you grew distant, until you took your mom's insurance money and went to Horizon."

Igneous nodded slowly at Shimmer. He noticed a flat expression on Scarlett's face. She must've been conflicted over hearing he had told Shimmer about this after asking her for space on the matter. And that left Igneous mentally kicking himself. Way to screw up again, dumbass.

Yeeeeeeah, that's been kind of a worryingly consistent trend for Iggy throughout the story. Which I'm pretty sure is as good a sign as any to stop trying to do things on his own already.

He scrambled to say something to her to save face. "I wanted to tell you after Tulpise, but—"

"We ran into each other." Shimmer glanced at him. "There was a bit of an argument and it slipped out on his part. He really did want to tell you first."

Igneous did his best to keep a straight face, pressing his back harder against the wall. "Right. Something like that."

Scarlett coiled up tighter. She looked down at the older, abandoned buildings across from the cemetery. "It's fine." The dragonair took a deep breath. "I get it. Family's complicated."

Oh, so Scarlett also has/had a messed-up family life of her own, huh? Since I can see that reaction from her.

Her neck bauble flickered. "Okay, I don't really get it. Orphan and all that." She shrugged her tiny wings. Igneous raised a brow. Scarlett promptly puffed her cheeks. "It was a joke. Y'know, dark humor and stuff?"

Ah. Igneous weakly chuckled.

I suppose that I was kinda right about Scarlett, but at the same time pretty wrong. Though I suppose that would certainly explain a few things about why we've heard absolutely bupkis about her family.

"Don't give me a pity laugh." Scarlett wrinkled her snout. "This isn't open mic night!" Sighing, she loosened her coiling a bit. "But seriously. I don't really know what to say."

"You don't have to comfort me," Igneous insisted. He pushed off the wall and walked between Scarlett and Shimmer. "I've been dealing with this on my own for a while."

Um, yeah. Considering how well that's been turning out for you, you should really consider a change of tack, Iggy.

Scarlett slithered to his side. "And you don't think that isn't working?" Her neck bauble flickered. A spectral Starlene gave him a disapproving look. "I won't tell you what to do," Scarlett said, glancing over her shoulder the moment Starlene's illusion poofed away. "Just, y'know, maybe balling it all up isn't the answer here?"

Igneous blinked slowly. His gaze fell to his feet. It needed a bit of mental gymnastics, but Igneous saw the connection between Scarlett's words... and Sakaki's actions.

He spent all that time with Igneous' eventual stepmother instead of bottling it up. And who had Igneous leaned on?

No one.

I mean, yeah. Considering how you've been a bit of a failure knight for solo missions in general... you should really take the hint here, Iggy. ^^;

Sure, Valkyrie helped him with tracking down who was responsible. But she was doing her job. Igneous never talked about this stuff with her. Only about the next steps.

God, was he really that stupid?

Narrator:

Igneous: "Gee, thanks. I feel so much better right now." >_>;

"Still awake?"

Scarlett's tail waved in front of Igneous' face. "If you want to go back to the station, we can go back. I'm pretty sure people are just bickering about the new mystery dungeon. Or anomaly. Or whatever we're calling it."

Igneous stiffened at that. "Bickering?" He hesitantly reached his hand up and turned his X-transceiver on.

Oh boy, coming straight off an entire scene of emotional turmoil and then straight into figuring out what on earth to do about sealing the anomaly in the Ash Betrayed-verse, that's certainly not a volatile combination there.

"Absolutely not!"

"Absolutely not!"

Seifer flinched after he and Widget said the same thing in tandem. The keldeo looked at Yuna. "You can't possibly agree with him."

Wait, wait, wait. Just what game is this song from?

Yuna bit her lower lip. "I, uh, would prefer not to cause problems for this city." She wrung her hands out. A part of her expected Gene to suggest brute forcing the mysterious vault, yet it still surprised her how quickly and casually he threw out the suggestion.

"Look, we heard what Yuna said." Gene was annoyed. From people disagreeing with him? Surely, he saw that coming, right? "We're taking a gamble no matter what we do. We can put one city in danger... or multiple places could get swept up in this. Don't gotta be a mathematician to know that the former's less than the latter. We break open the vault and destroy the Phantom—"

Damn, ice cold there. Even if it's hard to argue his logic from a 'needs of the many' perspective.

"It's actually called a Whisper," Yuna blurted out, only to throw her hands over her mouth. Of all the stupid times to get caught up in technicalities.

"Okay, sure." The eyeroll practically dripped from Gene's words. "Doesn't change the plan: D-E-S-T-R-O-Y, oh my!"

Yuna: "... Okay, yeah. I'm getting a really, really strong urge to just sit this one out and let you all have at it, since... yeah, I really don't want to get involved with this." >_>;

"It's a bad idea!" Widget immediately countered. "It doesn't sound like there's a way to contain the thing like in LaRousse. Nothing'll stop it from wreaking havoc the moment the vault's open."

It's the Squaresoft Protagonist Way~

Which was Yuna's big concern. In the middle of a big sporting event, there was no way they could clear out that stadium.

"Psssht. You're thinking too hard." Smirking, Nikki clasped the sides of her leather jacket. "It's simple: we take the safe with the core... and move it somewhere else." She pushed the air in front of her. "Find some abandoned field and plop it down. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Oh lordy, you were waiting for an opportunity to do that Spongebob meme, weren't you? >:V

Leo bobbed up and down on Yuna's head, seemingly enthralled with the idea. The drakloak herself had doubts, though. Such a simple solution couldn't possibly work, right?

"Can you even move an anomaly core?" Cid wondered. "What if they're anchored in place, only following the planet's rotation? It's just as likely that if you move the vault, the core will simply... phase through it. Leaving whatever's inside free to rampage through the stadium."

Nikki's mohawk shrank a bit. "Tch. They're big balls of staticky gobbledegook. How am I supposed to know?"

I mean, at least her idea has a chance of getting the anomaly out without immediately freeing the Whisper as opposed to Gene's idea which will free said Whisper to turn Wyndon into an ex-city, so...

"Yeah, how dare the scholar counter you with logic," Cyril scoffed. Seifer snrked, to Yuna's surprise. Since when did the keldeo like sarcasm?

"I don't see anyone else coming up with anything." Nikki tapped a foot impatiently on the stone ground. "We're burning—" She cut herself off and looked up. "Moonlight, I guess?"

Silence followed. Yuna looked out at the river. Boats floated atop the water, carrying scores of people watching a bunch of moving lights that pretended to be a flying cramorant. She couldn't stomach the thought of letting something bad happen to all the people here. But she didn't want other places in danger from doing nothing.

Nikki: "Just saying, we could try my idea. It's not stupid if it works. And if it doesn't... well, at least it won't end any worse than Gene's idea?" ^^;

Yuna squeezed her hands against her face. The Butterfree Effect told her about this on purpose. Perhaps they knew the situation would leave the resistance paralyzed with indecision.

Devilish there. But I could buy it.

"Okay, fine." Gene finally spoke up again after having his original idea shot down. "The only way to play this safe is to go the ironic route. We gotta get nuts for safety!"

So... what, cause a bomb scare or something to get the stadium evacuated? Not sure what you're going for there, Gene.

Seifer raised a brow. "Which entails?"

"Instead of letting whatever's in that vault out to cause a real disaster, we stir up a fake one to force everyone away from the stadium."

Yeah, I had a feeling. Though it does make sense and would probably cause a lot less collateral instead of just oopsing the stadium in the middle of a match on the field.

Suppressing a wince, Yuna watched the stadium in the distance, with its colorful lights projecting into the night sky. If she was following Gene correctly, then...

"You're going to attack this place. Or pretend to."

Gene chuckled. "Not who I was expecting to catch on, but I'll take it! Between me, Birdbrain, and, say, you summoning one of the Sages, we've got everything we need to raise some hell!" He paused. "Well, fake hell. You get the idea."

And then suddenly, for no reason at all, Team Bastion popped up on the anti-terrorism watchlist of every region in this universe.

"But that's still dangerous," Widget squawked. "If you cause a scene, people might hurt one another in the ensuing panic!"

To that, Gene laughed. "That's where the rest of you come in. We're going to make a convenient escape route for a fake assault on Wyndon. So, get ready, because I'm coming over to scout the city out."

Nikki: "Gene, that's-"

Gene: "Not stupid if it works? Also, clearing out the stadium would give us a freer hand to try out your meme proposal for dealing with the vault." ^^
Nikki: "Ugh, fine. Whatever. Not like we have better options at the moment."

Alright, made it to the end. Not a lot of action this time around, but definitely a whole heap of character drama, especially regarding how Yuna's basically shaping up to be Shulk as a missile dragon and Iggy realizing that he's been going about his personal problems the wrong way for literal years, along with the promise of explosions next chapters... and memes.

Lots of memes. I don't have any firm complaints to lob at this chapter. I'll admit that I did raise my brow a bit at how things are apparently going to incorporate an Ash Betrayed subplot in the imminent future, but I suppose I'll reserve judgement on things until they happen since there's a long track record of "it's not stupid if it works" in this story with things that sound a bit out-there in terms of plot beats on paper.

Glad to be caught up with this story again, @Ambyssin . And hope the feedback was fun to read. ^^

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 81: On the Wind, Past the Stars​

Entry 3451
Just seeing Mewtwo again stirred up old wounds I thought had long healed. The cruelty of Team Rocket's boss. Mewtwo's betrayal of my trust. How he hurt me. Broke off a piece of my face.

The crystal was still there in his shoulder. Taunting me.

Chiron hid him from me this entire time. She wouldn't trust me. Only said to trust that type: full anomaly.

And now she's gone.

I won't forgive them. Both these creatures are affronts to nature. I will destroy them along with Eternatus. I just need more power.

XxX​

Seifer didn't enjoy feeling like a sitting ducklett. No matter how much Cyril assured the keldeo his illusory veil was holding up, his gut squirmed with each human officer and sniffing dog that walked past. Surely, one of the arcanine or houndoom would pick up their scent eventually.

"Are you sure we're safe this close to the rift?" Seifer still had no idea why the police were patrolling this place so relentlessly. The anomaly was plain as day. It wasn't as if they had the personnel to stop someone from approaching it entirely.

"Am I sure? Pssht." The cosmic zoroark's hair rippled into a black hood. "Only a sith deals in absolutes, young keldewan."

Seifer tilted his head. The heck was Cyril doing?

"Seriously?" Cyril did his best to keep his voice a whisper. "You never saw Space Wars? The hero's a keldeo like you."

Seifer stared back blankly. Was that... a piece of Radiance or Eternatus media?

"For crying out loud." The dark hood disappeared, leaving Cyril scratching his starry mane. "What movies have you seen?"

The keldeo squinted in thought. "Uhh..." He frowned. Nothing was springing to mind right away. "Do educational pictures from back in my Horizon Academy days count?"

Cyril facepalmed. "Welp. Guess I know what we're doing for a date night."

He couldn't be serious. "I'm sorry?" Seifer raised a brow. As much as he wanted to get back to the original question, Seifer couldn't let that go. "Are you going to drag me to a Radiance movie theater?"

"Nah." Cyril waved him off. "Veg on a couch with the first three Space Wars." His smirk faded slightly. "No need for the prequel or sequel trilogy. Pure trash right there." He sounded deathly serious.

"I was not... aware people got that passionate about movies," Seifer muttered. A policewoman and her two growlithe strutted past without even gazing in their direction. The two dogs were sniffing around, yet neither of them paid much mind to the two resistance members.

That was enough impetus for Seifer to steer the conversation back to its intended purpose. "Seriously, this is creeping me out," the keldeo whispered. "Why aren't they on to us?"

"You can thank our skorp recruits for that one." Cyril reached into his mane and produced some sort of spray can. It was completely black. "Essence of tar pit. Sprayed it all around the area. Everything smells like tar."

"But isn't that more suspicious?" Seifer said. Cyril then knelt down and gently tilted the keldeo's head toward the staircase leading up to Indigo Plateau's stadium. There was construction equipment sitting off to the side.

"Not unreasonable," Cyril said, smirking slightly.

Seifer was going to respond, but the cosmic zoroark put a yellow claw to his snout. "Ah, ah." Cyril's smirk grew. "If you say too much, you'll jinx us."

Seriously? He didn't peg Cyril as the superstitious type.

Cyril shook his head in disbelief. "I'm flirting with you, dumbass."

"Oh." Seifer's cheeks reddened. He sat down and stared intently at the rift. "W-Well, we're on the job. We have to get Widget to the rift. Save it for later."

"That's our consummate professional." Cyril hip-checked the keldeo, then tapped where his X-transceiver was in his right ear. "Yo, Boss Kitty, how goes it on your end? Got any leads or what? Not sure how much longer this tar pit spray will keep the dogs' noses off our scents."

XxX​

"We've got a lead."

Gene's arms were firmly crossed. He floated on a metal rooftop beside Cid, looking out over the river and the reflections from the drone light show still going on around the stadium. Yuna, Leo, and Nikki were behind him. The girls were talking amongst themselves about whatever. Gene didn't care.

"You don't sound happy," Cyril pointed out.

The shadowy mewtwo pinched his brow. "I'm not. Because it's..." He couldn't even put into words how stupid Cid's findings were. Better to let the orbeetle handle it. "You tell 'em."

"It would appear Team Rocket exists in this world," Cid said, eyeing Gene nervously. "Although my Dynascan suggests they're... a far cry from what Gene's described."

"It's just three of them!" Nikki said, mohawk rippling. "How big of a deal can it be? You said it yourself, dude." She smacked her fist into an open palm. "If we're going to cause trouble, we go to local troublemakers. That's just maths."

"I know that!" Gene snapped, yellowing tail lashing at the air. He dropped down on the roof, flinching from the cold stone under his toes. "It's not... an easy thing for me to do without seeing these people for myself."

Nikki put her hands on her hips. "Then let one of us talk to 'em." She jabbed a thumb against a chest gill. "I speak fluent skullduggery."

Gene turned away from them. "These aren't petty graffiti artists." He shook his head. "Forget it. I'm worrying over nothing. If it can't work out, I'll fling 'em into the river and we'll just do things ourselves."

"You'll what?!" Widget squawked through the comm line.

"Oi, keep quiet while we're walking!" Cyril growled.

Shaking his head, the shadowy mewtwo hovered into the air. "Down, boy." He chuckled. "They're crooks."

"That doesn't mean you fling them into a river! What if they can't swim?!"

Gene rolled his eyes. Annoying do-gooder birddogfish. "Fiiiine, I'll toss 'em in with some water floaties. Will that work?"

He didn't wait for Widget's inevitably irritable response. Cid pointed him in the direction of the three Rocket operatives.

"Keep a low profile in the meantime." Gene saluted the others and shot off into the night sky.

"What the hell do you think we're doing?!" Nikki shouted after him. Smirking, Gene pressed on, flying over a steel bridge with a few slow moving vehicles. The people clustered on the sidewalks were nothing but blurry specks under the night sky. Gene fixed his gaze ahead of him. The road split off in a few directions, with the northeast branch heading toward a very large roundabout where each offroad headed for a big, square building.

Even from this distance, all the signs suggested these were hotels. Which fit with Cid's description.

Gene assumed all the Malice flowing through him was what let him read these signs. Didn't account for the others on Team Bastion. He suspected that was a combination of Yuna and the little godbutt.

Let's see... second one. Gene headed for the second offroad. The Grand Wyndon Hotel was the smallest of those clustered by the roundabout. Definitely the oldest, judging by its blurry brick composition. Not so grand anymore, are ya?

He stopped and hovered over the building. Gene's chest rose and fell — well, the parts without the Malice Crystal did — as he mentally prepped himself. It was only three Rockets. They couldn't be that high on the totem pole. Otherwise, Cid would have senses an abundance of Rockets scattered around.

At least, if it's anything like the Team Rocket I knew.

Gene slowly descended. He positioned himself between windows as he passed by the top floors. Gene pressed himself against the building wall. Cool bricks brushed against his fingers and his left side.

Sixth floor. Fifth floor. Here.

The shadowy mewtwo stopped. He inched closer to the lit window in midair, then noted the curtains were drawn and stopped. Gene couldn't get closer without whoever was inside spotting him. If only he could get a glimpse... or even hear something. This building was old. Surely it wasn't that good at filtering out noise.

"... Da same wit'out a twerp to tail."

Gene's smirk returned. Bingo. That accent was atrocious, but at least Gene could understand it.

"Oh, listen to yourselves!" It was a new, female voice. "I didn't spend eight hours cramped in coach to lay around here watching you two mope like a pair of sad, sorry shroomish!"

"WOOOOOBBBBAAAAAFEEET!"

"Easy to say when you're not the one who had to drain his bottle cap collection just to cover the air and hotel fare!" a third— no, wait, fourth voice interjected. "We came here with the promise of Monarch pikachu pilfering for the boss. And instead all we have are empty hopes and dashed dreams!"

Gene had heard enough. These didn't sound like high-level Rockets. Or even competent ones, for that matter. But hearing "Monarch" and "disappeared" got the gears in his head turning. Hadn't Yuna brought that up when she was explaining the situation? Gene kind of tuned that part out.

Cupping his right hand over his face, he whispered. "Hey, Princess. What was that you mentioned about some missing trainer?"

"The guy who was supposed to defend his title here disappeared," Yuna replied, somewhat hesitantly. "And he might be stuck inside the anomaly core."

Theeeere it was. All the ammunition Gene needed. He cracked his knuckles. Showtime.

The shadowy mewtwo backed away from the wall. Gene scrutinized the window once more. Not the opening type. Typical stingy hotel.

Phantom Warp it is, then. Gene focused on his Malice Crystal. Next thing he knew, he was inside the modest hotel room, glancing at the meowth face down on one bed and the red and blue-haired people recoiling from the sight of him.

"Good news, plebs." Gene snapped his fingers. "The powers that be have heard your pleas. You want answers to your 'twerp' troubles? Well, I've got 'em."

Wobbuffet screamed and jumped for the red-haired lady, who displayed surprising strength in actually catching and hanging onto him.

"Ayy, what's da big idea?" Meowth sat up and shook his fist at Gene. "We didn't order no room service. Scram!"

"Hang on." The blue-haired man tilted his head. "Weren't you listening. It sounds like this eggplant pokémon might know where the twerp is!"

Gene quirked a brow at that comment. And at the fact that Meowth was speaking like a human. Or like any of the resistance. That would've been curious, but these Rockets neither attacked him nor chucked poké balls.

He wasn't going to draw any conclusions about whether this world had its own mewtwo, but Gene could say with certainty these three were total idiots. Were they representative of what Team Rocket was like in this direction? How was it still alive employing people like this?

Never mind that. Gene was on a timetable. "That's right." He lifted his right hand. A few throw pillows levitated over to him. Gene idly twirled them around their hand. "Team Rocket, yeah?"

The woman's eyes sparkled. She unceremoniously dropped Wobbuffet to the ground. "Did you hear that, James?" She dashed to Gene's side. "Word of our dastardly deeds has spread!" The sparkles turned to fire in the lady's eyes. "Or perhaps you recognize a certain dazzling enchantress of the stage?"

Rolling his eyes, Gene flicked his tail left. A little telekinesis was all he needed to push the lady back toward the wall by the thermostat. "Don't flatter yourselves." Gene let a throw pillow drift onto his finger and spun it around like it was a basketball. "Your jumpsuits have giant red Rs on 'em."

He tapped his right temple. "Also, powerful psychic. Able to read your minds so smoothly you wouldn't even know I was there."

Meowth's fur stood on end. "Sheesh, dis guy do impressions of da boss or sometin'? He loves dat tick!"

"Eggplant color and physique aside, the resemblance is uncanny," James added. "Just who are you, Eggplant?"

"Yeah!" Meowth crossed his arms and nodded. "And what kinda tricks are you playin' at? You wanna help us wit' our twerp troubles or not?"

"Oh, I do." Gene landed on the brown carpet. He tossed the throw pillows to the far bed one at a time. "Just had to make a point. If you get I'm strong, then you get I've got the power to find your twerp for you."

Meowth stroked his chin. "Dat's a bold claim for a complete stranger to make."

"Quit being sticks in the mud." The woman stomped a foot on the ground. "How often do we rely on the twerp trusting strangers for pika procurement opportunities, hmm?"

The other two were silent. Gene leaned back against the window. "If you want more transparency, the reason I found you guys is because I need your help as much as you need mine." The shadowy mewtwo looked at his hand, turning it back and forth like he was admiring a manicure he could never get.

"Our help?"

"Wobba?"

Even Wobbuffet sat up at that. The quartet shared astonished looks. Gene took that as his cue to continue.

"Your precious 'twerp' is in Wyndon Stadium." He pushed himself off the window so he could gesture toward it. The drone show had finished, but the stadium remained lit, projecting into the night sky. "He's trapped with something dangerous my team is here to get rid of."

"Da twerp around sometin' dangerous, huh?" Meowth shook his head. "Dat's as classic as peanut butter and jelly."

"Mmmhmm." The woman nodded along. "Or hot fudge and whipped cream."

"Or pineapple on pizza!" James added.

"You take that back!" Meowth and the woman shouted in unison. Wobbuffet mimicked them, though he could still only say his name for some strange reason.

"Come on, Jessie, it's not that bad." James held his hands up by his face.

"Focus!" Gene's tail lashed at the air. His eyes and Malice Crystal flickered. The quartet went stiff as boards. Stars, they were a handful.

"Let me repeat myself: there's something dangerous at the stadium." Gene gestured to the window with both arms this time. "The stadium full of people here for the big event." He thrust his arms at the window a second time after the Rockets didn't respond to him. "Is it sinking in yet?"

The four of them huddled amongst one another briefly, before Jessie and James nudged Meowth forward to the edge of the bed. "You want us around to get da twerp outta danger!"

Gene levitated up a throw pillow and bapped Meowth's head with it. "Hey!" He rubbed his slightly messy fur.

"I need you guys to do your jobs," Gene growled, tail twitching in irritation. "And help me cause a scene in the stadium that'll force everyone to leave." He walked his fingers across the air. "Once the stadium's empty, we can safely deal with the threat and get you your twerp back."

"Causing a scene?" Jessie's eyes sparkled. "Do you think we can—"

"By doing Team Rocket stuff," Gene cut in. "C'mon, what kind of grunts are you? Think of all the pokémon there ripe for stealing." He hated floating that idea out there. But with the way these three acted, they couldn't swipe a 'mon if their lives depended on it. And if they somehow did, Gene had little doubt he could stop them from getting away.

Again, the quartet huddled up. Gene could have listened in. He doubted anything they were saying was a big deal. Maybe scheming up some sort of idea on how to cause a scene. Not that there was much to think about. They just had to send out their pokémon and let them go to town.

Unless this wobbuffet and meowth are all they have...

"We've got it!" Jessie declared, raising her right arm triumphantly. "One dynamic Team Rocket display for the ages, coming up!"

James flopped against the bed. "And one rainy day bottle cap collection down the Wyndon drain."

Gene quirked a brow. Though he was tempted to press for details, he opted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Not that they'd earned it. "How much time do you need?"

"Heh heh." Meowth's head coin glistened under the dim yellow hotel room light. "You just leave dat part to ol' Meowth! We'll be ready to rock and roggenrola dat stadium before you can down a Wyndon tea and biscuit!"

The shadowy mewtwo casually threw up his hands. "Fine. Then I'll tell my teammates to get ready while you do your thing. As soon as you're ready, shoot a Pay Day into the air. That'll be our signal."

The three Rockets shared unimpressed looks. "And just where will you be to even see a signal like that?" James wondered.

Smirking, Gene leaned against the window. "I've got my ways." He Phantom Warped through the window. Once he was on the other side, he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then back at the Rockets. They silently nodded that they got the memo.

Gene flew up to the hotel roof and perched atop it on his right foot. Whatever trepidation he had with turning to the organization that birthed him was gone. Instead, all he could wonder is whether those goofballs could get him what he was looking for. Otherwise, Team Bastion would be stuck on fake demolition duty.

He tapped a finger against his right horn. "Attention, resistance. This is Gene. I've gotten us our backup for Operation Gone With the Wyndon."

Several groans crackled through his X-transceiver. "Puh-lease tell me you didn't have that one pre-prepared," Artemis said.

XxX​

The broad strokes of Gene's horrendously named operation were simple, if revolting to Seifer. Gene, Quetzal, and Jade would act as big, scary pokémon under Team Rocket's control and "attack" the stadium. Assorted monks and dragons would help steer people away from the stadium. Noctum was on standby with rift generation while Vegna and Valkyrie were reserves to call on in an emergency.

Not an elegant plan, in the keldeo's opinion. His stomach twisted at the notion of his teammates acting the part of criminals. At least Seifer wasn't being asked to take part in that ridiculous ruse. Probably on purpose, knowing Gene.

That left him and Cyril to continue slowly and invisibly ferrying people across Indigo Plateau to the anomaly. Cyril deployed some fresh tar essence to keep the police dogs from catching literal whiff of them. Then it was a matter of walking back and forth across the same grass and tiles behind the outer rim of the Pokémon League building.

On the walk back toward the forest for their final pickup, Seifer decided to break up the monotony. "So, um, you and Gene were together once?"

Cyril's cosmic fur frazzled ever so slightly. "Wouldn't call it that."

The keldeo wasn't buying it. "Then why did Gene tell me you're pretty mind-blowing once you get going?"

"Course he'd say that." Cyril rolled his eyes, yet quickened his pace. "We were never together, per se. Friends with benefits. Nothing more."

Seifer followed Cyril, raising a brow. "Benefits? Like you gave each other insurance? And vacation days?"

He wasn't expecting Cyril to stumble. Seifer's tail scrunched. He feared the illusion dropping. But no cops looked in their direction. Cyril must've kept it up.

"Was it something I said?" Seifer whispered.

"Uh, yeeeaaaah?" Cyril ran yellow claws through his cosmic mane. He left the stone pathway and headed onto the grass. "There's no way you're that sheltered."

"Meaning?"

"Any sane adult knows what 'friends with benefits' means, dude."

Seifer frowned. "Well, I don't." He also stepped onto the grass. They both headed toward the tree line.

Cyril sighed, then chuckled. "It means you sleep with your buddy from time to time." He paused. "Or often." Cyril shrugged. "Different strokes for different folks."

"Oh." Seifer looked down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. "Is that... something you still do?"

"Hell nah." Cyril waved him off. "We stopped doing that when I started working with the Ryujin. You're the first guy I've been with in quite a while."

Seifer wasn't sure how to feel about that. Cyril stopped and looked over his shoulder. "That's a good thing, y'know."

"R-Right." The keldeo quickened his pace until he was at Cyril's side. He was putting his hoof in his mouth. Seifer had to salvage this somehow. "Sorry. I guess I—" He cut himself off, but made sure to keep walking.

"You had assumptions based on how you were raised." Cyril rested his hands inside his starry mane. "I get it."

Now it was Seifer's turn to stumble. How was Cyril always able to read him so effortlessly? He quickly collected himself. The forest line wasn't far off now. "I was taught that courting meant fancy dinners or outings to entertainment venues. And things like... intimacy came after marriage."

A snrk made the keldeo's ears flick. "What?"

"Nothing. Unintentional wordplay." Cyril waved him off. "Point is, there are different ways of dating. If you want to stick to the fancier stuff, well..." The cosmic zoroark looked down at his wispy, jewel encrusted legs. "Not my forte. But I'd give it my best for you."

Seifer shook his head. "Honestly? No. I don't want that stuffiness." Certainly not while trying to save the omniverse or whatever. "What we have is... not what I was expecting. But it's a pleasant surprise."

Smirking, Cyril bowed despite not facing Seifer. "Happy to be of service~"

He's doing that on purpose. Seifer turned away while continuing forward. "Come on. We ought to focus. We're almost done here."

"We're ready to go on our end," Quetzal said through the X-transceiver. "What's the hold up?"

"Nothing." Cyril approached the tree line and stood at attention. Though the smirk on his face betrayed his attempt at seriousness. "The veil's up whenever you're ready."

Blue light crackled in front of the trees, then split apart into a rift. Jade, Quetzal, Yiazmat, and Calcifer stepped through. Noctum followed, with the rift closing behind him.

"You're sure you can keep everyone hidden, Zoroark?" Yiazmat mainly looked at Jade.

"What's with the side eye?" Jade pouted. "So, I had a second helping of chocolate cake last night." She put her right wing on her right hip. "The salazzle part's got curves for days. That ain't changing."

Cyril held his hands up. "It'll go better if you keep quiet and stick close to me." He glanced at Jade. "Or reasonably close, in your case."

Jade's tail flaps bristled. "This is salugia bias! I'm—"

Yiazmat harshly shushed Jade, who looked down guiltily. "Let's get going. Quickly."

The group headed along the grass. Unlike the way back, Cyril and Seifer kept them further from the stone path around the League building and closer to the trees. The keldeo trained his gaze on every police officer and dog in the area. They remained at a distance, which was good.

... Except they were getting further from the team. Heck, it was like they were gathering in another spot. Was this a shift change or something? Seifer didn't like this. He quickened his pace.

"Move faster," he whispered. "I think the police are up to some—"

His eyes widened. Seifer lunged for Jade and managed to shove the large salugia out of the way before multiple Focus Blasts whizzed by, leaving streaks of red behind.

"What the—" Jade squawked, dousing the grass beneath her in pink-purple vapors.

Seifer looked up. Three Eternatus Bombardiers had their large blasters pointed right at them. And more Focus Blasts were charging in the barrels!

"Ah-ha! Illusion detected!" one Bombardier declared. "Authorization granted for full anti-zoroark excessive force!"

"How splendid!" another Bombardier cheered. "I bet fifty eternabucks I'll bag the furball!"

"We're found out!" Cyril waved them in the direction of the rift. "Move, move, m— ****!"

The cosmic zoroark dove to the ground. Focus Blasts rained down on where he was standing, kicking up chunks of dirt and mud.

"You don't need to tell me twice! Ladies first!" Jade squawked, awkwardly rolling to her feet. A couple of Focus Blasts knocked her back on her rear, though she didn't look all that harmed by them.

"The empire's here!" An Aura Sphere whizzed up from Seifer's prosthetic horn. The Bombardiers scattered, revealing even more Bombardiers and Gunners descending from higher in the sky. "And they've got reinforcements! We have to leave!"

"No! Get Drumstick and Birdbrain through the rift first!" Gene barked. "That's an order!"

The first Bombardier was already prepping its next Focus Blast barrage. "I spy loitering rebels in need of some attitude adjustments!"

A gray metallic burst struck it from below, then a pair of dreepy-shaped blue bolts hit its right arm, destroying the blaster.

"Hurry!" Yiazmat cried.

"We'll cover for you!" Calcifer opened his metallic mouth and spat another Flash Cannon skyward. The Bombardier trying to retaliate was forced to fly out of the way, letting Noctum strike it with a well-aimed Flamethrower and shatter its cockpit. The explosion caught the Bombardier that lost a blaster, destroying it as well.

"Quetzal, grab Jade! Her waddling's too slow," Seifer ordered.

"On it!" The orange zapdos zipped to Jade's side and kicked her into the air.

"Waah! Hey!" Jade flailed around before landing on Quetzal's back. Despite the size difference, Quetzal managed to carry her on his back. He darted toward the rift, orange sparks trailing behind him. Seifer reared up and shot Hydro Pumps to Quetzal's right, snuffing out the Focus Blasts trying to get in the way.

Cyril directed the two toward the rift and the dove inside without a second thought. "All right, they're in! We're getting out."

"Not a chance!" Gene cut in. "If they head through the rift, they'll screw everything up! You have to keep them at bay."

Seifer dropped down to all fours and galloped toward Cyril. "Are you mad?! We can't handle this many!" Focus Blasts whizzed by, fortunately missing the keldeo.

"It worked with the pirates," Gene said. "And you can actually get reinforcements this time. So, whatever you do, defend the damn rift!"

Seifer skidded to a halt, barely avoiding two Thunderbolts intercepting his path. He shot an Aura Sphere straight up without looking. A mechanical cry followed by a shower of sparks and metal parts told him he'd gotten the Eternatus Gunner responsible.

Sighing, he glanced at Cyril. The cosmic zoroark was a bit shaken, but managed to gather up a Shadow Ball and toss it at a Bombardier focusing on Yiazmat and Calcifer. The ectoplasm got the Bombardier in the back, knocking its cockpit out of its body. Calcifer easily finished it off with a small Flash Cannon.

"You heard him," Cyril said. "All hands on deck, I guess." He jumped away from Seifer, gathering ectoplasm into another Shadow Ball.

Right. Orders were orders. They had to stand their ground. He scanned the singed and scorched ground and spotted Noctum spitting fireballs airborne.

"Noctum, what are you waiting for?" Seifer called. "Get some distance and bring us backup now!"

The black charizard scrambled away while Yiazmat and Calcifer covered with Dragon Darts and Flash Cannons. Seifer glanced at the approaching clusters of Troopers, then back at the roof. Even with reinforcements, keeping them away from the rift was going to be a tall order.

With a shaky breath, Seifer charged an Aura Sphere in preparation for the oncoming onslaught.

XxX​

CDL-091: Indigo Plateau, Planet Earth
The main headquarters of the Pokémon League for both Kanto and Johto. Honestly? It's not that impressive. Not a lot of imperial tech around the area. Though I want to say part of that is because Paradox has his own Pokémon League in Planet Axiom, the center of his empire. I guess he just... lets Earth's Leagues do their own thing. They're so steeped in tradition anyway, that he figures Earth's inhabitants are the only ones who'll care about these places.

Sad thing is? Paradox is probably right.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 82: Defendat Mundum​

Noctum somersaulted, dodging a Rock Blast, then returned fire at the Eternatus Gunner responsible. His Flamethrower destroyed the cockpit and the unown vanished in purple smoke. Another explosion rang out behind him. He looked over his shoulder. Through the smoke, he spotted a mega garchomp atop the Pokémon League's roof, sniping at Eternatus Troopers in the air with well-aimed Dragon Pulses.

The black charizard nodded to Valkyrie, then Phantom Warped away from her, dodging more Rock Blasts.

"Hey!" one Eternatus Gunner shouted, trying to follow Noctum with its blasters. "No fair! Someone tell the lizard dodging is not permitted!"

Dreepy-shaped blue spears flew in from Noctum's right. They shattered the Gunner's glass cockpit, ejecting the unown into the air. Then that buzzwole guy — oh, what was his name again? Beef? — swooped in from behind, grabbed the body, and hurled it at three Eternatus Bombardiers behind them. All the bots were gone by the time the smoke had cleared.

"Ha!" Buzzwole flexed his right arm. "Ja, take to air good idea! Like discus with no pesky ground!" He flexed his left arm. "I was three-time all-city discus champ in heyday!"

"Uh, congrats?" Noctum tilted his head, then saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. He stopped flapping his wings for a rapid descent. A Thunderbolt surged overhead, but then a large boulder broadsided him. Noctum spread his wings to stop from careening into the forest. He wildly spat fire in the direction of the Rock Blast.

"Ha ha! Score one for the good guys!" An Eternatus Bombardier threw its blaster-equipped arms to the side, then hovered up to skirt the Shadow Ball that came from below. Noctum landed in the grass by the anomaly portal so Seifer and Cyril could give him some extra cover while he got his bearings.

"What's wrong?"

Noctum was ready to complain about rocks when he realized the keldeo was talking to Cyril. "Did that idiot... seriously dab on us?" The cosmic zoroark had another Shadow Ball ready. "Stupid emperor and his 'how do you do, fellow kids?' mindset." He hurled the ectoplasm upward. "Give it a boost, will ya?"

Seifer pivoted, blasting Hydro Pumps skyward from his hind legs. It pushed the Shadow Ball past the Bombardier's Rock Wrecker and blew apart its right arm.

"Gah!" It hovered erratically. "A minor setback, but I am still functional!"

Noctum fired a Dragon Pulse, striking the Bombardier's torso. The unown pilot ejected the cockpit. "You will not be rid of me that easily, meatba— guuuuh!"

A second Dragon Pulse streaked in from the direction of the League Building, destroying the last bits of the Trooper.

"You make such a cute little threesome down there," Valkyrie scoffed. "But get back in the air, you dweeb! We need you up here!"

Cheeks burning, Noctum took off. A few stray Thunderbolts and Ice Beam peppered the air around him. Noctum spat fireballs to his left, then spotted two Gunners on his right trying to hit Valkyrie with Ice Beams from afar.

Not on my watch. Noctum Phantom Warped behind them, then buffeted the Gunners with Air Slash crescents. They didn't even have time for mechanical shouts before their bodies broke apart. Noctum flew through the smoke and dust left behind, slowing down by the rooftop.

"How's it looking?" Noctum had lost track of Yiazmat and Calcifer in the chaos. He did spot Archie gleefully gliding over the grassy field atop a jet of water, sending black crescents at Gunners and Brawlers from his jagged horn.

"I don't like this," Valkyrie said. She spat a Dragon Pulse at an airborne Eternatus Bombardier taking aim at Seifer and Cyril. It struck the middle of its back. Noctum added a Flamethrower to take it down.

What else is new? The black charizard managed to keep that one to himself. "In what way?"

"They've got the numbers, but they're not advancing on the rift," the mega garchomp said, pointing a scythe-like arm left. Cyril and Seifer stood their ground, shooting Shadow Balls and Aura Spheres at Gunners flanking them from the sky. Buzzwole Whatshisface flew in and rammed one into another with his right shoulder.

"New barbells for mein collection!" he declared, laying on his back in midair and... bench-pressing the disoriented Gunners?

"Stop the rebel!" a Bombardier shouted from far to their right. "Using Troopers as weights is against the law! And very rude!"

Noctum snapped back to attention when he saw blue sparks in the corner of his eye. Another Dragon Pulse from Valkyrie blew apart a Bombardier over by the forest's edge.

"Okay, yeah. You've got a point." The black charizard landed on the roof. "They're just... shooting at Cyril and Seifer from a distance." What was he missing? "Maybe they're afraid of disappearing forever if they get destroyed in the other dimension?"

"You think Paradox cares about that?" Valkyrie stomped on the roof. Stone Edge spires jutted out from the ground, where several dragons were in a standoff with Eternatus Brawlers. One spire upended a Brawler trying to clobber an unsuspecting goodra with an ice-encrusted mace. "He's already sending 'em out here for us to mow down."

Noctum frowned. Last he recalled, the unown got returned to some factory if they were beaten out here. He doubted that connection held up where the anomaly was. Which was worth caring about, in Noctum's opinion. "Well, do your, uh, instincts give you anything to go off?"

The mega garchomp huffed out blue-purple embers. "Not really." She summoned more rock spires from the ground, but the two charging Brawlers burst through them with their spiked maces and struck at the same goodra from before. She tumbled back, ice encrusting her gooey body.

Tail flame sparking, Noctum dove off the roof and bathed the Brawlers in bright orange flames.

"Aggh! Deploy the anti-flying lizard punches!" one Brawler screamed.

Noctum wasn't prepared for the flurry of electrified maces that followed. He swerved past the first two, but the third clubbed him in the jaw. The static locked up his wings. He hit the ground and skipped across it, smacking the remnants of an earlier Stone Edge spire and tumbling through scorched grass and dirt until he came to a stop.

Grunting, Noctum tried to right himself, but his world was spinning. Paralysis locked up his limbs. He tasted dirt. The black charizard snorted some flames, scorching grass by his face and giving him a tilted, dusty view of the perimeter around League Headquarters.

"The lizard's down! Smack him! Annihilate him!"

Mechanical whirrs and clanks filled Noctum's ear frills. Multiple Brawlers pushed past the Aeon troops and were running at him. Electricity coursed through their spiked maces.

He had to get up. Move his legs. Wings. Something.

Come on! Not like this! Teeth gritted, Noctum fought against the paralysis. He'd almost managed to push his upper half off the ground, when a thunderous rumble sent him tumbling further back through the grass toward the forest's edge. It must have scattered all the Brawlers to the wind, too. None were chasing him down anymore.

Before Noctum could even process the tremor, a terrified shriek sent his heart into his throat.

The queen!

Her screams proved the second wind Noctum needed to get up. And just in time, as he was able to catch the dragapult careening through the air and stop her from colliding with him.

"Your Highness?" The paralysis somewhat muffled Noctum's speech. "What happened?"

Yiazmat's eyes were wide. At first Noctum thought his muscles were twitching from the lingering static, but soon realized she was trembling.

"They hit him," she said.

"Huh?"

"Calcifer! With a strange blast!"

The ground trembled once again. Cyril and Seifer rushed toward them, the former swearing up a storm and the latter looking back and shouting something.

On the other side of League Headquarters, a duraludon head poked up. And up. And up. They were growing to the size of one of the gigantic buildings from Eterna City!

Noctum's tail flame pulsated erratically. "What is— don't tell me—"

"Ha ha ha!" An Eternatus Bombardier flew around beside Duraludon, shooting tiny fireworks. "A brilliant success! One Paradigm Lieutenant shot to the head! I've got a new host for Halvus!" It gestured toward a few Gunners staring at it in confusion. "Oh, this one is so going on my bi-annual evaluation! I'm getting promoted for sure!"

The towering duraludon looked down at the League building's roof... and the mega garchomp standing alone on its edge.

"I spy a hotheaded rebel... who needs a good cooldown!"

Blue-violet currents swirled around the roof. Noctum apologetically let go of Yiazmat. He focused on the Malice Crystal in his chest and lunged forward, aiming to pry open a rift.

"Valkyrie!"

XxX​

"I don't like this."

From their point in the sky high over the river, Quetzal shifted uneasily on Jade's back. "We should be with the others, fending off the empire," the orange zapdos said.

Gene's gaze was fixed north of them, where he'd met the Rockets. There were warehouses close to the part of the river the trio were floating over. Allegedly, whatever the Rockets had up their sleeve involved one of the warehouses. So, this was where they had to wait for the signal.

"Rebels have to take risks." Gene's tail lazily swished back and forth. "Too much on the line with this one."

"Is it really that much of a risk to go back for a bit and—"

"Yes!" Gene crossed his arms. "If the emperor gets wind I'm there, he'll send everything he has at us. Then we'll really be screwed." He gestured toward the stadium. "Here? We can seal the anomaly. The kid can take us back to the outpost."

"And what about the folks on Indigo Plateau?" Quetzal countered.

"We'll rift 'em back once we're back." Was it a perfect plan? No. Gene rarely had the luxury of perfect plans. "Look. I'm choosing to have faith they can handle themselves. Optimism and all that." He looked over his shoulder. "You should try it."

Jade bobbed her head. "Yeah. We gotta cheer them on!" She paused. "In spirit, because we've gotta play the heels!"

Gene raised a brow. "Heels? Where'd you pull that one from?"

"Guzzie Junior," Jade chirped.

Sighing, Gene turned back around. "Of course you did. Yo, Chrome Dome. How we looking?"

Grumbles came through the X-transceiver, followed by Cid saying, "As best I can tell, nothing about the stadium should block rift formation. Yuna should be free to open one."

"Great." Gene clapped his hands together. "You in position, Princess?"

"Uh, sure?" Yuna said. "I'm still by the dimensional rift."

"Good enough." Gene brimmed with false enthusiasm. Yes, it wasn't a great plan. Or even a good one. But at least Gene was trying to find a middle ground. Someone had to believe this would work. The shadowy mewtwo didn't need any self-fulfilling prophecies mucking things up.

He spotted faint golden sparkles by one of the warehouses. Squinting, Gene held up his right hand. "It might be showtime, folks."

More golden sparkles littered a lot next to one of the warehouses. And the sparkles moved. Sure, Gene was far away. But it was totally Meowth using Pay Day. That meant it was go time.

"Follow my lead," Gene said. He surged forward, not bothering to wait up for Jade and Quetzal. The stadium's bright red, white, and blue lights quickly came into view, spilling over the outside grounds. Pop-up shops lined the walkways. People and pokémon flitted between them. Occasional camera flashes popped up at complete random.

A pity Gene had to break up this party. It could've been fun to watch the battles unfold. Or even take part.

... Ah, who was he kidding? Gene would wipe the floor with any of these trainers.

His expression sharpened. Gene thought back to those distant days where this was natural. Storming an area. Peppering buildings in Shadow Balls to force his way in. Telekinetically swiping poké balls from trainers before they could open them.

It's just for show. Only have to fake it.

The wailord blimp was flying in the middle of the stadium. A perfect target. Gene focused his ESP on it. Any auras?

No. Perfect. A remote-controlled blimp was easy pickings.

Gene held his hands up. A Shadow Ball formed, growing larger and larger. The moment he heard shouts from the ground, Gene hurled the massive Shadow Ball toward the blimp.

This next part needed finesse. Gene forced the Shadow Ball to burst apart, spreading blue-purple light over the area. As screams and shouts erupted beneath him, Gene opened a rift. He forced the blimp through with a psychic pulse. A loud thud told him his endeavor was successful: the blimp was forcibly downed in a barren field. No debris to rain down on anyone.

Loud squawks sounded behind him. Gene turned to see Jade carefully sweeping an Aeroblast across the river. She didn't hit any boats, but kicked up enough spray to send people running in the opposite direction.

Quetzal was next, jumping from Jade's back. He dove through yamper and boltund balloons whose pops echoed across the area.

Drawing from his Malice Crystal, Gene pooled the energy toward his head to project his telepathy.

"Run, pitiful weaklings!" he declared. Gene glanced at the stadium and saw the center of the grassy battlefield unoccupied. People were fleeing from seats and the ground into corridors that would lead them through the stadium.

"Your pathetic Coronation is canceled!" Gene whipped up a Hurricane in the center of the stadium. It ripped through the turf, flinging grass and dirt chunks in all directions.

There were a few people who weren't running though. Assorted corviknight and staraptor with humans atop them making beelines for the shadowy mewtwo.

"I said begone!" Gene surrounded them with Psystrike orbs. A gesture only intended to provoke the birds into fleeing. There were frantic wing flaps, but most held their ground and looked as though they were readying attacks.

Growling, Gene dispelled his Psystrike. Instead, he opened another rift toward the same spot he sent the blimp. A psychic pulse sent the birds and their riders tumbling back. He abruptly shut the rift, then Phantom Warped away from several Fire Blasts and Thunders streaming up from below.

Oh joy. The fuzz. Gene glanced over his shoulder to see Jade flying circles by the front of the stadium, shooting Aeroblasts skyward instead of at the ground. Like something out of one of those kaiju pokémon movies.

... Considering they were acting, it was an apt comparison.

Before Gene had the opportunity to send the police through a rift, however, metal tendrils shot past him. Strange, electrified nets captured the pokémon taking aim at Gene. They flailed about as the tendrils retreated to Gene's left, heading outside the stadium to a... robot meowth?

Nope, Gene wasn't imagining things. There was an absurdly long meowth robot at the western edge of the stadium. "The hell?" Gene scratched his head.

The large gold coin atop Meowthbot's head opened up, revealing the Rockets sitting in some sort of pod-shaped control room. It raised up higher above the machine's head. The glass pod opened up and the three stood up... brandishing megaphones?

"This party's over, so prepare for trouble!"

"And we'll find our pika prize to make it double!"

Jessie thrust her right hand behind her. "To protect the world from devastation!"

James mirrored the gesture with his left hand. "To unite all people within our nation!"

Gene's jaw slackened. Was this— were they doing a bit? Now of all times?!

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

James somehow produced a rose and held it up to his nose. "To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

The robot's head projected a giant red R that rotated around a holographic globe.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Jessie declared.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James added.

Meowth then hopped up between them "Meowth, dat's right!"

Even Wobbuffet popped up, but Gene couldn't hear him without a megaphone of his own. He just floated there, utterly confused as to how these loons would stand there atop their giant robot and recite some stupid motto.

Jade came to a stop by the robot and raised her right wing. "Um, yes, excuse me. Hi. I have several questions."

The Rockets saw Jade and shrieked in unison.

"Jessie, do I finally need glasses or is there a lugia right next to us?" James said.

"And a talking one at that!" Jessie said. "Back inside! Back inside!"

"Right! Time for da Gigagigameowth to do its t'ing!" The control pod retreated back inside the robot's giant coin.

"Hey, wait!" Jade flapped her wings frantically. "That didn't answer any of my— eep!"

Metal tendrils emerged from Gigagigameowth's mouth. Jade flailed about in midair, then flapped her wings twice and quickly ascended out of their way.

Scowling, Gene surged past the outer rim of the stadium, Malice Crystal sparking. It might've lit the area up like a flare if things weren't bright enough already. "Hey, hey!" The shadowy mewtwo waved his arms around. He stopped by Gigagigameowth's golden coin. "No friendly fire! We have a deal, remember?"

"Dat featherhead's wit' you?!" Meowth said.

"Talk about friends in high places," James added.

"Hmph. Her salazzle outfit needs work," Jessie scoffed. "Maybe we should tutor her when this is over. We're masters of the craft!"

Gene was not going to entertain their antics any further. "Quit standing around and cause some chaos!" He spun around and blindly hurled a Shadow Ball toward the abandoned grounds outside the stadium. Gene made sure to destroy it before it could actually hit anyone or anything. "We can't get the guy out of the safe until the place is good and empty!"

"Just leave dat to us!" Meowth said. Gigagigameowth jumped around with surprising speed for such a huge machine. "Super Net Knuckles, fiyah!"

Gigagigameowth's fists detached from its arms and immediately exploded into nets that descended on people who were fleeing across the bridge leading to the stadium grounds.

Grimacing, Gene headed in the opposite direction. This was fine. The moment the others had the safe situation under control, he'd wreck that stupid robot and free whatever people and pokémon Team Rocket was trying to snag. The idiots weren't even using poké balls.

He spared a brief moment to scan the insides of the stadium. Minimal auras. All streaming away from where Yuna claimed the safe was, except for a handful. Some of them were clearly the team. But the other weaker ones...

"Hey, what's the situation?" Gene said, flying around the stadium's outer rim to keep eyes on Jade and Quetzal. The former kicked up more water with a river-aimed Aeroblast while the latter was striking street lights with his muscular legs, denting them at angles street lights weren't meant to bend. "We're thinning the herd out here quickly. How about you guys?"

"Water evac team here! We've got plenty of rescue boats heading away!"

"Ground evac team. Streets are getting a bit clogged, but the police have fliers coming to help!"

That was better than Gene expected, all things considered. "And you, Princess? I'm sensing some unfamiliar auras by the safe."

XxX​

Floating directly in front of the safe door, Yuna looked apologetically at the security officers, alakazam, and togekiss lying on the ground, twitching from paralysis. "Yeah." She rubbed her shoulder. "Nikki might've, uh, put them down for the count."

"It's just paralysis." The toxtricity flicked her right wrist dismissively. "They'll get better."

"Yeah, but the point is they're not supposed to be here when we open the safe." Widget looked between them and the vault with a frown on his beak. "What do we do with them now?"

"Open a rift to that roof you guys were on before," Gene suggested. "We'll have to leave them there."

Widget winced. "But that's out in the open!"

"Do you want to take your chances with what's on the other side of that door?" Gene countered.

The cosmic silvally shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I'd rather not." Sighing, he bowed his head at Yuna. "Do it, I guess."

With another apologetic look, Yuna opened a rift beneath the guards. She watched them drop onto a blue roof, then sealed it up. Pushing that from her mind, she hovered closer to the safe door. Cid leaned against the handle, his spots pulsating with pink energy.

"Anything?" the drakloak wondered.

"Almost." Cid squinted. The orbeetle's spots flickered erratically. "I think I—"

The clicks were barely audible, but the metal thuds that followed were loud enough to make Yuna back away. Cid grabbed the handle and slowly turned it. "Nrrrgh. Can a guy get a hand? This thing's... heavier than I thought."

"Pssht." Nikki rolled up her sleeves. "Stand aside, egghead." She rubbed her hands together, grabbed the handle, and easily shifted it to the open position. The vault door began to open.

Yuna saw that familiar inky blackness pooling in her tail. "Uhh, maybe you guys should stand back befor—"

The door suddenly flew open. Black flames washed over Cid, knocking the screaming orbeetle down the hall. Then a large pink beam sent Nikki tumbling in Cid's direction.

Something— no, two somethings glistened within the darkness of the vault.

"Get back!" Widget cried, shifting to his flight mode and sending electricity right into the vault. A pink barrier appeared and deflected the Thunderbolt.

"I did warn you, did I not, Yaldabaoth?"

Glowing pink eyes flared up. Yuna had no time to react as a green, crystalline bird shot out. The strange, balloon-shaped gems atop its head cast an eerie glow in the hallway. Squealing, Yuna forced Reshiram from the Soul Dew, where he met another pink beam with streams of blue fire.

"Hey!" Reshiram spread his wings apart to try and stop the bird from making any further forward progress. Instead, it vanished in a flash. Reshiram looked around in confusion. "The color wasn't right, but didn't that kind of match up with what Quetzal said Necrozma turned his partners into?"

"I'm a bit, gah, busy!"

Widget darted left and right between the wall and the railing, barely avoiding bursts of black fire from a second, neon pink bird with fiery green wings. The crystal antennae emerging from its head pulsated with ominous energy.

"It... is them!"

Yuna looked over to see a singed Cid's spots glowing asynchronously. "Quetzal's teammates, Shiva and Ifrit!"

Yuna couldn't process that before Shiva reappeared, striking Reshiram in the face with a tremendous flurry of Air Slash blades. Reshiram dropped to the ground, pawing at his face with his fluffy wings.

This didn't make any sense. Butterfree Effect had said there was one daemon inside the vault.

"There was one." Shiva's beak moved, but it was clearly Butterfree Effect's voice. "But it seems this Whisper decided to invite an extra friend to our festivities. Isn't that right?"

Shiva looked over her shoulder. Yuna decided not to wait. Her Soul Dew glistened. Reshiram dropped his wings and shot a Blue Flare at Shiva. Her eyes flashed pink and another barrier appeared, snuffing out the flames.

An unfamiliar human appeared by the strange articuno's side. The brim of his red and white hat obscured his face. But the pikachu on his shoulder had an empty look about him.

"... This place is boring." The human grabbed Shiva's leg. Eyes widening, Yuna sent another signal to Reshiram. At the same time, a shockwave came from Yuna's right. Nikki was on her feet, clearly steamed from the earlier blow.

"We're leaving." The human tugged Shiva's leg. Her eyes brimmed with psychic energy. Then she and the human vanished. A mechanical squawk and a thud drew Yuna's attention left, where Widget hit the ground with no signs of the moltres Whisper around him.

"Where'd they go?!" Widget sprang to his feet, looking around in a panic.

"Who cares!" Nikki approached Yuna, wincing with every step. "They abandoned the core! Get the kid here and let's blow this joint!"

"We can't leave this place with those things running amok!" Widget snarled. "I'm going after them." The miraivally's thrusters ignited. He sped out of the room.

"Oh, c'mon, seriously?!" Nikki ran after him. "No fair! I can't even fly!"

Yuna had to admit Nikki brought up a good point. Besides, if the two Whispers were really from their world, couldn't Leo drag them back with the rest of the team? Gulping, the drakloak approached the vault.

Her shadows swung her lower half back. Yelping, Yuna barely managed to stop herself from falling to the ground. But then she spotted flickers of distortion within the vault. She spun left before a sudden twister emerged from the ground near where she was floating.

"Iiiiii don't think the core's going to let you in," Reshiram said.

"I see that." Yuna backed further away. With both previous cores, they stopped pokémon with those weird crystals growing off them before going inside. "Maybe its... accessibility is related to those crystals? Like, we have to shatter them?"

She turned around. Cid leaned against a wall, rubbing his shut eyes and groaning.

"Cid, you've got to help!" Yuna begged. "Track down the birds. Where did they go?"

The orbeetle's face scrunched up in concentration. "I just... lemme... hgggrrrgh." He squeezed his cheeks tightly. "They're out on the stadium's battlefield!"

Right. The battlefield. Yuna surveyed that place earlier as a precaution. She just had to think. Picture the striped green field with the weird white lines and poké balls painted onto the grass for some reason.

Yuna stuck her hands out. A jagged rift opened in front of her. Pink lasers rained down haphazardly on the other side. Flinching, the drakloak hovered through.

"On your left!" Reshiram darted past her, shooting a Dragon Pulse to block a pink beam from Shiva.

Just what was that attack? It was way too big to be a Psybeam!

"Boring." The human was riding atop Shiva's back as she hovered over midfield. "Warp, then Freezing Glare."

He and Shiva vanished in a flash. Yuna's shadows pushed against her back. She turned around and found another of those pink beams heading right for her from the sidelines!

"Yuna!"

Over Reshiram's cry, Yuna dropped to the ground. She phased through the grass the moment her Quick Attack energy wore off and swam through the soil. Yuna had to trust Reshiram would offer enough of a distraction for her to do something. Anything.

But her own attacks were so weak. Unless I use the shadows...

Yuna swam through the ground, then emerged by the sidelines, swiping up at the air in front of her. A gray, spectral leg uppercut the distorted articuno. She was right in Reshiram's path. He had a clear shot to Blue Flare her!

... Except a lightning bolt zapped his rear. Yowling, Reshiram threw his wings against his rump. Shiva righted herself and swept another Freezing Glare right at a startled Yuna.

The drakloak wasn't ready. She tried to will her shadows into some sort of shield, but the blast got to her first. Yuna pinwheeled back toward midfield, passing by Nikki wildly trying to strike Pikachu with poisonous globs only for him to easily flash step away and pepper Reshiram with pot shots.

An unseen force seized Yuna moments before she struck the ground. It yanked her toward Shiva and the human.

"Is it finally sinking in?" Butterfree Effect's masked head pooled over Shiva's. His arceus hairdo crackled ominously. "How out of your depth you are, puppet?"

Yuna couldn't even squirm. The psychic grip was too strong. Reshiram faded back into the Soul Dew. Yuna didn't even know what happened to Ifrit. Was he still around or had he made a break for the city?

"I told you there is no point in resisting me," Butterfree Effect continued through Shiva's beak. "If you had left the vault sealed, I could have claimed the plates within the core. Affirmed the fate of this world. Instead, you continued walking the path of chaos. You are truly no more than a puppet."

What were they talking about? They were the one who told Yuna about what could happen here in the first place!

"No more talking." The human shook his head. "It's boring. As boring as an opponent who can't fight back." He looked directly at Yuna. "Get rid of her."

Yuna's eyes widened. The world spun around her. Shiva must have teleported her high into the sky.

Within seconds, Shiva's eyes brimmed with cold pink energy. Then, a terrible, icy pain surged through Yuna's ectoplasm. It wasn't truly an ice-type attack, yet it sure felt like one.

Air rushed all around a flailing Yuna. Shiva quickly grew farther and farther away. Was Yuna falling? Tumbling through the air?

She got her answer when her momentum screeched to a halt against a solid wall of frigid water. The night sky, stadium lights, and distant explosions blurred. Bubbles drifted past her vision when she tried to shout. Water flooded her inner ectoplasm.

Yuna tried to swim upward. She couldn't. Fierce wind currents were pushing her further down. Everything was getting darker. Darker. Darker.

She tried to go intangible. It didn't work.

Yuna reached out to her Soul Dew. It wouldn't respond.

Her shadows, then?

... No. She couldn't feel them.

Everything was pitch black. Fear took hold. Yuna didn't have organs, but there was a drowning analogue for ghosts. When their inner ectoplasm filled with so much water it choked their spirits and snuffed out their lives.

The current pushed her further into the depths. Shiva must have gotten corrupted by the flying-type plate. That was how she was forcing Yuna down. The drakloak couldn't overcome the river's intense churning. It dragged her deeper and deeper.

A heaviness weighed on her gut. Tugged at her tail and neck. It surrounded her head and swallowed up her face.

After a final, desperate wriggle... Yuna went still.

XxX

~Wings of Ruin: Shiva~
The Affirmer's flight took Him across worlds, linking these realms together. He saw those who were suffering. He vowed to ease their burdens. When He bound Space, Time, and the Elements of Mind with the Red Chain, the links drew the realms together into one. Thus began the Great Harmony.

XxX

~Beak of Ruin: Ifrit~
Like pestilence, the Renegade tailed the Affirmer throughout His journey. It took control of its counterparts. The Affirmer outmaneuvered it time and time again. Yet it did not give up the chase. Even at the dawn of the Great Harmony, the Renegade appeared to attack the Affirmer. And this aggression left enough lingering chaos to shatter the Great Harmony.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
The chapter title is latin for "protect the world," in reference to Team Rocket's anime motto. Shiva is a member of the Trimutri holy trinity in Hinduism. Within the Hindu tradition of Shaivism, he is the Supreme Being, responsible for creating, protecting, and transforming the universe. In contrast, Ifrit is a demon associated with death and the underworld within Islamic culture. Quetzal is from the Aztec deity "Quetzalcoatl," related to the wind, sun, merchants, learning, arts, and crafts.

All three are recurring summons in the Final Fantasy franchise.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 83: Inner Daemon​

On the Third of the Original One's Children
Despite my fervent investigations, I have failed to piece together the mystery of the so-called Renegade Pokémon. The legends surrounding it are few and far between. About the only conclusion I've reached is that it's a divine pokémon possibly related to Dialga, Palkia, and the Original One, Arceus.

There are vague, scattered allusions to a creature that lurks in the shadows. Those who cross its path seem unable to comprehend its form. There are no depictions of it. Even stranger is that at some point in the past it simply... vanished. As if it never really existed to begin with.

Those descended from the ancient Sinnoh people claim the second Hisuian hero befriended this legend, just as she befriended the Original One. Following that, there are no further records of its existence. Did it disappear entirely?

I know he was there. Because of the photos that changed in Grandmother's house. Was he involved with this hero? Did he choose to stay in that time?

Grandmother thinks I'm letting my research consume me. Just like his single-mindedness drove him away from Celestic Town. But we're not the same. I'm a scientist. Any risks I take will be thoroughly calculated.

I'll solve the mystery of this missing legendary pokémon. And then, humans and pokémon alike can reach even greater heights!

XxX​

The air was cold and harsh. It tore at Yuna's inner ectoplasm.

But it was dry.

Yuna's head shot up. Tan and dull brown swirled around her vision. This didn't make any sense. Wasn't she supposed to be underwater?

The drakloak rubbed her eyes. When she pulled her hands away, she found herself lying on a neglected stone floor. Signs of a struggle peppered the area. Scorches here. Chunks of ground missing there. Stone columns ended abruptly with their top halves destroyed. Had they once held up a roof? If they did, they'd become nothing but misshapen spears jutting toward the sky.

Yuna picked herself up and hovered forward. Red and purple swirled overhead. How did she get here? Was she dead? Like dead dead? What about everyone else?

Stairs led to more of the same broken stone floor. But now there were piles of rubble lined up on either side of her. Not pillars, that was for sure. Statues, maybe?

These were definitely ruins, then. But of what? Had she sunk into an underwater cavern?

The air at the other end of the destroyed hallway briefly contorted. Enough for Yuna to catch it. She tensed up, rubbing her hands along her belly. Did she dare appro—

Wait.

Yuna ran her hands along her belly once. Twice. A third time. The drakloak looked down.

The Soul Dew!

It was gone! Her chest was bare for the first time in almost two months. She looked left, then right, then back down the stairs.

Nothing. No twinkles or glimmers or anything to suggest it was here with her.

Maybe she really was dead, then? And she bonded with her Soul Dew, so perhaps she was inside it...

"Rayquaza!" Yuna called out.

Nothing.

She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Reshiram? Cresselia?"

Still nothing.

Yuna's tail undulated wildly. "Is anyone out there?!"

This time, when the air across from her rippled, tiny black globules dribbled out. They splattered against the stone floor like raindrops.

She recognized that inky darkness. Swallowing hard, Yuna floated forward. The closer she got, the more black blobs dripped onto the ground from thin air. A black puddle spread across the floor.

It covered half the raised end of the hall when Yuna reached it. She got about a meter away from its edge and went no further.

Those were her shadows. What else could they be? Had they claimed her instead of the Soul Dew? Is this what they saw while inside her?

Yuna wouldn't make any headway like this. Maybe they'd listen to words? "What do you want?" She looked around hesitantly but refrained from asking another question.

To show you the truth.

"Gah!" Yuna grabbed the sides of her head. "H-Hey! Don't do that!" Though she couldn't put "that" into words.

Do what, answer your question?

"That!" Yuna gestured at the puddle. "Some 'not telepathy but inside my head' thingy!" It was the best explanation she had.

The puddle rippled.

This is our only way to communicate.

Yuna flinched. This "voice" was strange. A part of Yuna told her it was supposed to be deeper, yet it wasn't. She couldn't even tell if it was male or female. Yuna was sorely tempted to turn away, knowing full well it wouldn't get her out of her situation.

But she was here. The shadows were "talking." If they were going to come to an understanding, it was now or never.

Hesitating at first, Yuna managed a shaky, "What do you want to show me?"

The puddle rippled faster and faster. Shadows congealed together. Yuna half expected some monstrous daemon to emerge... but what formed was small. Even smaller than her. Two legs, a bit of an oversized head, and two head... baubles?

... No, aura feelers.

"A riolu?" Yuna tilted her head. The inky riolu mirrored her gesture. "I was hoping for answers."

You do not recognize her? Then you must focus.

The puddle rippled even faster. All around Yuna, enormous trees painted themselves over the spear-like pillars. A dusty forest trail spilled out atop the stone floor. And the inky riolu darted about in a frenzy.

Yuna hovered back, uncertain whether to expect an attack. Riolu hopped, rolled, and slid. The drakloak had no idea why. "Am I missing something?"

Focus. See the whole picture.

Ectoplasm rippling again, Yuna squinted. Giant, fluid-filled arms swung wildly at Riolu. The faint, hulking outline they were attached to brought that one bewear teacher from the academy to mind.

Riolu's inky black form jumped off an arm and thrust her hands in the bewear silhouette's direction. It staggered briefly, but managed to grab Riolu with its right hand and slam her into the ground.

The forest scene flickered like a light at Cyril's outpost that needed changing. Riolu squirmed underneath the giant hand. Their featureless face didn't move, but Yuna swore she heard screams echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Bewear's silhouette faded in and out. There were two people behind it. One was a bigger riolu— lucario, then. But the other...

Butterfree Effect.

There was no mask this time, yet their face was featureless. Lucario tried to approach Bewear, but Butterfree Effect stopped it. When it whirled on Butterfree Effect, they produced a spherical orb that sucked Lucario up in a stream of light. Just like the Soul Dew did to the Sages.

Bewear slammed Riolu into the ground again. And again. Each time, Yuna heard screams from all directions. Painfully familiar screams that grew quieter with each blow.

The final time Bewear slammed Riolu down, she lay still. Butterfree Effect gestured forward. Bewear raised its arms up, then swung once more.

Everything dissolved away the moment Bewear's fists would've crushed Riolu to death. The destroyed hallway was restored. Inky black tendrils hoisted Riolu's battered form into the air.

Yuna stared at Riolu. And the longer she did, the more her ectoplasm quivered— no, tightened. Like her body wanted to collapse in on itself.

"Stop." The drakloak squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "I don't— none of this helps me. I don't even know what this is!"

The black puddle bubbled.

Then what of your visceral reaction?

Yuna squeezed her hands together. "Because you showed me someone getting hurt! I... I..." She looked for anything else to stare at besides the puddle. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Her ectoplasm tightened again. Yuna's neck and torso twisted.

You are remembering.

The drakloak stiffened. "Please stop," she whispered.

We will not. You remembered the wish you made when you were at your lowest.

Yuna's torso tightened further. She was practically an ectoplasmic rectangle balancing precariously on a stick. "I don't want to do this anymore."

Black sludge rose out of the violently rippling puddle. Growing higher and higher until there was practically a hill of black slime casting a wide shadow over Yuna. Spectral wings emerged from either side of the beast. Pristine crimson spikes illuminated two tiny red dots poking through the cylindrical head of... whatever this was.

(Art by PhantomRadea)

That is not what you told us last time.

Her body finally shot into her rectangular head. Yuna drifted back, coaxing her torso out with shaky breaths.

This had to be the source of her shadows. And given the shadows reacted every time Butterfree Effect showed up...

"You're what they're addressing." Yuna pointed a trembling arm toward them. "You're Yaldabaoth."

The red dots flickered.

No, they're more like blinking eyes.

That is one of many names.

Yuna couldn't stop herself from shaking. "Well that's... too much of a mouthful. So, I'm calling you Chaos." Since Butterfree Effect kept insisting this thing was some sort of chaos magnet.

Do what you must.

A pang of guilt struck Yuna's chest. She quickly shoved it down, though. Why have sympathy for the shadows when they were causing such a gigantic headache?

Chaos' wing-spikes flashed. Within seconds, Yuna found herself floating where Chaos' blobby form was, looking across a brighter, sunnier version of the ruined hall. Butterfree Effect's silhouette was in front of her, hunched over with arms spread wide.

"Giratina, strike her down!"

There was another human silhouette. And as Yuna felt herself lunging forward, the silhouette stretched and squashed. Unraveled into a familiar dragapult with a fierce expression.

The illusion shattered. Yuna dropped from the air with a yelp, landing on the stone floor. "What? Mom?!" She picked her head up and rubbed her eyes. Was that supposed to be a vision? No, that wasn't possible. This was a mind game.

And that phrase Butterfree Effect used. Giratina. Was that... one of Chaos' other names? Their species, perhaps?

Her gut told her the latter, which scared her even more. Why would she have a gut feeling about that?

Chaos' ooze rippled. A slimy wing extended toward her.

Up?

"No!" Yuna was going to smack the wing when she realized how stupid that was with their size difference. Remaining on the ground, she scooted back. "Stop it! Stop showing me these things! I don't want to see them! They don't— they can't mean anything!"

Silence. Black drops dribbled into the puddle from Chaos' extended wing. Their red eyes dimmed. They folded the wing against their sludgy body. Chaos looked down guiltily.

There is no way to make this gentle.

Yuna looked at her tail. Anything was better than meeting Chaos' eyes. "Am I dead?"

No. We are protecting you.

"I see." Yuna grabbed her tail and brought it toward her torso. "Am I still drowning in the river?"

We are protecting you. But our powers are limited as they are. Time is fleeting.

Yuna didn't pick herself off the ground. So, it was shielding her now, but not when she needed it against Shiva's attack? The drakloak groaned. Was she going to give Chaos the benefit of the doubt?

Silence. None of Chaos' intrusive thoughts. They weren't pressing her, despite the claim they only had so much time.

She took a breath. Then another. Yuna had plenty of questions, but if time was truly an issue, she needed one that got to the heart of the matter.

"Why are we... together like this?"

Yuna looked up expectantly. Black slime dripped and trickled into the puddle beneath Chaos. It bothered her even though she'd been around plenty of the goodra line in her life. Chaos leaned forward. Blinked their tiny red eyes a few times.

We are together... because we are one.

Flashes of red light blinded Yuna.

She lay in the dirt. Bones broken. So much pain.

Air. She needed air. Breathe, damn it! She couldn't die like this! Not with so much to live for!

Her vision blurred. Air wasn't getting in. The pain— oh, God, the agony.

She was going to die. She wasn't strong enough. She'd failed.

A shadow was there. She tried to reach a mangled blue arm out. Nickie...

Yuna jerked upright with a sharp gasp, trembling from head to tail. "I said no more mind games," the drakloak squeaked, glaring at Chaos.

We have no choice. You must understand the truth.

Yuna's ectoplasm pulsated. "I don't— this doesn't make sense. I'm not a riolu. I'm a drakloak!" Her gaze fell to her twitching tail. "I've nev— I'm not a riolu."

You were when you made your wish.

Chaos extended their goopy left wing. Their wing spikes glistened with ethereal light.

A new silhouette padded toward her. Pointy ears. A little tuft of hair. Six fluffy tails.

She sat beside her. Wrapping an arm over an icepix's shuddering form.

"We'll fix this, Nickie," she promised. "I can't imagine what it feels like. But you've worked with me despite that pain." She extended her paw toward Nickie. "I wish I could be that strong."

Yuna smacked her cheeks. Glared at Chaos once again, but they only tilted their head slightly. They didn't do that? She returned her gaze to the icepix silhouette. It stretched and pulled itself apart into something much more familiar. A specter that drew a visceral snarl from Yuna.

Xeromus.

You wished to protect those you treasured most.

The silhouette squashed back into an icepix. Riolu appeared at her side. Their snouts brushed together. Yuna's head pounded once again. Her ectoplasm quivered.

This is... all a trick. I— what— why—

You wished for a second chance.

Chaos plucked Riolu off the ground as Icepix poofed out of existence. Black and red light swirled around Riolu.

We heard your dying pleas. Too much of your soul had faded from its mortal coil. So, we gave you ours to fill the void.

She raced through the dark sky. Headed for the vortex over the tower. Temporal Tower.

She still had time. She could still stop it, right?

The scent of blood drifted over her.

Nickie and Nero. Others too, like a latias and a zoroark. Unmoving. Covered in gashes.

"NO!"

The lucario, volcanic arcanine, and spiritomb standing opposite the bodies looked right at her. Then they looked back.

Butterfree Effect turned. The crimson glow of the chain swirling around behind them cast an eerie shadow across the tower.

"You cannot stop me this time!"

Screams of pain filled her ears. Six bodies were wrapped in the Red Chain. Five had red wheels that matched the dimming golden one around the belly of the one screaming loudest: Arceus.

"I am the only one worthy of wielding the power of the legends themselves! Now witness the dawn of a new world! A perfect world free of all suffering!"

With a furious roar, she pried apart the air itself. She dove through the reverse's distortion, lunging to tear apart the Red Chain.

Yuna violently lurched backward, forcing the vision away.

"ENOUGH!" she pleaded, jerking her head back and forth. She hunched over, tail shriveling up into her torso.

"I'm Yuna." Her voice was so tiny. "I don't— that stuff is—" The drakloak shuddered. "Your memories and mine are different."

The spirit never forgets. We are one. Now and forever. That was your wish.

"That's not my spirit!" Yuna looked for a rock — hell, even a pebble — to throw at Chaos. "And it's not... it's not..." She kept stumbling over her words until her voice trailed off.

"Continuing down this path will lead you to discover several horrible truths. And without that tenacity... the weight of those truths will crush you."

The drakloak lay there in silence. Taking shuddering breaths and blinking small tears from her eyes. She wasn't sure how long the silence lingered as she repeated Vegna's words in her head. Yuna didn't even care to think about why Vegna knew to tell her something like this.

Everything about this was horrible. She thought the flashbacks with Chiron had prepared her for this, but she was dead wrong.

How deep did this go? How many memories did Chaos have? Was she... nothing but a tiny, insignificant blip to them? Doomed to be swallowed up into an endless memory abyss?

Yuna scraped her hands across the stone floor. She wanted this to end so, so badly. To wake up back in Aeon. Before the stupid treaty. Before Eternatus. And before this whole dimensional cataclysm.

Yet without even thinking, she whispered, "Help me understand."

Chaos slowly raised their right wing. The spikes glistened. Faint red light traced circles and triangles in the air. A familiar pattern. One Yuna watched Leo produce in every anomaly core. Then Chaos struck the pattern with their wing. It slowly rotated until it was upside down to how Yuna remembered.

Reverse.

The drakloak blinked slowly. "Reverse what?"

The reverse. A realm on the opposite side. We are the guardian of the reverse.

Picking herself up, Yuna stared blankly at the upside-down sigil. "That..." Blank stare turned to scowl. "That has to be the single most unhelpful explanation. And that's really saying something given all of this!" She gestured around.

Chaos' goopy body melted somewhat into the puddle.

You were not this... difficult last time.

"Because apparently I was dying!" Yuna snarled, rubbing her hands back and forth along the floor. "I was... dying..." She looked down, blinking slowly. The thoughts of icy river water suffocating her ectoplasm filled her head.

"I... am dying."

Fighting back tears, Yuna forced herself to look at the rune Chaos had drawn. More ripples ran along their puddle, up to Chaos' bulky head. They grabbed the red sigil with their right wing and squeezed it into a red orb. Then they cracked it open like an egg for cooking.

Home has two sides to it.

Chaos lifted one half of the orb up.

Aeon and Radiance dwell in the reverse world. A realm that should not bear life, much less countless civilizations.

Yuna rubbed her eyes. "That can't be right. Because—"

Eyes flashing, Chaos lifted the other half of the orb up.

The Qliphoth is the regular world. It is where all life should reside, be it humans, pokémon, or something else entirely.

Chaos brought the two halves close together, yet they never touched.

Both sides are linked. However, they are not meant to interact directly with one another.

They touched the halves together. Tiny red sparks shot out in all directions. Chaos' eyes dimmed slightly.

Eternatus' act of absorbing planets... is an attempt at restoring balance to itself. To the universe.

Yuna sat there, repeating the statement to herself. The earlier heaviness hadn't left her. And this was another weight on the pile. "But the Qliphoth... is some mix of people born within and those from home. And those people can't return outside because they're dead."

Incorrect assumptions from those who did not witness the dawn of this universe. Since the beginning, Eternatus has returned life to the regular world, where it rightfully belongs. Those you thought dead have merely attuned their souls to the regular world. And without the energy you call Malice, their spirits cannot withstand the reverse world's energy. Thus, they erode into Whispers.

But her allies had gone back and forth between Eternatus and the reverse world. "That can't be right," Yuna mumbled. "Like, why would the reverse world be so much bigger? To where Eternatus could get sealed with the Needles?"

The difference in size is a result of the universe's broken creation process. And our allies have always had protection against corrosion. From us. From the Creator. Or from other blessings.

Other blessings? Yuna squeezed her tail tighter. Much as she wanted to press that point, she feared she didn't have the time.

Still, this flew in the face of everything Yuna thought she understood. Then again, Widget mentioned a video message Nova left behind for Gene. One that claimed Eternatus was necessary for the universe to function properly. Something the emperor echoed... and Widget believed while he served the deoxys.

She shifted uneasily on the stone floor. "If this is all true, then..."

Destroying Eternatus is tantamount to destroying the universe. And the reverse world will die with it.

Chaos brought the two halves it was holding fully together. There were sparks for a few seconds, which gave way to distorted tendrils that stitched themselves through the orbs.

Aeon's patron — the dragon of light — forced a permanent union between regular and reverse. This is why the planet is falling apart. We must sever this union.

"... By pulling all the Needles." Yuna grimaced. "Except Necrozma wants to pull them all to destroy Eternatus. If we break the union and strand him in the reverse world, then Eternatus will be safe, right?"

Chaos squeezed the orb and it faded into red mist.

The husk can travel between regular and reverse, just as we do. It still endangers us all.

Right. All the rift making. Yuna looked at her hands. At least now... she could try and link this back to what was familiar. "That power... I have it because I'm Chiron. You were a part of me then, too, weren't you?"

Silence. Chaos somewhat melted into the puddle again, which told Yuna the answer was somewhere between "no" and "it's complicated."

A tremor ran across the ground. Yuna braced herself against the floor. Was Chaos' protection from the river failing?

"I have to know," Yuna said, even if part of her screamed to just end this conversation.

Chaos straightened up. Inky blobs peeled themselves off Chaos' goopy body.

Many giratina are violently protective toward the reverse world. We once struggled to control our instincts, to the point of attacking the Creator. For that, we were branded the Renegade. And, like many of our kind, the Creator sealed most of our power within the reverse world.

We were shunned. Isolated. An all too familiar fate.

The blobs squished themselves together into a copy of the Butterfree Effect.

One day, we met a human. Lost and confused. He claimed he was torn away from his time.

The copy turned to Chaos and extended a hand.

He paid attention to us. He wanted to see us reach our full potential. We were... happy to have someone acknowledge us. So, we followed his plan. We tore a rift in the sky. Our siblings, Time and Space, blamed one another and quarreled. The human wanted us to work together to stop them. To prove our combined worth to the Creator.

Another human silhouette rose from the puddle and stood in opposition to Butterfree Effect. The one that briefly turned into Yiazmat when Yuna was charging at it in an earlier vision.

But our creator instead called upon a different human. She and her partners stopped the fight before we could. This enraged the human we trusted. He used our gift to him to summon us. Demanded we kill her. But we saw the good in her heart. And her partners stood valiantly against us.

The human continued to demand we kill her. He betrayed our trust. So, we fled. The human branded us a traitor. We were alone once again.

Chaos flicked their right wing. Butterfree Effect disappeared, leaving the girl. She turned to Chaos and tilted her head.

The girl found us. Comforted us. She taught us how to work with a team. How to protect without lashing out. We made up with our siblings and the Creator.

They slowly lowered their head and shook it.

But the human that betrayed us returned. Determined to surpass all of us, including the Creator. We sensed he had breached the boundary between worlds. With the girl's blessing, we gave chase.

The girl's silhouette collapsed. Small black blobs floated in the air between Yuna and Chaos.

We followed him to other worlds. Each time, we joined with that realm's giratina to try and stop him. Each time, he slipped away. Over and over. Until the human reached a world inhabited only by pokémon.

The black blobs squished themselves together. Riolu landed on the edge of the puddle.

Though we searched, we could not find the human until the moment we met you... and heard your dying wish.

The ground trembled again. This was... a lot to process. If she and Chaos were really the same spirit, did that make this her past? Did she have several pasts... all spent trying and failing to catch Butterfree Effect?

Yuna pushed herself into the air. "How does this tie back to Chiron?"

We saw it for ourselves, remember? The human forged a new world. We attacked the human. Disrupted his new world's creation. The result... was a backwards, incomplete world. With life split between the regular and reverse.

There was nothing we could do to fix it. Our power — the power of the Renegade — was taken from us after we finished disrupting this universe's creation.

Chaos extended their right wing. Several black globs dribbled down. A new human rose from the edge of the puddle. Ran inky hands through shaggy, unkempt hair. Yuna heard nothing, but the way the human was gesturing and stomping around, they were clearly angry. Punching the air. Knocking things off invisible furniture.

They tossed a black blob on the ground in front of Yuna. It vaguely resembled one of those handheld gaming device thingies she'd seen Cyril carry around on occasion.

The human suddenly jerked backwards. Black tendrils pried themselves free and sucked the human up. The black slime swirled around until it resembled a silhouette of Bahamut.

The new, broken world drew in an isolated soul so full of resentment and anger toward everything around him. Despite all our training, this stranger's violent temperament... overpowered our will. He seized our power over the reverse world. In effect, the dragon of light became the Renegade Pokémon of the newly-made universe.

Yuna frowned. Something was off about that. It sounded so... vague compared to everything else Chaos told her. And their tone. Yuna still had trouble parsing it, but she had another gut feeling.

They're... uncertain?

Chaos didn't appear bothered. They watched Bahamut's silhouette fly around, lashing out at the air with his wings and tail. Yuna followed the silhouette, too. The ringing in her head was back. Maybe she was rushing to conclusions about this part of Chaos' explanation?

Then Bahamut was... like her. A past life cut short. But instead of a dying wish... his wrath twisted him into the thing Chaos used to be before that human girl helped them?

"So the reason he kept attacking the planets he visited..." Frowning, the drakloak crossed her arms. "And the reason he wants to destroy Eternatus above everything... is because he thinks he's protecting the reverse world."

Chaos nodded slowly.

He embodies our kind far more than we do. His irrational drive to claim as much power as possible to strike down Eternatus... is built on the foundation of a violent desire to protect his domain.

They caught Bahamut with their right wing, absorbing the black slime.

However, thanks to Eternatus wounding him, he lost the power to control the reverse world. We escaped. And reunited.

That had to refer to the Darkest Day. Bahamut's light... must have been how he did all this crazy stuff in the reverse world. And if that power was supposed to belong to Yuna... then it was no wonder she bonded with the Soul Dew when Chiron didn't. That was her power all along!

But then... what did that mean for her relation to Chiron? It certainly didn't sound like Chaos had an answer for her.

Yuna looked down at her tail. "Mom said she found me sealed in a crystal." Did that mean Chaos searched for her until she hatched? "Wait, what about how sick I was as a kid?"

Chaos lowered their head slightly.

"Don't tell me..."

Your illness was a result of our reunion. You remained sick while our broken soul healed. Even though you recovered, we remained dormant until recently. Recuperating from our time within the dragon of light.

It took a moment, but Yuna recalled the strange temple inside Eternatus. The fight with Runerigus and the shadowy wings that came to her in a time of need...

The ground shook again. Chaos' inky puddle rippled faster.

We are out of time.

Relief and dread battled it out in Yuna's head. She still had more questions! How was she supposed to try and free herself from drowning with this weighing on her conscience?!

We must fully combine. You must shed your drakloak guise. We shall become one in mind, body, and spirit. Then we can fully wield the power of distortion. The power you call your "shadows."

Chaos clapped their wings together. Two cards appeared in front of their wing spikes. One with an orange and yellow sun, the other bearing a blue and purple crescent moon. Each had a mixture of letters on them. "XVIII" for the moon card and "XIX" for the sun card.

We will also allow you to put these to use. They've lingered deep inside your soul all this time.

Yuna stared at the cards. Chaos' demands played on loop in her head. After several seconds, she shriveled up.

"No," she instinctively mumbled. She couldn't agree to that. Not if it meant getting battered by the tsunami of Chaos' memories... or past selves.

And certainly not if it meant Yuna would fade away. She couldn't leave the others! Especially not Noctum and Nikki.

The icepix's soft tails brushing against her side. A tingle down her spine.

You speak nonsense. You already fear transforming into Chiron. But that shall not happen. Instead, we will hold memories of our time as Drakloak Yuna.

"That's not good enough!" Yuna firmly squeezed her arms against her side. "I'm... I'm not ready! I can't—" She shook her head. "I can't disappear! Whether that's becoming you or Chiron or something else!

"The past doesn't matter! I'm me! I'm Yuna! We have to find another way!"

The ground rumbled again. Purple fissures traced across the floor, barely skirting Chaos' puddle.

We are out of time. There is no other way. We must combine.

"I said no!" Yuna surprised herself with her intensity. "This... this is still my life—"

We cannot stand up against Zodiark like this.

Zodiark? Was that... Butterfree Effect's real name? Or their name back when they were the human Chaos was chasing after?

It didn't matter. Yuna had made up her mind. "I understand what you're saying, but I can't go. Not like this."

The drakloak curled her hands up. "I refuse... to merge."

Was it selfish? Maybe. But Yuna needed time to come to grips with everything. She couldn't disappear after learning all of this.

The ground shuddered again.

"Give me... a bit more power," the drakloak said. "Enough to fight the Whispers." She looked down. Guilt and concern wrestled in her head.

Very well.

What?

Yuna glanced at Chaos. They were halfway sunken into their puddle.

"You're okay with this?"

We remain bound by your wish. We shall not hurt you.

Yuna bit her lower lip to keep from making a snide remark. "All right." She took a calming breath. "Then let's... work together. In parallel. Not as one." Her tail rippled. "Okay?"

We shall assist, but it is only a matter of time until you yield to the inevitable.

Chaos' head sank into the puddle. It rippled faster and faster.

Yuna doubled over in pain. Her chest... it was on fire! Was the Soul Dew doing something to her real body?

The burning got worse and worse. Yuna screamed. Jagged, amber crystal burst from her chest ectoplasm.

The puddle rose from the ground like a large wave heading for the shore.

... That shore being Yuna.

"What are you doing?" Her new chest crystal spread light across her body. "Stop! Stop! I said no merging! STOP!"

BISHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!

The black wave crashed over her, flooding her world in darkness.

XxX​

Gene's tail lashed at the air. They had numbers on the Whispers and this was still a problem?

He Phantom Warped just south of midfield, avoiding a wall of shadowfire. The shadowy mewtwo already learned the hard way those flames were dark-type. For some stupid reason.

"What are you waiting for? Hit him!" he growled. Flames gathered in his right hand. Gene hurled the Fire Blast, figuring that bug-shaped crystal on Ifrit's head had to symbolize "fire gud."

Black flames swirled around midfield. Ifrit's dark whirlwind knocked aside the five prongs of Gene's Fire Blast. Quetzal retreated toward Gene.

"I'm trying!" the orange zapdos squawked.

"No you're not!" Gene had another Fire Blast ready and hurled it at the dark moltres. He glared at Quetzal, who formed a spinning air cone around his beak and charged toward midfield.

Ifrit folded his wings, dropping to the ground. The Fire Blast sailed overhead. He threw up his wings, blunting some of Quetzal's Drill Peck. But Ifrit still skidded across the scorched ground.

"You're pulling your punches!" Gene's Malice Crystal sparked. "Don't try to deny it! You still see your friend and not some mindless murder bird who wants to gouge your eyes out!"

"Th-that's—" Quetzal jumped high enough to avoid a furious Air Slash barrage that sliced up midfield's ruined grass. "Ifrit doesn't resort to gouging eyes! That's barbaric!"

Gene swapped fire for lightning. He pointed his right hand downfield and let the sparks fly. Ifrit rolled out of the way.

"You want to do the 'I know you're in there' schtick? Then do it!" Gene pursued Ifrit. The black moltres couldn't gather up enough shadowfire to strike. Instead, Gene broadsided Ifrit with his spoon. Ifrit skipped back across the ground, toward the northern end of the field.

"Did you really have to hit him that hard?" Quetzal said. His feathers puffed out when Gene leveled the spoon in his direction.

"Hey, uh, not to interject or anything." Koraidon's voice carried through Gene's X-transceiver. He glanced up. In the nosebleed section of the eastern stands, Jade was fleeing an Air Slash bombardment from Shiva. The weird stoic human remained atop the psychic articuno's back.

"How much longer do you think you'll be? These Team Rocket people have stolen a lot of pokémon with their, err, giant meowth machine. I think they might fly the coop soon."

Gene gnashed his teeth. Damn it. Yuna vanished five minutes ago and everything since then had spiraled out of control.

"I'm handling it," the shadowy mewtwo said. "Just gimme a minute or two." He concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his shoulder, drawing in as much of the energy as he could.

"This is no way to treat a lady!" Jade cawed, trying to outfly a furious tornado spiraling through the stands, flinging seating all around. "Cece! Undisappear yourself and heeeeeeeeelp!"

"Your friend is gone," the trainer on Shiva's back said. "They were boring. As are you. Nothing but dodges and quips. Do you even have a reason to be here?"

Jade turned around, stunned. Gene took the opportunity to fire a small Shadow Ball at Shiva. It provided a temporary distraction, with the masked articuno stopping to snuff the ectoplasm out with more pink eye lasers.

The salugia didn't press her opening, though. Gene was ready to chew her out like he did to Quetzal when a thunderous boom split the air.

Red and purple energy streaming from his Malice Crystal into his torso, Gene shot up high above midfield. "Tell me the big robot didn't just do something awful!" he cried.

"The robot didn't make that sound," Koraidon said. "Something emerged from the river. I think it's Yuna!"

Shiva turned toward Gene. "What?" The trainer finally sounded something other than disinterested.

Gene was ready to take advantage of the opening when a jagged purple rift split the air underneath Shiva open. There was a roar, followed by a spectral wing slashing Shiva from below. An off-pitch warble escaped the masked articuno's beak as she buckled in midair from the strike. The trainer visibly struggled to maintain his grip.

"Impossible," he said.

Shiva swept pink eye lasers beneath her. However, the spectral wing vanished. A dragapult appeared over Shiva's head. She punched the air furiously and large, gray, ectoplasmic legs pummeled the unsuspecting articuno, knocking her into the stands, then swatting her toward the northern part of the ruined battlefield. The trainer lost his grip and was soon in freefall toward the uneven ground.

"Someone catch him!" Gene shouted, still a bit stunned at what he was seeing.

"On it!"

An orange streak surged across the burnt, torn-up grass. Quetzal abruptly stopped in the perfect spot to catch the trainer.

Gene spotted Ifrit preparing to hit Quetzal from behind. The shadowy mewtwo had all this energy charged up. With Shiva occupied, he had no qualms about changing targets.

Gene cupped his hands in front of him. Focusing on that hateful energy burning inside his chest, he pushed it along his arms... then unleashed the devastating red and purple beam. It swept across the ground, torching the remaining grass away and leaving a trail of black ooze behind.

"Holy hell!"

Nikki barely managed to escape to midfield from the beam, carrying the unconscious pikachu that had given her problems before under her shoulder. She stared dumbly at Gene's attack.

It was tough controlling the beam. But the thing was large enough to swallow the squawking moltres up. Shattered crystal fragments tumbled across the scorched field.

Gene's arms were on fire. He thought they'd melt right off his shoulders! Gene barely managed to cut the beam off. Black vapor rose off his arms, which he rapidly shook out.

"He's down!"

Running up the field, Nikki tossed Pikachu next to Ifrit, whose head crystal had shattered. The two foes lay side by side in an unconscious heap.

That's one. Gene turned. So, what about the other?

Shiva flew around the eastern stands, frantically shooting pink beams from her eyes. All the while, the dragapult weaved through the beams, blasting dreepy-shaped bolts straight into Shiva's face. Shrieking, the masked articuno whipped up a furious Hurricane.

(Art by Adam)

"Not this time! [hovertext="Enochian: Great winds"]Drilpa ozongon![/hovertext]"

Dragapult— no, Yuna clapped her hands together. The jagged, amber crystal in her chest crackled with the same static as the rifts they conjured.

Mega Rayquaza torpedoed his way through the Hurricane, snuffing it out like it was nothing but a stiff breeze. His Dragon Ascent collided with Shiva. Before she could crash through the stands, another shadowy wing caught her by the balloon-shaped head crystals and dragged her through the air toward her downed allies.

"Now flock off, Feather Face!"

The wing squeezed the psychic articuno like an oversized stress ball. Her head crystal shattered. Shiva's body lurched. Static streamed out of her, heading roughly in the direction of where Gene recalled the vault was.

Though part of it briefly congealed into something resembling a face. A human face.

"Welcome back, Yaldabaoth."

The rest of the static went away. Yuna flew after it, looking over her shoulder at the others.

"Yuna?" Jade descended from the nosebleed section, an uncertain look on her face. "You evolved? But what's with your chest? Where's the Soul Dew?"

She turned away from Jade and tapped the side of her head. "Whoever has Leo, get him ready to seal the anomaly core. I'm coming to get him."

"H-Hey, wait!" Jade flew toward her. "What should we do about all of this?" She gestured around her.

But the dragapult didn't respond. She opened a rift behind her, flew into it, and sealed it up.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
"Drilpa ozongon" is "great winds" in Enochian.

Chaos is the mythological void within the area of cosmogony. Ancient Greek myths consider Chaos a primordial deity or a void state existing before the universe's creation. Christian theology depicts Chaos as an abyss formed when God separated heaven and earth during the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 84: Lustrous Sheen​

Rough scales grazed Noctum's arms, telling him he'd gotten Valkyrie. He yanked her through the rift, but not before searing pain shot across his arms. Yowling, the black charizard fell on his back, with a dazed Valkyrie flopping onto his armored belly.

Up on the rooftop, giant dragon wings swirled around in a blue-purple vortex. A few panicking dragons on the ground fled from near the building, pointing and shouting. Debris rained down from the rooftop.

From his cramped confines by the child's side, Noctum saw a dome of multicolored, prismatic light erupt from Time. It blotted out the sky, rift and all.

"What the—" Noctum slid back, blinking rapidly and wincing. Nicks and scrapes covered his arms down to his claws. "That's gotta be a Dynaforce attack, right?" And was it making him see things?

"The dragon one," Cyril said before unseen hands grabbed Noctum and pulled him to his feet. "That's your king, right?"

Noctum's violet flame rippled uneasily. "That's what the queen's saying." He glanced to his right, where the dragapult directed some dragons to form up around her. She struggled to keep a straight face. "But it sounds like... he got hit by Malice or something."

"Nah. It's Halvus."

Valkyrie got to her feet, groaning. "Halvwho?"

"One of the Paradigm." The cosmic zoroark spotted three Eternatus Gunners halfway between them and Halvus taking aim. He slung a Shadow Ball to his left, growling when they successfully scattered. Seifer and Biff raced in from Cyril's left, downing them before they got their attacks off.

"Halvus is some kind of munitions expert. But he's also lazy. Rarely gets involved in things directly. Don't know why the emperor would send him after us."

Noctum saw Seifer running toward the side of the League building. "What do you think you're doing?!" the keldeo cried. "Stop! There could be innocent people inside!"

"Aww, how cute! The rebel is trying to look like a hero!" An Eternatus Bombardier appeared from around the building's corner. Lightning crackled in its cannons. "But we evacuated everyone! Besides, we can rebuild it! We have the technology!"

The massive duraludon laughed and slammed his right hand against the League Headquarters. With a terrified whinny, Seifer galloped away.

"Look out!" Noctum again went for the rift option... but the energy fizzled out as quickly as it materialized. "What?! No, it worked before!"

Noctum flew around the center of the black and purple rift, right arm raised. Time glared back from across the rift. Noctum raised his arm, but no energy formed. "This is your fault!"

"Don't blame me for your failures!" Time snarled back.

"Seifer!" Cyril vaulted over the now-disoriented black charizard, lobbing a Shadow Ball with two hands like a baccer ball. It dampened enough of the boasting Bombardier's dual Thunders for Seifer to escape them and the rubble that poured over the scorched ground seconds later.

"Thanks!" The keldeo reached the trio, panting heavily. Noctum stared blankly at him. Why was he seeing faint outlines of metallic claws on Seifer's hooves?!

Cyril put his hands on his hips. "Now who's being the reckless dummy?"

Seifer's face reddened. Valkyrie got between the two. "Keep it in your fur. We've got bigger problems here!" She jerked her head behind her.

"All this running. So tiring, don't you think?" Halvus' voice was surprisingly higher-pitched than Calcifer's, despite the giant size. "Why don't you relax? Let me sweep your troubles away!"

His eyes flickered purple. Blue-violet wind ripped up the grass around them. "Run!" Valkyrie jetted to her left. It was faster for Noctum to fly backwards, so he had to separate from the other three. Like before, giant blue-violet dragon wings spun around inside the vortex. Even though Noctum avoided the blow, fatigue gripped him. He folded his wings in and stumbled across the grass.

"Now!"

Noctum scarcely had time to look up before electrified rocks battered him from above. The black charizard staggered back with each strike, before a lightning bolt struck him square in the gut. He fell to his back. Sparks jumped around his armor plate. The world spun around him.

The tachyons pummeled Noctum's right shoulder. Roaring in pain, he floated back. Threw his left arm over his pink shoulder gem. "You'll pay for that!"

"Try it!" Time reared up on their hind legs, temporal energy gathering once more in their maw.

"—ver me, damn it!"

Blurry flashes around Noctum caught his attention. Scaly arms grabbed his left shoulder and fuzzy ones yanked his right, hoisting him to his feet. Then the juiciness of an oran berry filled Noctum's mouth. The black charizard forced himself to chew before he could choke on it.

Blinking away the last fuzziness from his vision, Noctum saw Seifer and Biff zigzagging toward Halvus by ground and air, respectively. Aeon dragons backed them up from the far right, shooting Cosmic Blessing's rainbow waves at the Eternatus Troopers.

"Something's wrong." Noctum rubbed his head. "That daemon's attack..."

"It's Halvus' specialty," Cyril growled, running yellow claws through his starcloud mane. "He saps your energy. Makes it harder to use whatever your last technique was in a battle. I call it Dyna Depletion."

Valkyrie frowned. "It's just Spite, then?"

"If Spite hurt like a *****."

The mega garchomp's snout wrinkled in disgust. "Lovely. What the hell do we do about it?"

"Personally?" Cyril glanced over his shoulder. "I'd say keep your distance."

"Sheesh!" Halvus swatted the ground. Seifer barely managed to leap over his giant duraludon arm and sling an Aura Sphere at the middle of his head. Halvus took a step back from the blow. "All the nervous energy in the world can't help you idiots. You're working harder, not smarter."

Noctum shifted uneasily. "I can't fight from this far." And Calcifer was still in there. He had to be. "What am I supposed to do? I won't give up on the king."

"No one's giving up on him," Cyril cut in. "We gotta reevaluate our approach."

"By doing what?" Noctum could only watch Seifer and the others hopping around like frenzied spoink for so long. He noticed Biff swooping beneath a Rock Blast flurry and uppercutting an Eternatus Gunner. It pinwheeled toward Halvus. The giant duraludon spat a burst of metal at it, destroying it instantly.

"That's it!" the black charizard said. "We don't approach directly. We hit 'em with his flunkies. Like Iron Jugulis."

A growl escaped Valkyrie's snout. "Great." The garchomp hopped forward, then shot a Dragon Pulse ahead at an Eternatus Gunner. It burst apart. "Hmph. Did the emperor send the Troopers made of tissue paper or something?"

Shrugging, Cyril strolled away from them. "You're bright. Bet you'll come up with something."

Noctum was sorely tempted to talk back to the cosmic zoroark, but he saw Halvus gearing up for another attack. The black charizard flew into the air. Rather than a Dragon Pulse, he spewed some Dragonbreath at an Eternatus Bombardier. It held up its blasters to shield itself, but that gave Noctum the opening to swoop in. He swiped it with Metal Claws.

"Gah!" The Bombardier tumbled through the air, striking Halvus' long, building-like torso.

"Gnrk!" Halvus rested his left arm against the somewhat destroyed League building. "Nah, you ain't taking my load off, rebel scum! Troopers, fall back!"

The Gunners and Bombardiers taking aim stopped and looked at Halvus. "Are you sure?" one Gunner asked.

Blue-violet winds swirled to Halvus' right, around Seifer, Biff, and several of the Troopers. They hastily flew away, mechanical arms and tentacles flailing.

Noctum kept his distance, biting his lip. So much for his bright idea. Maybe they really did learn from Iron Jugulis.

"Anyone else got anything?" Valkyrie charged across the uneven ground. "Because I'm about to start ripping this place up with Earthquakes."

Seifer's tail frazzled. He jumped toward Biff. The buzzwole grabbed him and shot skyward. True to her word, Valkyrie slammed her scythe-like arms onto the ground. Fissures raced toward the corner of the building.

Halvus' right foot sank into one of the gaps. His growl reverberated through the area. "All that effort for so very little!"

The giant duraludon's eyes sparked pink. As his left leg also sank into the ground, he unleashed another Dyna Depletion. Noctum tried to throw open a rift and get to Valkyrie, but it fizzled out like before. Neither Biff nor Cyril could get there, either. The mega garchomp dove into the fissures her Earthquake made. Noctum's purple tail flame flickered in surprise.

"Attack!"

Yiazmat unleashed a flurry of Dragon Darts from Noctum's far left, over by the rift. Goodra and Noivern flanking her added Dragon Pulses. Seifer fired an Aura Sphere from the tip of his prosthetic horn. Noctum added his own Dragon Pulse.

"Waste of effort!" Halvus flicked his right hand. Giant metal spikes erupted from the crevices Valkyrie's Earthquakes carved. A few punctured the League building, flinging more rubble around. More disappointing, however, was when the spikes blocked the team's combined attacks.

Seconds later, a roar rang out. Another metal spike burst from the ground, knocking Valkyrie back. The mega garchomp rolled to a stop. Her mega evolution vanished in an orange flash, leaving the large gash along her left side all too visible to Noctum.

The human stared Time down. Their most ferocious attack charged in their mouth.

She gripped Noctum's ball tightly. Could he do this? His previous clashes with Time had gone poorly for him...

What was Noctum doing? He had to fight through these stupid mind games!

"Valkyrie!" The black charizard dove down from the air.

"So much energy wasted." Halvus' laughter rumbled through the area. "I'm telling ya, relax. Don't you think it's time you had yourselves a break?"

Noctum landed beside the garchomp. Jeez that wound was bleeding. She needed orans right away. Or a healer. "Heeey! Help!"

Bag, bag, where was her— there!

He lunged for it, flopping over her in the process.

"Grrraaaarrrgh!"

Valkyrie's arms dug into Noctum's sides. "Sorry, sorry! I just gotta grab the— got 'em!"

Noctum had an oran in each hand. All he had to do was feed them to her.

"Get out of there!" Cyril cried. "You're sitting ducklett!"

He looked up and saw Halvus conjuring more blue-violet wind. Another Dyna Depletion. Noctum had to lift Valkyrie up and get her away. But even without the mega evolution, she was heavy. Biff was still carrying Seifer, so the buzzwole was out. The best he could do was throw himself over the garchomp and hope to guard her that way.

Except instead of the attack, there were a couple of loud caws, followed by metallic thuds. Warm light washed over Noctum. Valkyrie shoved him off her. Much of her large gash was healed. But how?

"Do forgive the discourtesy of my fashionably late arrival."

Valkyrie shoved Noctum further off, giving him a clear view of Vegna. Gold mist seeped through cracks running between the dusknoir's fingers. Vegna didn't acknowledge him any further, pivoting and waving his right hand.

"Slice! Burn!"

"Hey, Tin Can, how's about I introduce you to Can and Opener? Ha ha haaaaah!"

Noctum lumbered to his feet. Near the building, Griffon darted around Halvus, swiping at the giant duraldon's trapped legs with his talons. Flames struck Halvus from behind every time he tried to strike Griffon, disrupting his rhythm. Talonflame's Flare Blitzing form crashed into Halvus' right arm, then darted away from a retaliatory swipe.

"Thanks for the save," Noctum said. It didn't look like Vegna's birds were doing much other than annoying Halvus, but it was giving everyone else room to pepper him with equally tiny attacks.

"Give me my husband back!" Yiazmat roared from over by the rift. Instead of Dragon Darts, rainbow bursts of Cosmic Blessings emerged from her horns.

"Don't you have a giant dragon of your own to summon?" Valkyrie growled. She was still a bit dazed and slow to get up.

"I can't summon Zekrom and heal you with Morning Sun." Vegna's right hand trembled until the gold fissures sealed themselves. "Pray forgive the inconvenience of my frail, crumbling body."

Noctum frowned. "Why does a dusknoir even have Morning Sun?"

Vegna turned away from them. "A story for another day. Do you want to strike down this daemon or not?" He drifted higher into the air, making small hand gestures that translated to Griffon and Talonflame circling up around one another.

"Right." The black charizard winced. "All these strikes and he's still standing."

"It's almost as if he's giant and tanky." Valkyrie looked down at herself. "And my mega's gone." She snorted out blue-purple embers. "I can still Earthquake, though." The garchomp held her arms at her side. "Everyone get clear!"

A quick flap of his wings was all Noctum needed. Valkyrie ran forward, feinting right, then darting left in case Halvus tried to intercept her. Yiazmat directed her dragon troops even closer to the rift, aiming Cosmic Blessings at Halvus' face to keep him distracted.

"C'mon, dear! You can't let him control you like this!" she pleaded.

"Shouting. Attacking. Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful!" Halvus braced his left arm against the half-destroyed building. "I'll make all of you relax!"

Blue-violet winds stirred. This blue-violet vortex covered half the field between the rift and the building! And Valkyrie was charging right into it! The garchomp saw it, but the ground was too torn apart for her to dive underneath like before.

She hurled his ball forward. Noctum had one shot— one chance to protect them from Time's wrath!

Noctum concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his gut. Sure, his energy was depleted. But it wasn't that far. Just one rift. One rift. He could do it. He had to do it!

He hit the stone ground of the temple and braced himself. Spacial Rend... he needed as strong a Spacial Rend as he could muster! Human temple for the Creator be damned!

His belly burned. A sudden power surge swelled through him. With a mighty roar, Noctum clawed at the air. He pried a rift open behind Valkyrie, then yanked her back. But the attack would carry through the rift if he left it open. So, the black charizard dove through it.

The Roar of Time raced right toward him. Noctum raised his arms, then thrust them forward.

"Noctum, no! Don't be an idiot!" Valkyrie cried.

He shut the rift just as the giant dragon wings erupted from what was left of the ground. Arms crossed, Noctum threw up a Protect shield. He doubted it could deflect a whole Dynaforce attack, but at least only his Protect power would get depleted.

His claws slashed through the blue beam. Shimmering rifts collided with tachyons.

"What the—"

Where was the pain? There should've been dragon energy slicing through Noctum. But all he could feel was that burning from his belly getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

The humans scattered with startled cries. An explosion engulfed Noctum and Time. Broken pieces of the temple's roof and stone pillars careened down the sides of the sky-piercing mountain.

Noctum thrashed his head back and forth. The burning was getting worse with every second! Like an invisible force stabbing him in the stomach over and over again. Noctum wanted to double over but forced himself to hang tough.

Anything to protect her. Anything to save Calcifer.

"I... must... proteeeeeeeeect!"

Noctum floated in a black void. Where were his arms and legs? Why couldn't he feel anything?

... Ah, wait, there! A small mote of light!

He got closer. It was... a tail flame? From a charmander?

There were shouts outside of the Dyna Depletion. Was someone saying something about absorption?

The charmander was thin. Frail. Its tail flame tiny, yet vibrant against the backdrop of the black void. It looked up at Noctum and smiled.

He recognized that smile... because it was his smile.

Charmander turned and walked away. Noctum followed, trying to call out to it.

Noctum snapped out of the vision to find his Protect's blue glow absent. Noctum was standing there, arms crossed, watching the Dyna Depletion funnel into his belly. Cracks spread along his armor until it shattered, metal pieces dropping by his feet.

"Wh... at..."

He was back in the void. Charmander was walking faster. There was pink light in the distance. Getting closer and closer.

Charmander walked up to the light. It was... an orb. Different shades of pink swirled around inside it. The orb pushed and pulled the pink light around it like waves lapping against a shoreline.

Every push and pull had a noise. Lub-dup. Lub-dup.

Noctum sank into the torn ground. His knees were down in the dirt. The burning in his stomach was at a fever pitch.

The Dyna Depletion faded away. Halvus yelled something Noctum couldn't make out.

Charmander turned to Noctum and smiled. "I found it."

Noctum somehow found his voice. "Found what?"

"Our lustrous heart."

Charmander gave Noctum one last serene smile before dissolving into the orb... which slammed into Noctum's belly.

The burning in the pit of his stomach erupted! Noctum arched backwards with a frenzied roar. His Malice Crystal melted into his gut. Blue scales painted over his tan ones as the charizard shot forward. Violet flames crackled in the corners of his vision. Had he mega evolved?

Noctum sliced apart Draco Meteors from the heavens, giving the human time to hurl balms at Time's Creator-esque torso.

It didn't matter! It was time to put an end to this!

Noctum raced toward Halvus' foot. Purple, starry Dragon Claws were at the ready. Noctum drove them into Halvus' leg.

"Waaaaaarrrgggh! Cut it out! Chill!" Halvus raised his arms up to squash Noctum like a bug.

But Noctum concentrated on that strange power swirling through him. Halvus froze in place. Pink, shimmering lines crisscrossed the giant duraludon's body. Horror set in on Halvus' face as Noctum yanked his claws out and the lines shattered the very air— no space surrounding Halvus.

A pained roar escaped Halvus before distorted energy poured out of his mouth and the wound in his leg.

"Y... ou! Re... b..." He was shrinking down, taking more chunks of the wrecked building with him. His voice was deepening, too! Had Noctum done it?

"I wi... ll remember..."

What looked like a small card drifted out of Calcifer's back and dissolved into the air. Calcifer staggered toward Noctum. He shakily held his right arm out. "Thank you."

He fell forward, head resting by Noctum's feet. "Vegna! Get over here!" Noctum said, waving both hands since he had no idea where the dusknoir went off to.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your horns on!" Griffon cawed. The corviknight landed beside him. "V's got it covered in spades. But ain't you gonna turn off your mega before you go cuckoo for Choccy Puffs?"

"Huh?" Noctum blinked, then glanced at his jagged-looking wing. "Uh, right. Lemme just..."

He took a calming breath. Then another. But he didn't feel any different. Noctum checked his wing again. Still jagged.

"Uhh..."

"And your flame. It's all galactic!" Griffon leaned over. He glanced at Noctum's belly. "Maybe your belly ate your crystal and now you're stuck as a mega?" The corviknight hopped back. "You ain't feeling all murdery, right?"

(Art by Honey_llemon)

"Of course not!" Noctum's now-starry tail flame flickered rapidly. "I don't— That is—"

Realization set in. Those visions weren't from Halvus' attacks at all. They were from deep inside. Because Noctum was... he was...

"Aw, ****." Griffon rolled his eyes. "He's totally about to pass out, ain't he?"

The last thing the cosmic charizard heard before his head struck the ground was the corviknight cawing, "See! Told ya!"

XxX​

Green and light blue this time. Complimentary enough colors, but boy were they obnoxiously bright. Not that Wyndon Stadium's lights were dark by comparison, but the switch from nighttime to an unbearably bright anomaly core threw Yuna off.

As did the small white snowflakes falling all around her.

... No, that wasn't right. The dragapult reached her right hand out and caught one.

"A feather?" Yuna examined it in her hand. It was as soft as any altaria's wings. "Okay. Leo, where'd you go?"

"Over here, Mom!"

Yuna pivoted right. The cosmic arceus stood atop a bundle of feathers vaguely resembling a flying heracross. It wasn't alone, either. Other bugs made of feathers drifted around it. A couple of pinsir here. Some ribombee and cutiefly there.

"God, this is weird."

She kept looking right, until she found a familiar braviary silhouette walking along a spiraling centiskorch.

... Also made of feathers. Because of course.

"Hmm." Alder stroked his chin. "These cores are spawning out of Ginnungagap. And Ginnungagap is the mystery dungeon between worlds. Perhaps it's best to think of the anomalies as mystery dungeons after all." He hopped into the air, gliding after Leo. "Since distortion spreads out of each core, affecting the dimension around it. Expanding the dungeon, in a manner of speaking."

Yuna blinked slowly. "Uhh... okay?" It wasn't like that changed anything about the current situation, though.

"Congratulations on your evolution, by the way!" Alder's psychic feathers shimmered. Yuna wondered if that was the projection showing his happiness.

"Oh, right. Thanks, I guess." Yuna glanced at her feet — God, that was going to take some getting used to — then flew off to follow Leo. "It just sorta happened."

After a second, she looked back at her feet. Namely, the gold-amber claws on them. It was enough to snap her out of the autopilot she'd been in since shooting out of the river.

This wasn't right. Dragapult didn't have claws like this. And why were there similarly-colored rings around her tail?!

The amber crystal in her chest sparked with light. Yuna stared aghast at it, like it was going to suck the life out of her.

Everything came rushing back. The ruined temple. Chaos, that titanic daemon. Apparently a giratina? Or maybe multiple giratina all mashed together?

Then there were the visions— no, memories. A whole other life she lived. She sounded confident and determined back then! What had happened to her? And that icepix...

Were we... together?

Yuna shook her head. Change the subject, now.

"So, does your magic dimensional lore book have any explanation for why there are gonna be two plates here instead of one?"

Alder's pink feathers stuck up straight. "Two in one core?" He looked around. "Hmm. That would explain the look of things, I suppose."

"Bugs and birds! Bugs and birds!" Leo chirped, happily hopping across feathered dustox and beautifly. Two pillars of light shimmered in the distance. Undoubtedly the two plates.

... Wait, what was that golden glimmer between the two of them?

Alder sighed. "Truthfully, I'm not sure what that indicates. Perhaps the anomalies are being drawn toward one another? If there's a plate in each one and the plates belong to POV-2020, then it's pos— hey, wait for me!"

Yuna flew over a blue and green abyss. She was much faster than before, easily passing Leo while he jumped between feathered platforms. The dragapult reached a giant frosmoth made of feathers without issue. Though closer inspection showed it was a giant frosmoth made of tiny, feathery snom.

Maybe Yuna should have counted her blessings two Whispers and Zodiark's projection were the worst things to have leaked out of this anomaly core. Could you just imagine if this thing turned people into feathers? A shiver ran up her ectoplasm.

The two plates floated in front of her. Blue feathers surrounded one. Ethereal cutiefly flew around the other. Yuna cautiously flew to the other side. Gold light spilled over her body. Her inner shadows tried to force her away from the plates.

I should've asked about that.

Yuna could berate herself later. First, the text on the plates. Then the weird gold light behind her. Yuna went for the light blue plate first.

The being poured the remains of its power into stone and buried it deep.

Well, that gave her little to go off. Was that saying these plates were supposed to be buried underground? Shaking her head, Yuna turned to the other plate.

Where all creation was born, that is the being's place of origin.

That one sent a fresh chill down to Yuna's tail. Because given what Chaos had told her... wouldn't the "place of origin" be that tower from her past memories? Where she had clashed with Zodiark in the past? Was that somehow Leo's true home?

Come to think of it, Chaos did sound a lot less... certain when they talked about attacking the Red Chain and losing their powers to Bahamut. Were they still hiding something from Yuna?

"Ta-daah!"

Leo's golden wheel sparkled as he landed next to Yuna. "So, Mom, what do I do? Eat one first? Eat 'em both?"

Yuna had no idea how to answer. With a shrug, she gave a, "Follow your heart."

"Okay!" The cosmic arceus stood up straight. His wheel flickered. Then both plates were hastily pulled toward him like pieces of meat grabbed by the burly arms of a famished kommo-o. Sky blue and lime green lines rippled across Leo's starcloud fur.

His wheel flashed. Feathers coated his right foreleg, while chitin crawled up his left.

For a moment, one of Xeromus' chain-covered forelegs superimposed itself over Leo's. Yuna abruptly shook her head and turned away from him.

"Those are taken care of, so let's see what—"

She cut herself off the moment she saw a familiar gold cylinder impaling the feathery frosmoth. A green and white crystal eye stared back at her.

"No." Yuna held her arms up and waved them in front of her face. "I'm hallucinating. That's not real. It's not a Needle in this anomaly core."

"Dungeon core!" called Alder. "And I'd say that's a Needle!"

Leo blipped in between Yuna and the Needle. Even though she floated in the air, Leo was almost at eye level with her. Which spooked her enough to send her new legs shooting up into her torso.

... Clearly, some habits died hard even after evolving.

"Is this the part where you pull an Aunt Nikki and flip the Needle off?" The cosmic arceus lifted a forehoof. "I can totally join you if you do." His golden hoof shimmered and chitinous claws replaced it, courtesy of his new plate.

Yuna fought not to have her torso suck up her much longer tail, too. Why was Leo's voice deeper? And why the enthusiasm for acting like Nikki?

Book pages fwipped from behind Yuna. "Interesting. It appears... reclaiming his plates lets Leo age?" Alder mused. "I'll have to go over the archives carefully to see if there are any records of that."

"Pssht. Sure." Leo strutted past Yuna. "You do that. I'm gonna fix this thing." He tapped Yuna on the shoulder. "That means you've gotta yank it out, Mom. Since I've gotta send everyone back home."

The dragapult's mind was still racing. Leo's aging and the Needle's presence wrestling for her undivided attention. And the revelations brought by Chaos lurked in the back, waiting to strike. She definitely couldn't hide her link with them anymore. Reshiram would never shut up if she even tried.

... And it affects them, too.

"C'mon, Mom! Standing here's getting boring."

But you loved the feathery bug platforms just minutes ago.

She couldn't help but wonder if Yiazmat felt this way when Yuna stopped playing with all her favorite childhood toys and instead wanted to be left on her own.

Sighing, Yuna approached the Needle. Behind it, the familiar circles and triangles Leo had made with the previous cores traced themselves through the air.

Yuna forced the grappling thoughts back, focusing on what memory this Needle would give her. And which Sage she was about to meet.

XxX​

Chiron truly did not understand the point of "adventuring."

Perhaps she would have gotten more out of this experience if she had legs. Or didn't float everywhere she went.

But, no, she was a lunala. Hovering beside a steep mountain trail. Watching with a bored expression as Shaymin leapt from jagged spire to rocky crag, gliding around with his tiny antler-ear-wing things.

"Remind me why we're here."

Shaymin glanced down at her, smirking. She hastily continued, "And don't you dare say 'adventuring.'" Chiron pointed an accusatory right wing-claw.

"Harsh." Shaymin wrinkled his snout. "You should be grateful I brought you along. Isn't this view bodacious?"

Chiron's right eye twitched. She had seen plenty of mountaintops in her time. This one was no different. "Yup. Tons of dirt and rocks and no trees because we're past the tree line already." The lunala folded her wings. "And only clouds below us because it's overcast."

Chuckling, Shaymin leapt up a few more spires. "Look, Moonbat Dudette, it's boring if I go right wherever Baha Blast tells me to. Terrible job. Nothing about the day to be grateful for. Y'feel me?"

Chiron did not feel him. She silently hovered up the side of the mountain, keeping her wings wrapped over her torso. "You still haven't answered my question."

Shaymin rolled his eyes. "A'ight. Chillax. I'm fetching a little star piece that fell from the sky."

"A star piece?" Chiron quirked a brow.

"Baha Blast thinks it's too small to be a meteorite." Shaymin hopped up two more rocky outcroppings. And there was something glistening several meters above him. "So, I'm here to snag it. A classic Shaymin mountain climbing adventure!"

He resumed leaping and gliding over rocky spires until he reached the twinkling part of the mountaintop.

Shaking her head, Chiron followed. The lunala still wasn't sure what Shaymin meant. "So, you think dawdling on an assignment is a good thing? What if there was something actually dangerous?"

"Then Baha Blast would send another Sage." Shaymin lazily waved a foreleg. "I'm not the action dude. I'm the adventure dude."

Chiron wondered if it was truly worth pressing Shaymin on that point. "I think... we're going to have to agree to disagree," she lazily gestured to him with her right wing, "on whatever you call this."

Shaymin poked around where the light was. His forepaws glowed green. He dug into the rock with them. "Heh. Gratitude is all about taking in what life has to offer. Everyone wants to, nrrgh, worry about the future and stuff." The light grew brighter. Shaymin scooped something with a forepaw. "But how can you look to the future if you don't appreciate what the present has to offer?"

He turned around, clutching some sort of shiny fragment in his mouth. "Gawt duh staw peas!"

The lunala mulled over Shaymin's words. Echoes of conversations with a lucario. togekiss, or roserade played back in her head. Always emphasizing working hard now for a better tomorrow.

Maybe he has a point?

Shaymin managed to glide down to a patch of rocks near her. He'd placed the glistening shard in his small bag. "Ready to head back?"

Chiron nodded slowly. "I'm assuming you want to take the scenic route."

"Heh. Fast learner."

Winking, Shaymin leaped from his perch, gliding along the mountain trail. Chuckling, Chiron hovered after him.

Maybe it wasn't a total waste of a day after all.

XxX​

Roaring, Necrozma staggered back through the gemstone cavern. Shadows swirled around his humanoid form. He threw his crystalline hands over his head. Necrozma froze the moment his crystal tendrils brushed against the cavern wall.

He knew this feeling well by now. It hadn't bothered him the first time. Or even the second. Now, though, he knew something was wrong.

Someone was taking his power from him. Necrozma doubted it was the rebellious spirit. No way it could keep its feeble form together anymore.

Which just left the one he'd sensed traces of amidst the planetary rubble. The one Mewtwo stopped him from getting to.

Necrozma's tendrils scraped against the gemstones in the rock wall.

"Chiron," he hissed. "That power is mine. And I will reclaim it."

It didn't matter what Necrozma had to do. This was the only way forward. Might made right.

He slowly started forward. Just a bit more rest... and he'd be able to open his next portal. Then Necrozma could give Earth another visit.

XxX

~Il Paradigma, No. XVI: Halvus, the Tower~
A mighty fragment that forged fearsome strongholds and weapons to keep the peace within the Benefactor. His work was always effective. A great spike in his presence and power followed Matriarch's disappearance. But as that upheaval subsided, so too did his presence within the Benefactor. Paradox's work reduced the need for his powers over time. His behavior changed, favoring whatever yielded the best result with the least effort.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
In demonology, Halphas (sometimes listed as "Malthus") is an earl of the underworld within the Ars Goetia and Lesser Key of Solomon. He is typically depicted as a stock dove with a hoarse voice. Amongst his powers, Halphas can create weapons and ammunition to stock towers with.

The Tower is the sixteenth of the major arcana. In the upright position, it symbolizes distress, indignance, calamity, deception, and ruin. In the reversed position, it symbolizes abstinence, carelessness, apathy, and distraction.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 85: Distant Tails​

OS Discrepancy Petition #94862048
PETITIONER: [Redacted]

CATEGORY: Other
SUBCATEGORY: Not Applicable
COMMENT: Look, I don't know which category this goes under. Just read the description!
DIMENSION: POV-2020
LOCATION: Not Applicable

DOES THIS PERTAIN TO SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS (Y/N)?
Yes

HOW MANY INDIVIDUALS ARE INVOLVED?
One

WHAT AURAL STATUSES APPLY TO THE INDIVIDUAL(S)?
Unsure/decline to answer

ARE YOU SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION?
Yes

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DISCREPANCY. INCLUDE REASONS FOR SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION IF YOU ANSWERED "YES" TO THE ABOVE.
I was going to a group session and there was a new member. A necrozma with an aura of mostly shadows augmented by a secondary light source. He called himself "Bahamut" and referred to a few details we found while investigating POV-2020. I didn't want to pry as to the exact circumstances of why he was in this group, but I'm thinking he's some sort of copy.

Whether he's a copy or the real deal doesn't matter, though. Someone was somehow able to get something out of POV-2020 and I'm betting it's after the dimension was sealed off given some of the stuff this guy was saying. And I shouldn't have to tell you guys why that's bad. The quarantine's coming undone! We need, like, a bunch of people on this ASAP!

PETITION STATUS: Closed. Not eligible for appeal.
REVIEWER RESPONSE: We are already aware of the situation. Senior Overseers checked Ginnungagap and found no vulnerabilities in the seal.
ADDENDUM: The petitioner has been placed under probation for trying to circumvent this case's final status by repeatedly refiling this petition as new discrepancies.
ADDENDUM #2: One millicycle following the above addendum, minute vulnerabilities were discovered on POV-2020's seal. The petitioner is off probation. See Incident Report POV-2020-10 or personnel file "Void Bahamut" for more details.
ADDENDUM #3: Personnel file "Void Bahamut" was renamed to "Tama" following the subject's requested name change.

XxX​

The stadium's torn up ground shook every few seconds. A result of the giant robot continuing to stomp around outside. Gene kept his eyes fixed on the meowth head, weighing his options.

Yuna had gone off to get the kid and seal the anomaly. That meant everyone would return home soon, right? He couldn't let those Rockets walk off with scores of pokémon. Yet that metal hull looked quite sturdy. And if Gene didn't aim his attacks precisely, he could injure the captured pokémon or break captured poké balls.

"Jade. You still have eyes in the sky?" Gene asked. He wasn't trying to sense the salugia's aura. "Robot still causing problems for people?"

"I don't think so?" Jade replied. She's flown somewhere outside the stadium. "It's walking around a plaza in front of the stadium. No one's there. Maybe they're taking a victory lap?"

Gene's yellow-tipped tail lashed back and forth in irritation. He drifted closer to the ground. Quetzal paced nervously between Ifrit and Shiva's unconscious forms. The orange zapdos locked eyes with Gene.

"They'll wake up, right?" Quetzal glanced at the birds. "They're breathing, so they have to be okay. Just because they didn't turn back to normal doesn't mean there's a problem." He stuck a bulky leg up. "I didn't turn back to normal."

"You mean back to electric and flying?"

Quetzal shot the snickering toxtricity behind him a dirty look. He turned back to Gene. "You have to know something about this, don't you?" His feathers puffed out. "What about the buzzwole? He got corrupted by a fighting-type core."

"And I seem to recall it took a few days before he woke up," Nikki countered. Tiny sparks jumped off her mohawk. "Meanwhile, the kid's coming to." She jerked her head in the direction of the young trainer who'd been on Shiva's back earlier. His red and white pokébase cap was torn, as was his blue vest and the white shirt underneath.

Gene hastily Phantom Warped over, practically flinging Nikki aside with a burst of levitation.

"The he— hrrrmmmph!"

A quick bit of ESP silenced Nikki. The kid was bound to freak, but better for an actual psychic like Gene to talk with him. Try and smooth stuff over.

As long as that robot doesn't fly the coop.

The boy's eyes opened. "What?" He blinked slowly. "Ugh. So tired." He slowly sat up, running a hand through his black hair. "Pikachu? Did we make it to..."

He met Gene's gaze and his voice trailed off. The shadowy mewtwo opted for telepathy. "Hello there. I need you to remain calm. You've been in an accident."

Gene expected panicked screams, but instead got a tilt of the boy's head. "Mewtwo?" he said, raising a brow. "What happened to you? Your color's all weird." He eyed the Malice Crystal. "And that doesn't look healthy!" His concerned expression intensified. "And what about all the pokémon you said you're protecting?"

Oh, wonderful. This dimension had a mewtwo. Gene decided against grappling with those implications. But he didn't feel as remorseful about ripping the proverbial bandage off.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not the mewtwo you know. Name's Gene. Here from another universe. Can I get a name?"

"Yeah." The boy slowly got to his feet. "The name's Ash Ketchum. From—" He reached up to adjust his hat only to cut himself off. His expression darkened as his fingers grazed the torn fabric. "Pallet Town, I guess."

"You guess?" Now it was Gene's turn to raise a brow.

Ash tipped the brim of his cap down so it obscured his face. "Something happened. My friends and family... turned against me. Took all of my pokémon away, saying I didn't deserve them. Only one who stood by me was Pikachu." He lifted his cap brim. "Ah! Pikachu!" Ash cupped his hands over his mouth. "Piiikachuuuuu!"

"Relax, he's fine."

Gene's Malice Crystal sparked as Nikki walked up, carrying Pikachu by the tail. "Out cold. But fine," she said.

"Oh no!" Ash ran right past Gene. "Pikachu, what happened to you?"

"Brainwashed. Same as you." Nikki made a cuckoo sign. Gene immediately glared at her and pulled Pikachu away with a telekinetic yank.

"Here." Gene handed Pikachu over to Ash, who cradled him in his arms. "You seem remarkably calm for someone who just saw a pokémon talking like a human." He paused. "And casually claim you were brainwashed."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Ash shuddered. "And I know a talking meowth."

"Right. Team Rocket." Gene resisted the urge to turn around and look for the robot.

"Wait, they're here?" Ash almost took on a fighting stance before remembering he was holding Pikachu. "Don't tell me they're up to something! I—" He stopped and glanced down at Pikachu. "—don't have a way to stop them." His shoulders sagged.

Gene held up a hand. "One step at a time, kid. Let's go back to Pallet for a second. What do you actually remember?"

Ash frowned and looked away. The shadowy mewtwo rolled his eyes. "We can do this the easy way or the 'powerful psychic sifts through my thoughts' way. I'm pretty sure you'd prefer the former."

There was an awkward silence. Then Ash stepped back. "That's more like Mewtwo," he mumbled. He fixed his gaze on Pikachu. "I don't want to remember it. They were all just... so angry with me. And I don't even understand why! Calling me an idiot and a fool and stuff."

Tail twitching, Gene nodded slowly. "And did anything else seem off about them. Like, say, facial expressions?"

Ash's face scrunched up in thought. "Uhh, I don't really know." He lightly kicked at the dirt under his sneakers. "All that stuff they said piled up so quickly I just shut down. I felt so empty." Ash then held up Pikachu. "Pikachu shocked them all and managed to get me away. And it felt like... like he knew what would be able to help me. So, I followed him." He looked around. "And now I'm here."

It was hardly concrete. But from that alone, Gene had a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious voice that warned Yuna about the kid being in the vault in the first place was behind this.

"Okay." Gene clasped his hands together in front of his head. "So, like, I get you think all your friends and family hate you or whatever. But there are definitely people who care about you." Now the shadowy mewtwo allowed himself to turn around. "Those Team Rocket doofuses were worried about you. They agreed to work together with my team so we could rescue you."

Ash's eyes widened. "They did what?!"

"Oi, pick up the pace!"

Gene glanced at Nikki, whose legs and waist were fading away. The three birds were also mostly gone.

****. "Okay, look." Giving up on telepathy, Gene floated into the air. "I don't have time to give you a 'ra ra sis boom ba' pep talk, kid. You got hurt. Two options for that." Gene raised one finger. "You can let it drag you down and become some depressed loner no one actually wants to be around." He then punched his right hand with his left. "Or you can 'fight' like hell and get to the bottom of it.

"It's up to you." Gene turned around. His legs were disappearing. "As for me... I've got a 'partnership' to break."

The shadowy mewtwo charged through the air. To his relief, the robot was still there... but it was heading into the water.

One shot. He had to make it count.

"We got a buncha pokémon! We got a buncha pokémon!"

... Wait. Why did Gene have to shoot? What if he just... ripped whatever was holding the captured pokémon out of the damn machine?

But would that work?

His waist was fading. Gene was out of time. He thrust his arms in front of him, concentrating on his ESP as much as he could.

"We got a buncha pok—"

"EEP! Jessie! The hull!" James screamed.

Gene didn't care that those idiots were still using their megaphones. Something heavy tugged against his psionic sense.

"Rrrrgh. Our deal's... off!"

He mentally yanked with all his might. The robot's back shattered as a stack of metal cages came flying out, landing in the grass by the riverbed.

Team Rocket's microphones amplified their screams as the giant puncture in the hull caused sparks and explosive bursts to race all along the meowth robot.

Right before Gene faded out of the dimension completely, the head exploded. The Rockets and their wobbuffet careened through the air. Gene somehow managed to hear one final cry from them.

"We're blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!"

XxX​

"Please stand by for a message from Grand Emperor Paradox!"

Noctum awoke to an obnoxiously cheerful news bulletin music blaring out of the speakers surrounding Cyril's tower of computer monitors. Someone laid him down atop a large crate, giving him a perfect view of the top left computer monitor. It showed the Eterna Empire sigil before quickly cutting to footage of where Noctum and the others had just been.

Indigo Plateau was a mess of torn up ground and rubble from the building, but a combination of assorted ground-type 'mons and Eternatus Troopers were working quite quickly to clean things up.

Everything came rushing back at once. The Trooper assault, with the king's forced transformation into Halvus. The devastating Dyna Depletion attacks. Noctum throwing himself into one. The strange visions and that searing pain from his Malice Crystal...

Noctum glanced at his belly. It was still blue. His wings were still jagged and his tail flame was a starcloud like Cyril's mane and Leo's pelt.

Why? The mega charizard kept hearing that one phrase over and over in his head.

Lustrous heart. Lustrous. Lustrous...

"As some of you are not doubt aware," Paradox began, snapping Noctum's attention back to the monitor, "another one of those dreadful rifts opened up on Earth's beloved Indigo Plateau."

The deoxys then walked in front of the footage. Noctum's starcloud mouth flames rippled. "W-Wait, he's there?!"

From his spot beside the monitors, Cyril rolled his eyes. "It's a greenscreen, dumbass."

Seifer's prosthetic horn poked his right hip. "Ow!" The cosmic zoroark's black fur flickered red. "What?"

"They don't have greenscreens back in Aeon," Noctum mumbled, looking down dejectedly.

"Thanks to the strong work of my Eternatus Troopers and support from Paradigm Lieutenant Halvus, the rift has been successfully dealt with!" Paradox declared, tentacles coiling into arms as he applauded footage of the hulking duraludon they had to battle. He then faded out so the footage could zoom in on the building.

"It's already halfway rebuilt?!" Noctum's jaw slackened. "What kind of devilry is this?"

He was immediately shushed by Cyril and a few skorps seated behind some of the keyboards.

"Unfortunately, there was some collateral property damage during the process," Paradox continued. "But not to worry. As you can see, repairs are well underway. The Indigo League should be good as new by tomorrow."

The deoxys reappeared on screen. "It's exactly as I told you all. This whole silly little rift situation is entirely under control. Thanks to me, your beloved grand emperor!" Paradox slowly bowed. "That will be all for now. Have a pleasant day."

A new male voice followed the end of Paradox's bulletin. "We now return you to a new episode of All My Stakataka."

Two of the skorps clapped their mutant incineroar hands together excitedly, only for their moods to deflate when Cyril pressed a button and shut the monitor off.

Sighing, he ran yellow claws through his starcloud mane. "Well, that's just peachy." He lazily walked across the hanger floor.

Noctum slowly sat up. "What do you mean?"

"He means the emperor took our hard work and spun it to make himself look like the hero," Valkyrie spat. The garchomp sat on a metal crate to Noctum's left, watching as a few helioptile and croconaw tended to some of the Aeon soldiers injured fighting Halvus.

"Oh." Noctum tapped his claws together nervously. "Can't we, um, send our own message with the truth?" He looked expectantly at Cyril. "Like when you hacked the blimps in Eterna City!"

Cyril froze. He scratched his right ear. "Dude, the emperor had video footage to back it up. And we bailed before the rift vanished, remember?"

"What about a big, fancy illusion?" Noctum offered. Surely, there was something they could do to compete with this evil greenscreen.

The cosmic zoroark pinched his brow. "Ugh. No." He held up his right hand, which disappeared. "Just because I can illusion enough of an invisibility dome to hide a few of us doesn't mean I can conjure up some elaborate scene to make people think Paradox used a deep fake." Cyril dispelled the illusion around his hand. "I'm not that strong. I can just... actually fight like a pokémon now."

Noctum's shoulders sagged. "So, what, we stand around and take our licks?" He might've personally had more concerning things to worry about, but he welcomed the distraction. Noctum looked around the hangar. "I can't be the only one who thinks that sucks, right?"

"Tch. Amateur."

The mega charizard's cosmic tail flame shrank. Wincing, Noctum glanced at Valkyrie. "What now?"

"So we can't compete with his propaganda machine." Valkyrie waved dismissively. Curiously, she continued staring at the floor. "Whatever. Let the emperor think he's all big and successful. We're still dismantling the Paradigm. This keeps us under the radar."

Noctum supposed that was true. But weren't they also trying to expand their ranks? Wouldn't it help if they could show people in the empire that their leader might be vulnerable?

Metallic hoofbeats interrupted Noctum's train of thought. Seifer stopped beside him. "I think... talking strategy ought to wait until everyone's together." He glanced over his shoulder. "And, perhaps, rested up."

"Ah!" Noctum's tail flame expanded. "The king and queen!" He tried to drop from his perch, but a wave of vertigo stopped him. Noctum braced himself against the edge of the crate. "Where did—"

"Your queen took your king off to a private room the moment we returned." Seifer pointed to the hanger's exit with a forehoof. "Baraz showed up to help them along, too."

"And Yuna and the others aren't back yet," Cyril added, tapping a foot impatiently.

"Oh," Noctum mumbled. So that was what Seifer meant when he suggested waiting.

"Huh. Speak of the devil."

Noctum hastily turned left at Valkyrie's comment. An array of blue lights peppered the area in front of the hangar's large ship door. Valkyrie abruptly hopped off her seat, silently walking toward Noctum's crate.

"We're back, bitches!"

Nikki was first to step out of the light, stretching her arms up. "A bit of an annoyance, but nothing we couldn't—"

"Commander!"

An orange blur whizzed over to the keldeo, who whinnied in surprise when he saw two unconscious birds on Quetzal's back. Noctum didn't recognize them.

Seifer's prosthetic horn flickered. "Wait, Quetzal, are these who I think they are?"

"Ifrit and Shiva, sir." Quetzal adjusted them on his back. "They were corrupted and turned into Phantoms."

"They're actually Whispers!" Gene and Nikki heckled simultaneously.

"Ugh, whatever!" Quetzal was practically trotting in place. "We have to get them somewhere to rest." He looked around at some of the dragons. "Somewhere, uh, better than here?"

Cyril walked over, scratching his ear. "Just head into the hall and take a couple of rights. You'll find a special infirmary."

"Thanks!" The orange zapdos zipped away. Cyril's cosmic hair rippled from the wind Quetzal's momentum kicked up. He fiddled with locks of hair.

"All right. Anything else?"

"Wait, where'd Mom and Dad go?"

Noctum turned left. Had Yuna's voice gotten a bit deeper?

A dragapult floated beside a larger Leo. But her tail. And that weird gem in her chest...

Noctum's eyes widened. Why was that gem... familiar?

"P-Princess?"

"What?" Yuna raised a brow, then looked down at her torso. "Oh, right. Yeah, this happened."

"All that and spades, apparently." Nikki clapped Yuna's back.

She squeaked, then frowned at the toxtricity. "Seriously?"

"You're gonna complain about a congratulatory back pat?" Nikki snickered. "Guess you've got thin skin." She paused. "Or no skin."

Yuna rolled her eyes. Noctum wasn't waiting any longer. Despite the vertigo, he was at the dragapult's side in an instant. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?" He looked her over. This nagging familiarity brought back everything that happened to him. "Should I get your mother?"

"I should be asking you that." Yuna scrutinized his appearance. She had the same concerned expression as him. God, his head was hurting. Noctum took it as a sign to give her a bit of space.

"Look, we had to deal with a couple of the Whispers," Yuna slowly continued. "And I evolved. We got the plates." She gestured to Leo, who stuck a foreleg and hind leg out. Some sort of pose, Noctum figured. "There were two this time, though. And a Needle, to boot."

"Wait, what?" Gene decided to sit on the same stack of crates Valkyrie used before. "Two plates and a Needle?"

"Yeeeessss?" Yuna's tail rippled. "Didn't I just say that?"

"Yeah, yeah." Gene's tail twitched in irritation. He crossed his right leg over his left, then swapped. "Yo, Kora!"

"Hmm?" Koraidon turned around from the far corner of the room, where he was gathering up monks.

"Got an explanation for this?" Gene gestured at Yuna.

"Ah, apologies." Koraidon bowed slowly. "I'm making sure everyone got back okay. What was it you said?"

Gene facepalmed. "Oi, Widget. You were on crowd control, too. Gimme a machine headcount."

Widget's eyes flickered blue, then yellow, then purple. "Everyone's present and accounted for. Including Cid." He blinked several times, then shook his head. "Ugh, at least ask politely next time. I don't like having to run that part of my processor anymore."

Yuna cleared her throat. "Alder already offered a possibility. That plates and Needles are getting drawn toward one another. Which might be why things stabilized for a time before." She wiggled her right arm up and down. "They're, like, migrating to each other."

"Aww, snap! That oughta make it tough for Necrozma to— awk!"

In the front corner, Vegna grabbed Griffon's beak and forced it shut. The corviknight disappeared into the dusknoir in a stream of black smoke. "There's more you're not telling us, isn't there, Yunavresca?"

Yuna's gold-ringed tail crinkled up. She did her best to straighten it out. "I, uh—" Yuna fidgeted nervously. "Yeah." She took a shaky breath. "There's a lot to share. And it's, um, best that everyone's here for it."

Nikki crossed her arms. "Define 'everyone.' We got most of the squad here." The toxtricity gestured at the hangar.

"Quetzal," Yuna said. "And Igneous and Scarlett."

"What about Pillow Prince?"

"Shimmer too," Yuna said. "And I don't see Artemis, Baraz, or Alder." She glanced at Noctum. "And no one's told me what happened to Mom and Dad..."

Her eyes darted between his cosmic tail flame and the ones at the sides of his mouth. "... Or you, apparently. Your Malice Crystal is gone. And you're mega?"

"Think he absorbed it."

Noctum tensed at a scaly arm on his right shoulder. Valkyrie had gotten the jump on him again.

"Calcifer was hit by some strange blast," the garchomp explained. "It corrupted him like other Paradigm daemons we've seen. So, we had to fight him." She glanced at Noctum. "Your butler buddy... saved me from a blast that could've torn me to shreds."

He blinked in surprise. So, she was acknowledging it? Noctum figured she was too prideful. Though it sounds like it's bugging her...

"We were able to beat the daemon, but your father's unconscious." Noctum scanned the hangar and noticed Biff off to the right... lying on his back, bench pressing one of the metal crates. And a few hakamo-o sitting on top of it. "It might be like Buzzwole. He'll need time before he wakes up."

Noctum offered her a nervous smile. It must have been good enough, since Yuna's worried expression faded slightly.

"All right." The dragapult rubbed her ectoplasmic temples. "Let's get everyone else here. Then we can talk."

She looked around the room and gulped. "We can... talk."

Noctum went to drape a wing over her, but stopped. Yuna was almost double his size now. The gesture looked silly. And Yuna knew that, judging by the confused look she gave him.

"I'll, uh, help you gather them up!" Noctum offered, laughing nervously.

"Okay." She glanced at Nikki and Gene. "Keep everyone occupied for a bit, okay."

"Oh, sure." Gene rolled his eyes. "We'll play canasta or something." He waved his right arm dismissively.

With a flap of his wings, Noctum followed Yuna. Lots of things were changing quickly. It left a sinking feeling in his newly-healed gut.

... And what the heck's canasta?!

XxX​

"We're definitely close."

Ninetales' soft, white legs brushed against tall grass as he padded his way forward. The rising sun cast a soothing orange-yellow glow over the Wild Area. The chirps of assorted birds sounded in the distance. But there wasn't much activity in this particular patch of the sprawling plains.

"Mmm. There aren't any pokémon nearby. Suppose people randomly crashing out of the sky would send them running off."

Plodding along beside Ninetales, a pyroar with a gray mane yawned loudly. "Why am I here, exactly?"

Ninetales froze mid-step. "Uhh..."

"They're not a threat." Pyroar paused beside Ninetales to fix his stern gaze on him.

"I know, but I thought some company would be nice!" Ninetales' tails wagged asynchronously.

Pyroar snorted gray fire at his feet. Ninetales jumped back with a yip. "H-Hey, c'mon!"

"I wanted a vacation," Pyroar grumbled, shambling forward. "Deserved one, you ungrateful—"

Flinching, Ninetales quickened his pace. "I'm aware. I was there, too!"

"For all of five minutes."

Another flinch. Ninetales almost tripped over a rock hidden by the tall grass. "Yeah, well that was enough to save your hide for a bit, wasn't it?"

Pyroar's expression only hardened. "Your quarry lies ahead."

"Right." Ninetales shuffled forward, trying to imagine Pyroar training his unamused look elsewhere. It was fine. He was just being his usual self.

"... Had it in da palm of our hands."

"I told you two we should've flown the coop."

"You? Puh-lease! You wanted us ta head for da city and try to snag a bigger haul!"

"WOOOBBBBBAAAFFFEET!"

"Hey! Don't side with them!"

Ninetales chuckled. Yup, definitely who he was looking for. Swishing his hair behind him, the fox hopped through the remainder of the tall grass and popped out on the other side.

"Hello!" he telepathically chirped. And, yep, these three Rockets looked exactly like what he was expecting.

"Aaaaah!" James backed up against a large boulder. "Jessie, make the psychics go away!"

Jessie was on her feet, glaring at James. "That's no psychic-type, you dolt!"

"What's an Alolan ninetales doing all da way over in Galar?" Meowth wondered.

"M-Maybe he wants to join Team Rocket?" James laughed nervously.

Ninetales had to cut in fast, or he'd be stuck listening to their babbling for a while. And he could feel Pyroar's glare on the back of his head.

"Sorry. Not interested," he said. "But I did catch a glimpse of what happened in Wyndon." Ninetales pivoted to his left. "I'm actually after the person who made your, uh, twerp friend disappear."

"Friend?!" Meowth unsheathed his claws. "What an insult! I oughta turn dat pelt into a fancy coat for da boss!"

"You're welcome to try!" Ninetales winked at Meowth, who stumbled over to James. "Except I can't stay all that long. Basically, I'm asking if you guys might be willing to help me out later. With the guy who caused your problems."

The three Rockets looked at one another. And Ninetales got a strong sense they were going to shoot him down, so he quickly tried to save face. "Aaaand I fully intend to make it worth your while! Scout's honor!"

That only made them more skeptical.

"What could a ninetales possibly have to offer us?" Jessie wondered.

At that, Ninetales stuck his forepaw out. Concentrating, he drew on a well of light deep down. He nudged it along his forehead, until it took shape into a familiar Z-Crystal. Ninetales rolled it over to them.

"How's that for starters?"

The Rockets looked down at the crystal, then up at Ninetales. "Dis some kinda magic trick?" Meowth wondered.

Ninetales nudged the crystal closer, gesturing for Meowth to pick it up. Meowth's whiskers twitched the moment he touched the Z-Crystal. There was a tiny spark of gray embers running along his arm.

"You're welcome to use it," Ninetales said. "Or not. Gave one to your twerp buddy, too. Just in case." He winked at them.

That seemed like as good a place as any to leave things off. Ninetales turned to bound back into the tall grass.

"Hey, wait!" James called. "When are you even going to call us? And whatever for?"

Ninetales' ears swiveled in thought. "Oh, that?" He stepped toward the tall grass. "When the time's right... you'll know."

He hopped into the tall grass. The grass fluttered against him as he ran. It didn't take him long to reach Pyroar. "See? Didn't take too long." Ninetales' tails wagged. "And we're good to go."

Pyroar's face remained stern. He crouched down slightly, pressing a forepaw into the dirt. Motes of gray light spread out from his forepaw.

Ninetales braced himself. Within seconds, the tall grass and cool Galarian morning air fell away, replaced by the sharp blues and purples and fierce, rippling winds of Ginnungagap.

Four luminescent gray wings burst from Pyroar's back. Gray crystals tore away at his body until, with a powerful flap of his four wings, the grayscale necrozma that emerged flew off into the depths of the mystery dungeon between worlds.

With a brilliant ripple of golden light, Ninetales, too, shed his body for one that matched his counterpart. His gold light surged through the swirling blues and purples, passing strangely shaped crystal chunks. And rocky islands with barren trees that grew upside down. A few had glass light bulbs sprouting from their branches instead of leaves.

The gold necrozma got a bit ahead and looked back. "C'mon, Bah—"

"Tama."

"Right." Head tendrils shriveling, he continued forward. Ever since he learned about Tama — an anomalous copy of Bahamut another Overseer accidentally created from the real one's empty shell — he tried to spend time with the guy. There was friction, but he had the patience for it.

Though it seemed his hopes that Tama would be more amicable with him following their time apart were unfounded.

"St-still, you could at least, y'know, say something instead of looking so dour."

"What's your plan, Shane?" Tama flapped his gray wings. "I'll look as dour as I want until you give me more than a 'trust me, bro.'"

Shane nearly stopped mid-flight, which would've been bad, since he had to roll right to avoid splatting against a donut-shaped island. Or was it a malasada-shaped one?

"Whoa, whoa. Who told you I had a plan?" Shane's golden tail crinkled. "I have an idea. A train of thought!"

He glanced back at Tama, whose mismatched gray eyes were narrowing. "That's worse."

"I-I'm not good with plans," Shane squeaked. The squeaks echoed through Ginnungagap. Distorted eighth and sixteenth notes spawned on a distant island, then broke apart into clusters of ethereal chatot that flew off in all directions. "There's no guarantee this goes anywhere, but I'm holding out hope." A mix of green and orange spread over his eyes. "I don't need to tell you about the power of hope, do I?"

Tama looked offended at the notion. He flew faster, closing the gap with Shane. "How many citations are you racking up for this? Last I heard, you weren't to meddle with that world anymore."

Shane's golden glow dimmed. "I don't—" He flew faster. "It's not meddling. I'm trying to be proactive. They're working hard on the inside. Only seems right to lend a discrete hand from outside."

"Doubt they see it that way." Tama passed him, snorting. "I think it's something else."

"Like what?" Shane flew faster, then banked left. He passed by several small islands with tiny ripples. Means of entering other worlds.

Tama didn't respond, though. He continued ahead silently. "Where is it, again?"

Shane frowned. This guy was supposed to give straight answers. Why the evasiveness? "A few more down," he said, flying further ahead so he could locate the origin point for his little pocket.

After passing a few more of the small islands, Shane made it to one haphazardly littered with shrubbery. Bushes of vulpix and ninetales tails. Shane felt Tama's disapproval crawling along his ethereal back, but shrugged it off. He approached the small, distorted ripple and pressed an upper wing to it. A golden ring of light spread out, like water rippling after a pebble was dropped in it.

A familiar checkerboard portal formed. Shane turned aside and gestured to it with an upper wing. Tama simply flew past silently. Sighing, Shane followed the gray necrozma inside a dark, circular room.

"Will you give me an answer now?" he wondered, watching Tama curl up in the middle of the room in an almost serpent-like fashion. Tama gazed up. There was no ceiling. Only a seemingly endless sea of stars stretching overhead.

"Fine." Tama folded up his lower wings. "It's attachment."

Shane landed on the ground. He tucked his wings in and concentrated, shrinking down. And down. Tama grew steadily larger as Shane's golden form shrank to a much more... silvally shape. Yet still a mix of light and crystals.

"I was kinda hoping there was more to it," Shane said, golden talons clicking against the crystal floor. He strode toward Tama. Gold light melded with gray.

"There is." Tama slowly slid onto his side. "But I'm tired."

Squawking, Shane almost lost his footing and faceplanted. "S-Seriously?!"

"You pulled me away from my vacation," Tama huffed. He rolled onto his back, crossing one gray crystalline leg over another and resting his head against his upper wings.

It wasn't funny. And much as Shane wanted to say that, that would just play into Tama's hands. Wings. Whatever.

"Should I get you a beach towel? Maybe one of those drinks with the funny umbrellas?"

"That'd be a start," Tama scoffed.

"Please." Shane rolled his rainbow eyes. "We both know you don't eat or drink."

"You shouldn't, either." Tama tapped a lower wing against one of his chest spikes. Each clink echoed through the room. "Surely you've heard about your reputation, no?"

Shane's head crest shrank a bit. "Maybe?"

"The almighty idiot." Tama held up his other lower wing... and popped it from its joint. "Who always seems to break things." The gray necrozma's wing reattached on its own. "Before fixing them in a way more senior Overseers would never consider."

He shook his head. "The one who sees the trees but not the forest. The god who thinks like a mortal. Who, despite it being a shrinking fraction of his whole life, still keeps the memories of his days in Horizon freshest in his mind."

Tama slowly rolled onto his side again. "An immense amount of power... yet always reluctant to use it."

There was some slight resentment behind Tama's words. Shane pawed nervously at the ground. "Well, yeah. I mean... y'know... 'with great power comes great responsibility' and all that."

Tama's gray eyes swirled with disapproval. "Ah, yes, your favorite line you ripped from some comic."

"Cuz it's a good line." Shane laughed nervously. His gaze fell to a jagged reflection in one of the crystal walls. "Where are you going with this?"

"You want to fix this because you still haven't let go." Tama practically slithered across the ground, curling around the smaller silvcrozma. "You see POV-2020 as a second chance of sorts. To fix lingering shadows of regret." Bits of dark shadows bubbled within his gray body. "Small, but enough for someone who zeroes in on the little things."

Shane's cheek bolts turned slowly in his sockets. Was that really it? Or was Tama looking for the most negative reason? "Maybe I just want to help them so a lot of people don't get hurt."

Yeah, that sounded right. Shane straightened up a bit. "It's not about me. And, like, they're still the ones at the front of this. If I can help them from the sidelines, then that's good enough."

He blinked slowly. "... I think. Never did learn sports metaphors."

Tama's grayscale eyes stitched themselves into vaguely humanoid proportions so he could roll them. "If you insist." He uncurled from around Shane and began to float away.

"Wait, you're already leaving?"

"I want to find that beach again."

Shane flinched. "Right." His cheek bolts flickered like dying light bulbs. "You're not, y'know, going to tell anyone about this, are you?"

Tama stared at the exit. "... Against my better judgment."

"Good. I can work with that."

"Fine." Tama held an upper wing up. Gray light rippled. Another wormhole appeared. Ginnungagap's blue and purple swirls peeked in from the other side. Tama glanced back at Shane. "I will say one thing, though."

The silvcrozma tilted his golden head. "And that is?"

"You're off the mark on one key assumption."

Tama was about to fly through the portal, but Shane couldn't leave it at that. "Wait! What's that supposed to mean?"

The question hung in the air for several seconds. Tama practically curled an upper wing against the wormhole's outer ring like it was a railing. He sighed.

"Bahamut and I are not versions of the friend you couldn't save. We never were." Tama shook his head.

"As loathe as I am to admit it... we're alternate versions of you."