Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 136: Jolly Roger That

Yuna slumped over in her leather seat, gazing out the ship's front window as it flew through Eternatus' deep space innards. Bright stars and auroras passed them by in colorful blurs, along with planets near and far.

It would have been a beautiful sight, if things weren't more dire than the last time they'd done this. How long ago was that flight? It had been to find the first anomaly dungeon, right?

The chair beside hers squeaked. Nikki swiveled it back, then forth, then tucked her legs in and spun around.

"How much longer until we do the thing?" she wondered. While spinning, the toxtricity pointed to the radio tuner on the dashboard.

Footsteps came from behind Yuna. Igneous appeared between Nikki and the dragapult. He knelt down, holding up an index card that contained Gene's instructions for getting to Larkharr.

"Now's as good a time as any." The grovlazzle grabbed the dial and turned it, moving the tuning needle along the dashboard of numbers.

"Can't believe a freaking spaceship has an old-timey radio." Nikki shook her head. "And we're supposed to turn it on, right?"

"Yeah." Igneous pulled his claws away. "Gene called the station Pirate Radio."

"Psssht." Nikki flicked her right hand dismissively. "What do you suppose pirates listen to, anyway? Doubt they have good taste in music. Especially if this has anything to do with that dweeb Gilbert."

"S'pose it's sea shanties," Jaeger mused. He knelt on the empty solo cot in the back of the ship, resting his arms on the windowsill and gazing out at deep space. Vince and Shimmer occupied each of the bunk beds opposite Jaeger's cot. The ponytales poked his head up while the purple koraidon looked like he would rather be anywhere else.

"Only one way to find out." Nikki leaned forward from her chair and pressed the button to activate the radio.

White flashed around the ship. Meeping, Yuna grabbed the base of her tail to stop it from shooting into her torso.

"What was that?" she squeaked. A soft guitar line played from the radio.

"If you wake at midnight and you hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind or looking in the street."

Igneous stood up. "Gene's notes say Cyril modified the ship with a cloaker that looks the part of a pirate vehicle if we're playing pirate radio."

"Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by."

Yuna was tempted to smush her face up against the windshield in the hopes of figuring out what had changed. The dragapult instead slumped further down in her seat.

"And if this doesn't work?" she wondered.

Igneous shrugged. "It hasn't failed Gene yet."

Nikki spun around in her chair, smacking Igneous upside the head in the process.

"Hey!" The grovlazzle's leafy tails smoldered. "What's your problem?"

"Are you trying to jinx us?" The toxtricity stopped spinning to glare at him.

"She's right." Jaeger spun around to sit on the bed. "Tempting fate there, mate."

"Whatever." Igneous held his arms up and stepped away from the radio. "We should be there soon, right? So, we'll know one way or another if this works."

At that, the radio speakers crackled with a bit of static.

"Ah. A fine song!" an unfamiliar female voice said. "Tis a fine song indeed. Ye be listening to W-ARR Pirate Radio! The finest swashbuckling station this side of Eternatus!"

Nikki rested her hands behind her head. "Oh. Guess they actually have a DJ."

"I hate to butt in, me hearties, but I got an announcement," the DJ continued. "W-ARR be going off the air fer a couple of hours on account o' an important event: the execution of Chatot Gilbert!"

Yuna's tail shriveled up. "WHAT?!" She stared slack-jawed at the radio.

"Trespassers will be shot and/or skewered on sight," the DJ declared. "And, on behalf of Cap'n Blackskull, remember Article 3, Section 5, Subsections C and P o' the Pirate Code: never blow up your own bloody ship and never be committing insurance fraud! We be pirates! We have standards!"

"Gilbert's the one we need, isn't he?" Shimmer whined. The ponytales pawed nervously at the edge of his bed. "What do we do?"

"Land first." Jaeger hopped off the cot. "Anything else is just jumping to conclusions."

Turbulence racked the ship. Yuna's tail wrapped around the base of her seat. She dug her claws into the armrest. "What was that?"

"Think we passed into the mystery dungeon." Igneous pointed toward the windshield. "Looks like Larkharr's coming into view."

Yuna looked out the windshield and found... half of a dark green-blue planet. Its right side was nothing but rubble and debris floating in the midst of a strange gray aurora.

"Well that's really reassuring," Nikki scoffed. "Not." Scowling, she crossed her arms. "We sure Boss Kitty's good for this?"

"Even if we aren't, we can't get a hold of him," Vince whimpered. The purple koraidon stretched out on his bed now that Jaeger wasn't sitting on it. "Didn't he say the pirates' mystery dungeon would block the X-transceiver?"

"Yeah, yeah." Nikki waved Vince off. "Thanks for the reminder, Negative Nancy."

Vince's antennae drooped.

As the ship pulled closer to the part of Larkharr still intact, it descended into a gray, cloudy sky. Yuna expected to see lightning flickering all around her but the ship passed through the cloud line without issue. There wasn't even any thunder rumbling around them.

"Okay." Igneous crouched down. "I guess they even programmed in a landing spot?"

The ship remained steady. Yuna saw no signs of enemy fire... or anything to suggest the pirates were onto them.

Instead, choppy waters swirled about below the ship. Jagged mountains jutted toward the sky. Patches of green clung to them. Trees that were too far down for Yuna to make out, if she had to guess.

"This place is, like, ninety percent ocean." Nikki frowned. "How do we know there even is a place to land?" The toxtricity scratched her head. "What if the ship's just gonna, like, orbit around... and we'll have to freaking jump down to the surface?"

"That'd be bad." Shimmer's tails curled up. "We only have two fliers."

Nikki drummed her fingers against the arm rest. "Yeah, and Twiggy ain't exactly got the muscles for carrying any of us all the way down there."

Igneous glared at her. Jaeger caught their attention with a whistle. He jerked his head at Vince.

"This fella can glide down." The lycanroc mutt tapped the edge of the bed Vince lay on. "Those antennae unfurl into wings."

Yuna nodded once. Jaeger was right. Brother Kora did have those large wings coming from his head.

"B-But I haven't used my wings like this," Vince whimpered.

"So, what? You saying you too much of a weakling to do it?" Nikki leaned over, resting her right arm on her legs. "All you've done since you got here is mope. Aren't you supposed to be an Overseer or whatever?"

Yuna uncurled her tail from around the base of the chair and stuck it out in front of the toxtricity. "We get it, Nikki."

The dragapult's expression sharpened. "Look. Like it or not, this is the situation, Vince. It's time for you to start pulling your weight." She pointed to Nikki. "Not everyone needs to have crazy powers to contribute something here. You can surely glide down to safety, can't you?"

Vince looked down, frowning.

"Umm, guys?" Shimmer slid out of his bed. "The ship stopped moving."

Yuna looked out the window. The ship hovered high in the air, above a thick haze obscuring whatever was below.

She exhaled deeply. "Looks like we really do have to descend the old-fashioned way." Yuna looked right at Vince. "Like it or not, you're up."

Vince's antennae curled up. Jaeger rolled his eyes.

"Look mate." He crossed his arms. "Can you or can't you use your wings?"

After a few seconds of silence, Vince mumbled, "I can."

"Then that settles it." Jaeger clapped his hands. "Those who can fly will fly. Vince'll carry the rest of us."

"Um..." Vince looked between Jaeger, Nikki, and Shimmer nervously. "I think there's too many of you. M-Mainly because Shimmer's on four legs. That's not really a body type I can accommodate with other folks."

Yuna pinched her brow. "Then I'll take care of him. You focus on Nikki and Jaeger. Deal?"

Vince nodded. "Just, um, be careful opening the door. We're pretty high up and the difference in pressure might—"

Yuna opened the door... far from gently.

"Crap crap crap crap!"

Despite Vince's panicked shouting, nothing sucked anyone out of the ship. Shrugging, Yuna flicked her right wrist toward the door. Blue flames swirled around and Reshiram appeared in front of her.

Yuna stared at Reshiram— or, rather, its projection. Floating there silently. Fiery energy brimmed within it, but she didn't sense a spirit.

"Uhh." Nikki scratched her head. "Is Crotch Fuzz broken? Usually he'd start spouting off about something by now."

"I'll explain later." Yuna waved the toxtricity off. "Let's go, Shimmer."

The ponytales cautiously stepped on Reshiram's back. Reshiram remained silent, even as Yuna flew out the door.

She caught a glimpse of his empty blue eyes. Her ectoplasm rippled. Maybe she could spare a moment to search for his spirit again?

Yuna took a deep breath. No, this wasn't the time. They had bigger things to worry about.

With a wave of her right arm, she beckoned Reshiram after her. They descended through the fog. The air tasted as salty as the fries at the outpost. Waves churned and sloshed beneath them.

"I see islands," Shimmer pointed a forehoof over Reshiram's right wing. "And there's some really big metal circle in the middle."

Yuna saw it, too. There was a tower beside the metal circle. And she definitely heard voices from that direction. Including a shrill one that stuck out above all the others.

"Non, non, non! Vous do not understand! Ze corviknight robot... it had to go boom! It was part of my brilliant planning to stop ze rebels!"

"Oh for pity's sake." Shimmer groaned atop Reshiram's back. "This is about what happened in Khelifet? Really?"

Yuna blinked once, then recalled Noctum telling her that Gilbert had blown up his own machine after Noctum thrashed it. The word "sore loser" got tossed around a lot.

What Yuna wasn't expecting was to hear the whines and crackles of speakers coming from below. Her tail crinkled in surprise.

"Ye know the rules, Gilbert! Me bots are like me ships! Irreplaceable!"

"I... I think that's Captain Blackskull," Shimmer said.

Yuna doubted it could be anyone else. She descended toward the metal circle even faster. A quick glance up revealed that Vince had successfully unfurled his wings from his antennae. But he glided so slowly. What a pain.

"Mon capitaine, if vous would just—"

"Save it! I won't be hearing any o' your lip! It be the kraken's belly for ye!"

"NON! ANYZING BUT ZAT!"

A loud bell rang. And rang. And rang and rang.

Good god, it was so loud Yuna figured its echo would carry across the entire plan— err, half planet.

"Ohh Mister Squiggles!"

The water around the metal circle frothed and bubbled. Raucous cheers erupted from the surface as several large, dark green tentacles emerged from the ocean.

"Sacre bleu! If anyone wishes to sauver moi, now would be ze most excellent time!"

Part of Yuna wondered if Blackskull would be more willing to negotiate if they just let Gilbert get eaten. But, pompous blowhard or not, she wasn't about to let someone get devoured.

She launched four Dragon Darts from her horns down toward the surface. They struck some of the giant tentacles reaching toward the middle of the metal circle. A garbled cry rang out. The tentacles all retreated into the water.

Shouts rang out from below the dragapult.

"What was that?"

"Is there a mutiny?!"​

"No, you dolt! Look up there!"​

"Wait, who's that?!"

"I dunno!"

"Cap'n! What do we do?!"​

Yuna opted not to go any further down. She stuck her right arm out and Reshiram stopped, too. Vince was still higher in the air.

Heavy thudding footsteps rang out from the metal platform. Smaller bodies parted, leaving way for a large, black-scaled tyrantrum to march toward the edge. He looked up. Yuna could barely make out a gemstone in place of one of his eyes.

He raised his right arm. The hook that sat in place of his hand suddenly morphed into a megaphone.

"Ye be trespassing on private grounds, lassie!" Blackskull bellowed. "Nobody stands between pirates and pirate justice!"

As silly as it was, a comeback popped into Yuna's head. "Well, it's a good thing we're floating up here."

A few individuals in the crowd laughed. Blackskull glared at them, his gem eye glowing a brilliant emerald. That promptly shut them up.

"Mon Capitaine, I swear, I did not do anyzing to cause zis!"

Yuna traced Gilbert's voice and found the chatot tied up to a large metal pole on the opposite side of the platform. His wings and legs were restrained. Why they didn't also tie his beak shut was beyond Yuna. Maybe they gave him a chance to plead his case?

Blackskull turned around and shouted at Gilbert, megaphone and all. "I be well aware of that, ye stinking bilge pipe!"

"Gene sent us!" Shimmer said, sticking his head up from behind Reshiram's wings. "Because we need your help! The emperor has—"

"A Rift Ripper?" Blackskull cut in.

Yuna's eyes widened. "Wait, you know about that?!"

"Haaah ha ha ha!" Blackskull turned to the other pirates. "Laugh with me, me hearties!"

As the crowd of pirates erupted with laughter, the tyrantrum's gem eye glowed blue. A projection of Paradox appeared over the metal platform. He appeared to be in an office of some sort, looking between a camera and a bank of monitors.

"W... what is this?" Yuna said. It was some sort of illusion, right?

"We bugged the emperor's office!" Blackskull announced, ending the pirate crowd's laughter. "Greatest mark we've ever hit."

Shimmer gasped. "No way. So the reason you've managed to avoid the emperor this whole time..."

"Is because we've known his every move!" Blackskull proclaimed.

"How hasn't he found this bug?" Shimmer said. "Surely by now Paradox would have caught on."

"That be a trade secret," Blackskull said. The projection vanished back into his gem eye. "Or, rather, a pirate secret!"

Several pirates cheered, raising hooks, wings, and arms.

"You cannot be serious!" Yuna's griseous core flickered. "If you've known that... then why the hell are you sitting on this?! Why not work with Gene? Why not go after this guy?!"

Blackskull laughed at that. "Tis more fun to plunder instead, lass!" He turned to the crowd. "Ain't that right, lads?"

The crowd gave a raucous, "AYE, CAP'N!"

"Ummm, guys?" Vince called from above. "I really need somewhere to safely land! I can't exactly fly, y'know!"

The last of Yuna's patience burnt to ashes. She was willing to be polite over the nonsense with Gilbert and the kraken. But to know the emperor's movements and just... just do nothing with that. How much of all the awful stuff happening could've been avoided?

With a loud snarl, Yuna wreathed Reshiram in black, shadowy energy. Shimmer whinnied in fright on Reshiram's back.

"Yuna, what are you doing?!"

"This!"

The dragapult pointed to the metal platform. Reshiram unleashed a Blue Flare larger than any Yuna had seen the proper Sage perform. It was so large it almost startled Yuna, but her anger toward the pirates was far greater.

All the pirates on the platform scattered. Most ran toward the opposite end, where a couple of flying ships were moored. Blackskull fled with them as blue flames washed over the platform.

"Eeek! Non! Keep ze fire away from moiiiiii!" Gilbert squirmed on his post, but couldn't break free of his restraints.

"There's your landing spot," Yuna growled, directing Vince toward the now empty platform.

"So, ye be picking a fight with me on me own turf, Dragapult?" Blackskull called as the ship he boarded took to the air. He was still talking into his megaphone hand. "Ye've got pepper in yer pants, lass. I'll give ye that."

"I'm not wearing pants!" Yuna snarled. "I've literally never worn them!" She was beyond done with these dolts. "I'll give you one chance. Cooperate with Gene's resistance."

"How about a counteroffer, landlubber?" Blackskull pointed his hand down toward the water. "Iron Claw Carly breaks ye like a toothpick!"

Right as Vince landed with Jaeger and Nikki, a giant kingler machine emerged from the water, shooting water jets to propel it into the sky toward Yuna. Its full beard of frothy bubbles trailed after it.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!" Vince backpedaled toward the post where Gilbert was tied up, bowling Jaeger and Nikki over in the process.

"Don't run toward moi!" Gilbert squirmed in place. "I do not want to be ze meal for Carly! Make with the rebelling!"

Yuna pointed Reshiram toward the platform. It zipped through the air, but Carly opened one of its claws and unleashed a giant torrent of water. Yuna dove down, directing Reshiram down and left. Both dragons barely skirted the attack, though Shimmer was clearly losing his grip on Reshiram's back.

"Jump, dumbass!" Nikki shouted. She smacked her gills several times. "Nice beard, you bucket of bolts! Definitely not compensating for something!"

Electric amps raced toward Carly from behind. Yuna flew up and shot two Dragon Darts at Carly to hold its attention. It effortlessly swatted them aside with its other claw, but Nikki's Overdrive hit two of its legs from below. The legs curled inward.

Though it couldn't have bothered Carly much, since the robo-kingler pointed its right claw at Yuna. She now stared down a massive burst of water. Yuna sped to her left, sucking her tail into her torso on purpose for once. She barely skirted the water. Was it a giant Hydro Pump or something else?

It didn't matter. Reverse time kicked in and slowed things to a crawl. Yuna pumped Dragon Darts into Carly's face. The dreepy-shaped blue arrows struck Carly's beard, poking holes in all the frothy bubbles. However, Carly wasn't remotely shaken when Reverse Time ended.

To make matters worse, while the pirate ship carrying Blackskull flew into the air, the other one remained moored by the platform. A variety of electric and water-types leaped back onto the platform, rushing the others down.

"****!" Nikki sent Overdrive waves rippled out around her, only for a manectric to draw in the lightning and absorb it. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

"Ye really thought ye could waltz in here and not expect any trouble?" Blackskull taunted. "We Blackskull Buccaneers are in it fer ourselves, lass! That be the long and short of it!"

Carly closed the distance with Yuna, swinging its giant claws at the dragapult. Rather than flying back, however, Yuna instead flew toward the robo-kingler. She dove down toward its legs, avoiding the double Crabhammers.

Reverse time triggered again. Yuna knew there was no point to hold back. Who cares if she used her powers in front of Blackskull? The guy was a prick anyway.

Yuna kicked both her legs out. Giant giratina legs swung up beside her, slamming Carly from below. Yuna flew behind Carly, striking once more with a giratina leg.

When the time stop ended, dents appeared in Carly's metal hide. It tumbled up into the air, jetpack sputtering.

Another giratina leg emerged above Carly to slam its head and send it careening down toward the ocean. Sharp wind swirled around Yuna's griseous core.

"Ray!" she cried, summoning the black serpent in a streak of emerald light. He whipped up a large tornado near the surface of the water. The tornado caught Carly and, despite the bot's large frame, flung it around in midair like it was nothing but a trash bag.

"Cap'n, what is that?!"

"The lass be cheating!"

"It be something right out o' Dewott Jones' locker!"

For once, using her giratina powers didn't bother Yuna. In fact, it felt good. She wasn't desperately flailing around for once. She was in control. She had this.

Rayquaza stopped the tornado and broke into a Dragon Ascent dive. He pierced right through Carly's torso. Its arms broke off and dropped toward the water as an emerald arrow burst out of its back. Carly erupted in a brilliant orange explosion.

But Yuna's victory quickly gave way to something big and heavy striking her back. Then flames washed across her backside. Yuna tumbled through the air. Rayquaza vanished into fine emerald mist.

It was Blackskull's ship. It had trained cannons on her! And they were firing giant bunched up clusters of blast seeds!

"Don't get cocky, Dragapult!" Blackskull crooned. "We got plenty more firepower!"

Yuna caught herself and intercepted the blast seed cannonballs with well-aimed Dragon Darts. She looked right and found that the blast had knocked her far enough away from the platform that she'd totally lost sight of it.

She couldn't even fly toward it, either. Geysers erupted from the water beneath her. Two more robo-kingler appeared, frothy beards peppering the water's surface with extra brine.

Yelping, Yuna flew up and left. Two giant streams of water raced past her. Reverse time triggered, but Yuna was too far from the new Carlies. She shot four Dragon Darts toward them, but they fizzled out when her reverse time wore off.

Light flashed to her right. The ships were still firing at her! Yuna kept flying left, the platform getting further and further from her.

The dragapult swiped at the air behind her. Two spectral wings swatted the blast seed cannonballs, trying to knock them into the two Carlies. Unfortunately, all her giratina wings did was detonate the cannonballs, filling the sky with smoke and orange light.

High-pressure water burst through the light, striking Yuna from below. Hollering, she tumbled down through the air. The ocean's churning waves rushed up to meet her.

"Now that be more like it! Fire away, lads!"

Griseous core flashing, Yuna stopped her fall. She flew along the surface of the water. Waves splashed over her. Salt stung her eyes and ectoplasm. Yuna didn't care.

While instinct screamed to transform into Giratina, that was the wrong move. Yuna let herself get cocky and had already paid the price. She couldn't let anger cloud her judgement. She didn't need to make herself a giant target.

Instead, green light funneled toward one of Yuna's horns. As she snaked along the water surface, she tilted her head up just enough to blast Shaymin in sky form at the nearest Carly.

To Yuna's delight, the robo-kingler didn't see Shaymin coming. A burst of bright green energy struck its jetpack and blew it apart.

The other Carly fired a water geyser from its open pincer. Yuna seized the opening. She jabbed the air repeatedly with her claws as she flew. Giratina tendrils materialized and stabbed Carly's large claw like it was a piece of meat on a dinner plate.

They managed to blow Carly's claw apart, leaving it with no defense against Shaymin's Seed Flares pummeling it on the same side. Like the other Carly, its jetpack blew apart and it dropped from the air, flailing its one good claw around.

"There!" Blackskull shouted from above. "The landlubber be trying to sneak attack from the water!"

Several orange flashes peppered the air over Yuna. Splashes surrounded the dragapult, followed by salty geysers as the blast seed cannonballs exploded.

Yuna tried to open a rift and get herself easily back in the air, then remembered that wouldn't work here. Instead, she dove into the water. Sudden bursts jostled her left, then right, then down. Blast seed cannonballs kept striking the water's surface and exploding. Between the dark water below her and the orange flashes and sloshing brine above her, Yuna had no idea what was going on.

That blasted pirate ship! Just how much ammo did it have? And could she really stay down here, given all the robots had emerged from the depths?

Of course not. Yuna would simply have to hitch a ride.

In an emerald flash, Rayquaza emerged. Yuna grabbed onto his back. Emerald light surrounded him as he shot up through the water. His Dragon Ascent effortlessly carved through the explosions, carrying Yuna higher and higher.

Engines roared and cannons fired to her left. Grunting, Yuna tugged one of Rayquaza's dorsal fins. She jerked the fin as left as she could, then suddenly let go. Rayquaza continued forward like a brilliant emerald comet streaking across the sky.

"Divert all power to the starboard shield!" Blackskull roared through his megaphone. "And I want all me crew boarding their ships posthaste!"

The cannonfire abruptly stopped. A shield made of green hexagonal tiles appeared on the ship's right side. Rayquaza slammed into it. The hexagonal tiles flickered, but the shield held strong. Dragon Ascent's emerald energy evaporated.

Yuna had to work quickly. There was no telling how quickly this backup would arrive. She recalled Rayquaza, then summoned him again for another Dragon Ascent charge.

"Keep the shields up!" Blackskull bellowed.

This time, however, Yuna thrust her hands forward. Two giratina legs kicked the shield. The tiles flickered once again. Then Rayquaza's Dragon Ascent collided with the shield.

The tiles exploded into fragments of green light that quickly faded away. At Yuna's direction, Rayquaza thrashed his head back and forth. Wind blades sliced through the ship's masts. Pirates on the bridge screamed as the masts fell over, slid off the ship, and tumbled down into the ocean.

"It's over! Surrender!" Yuna snarled. Her core glowed bright emerald in her chest as she prepared to have Rayquaza use another Dragon Ascent.

"Surrendering be against the Pirate Code, lass!" Blackskull shouted back.

"Then have it your way!" Yuna's tail whipped the air. Rayquaza reared back to charge into the Ship's hull with a Dragon Ascent. Pirates on the deck launched all manner of ice, lightning, water, and wind blades at Rayquaza.

But it was all a feint. Yuna whipped the air with her tail again. Rayquaza looped through the air, dodging the pirates' various attacks, then dove toward the deck. He reached out to grab Blackskull right out from behind the steering wheel. Because if she had their captain, the crew had to stand down, right?

Rayquaza nabbed the tyrantrum. However, he didn't get more than a few meters back into the air when Blackskull suddenly exploded in a burst of blue and orange napalm. With his defenses weakened from all the Dragon Ascents, Rayquaza dissolved away, writhing about in wordless pain.

Guilt mixed with utter shock as Yuna watched Blackskull's gem eye tumble back onto the deck. None of the crew seemed particularly bothered, either. They weren't shouting. Or attacking. Or even panicking.

What just happened? Had that been a dummy the whole time? Was Blackskull simply a robot?

"That's enough!"

Yuna's tail crinkled at an unfamiliar, shrill voice. Jet engines fwooshed behind her. Yuna spun around, ready to defend herself from another ship or robot, only for her jaw to drop when she saw who was flying toward her.

It was Miraidon! He matched the pictures from Gene's album perfectly.

The dragapult expected the pirates to make a move, but the ones on the ship all stood around, exchanging awkward looks. Those with hands wrung them together nervously. Nobody made a move at Yuna or Miraidon.

Yuna's intensity from fighting fizzled away. In its place, confusion bubbled up from the unexpected newcomer.

"What the— huh? What are you doing here?!" Yuna looked back toward the ship. "You need to get back. It's dangerous here!"

Miraidon shook his head. "Hardly. I'm here to put an end to this, before you do any more damage to my crew."

At first, Miraidon's words didn't really sink in. "What are you talking about?" Yuna thrust her arms apart in exasperation. "Gene sent us here to get Blackskull's help in dealing with the emperor."

"And I am Captain Blackskull." Miraidon pointed at his long, glowing neck. "Or I was... until you came in here and mucked everything up."

Spoiler: End Notes

Chapter art by https://bsky.app/profile/lraphl.bsky.social

The referenced song at the start is a musical adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's "A Smuggler's Song," and is performed by Robin Jeffrey and Tim Laycock.

 

[heatran_ran]

Thanks for posting this! I just came across this fic and love your writing style!

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 137: And the Empire Strikes Back

A couple of beeps sounded behind Sticky. The naganadel turned around from the holographic monitors to find Arianna looking at the tablet he'd once used to keep track of things for Paradox."

"Call from..." The gardevoir sighed. "Illustrious Ultimate Supreme Grand Emperor Paradox." Arianna squinted. "Didn't he only have four titles yesterday?"

"He must've promoted himself again." Sticky waved his right arm dismissively. "Patch him through."

Arianna pressed on the tablet. Speakers in Sticky's office crackled to life.

"I trust you're settling in nicely, Warden?" the deoxys greeted.

"Yessir."

"And how is your new assistant faring?"

Sticky looked at Arianna. She stoically nudged up her glasses. The tablet's light reflected off her lenses to obscure her eyes.

"Decently," Sticky said. A couple of days was hardly enough time to get a good sense of her. But thus far she followed instructions and didn't talk back. Once again, Paradox was right.

"Excellent. Now, I need a status report on the Eternatus Siphoner. Is it functional?"

Sticky almost shot paint out of his main needle in surprise. Paradox was already asking about it? They had only started building it last week!

"I, uh, don't think so." Sticky rubbed the back of his head. He looked at Arianna. "What's our progress?"

The gardevoir looked down at the tablet. "It seems like the main framework is in place, but laborers need to finish with the plating, the tubing, and the Eterna energy buffers."

"I see." There was a pause, then Paradox continued, "I'll warp over prisoners from my other facilities. We need it ready by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Sticky leaned back against the railing opposite the control module for his office. "Sir, if this device is really as important as you say, then—"

"I'm afraid it cannot wait," Paradox scoffed. "I'll send over as much prison labor as needed. Could be hundreds or thousands."

Sticky swallowed hard. That was... quite a lot to dump on him.

"In the meantime, did we finish any maximum security cells?"

"Seriously?" Sticky looked up at a nearby speaker. "We only started that project last week, too!"

"Is that a 'no,' Sticky?" Paradox growled.

Sticky pinched his brow. "I believe there's one that's operational." He pushed himself off the railing, then floated to the holographic keyboard and typed away frantically. Windows pulled up on his holographic screen. "We haven't finished the testing, but it should hold... maybe two dozen prisoners?"

"Hmm. Well, it might be a tight fit, but I suppose that's good enough."

"Sir?"

"Prep the maximum security cell, Sticky."

"So, no more testing, then?"

"Don't have the time, I'm afraid," Paradox said. "The rebels are proving to be... nuisances. It's looking like I may need to take a significant risk and offer Uroboros up in order to nail down the rebels."

Alarm flashed across Sticky's face. "But sir, she's the only lieutenant we have left! If you lose her—"

"Then I will make do," Paradox cut in. "If it comes to that, so be it."

"Um, s-sir?"

"I never lose, Sticky. Whatever it takes, I'll make it happen."

The call cut off abruptly, leaving Sticky floating behind the railing, gazing up at the ceiling in shock.

Arianna cleared her throat. "Perhaps I'll give you some space."

Sticky whirled around. "I think not. You heard him! Prepare that maximum security cell and get us ready to receive those prisoners!"

XxX​

Igneous spun right through the air. Two multicolored Signal Beams rushed by him, nearly clipping his right volcarona wing.

"Aggh! Almost had 'im that time!" cried a vikavolt.

"Hold still, ya mangy lizard!" a ribombee added. Both pirate bugs readied Signal Beams to fire again.

Igneous spat two fireballs and forced them to scatter in opposite directions. He beat his wings to move forward, closer to the middle of the metal platform.

Things were going badly. Beneath him, Nikki pushed out electric sound waves and Jaeger dropped green-tinged rocks from above, knocking several pirates off the platform and down toward the water. Shimmer had his back to his teammates. The ponytales swept an Ice Beam across the ground, tripping up a wigglytuff, a sawsbuck with metal horns and legs, and a heracross with a metal carapace.

Shimmer conjured a large Light Screen and charged forward. The pirates were too slow to get up, so the light wall shoved them off the platform.

Igneous looked left and saw another half dozen pirates leap off the docked ship. And all the while, Vince did nothing but leap between large, jagged rocks surrounding the platform. Sure, some of the pirates were chasing him down. But it hardly did their group any good.

"Left, Twiggy!" Nikki shouted from below. Igneous glanced left, then summoned honedge to swipe at a charging escavalier. He kicked the bug away, then flew higher in the air.

Igneous twirled around. Fireballs filled the air around him. He heard several hollers around him. One was Escavalier. The others were a vanilluxe and emolga. Igneous followed up his Fiery Dance by chucking Honedge toward Vanilluxe. The blade knocked Vanilluxe out of the sky before returning to Igneous' claws.

"There's too many of them!" Shimmer whinnied from the platform.

"Non! Zis is barely ze fraction of ze crew!" Gilbert corrected. The chatot remained tied to a metal pole. Luckily, the kraken's tentacles hadn't resurfaced to take another shot at him.

"Not helping, dumbass!" Nikki snarled.

Igneous dove down, weaving left past swipes from Escavalier's lances. He peppered the metal platform with Bullet Seeds, stopping two electabuzz and a luxio from charging Nikki down while resisting her Overdrives. Luxio flopped onto their belly, while the electabuzz tried Thunder Punching the grovlazzle.

But Igneous managed to pull back up, giving Jaeger room to run in and... take one of the Thunder Punches in the snout?!

The lycanroc mutt smirked, before his body sheened with white light. He punched the electabuzz that socked him. White light exploded out of his fist, rocketing electabuzz into their two teammates and flinging them off the platform.

"Oh! Nice Counter!" Vince cheered, leaping from his rocky perch behind Gilbert's pole toward one on his left. Two togetic pirates flew after him, along with the vikavolt from earlier.

"Can it, Dick Joke!" Nikki snarled at the purple koraidon. "Why don't you stop running like a pussy and actually do something!"

"This is the best I can do!" Vince protested.

"Screw that!" Nikki blindly flung a Venoshock to her left. "Everyone else is digging deep! Where the hell's your fighting spirit? Are you really okay with any of the **** you heard that blowhard saying?"

"O-Of course I'm not!" Vince cried.

"Iggy, behind you!" Shimmer shouted.

Igneous flapped his volcarona wings, but a sharp pain spread across his back. Honedge and his wings dissolved in bursts of smoke. Gray metal rushed up to meet Igneous.

But the grovlazzle stopped short of a nasty crash landing. He caught sight of Shimmer several meters away, horn glowing pink.

"Thanks!" Igneous called. He brought his volcarona wings back. When the ponytales released his psychic grip, Igneous flew back into the air.

"Then do something besides just flying around!" Nikki was still arguing with Vince. "I thought you stupid Overseers were supposed to help people and ****!"

"I'm not in the right form," Vince protested. The purple koraidon leaped between rocky spires somewhere in the distance.

"Stop bitching about that!" Sparks from Nikki's Overdrive crackled below Igneous. "Everyone else has been able to pull crazy powers out of their asses, so you can, too! I won't take no for an answer, Dick Joke!"

Igneous couldn't pay them much mind, though. A few pirates readied their ship's cannons. The grovlazzle couldn't let them fire. So, he conjured Honedge again, and hurled it forward.

The blade landed directly in the cannon's barrel. Igneous clapped his claws together. An orange explosion engulfed the cannon. Napalm and flaming wood spilled out over the deck, sending all the pirates readying themselves to join the fight scrambling to try and deal with it.

Smirking, Igneous returned his attention to the metal platform, only to wince when an empoleon broadsided Shimmer with Steel Wing. The ponytales tumbled across the metal platform, where a bronzong was getting ready to knock Shimmer into the ocean.

This was bad! Could Shimmer even swim?

He dove toward them, volcarona wings beating as fast as Igneous could make them. But he wasn't fast enough. Bronzong Heavy Slammed Shimmer, knocking him clear off the platform.

"****!" Igneous surged toward the edge of the platform.

"See?" Nikki shouted from behind him. "If you stopped being such a whiny *****, then you could've actually fought with us and Twinkie wouldn't've—"

"ALL RIGHT! I GET IT!"

Igneous caught a burst of neon purple light in the corner of his eye. Then a blur of neon and white raced by, nearly knocking the grovlazzle out of the air. Igneous managed to grab the edge of the platform and hoist himself up.

As soon as he was on his feet, Vince emerged from below the edge of the platform. The purple koraidon was back on two legs, with Shimmer slung over his shoulder. He dropped the ponytales beside Igneous.

"You want fighting?" Vince spread his wings. Orange energy glowed all around him. "I'LL GIVE YOU FIGHTING!"

The purple koraidon curled up and, like a living pinball, bounced between bronzong and two shiftry charging at Igneous and Shimmer. Then he ricocheted over to the jolteon and two sawsbuck trying to get at Nikki. Each collision led to a burst of orange energy that jettisoned a pirate off the platform.

Vince zipped this way and that. Igneous couldn't even keep track of the orange blur. Not until Vince skidded to a halt in the center of the platform. His dewlap expanded and contracted with each ragged breath.

"Haaah... haaaaah... there. Happy?" Vince's wings curled back up into antennae.

"Oooh la la!" Gilbert called. "Such speed! Such finesse!"

"Quiet you!" Nikki kicked the pole he was tied to. "Or I'm chucking this into the ocean."

"Non! Please make with ze untying!" Gilbert squirmed against his restraints. "I am willing to look past our previous spats... and upgrade you from 'enemies' to 'frenemies' in exchange for ze generosity!"

The toxtricity crossed her arms. "Hmm. Tempting." She tapped a foot on the ground. "How about you throw in some pirate treasure and then we'll talk."

Vince whirled on Nikki. "Seriously?!"

"Re-hee-lax!" Nikki raised her hands. "It's a joke. A joke!"

"None of that will be necessary, Gilbert," came an unfamiliar male voice high in the air. "The jig is up, I'm afraid."

Startled, Igneous' tails caught fire. He looked up to find Yuna floating toward him— or, rather, toward Nikki.

"Princess, there you are!" Nikki jogged toward her. "Sheesh, you look like ****! What happened?"

"I'm letting him explain." Yuna pointed behind her. A second beaten-up ship landed by the docks, opposite the ship that was still somewhat on fire. And shortly after, a metal serpent floated toward the group.

"Wait." Igneous' head leaf simmered. "Isn't that Miraidon?"

Yuna's shoulders sagged. "Eeyup."

"The hell's he doing here?" Nikki wondered. Her eyes slowly widened. "Wait... are you shitting me?"

"About?" Shimmer looked between the girls in confusion. "Can someone loop me in?"

"I'm the leader of these space pirates," Miraidon declared. "Captain Blackskull was one of my many inventions. A front to keep me safe... since I can't actually use any moves."

"WHAT?!" Shimmer's tails puffed out. "Did your crew know about this?"

"Of course." Miraidon bobbed his head. "They all had to take a vow of pirate secrecy to join."

"Oui, secrecy is a part of ze Pirate Code!" Gilbert chirped. He shut his beak when everyone gave him the stink eye in unison.

"B-But—" Vince poked at the webbing between two of his fingers. "Shane wanted these guys to search you out. You're an Overseer!"

"Was an Overseer." Miraidon dismissed Vince with a wave of his right hand. He focused on Jaeger and Vince. "Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed you never put two and two together."

The lycanroc mutt shrugged. "Math was never my strong suit, mate."

Now that Igneous thought about it, it did clear up a big mystery surrounding the Blackskull Buccaneers.

Yuna's tail crinkled. "So, the reason why you could get your ships through to Radiance and warp your crew away when they got hurt... is because you've known about this kind of stuff the whole time."

Miraidon grinned. "And knew how to make it happen with the proper resources."

"But what about all of the tech?" Igneous walked around the platform, scratching his neck. "Like metal limbs on your crew members or, y'know, cloaking devices for your ships."

"Also from my Overseer days." Miraidon laughed. "Though the supplies have to come from somewhere. What do you think half our raids are for?"

Embers smoldered on Igneous' tail leaves. "Don't tell me... that raid on Herbrides involved stealing a ton of electronics."

"To repurpose into tools for the crew." Miraidon pivoted toward the ships. "Isn't that right?"

"Aye, cap'n!" a couple of togetic shouted, before resuming bringing water buckets to the ship whose deck was still on fire.

"Did Gene know about this?" Yuna wondered, frown deepening.

"Of course." Miraidon tapped his metallic neck. "We had an agreement. He wouldn't blab about Larkharr to the emperor's troops and I'd provide him with intel I gathered. How do you think the guy's avoided the emperor all this time without any real teammates besides that flaming zoroark?"

Yuna opened her mouth to respond, only to shut it. Igneous didn't blame her. He was at a loss for words, too.

"I don't care about the logistics!" Vince stomped his right leg angrily. "What about the morality? We're supposed to help people! Not steal from them!" He waved his right arm around. "This world's suffering and you're choosing to add to that?"

At that, Miraidon groaned. "Are we really going to litigate this here?"

Igneous finally found his voice. "I mean... I'd like an explanation." The grovlazzle looked at the others. He managed to get nods from Nikki, Shimmer, and Yuna.

"Fine." Miraidon waved his right arm around. "Someone bring me a chair."

Two pelipper with metal beaks flew over from the ship that wasn't on fire. They dropped a suspiciously miraidon-shaped chair on the platform. Miraidon hovered over to it. He unsurprisingly fit into it like a plug going in an electrical socket.

"I was always a tinkerer for the Overseers," Miraidon said. "Coming up with devices to help them monitor worlds or rehabilitate souls. It was... fine."

Igneous crossed his arms. "Until it wasn't, I imagine."

"It was so repetitive and so boring." Miraidon rolled his eyes. "The paperwork was the worst! Soooo many forms."

He leaned forward slightly, bracing his arms on the sides of the chair. "So, when I heard there was going to be a big investigation of dimension POV-2020 — that's you guys, by the way — I leaped at the opportunity to go."

A long, protracted sigh followed. Miraidon slumped down in his chair. "Except I just ended up doing the exact same things I was already doing."

He quickly sat back up. "I was getting ready to lodge a complaint when I heard the higher-ups wanted to end the investigation. That's when I decided to cut my ties and stick around here. I snuck away from the outpost and managed to get sucked into Eternatus."

Igneous raised a brow. "And that's how you got involved with Nova? And later Gene?"

"Exactly." Miraidon pointed at the grovlazzle. "I had a chance to finally build different devices with a very different purpose: overthrowing an evil ruler of some wretched hellscape. Who wouldn't want to do that?"

"Except Matriarch wasn't evil," Yuna countered. The dragapult floated toward Miraidon's chair. "And your mission to stop her ended in disaster... with an actual evil getting released from his seal and an opportunistic evil taking advantage of the moment to begin a long, long reign of terror."

"Ah! Ah!" Miraidon wagged his right arm at Yuna. "See, that second part's the important bit. It's when I realized that some worlds are just beyond saving."

Igneous frowned. "I beg your pardon?"

"That Enamorus would, in a critical moment, choose not to try and help us regroup, but instead seize some semblance of power for herself to live out her fantasies?" Miraidon shook his head. "It made me see this world for what it is. One that's never going to find a happy ending."

Miraidon's thrusters coughed out a bit of smoke. "Figured that, if I was going to be stuck until the universe eventually collapsed on itself, then I could at least have an entertaining time with my gizmos and machines. So, I became a pirate! And went on swashbuckling adventures raiding everything from towns to imperial bases."

Igneous stood there in stunned silence. The others were equally baffled. Even Nikki kept her mouth shut for once.

"That's insane!" Vince finally blurted out. "What kind of messed up thinking is that?"

"Hey now." Miraidon looked offended. "It's not like I turned to wanton destruction. My crew focused mostly on the emperor's bases... or on places strongly affiliated with him. And I recruited folks who suffered illness or injured limbs... steering them away from that godawful mewgenics stuff the emperor parades around."

"It's still not right." Vince's dewlap expanded. "It's... it's almost like you're the one running and hiding! Hiding behind all your fancy machines."

Miraidon frowned. "You're green, aren't you? An Overseer rookie." He squinted. "Cuz that sounds like the same kind of idealism I had when I first started out." Shaking his head, he leaned back in his chair again. "Give it time, bud. The Overseers will lose their luster soon enough."

"All right, that's enough!" Igneous marched toward Miraidon, head leaf simmering. "You've said your piece. And now here's ours."

He raised one claw. "The emperor's invading our home and opening up a bunch of rifts in the process." Igneous raised a second claw. "Meanwhile, Zodiark is whole again and close to full power." He raised a third claw. "Most of us rebels are actually reincarnations from these old worlds Matriarch mentioned to you."

Igneous paused to take a breath. "And now we've got an arceus with most of his plates, a Voice of Life, and almost an entire Red Chain.

"We can fix this." Igneous curled his claws. Embers crackled around them. "But we need to stop Paradox and get the final Red Chain fragment now. Before all his rift-making destroys the universe. So please..." Igneous pointed over Miraidon's chair, toward the ships. "Work with us. Your crew can help put a stop to Paradox for good."

The grovlazzle expected a protracted silence, however Miraidon rose from the chair. "All right. Sure."

Igneous blinked. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah." Miraidon stretched his arms. "It's as good a reason as any." He shook his head. "Besides, if I said no, you'd just keep blabbing at me until I relented."

It was far from a ringing endorsement, but Igneous didn't care. They'd gotten what they came here for.

"While we are making ze requests, would someone mind untying moi?" Gilbert squawked. "Ze ropes, zey are chafing my wings."

Instead of anyone responding to the chatot, Yuna floated closer to Miraidon. "Okay, then we need to set out now. The emperor's invaded my home. And we have no idea how the others are holding up."

"Well, you guys mucked up two of my ships." Miraidon jerked his head toward the docks. The pirates had finally managed to put out the fire on the ship deck. "But I've got plenty more in waiting."

He waved his right arm and one of the pelipper that brought over Miraidon's chair returned. She spat up Blackskull's gem eye. Miraidon caught it and held it up.

"In the meantime, this can give us a good idea of what the emperor's up to," he exclaimed. Miraidon tapped the gem and a projection of Paradox appeared above the group.

There was no surrounding scenery. The deoxys held some sort of blaster-like device with a large spherical barrel made of triangular tiles. The tiles then opened up, revealing some sort of pink slate inside of it.

"Wait..." Yuna's eyes widened in alarm. "That's a plate! That's one of Leo's plates! What's it doing with the emperor?!"

That finally wiped the bored expression off Miraidon's face. "What the heck?"

"And there... you... are..."

Igneous saw flashes of purple out of the corner of his eyes. "RUN!" the grovlazzle shouted, volcarona wings flaring to life.

But his warning came too late. A jagged purple rift opened underneath the group. Other rifts opened up in the distance.

Miraidon's jet thrusters sputtered. "No! The emperor found our base!" He glared at Yuna. "Did you lead him here?!"

"Of course not!" Yuna said.

A cacophony of cries and screams spread across the area. Igneous flapped his wings as fast as he possibly could, but the rift was pulling him in!

"Iggy!" Shimmer cried to his right. Igneous caught the ponytales reaching a foreleg toward him before sinking through the purple rift entirely. Then Jaeger and Vince vanished, followed by Miraidon and Nikki. Even Yuna couldn't get away, disappearing into blue and purple with a frustrated snarl.

Igneous kept struggling, but purple and blue filled his vision more and more. The last thing the grovlazzle saw before Larkharr disappeared was a deoxys floating in the distance, frantically looking around. He seemed to calm down after several seconds, then pointed a strange blaster-like device to his left.

XxX​

Noctum zigzagged through the air, dodging thorny Seed Bombs that burst apart, showering poison down toward the mountains beneath him. He swiped the air with his right arm. A Spacial Rend crescent tore through the air and sliced off two of Uroboros' thorny tendrils.

She shrieked. Her serperior head split open, exposing the seviper inside.

"There!" the cosmic charizard shouted.

"On it!" Diamond galloped through the air past Noctum. The cosmic keldeo leaped up, yellow horn shimmering with blue energy. He unleashed a tachyon beam that filled the ash-choked sky with a vibrant blue.

Roar of Time struck Uroboros' seviper body. Her upper half froze in place with her torso and tail wriggling about in a panic.

Thorny vines emerged, swiping furiously at the air. Noctum flew up to dodge poisonous globules, but caught sight of Valkyrie weaving her way past the vines.

Dragon Claws flared up as she lunged forward. She swiped at a dangling flap of Uroboros' serperior head. The garchomp cleaved right through it. It sailed down between the mountains.

Uroboros' upper half began moving again. Noctum opened a rift and yanked Valkyrie through, helping her narrowly avoid a torrent of toxic sludge Uroboros spewed.

"I seriously hope no one's down on the ground," Valkyrie said, swinging herself onto Noctum's back.

"Right." The cosmic charizard carried her higher into the air, out of swiping range from Uroboros' vines. "Um, Val?"

"What?"

"Is it just me or is she, y'know, not putting up that much of a fight?" Noctum spun around and rapid fired half a dozen blue fireballs. They connected with vines beneath him, burning their ends off.

Uroboros whipped her tail up, shrieking, "Stupid rebels! Die already!"

Noctum easily avoided her tail. Then a Secret Sword cleaved off two more of her vines. They plummeted from the sky while Diamond jetted up with Hydro Pumps from his hooves to dodge a Sludge Wave.

"Stand still!" Uroboros hissed.

"I'll pass, thanks!" Diamond retorted, steering himself away from Uroboros before landing on empty air ahead of Noctum.

"You're right," Valkyrie said. "I know you guys have gotten stronger, but still. This was the lieutenant Paradox kept in reserve?"

And it wasn't like they overwhelmed the giant serperior with sheer numbers. It was only the three of them!

Uroboros' body rippled. Thorny Seed Bombs filled the air around her, drifting further and further away.

"Let me off," Valkyrie said. "I can't do much on your back."

"Right. Hang on." Noctum tucked in his nebula wings. He dove down toward where he knew Valkyrie could safely walk around on the air. Seed Bombs grew closer, but Noctum was faster. He dropped Valkyrie off in midair then continued into a rift.

It deposited him behind Uroboros right as the Seed Bombs exploded. Purple ooze rained down, but Valkyrie strafed clockwise around Uroboros and Diamond got past the toxins with Hydro Pump jets from his hooves.

Noctum funneled blue-purple energy along his arms, waiting for the right moment. Uroboros seemed too preoccupied with Diamond and Valkyrie to focus on him.

"Where is he?" she hissed. "Where's that stupid-looking charizard?"

Uroboros' tail lashed at the air. Noctum flapped his wings twice to avoid the tail tip. He held his charge. And judging from the blue-purple flicker far ahead of him, Diamond had a Roar of Time at the ready.

The moment Noctum saw the large blue beam, he hurled a giant Spacial Rend crescent at Uroboros, aiming for her injured serperior head.

"I won't fall for that again!" she snarled. Thorny vines emerged from her neck to try and deflect.

But a garchomp came speeding in from Uroboros' right and sliced through the vines. Before Noctum could try to open a rift and pull Valkyrie through, she broke into a glide from her momentum, sailing clear of the Roar of Time. It slammed into Uroboros' open serperior head at the same time as Noctum's Spacial Rend.

A brilliant blue-purple nebula erupted around Uroboros. The explosion was so loud it muffled her screams. Noctum even had to look away, throwing an arm up to shield his eyes.

Another blast sounded far to his right. Noctum lowered his arm to see one of the Eternatus Terraformers crashing, orange flames and smoke trailing off it.

"Yes, that's it!" Cid cheered through the X-transceiver. "They're down to their last Terraformer. It's off to the north of Uroboros!"

A dark purple blur rushed over toward Noctum. Gene came to a stop.

"You good here?" The mega mewtwo looked over his shoulder, where the blue purple nebula continued swirling around. Occasional swathes of serperior green poked through. Was Uroboros getting spun around like a garment in a washing machine?

"I think so?" Noctum shrugged. "She's got, like, infinite vines or something, but we're clearly managing."

"Yeah. Never did have a solution for those." Gene's starcloud tail twitched in irritation. He looked past Noctum. "Widget and Bahamut are heading for the last Terraformer. Hang tight for another few minutes."

He zipped away before Noctum could say anything. But the timing worked out, since Uroboros had freed herself from the explosion. Her serperior head was gone, leaving the tiny seviper completely exposed inside the serperior neck. And her tail was completely missing, with purple sludge dribbling out of the leftover stump.

"This... this is impossible!" Uroboros inner seviper flailed about. "Where did you get such power? This can't be Gene's work! I don't understand!"

She still hadn't turned to Noctum. The cosmic charizard slowed his wing beating, descending toward Uroboros' serperior tail stump.

He spewed a blue Flamethrower at Uroboros' backside. To Noctum's delight, his flames ignited the purple sludge, setting Uroboros' lower half ablaze. Shrieking, she flailed about in midair, summoning vines two at a time to frantically put out the flames.

"Diamond, try to slice those vines," Noctum said, hoping the X-transceiver would relay his message.

Orange light flashed ahead of him. Two of Uroboros' vines burst apart at the seems, splattering more ooze along her body. This spread the flames to her upper torso. Purple smoke melded with orange flames.

"Crud!" Noctum frantically flapped his wings to put some distance between himself and Uroboros. He was going to have to find a way to stop that poisonous cloud from spreading too far, or all the resistance members would breathe it in.

"Well, this is certainly disappointing. I expected better of you, Uroboros."

Noctum's tail flame shrank. Right. Paradox's projection. It had gone silent while they fought Uroboros. Why was the deoxys speaking up now?

"M-My emperor, please!" Uroboros thrashed harder in midair, but Noctum's flames still clung to her. "Just... just give me a bit more power! Share your power and I will crush these rebels!"

Something's wrong. Even if Noctum was stronger, his flames couldn't keep burning like this. There had to be a reason.

A knot formed in Noctum's stomach. He frantically searched around for Valkyrie until he spotted the garchomp through the purple haze.

"Don't worry, my dear," Paradox's projection declared. "You've already done just that."

Uroboros stopped writhing. Her eyes bugged out. Orange light beams poke out from the fire, one after the other.

Noctum's eyes widened. "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!"

He dove into a rift, colliding with a startled Valkyrie.

"Get off me, dork!"

Noctum wrapped his wings around the garchomp as much as he could. He tried to get her back through the rift.

But the cosmic charizard wasn't fast enough. Behind him, Uroboros' screams turned into a thunderous explosion. White-hot energy slammed into Noctum and Valkyrie.

The world spun all around Noctum. He tried to hold on to Valkyrie, but the more he spun, the more his grip slipped. Soon, he lost his hold on Valkyrie all together.

Everything spun too fast for Noctum to see her. He tried to shout her name, but was cut off when he crashed into a mountaintop. There were a few seconds of pain, then he blacked out.

XxX​

Gene heard the blast behind him. He turned around to see a massive orange shockwave racing toward him. The mega mewtwo Phantom Warped through it. Golden flashes to his right told him Bahamut teleported through it.

Widget wasn't so lucky, however. The shockwave slammed into him and sent the miraivally tumbling out of the air.

"****!" Gene held out his right hand to open a rift in Widget's path. But orange light from his left flooded his vision.

His eyes widened for all of a second before the Eternatus Terraformer exploded just like Uroboros. This time, Gene couldn't react.

Next thing he knew, Gene lay in a crater. His whole body ached. A protracted groan escaped his lips.

"You moron! Look at what you've done to us?"

"Damn it." Arms trembling, Gene managed to push his upper half up. "He must've... rigged them... to set off... giant explosions." He coughed up a bit of dust. "But why? She was... his last lieutenant..."

"It worked?"

Gene's blood ran cold. He knew that voice.

"Aha ha... HA HA HA! Of course it worked! I'm Illustrious Ultimate Supreme Grand Emperor Paradox! My plans are flawless! Just like me!"

"Flee now. We cannot win this!"

Bright blue and red lights surrounded Gene... from dozens— no, hundreds of Eternatus Gunners and Bombardiers. All with their blasters trained on him. And floating above them all, clutching some sort of blaster-like device, was Paradox. He wore a positively unhinged expression.

"Who needs lieutenants?" Paradox looked around at all the troopers. "Not me! Not when I have singlehandedly stopped the rebels with my brilliant plan!"

"Ha!" Gene tried to push himself further off the ground. But his arms burned. Between that explosion and the rough landing that made the crater he was in, he was in no fit state to do anything. So, he had to stall. Stall so that the others could regroup.

"Sacrificing yourself here does nothing for anyone!" Dark Matter snarled. "Listen to me for once! Run!"

"You were... winging it," Gene wheezed. "Just like I do. Besides, the resistance... is much bigger than me."

He managed to smirk at the deoxys. "Killing me... won't solve anything. I think... your days are numbered."

"Ah ha ha ha ha! Marvelous!" Paradox clapped his left tentacles together. His expression had settled back into one that radiated confidence. "Defiant until the bitter end, I see. There's just one slight problem with your hypothesis, Mewtwo."

Paradox zipped down from the sky, bringing a foot down on Gene's back. The wind rushed out of Gene's lungs.

"Insolent fool! You've ruined us both!"

"All your little friends are already mine." Paradox stepped off Gene's back. The spherical chamber of his device opened up, revealing a pink slate inside of it. "Including the ones you sent gallivanting after Captain Blackskull." He paused. "That's right. I found the pirates. Because I. Am. Brilliant." He jabbed Gene. "Unlike you."

"That's a plate," Dark Matter said. "We are truly finished. Your regret and confusion are so strong they're practically crushing me."

"But don't worry, they'll get to enjoy a lovely stay at Citidark Isle, courtesy of me." Paradox's free tentacles wriggled with delight that matched his tone. "Which is a lot more than I can say for you."

"What's that... supposed to mean?" Gene's priorities had shifted. Now he needed to buy time so he could have enough energy to conjure a rift. And with the beating that explosion dealt, the mega mewtwo was struggling.

I could really use a hand here.

"I'm trying, but I'm in pain, too."

"If I kill you... Eternatus would claim your soul." Paradox shook his head. "I won't allow you to spoil my victory with any more of your ridiculous shenanigans. And thankfully... I don't have to!"

He pointed the device at Gene. Red and purple energy surged around Leo's plate.

Gene's eyes widened in realization. That was how Paradox was making rifts. He must've sucked up everyone else... and now Gene was next!

C'mon... c'mon! Rift, rift, rift!

But try as Gene might, he couldn't muster up enough energy. His whole body screamed in protest. His shoulder crystals burned hotter than they'd ever had. Even his chest core felt like it would melt right into his heart.

"Why give you even a sliver of a chance at stopping me when my Rift Ripper lets me... exile you?" Paradox declared. "I do hope you enjoy this little trip, Mewtwo. Because I'm sending you so far from this world you'll never return!"

Gene could only let out a frustrated snarl as he tried to lunge for Paradox, only for the Rift Ripper to go off. He fell through a blue and purple rift, landing along frigid ice that sent him sliding further and further away.

He heard loud cries from the rift, followed by Paradox shouting, "If you're so eager to join your pathetic leader... then join him!"

Silvally and lucario-shaped silhouettes flew out of the rift before it closed. Gene then slammed into a snowbank. Snow tumbled on top of him.

The sudden cold proved too much for Gene, who finally passed out.

XxX

~Il Paradigma, No. V: Uroboros, the Hierophant~
Once a loyal seviper enforcing Matriarch's vision over Eternatus, she was the sole doubtful voice speaking out against the emperor's rise to power. For her disobedience, her small body was stuffed inside a serperior that the emperor mutated to an immense size. She became known and feared for her ability to generate large amounts of toxins immune to any medical interventions.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
The Hierophant is the fifth of the major arcana. It symbolizes righteousness, sacredness, hierarchy, orthodoxy, and moral righteousness. In the reverse position, it can symbolize unorthodoxy, gullible nature, and originality.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 138: To the Winds

​

Shane's raised golden wings froze before he could flap them. He looked around the gaping blue-violet sea of Ginnungagap. Scanned some of the jigsaw-like islets floating around. As empty and barren as ever, save for the occasional crystalline tree or bush.

One such islet floated past him. A crystal tree sprouted from its base. Light refracted off the tree. An aurora of colors danced across the necrozma's chest, fading away as the islet passed him by.

All the while, his golden body twitched and rippled like he was covered in bug bites demanding immediate scratching.

What was that? Shane brought an upper wing to his chest and draped it over his top chest spike. He looked over his shoulder. POV-2020 was vaguely in that direction. Though it was quite far away.

He sensed something. He was sure of it. A feeling... not unlike what happened when his old team had triumphed in their toughest battle. Like a great darkness had... suddenly been purged. With an equally great power torn away like the lid of a cardboard box.

"No." Shane's tail lashed at the air. "Don't tell me..."

The rainbows of his mismatched eyes swirling into a panicked purple. Shane vigorously flapped his wings, taking off in the direction he came. He couldn't get too close to POV-2020, but he had to find out what direction that nagging sense was going.

Great powers were missing. And if he went to the high-ranking Overseers, it would ruin everything. So, he'd have to find them himself.

XxX​

"Get up. Now."

Dark Matter's harsh orders roused Gene from unconsciousness. Frigid snow surrounded him. The cold stung, but at the same time there was some relief in his aching arms and legs. Why was that?

Oh. Right.

Paradox had sprung one hell of a trap on Gene. But instead of trying to kill the mega mewtwo, he'd tossed him into some random world. A nasty ice world, if first impressions were anything to go off.

Grunting, Gene dug himself out of the snowbank. It didn't do him much good, though. Fierce winds blew snow all around him. He couldn't tell if it was actually snowing or if this was old snow getting swept off the ground. Perhaps a mix?

Gene could barely see a dozen meters around him. There was the snowbank behind him and to his left sat a tree so thoroughly iced over he wondered if it was actually made of the stuff.

"Look at where your recklessness has gotten us," Dark Matter growled. The back of Gene's head throbbed. "Cast away to a frozen prison. A fate worse than death."

Gene brushed snow off his arms. We're still alive. That means there's still a chance to—

"Don't give me that," Dark Matter cut in. "This exile has blunted my powers but I can still tell you don't believe that." Its disgust grew with every word. "We have no idea where we are. We lack the power to escape. Leo cannot possibly find us like this. Face it. We've lost. It's over. There's nothing left to do but wait for the inevitable end at Zodiark's hands."

As much as Gene wanted to retort, he had nothing. Anything he said would amount to no more than empty bluster.

"I didn't see it coming." Gene's starcloud tail lashed at the air, flinging snow and slush off. "Paradox valued his lieutenants... and Uroboros was the last one. For him to just... booby trap her and cast her aside like that..." He shook his head. "He must believe that Rift Ripper gadget of his makes him invincible."

"We both saw the psychic-type plate within that contraption," Dark Matter said. "A plate and a Red Chain fragment. No wonder he swept us aside. You let your numbers and your allies' power boost make you overconfident. And that overconfidence killed the resistance."

Gene's shoulder crystals crackled with purple energy. "Enough!" He thumped his chest core. "I know I screwed up. I don't need you beating that dead ponyta! Leave me alone and let me think of a way out of this!"

Silence followed, save for the howling winter winds. Snow quickly dusted Gene's chest core, only to melt away from the warmth it gave off.

Instead of Dark Matter retorting, however, Gene heard bitter laughter in front of him, followed by increasingly loud crunching of snow.

A lucario with a starry pelt emerged from the wall of white. The last of a tired, bitter laugh escaped Bahamut's snout. He stopped in front of Gene. Widget then emerged from the snow squall. He was back in his cosmic form, but his starcloud seemed much duller than usual.

"A way out of this? That's rich." Bahamut started walking again. Toward the iced over tree. "We've been flung across reality to who knows where." He threw up his arms. "There's no mystery dungeon linking our world to this one."

Bahamut held out a paw. Gold embers crackled around it, but his blade failed to materialize.

"Which means much of our powers are inaccessible." He brought his paw back and crossed his arms. Bahamut scowled at the tree. "We might as well be in an icy prison."

"You sound like Dark Matter," Gene scoffed.

Bahamut turned his scowl on Gene. "Oh, please. Your bravado is worthless here. You have nothing. We have nothing."

"At least someone has some sense around here."

"Guys, please!" Widget whined. He shook snow off his black pelt. "Arguing won't get us anywhere. The best thing we can do right now is try to find civilization."

"Hmph." Bahamut shook his head. "You really think Paradox would send us somewhere populated? The best way to ensure no chance of recovery would be to place us in an empty world." He gestured all around him. "And this fits the bill perfectly."

"... Hmm."

Gene's starcloud tail twitched. Of all the interjections Dark Matter could make, humming in thought was not one Gene expected. What's up?

"It's strange," Dark Matter said. "But I feel something... familiar approaching us."

Familiar? Gene quirked a brow. In what way?

Widget took a step toward Bahamut. "So, you'd rather just stand here and freeze to death?"

"Of course not." Bahamut leaned over, brow furrowing. "But I don't want to walk blindly through a snowstorm, either."

"Don't you still have an aura sense?"

Gene turned away from his bickering teammates. When he did, he squinted.

It was faint, but he swore there was a silhouette in the snow wall up ahead. Gene took one step forward. Then another.

Answer my question, he said to Dark Matter.

"I feel... myself?"

Gene paused mid step. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

The mega mewtwo got his answer quite quickly when the silhouette turned into a long, slender ice cat that emerged from the snow. It had black, blade-like saber teeth whose bases protruded through the roof of its mouth.

But that was meaningless compared to the large, snowflake-shaped crystal protruding from its head. It brought the different pokémon corrupted by Leo's plates to mind.

Gene tensed up. He tried to conjure his spoon but found he couldn't.

"Can I... help you?" Gene said. He sensed Bahamut and Widget approaching. They must've seen the cat, too.

"Who are you?" the cat said. Its tone was neutral. But there was more life in it than the Whispers they'd come across. That got Gene to relax a bit.

"We're... not from here," Widget said. His starcloud ruff constricted. "An enemy sent us here. We're trying to get back home."

"Back home." The cat shook his head. "I see no reason for that. You are troubled. I can tell. Why not let the ice cool your troubles?"

"I was right."

Stop being vague, Gene mentally growled.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Widget said. He looked around. "Is, um, this your snowstorm?"

"It is." The cat nodded. "I am Chien-Pao. I speak for this world's savior: the Bittercold."

XxX​

The rift deposited Yuna and her teammates inside some sort of cell. There was a metal floor underneath her and eerie orange barriers surrounding her on all sides. But when the rift vanished, the cell's ceiling wasn't there.

Yuna tried to fly up, but another orange barrier immediately materialized. Worse yet, the dragapult couldn't even get herself off the ground.

"Nnngh." Shimmer staggered to his feet. "What happened?"

"What happened is the freaking emperor got the jump on us!" Nikki stomped up to the barrier. "We gotta bust out of here somehow!"

She smacked her gills... and nothing happened.

"The hell?" Nikki looked down at her gills. The toxtricity thumped them again. And again. And again. "Where's my damn attack?"

She brought her hands together... and failed to conjure even a single glob of poison. Nikki turned to Yuna. "Princess! Do some weird Giratina ****! We need that pronto!"

"Right." Though it was going to be awkward with Yuna stuck on her belly. Still, the dragapult had to try.

She focused on her griseous core and... nothing. Yuna couldn't bring forth any chaos energy. Or summon one of the Sages. She sensed the energy. But it was like someone had put a glass wall in front of her to stop her from getting to it. And she couldn't break through the glass.

Yuna's tail constricted. "It's not working."

"Seriously?" Nikki looked at the others. "What about you guys?"

Jaeger looked down at his paws. "'m shooting blanks, mate." He looked over his shoulder at Vince. The purple koraidon tried punching the barrier. Orange energy shocked him.

"YOW!"

He fell on his rear, smoke trailing off his hand as he wrung it out. "Th... this is bad. Worse than bad, even!"

Shouts and startled cries rang out all around Yuna. She inched along the floor of her cell and managed to prop her head up.

What Yuna found was a massive spherical room housing row upon row of prison cells. These ones only had orange barriers in place of doors, while the walls and ceilings were pure metal. There were silhouettes behind those barriers, but Yuna couldn't make out who they belonged to.

"I... I think I hear Miraidon." One of Shimmer's ears stuck up a bit higher. "And a bunch of pirates."

Igneous walked toward the opposite corner of the cell. "Those voices... nnngh, what did they call him, again?" The grovalzzle tapped a foot on the ground repeatedly until his eyes lit up. "Got it."

He cupped his claws by his cheeks and yelled, "Crimson Zephyr, that you? Where the hell are we?"

Through the loud voices, a familiar shrill one cried, "Nyek nyek neyk! I know that voice! It's that dumb Ryujin lizard!" His cackling echoed around the prison. "Sakaki's son done got himself tossed into Citadark! What a riot!"

Yuna's eyes widened. Citadark?

She shot the others a horrified look. They'd seen that awful advertisement Paradox put together for Citadark Isle... and now they were in the prison? This was terrible!

"Um, boss? Should we be telling Big Gus?" Rookie's voice came from the same direction as Carpaccio's. "I know he's still asleep and all."

"Butt out, nuts-for-brains! We ain't even gonna talk to them no more!"

"****." Nikki stepped back from the barrier, jamming her hands into her jacket pockets. "What are we supposed to do now? It sounds like Paradox even got the damn pirates."

"We keep our chins up, mates," Jaeger said. The lycanroc mutt sat down on the floor. "The others'll regroup to spring us o—"

The ceiling barrier suddenly disappeared. Another rift opened overhead and spat out a screaming salugia. Yelping, Yuna rolled close to the barrier to avoid being squished.

"Get your fat ass off me!" Shimmer hollered from underneath Jade.

More bodies tumbled out of the rift. A cosmic keldeo, a cosmic milotic, and a dragonair. A psychic articuno, black moltres, and orange zapdos. An obstagoon and two urshifu. And finally, a dragapult.

While Igneous tried to get Shimmer out from underneath Jade's hips, the rift shut. The orange grid reappeared as a ceiling over the cell.

[Maximum security cell at capacity,] a mechanized voice announced from some unseen loudspeakers. [Now maximizing security.]

The barriers surrounding the cell shifted from the same orange as all the other cells to an eerie shade of purple. Yuna still couldn't get herself off the ground. She was forced to crawl over to Diamond, who'd safely slid off Jade. He gazed at the nearest barrier with a look of shame.

"What happened?" Yuna asked. "Where's Gene?"

"Paradox sprung a horrid trap on us." Diamond shuddered. "He killed off his own troops to generate a massive explosion." He lowered his head. "It caught us all off guard."

"An explosion?" Yuna propped herself up a bit more to get closer to eye level with Diamond. "You don't mean—"

"I don't think anyone died." Diamond's starcloud tail crinkled. "But Gene, Bahamut, and Widget were caught up in one blast. Noctum and Valkyrie in another. The shockwaves got to the rest of us." He shuddered. "I saw Paradox drop Gene, Bahamut, and Widget through a rift. Then he turned his rifts on everyone else."

Yuna ectoplasm shriveled. Paradox had beaten them?

What about the rest of her family? What about the Aeon Kingdom?

"What happened to everyone else?" was what she ended up whispering.

"Oh, there's no need to worry about them."

Paradox floated up to the cell. There was some strange purple needle creature—a naganadel, if Yuna remembered Cyril's briefings—following. And behind both of them... was a familiar gardevoir, who had one hand firmly pressed against her glasses to hide her face.

"Arianna?" Shimmer pushed past Jade's tail to get to the front of the cell. "You... you're working for Paradox now?!"

"Your rank-and-file soldiers are being processed and sent to regular cells along with the merry band of pirates you helped lead me toward." Paradox declared, his tentacles wriggling excitedly. "I can't turn them all into Eternatus Troopers at once, but I certainly intend to.

"And as for you lot..." The deoxys' tentacles melded into arms that he folded behind his back. Paradox leaned forward. "Come tomorrow, you'll be nothing but batteries powering the machines that will aid me in my many conquests!"

"No way!" Jade squawked. "He can't do that... can he?"

"I can now." Though Paradox lacked a mouth, he was practically smirking at them. "And you want to know what the best part is? No one's coming to save you!"

His right arm unraveled into tentacles that grabbed the portal-making device the nagandel was carrying. Paradox pointed it at the cell. The spherical chamber opened at the front, showing purple energy crackling around one of Leo's plates.

"I've exiled Mewtwo and a couple of his merry sidekicks to some random empty universe with no hopes of any possible escape!" Paradox exclaimed. The device's chamber closed. "So, I invite you all to sit back and enjoy what precious little time you have left."

He turned to Naganadel. "Now that that monk spilled the beans, I'm off to run a little errand. As soon as your preparations are complete, Sticky, have their cell transported to the Siphoner."

"Understood, sir." Sticky saluted.

Paradox looked back at the cell one last time. "Game over, rebels. You lose."

He opened a rift behind him with his device and floated into it. It shut behind him. Sticky barked orders at Arianna to help tend to the new prisoner registrations. Then he guided her out of the prison chamber.

Yuna's ectoplasmic body deflated. Groaning, Nikki slumped down beside her.

"Well, we're screwed. Officially," the toxtricity said. "****, how did things get this bad?"

A gold-tipped forehoof stomped the ground between Nikki and Yuna.

"You cannot think like that," Diamond said.

"Dude, we're in Paradox's super prison about to get turned into some kind of freaky-deaky battery." Nikki waved her right arm around. "I think it's fair to say we're freaking done for."

"No. Not yet." The keldeo shook his head. "There's still Leo, remember?" He looked around. "And I do not see Noctum or Valkyrie, either."

He took a steady breath. "There's still a chance. They can make something happen."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Can I have whatever you're huffing?"

"I'm serious." Diamond gazed at the purple barrier. "I... I must hang on to hope. This cannot be the end."

"You just want to see your husband again," Nikki scoffed.

Yuna put a hand on Nikki's leg. "No, he's right. Even if we're stuck here, we're not totally out of the fight yet."

Grunting, she pushed her upper half off the ground a bit.

"I'll trust Leo. And Noctum, too. I believe... they can make something happen."

XxX​

Noctum woke, then immediately coughed up dirt and mud. He rolled over on his side until his harsh, hacking coughs stopped. Sharp pain shot down his left arm. Both his wings, too. They were broken for sure. And his left shoulder dislocated. It was an awful crash. The world kept spinning.

Still, despite the pain, the cosmic charizard forced himself to sit up. "Valk—"

He coughed up a bit more dirt. "Val!" Noctum shouted. "Val, you there?"

A groan came from somewhere to Noctum's right. He saw a garchomp dorsal fin through all the ash and smoke.

They'd crashed into some sort of rut. Sharp slopes surrounded them. Noctum felt around. His right arm grazed a rock. Noctum draped his arm around the rock and propped himself up against it.

His legs weren't broken, thankfully, but god did they burn. He couldn't believe Paradox was willing to go so far as to blow up his trusted second-in-command just to try and do the resistance in.

"Val?" Noctum called again.

She lay on her stomach. The garchomp wasn't moving.

Even though he'd heard a groan before, panic set in. "Val!" Noctum pushed himself off the rock. He dropped to a knee, hissing in pain. "H-Hang on, Val. I... I just gotta—"

"There you are!"

Leo's voice was strained. Purple and gold light streamed in from overhead. Noctum's neck was too sore to look up and locate the cosmic arceus. Fortunately, Leo made it easy for Noctum, landing between him and Valkyrie.

"You guys okay?" Leo shook his head. "Who am I kidding? Dumb question. Lemme just, uhm..."

His golden wheel turned a soft blue. Noctum heard splashing water droplets. Silver flooded his vision. Soothing water dribbled over him.

Noctum sucked in a sharp breath. Leo's silver water relocated Noctum's left arm and, with a couple of painful cricks and cracks, set his wings back to normal.

The burning left Noctum's legs as silver mist evaporated. Noctum held out his arms. He curled and uncurled his fingers.

"What was that?" Noctum asked.

"Divine Life Dew." Leo's wheel shifted back to gold. "Kinda like godly bathwater when you think about it."

Frowning, Noctum tilted his head.

"Ehhh, forget I said that." Leo turned to Valkyrie. "You good?"

Slowly, Valkyrie lifted her arms and dug her claws into the ashen ground. She pushed herself to her knees, spitting ash out of her mouth. The garchomp rubbed her belly to try and clean off the ash.

"Fine." Though she sounded shaken. "How bad is it?"

"Totes scuffed." Leo's starcloud hair and tail dimmed. "Paradox got everyone but you two. Sent Gene, Widget, and Bahamut to another dimension at complete random. I think the rest are in Citadark."

Valkyrie tensed up. She braced her arms at her sides again. Claws scraped against the ground.

"What about the team that went to Larkharr?" she said.

"We heard the emperor boasting he'd gotten them, too." Leo sighed. "It's... only us. I could try to go into Ginnungagap to see if there are traces of Gene to follow, but that'd totes screw us over even worse."

Noctum swallowed hard. He looked over his shoulder. "What about Aeon?"

The ground rumbled. Noctum thought he saw flashes of purple in the smoke.

"No..." His tail flame shrank.

Leo traced a forehoof through the ash. "More Terraformers showed up. But this was why Yiazmat worked to get everyone underground, wasn't it?" He looked skyward. "It'll take some time for Paradox to realize he's transforming empty villages. And we can use that time."

"So to start, we gotta get you both back to the outpost."

He didn't wait for Noctum to respond. With a tap of a hind hoof, Leo opened a rift behind him. Noctum shuffled into it, with Valkyrie following him. They made their way into the hangar, where the solemn mood was palpable.

Cyril stood hunched over one of the keyboards at the computer bank, conversing with a skorp in a chair the zoroark had shoved aside. Cid was seated in a chair next to the computer bank, eyes closed and large head resting against a stack of crates someone must have moved to let the orbeetle rest.

"We back," Leo said, walking across the hangar. "Anything change?"

Neither Cid nor Cyril responded. But Noctum heard a throat clearing to his left. It was Alder and Koraidon.

"The emperor found Shaftra." Koraidon's dewlap grew and shrank as he nervously tapped it.

"Wait, what?!" Noctum's tail flame expanded. It rippled behind him. "Why? How? What happened?"

"There was a monk that we had lost contact with after that business in Jubilife City." Alder folded his wings. The braviary's talons nervously tapped the ground. "I suspect Paradox captured them at some point. And now I can't reach any of the monks who are supposed to be there."

That was bad. "I bet Paradox sent them to Citadark." Noctum ran a claw along his nebula chest. "What do we now?" He looked around the room. "Us three are the only heavy hitters left among the resistance, right?"

"Yep." Cyril clicked his tongue. The cosmic zoroark stood up from the skorps' computer and slowly walked over. "I mean... I can fight. But you guys outclass me."

"Only one thing we can do." Leo's expression sharpened. "We bust 'em out."

Noctum raised a brow. "Bust them out?"

Valkyrie slowly approached the cosmic arceus, arms crossed. "A prison break, then."

Leo laughed awkwardly. "Well, you did bust out of the place once."

"When it was in the sea far off the Venish coast," Valkyrie countered. "And back when Polaris ran it. Not Paradox. He's clearly changed the place a lot in a very short time."

"Which is bound to mean there are dozens of flaws and vulnerabilities we can exploit," Leo countered. "C'mon, you're the assassin. That oughta be the first thing that springs to mind!"

Instead of responding, Valkyrie bit her lip. Noctum frowned. He was pretty confident he knew what was up, but was it really his place to say anything?

"Are you saying you won't do it?" Leo asked.

"N-No." Valkyrie stepped back. The garchomp looked away. "Just trying to think of alternatives." She snorted out a couple of dragonfire embers. "I mean... you two are absolute eyesores with your flashy appearances. You're not built for an infiltration mission."

"Pssssht." Leo puffed his chest out. "I got that on lock. Check it."

Green and yellow energy swirled around the cosmic arceus. He shrank down. And down and down and down.

After a few seconds, a tiny joltik stood at Valkyrie's feet.

"See?" Leo's voice was so squeaky now. "Ready to infiltrate!"

"And we can just slap a Morph-O-Tron on Noctum." Cyril clapped Noctum's back between his shoulder blades. The cosmic charizard jumped, tail flame pulsating once. He frowned at Cyril, who dismissed him with a light chuckle.

"We could even give you one, too, Valkyrie," the zoroark offered.

Valkyrie scratched her right arm with a claw. "I... suppose that could help us sneak in. Whether it's through the old route... or a new one Paradox created remains to be seen."

Noctum couldn't keep sitting on what he was thinking. But he really didn't want to expose Valkyrie's worries. So he stepped up to the garchomp's side and whispered, "It's okay to say you're scared about going back there. I'm scared... and I've never been."

"What'cha whispering about?" Joltik Leo squeaked from down on the floor.

Sighing, Valkyrie lightly shoved Noctum. "I'm... not exactly thrilled at the prospect of returning to Citadark." She crossed her arms. "Considering the time I spent there. And what happened."

Cyril stuck his hands into his starry mane. "Well, you could think about it as getting a little revenge."

"What's the point?" Valkyrie's tail tapped the floor. "It was Tesla who made things so miserable. And last I heard, the dude's a vegetable."

"True." Tapping his chin, Cyril strolled back toward the computer bank. "Then again... that Gus guy is the one responsible for getting sent there, right?"

Valkyrie tensed. "He is. What are you getting at?"

Cyril looked at one of the skorps. "Cid said he'd gotten hauled off to Citadark, right?"

"You bet your bippy!" Skorp exclaimed, clapping his tiny, weird incineroar hands together.

"And there you have it." Cyril turned around, smirking. "It's your chance to really get one over on the guy... by storming the place and spurring a prison break." He clasped his index claws together by his snout. His smirk turned to a wicked grin. "But leaving that asshole locked up."

Noctum frowned. He didn't really see how that made for good motivation to—

"Sure. Fine. Good enough." Valkyrie shrugged. "When do we leave?"

Noctum's tail flame shrank. "Err..." He nervously scratched his nebula belly. "I know we're pressed for time, but could we take a little breather first?" Noctum looked at the joltik by Valkyrie's feet. "Even with Leo's healing, I'm wiped."

"Yeah." Valkyrie slowly rotated her right arm. "We should refuel. Get something to eat. We can use that time to go over what I remember about the place's layout. That can give us something to start with."

Leo grew back into a cosmic arceus. "Works for me." He stretched out a hind leg. "Should we head for the restaurant?"

"No need." Cyril walked toward the hangar door, waving at them. "I'll grab you whatever you want. You focus on relaxing."

The trio each gave their orders to the cosmic zoroark, who headed out the hangar door shortly after. Valkyrie plopped down on the floor, bracing her arms by her sides. Noctum lumbered over toward a stack of crates and sat down so he could rest his back against them.

He took one deep breath. Then a second. And a third.

Noctum had no idea what Citadark Isle would hold. But they had to break the others out. There was no room for mistakes here.

It's do or die. He swallowed hard. I hope we can pull it off.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 139: You're Bugging Me

Cyril equipped Noctum and Valkyrie with Morph-O-Trons that disguised them both as wimpod. Valkyrie protested, looking disdainfully at Noctum's disguised form. Noctum didn't bother reacting to it. All they needed to do was use the disguises to slip into the prison, right?

Leo opened up a rift that led to a dark, rocky crag. Living in Aeon, Noctum hadn't experienced that many storms. So, stepping into Citadark Isle's pouring rain proved surprising. Thunder rumbled overhead. Lightning flashed above them. The dark clouds were so thick and dense, Noctum wondered if they'd somehow gone back to Aeon by mistake. Leo confirmed they were in the right spot.

At first, the cosmic charizard worried the rain would hurt. Yet, for whatever reason, it didn't bother him at all. It couldn't have been the wimpod disguise. So, was it Palkia's power?

Noctum cautiously approached the edge of the crag. A vast ocean stretched out in front of him. Choppy water churned and churned. Its surface endlessly rippled from the raindrops bombarding it.

"Over here," Valkyrie whispered. She stood on the other side of the crag, facing the opposite direction. Noctum approached her and followed her gaze. The rocky crags stretched out into the distance, where Noctum saw some sort of giant metal facility with a dome and cylindrical towers. A purple and red ship descended from the storm clouds toward the building, quickly disappearing behind it.

"It's big," Noctum said. "Is it like what you remember?"

Valkyrie's fake wimpod body nodded. "The island seems... bigger than what I remember, too." She tapped the rocky ground beneath her feet. "It was almost entirely the prison when it was back in Radiance."

Their X-transceivers crackled. "I think that's a difference in the water levels," Cid said.

"Yeah. That ocean's not natural." Cyril grunted in annoyance. "If I'm remembering correctly, Paradox used this place to test some sort of weather machine. Problem is, the device wouldn't stop once it was turned on. So, rather than dismantling it, Paradox just... left it running."

Swallowing hard, Noctum looked down at the water crashing against the crag. "Then this ocean..."

"Is a giant flood," Cyril said.

"Great. That may complicate things," Valkyrie said.

Noctum frowned, though he doubted his wimpod disguise would show that. "What do you mean?"

"Citadark has a hydroelectric power station in its base," Valkyrie explained. "That's what I used to bust out." Her fake wimpod tail stuck up. "There are vents on the surface. But these disguises don't actually make us smaller. We'd get stuck in the vents and caught for sure."

That was a problem. Especially since Noctum didn't actually know how to swim. And Leo would have to blow his cover to help him.

"No cap," Leo said. The joltik hopped in place.

"Hmm?" Valkyrie turned toward him. "You have an idea?"

Leo nodded. A salmon glow surrounded him. He transformed into a cutiefly. "Your Morph-O-Trons are gonna stop working if I do this, but it should be a'ight."

"And what exactly are you doing?" Valkyrie asked.

"This." Leo rubbed his tiny hands together, then pointed them at Noctum and Valkyrie.

Pink light flashed around Noctum. Next thing the cosmic charizard knew, Leo practically towered over him.

"What the—" He looked at a spiky outcropping on the crag. It was monstrous. Heck, individual raindrops splattered across his entire body. He hacked up water from his snout.

"Why's everything so big all of a sudden?"

"Did you... shrink us?!" Valkyrie stood beside her Morph-O-Tron band. It was now bigger than the garchomp!

"Sure did." Leo transformed back into a joltik. Chittering laughter filled the air. "Can't believe it totes worked."

Valkyrie leered at him. "You didn't even know what you were doing?!"

"Saw it on an over-the-top show the skorps were watching." Leo hopped in place. "There was a fairy-type joltik who made a bunch of the cast tiny using fairy energy." He looked up at the outcropping. "What was it called again? Legs of Genesis or something?"

"Well, turn me back!" Valkyrie huffed out teeny tiny dragonfire embers.

"Nah, fam. This is how we get in." Leo pointed a leg toward the prison.

Noctum followed his leg. With the change in size, the distance to the prison now felt enormous compared to before. "Are we... going there on foot?"

Frowning, he spread his wings out. They were so small. Just like the rest of him, he supposed.

"We'll exhaust ourselves just getting there!" Valkyrie huffed.

"I got this." Leo skittered up to them. "Hop on my back. I'll be your taxi."

With a flap of his tiny wings, the cosmic charizard got onto Leo's back. "Won't that tire you out?"

At that, Leo held out a foreleg. Gray feathers materialized in front of him, then promptly vanished.

Suddenly, the rain stopped. The wind blew at Noctum's back, drying out his sopping wings instantly.

Valkyrie paused her climbing to look back. "Tailwind?"

"You got it," Leo chirped.

Huh. Noctum supposed that... would make Leo faster. And opening a rift to get any closer would get them spotted for sure.

"All right." Valkyrie sat down next to Noctum on Leo's back. "Don't screw this up."

Leo shook his head. "I got this on lock."

And with that, the joltik took off, speedily skittering across the crag. Leo reached the edge, then shot a spool of electrified threads toward the next crag. It served like a zip line, drawing Leo across the water and onto rocky ground without much difficulty.

The Tailwind did wonders. Noctum had trouble holding on. He didn't want to dig his claws into Leo's back. Though, glancing at Valkyrie, it appeared the garchomp chose to do that. And it didn't slow Leo down in the slightest.

"You okay?" Noctum asked, using his claws to tighten his grip on Leo's back.

"Fine." Valkyrie kept her gaze trained ahead. "You don't need to keep pressing me on it."

"R-Right." Noctum's tail flame shrank. "But, uh, I'm here if you need me."

"Yeah, I can see that," Valkyrie scoffed, though Noctum caught the faintest hint of a relieved smile on her face. And that was good enough for him.

After darting across a few more rocky crags, Leo refreshed his Tailwind. His path took him through a small tunnel in a rock face. Probably a natural deformity, given its jagged shape.

On the other side sat metal platforms raised high above the water. Eternatus Gunners and Brawlers patrolled the platforms. Behind them sat the prison, atop a massive wall of rock and concrete. Searchlights moved around from inside the complex. Two of the Brawlers on the platform manned searchlights of their own, maneuvering them along the wall.

Two Gunners stood by some sort of console. One used a joystick to control a crane moving giant metal crates onto a lower down platform next to the rock wall.

"Did you catch last night's episode of All My Stakataka?" the Gunner at the joystick asked his counterpart.

"I did!" the other cheerfully responded. "Ugh, can you believe Stakateresa left Stakaterry for his evil twin brother, Stakatempleton?"

"It's completely ridiculous!" the first Gunner threw up his blaster arms. "The writers have pulled a lot of baloney in the past, but this takes the cake!" He shook his head. "It's been downhill since season 75. Still, I'm in it to see how it all ends."

"I feel you." The second Gunner shook his head. "Even the All My Stakataka subreflectit agrees... the writers really jumped the sharpedo with this one."

"Seriously?" The first Gunner returned his blaster arms to the controls. The crane picked up another box and began to move it down to the lower platform. "They never agree on anything!"

One of the Brawlers walked over to join them. "It's wild! Maybe the emperor will send the station an angry letter and get them to retcon it!"

The three Troopers broke into laughter.

"What are we waiting for?" Valkyrie hissed in a whisper.

"Trying to see if there's a vent somewhere on the other side," Leo responded.

"Well, let's get over there first." Valkyrie jabbed the joltik's back. "Can you climb on the underside of these platforms?"

"Can you guys hang on?"

"I'll manage." Valkyrie looked to Noctum.

"Uhh, I guess?" Noctum tightened his grip.

"A'ight. We out." Leo skittered out of the tunnel and used some jagged rocks bordering the platform to easily make his way to the platform's underside.

Noctum's world flipped upside down, but the cosmic charizard's grip held even as Leo headed forward. He didn't conjure a Tailwind this time. Noctum figured that was too risky now that there were actual guards around.

The joltik skittered on ahead. Noctum could scarcely hear the tinks and tunks of Leo's tiny steps over the pounding rain and loud metal thunks of patrolling Eternatus Troopers. But that was a good thing. It meant the shrinking worked. So far, anyway.

Leo kept to the underside of the platforms, using electrified webbing to zip between them. Noctum held his breath for every zip, but nothing seemed to happen. He only heard glimpses of vague conversations about Eternavision programming atop the platforms.

Once Leo reached the end of the lowest platform, he skittered around to the edge of the platform. Large stacks of metal crates were lined up against the massive rock and concrete wall. However, there was enough space for a tiny joltik to easily maneuver through. Which is exactly what Leo did.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Valkyrie whispered. "We may find a vent or a drain some—"

She jerked some fur on Leo's back, then pointed to her left. "There, a vent!"

"Shhh." Noctum put an index finger to his snout.

"Bruh. I can barely hear you two over the sounds of that crane moving all the boxes," Leo scoffed.

"Right." Noctum tittered. "Then let's get into the vent."

"Venting like sussy bakas," Leo declared, skittering toward the vent bolted to a portion of concrete.

"The hell does that mean?" Valkyrie growled.

"Stuff." Leo stopped at the vent. The grate's gaps weren't big enough for him to slip through. "We gotta get this grate off."

"Say no more." Valkyrie hopped off the joltik's back. The garchomp proceeded to use her claws like glorified screwdrivers, getting the bolts off. Noctum and Leo helped her gently put the grate against the crate right behind them.

With the grate taken care of, Noctum and Valkyrie climbed back onto Leo. He hopped into the vent, which quickly went upwards. Noctum could easily fly up himself, while Leo didn't look to have any problems maneuvering along one of the vent's walls.

It reminded Noctum of infiltrating that uPhone factory. God, that felt like forever ago. It had been, what, three or four months now?

Boy, how things have changed.

There were no fans stopping their ascent. Once a rush of hot air threatened to blow them back down, but Leo and Valkyrie alerted Noctum and he dug his tiny claws into the opposite vent wall to keep himself in place.

Eventually, Noctum spotted an orange glow in the distance. He also heard muffled whirring and clanking.

"I think we're getting close to the proper facility," Valkyrie said.

"Right." Noctum's starry tail flame nervously rippled. "Um, actually, now that we are inside... what should we be doing?" He kept flapping his wings. The orange light drew closer. "This place is huge. How can we possibly find the others without getting caught?"

Valkyrie shook her head. "We're not going to."

Noctum blinking. "What."

The garchomp sighed. "Were you not paying attention before we left? I told you guys... we're going to the warden's office."

"Because you think there are master controls for the facility there, right?" Cid asked through the X-transceiver line.

"Bingo." Valkyrie smirked. "We should be able to open up the cells from there." She tapped Leo's back. "And he's got that program Cyril gave us that'll let him access the system."

"And if that doesn't work?" Noctum asked.

"Then we employ a little... gentle persuasion to get the warden to tell us where they are."

Noctum knew full well there'd be nothing gentle about Valkyrie's persuasion. But he kept that thought to himself.

They reached the end of their climb, with the ventilation shaft turning sharply horizontal. The orange lights were from grates that opened out into... some part of the facility. At least, Noctum guessed they were within the prison confines, given the robotic announcement he could hear.

[Attention inmates. Due to the overwhelming success of Emperor Paradox Appreciation Day, we have decided to extend the event by infinity plus one days. Please adjust your calendars accordingly.]

Valkyrie pushed past Noctum. The garchomp approached one of the grates and looked down into it.

"Cafeteria," she said. "Looks like Block D. The eastern quadrant of the prison." Valkyrie looked down the ventilation shaft. "When Citadark was on Radiance, the warden's office was in the northeast quadrant. In one of the highest towers. So, we're actually closer than I thought."

"That's good, right?" Noctum smiled at her.

"Well, it's not bad," Valkyrie said. She got off Leo's back and strolled forward.

"C'mon, you could be a bit positive," Leo said, skittering after her.

Valkyrie grunted. "Keep quiet. We don't want anyone to think there's something crawling around the vents."

Leo continued ahead, snickering. "Yeah, cuz that'd be sus."

Noctum followed them, sighing and shaking his head. He passed by several more grates, all showing the cafeteria. Assorted pokémon filled rows of tables. Some as big as onix and steelix, who needed two whole tables to themselves.

None of the species matched Yuna and the others, however. Not that Noctum truly expected to find them that easily. But God it would have been nice for something to actually be simple.

[Inmate HC17B, Flygon, G, please report to the D Block custodial office for cleaning duty. Again, Inmate HC17B, Flygon, G, please report to the D Block custodial office for cleaning duty.]

That announcement was much louder. Though, for all Noctum knew, that could have been because there were loudspeakers hanging near the part of the vent they were walking through.

"Path branches up ahead," Leo announced. "Looks like there're vents going left, right, and up."

"If we came from the east, then right goes north." Valkyrie held up her right arm. "We go that way first."

"Works for me." Leo skittered ahead and turned right at the junction. Valkyrie quickly followed the joltik.

Noctum paused to look through one more grate. A group of plusle, minun, dedenne, and togedemaru sat at a table that was too big for them, eating food in silence.

Grimacing, the cosmic charizard flew after his teammates. Hopefully, they could find the warden's office quickly.

XxX​

As soon as Chien-Pao finished introducing himself, he turned and walked back into the snow. No hostilities. No demands that they leave even though they didn't know how to. He just... left.

"Imbecile. Follow him."

Gene's starcloud tail twitched. He silently beckoned Bahamut and Widget to follow him, then trudged through the snow after Chien-Pao.

"So... the Bittercold, huh?" Gene said.

"The Bittercold saved this world from itself," Chien-Pao declared. Curiously, the snow seemed to part as Chien-Pao walked through it, offering Gene some visibility of the path ahead.

They walked across a snowy plateau. Gene saw a drop-off in the distance, but couldn't make anything out beyond that.

"Saved it?" Bahamut looked around. The cosmic lucario brushed snow off his arms. "It's a frozen wasteland out here."

If Chien-Pao was offended, he didn't show it. "The world wished for emptiness. That is what the Bittercold provided."

Widget squawked in alarm. The silvally's starcloud neck ruff puffed out. "E-Emptiness?"

"Yes." Chien-Pao continued forward, albeit at a slower pace. "The world was full of suffering. Sadness, resentment, bitterness, envy, and heartbreak. All that and more weighed down people's hearts."

He looked skyward. "With such heaviness, people yearned for emptiness. For stillness. For an eternal quiet."

His footsteps crunched in the snow. The edge of the plateau grew closer. Gene noticed a few blurry shapes. Shapes that soon turned to outlines of pokémon. An emolga and a dunsparce beside a swanna and a quagsire.

... Only they were ice sculptures. They had to be, right?

"No. You're lying to yourself."

Chien-Pao walked by emolga and dunsparce. "The Bittercold heard those wishes. To give the people the empty stillness they desired, it froze the world."

Widget looked at Swanna. "Th... then these are... actual people?"

"Yes. Granted blissful slumber from their pains and woes."

Gene's chest core burned a bit.

"Now I remember." Dark Matter sighed. "In worlds like this one... the Bittercold is an offshoot of me. Or we're connected. Feeding off people's negativity. Believing the solution to negativity's constant presence is to end the world."

"Then we're walking past frozen corpses," Bahamut growled. He leered at Quagsire, then rapped their icy body with a paw.

"Is there anyone who's not frozen?" Widget wondered, hesitantly walking toward Chien-Pao. "Like you?"

"No." Chien-Pao resumed walking. He approached the edge of the plateau. With the snowstorm parting for him, Gene was able to see into the distance.

A sprawling ice palace sat in the valley below. There were icy swirls around it and big, pointed towers jutting into the stormy skies.

"But those who helped spurn the Bittercold's existence are enshrined inside the palace," Chien-Pao continued.

"Riiiiight." Arms crossed, Gene gazed at the palace. "And the Bittercold?"

"Also within the palace," Chien-Pao replied. They tilted their head up a bit. "Atop the tallest spire."

Gene entertained the idea of asking Chien-Pao to take them to the Bittercold. But, from what he heard, the mega mewtwo doubted the Bittercold would even be interested in helping them. It would probably try to freeze them.

"You are all uncertain," Chien-Pao exclaimed, looking at Widget in particular. "You believe what the Bittercold has done is wrong."

"Of course I do!" Widget squawked. "You can't possibly tell me this is what everyone wanted."

"Mmm. That's right." Dark Matter gave an annoyed grunt. "The Voice of Life was rather hands on in tackling the Bittercold of our old world."

Chien-Pao looked off into the distance. "You're right. I can't." He shook his head. "The Bittercold believed enough felt that way to justify freezing the world."

"Yeah, because that's all it can think of," Gene cut in. The mega mewtwo walked up to Chien-Pao, shaking his head. "I don't believe your master or whatever can really understand the opposite side of the coin. The joys that life and companionship can bring."

Silence followed, saved for the howling of the snowstorm's winds. Chien-Pao slowly turned back to them. He scrutinized the trio.

"You do not seem that joyous with one another," he said.

Bahamut crossed his arms. "Hmph. That's a hell of an understatement."

Gene shot the cosmic lucario a look that said he wasn't helping. Bahamut turned his head away, scowling.

"We don't have to be buddy-buddy all the time," Gene said, pinching his brow. "Life... isn't perfect. It can't be. There'll be plenty of sadness and anguish."

Chien-Pao tilted his head. "You sound as though you speak from experience."

"I do." Gene's starcloud tail curled up. "We've... all experienced quite a bit of it. And have fought against it for a while." His gaze fell to the snowy ground. "Some of us longer than others."

"But you are still in pain," Chien-Pao said. "Then doesn't it make sense to give up?" Blue light twinkled around his snowflake Tera jewel. "Wounds of the heart... can be as much a struggle to heal as physical ones. And they can pile up and pile up and pile up. Sadness and anguish crush the soul."

Gene's shoulder crystals flickered red. "That doesn't mean you stop fighting." He held out his right hand and made a fist. "There are always ups and downs. That's why... people should work together to get through the downs and lift the ups even higher.

"Even when things are pushed to the brink... you don't give up."

Chien-Pao stared blankly at Gene. Then he tossed out an accusation. "You do not believe that with your whole being."

Widget looked between Gene and Chien-Pao in confusion. Gene uncurled his fist and held up his right hand to stop the cosmic silvally from butting in.

"You can sense it, huh?"

Chien-Pao bobbed his head once. "As I'm sure you could with me."

"Tch. Then are we talking to the Dark Matter of this place?" Bahamut said. He looked toward the palace. "A Dark Matter that succeeded?"

"In a manner of speaking," Gene responded, still focused on Chien-Pao. "You're right. Part of me does think that fighting's worthless. That we can't win. That we're better off giving up and accepting what's to come. Blah, blah, blah."

He rolled his eyes. "But that nagging doubt has been there for a long time, and I've managed to push past it. Because I've always had someone standing by me."

Gene stomped a foot down. "These aren't things to forge alone. I've got a team. Even if we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, we support one another. That's how we get through this."

The mega mewtwo stepped toward Chien-Pao. "And what about you? These people who were so desperate for emptiness... did they have teams? What about the people who were together?" He looked back toward the frozen pokémon they'd passed earlier.

Chien-Pao didn't have a response at first. He turned around and looked out across the snow-covered valley. Slowly, he lifted his head, eyes tracing the palace in the distance.

"He is uncertain."

Statement of the obvious right there, Gene mentally scoffed.

"I believe... some of them were." Chien-Pao's ice Tera jewel dimmed. "Not in the way you described, however. More that they... stumbled upon one another and worked in parallel to grow the Bittercold's power."

"Uh-huuuh." Gene crossed his arms. "And what do you think about this?"

Chien-Pao shook his head. "It is not my place to think about this. I am the Bittercold's emissary. The ones I described earlier are responsible for my existence. So that I could conjure the palace before you. The Bittercold used it to plunge the world into emptiness."

His Tera jewel brightened. "I was part of the emptiness... until your arrival."

"Wait" Widget approached the edge of the plateau. "You were frozen, too? That doesn't sound like much of an emissary."

"My job was already done." Chien-Pao looked over his shoulder. "But the Bittercold wanted the disturbance investigated. To ensure nothing would break the world's stillness."

He returned his gaze toward the valley. "You are that disturbance, of course. And your hearts are wrought with so much pain. I should grant you all emptiness. Free you from your strife."

Gene's chest core flickered. This was neither the time nor the place to fight. Especially if his powers were dulled.

"You never answered my question, though," Gene said. "What do you think about this?"

"It is not an emissary's place to answer."

"Don't give me that." Gene stepped forward, leaning over. "I know you realize we're alike. Yet we've walked very different paths. I'm sure you're thinking something." He flicked his right arm. "So, come out and say it."

Chien-Pao grimaced. "I... must preserve the world's stillness. Your beliefs... are antithetical to my purpose."

"What are you talking about?" Widget said. He took another cautious step forward. "No one should decide your purpose except you."

Chien-Pao turned his gaze on Widget. The cosmic silvally continued, "I was... built with a specific purpose in mind. And at first, I followed it without question." He glanced at Gene. "But then his team opened my eyes to the truth. And I turned away from that purpose to fight for a different future.

"Even after hearing about a new purpose, I'm trying to stay true to myself." Widget stuck his golden foreleg out. "Nothing's stopping you from doing the same. Because that's what it's like to live."

It was a good point. Gene didn't expect it to change Chien-Pao's mind—part of that was probably Dark Matter's pessimism cropping up again—but he was glad Widget put it out there.

Silence took over the group again, aside from howling wind. Then snow crunched beneath Chien-Pao's paws as he walked back and forth along the plateau's edge. He kept glancing at the palace, Tera jewel getting dimmer and dimmer.

"Very well," he finally said. His snowflake Tera jewel glowed a brighter blue.

"Huh?" Widget tilted his head. "Are you... going to help us?"

"I shall." Chien-Pao nodded. "Though I do not fully understand where you're coming from... I feel strong convictions. Like I did from those that brought the Bittercold into existence."

"Oddly charitable," Dark Matter muttered. "Be on your guard for a trap."

Gene resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Still, he could at least press for details.

The mega mewtwo lazily traced his foot through the snow. "So, what does helping entail?"

"Someone has been communicating with the Bittercold," Chien-Pao said, looking skyward. "Requesting entrance to this world. At first, I did not understand it." His tail flicked in the group's direction. "But now I think they are here for you."

Gene stiffened. Someone was here for them? Had the emperor followed them? Or sent something to make sure they stayed in exile?

"See? You get your hopes up for one second and—"

"Then let them in," Widget said, trotting to the edge of the cliff. "I don't believe they can change what's going on with your world. There's nothing to lose here."

"That is what we're working on." Chien-Pao returned his gaze to the palace. "Please give us a moment."

He walked a few paces along the plateau's edge, away from the others. His Tera jewel glowed brighter. The light drifted in the palace's direction.

"Hmph." Bahamut approached Gene, one arm crossed under his chest spike and another swatting at snow that drifted in through Chien-Pao's buffer. "What are the odds this isn't something good for us?"

Gene sighed. "If you ask Dark Matter, almost a hundred percent."

Widget's chest ruff deflated. "The emperor does have that Rift Ripper. He could send anyone or anything after us."

Bahamut scowled. "And we lack our powers to properly fight back."

"Let's not jump to any conclusions." Gene stood tall, watching Chien-Pao intently. "Maybe things will be okay."

"I am finished," Chien-Pao announced, though he didn't turn to face them. "Your visitor has arrived."

Despite urging caution, Gene instinctively tensed up. He took a stance meant for conjuring his spoon, except it couldn't materialize.

A strange, checkerboard portal appeared in front of them. Gene crouched down, expecting an attack to come flying in.

"Hey. That's not like any of our rifts," Widget pointed out.

Instead of an attack, gray-white paws stepped into the snow, followed by a fluffy body and nine fluffy white tails. A rainbow gem sparkled underneath their chest fur.

"An... ice ninetales?" Bahamut leaned forward. "Why do you have a Soul Dew in your chest?"

"Oh, that's my core." Ninetales looked at Gene. "Y'know, like what he's got. But full of light instead of shadows."

Not an enemy, then. Gene relaxed his stance.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"We talked indirectly the other day." A somber smile appeared on Ninetales' muzzle. "Wish our first in-person meeting could be under better circumstances, but I'll take what I can get."

He stepped toward Widget and extended a foreleg. "I'm Shane. And I'm here to get you back to your home."

XxX​

CDL902: Citadark Isle, Orre
According to Boss Kitty, this place was going to be the origin of some sort of criminal syndicate. But Matriarch's surveillance picked up on their activity and she dispatched Nova and his type: full units to put a stop to them before they ever gained any sort of traction. So, it stayed an empty island until the emperor rose to power. He plucked it out of the sea as a show of force toward Earth and tossed it into some distortion, where it reappeared in Radiance.

Enamorus must've found it and had it converted into the kingdom's main prison. As time went on and tech improved, Polaris used the prison for experiments and as a cheap labor source. Now it seems it's back in the empire...

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 140: Well-Deserved Break

​

Noctum, Leo, and Valkyrie continued their way through the vents unimpeded. They kept silent, leaving only the sounds of the prison below them to listen in on.

[Attention prisoners. Inmate FB21B, Quilava, F, please report to the Assimilation Chamber for Eternatus Trooper assimilation. Again, Inmate FB21B, Quilava, F, please report to the Assimilation Chamber for Eternatus Trooper assimilation.]

Noctum winced. He did recall that stupid advertisement for the prison mentioning they could assimilate people here.

"There's a lot of loud machinery for a jail," Leo muttered. "What do you suppose they're working on here?"

"No idea." Valkyrie pressed forward, scowling. "It's probably bad, though."

"Yeah." Leo skittered after the garchomp. They reached another fork in the path, with one option going straight up. Valkyrie climbed onto the joltik's back.

"You don't think it sus that Paradox could get all this set up so quickly?" Leo wondered, beginning to climb along the vent wall.

"Of course it's suspicious." Gruning, Noctum flew after them. The cosmic charizard looked down to make sure no tail embers drifted out of the nearby vent grate. "I mean, it looked like there was a lot of machinery getting delivered outside."

"He's consolidating," Valkyrie said, clinging to Leo's back as he scaled the wall. "Moving equipment from other jails to this one cuz it's bigger and fancier and whatnot."

Noctum frowned. Wasn't the whole point of the empire that it outpaced the Kingdom of Radiance when it came to technology?

Sighing, he continued flying up the vent. Was there much of a point to thinking about it?

[Will the medical team please report to the B Block rec room? Repeat, medical team to— err, scratch that. Will the Body Disposal Team please report to the B Block rec room? Repeat, Body Disposal Team to the B Block rec room.]

Wincing, Noctum shut his eyes. Whatever that was about sounded... bad. And like something he didn't want to dwell on.

A different thought popped into Noctum's head instead. "What if he's using this jail to make more Terraformers or Rift Rippers?"

Leo hummed in thought. "Well, that'd bite. But a mass jailbreak could jelly up that jam in an instant."

Noctum frowned. That had to be a Leoism for messing up the emperor's plans, right?

The trio reached the top of the vertical shaft. Only one path lay ahead of them, going slightly left. The vent got wider. Blue and orange light spilled out from a large wall-mounted grate a few meters away.

As soon as Valkyrie got off Leo's back, she stuck an arm out. "This might be it," the garchomp whispered. "No talking. Let's try and get a closer look."

While Leo and Valkyrie crept closer, Noctum chose to remain in the air. The cosmic charizard figured it would give him better maneuvering if anything unexpected happened.

They got closer and closer to the vent, until they could eventually see into some sort of circular office. There were multiple Eternatus Gunners and Brawlers patrolling the perimeter. Several holographic monitors lit up the center of the room. The naganadel thingy from Cid's briefing floated there, looking between the monitors. But beside him...

"Ah!" Noctum's tail flame expanded. He quickly landed beside Valkyrie and Leo.

Valkyrie smacked the cosmic charizard's shoulder, shushing him. "What are you doing?" she hissed in a whisper.

"That gardevoir next to the warden." Noctum pointed at the grate. "I recognize her. She was Vortex's assistant. What's she doing here? Did she defect or something?"

"Does it matter?" Valkyrie scoffed. "What you really ought to think about is how we get Cyril's program into that computer in the middle of the room."

Leo studied the grate intently. "This looks hella scuffed, ngl."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Meaning?"

The joltik shook his head. "That many bodies in there? Ain't no way we stealthing it, tiny or not. The warden could probably lock down that computer and leave us totally hosed."

He turned around and pointed in the direction they'd come from. "And even if we set off a disturbance somewhere else, that wouldn't cause everyone to leave this office. We'd still have the same problem to contend with."

Gulping, Noctum grabbed his tail to try and keep the starry flame under control. "That, um, does sound concerning." He looked at Valkyrie. "What do we do?"

"Tch." Valkyrie crossed her arms. "If we can't stealth... then we might have to go with good old-fashioned brute force."

"What?" Noctum managed to keep his voice down. "How can we even do that? If Leo unshrinks us then we'll get stuck in the vent... but if he does it out there, then they'll just attack him."

"Then Leo'll have to be the one to strike first." Valkyrie jerked her head at the joltik. "We can sit around debating this until we're blue in the face, but we don't have that luxury. Just listen."

They crept closer to the grate.

"—Getting closer to completion," the warden said, pointing to one of the holographic monitors. "We should begin the transfer process for those rebels. How soon can we get the apparatus moving?"

"Within the next ten minutes," Arianna exclaimed. The gardevoir poked at a tablet in her left arm.

"See?" Valkyrie stepped back from the grate. "It sounds like they've got something planned for the others."

"A'ight." Leo skittered up to the grate. "I'm-a Judgment, then. When you see the blinding flash, that's your cue. I'll aim it to bust this grate open, so stand back."

Noctum flapped his wings and flew back from the grate, while Valkyrie walked after him. Leo slipped out through the bottom slit in the grate.

"So." Valkyrie crossed her arms. "Your Palkia half know what the hell a Judgment is or—"

Before Valkyrie could finish her question, brilliant gray light erupted from the office, followed by surprised shouts and hollers.

"That's the cue!" Noctum flew forward, squeezing himself through a slit in the grate.

Seconds later, a tingle ran along his spine. He stretched back out into normal size. Thankfully, it didn't hurt at all. Which left Noctum free to get to work.

"Go for it, Val!" he called, spewing blue flames toward the back of the room. A couple of panicked Eternatus Gunners tried to counter with Water Pulses, but Noctum's flames overpowered them.

The cosmic charizard landed and spread his arms out. All the Eternatus Troopers in the back of the room were taken care of. And a bunch of loud clangs came from behind Noctum, in the front of the room.

"Sound the alarms!" an unfamiliar male voice cried. Noctum looked left to see that Naganadel and Arianna had made it over to the side of the room. An orange barrier formed around them, repelling the brown Earth Power plume Leo kicked up around them.

"This is Sticky! Get me reinforcements!" The nagandel pointed his large needle at Noctum accusingly. "Do not let them leave this room alive!"

Rifts opened ahead of Noctum. A dozen Eternatus Gunners poured out, blasters filling the room with water jets. Noctum threw up a Protect and dove for cover behind one of the computer consoles.

"There's too many of them!" he cried.

Blinding light erupted all around him, followed by the screams and hollers of Eternatus Gunners. Noctum poked his head up to find a dozen unown getting teleported out of the room. Leo stood in front of the rifts in his full cosmic arceus splendor.

"Bring it!" He trotted in place. "Ya boi's locked in."

"Send all available units!" Sticky shouted. "Lock down the systems and facility! I don't know what kind of tricks you rebels are pulling, but this is my prison! I'm in charge here!"

More Eternatus Gunners filed out of the rifts. Noctum spat a blue Flamethrower at two of them, only for a dome of fire to erupt around Leo. The Lava Plume blew the Gunners apart.

"Yeah. Uh, keep up the good work." Noctum gave Leo two shaky thumbs up before turning to Valkyrie. The garchomp paced angrily in front of Sticky's circular workstation. There was no holographic screen.

"What's wrong?" Noctum scratched his head. "Is it not working?"

"What does it look like?" Valkyrie gestured to the air over Sticky's desk. "He shut the system down!"

"You really think I wouldn't take measures to protect the prison server?" Sticky crooned. Noctum spat an angry Dragon Pulse toward the nagandel, but his orange shield deflected it like it was nothing.

Valkyrie stomped toward him. "Well, turn the computers back on." She conjured Dragon Claws and swiped at his shield. The barrier rippled from every strike, but it held firm. "You can't hide behind this forever!"

Her gaze shifted to the gardevoir trembling behind Sticky. "C'mon! You can't possibly expect to come out of this okay siding with this asshole!"

"Ha!" Sticky gripped the inside of his barrier. "My assistant answers to me and me alone, filthy rebel!"

"Relax, guys."

Noctum jumped at Cyril's voice. He glanced back to make sure Leo was still holding off the Eternatus Troopers. Which he was. A brilliant bolt of lightning launched an Iron Jugulis back, shattering the office windows. It tumbled down what Noctum imagined was a long drop.

Two Iron Hands joined a dozen Eternatus Bombardiers climbing out of the rifts.

"This would be an excellent time for some good news." Chittering, Noctum ducked two Hydro Pumps. From the ground, he spewed a Flamethrower forward that got one of the Bombardier's mechanical legs. It fell back into three other Bombardiers. Noctum hurled a Spacial Rend crescent forward, cleaving right through the Bombardiers, whose exploding bodies ejected their unown pilots out the broken window.

"Copy that." Cyril chuckled. "Good news time."

"What's going on?" Sticky cried to Noctum's left. The cosmic charizard spun around to see the holographic screen back on. It showed a chibified Cyril dancing around, grabbing pixelated file and folder icons and sifting through them.

"The system shouldn't be turning itself on!" Sticky whirled on Arianna. "Are you up to something? Answer me now!"

"S-Sir, I'd never—"

"That driver you plugged in gave me remote control of the server," Cyril explained. "Took me a little bit to abort the lockdown, but now I can dooooo this."

Alarm sirens blared out through the office. Noctum's tail flame swelled. A Hydro Pump caught him unaware and sent him back, through the holographic screen and slamming into the glass wall overlooking some of the prison cells down below.

[Emergency. Emergency. Widespread power outage detected. Reserve power online.]

Noctum fell to the ground, stars filling his vision. Was he hearing things? The lights were still on in the office, so...

More alarm bells rang out, along with shouts and cries. And they weren't the thuds and clanks coming from the other side of the room, either. Noctum shakily pulled himself up and looked out the glass wall.

The cell barriers were down! Prisoners flooded out toward the main chamber!

Attacks of all stars and stripes lit up the air as some angry prisoners exchanged fire with Eternatus Gunners and Bombardiers charging into the chamber through its three entrances.

"Divert all reserve power to the VIP transporter!" Sticky shouted.

Noctum turned back around. The shield surrounding Arianna and Sticky shifted from orange to blue.

"But sir," the gardevoir said, looking at her tablet. "The prison cells are offline. It sounds like they're rioting out there."

"And it won't matter once we get those priority prisoners into—"

Before Sticky could finish his sentence, a blue flash engulfed him and Arianna. When the light faded, they'd disappeared.

"H-Hey!" Noctum hopped to his feet. "Where'd they go?"

"Must've teleported." Valkyrie jumped back to avoid an Ice Beam from an Eternatus Gunner in front of her. Then Leo barreled into it with an Extreme Speed, knocking it into the other Gunners. They all tumbled out the hole in the window.

"But they were saying something about priority prisoners." Noctum's tail flame rippled. "You don't think—"

"It's totes the others." Leo turned around. "Duck."

"Huh?"

Noctum realized what Leo meant when he saw the cosmic arceus' wheel glowing bright white. He sprawled out on his belly. Heat washed over his backside, then shattering glass filled his ear frills.

"C'mon!" Leo called, racing past Noctum. By the time the cosmic charizard was back on his feet, Leo was out the window and inside the large prison chamber. Valkyrie rode atop his back.

Alarm sirens blared louder as Noctum flew after them.

[Riot in progress. Riot in progress. All available Troopers deploy immediately.]

"Any ideas where these 'priority prisoners' are?" Noctum called. Bright colors flashed beneath him. One of the doors on the other end of the room blew off its hinges. An Iron Hands stood in the doorway, a mechanical fist outstretched.

[I must... hand it to you rebels!] Iron Hands called, looking up toward Noctum. [You saved us a lot of trouble by turning yourselves in like this!]

"Ugh, we don't have time for this." Leo shook his head. He jumped higher in the air to avoid an errant Water Pulse and fireball. "We gotta strategerize here."

Clearing his throat, Leo shouted, "Ahhhhh! This is terrible! We're completely outmatched! Especially with all this chaos!" His eyes welled with tears. "Please don't hurt us and toss us in with the other priority prisoners!"

Cyril's groans rippled through the X-transceiver line. "Are you freaking kidding me? There's no way that actually—"

[Ha!]

A laugh came from one of two Iron Moths that flew toward Leo and Valkyrie.

[First thing we're doing is dragging you to A block and tossing you in with the others!] the other Iron Moth said. Both launched poisonous globules at Leo, only for the cosmic arceus' wheel to turn brown. Large Mud Bombs snuffed out the Sludge Bombs, then a second volley knocked both Iron Moths out of the air.

"... I stand corrected," Cyril said.

"Geeeeeeeeeet duuuuuuuunked on!" Leo shouted, raining Mud Bombs on Iron Hands to open a path through the door.

Noctum formed a Protect and used it to get through the random attacks whizzing all around him. The chamber was a cacophony of frenzied shouts and cries. Most of these pokémon seemed completely unrelated to one another. Noctum didn't recognize any Aeons or monks. Had they all gotten brought to A block?

"Where's A block, exactly?" he asked as they went through a long hallway. Eternatus Bombardiers unleashed a Blizzard barrage to try and stop them in their tracks, but Leo switched to fire-type and used a wall of hot air to counter them. Valkyrie then leaped off his back and slammed into the ground. An Earthquake knocked the Bombardiers over, giving Noctum room to blast them with blue flames and blow apart their robot bodies.

"East! We have to go east!" Valkyrie sprinted forward. "This is the right way. C'mon!"

Leo galloped after her while Noctum flapped his wings to keep up.

"Wait!" The cosmic charziard sped up as they approached another doorway. "If stealth's out the window, why doesn't Leo make a rift to A block?"

Leo skidded to a halt. His starry pelt flickered. "Huh." He tapped a hind hoof on the ground. "I... don't feel like anything's blocking me? Lemme just..."

His wheel flashed purple. A jagged rift opened up in the doorway.

"Easy claps!" Leo cheered, galloping through the rift.

"Idiot! Brace yourself for attacks," Valkyrie growled, stomping after him. Sighing, Noctum brought up the rear again.

The room on the other side was another large, dome-like chamber. It had rows and rows of deactivated cells. But this time around, Noctum recognized the prisoners fighting with Eternatus Troopers.

"Your Highness!" Noctum called, looking toward the third cell row where Yiazmat and two salamence kept an Iron Jugulis at bay with Dragon Darts and Dragon Pulses.

"Noctum, focus!" Valkyrie snapped to his right.

When he looked toward her, he found a large, rhombus-shaped cell in the middle of the room. It held his teammates in it... but it was still online!

So that's what Sticky meant.

"Leo?" Yuna floated toward the nearest orange barrier to the cosmic arceus. "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

"Prison break." Leo puffed out his chest. "It's straight flames."

"Don't just stand there, kid!" Nikki smacked the barrier with an elbow. "Get us out of here! Use your freaking god powers or some ****!"

"Nobody's busting any of you out!"

Noctum's tail flame rippled. He looked all around, but he couldn't find Sticky. Were the loudspeakers still online even with the power failure?

"The only thing you have to look forward to is serving as the emperor's glorious batteries!"

[Priority prisoner transport system online. Please standby for priority prisoner transport.]

"The hell?" Nikki resumed banging on the barrier. "Do something!"

"Uh... uhhhhhhh..." Leo pointed a forehoof at the barrier. A white beam came out of his golden hoof... only to fizzle out harmlessly against the shield.

"Stand back!" Noctum tried a Spacial Rend crescent. It had cleaved through plenty of things before, so why not a shield?

But the barrier even managed to absorb his Spacial Rend. And when it did, the floor around the priority cell shot toward the ceiling.

"Hey!" Noctum flapped his wings and took to the air. "Give them back!"

"Never!" Sticky shouted. "They can't escape serving the empire... forever!"

Noctum gathered energy for a stronger Spacial Rend, but he wasn't enough. The cell zipped along the ceiling and disappeared through some large hatch in the air.

"No!" The cosmic charizard's tail flame sparked with anger. He whirled on Leo and Valkyrie. "We have to go after them!"

Valkyrie held her arm up. "You go after 'em. And tell us where they're going."

"What?" Noctum almost snorted out tufts of fire. "We're a team. We need to stick together."

Large explosions came from the fourth row of cells. A couple of dragonite went tumbling down toward the next row.

"I get that." Valkyrie pointed a claw toward the explosion. "But they're our allies, too. And they need our help."

"But—"

"Plus, we'll tire ourselves out chasing the cell," Valkyrie continued. "So, Leo and I will stay here. You're fast. Tail the cell. Once it looks like it's reaching its destination. Tell us. Then Leo can get everyone there."

Noctum frowned. What Valkyrie said made sense, but splitting up still left a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Valkyrie put her right arm on his shoulder. The garchomp's expression... was softer than usual.

"I'm asking you to trust me here, Noctum."

The cosmic charizard looked at Valkyrie arm and claw. His tail flame pulsated rapidly.

"Are you going to stand there talking or are you going to help?" Yiazmat shouted from the third cell row.

"Right." Noctum flapped his wings, rising into the air. "Okay, leave it to me."

He turned and flew as fast as his wings would carry him in the direction the priority cell had gone. The hatch had shut, but one well aimed Spacial Rend blew it open. And he saw the cell on the other side of the next room. Noctum tried another Spacial Rend, aiming for the rail that carried the cell along. His heart sank when, like before, it fizzled out harmlessly.

So, whatever power the facility still had left was going toward protecting this cell... no matter what happened to the rest of the prison? That sounded like desperation to Noctum. In which case, he'd just have to keep up with the cell!

Noctum could do this. For Valkyrie. For everyone.

XxX​

Though Chien-Pao had given the group a bit of space, an awkward silence hung in the air. The snow continued to swirl around without actually hitting them. Widget couldn't quite tell if that was still Chien-Pao or if this Shane guy also had some power to block out the weather.

Widget didn't exactly have his powers, but he knew this wasn't a simple ice ninetales. There was a blinding aura to him. It made it hard for Widget to even look at Shane. So, the cosmic silvally instead looked at the ground. He poked the snow with a gold talon.

"So, you're the guy, huh?" Gene clicked his tongue. "The one Vince works for?"

"That'd be me," Shane said.

The mega mewtwo crossed his arms. "And you're finally intervening directly because..."

"Hmph." Bahamut waved Gene off dismissively. "We're nowhere near home. Didn't you remember what he said? He can't get close to the world's divine power without setting off a reaction. But since that isn't here..."

"The hell are me and Widget then?" Gene said. With his name brought in, Widget finally stood at attention.

Shane laughed nervously. "You are divine, in a sense. Just... not the kind that causes the interference."

Widget wasn't sure if that was meant to be good or bad. He kept silent.

"Then you know the route back to our world?" Bahamut said. His expression was stern and he struggled to make eye contact with Shane. Widget vaguely recalled some tenuous, not good association between the two, but drew a blank over the specifics.

"I do." Shane bobbed his head once. "I can get you pretty far. Then you'll have to cover the rest of the way."

Bahamut's brow furrowed. "And yet, this 'interference' didn't stop you from showing up all those years ago."

Shane's tails curled up. "W-Well, your world was... much more stable back then. I don't want to risk anything bad happening now by showing up."

"Or you're scared of other Overseers," Bahamut accused, aura feelers tensing. "If this situation is truly so terrible, they should step in to deal with Zodiark and fix our world."

"That's... complicated." Shane's ears folded.

Widget frowned. "Well, could you tell us how?" He figured a friendlier voice would be more productive than Bahamut interrogating the guy.

"As a whole, the Overseers are more... observers than actors." Shane lifted two of his right tails. "For them to intervene in the affairs of a world, it takes something truly devastating. Like, a world that is endless suffering with no hope of recovery or a crisis threatening the safety of multiple uninvolved worlds."

Bahamut stomped a foot in the snow. "Which this is." He looked at Widget. "Back me up here. This is a multi-layered crisis."

"Yeah." Widget poked at the snow some more with a gold talon. "It's not just the whole Zodiark thing. What about all the new souls made in our world? If we were to try and put all the collided worlds back, where do they end up?"

And, of course, Xeromus' claims rattled around in Widget's head. If the worlds separated, would Widget separate with them?

"Breathe." The ninetales bowed his head slightly. "I see where you're coming from. And that's why the Overseers are intervening."

Widget's starry neck ruff shriveled up. "Wait, you don't mean they're going to blow our world up, do you?"

"Nope." A few of Shane's tails wiggled. "They're out in Ginnungagap. Zodiark has flooded it with Whispers while he evades our detection. We're keeping that at bay while stabilizing the space-time distortions that someone's causing by opening rifts with reckless abandon."

Gene pinched his brow. "Thaaaaaaaat'd be the emperor. And his 'precious' Rift Ripper." The mega mewtwo held his arms out. "He's a deoxys. Controls most of the world. And has one of Leo's plates powering a rift-making machine."

Shane flinched. "Yeesh. Yeah, that'd do it." He looked up at the snowy sky. "Sounds to me like we don't have a moment to lose, then. You guys ready?"

"Yes." Bahamut walked toward Shane. The cosmic lucario's aura feelers twitched. "Are you sure Whispers won't assault us?"

"I can't be sure of that." Shane laughed nervously.

"Seriously?" Gene's chest core flickered. Was Dark Matter talking to him or something? "And you thought to show up alone?"

"I'm not alone." Shane turned his snout in Chien-Pao's direction. "But we agreed I'd be the one to come through."

Both Bahamut and Gene eyed the ninetales skeptically. Widget didn't see a problem with it. Besides, this was just wasting time.

Sighing, Shane's tails drooped. "Look, I get it. Everything about this situation sucks. And, as someone who contributed it to it, words alone can't express how sorry I am about what's happened."

He took a step toward the trio. "You guys have been fighting for a while — some longer than others — and I know what that's like." Shane took a deep breath. "I also know what's it like to be in a desperate situation. And nearly end up at each other's throats.

"That's why you need to lean on one another for support." Shane curled two of his tails around one another. "This isn't just some 'power of friendship' rallying speech or anything. It's going to take a village to put things right."

Shane extended a foreleg. "And my teammates and I want to be part of that village, as best we can."

More silence followed. Neither Gene nor Bahamut made a move toward Shane. But the ninetales sounded sincere to Widget. The cosmic silvally extended his own foreleg.

Surprisingly, Bahamut beat him to the punch, grabbing Shane's foreleg in a paw and shaking it. "Don't make me regret this," he growled.

"I'll do my best," Shane responded, winking. He turned to Chien-Pao. "And thank you for cooperating. Once I'm done with these guys, would it be okay if I came back to see you again?"

Chien-Pao stared blankly. The snowflake Tera jewel on his head pulsated. Widget tensed. Was the Bittercold trying something?

Then the pulsations faded. Cracks ran through the Tera gem, and it dropped into snowy fragments at Chien-Pao's feet. For the first time, a small smile spread over his muzzle.

"I think I'd like that." He bobbed his head. "I'm sure we'd have much to discuss."

"That's the spirit!" Laughing, Shane turned to the others. The gemstone in his chest fur glowed brightly. Shane fanned his tails out. A checkerboard portal formed underneath them.

"W-Wait!" Widget's neck ruff puffed out. "H-How are we getting through Ginnungagap?"

"Oh, I'll carry you," Shane said. Then, in a flash of golden light, he grew into a gold light dragon. Exactly like what Bahamut used to be.

Widget gulped. "Uhhh, am I gonna catch on fire if I grab you?"

"What? No way!" Shane laughed. "My light's soft, like a ponyta's pelt!" The necrozma sank into the wormhole. "Now climb aboard. There's no time to lose!"

Widget jumped onto Shane's back, followed shortly by Gene and Bahamut. Shane took off flying through the blue-purple ocean that was the mystery dungeon between worlds. Widget watched random crystal islets of all shapes and sizes pass him by. Gold and silver blurs zoomed across a round, upside-down island, chasing away Walking Wake Whispers. Those must have been Shane's teammates.

Taking a deep breath, Widget looked straight ahead.

I hope we're not too late.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 141: Pedal to the Melmetal

​

Leo was having an incredibly easy time dealing with the Eternatus Troopers. They were little more than target practice for him with all the plates he had under his control. The cosmic arceus stood in the center of the prison block — where the priority prisoner cell had gotten plucked off the ground — and blasted whatever attack he felt like toward any of the Eternatus Troopers.

He pivoted north and fried two Bombardiers with a well-aimed Thunder. If he had a mouth, he would've smirked watching the unown pilots splat against the wall and vanish in flashes of purple light.

"Gather up in the center!" Yiazmat shouted, directing the other dragon prisoners toward Leo. Two Iron Jugulis emerged from the southern entrance and shot Dark Pulses at Yiazmat and a couple of kommo-o soldiers. Leo whipped his head south, sending a Moonblast past the dragons. One Iron Jugulis flew forward and took the hit for its ally, giving it room to bombard Leo with Air Slash crescents.

But Leo sent small ripples of electricity racing out to intercept the Air Slash. And the scuffle let Yiazmat and her soldiers join Leo in the center of the room.

"Now! Fire!" The dragapult's horns flickered blue-violet. Dragon Darts lit up the air, followed by a shower of ethereal blue scales. They downed the damaged Iron Jugulis, leaving the second one open to another Moonblast from Leo.

"How you holding up, Valkyrie?" Leo asked, pivoting to push a ball of concentrated hot air to the east. The Heat Wave exploded outward, knocking back four Eternatus Gunners. The pidgeot, staraptor, and raichu pirates grappling with the Gunners seized the opening, battering the Gunners with glowing wings and lightning bolts.

The cosmic arceus spared a glance over his shoulder. Valkyrie stood on one of the higher up cell rows, opposite a perrserker, grapploct, and familiar nickit and greedent. There was a stoic expression on her face.

"I'm willing to be the bigger 'mon here and forget the past," the garchomp growled. "Just tell your guys to stop flailing around and work with us."

"Nevah!" Gus pointed a claw at Valkyrie's belly. "You're da whole reason we're even in dis mess in da first place!"

Two Eternatus Bombardiers took aim at Valkyrie from behind her. Leo craned his neck slightly and launched a large Thunderbolt. It caught one of the Bombardiers, slamming it against its ally.

"Southwest," Leo called, pointing his head in Valkyrie's direction.

"Aye, Sorta-Cap'n!" A magnezone pirate trained their magnet limbs where Leo pointed. More lightning split the air, frying the damaged Bombardier. Leo finished the second off with another Thunderbolt.

Valkyrie stomped on the ground, making Gus jump. "Look, I do not have time for this garbage." She leered at Gus. "We're busting people out of this joint. Either you join or you get left behind."

Leo noticed Gus' cronies eyeing one another nervously. Valkyrie must've caught it, too, because when Gus continued silently glaring at her, she turned her attention toward them.

"What about you?" The garchomp paused to turn and shoot a Dragon Pulse, snuffing out a stray Ice Beam coming from her left. Leo located the responsible Gunner strafing along the outside of the room. Whistling, he jerked his head toward it.

Two cyclizar sprinted after it, spitting dragonfire to get its attention.

Valkyrie resumed talking. "Wouldn't you guys rather join the winning side in this? Cuz it's sure not Gus and it sure won't be the emperor when we're through with him."

Gus whirled on Grapploct, Carpaccio, and Rookie. "Don't listen to her. She's just— ngaaaaaaaagh!"

A sudden swipe of Valkyrie's tail sent Gus tumbling off the cell row and down to a lower level. "There." She crossed arms. "You with me now?"

Grapploct exchanged a blank look with Carpaccio and Rookie.

"Look, I want outta dis slammer!" Carpaccio exclaimed. "If dat means working with Ryujin, den dem's da breaks."

Nodding, Grapploct stepped to the edge of the cell row. Even though he lacked the megaphone Leo had heard he always carried around, Grapploct still belted out a loud, "Listen up, bros! We're bro-eaking out of here! Make nice with the dragons and the weird horse-thingy!"

A bunch of rowdy cheers rose up from the cells near Valkyrie and the Medici goons. Suddenly, dozens of overly-bulky, muscle headed pokémon sprinted out from the cells.

[Desist at once, prisoners!] An annoyed Eternatus Gunner took aim at a machamp and a hitmontop. [If you start rioting, we will suspend all your rec room access!]

"You hear that, bros?" Grapploct shouted. "They want to take away our rec room! Then let us rec room all over their faces!"

The cringe rallying cry somehow worked, with Machamp and Hitmontop grabbing the Gunner's mechanical legs and dragging it down to the ground for them to pummel into scrap metal.

Soon, the floor was awash with Aeon soldiers, Medicis, and pirates running around, firing attacks at the Eternatus Troopers. Leo didn't even need to do that much aside from standing in the center and barking out directions where Trooper reinforcements came from.

"Hey, Noctum, we're holding the fort here," Leo said. "What's up with you?"

XxX​

"Tuh-Trying to keep pace!"

Chittering, Noctum rolled right, dodging Rock Blasts shot by three Eternatus Gunners. However, he nearly got caught by an electrified fist from the Iron Hands running after him.

[Hands where I can see them, rebel scum!] Iron Hands shouted.

Noctum groaned. "Can you please stop with the awful wordplay?"

[Never!] Iron Hands threw a Thunder Punch skyward, but Noctum was fast enough to stay ahead of it.

The cosmic charizard reached the end of a hallway and emerged into another circular cell block. He barely caught the priority prisoner cell disappearing into another hatch up and to the right.

This block wasn't filled with Aeons, Medicis, or pirates, but the prisoners were just as frenzied. Bursts of ice and fire erupted to Noctum's left. Lightning crackled ahead of him. The garbled mechanical cries of Eternatus Troopers rang out above and below him.

"Don't let the lizard get away!" a Gunner cried behind Noctum. He flapped his wings faster, not wanting to know what attacks they might try.

Noctum flew up toward the hatch, desperately looking around the room for leaking fluid or exposed wires. For anything he could use to try and further distract the Eternatus Troopers.

There!

The center of the room had a pillar that ended in some sort of strange glass sphere with blue electricity pulsating inside of it. Cracks littered the glass. Noctum wound up and punched the air. A blue-purple crescent soared toward the sphere and effortlessly shattered it.

Lightning exploded out. Sparks raced all over the room, frying dozens of Eternatus Gunners and Bombardiers while sending the prisoners scrambling back toward the cells.

[Alert! Alert! Critical damage to A Block power conduit! Immediate repair recommended!]

Noctum headed for the hatch and flew into a hexagonal metal hallway. The transport cell was way ahead of him, moving along a ceiling-based rail system.

But the cosmic charizard could close that gap. He opened a rift that put him at the end of the hallway, closer to the cell.

"H-Hang on, guys!" Noctum reached his arm out. His wings were sore from all the flying. He really wanted to rest, but that was a luxury he couldn't afford.

"On your left!" Diamond shouted.

Noctum threw up a Protect seconds before the wall exploded outward and a large boulder slammed against his shield. He wobbled in the air, giving the robot tyranitar that emerged through the hole enough time to zap Noctum with lightning and send him crashing to the ground.

"Hey! Get up, Zardy!" Nikki shouted, banging the cell forcefield with her fists. The transport cell's railing carried it up and curved to the left.

Noctum spewed blue flames to force the robot tyranitar back. Then, he got back in the air with a grunt.

"Give it up, rebel!" Sticky spoke through the PA again. "You can't escape the emperor's wrath. Join your stupid friends in accepting his— no, my glorious punishment!"

"Nnnngh. Not happening!" Noctum forced himself forward.

"Left! No, right!" Yuna shouted from the cell.

Noctum flew a zigzagging path in midair. Electrified rocks sailed past him, smashing to dust against the walls.

"Cyyyyrrrrriiiil!" Noctum flapped his wings harder and harder. They were really burning now. "Got anything on a tyranitar robot?"

"Iron Thorns? Says here it's—" Cyril stopped. His groan made its way through the X-transceiver. "Iiiiiiit's rock and electric."

"Great! Wonderful!" Strained laughter came from Noctum's snout as he rolled left to avoid more electrified rocks. He spun around and swept a Dragon Pulse across the ground. As strong as Iron Thorns was, it didn't seem too fast. The attack knocked it back onto its mechanical spikes.

Noctum slung a Spacial Rend crescent at the ceiling. It cleaved through the metal and sent it crashing down onto Iron Thorns.

He turned to resume the chase. Heading up and left to follow the transport rail took him out of a hallway and into open air. Rain immediately pelted him. His tail flame sizzled in protest. Lightning flashes lit up the sky, revealing the transport cell heading through the air, passing through metal towers that held up the railing system.

Could he destroy the tower closest to the cell and bring the railing down?

No. That would send the cell straight into the ocean! And with no way to break it open, his friends would sink to the depths!

"You've got incoming, Noctum!" Cid tittered. "I'm getting several rift readouts!"

Sure enough, four rifts opened up overhead. Two Iron Jugulis and two Iron Moths appeared. Dark Pulses and Sludge Bombs rained down on Noctum. He Phantom Warped forward, but that broke him out of his flight rhythm. The priority cell grew farther away!

The cosmic charizard flapped his wings frantically to pick up the pace. Fortunately, the machines overhead were a bit too slow to adjust their fire. The attacks splattered against the churning ocean.

Noctum was too focused on flying to launch any retaliation, though. And the newcomers were bound to keep firing at him.

God, why did this rain have to be so heavy? It was slowing him down! He'd never catch up to the priority cell while it was outside!

... Wait.

It's outside!

Even if the rain hindered his visibility, Noctum could see the cell. He knew where it was. And where it was going, too, thanks to the rail.

All he had to do was concentrate, and...

Yes!

The jagged purple rift opened in front of him. A matching one appeared in the distance. Noctum waited a few seconds.

[Halt, rebel!] one of the machines shouted behind Noctum. The cosmic charizard ignored it, diving into the rift.

To his delight, he landed atop the priority cell. However, between the cell's speed and its slick surface thanks to the rain, Noctum quickly found his balance slipping.

Yowling, he reached out to the center pole helping attach the cell to the railing and grabbed on for dear life. Fortunately, whatever barrier was in place still let him wrap his arms around the pole.

"Guys!" Noctum shouted. "I'm here! On the roof!"

"Whoop-de-freaking-doo!" It was tough to hear Nikki over the pounding rain and rumbling thunder. "Are you going to do anything?"

"I, uh—" Noctum swallowed. "W-Well, the cell's moving really fast and it's very wet up here! So, I'm kind of struggling. If you guys could see what's up ahead, that would be a lot of help."

Nikki snorted. "*****, if you can't see it, what makes you think we can?"

"That's not true!" Shimmer strained so much to shout that Noctum thought he heard the ponytales' voice crack. "I see something in the distance. It's... a big metal platform! Rising up from the ocean!"

That was odd. Maybe it was some sort of transport or loading dock?

But wait, why would the emperor send Noctum's teammates anywhere? Wasn't this supposed to be his fancy maximum security prison?

Noctum saw flashes of purple and black in the rain behind him. Were those Iron Jugulis still firing at him? They must have seen the rift.

The transport cell continued across the railings until the platform finally came into view for Noctum. It was large and circular, with a strange, metal, cylindrical construct in the middle. There was a space for the cell to fit into it. Noctum could even trace the transport rail directly into that spot.

It was then that Sticky's voice reappeared, likely from outdoor speakers Noctum couldn't see in the rain.

"Prepare the battery receptacle to accept the power cell!"

"B-Battery receptacle?!" Noctum's tail flame pulsated in alarm.

The emperor... wanted to use his teammates as batteries? That was terrible!

"Yo, Zardy! If you're going to make an epic save, now's the freaking time!" Nikki shouted. The toxtricity was banging on the forcefield, if the orange ripples were anything to go by.

"Uhh... uhhhhhhhhhhhh." Noctum was forced back into the air as the cell arrived at its destination. Mechanical bolts attached themselves to metal imprints on the cell's perimeter.

Noctum now had a clear view of Nikki repeatedly punching the forcefield. Igneous and Shimmer paced around, trying to find something inside the construct. Yuna floated beside Nikki, her worried look fixed on Noctum.

Unfortunately, the cosmic charizard was completely clueless. If this weird receptacle machine had a weakness, he had no idea what it was.

But wait... they'd reached the destination. This wasn't the time to hang in the air drawing blanks. This was the time to call in his reinforcements.

"Guys! I've reached the end of the line." Noctum turned around. Faint Iron Moth and Iron Jugulis outlines appeared in the rain. And were those more rifts opening behind them?

"It's a metal platform outside the prison," he continued. "Up north, I think?" Noctum shut his eyes for a moment and felt his tail flame pull the opposite direction he was facing.

"Yeah, definitely north!" He didn't know what Palkia instinct he'd called on, but he'd take it.

After a second, Leo's voice came through the X-transceiver. "Gimme a sec. I just gotta lock in and— yep."

A large rift opened on the metal ground underneath Noctum. Valkyrie ran out of it, throwing her arms over her head.

"Jeez, they really had to bring the cell out here?" she growled.

"Less complaining, more figuring out how to break this." Noctum pointed to the battery receptacle.

Valkyrie squinted in the receptacle's direction. "Oh, sure. Let's have the backup get on it."

"You mean Leo?"

Except instead of the cosmic arceus, a chorus of loud voices streamed out from the rift. Noctum spotted Yiazmat and her guards at the front of the pack, but there were also pirates! And were those Medicis bringing up the rear? Had Leo and Valkyrie gotten them all to work together?

"What the heck's going on here?!"

Oh no. That was Sticky.

Well, Noctum really should've seen that coming. He had no idea where the naganadel had gone, but wherever it was let him monitor the situation.

"Crimes," Leo flatly said. "That's what you're gonna think, anyway. May as well save yourself the shame and let our friends go."

"Never!" Sticky spat. "You can't escape the emperor's wrath! Nobody can! This galaxy is his and his alone to rule!"

"Hey guys!" Cid sounded panicked. "I'm picking up an energy signature right below you. And it's a big one!"

Valkyrie looked down. "The hell's that supposed to—"

"Behind you!" Yuna shouted, pointing toward a gap in the platform.

"Buuuuummmmmmooooooooooooo!"

Two gigantic arms ending in hex nut fists emerged from the gap, taking wild swings at Leo. They caught the cosmic arceus unaware and knocked him clean across the platform.

"It can't be!" Shimmer whinnied from inside the cell. "The emperor got Melmetal? How?!"

The rest of Melmetal emerged from the gap. Except it wasn't like what Noctum recalled hearing about. Its fists and feet were gigantic and its goopy silver body kept dribbling over its hex nut torso.

"It's huge!" Noctum gulped. "How are we supposed to do anything to it?!"

"More rifts opening up!" Cid declared.

Noctum spotted purple flashes in the distance, but he couldn't even properly react to it. Melmetal fired a giant gray beam from its eye, forcing Noctum to Phantom Warp to the right.

"It be huge!" A pirate skarmory flapped her metallic wings in a panic. "I say we swim and fly for it!"

"Like hell we're doing that!" Valkyrie jumped onto a metal pylon. The garchomp shouted as loud as she possibly could. "Don't lose your nerve! This is just like every other stupid trick the emperor's pulled! I want all of you to focus your attention on fighting the small fries!" She pointed out into the distance.

"Bumomomomomomo!" Melmetal bellowed, raising its fists up to bring them crashing down on the platform.

Then a Focus Blast slammed into its face. Melmetal took a single step back, lowering its arms and groaning loudly.

Leo ran along the air, wheel glowing orange with the Fist Plate's power. Valkyrie nodded in his direction.

"And we'll handle the big guy!" the garchomp continued. "Got it? Good!"

Most of the crowd didn't move at first. Then Yiazmat floated above them.

"Well? You heard her!" And the dragapult shot Dragon Darts into the distance. There was a startled cry. She must've hit an Eternatus Trooper. That livened the crowd up enough for them to head for the southern end of the platform. Away from Melmetal.

Noctum sighed with relief. But it still left him with a problem. His best tool against Melmetal was his fire... except the storm neutered it.

"Get your act together, Melmetal!" Sticky snarled. Noctum was getting sick of hearing him on the PA. "Squash those pathetic rebels! Do it now! Now, now, now, now!"

"Bumo bumo bumo!" Gray energy gathered around Melmetal's hex nut head, only for a red energy blade to strike its right leg. A loud GUONG echoed over the platform, drowning out the cries of the other fighters behind them.

"Ha!" Leo galloped between Melmetal's legs, a Sacred Sword protruding from his head. "You caught me sleeping, but now the fam's ready!" He swung the glowing blade against the side of Melmetal's left leg. Grunting, it kicked its leg back, clipping Leo. The cosmic arceus winced, but kept his gallop.

Noctum shot a Dragon Pulse at Melmetal's face, but it raised its right fist to stop the blow. However, that left it open to Valkyrie dropping out of a glide to kick up an Earthquake.

Melmetal got unsteady on its feet. Leo spun around and slung another Focus Blast into its left leg.

"Bumomomommmmoooo!" It fell forward, arms flailing.

"No! Stop it!" Sticky cried. "This isn't happening! This can't be happening! Where's Iron Enforcer? Where's my Iron Enforcer?! Why can't I find it?!"

Noctum flew toward Melmetal. Purple energy sparked around his hands. Dragon might not have been a great type for a giant steel monster, but it was the best Noctum had. He needed a full course of Palkia power and he needed it now.

"Speed up the transfer!" Sticky continued yelling, but it didn't sound like he was addressing them anymore. "Damn it, you worthless gardevoir, speed! Up! The! Transfer!"

Shouts rang out and multicolored lights flashed behind Noctum. He paid them no mind. Blue-purple light swirled around his arms. The cosmic charizard flew around Melmetal. He Phantom Warped past a desperate Flash Cannon Melmetal fired from the back of its head. Which was apparently a thing it could do.

"Give me that controller!" Sticky barked. "Find Iron Enforcer!"

Noctum tagged Melmetal with spoke after spoke of blue-purple energy. He placed the last one by one of Melmetal's legs and flew away.

"I gotchu, fam!" Leo said. His orange wheel glowed bright. Orange spears shot into the air, coalescing into a golden ball that rained orange bolts down on Melmetal.

"Buuumomomomoooooooooooooo!"

Orange explosions peppered Melmetal's body. Noctum clapped his hands together. Blue-purple light crisscrossed over Melmetal, distorting the air and the Judgment explosions. When the air shattered, it magnified the explosions even further. There wasn't a spot along its body that wasn't bright orange.

And when everything died down, Melmetal was nothing but a gray puddle bubbling into the tiny meltan that used to run around Horizon Academy.

"Heyyyyy!"

Valkyrie dashed forward, waving frantically at them. "We got the big guy, but that didn't do **** about the cell!"

"You're too late!" Sticky declared. "They're nothing but the emperor's— no, nothing but my batteries now! Ahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Leo galloped toward the receptacle at full speed. "Noctum! Let's make his crashout worse! Do the same thing!"

"What?!" Nikki's mohawk sparked inside the cell. "We're still freaking in here! Don't blow us up!"

"It's that or nothing!" Leo's wheel turned gold again. An orange orb materialized over the receptacle and rained Judgment bolts down upon it. Noctum tossed blue-purple sparks at the receptacle. The air rippled and shimmered. Then it shattered. The fractals cut through the metal. Pipes and wiring burst out onto the platform.

Creaking and crunching rang out. Noctum flapped his wings a few times to back away, silently praying he and Leo hadn't messed up with their little stunt. And that being out here weakened whatever barriers the cell had.

Another part of him wondered why they didn't just do this sooner. He blamed the giant, rampaging Melmetal. Not that it actually put up that much of a fight.

When the light faded, the cell sat in the receptacle's wreckage. Its barrier flickered once. Twice. Then it finally went down.

Nikki stumbled out first. "Hell yeah!" She threw her arms up. "Never been this happy to get freaking soaked by a storm!"

Relief washed over Noctum. Except it proved fleeting, since there were still shouts and cries coming from behind him. The cosmic charizard turned around and flew forward.

"Everyone down!" he cried, before flinging Spacial Rend crescents forward. They carved through numerous Eternatus Gunners and Bombardiers. Even a couple of Iron Moths in the air got split in half.

"Let's get everyone out of here!" Noctum called back.

"Are you crazy?" Valkyrie had climbed atop a pylon again. "The outpost can't fit this many—"

"Oh, you don't gotta worry about that, Chompy."

Noctum's tail flame swelled. That was Gene's voice! But hadn't he gone missing?

"Gene?" Noctum kept his eye on the ocean. More Troopers could show up at any moment, after all.

"Nice to hear you, too, Zardy," the mega mewtwo quipped. "The outpost's my mystery dungeon, remember? If we need more space, I'll just make more. Gimme a sec."

"Are you serious?" Bahamut growled. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Alllllll set!" Gene laughed. "Bring 'em all in."

Noctum had more than a few questions about everything, but he wasn't about to look a gift mewtwo in the mouth.

"A'ight! Time to peace out," Leo declared, galloping toward the front of the group. His wheel shimmered. He opened a big rift like the one that brought all the prisoners out to the platform. Noctum flapped his wings to maintain his spot in the air, while pointing with one arm and spinning the other to direct folks to the rift.

"Everyone keep moving." He looked at a skarmory and quilava pirate duo. "Hey! No shoving, you two!"

"More trouble ahead, broccoli!" a very buff pangoro cried.

Before Noctum could even see it, a massive lightning bolt struck the Iron Jugulis duo flying out of the rift. The Thunder blew them into scrap that descended into the ocean.

Noctum's tail flame pulsated. Sure, he was glad to rescue everyone. And to do so without much issue. But it was the lack of issue that unsettled him.

Of course they'd gotten stronger. They had powers from their past lives manifesting, after all. Still, after that crazy trick the emperor pulled back in Aeon, Noctum expected a much more uphill battle than what he got.

So, not facing one made the cosmic charizard worry. Was there something out there they were missing? Something that would make the emperor not even care about a big jailbreak?

"Noctum!"

Valkyrie's call snapped Noctum to attention. She stood in front of the rift, waving him over.

"Let's get going," she said. "Before anything bad can happen!"

Nodding, Noctum followed the garchomp. There would be time to debrief later. And he could worry his tail flame off after he got some well-deserved rest. Even if things had gone well, Noctum was still tired.

He flew toward the rift, landing next to Valkyrie. Noctum glanced at her. "You doing okay? Y'know, with those Medicis going to the outpost?"

"I'll live with it." Valkyrie smirked. "Besides, Gus chose to keep his stubborn ass in the prison. When the emperor does try to get things under control, he'll be totally screwed."

"R-Right." Noctum laughed nervously. "A-Anyway, um, thanks for all your help today. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you."

"Well, we managed," Valkyrie said. "So, c'mon. I'm beat. I want a shower." She looked up. "A hot one. And maybe I'll use that lemony shampoo."

She marched into the rift. Then her head poked back out. "And then... maybe we can have some dinner together?"

Noctum blinked once. Twice. "Don't we usually—"

Valkyrie squinted. "Like a private dinner, you dork."

"O-Oh!" Noctum nodded vigorously. "Okay, sure. We can do that."

He lumbered into the rift after her, thoughts of delicious steak continuing to keep his fatigue at bay.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 142: Across Space and Time

The ride through Ginngungagap proved a bumpy one. Where Widget struggled to keep his grip on Shane. The necrozma unleashed attacks on Whispers the cosmic silvally couldn't even see. And, judging from shouts Widget could barely make out, Shane's teammates assisted in clearing a path forward.

Eventually, Shane began to slow. Widget looked past Shane's golden, ethereal head to a strange portal with red and black static surrounding it.

Was that... his home? Or, at least, what it looked like in Ginnungagap?

"This is your stop," Shane announced. "I can't bring you any further than this... but between Widget and Gene, you should be able to get exactly where you need to go."

"And how, exactly, do we do that?" Bahamut said, slowly standing up and looking around at the blue-purple expanse around them.

"The same as the rifts you've opened," Shane responded. "Think about where you need to end up and, once you dive into the rift, it'll get you there." After a pause, he added, "Oh, but Bahamut's going to have to hold onto one of you."

The cosmic lucario's aura feelers tensed.

"Not it." Gene put an index finger to his nose.

"Err..." Widget shifted around on Shane's back. "Actually, could you two go on ahead? There's something I wanted to ask him."

Bahamut and Gene both gave the cosmic silvally stern looks.

"Alone," Widget added, trying his best to sound serious under scrutinizing gazes.

"Do you really think he has the time for it?" Bahamut pointed to the golden light below the trio.

Shane's golden head tendrils rippled. "Tama's keeping the Overseers in the area distracted. I've probably got a minute or two."

"... Hmph. Fine." Bahamut held his paw out to Gene. He kept a stern look on Widget. "Don't dawdle."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Widget laughed nervously as Gene carried Bahamut off into the distance.

A few seconds after Widget's laughter died down, Shane cleared his throat. "So, what's so important you need to be alone with me, huh? I've pretty much told you what I know."

"Not everything," Widget said. His cheek bolts turned slowly. Even though he'd rehearsed this in his head on the flight over, now that he had to say it, the words failed him.

"We really don't have a lot of time." The necrozma laughed nervously. "You're not about to try and ask me on a date or something, are you?"

That bad joke proved the kick in the teeth Widget needed. "What are the Overseers planning for our world?"

"Hmm?"

Widget's crest constricted. "If we succeed—if we get rid of Paradox and Zodiark and stop the dimensional cataclysm or whatever—what will happen to us?"

Shane didn't respond. But his golden body dimmed, which spoke volumes to Widget. So, the cosmic silvally pressed it further.

"I heard something... when I fought one of Zodiark's goons," he continued. "Another silvally, actually."

He caught Shane's head tendrils constricting for a moment. Widget made note of that.

"He said that... if we succeed, I'm going to disappear." His starry neck ruff constricted. "Break apart into all the Voices that were drawn together to make me."

Widget took a shaky breath. "It'll be like... I never existed in the first place."

A few seconds of silence followed. Enough for Widget to press Shane to say something.

Before he could, though, the necrozma spoke up. "The Overseers now realize your dimension is several worlds smashed together. With countless inert spirits slumbering within it. Their protocol dictates... that they place those worlds back in their original spots, and return the spirits to them.

"And in order for those worlds to stabilize... they need their divine power." Shane sighed. "Including their Voices of Life."

Widget tensed. That was the exact thing he didn't want to hear. "Well, can't you find replacements?"

"We could," Shane said. His head tendrils shrank in. "It's something we do often enough... when it's one world and one voice. We can't just... make Voice powers out of thin air. It doesn't work like that. The worlds need their Voice powers back.

"So, yes, you'll get split apart. It's unavoidable."

Widget's body only grew more tense. His breath came in sharp gasps. It was exactly what he'd always feared. It wasn't just a lack of agency. It was the ultimate lack of agency.

He didn't want to disappear. And that... that was a real thought, right?

"I can't imagine how you're feeling," Shane whispered. The necrozma was scanning Ginnungagap, but nobody was approaching. "It's not fair. I wish there was something I could do to change it, but there isn't."

A few gasps escaped Widget's beak. Whatever he thought he could say got jumbled up in the back of his throat.

"And it's certainly not what anyone wants to hear when they're fighting a battle like this," Shane continued. "I really wasn't sure whether to say anything about it. Which... is selfish on my part. Working toward the 'greater good' and all that."

"What should... I do?"

Widget somehow managed to force that question out. And followed it with a, "What can I do?"

"You can keep fighting," Shane said. "But beyond that... you can try to carve your own path forward."

"Huh?"

"The Overseers know a lot." The necrozma's gaze was drawn to his left. "But they don't know everything. Surprises happen from time to time. Surprises... and miracles.

"So, if it doesn't seem like there's a way forward... try and make one." Shane slowly bobbed his head. "That's how it went for me back in the day."

"Yeah, and look what happened!" Widget gestured toward the rift leading to his home.

Shane laughed nervously. "Aaaaaand because you know what not to do, that'll make it easier to find a real solution!" He lowered his head. "In any case, our time's up. Higher-ups are coming this way. Better get moving."

Widget wanted to protest. He needed more time. More time to press Shane and—

A telekinetic force flung Widget through the blue-purple abyss and straight toward the rift. He saw it coming, and promptly thought about the outpost to make sure he wouldn't get stranded somewhere random.

XxX​

It didn't take long for the exhaustion to set in once Noctum was back in the hangar. His legs turned to concrete and his wings wanted to pop right out of their joints and fall out. He was so tired, Noctum couldn't even keep his tail off the floor.

All the hustle and bustle didn't help, either. For starters, the hangar was much larger than Noctum remembered. A sprawling tunnel now stood in place of the unused ship doors. Gene, Cyril, and Cid directed all the freed prisoners through the tunnels, while those who previously stayed in the outpost's main building retreated inside of it.

He thought he heard one of the girls ask what Gene had done to fit everyone. But Noctum was too tired to care about logistics. And he had no idea who'd head for the showers and how fast they'd go.

So, the cosmic charizard quickly opened a rift and trudged into it. He ended up in front of the door to the shower stalls. Noctum managed to get the door open and lumber toward the stall in the back right corner. He turned the hot water handle up as high as it would go and walked underneath the shower head.

It got warm quickly. His aching muscles appreciated the hot water and steam rising around him. A small part of him wondered if the outpost could really supply enough hot water for all the people undoubtedly looking to wash up after getting out of the prison. And spending time in that awful frigid downpour.

His tail flame didn't even sizzle or simmer from the water. Instead, it rippled like it was its own body of water. Undoubtedly, the Palkia in him was responsible for that. In fact, when Noctum glanced at the wet tiles on the wall, he thought he saw the faintest pink glow coming from his shoulders. As if the pearls that used to be there had reappeared.

Noctum shook those thoughts from his head and quickly lathered himself up in soap. There were different dispensers offering different soaps to deal with scales or fur or even weirder body types like metal or slime. Noctum settled for his usual reptile soap.

As Noctum rinsed himself off, however, he realized he never grabbed a towel. Not that that was a huge deal. He shut the water off and stuck his hand through a tiny rift. Noctum felt around, then pulled a towel out from his room.

He dried himself off enough for him to open a rift under his feet. The cosmic charizard fell through it into his room, where he finished drying himself off.

"What a day," Noctum said aloud, even though he was alone. Despite all his worries, their mission had gone on without a hitch.

Even so, Noctum found himself struggling to relax. His muscles still ached. He lay down on his bed after drying himself off. Noctum thought he could will himself to sleep, but his eyes stayed wide open.

Different thoughts raced around in his head. Like getting food because he was totally hungry. Or checking in on some of the others they'd rescued. Yuna and Yiazmat came to mind.

Though maybe Yuna wanted to spend time with Nikki...

Well, there was the fact that Leo seemed to have found Sticky and Arianna in the wreckage of the battery receptacle that they'd trashed. Noctum wondered if it was worth going to see them.

... Nah. Gene or Cyril would end up grilling them.

A loud, deep exhale escaped Noctum's snout.

Who was he kidding? He was never going to be able to rest like this.

"Hey."

Valkyrie's single word greeting buzzed in Noctum's X-transceiver. He nearly ended up coughing a fireball onto his pillow.

"V-Valkyrie?" Noctum's voice cracked. "Something, uh, up?"

"I'm ready to eat," she said. "How about you?"

"S-Sure."

"Great. Meet me on the roof."

And then the connection ended.

Noctum pushed himself up. The roof?

He was too tired to question the garchomp's decision. Noctum slowly rolled off his bed and opened another rift. The roof greeted him on the other side. He found Valkyrie sitting near the edge of it with a couple of plates. As he got closer, the smell of meat and barbecue sauce filled his nostrils.

Ribs. She had split a rack for the two of them. Or Guzzie did and she brought them up here. Somehow.

They smelled great, though. Noctum had to swallow a mouthful of saliva as he took his last few steps to sit down next to her.

"So, uh..." He rubbed his shoulder. "Ribs, huh?"

"Yep." The garchomp used her claws as makeshift cutlery, slicing through the meat with one claw and jabbing the meat with the other. She shoved it into her mouth and chewed.

Noctum's claws were not nearly good enough for that. And there was no silverware. So, he settled for ripping off the first rib and biting into its meat. He tore chunks off the bone.

"Crazy day, huh?" he finally said, after cleaning the meat off the first rib. Noctum licked the sauce from the bone before setting it back on his plate.

"Crazy day." Valkyrie cut more meat for herself with her claws. She ate it, then went back to cut some more.

"But at least it went well, right?" Laughing nervously, Noctum tore off the second rib, but just ended up ripping off the bone without any meat. Wincing, he picked off the dangling meat with his claws.

"Almost too well." Valkyrie scowled at her ribs. "Makes me wonder if we're missing something. This should be a blow to Paradox, right?" She sliced more meat, then ate it off her claw.

"Maybe it's too early for us to know what effect this has?"

He flashed Valkyrie a nervous grin when she leered at him. She slowly bit into another clawful of meat.

"You've got meat stuck between your fangs," Valkyrie said.

Tail flame shrinking, Noctum felt around his teeth with his tongue. When it grazed the meat, he managed to pick it out with a claw.

"Sorry."

Things started awkward enough. Now it was just painful.

"Um..." Noctum ripped off more meat. Sticky sauced gunked up his hands and claws. "Not that I don't appreciate the meal, but is there a reason you called me out here?"

"It can't be to share some ribs?" Valkyrie trained her gaze on Noctum as she licked barbecue sauce from her snout. "I had mentioned getting dinner, hadn't I?"

"This... wasn't what I had in mind." Noctum laughed nervously. In the process, he dropped the bone he was holding. It tumbled down the roof and off into the starry abyss below.

"Oops."

Valkyrie snorted. "Smooth." She sliced meat off her last remaining rib and stuffed the clawful into her mouth.

Noctum needed to save face. The cosmic charizard grabbed his last rib and tore the meat off in a quick succession of ferocious bites.

As soon as he managed to swallow everything, he wiped his snout, then said, "I know you mentioned it back on Citadark." He paused. "Didn't imagine it'd be somethere this private."

He managed not to flinch when Valkyrie scowled at him. She silently finished off her last rib. After licking her lips again, she sighed.

"Suppose you're right." The garchomp grabbed one of the empty bones and gnawed on its edge. "I guess I wanted to do this... because I'm thinking about the future."

"The future?" Noctum was about to scratch his chin, but realized how saucy his claw was. He licked his claw instead. "As in?"

"Beating the emperor." Valkyrie gnawed on her rib some more. "And Zodiark, too."

"Right."

Noctum brought his hands down to his sides. Of course this would come up. And when he was trying not to think about it.

Oh, crud! Valkyrie was giving him another dirty look!

"I, um, haven't given it much thought myself." Noctum tapped his index claws together nervously. "Hard to think about it when there's a lot of uncertainties surrounding Zodiark."

"Yeah. Sure." Valkyrie gazed off into the distance.

"Be honest with me," she said. "What would you want to happen if we win?"

Noctum blinked slowly. "Huh?"

Valkyrie scraped her claw along the roof. "Do you want to go back to being Palkia?"

"I—"

The cosmic charizard stopped himself. Because he genuinely had no idea. It was something he hadn't— no, he actively avoided thinking about.

Noctum imagined Valkyrie would never accept an "I don't know." So he stayed silent, staring at his plate of empty ribs.

He braced himself for Valkyrie's scathing retort. Instead, the garchomp sighed. She whipped her arm holding the bone forward, flinging it into the starry abyss.

"Should've figured," she said.

Noctum almost apologized on instinct, but managed to catch himself for once. "I get that it's not what you want to hear, but things are... complicated."

Valkyrie slouched over, resting her arms on her knees. "You made things complicated."

His tail flame shrank. "Suppose that's fair, but—"

"Not like that." Valkyrie stretched her arms further. Bits of poison dribbled off her claws. "Things used to be so black and white. I had my handlers and my targets. I'd developed a routine of sorts."

Noctum raised a brow. Why was she at Horizon in the first place if she was an assassin? Was she going to keep doing that work if the school year hadn't gotten interrupted?

Before he could ask that, Valkyrie continued, "Then you stumbled into my life. And all that black and white swirled around and around into an ocean of gray." She twirled a claw around the roof. Light enough to not make a loud scraping noise, thankfully.

The cosmic charizard rubbed his shoulder. "Well, I suppose... learning everything we've learned about the world would, ah, muddle things up."

"Not that." Valkyrie looked right at him. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? To get me to fess up."

Noctum blinked. "To... what?"

"To liking you, dumbass."

Silence. Noctum glanced at his starry tail flame.

"I mean... we are friends, aren't we?" Noctum scratched his snout. "So, that makes perfect sen—"

Valkyrie leaned over on her side and jabbed Noctum's right leg with a claw.

"Ow!" He rubbed his leg. "Hey, c'mon!"

"That's not what I meant, you dork." Valkyrie pushed herself back up. "I meant liking you as more than a friend."

"More than..." Noctum's voice trailed off. He looked down and muttered a quiet, "Oh."

"It's your fault." Valkyrie snorted out dragonfire embers. "You just... had to be so sweet and sincere. All so I'd lower my guard and grow close to you."

Noctum tittered, tail flame rippling. "But that's a good thing, right?"

"Not when it's made me fall in love with you!"

A second of silence passed. Then Valkyrie turned away and held her arms up so the fins blocked her face. Noctum sat there, staring dumbly at the garchomp. That was what she implied earlier, yet it still stunned him to hear her say it out loud.

"I've never gotten close like this to anyone." Valkyrie lowered her arms by her tail. She bent her knees up and looked out toward the stars and auroras in the distance. "In a vacuum, this would've been fine. Strange and uncertain, sure. But fine.

"But we're not in a vacuum." Her shoulders sagged. Valkyrie leaned forward slightly, like she wanted to rest her chin on something that wasn't there.

Noctum struggled figuring out where to begin with that one. He gently prodded with one word: "Meaning?"

"You can't be that naive." Valkyrie laughed bitterly. "Even if we do win, do you really think these Overseers will let this place stay in its broken state?"

"Ah." Noctum tapped his claws together. "I, um, can't imagine they would."

"Exactly." The garchomp gave a long, protracted sigh. "So, you must realize what that means."

He nodded once. "They'd put Earth back."

"An Earth where I'm dead," Valkyrie said. She leaned forward a bit more. "And an Earth that needs its Palkia."

"Yeah." Noctum rubbed his shoulder. He couldn't argue with her there.

"It's pointless, then." Valkyrie spat out a few blue-purple embers. They drifted off into space for a few seconds before fizzling out. "We can never be together."

"But what about right now?"

"It won't mean anything." Valkyrie smacked the rooftop with her fin, making Noctum flinch. "What good is it when we'll both be left wondering how much time we have? Or worry about when it's going to end?"

Noctum frowned. But Valkyrie looked over her shoulder. "Don't tell me you wouldn't think like that. I won't believe you."

The cosmic charizard's tail flame shrank a bit. "Okay."

Silence followed. Valkyrie resumed looking out into the distance. Try as Noctum might, he struggled to untangle the jumbled thoughts in his head.

Everything Valkyrie said made sense. There was a high likelihood he'd return to being Palkia.

... Right?

He scooched across the roof without thinking. Got close enough to Valkyrie for the garchomp to tense. But she didn't try anything. Even as Noctum moved next to her.

"It's nice," he said, following her gaze to where a blue and a red aurora twisted around one another, forming a dazzling purple in between. "Even if it's all dungeon magic, seeing the stars like this comforts me."

"Because of Palkia," Valkyrie confidently stated.

"I suppose so." Noctum laughed nervously. "But when I was just a charmander wandering the wastelands, there were times the night sky would poke through all the ash." He gently closed his eyes, like he wanted to enjoy a breeze that wasn't there. "Those were always the nights I slept the best. I wonder if, even then, Palkia stirred inside of me. Maybe that power is part of what kept me going until Yiazmat could find me?"

Valkyrie tapped a claw against the roof. "Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Dunno."

Noctum's tail flame rippled when Valkyrie glared at him. He had to figure something out.

"Well, um..." Noctum ran his claws across the nebulas swirling around his belly. "Maybe I... don't have to go back to being Palkia?"

The words kind of slipped out, but now that he'd said them, a lightbulb went off in his head. Noctum sat up straight.

"Y-Yeah. Think about it," Noctum continued, flicking some starry sparks off his claws. "That Shane guy's messed with a world's divine power before. And that drew the Overseers to him. Meaning they understand how that kind of stuff works."

Valkyrie squinted at him. "You mean the guy who indirectly contributed to all this nonsense?" She gestured toward outer space.

Noctum flinched. "I do." He took a deep breath. "But he works with the Overseers. That means they've got to have a way to give my Palkianess to someone else."

"Seriously?" Valkyrie slouched over again. "You really think it's that easy? That the Overseers can wave their arms around and magically un-Palkia you?" She rolled her eyes. "Even if they could, what about me? I'll still go back to being dead."

"But you don't know that for sure," Noctum countered. "You've lived a life as Valkyrie. I don't think it would be fair for them to take that away from you. Especially when you've helped against Zodiark."

Valkyrie scowled. "So, what, you're saying the solution is to believe hard enough?"

"I am."

Noctum scooched left. His thigh bumped against hers. Valkyrie leered at him. However, Noctum didn't shrink back.

"Look, Val. I get it," he said. "If I was in your place, I'd have a hard time hoping anything would work. And maybe it is easier to give up." Noctum sighed. "Thing is... wouldn't you still end up hurt anyway?"

That seemed to get Valkyrie, if the momentary stunned expression on her face was anything to go by. "I... don't know what you mean," she mumbled.

"Well, this thing's already eating you up," Noctum said. "It's kinda the same for me, too. I don't see how it doesn't keep festering if we choose to drop it."

Valkyrie looked off into space again. One moment she was pensive. Then scowling. Then her face scrunched up. And finally she lowered her head and her shoulders sagged.

"D-Damn it."

Noctum thought he saw a glimmer in her eye. But the garchomp quickly rubbed her face with her arm.

"How?" she whispered. "How do you just... keep knowing what to say?"

The cosmic charizard decided to treat that as rhetorical. Instead, Noctum slowly draped his arm around Valkyrie's shoulders.

"I want this," Valkyrie continued. "I want us so badly. But I don't want to get hurt."

"I don't either," Noctum said.

"Then what do I do? What can we do?"

"Believe." Noctum nudged her head with his snout. "And we'll make our case when the time comes."

The garchomp stopped slouching and rested her head on Noctum's shoulder. After a few seconds, Noctum leaned his head onto hers.

They silently looked out toward the stars. The quiet moment turned to a quiet minute.

Valkyrie raised her tail slightly and lay it over Noctum's. He curled his tail around hers. The starry flames cast a blue-purple glow on her backside.

After a few minutes, Valkyrie turned her head just enough to peck Noctum's cheek.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

XxX

Even though Diamond didn't do anything aside from sitting in that stupid cell, he was still tired upon returning to the outpost. The previous battle left him weary and the cramped conditions didn't offer him any time to recover. Though the cosmic keldeo wanted to search for Cyril, the sheer number of people in the newly expanded hangar proved too overwhelming. He shuffled out of the hangar and retreated to Cyril's room.

It was locked, of course, but the cosmic zoroark had given Diamond access. All he had to do was press a forehoof to the pad beside the door. A click followed. Diamond nudged the door open and walked inside.

A shower sounded tempting, but all Diamond could manage was making it to the sofa. He climbed on and splayed out on his side.

What a whirlwind day. The battle in Aeon and the brief imprisonment at Citidark almost made him forget what the day started with.

He got married! He had a husband!

Diamond's starcloud tail swished a bit against the couch cushions. This was a big deal, right? He understood the concept well enough, yet it still felt so... odd. A legend like him having this sort of deep partnership.

Though I don't really want to be Dialga anymore...

The door creaked open. Diamond tensed. Had someone broken in?

No, it was Cyril. Diamond relaxed again. Starry hair fell over his face. He didn't bother pushing it out of the way.

Predictably, Cyril's footsteps got closer to the couch. Diamond mentally prepared himself to scrunch up and make room for Cyril. To his surprise, however, the cosmic zoroark climbed over him and squished himself between Diamond and the back of the couch.

"Hey," Cyril whispered. His claws gently moved Diamond's hair out of his face.

"You're here?" Diamond blinked slowly. "I thought you'd have work to do. Y'know, sorting through everyone who broke out with us. Or questioning that... naganadel thingy."

"Taken care of," Cyril said. "Boss Kitty got everything set up for the newcomers. And he's going to interrogate Sticky." He lazily traced his index claw from Diamond's hair to his neck. The cosmic keldeo's legs twitched.

"H-Hey." Diamond's mane flickered. "What are you doing back there?"

"Just helping you relax," Cyril purred. "You've had quite the day."

"Nngh." Diamond resisted the urge to squirm. Apparently, he was ticklish back there. Something that was never a problem when his neck was metallic scales. "It was... not the ending to the day I envisioned. I'm sure you feel much the same."

Cyril sighed. "Yeah." He traced his claw in circles around Diamond's neck. Diamond's tail swished against the couch cushions again.

"Were you, um, frightened?" Diamond wondered. "For me?"

"Hmm?" Cyril's claw left Diamond's neck.

Diamond wanted to roll over and look at Cyril, but he couldn't manage it with the cosmic zoroark lying right behind him.

"Well, back at Khelifet Stadium, I remember how worried you were about me," he said. "Especially once that robot version of Seifer's father showed up."

"Aha." Cyril coughed. "You, uh, actually caught that?" He laughed nervously. "Figured you were too busy with, y'know, the robo-dad thing."

"No, I caught it." Diamond brushed his dangling foreleg against the front of the couch. "Just didn't want to make much of it. Especially since we are together." He paused. "But given how I almost got turned into a battery for Paradox—"

"Wait, that's what he had planned for you?" Cyril gasped. "Man, it really is a good thing those three pulled off that rescue."

Diamond nudged his left hind leg back enough to brush Cyril's left leg. "So, you were worried."

Cyril rested his head on Diamond's shoulder. The cosmic keldeo almost jumped when his heart fluttered.

"Of course I was." Cyril rubbed his cheek against Diamond's. "What guy wouldn't worry when his husband gets smacked down in battle on their damn wedding day?"

Diamond winced. "That is... a fair point."

Cyril exhaled deeply. "But I managed to stuff that worry down... so I could help Noctum, Leo, and Valkyrie rescue you." He curled a lock of Diamond's starry hair around his claw. "And it actually worked."

"That it did." Diamond smiled. His tail thumped once against the couch. "Though, um, are you worried that it, y'know, was a bit too easy?"

"What part was easy?" Cyril scoffed. "The prison getting flooded with Eternatus Troopers? The giant melmetal?"

Diamond tensed. "N-No. It's more that... those three blew through the enemies. Noctum looked so strong out there." He thumped his dangling left foreleg against the front of the couch repeatedly. "It makes me think we're missing something."

"Want to know what I think?" Cyril gently slipped his arm around Diamond's torso. "That you guys have gotten back your old powers. Now you're too strong for the emperor to do anything about... unless he pulls out a nasty trick like he did with the Terraformers."

"I suppose." Diamond sighed, tucking his right foreleg a bit so it nudged Cyril's arm. "Though Noctum's a few steps ahead of me. And that... irks me."

"Must remind you of when you were Dialga and Palkia," Cyril said. "Or it's just a natural pokémon rivalry sort of thing. You want to be better." He nuzzled Diamond's cheek again. "Though I think you're already better than Noctum."

Diamond's tail crinkled up. "W-Well, you're biased."

"Guilty." Cyril chuckled.

"But you have a point." Diamond tapped his left foreleg against the front of the couch again. "All of us getting stronger will only help the team out in the long run."

The cosmic zoroark snapped his claws. "Exactly. Now you're looking on the brighter side."

"Actually, it's fairly dim in your apartment."

Cyril snorted. He tickled Diamond's underbelly. "It's called mood lighting, Dime."

Diamond blinked slowly. "But this is always how your suite is lit."

"Cuz I'm always in the mood~"

That joke went over Diamond's head. "Right." He brushed his hind leg against Cyril again. "By the way, what about the robotic Widget that we've run into a couple of times? Do we have any updates on that?"

"Nope," Cyril said. "We can keep looking into it, but if you didn't find it in the prison, then I imagine it must be with the emperor." He kept tickling Diamond's belly. "C'mon. It's been a long day. Don't you want to unwind with something different?"

Diamond's legs twitched. "Well, I suppose I am hungry. Perhaps we can eat something?"

Cyril leaned his head over more. Now his starry hair draped over Diamond's face. "I know something you can eat... if you're feeling experimental."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you trust me?" Cyril asked.

"Of course."

"Then you won't be disappointed~"

Spoiler: End Notes

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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I'd like to take a moment to give a special shout-out to @Namohysip, one of my betas and the author for PMD: Hands of Creation. He's the original creator for the concept of Overseers, as well as the lore and logic surrounding how they operate. I've been using the group as a concept throughout the fic with his permission and he's made sure to point out if any scenes involving Shane and Tama contradict his work. Be sure to read his fic if you haven't already!

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 143: Over the Moon

​

Massive rock slabs jutted out of fissures in the ground. The rocks exploded in brown bursts. One knocked a nidoking and nidoqueen duo away, sending them tumbling across disrupted grass along the edge of the rightmost fissure.

"D-Damn it." Nidoking tried to brace himself with shaky arms, but his strength was gone. He could barely tilt his head enough to see what was going on. "You okay?"

Nidoqueen didn't respond. He looked to his left and found only a nidoqueen-shaped impression in the ground.

Kicked back to the Overworld, then. And, given the awful shape Nidoking was in, it was only a matter of time before he followed suit.

He'd lost his communicator— hell, he'd lost all his resources. And his allies were dropping all around him. The power they borrowed from this world didn't help a bit.

Black energy raced out in a dome from the fissure next to Nidoking. Hollers sounded in the distance. Nidoking suppressed a shudder.

Amidst the dusty cloud, Nidoking spotted the one responsible for everything perched atop a rocky plateau: Wo-Chien. Its rock Tera jewel crackled with red and black light.

Nidoking heard buzzing from Wo-Chien. Its Tera jewel suddenly shattered, revealing even more static that swirled around into a rectangular slab. The slab flew high into the air.

"A plate? It was a plate?!" Nidoking tried to push himself up to no avail. "Someone grab it! Stop it before the anomaly gets it!"

"You cannot stop me, Overseer."

The plate vanished. Nidoking saw a red and purple gleam overhead, but couldn't make out the details. Still, the stoic, slightly distorted tone matched the reports. This was the anomaly.

"Do not look so scornful." The anomaly's voice echoed across the ruined plains. "Your failure was ascertained from the very beginning."

Nidoking laughed weakly, before descending into a coughing fit. "If that was really the case, you wouldn't need that overgrown welcome wagon. Or your legion of Whispers."

"Is false bravado truly the best you can manage?" the anomaly scoffed.

"It ain't false." Nidoking tensed from the pain of his injuries, but kept a defiant smirk on his face. "You're desperate. That's what all of this is about. All this time lurking in the shadows... and now you've got lots of eyes on you. Which means there's nowhere for you to run."

"Run?" The overhead sheen flickered with eerie red static. "I'm on the cusp of victory. I have no intention of running."

"Right." Nidoking coughed again. "And how is this saving worlds from suffering? Your Whispers caused all this."

"Enough."

Large stones gathered in the air over Nidoking, molding themselves together into a massive boulder.

"You lost, Overseer," the anomaly said. "Soon you will all bask in my Eternaverse."

Nidoking laughed. "You keep telling yourself that."

The eerie sheen pulsated. Then the giant boulder dropped from the sky. Nidoking one more defiant smirk before it crushed him.

XxX​

As tired as Leo was, he didn't leave the hangar. The cosmic arceus nodded absentmindedly at people petting his forelegs and offering thanks for rescuing them. Even Yuna hadn't stuck around for him. Nikki dragged the dragapult out of the hangar not long after Gene took Sticky and Arianna away to stuff them into the sealed rooms.

It didn't take long for the hangar's flurry of activity to fade away. Only a handful of folks stuck around.

Apparently, Leo had missed the part where Vince relearned to stand on two legs instead of four. The purple koraidon seemed a bit happier as he leaned against a stack of crates to Leo's right, talking to that Miraidon guy from the flashback everyone saw of the old resistance group. Where had he come from?

Maybe it was worth it to listen in on the two— no, wait, four of them. Jaeger had wheeled Sigurd over to the two lizards.

"... Can't believe you're actually working with that guy." Miraidon shook his head. "You know most of the pokémon world specialists call him the Almighty Idiot, right?"

Vince scratched his feathery crest. "It may have come up... once or twice. But there weren't any other folks available to train me at the time."

"Then you should've waited," Miraidon scoffed.

"What'cha talking about, mates?" Jaeger asked, leaning on the back of Sigurd's chair.

Miraidon looked the lycanroc mutt over. "You're with the Overseers, correct?"

"Dunno about that." Jaeger shrugged. "Never got past internship before getting stuck here."

"Well, did you ever hear about the Almighty Idiot?" Miraidon wondered.

"Y'mean Shane?" Jaeger scratched the back of his right ear. "I was interning under him when an accident landed me here."

"Where we eventually got caught in an anomaly." Sigurd's text-to-speech followed his interjection with robotic laughter.

"Fair dinkum."

"See?" Miraidon gestured at Jaeger. "I bet the Almighty Idiot's the one who caused the accident. The same way his actions were the first domino that fell to make POV-2020 what it is right now."

"I'm afraid we're already aware of that fact, sir," Sigurd said, silver eyes blinking slowly. "Many of this group's key members reached Eternatus' core."

"They saw what happened to you," Vince continued. The purple koraidon drummed the sides of his dewlap. "Learned everything about why this place is the way it is."

"Then you must understand the situation." Miraidon's electric eyebrows crackled. "Or did you skip that part of your training?"

"What?" Jaeger scratched his ear. "Y'mean the whole 'destroy a world when the suffering becomes too much for the souls' thing?"

Miraidon nodded. "When the scouts came to monitor this world in the past, they figured out there was an anomaly putting life in the reverse world. But they never realized the truth about Eternatus." He crossed his arms. "Overseers have to play by the rules of a world, especially if they're entering without permission. And the scouting groups never got close enough to Eternatus to evaluate it thoroughly."

Leo raised a brow. What had changed about that? The few Overseers stuck here had no way to report back to whoever they worked—

Oh, right. Zodiark's real body had escaped. That was different.

"This dimension's stability has considerably weakened," Miraidon continued. He turned and faced Leo. The cosmic arceus stiffened. Had Miraidon known he was listening in the whole time?

"By now, they've gotta know this place is actually a bunch of universes smashed together." Miraidon waved his right arm around. "With most of the souls trapped in stasis."

"Okay." Leo brushed a hind hoof along the ground nervously. "But being asleep isn't suffering!"

He mentally added an, I think?

"Hard to say." Miraidon shrugged. "But one thing that bothers them as much as suffering souls is captured souls." He looked across the hangar toward Cyril's computer bank. "And right now, there are a lot of captured souls here."

Leo stomped a forehoof down. "And we're working on it. So, there's no reason for them to come in and blow this whole place up!"

Miraidon raised his arms. "Well, given we're standing here, it clearly hasn't happened yet. But I expect it will soon."

He looked at the giant glass doors to the group's right. The ones Gene created to lead to the magical new outpost building. "It's why I was gearing my crew up to get out of dodge. Those raids we conducted in Aeonius tested the warp drives for my ships. With a little more time, I think I could've made them powerful enough to break out of this universe."

"Seriously?" Vince's antennae curled up. The purple koraidon's dewlap puffed out. "You were just going to cut and run?"

Miraidon nodded.

Vince puffed his dewlap out even further. "B-But you're an Overseer!"

"Was an Overseer." Miraidon waved Vince off. "I'd gotten disillusioned with the whole routine before I even came to this universe."

"Huh." Jaeger scratched the bridge of his snout. "So, y'were always planning on sneaking off?"

"Exactly." Miraidon grinned. "I wanted to let my ideas and inventions flourish. And when I had my fill, I'd find a new world to test the scientific bounds of."

His arms sagged. "I could never have imagined the sequence of events in Eternatus' core. At that point, self-preservation kicked in. I saw what Paradox was up to — especially that creepy gene therapy nonsense — and figured a band of pirates was a good way to protect myself." Miraidon's electrical dewlap shined bright. "With my engineering skills, I easily came up with alternatives to Paradox's 'miracle medicine.' And those alternatives let me recruit my crew members. It was a perfect plan."

"Until it wasn't," Leo cut in. Miraidon didn't seem evil. Just... weird? Cowardly?

Leo wasn't entirely sure, but the dude's vibes sucked.

"Look, I don't want to die." Miraidon's eyebrows crackled. "Or deal with whatever worse fate Zodiark has in store for this place. Can you blame me for wanting to escape?"

"Nah." Leo stepped forward, figuring now was the time to use his larger presence to intimidate Miraidon. "But rather than turn tail, you and your pirates will join us to bring down Paradox and Zodiark. Understood?"

Miraidon drifted back from Leo. "Yes, yes." His eyebrows shrank. "I don't need an arceus smiting me. Besides, I can't fight back." He looked Leo over. "You made your powers pretty clear back on Citidark." He shook his head, mumbling, "Can't believe their kid was God the whole time."

Leo raised a brow. "So, you actually recognize me like this?"

"Enough." Miraidon shrugged. "Your soul must've escaped from the Eternatus Core." He held his hands up and tapped his mechanical claws together. "And latched onto either Bahamut or Chiron. But all your power stayed back in the core."

He let out a tired laugh. "To think that Enamorus destroying your cosmog body to spite Bahamut would actually help the universe in the long run." Miraidon looked at the ceiling. "Hopefully her soul is stewing over that in whatever little Eternatus nook it's trapped in."

"I'm not thinking about it," Leo scoffed. The cosmic arceus' wheel flickered salmon with the Pixie Plate's power. "Gotta move forward. The past stays where it is."

Miraidon turned to face the crate stack. "Funny. You kinda sound like him."

"Who?"

"Shane." Miraidon pressed his right hand against the bottom crate. "Always focusing on what's ahead. Trying to help even when he isn't wanted."

"... Well, he did help us get back home."

Widget's voice preceded the clicking of talons on metal. The cosmic silvally headed toward the group, his gaze mostly focused on Leo.

Miraidon turned his head, then tilted it at the newcomer. "Did he now?"

Widget bobbed his head. "And his teammates helped deal with Whispers that tried attacking."

"I see." Miraidon's electric brows crackled. "And did you happen to see any weird, celestial towers on the outside of this universe?"

"Uhhh..." Widget's crest tightened. "I don't... think so?" His neck ruff swirled around quickly. "But Shane might've mentioned it?"

His eyes narrowed. "Actually, yeah, I think towers did come up? And he sounded kinda worried?"

Miraidon slouched over. "Then it's just like I thought. The Overseers have this world marked for destruction."

"Nah, we ain't going out like that." Leo held his head high. "Just cuz those towers are putting us on blast doesn't mean we're totally sunk. We still have a chance!" He looked at Leo. "This Shane guy's trying to help, right? So, he can plead our case to them."

"He's been pleading our case the whole time," Vince added, nodding to himself.

"Perhaps." Sighing, Miraidon hovered toward the glass doors. "I'm going to check on my crew."

The doors slid open. Miraidon flew through them, leaving the hangar in an awkward silence. Vince peeled himself off the stack of crates and lumbered toward the original hangar exit, waving to the others. Jaeger then pointed his snout at Sigurd, who'd nodded off. He turned Sigurd's wheelchair around and pushed it after Vince.

That left Leo and Widget standing in the corner by the crates.

"Welp." Leo bent his legs. His wheel disappeared in a stream of light, letting the cosmic arceus flop on his belly. "This has been a day of all time." His starcloud fur dimmed. "Everything good with you?"

"I, uh..." Sighing, Widget hung his head. "I think I'm still trying to figure that one out."

"Big mood," Leo mumbled. "It was Paradox that yeeted you out of this universe, right?"

Widget nodded.

"Did he, uh, recognize you at all?" the cosmic arceus wondered.

"If he did, he didn't acknowledge it." Widget's starry cheek bolts turned slowly. He sat down and poked at the floor with a gold talon. "And that doesn't really bother me. I don't need his acknowledgement."

"That's... good." Leo bobbed his head. I think?

Widget shifted nervously. "It's just... this all has me thinking. About this conflict. And my role in it."

"Your role," Leo repeated. "As a teammate?"

The cosmic silvally didn't say anything at first. Leo wasn't sure whether to press him or give him space to gather his thoughts. After several seconds, Widget whispered, "What am I?"

"Huh?" Leo tilted his head. "How literal we talking? Like a 'collective Voices of Life' deal or—"

"That's what I mean." Widget pointed his right foreleg at Leo. "A part of me... desperately denies the truth sitting right in front of me."

"Which truth?"

"That I'm some... amalgamate of different Voices of Life." Widget's starry neck ruff puffed out. "When you tried reviving Seifer, I saw visions of all those Voices. And then Xeromus said that if we try to fix everything and put the worlds back... I'll break apart."

"Oh." Leo's starry mane and tail drooped. "Right."

"I know you gave me that blessing when you were, y'know, 'younger,'" Widget said. "And not used to your powers." He took a deep breath. "Did you know back then? Could you sense different spirits?"

Leo shook his head. "All I sensed was suppression. Dunno if it was intentional on Paradox's part or not. All I knew was that getting rid of it felt right."

"It felt right." Widget slumped over until he was lying on his belly, too. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you did it. This is the right side to be on. But it's hard for me." His crest drooped. "In some ways, it feels like I'm doing exactly what the emperor built me for. Fighting for a specific cause."

He sighed. "Just not his cause."

"Do you... not want to fight?" Leo said, unsure what he'd do if it was true.

Widget lay his head on the floor. "Is it wrong of me to be upset that I'm fighting for what's personally an empty cause?"

After a few seconds of silence, Leo shook his head. "Nah, it'd upset me, too, fam."

It does upset me.

Leo wanted to say that so badly. It ate him up inside. But he remembered his promise to Nova. He wouldn't mention the whole seal thing. What would Widget think if he realized what Leo needed to do? They were connected.

There had to be some way to broach the subject without breaking his promise.

"Then you can forgive me if I'm having a mental block." Widget curled and uncurled his gold talons. "Especially when I don't even know what my Voice powers really look like." He huffed in annoyance. "All you guys are getting your fancy legend powers back. But the only thing I can do is change forms. The same as when you blessed me a few months ago."

Widget's cheek bolts turned once. "I can remember Voice stuff, so why am I not any stronger than before?"

"Maybe it's the mental hangup?" Leo offered, thankful Widget slightly changed the subject for him. "Tough to perform when your jelly's all jammed and stuff."

The cosmic silvally groaned. "Wonderful. So, I'm fighting to die and I can't even perform at my best?" His starry neck ruff deflated.

"It is a raw deal," Leo mumbled. But a lightbulb had gone off in his head. The cosmic arceus stood up, his wheel reappeared on his torso.

Widget picked his head up. "You're leaving?"

"Had a brain blast." Leo held out his left foreleg. "We should check out the Eternatus Core."

"What?" Widget's neck ruff puffed up. "Are you nuts? For all we know, the emperor could be there!"

"Not nuts. Trying big brain time." Leo's mane glowed a bit brighter. "We both vibe with the core, for better or worse. So, maybe there's something in there that can help you?"

Widget blinked slowly. He started to lay his head back down, only to stop. The cosmic silvally slowly stood up.

"Fine." Widget stretched out his hind legs. "Knowing our luck, this'll blow up in our faces." He shook his head. "But I'll take this over being stuck in a mental rut."

Leo's wheel flashed pink. A rift opened between him and Widget. They stepped through opposite sides of the rift in unison, leaving them standing side by side atop the fake Mount Coronet, looking in opposing directions.

The place was no different from before. There was still a hole in the dome. And a crater from Xeromus exploding. Leo suppressed a wince from the memory. Both losing Nova and the whole seal thing.

He shook his head. The cosmic arceus was here for Widget. He could worry about the seal stuff later.

"Okay. So we're here." Widget slowly approached the altar where the destroyed core sat. "And the emperor never came, from the look of things." He swiveled his head back and forth. "Not sure what I'm supposed to do here, though."

"Take it slow." Leo sat down. It looked fairly awkward, given his lanky legs and the wheel around his torso. "See if you sense anything, I guess. You are the Voice."

He paused, tilting his head. "Err... Voices?"

Widget squinted at Leo, who laughed nervously. "Sorry. Point is that there's gotta be something that resonates with you."

The cosmic silvally mumbled those last few words to himself as he paced around the foot of the altar. He looked up at the core, then slowly walked up the steps until he was next to the giant chunk of crystals with a Zodiark-shaped hole in it.

Leo kept silent as Widget silently examined the core's remnants. This was a shot in the dark, but the cosmic arceus still held onto hope that something was here for Widget to work with.

However, seconds soon turned to minutes. Widget poked at the broken core with his beak and talons. He pressed his crest to it. Widget even shifted to reshivally, miraivally, and eternavally. But nothing changed.

He shifted back to his cosmic form and stepped away from the core, shaking his head. "Dunno what I expected," Widget mumbled. He turned to Leo. "We gave it a shot, but let's head back."

Leo was also ready to throw in the towel when he caught flashes of pink from the broken core and the crystal dome. "Did you see that?" he asked Widget.

"See what?" Widget looked around, then caught sight of more pink flashes. He turned to the crystals behind him again. Pink spots flickered around different crystal fragments. Widget stared intently at them as they glowed brighter and brighter. Flickering turned to pulsing. Soon there was a steady pink glow throughout the crystal.

"W-What the heck?" Widget hopped back, squawking. The pink spots swelled up and popped off the crystal. They squashed and stretched themselves into tiny pink cats that floated around Widget.

"Wait." Leo stood up. His wheel flashed gold. "Mew?"

Dozens of faceless, translucent mew floated around a startled Widget. The silvally's starry neck ruff puffed up so much it almost obscured his face.

"Mew? Why mew?" Widget crouched down. "I— huh? What do you mean?"

Were the mew speaking to Widget? Leo couldn't tell. And since they seemed interested in Widget, he chose not to address them.

Instead, Leo thought aloud. "Are these... the mew that Paradox used to make all his dumb medicine stuff?" He looked down at the ground. "Wonder how they ended up in here if passed souls are supposed to be cordoned off somewhere?"

Then again, they did pass away after Matriarch.

"That's what they're telling me." Widget's starry ruff returned to normal. He must've relaxed a bit. "It sounds like they've tended to souls in Matriarch's stead... but that's supposed to be my job?"

He looked back at Leo. "They want to give me 'my power.'"

"Oh." Leo lifted his head up. "That's... goooooood?"

It was basically why they came here. And it didn't seem to require much on Widget's part.

"What about you guys?" Widget asked the mew silhouettes. "Aren't you upset about what happened?"

The silhouettes bunched up in front of Widget, which stopped him from swiveling his head around repeatedly. Widget instead tilted his head.

"This is how you get back at Paradox?" Widget's crest tightened. "I suppose that's true." He paused to stare at the silhouettes again. "Huh? Th-the robot me that the emperor made?"

Widget shook his head. "I've been trying not to think about it. Why?"

Leo let their conversation continue, even if he could only hear one half of it. The mew silhouettes swayed back and forth in unison. Whatever they conveyed to Widget made him relax a bit more.

"I... suppose." He scraped his talons across the altar. "It's not going to mess with anything, will it? Or, y'know, hurt me somehow?"

All the mew silhouettes shook their heads. They pointed their stubby arms at Widget and rhythmically wiggled them. Widget tensed again. Leo stood up a bit taller, wondering if this was the time to interject.

But the tension quickly faded. The mew flew around Widget again. Their silhouettes glowed brightly, until Leo lost the cosmic silvally to a slowly moving pink light funnel.

"Uhh, you good in there?" Leo called.

To Leo surprise, Widget giggled. "H-Hey! That tickles!" He laughed some more. "I didn't even think I was ticklish! Ha ha! Aha ha ha!"

The funnel's glowing soon faded. Pink light turned to pink streams. After a few seconds, nothing but pink motes of various sizes drifted around Widget. His starry fur and neck ruff twinkled a bit brighter.

... No, wait. The pink sparkles gaslit Leo, that was all.

Eventually, any semblance of pink faded from the top of the altar. Widget bent over in a downward dog stretch. Then he got up and stretched out his hind legs.

"That was... something." He made his way down the altar steps.

"What just happened?" Leo wondered. The cosmic arceus had proposed the trip, yet now he found himself at a total loss. And not for the reasons he expected.

"They transferred power to me." Widget looked over his shoulder. "I think?" He wiggled his gold talons. "Something does feel different. But I can't put it into words." Widget looked around. "And I'm not really sure how to test it."

"Maybe it needs some time to kick in?" Leo offered. "Y'know, like medicine. Or a food coma after a good meal."

Widget's stomach growled. Then Leo's did, too.

"Speak of the devil." Leo laughed. "I could definitely use some grub. What about you?"

"Agreed." Widget nodded vigorously. "I'm starving."

"Then let's raid the kitchen." Leo waved his foreleg, conjuring a purple rift between them again. Widget jumped into it without any hesitation.

If Leo had a mouth, he would've smiled. It was nice to see the cosmic silvally have a bit of spring in his step. And equally nice that Leo made it happen. It didn't exactly lessen the problems that awaited him in the near future. But for now, he was happy making a difference in the resistance.

I'm better at this Creator business than I thought.

XxX​

Paradox plugged Iron Enforcer into a wall-mounted socket in his office, then turned and floated toward his desk. Poipole darted about the room, many looking at their tablets or at Paradox's large monitor bank on the wall to his left. And Demerzel sat on the floor. Or, rather, Paradox had the sunflora chained down to the floor, such that sitting was the best Demerzel could do.

"Anything from Citadark's warden?" the deoxys asked.

"Negative, Your Excellency." A poipole bowed apologetically.

A second one beside him waved her tablet around. "He's showing as offline. And he never shows as offline."

The first poipole sighed. "At what point do we assume the rebels pulled off an attack and kidnapped him?"

"Aha ha ha ha!" Paradox's right tentacles twisted into an arm that dismissively waved the poipole duo off. "Such simpletons. Your illustrious ultimate supreme grand emperor has figured that was the case from the start."

The second poipole frowned. "Then why are we trying to contact him?"

"On the off chance I was somehow wrong." Paradox hovered into the air. "Is that a problem, Whatsyourface?"

"N-No! Of course not!" She straightened her posture. Bits of purple paint dribbled from the top of her needles. "I'm happy to help, sir!"

"Good. Then let's shift gears to contacting the Troopers I deployed to Citadark an hour ago." Paradox shooed the two poipole off. "Chop chop!"

Both saluted the deoxys, then flew out of the room.

"Seriously?" Demerzel's leafy arms curled up. "Wasn't that guy your personal assistant? Aren't you at least a little bit worried about what could happen to him?"

Paradox laughed Demerzel's complaint off. "That eager to hear my plans, are we?" He shook his head. "Well, you're going to have to wait for the grand unveiling of my brilliant vision like everyone else."

"But you lost your vaunted power source," Demerzel countered.

"Aha ha! Ha ha ha!" Paradox spun around and sat down on the edge of his desk. He folded his tentacles onto his lap. "This is no debilitating setback! Because I can never lose!"

He looked up at the monitors. One showed robotic arms welding metal. Blue sparks jumped off whatever they were working on.

"Yes, this is only a prelude! The rebels think they've struck a decisive blow against me," Paradox declared. "But they haven't! It's all part of my brilliant plan! One that'll make the moment I truly pull the rug out from under them all the better! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 144: All Together Now

Igneous expected to retire to the room he shared with Shimmer and Scarlett. It had been a long day and the grovlazzle wanted to sleep. Yet when he left the hangar after his teammates and headed up the stairs, he discovered both Shimmer and Nikki exiting at the sublevel above the hangar. Yuna floated after them.

Brow raised, Igneous quickened his pace and shouldered the door open.

Why are they heading for the holding area?

Well, he wouldn't find out standing in the doorway. Igneous walked down the hallway and found Shimmer by one of the doorways. The ponytales gazed inside, frowning.

Igneous joined him and followed his gaze. Aside from some of the still-unconscious pokémon they'd freed from corruption, there was a pavementified sylveon propped against the wall.

"The hell?" Igneous frowned. "Is that supposed to be—"

"Xander," Shimmer said. His tails crinkled up. "Apparently Gene did this to him."

"Is he dead?" Igneous was tempted to go into the room and prod Xander to see if there was a response.

"No." Shimmer's horn weakly glowed. "I can still sense his aura."

Igneous wasn't convinced. "But how can he breathe in that thing?"

Shimmer pointed a foreleg at Xander. "Holes in the tar."

"That's tar?" Igneous head leaf crackled. He stepped back from the door, shaking his head.

"Forget it." The grovlazzle turned away from the door. "It's not like Xander's earned himself any sympathy."

"True." Shimmer also turned to face the end of the hall. "Suppose it's... a reminder of what Gene's capable of." His tails curled up. "Can't get on his bad side."

Igneous winced. "Well, Xander only knew how to get on people's bad sides. Especially after joining Paradox."

If that was supposed to reassure Shimmer, he didn't show it. The ponytales lowered his head. "I suppose."

"How about we head back upstairs?" Igneous suggested. The awkward atmosphere tired him out even more.

"—Really your excuse?! Give me a damn break!"

Nikki's shout made Igneous' tail leaves catch fire. He sucked in a breath to snuff the flames out then cautiously crept toward the next door. A couple of baxcalibur guards backed out of it, exchanging nervous looks. Igneous paid them no mind.

Instead, he found the toxtricity standing next to a cot Arianna sat on the edge of, mohawk raining tiny sparks on the brown carpet. The gardevoir couldn't meet Nikki's gaze, instead looking at Vortex and Justine, who lay fast asleep on cots opposite hers.

"Nikki," Yuna whispered from the middle of the room. She tried to coil her tail around Nikki's leg, but Nikki swatted the air.

Igneous took that as his cue to interject. "Everything okay in here?"

"Butt out, Twiggy." Nikki shot him a scathing look. "This is between Miss Stick Up Her Ass and me."

"Fair." Igneous leaned against the doorway. "But I don't think shouting at her is going to get us any useful information."

"I ain't asking about Paradox." Snorting, Nikki turned back to Arianna. "I wanna know about Scarlett. Why you and Vortex preyed on her and ****." She leaned over, jamming her hands into her coat pockets. "You already admitted you were involved. And I don't freaking buy that 'I was just doing what I had to' ****!

"So, start talking!" She stomped her right leg down.

Arianna winced. She tried straightening out her bunched up dress, but couldn't. Blowing apart whatever command module she and that Sticky guy were in had left her looking unscrupulous. Dirt and grime caked white and green. Dried purple paint clung to her face. Her dress was torn and scrunched up.

Igneous had to wonder if it hurt. The dress was part of gardevoir anatomy.

Then again, he did hear about gardevoir doing stylistic things with their dresses. Like shortening them into mini-skirt equivalents or forgoing them entirely.

He squeezed his eyes shut, willing that tangent away. The silence had lasted long enough for the grovlazzle to worry Nikki might lash out at Arianna.

Instead, hands still in her coat pockets, Nikki pivoted right and stared at the wall. "Y'know, when I first got to that damn school, I actually admired you in a way." Her mohawk shrank down a bit. "You were confident and didn't take **** from anyone, including asshole nobles."

She side-eyed Shimmer. "No offense, Twinkie."

Shimmer hung his head, sighing. "None taken, I suppose."

"But it turns out it was all a freaking act," Nikki continued. Her mohawk waveforms slowed down. "In reality you're freaking spineless."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Arianna mumbled.

"Understand what?"

Arianna curled her hands — or the nubs at the ends of her arms, because gardevoir were just like that — around her dress flaps. "Doing whatever it takes to ensure you don't lose the success you clawed your way up to."

Everyone went silent at that. Yuna looked between Arianna and Vortex.

"What is it, Yuna?" Igneous wondered. Had the dragapult sensed something?

"It's strange." Yuna rubbed her right shoulder. "Noctum told me that, when he fought Vortex, the guy ranted about how he'd built himself up from nothing with his company." She watched her tail undulate slowly. "Reminds me of that."

Nikki's expression sharpened again. Her mohawk grew again. "You were desperate to hang on to your freaking silver spoon lifestyle? That's an even stupider excuse!" The toxtricity pointed at Shimmer. "Look at Twinkie! He gave up his frilly royal life and even fought the damn queen!"

Igneous would have cut in had Shimmer not brushed a foreleg against his thigh. "Coming from her, that's a compliment." Though he then muttered, "I think."

"I know!" Arianna smacked her nubby hands against her knees. She lowered her head shamefully and repeated, "I know."

The gardevoir closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "I was scared." She met Nikki's gaze again. "This, at least, I'd hope you understand."

Nikki took her hands out of her pockets to cross her arms. "Stop half-assing this and give us the full explanation."

"My background is... a lot like yours," Arianna said, gaze fixed on the brown carpet. "By the time I was a kirlia, I knew I couldn't be 'Andrew' anymore."

"The hell? How did you—"

Arianna bit her lower lip. "Vortex had his ways."

Igneous raised a brow. He and Shimmer exchanged bewildered looks. "So, you got a transfer procedure?"

Arianna shook her head. "Wasn't feasible. After all, my three half-siblings and I didn't have much growing up."

"Half-siblings?" Shimmer blurted out, before a glare from Nikki silenced him.

"My mother had four different relationships with four guys who always walked out on her," Arianna continued. "I, as the oldest, heard the same thing with each new guy. 'He'll be different. He loves me.'"

She shook her head. "Even temporary transfer orbs were too expensive." Arianna rubbed her arms against her dress. "I still changed my name, though. People around me accepted it. I even found a few others with similar situations.

"I wanted to help them." Arianna looked at the ceiling. "So, I channeled my frustrations into my studies. I got good enough with equipment for Vortex to take notice when he visited my school. I convinced him to give me an entry level position at Polaris, where I ended up having a big hand in developing the ether refineries that catapulted the company to where it was when you all started at Horizon.

"Naturally, I rose up the ranks quickly." Arianna rested her folded arms on her lap. "The money I got I used to help my family. And the friends I'd made."

"What, like getting you and them transfer orb procedures?" Igneous wondered.

"For them? If they wanted it." Arianna kept trying to smooth out her dress. "Not me, though."

Nikki's mohawk shrank slightly. "What? Why the hell wouldn't you?"

Arianna didn't respond at first. She turned and looked at the corner of the room. "I suppose... I didn't want it to be another thing that Vortex could hold over me."

Igneous glanced at the unconscious charizard lying on his cot. He never had the impression that Arianna and Vortex's relationship was anything but amicable.

"Why would he do that?" Shimmer frowned. "You two seemed..."

Voice trailing off, the ponytales looked down. "Okay, I guess you two were simply professional with one another."

"It was subtle, really." Arianna's shoulders sagged. "Little reminders here and there about where I'd come from. How he made me into a somebody. That I owed my life to Polaris."

She leaned forward. "He never threatened me, but the message was clear: I'd lose everything if I crossed him." Arianna shuddered. "And I couldn't bear such a thought."

"So, you knuckled under," Nikki growled.

Arianna nodded once. "I did what I had to do to protect myself. It's the same reason I jumped ship to Demerzel when Isola seized the company."

"And to Paradox when that didn't work?" Igneous said, brow raised.

"Yes."

Silence fell again. Arianna stopped trying to straighten out her dress. "I don't care if you hate me for this. I was looking out for myself."

"Tch. Yeah." Nikki gestured all around her. "And look where that got you. On a dirty cot in a cramped room that can't be much better than what you grew up with."

The toxtricity turned around, waving Arianna off dismissively. "Y'know, as much as I want to sock you in the jaw, I'm over this." She stretched her arms over her head, pressing her hands together and hyperextending her fingers until her joints popped.

"If you actually want to look out for yourself, then you're going to do what we say from now on," she continued. "Understand?"

Igneous stepped toward Nikki. "What are you doing? You don't have Gene's permission to—"

"Relax, Twiggy." Nikki straightened out her leather jacket. "I'm not saying this dickhead fights with us. But she is good at teleporting. So, she can get fighters out of the fray if they're hurt."

The grovlazzle shook his head. How could they be sure Arianna wouldn't try to sell them out to Paradox to save her own hide?

"Okay, fine. I'll tell Boss Kitty to put a leash on her." Shrugging, Nikki headed for the doorway. "Given how she's made being a suck-up her career, she's probably into that sort of thing."

Igneous cringed from the mental image. Shimmer did, too, going off his crinkled tails and reddening face. Arianna said nothing, of course, but Igneous swore he saw her squeeze her legs tightly together.

He decided to quickly follow Nikki and Yuna into the hallway. Shimmer trotted after him.

"That could've gone better," the ponytales mumbled.

"It also could've gone worse." Igneous sped up to keep pace with Nikki and Yuna. "I'm actually surprised you didn't fly completely off the handle."

"Oh, piss off, Twiggy." Nikki flipped him off as she headed past the door to the stairs. Yuna shot her a confused look.

Igneous wasn't in the mood for bickering any further with the toxtricity. The conversation had left him too lazy to even hit the showers, so he trudged up the stairs and made his way back to his room. Shimmer followed a few steps behind him, then shut the door.

"Oh, there you are."

Coiled up on her bed, Scarlett wiggled the tip of her tail in greeting. "I thought for sure you'd beat me back here."

"We got a bit sidetracked." Igneous walked past the dragonair's bed and flopped onto his own. His head leaf ended up awkwardly wedged against his blanket, so he rolled onto his side.

"With what?" Scarlett looked at Shimmer. Her snout twitched. "You guys definitely didn't shower."

"Watching Nikki bark at Arianna," Shimmer said. The ponytales lay on the floor next to his mattress. "It was... something."

Scarlett's wings twitched. "Huh. Why would she even care that much?"

Then her neck bauble flickered pink. "Wait. Did Arianna mention any personal details?"

"Came up eventually," Igneous said. After a pause, he picked his head up. "Wait, did you know about that stuff?"

"I may have eavesdropped once or twice when it came up," Scarlett mumbled, poking her blanket with the end of her tail.

Starlene's head burst out of Scarlett's neck bauble. "It was all me, baby!" the latias chirped, before Scarlett's wings stuffed her back inside.

"Sorry." Scarlett laughed nervously. "I could see how it'd get under Nikki's scales, though."

"So, Nikki did have a transfer orb treatment?" Shimmer said. "Cuz the way she acted back there, it kinda sounds like she did."

Scarlett slowly flapped her wings once. "It's not really my place to tell her story."

Igneous couldn't help but wonder if Yuna already knew. The dragapult seemed calm enough.

He blinked and shook his head. Why was this what he was focusing on? Especially after the day he'd had?

"What about you?" the grovlazzle asked, laying his head back down again. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Scarlett coiled up a bit tighter, then lay her head on her coils. "I know you guys had brought up that sirfetch'd Shimmer was friends with. I thought maybe he'd ended up in Citadark and escaped, but I couldn't find any trace of him."

Igneous thought he heard something coming from the floor, where Shimmer's mattress lay. But Shimmer didn't say anything.

"And then you came back here?" Igneous asked.

"Mmm." Scarlett flapped a wing once in lieu of nodding. "Though I overhead Gene questioning that Sticky fella. It sounds like Robin and some weavile from your class got turned into unown."

Whinnying, Shimmer got up from the floor. "You're kidding! That would mean we'd have no way of picking them out from all the other Troopers!"

Scarlett winced. "That's just what I heard. Sorry."

Shimmer sat down, hanging his head. "Nnnngh. Stupid. I'm so stupid."

Igneous forced himself up so that he could lie down with his head at the foot of the bed. He lay his head over his forearms and said, "Why?"

"Cuz I haven't even given Robin the time of day in my headspace since I've been here." Shimmer slinked down onto his belly, ears flattening against his head. "I've thought about myself. And then Xander. And a dash of... y'know..."

It took a second, but Igneous caught on. His cheeks faintly burned.

"Well, we've been busy," the grovlazzle mumbled. "It's natural for all your thoughts to get jumbled up."

Frost drifted out of Shimmer's snout when he sighed. "You're just saying that to make me feel better. We've had downtime between the fights and insanity. I even dealt with my mothers in—"

He stopped himself, then groaned. Shimmer rubbed the sides of his head with his forelegs.

"I haven't even thought about the mother we do have here," he said.

"And?" Igneous raised a brow. "She's still out cold like most of the others we freed from their corruption. Besides, do you even want her in your life?"

Shimmer blinked slowly, "I'm... not sure. Because it's hard to know if I ever knew the real Justine or if she was just under Enamorus' spell my whole life."

Igneous hadn't considered that one. He didn't have a counterargument besides, "Well, you can't even consider that unless we find a way to wake her up. Which we can't right now. So, no reason to fret over it."

Though he hoped that would improve Shimmer's mood, the ponytales instead winced. His tails curled up, with a couple trying to wrap themselves around his right thigh.

"Sheesh, Iggy."

Starlene's voice preceded Scarlett saying, "Seriously, Starlene?"

The latias zipped over to Igneous' side. "Just cuz you've got your unresolved daddy issues doesn't mean you can force 'em onto Shimmer."

"That wasn't—" Igneous wanted to pinch his brow, but his claws were under his chin. He settled for thumping his right leg against the bed. "I'm not projecting. Family's complicated, that's all. And it won't even matter if Paradox or Zodiark destroy the universe."

But Shimmer was looking at his pillow, frowning. It was two on one, even if Shimmer wasn't saying anything.

"Okay." Igneous slowly exhaled. "S'pose you're right. Sorry, Shim." Though he'd gotten somewhat comfortable, he pushed his upper half up. "Do you want to go see Justine now?"

Shimmer shook his head. "Nah. Even if she did somehow wake up... I'm too dang tired to deal with her tonight."

"Amen to that," Starlene chirped, before disappearing back into an exasperated Scarlett's neck bauble.

"Tomorrow then?" Igneous asked.

"Dunno." Shimmer stretched a foreleg out. His hoof traced over his blanket. Then his horn lit up. Psychic energy dragged his pillow over and wedged it under his head.

Igneous wanted to press him. It seemed like Shimmer had more to say. Or maybe the ponytales was tired. Still, Igneous' head kept coming back around to Starlene's snarky comment on his family.

His back tingled. Part of him feared his volcarona wings would pop out and send him flying straight into the wall over Shimmer's mattress.

He tensed up. Curled his blanket in his claws. What the hell?

It was the same feeling he'd had fighting Ahsen. This awful burning in his back. Like something wanted to force its way out. But why was it happening now? They'd escaped the jail. There was no danger.

... Well, no immediate danger.

"Something wrong?" Shimmer picked his head up. "You look tense." He frowned. "Did I say something bad?"

"Did Starlene?" Scarlett added. A soft whap indicated she hit her neck bauble with one of her tiny wings.

"I, um..." Igneous squeezed his blanket tighter in his claws. "It's my back. It's, uh, burning?"

Shimmer stared back pensively. "Did you get hurt from that battery station exploding?"

"No, it's—" The grovlazzle stopped himself. There was an obvious answer for this. Yet he was hesitant to say it. Because if he did...

He shook his head. Shimmer and Scarlett were his friends. It was long past time he'd told someone about this stuff.

Igneous swung his legs around so he was sitting at the foot of his bed. He rested his arms on his thighs, much like Arianna did earlier. The irony wasn't lost on him.

"Have I, um, told you guys about these powers?" Igneous let embers crackle on his head leaf to demonstrate.

"You told us about the stuff that happened in that black-and-white mystery dungeon," Scarlett said. "That Ahsen guy. He apparently gave you your powers and that makes you worried about what could happen to them."

"Exactly." Igneous held his right arm out and conjured Honedge. "He's the one who gave me this. It belonged to Vegna, but Ahsen got possession of it. Somehow."

Scarlett hummed in thought "I always did find it kinda strange you could just... poof! Honedge."

"Not only that." Shimmer rolled from his side back onto his belly. He frowned at Honedge. "It's inert, right? Like, I don't see an eye in the hilt."

"That was my impression." Igneous turned Honedge over and back in his claws. Over and back. Over and back. "Except when Ahsen gave the sword to me back in that hospital, this tiny orange butterfree-looking silhouette made of fire flew out of it and into me." He squeezed Honedge and it vanished in streams of smoke and embers. "And that's when things turned all salazzle-y."

"You think he, like, somehow returned your past self to you?" Shimmer wondered. "Since you did change your name back to Igneous. And you've gotten those visions of your old life."

"I really wanted to believe that." Igneous crossed his arms and gripped his shoulders like he was shielding himself from cold air that didn't exist. "But the jail gave me a lot of time to mull things over. About what Ahsen kept saying to me."

"Weren't we not supposed to put much stock in what he said?" Scarlett asked.

"Yeah." Sighing, Igneous squeezed his biceps. "But I can't ignore it anymore. The back tingling. How it was at its worst around Ahsen and Xeromus. And all Ahsen's ranting when I fought him."

Igneous hung his head. "I think... I think that butterfree silhouette's supposed to make me like him. And Xeromus. And Enamorus."

Tails frazzling, Shimmer whispered, "Meaning?"

"Devoted to Zodiark." The grovlazzle suppressed a shudder.

Silence followed. Shimmer looked over in Scarlett's direction. Igneous couldn't get a read on the ponytales beyond the concerned look on his face.

Igneous decided to continue. "And, from the way Ahsen ranted, it feels like the thing that's keeping me from slipping completely... is my feelings for you."

Shimmer's tails puffed out. He blinked several times. "Wait, but you've had that form longer than I've been here."

"Yeah." Igneous guiltily looked in Scarlett's direction. "I think it started with the crush I had on you. Though I think we can agree that was a puppy love kind of thing."

Scarlett bobbed her head.

Shimmer got up off the floor. "But last week you said we shouldn't think about this until after we deal with Zodiark."

"I did." Igneous hung his head. "Because it sounded like the right move. A way to keep us safe and stop me from hurting everyone."

His shoulders sagged. "Now I don't know. I want to believe nothing will happen, but the burning's still here, even without Ahsen or Xeromus around. So, whatever Ahsen put inside me is fighting to get out. Or take control."

Everyone was silent again. Scarlett wore a confused expression while Shimmer's face had reddened. The ponytales shook his head until the red faded.

"Then what should we do?" Shimmer raised a foreleg like he wanted to step closer to Igneous, then put it down. "Tell Gene? Leo? Widget? All of them?"

"I don't know." Igneous shuddered. "Maybe we can try to expose this thing in, y'know, a controlled environment?" He gestured to the door with his left arm. "So, like, out in the shuttered arena or whatever. That way, there's no risk of it seizing control at the wrong time and causing problems for everyone."

There. Igneous finally put it out there. And now he was even more exhausted than he'd been before. He was amazed he was still sitting up.

"You two should obviously be there to help," the grovlazzle continued. "As for the others? Yeah, we can get them involved." He paused. "Mmmmmaybe not Leo, though. Or Yuna, either. If Zodiark is after them, then whatever this thing is would probably gun straight for them."

"Yeah, but, like, how much could that thing do if it's one against a dozen?" Scarlett asked. Starlene then popped out of the dragonair's neck bauble.

"Zodiark doesn't play by the rules and neither do his minions," the latias scoffed. "If Iggy wants to keep Leo and Yuna out of his crazy idea, then let him."

"R-Right." Igneous rubbed his right shoulder. Beaming with pride at her contribution, Starlene retreated to Scarlett's neck bauble.

Igneous cleared his throat. "Anyway, um, that was my thinking. Sorry for... dropping something so heavy after the day we've had. I'm not even sure if we'll have the time for something like this tomorrow. But I had to put it out there. It was eating at me."

In more ways than one.

"No, I'm glad." Shimmer offered the grovlazzle a tired smile. "Thank you... for being honest with us." He glanced at Scarlett, who nodded.

"You're right, we shouldn't ignore it," the ponytales continued. "And I'm happy to help you get through it."

"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame," Scarlett said through a yawn. "But, uh, tomorrow. At a minimum. I'm beat." She tucked her head into her coils as an indication she was ready to sleep.

"Yeah." Shimmer laughed nervously. "I don't think any of us are in a position to do anything right now."

Igneous nodded slowly. "I know. Let's see what tomorrow brings." He extended his right arm toward Shimmer. "Sound good?"

Shimmer looked at Igneous' arm, then hopped up onto his cot. Igneous' tail leaves crackled in surprise, and nearly went ablaze when Shimmer leaned his head on the grovlazzle's shoulder.

"Sounds good."

XxX​

"So, that's what happened."

Yuna awkwardly sat back in her bed, phasing her bulky tail through the metal frame and onto the floor to wrap around one of the legs. She lay her arms at her side and looked toward the door, where Jade stood, staring down at her feet.

The salugia had come asking about Reshiram. Which meant Yuna couldn't avoid the issue any longer. While dragapult told Jade about what had happened inside of her with Giratina, she kept searching to see if she could grasp his spirit. But she came up empty, like every other time.

"So, he's gone then?" Jade whispered. "Forever?"

"I... I wouldn't say that." Yuna wished that sounded more confident. "It's more like... Giratina subsumed him. And I subsumed Giratina."

Jade's shoulders sagged. "Which, by a screwed up transitive property, means you subsumed Cece."

"Well, I can still call on his powers." Yuna puffed out the part of her chest around her griseous core. "So, he's there. Just, y'know, dormant." She laughed nervously. "I'm sure there'll, um, be some way to fix this. Eventually. After we defeat Paradox and Zodiark."

"Right." Jade slowly turned to the door. "No sense... worrying about it now, then."

Yuna wanted to say more, but the salugia opened the door and squeezed her way out of Yuna's room. Sighing, the dragapult slumped downward. The end of her tail extended across the floor.

"That could've gone better," she muttered, glancing at the toxtricity lying on her side, absentmindedly strumming her gills.

"It also could've gone worse." Nikki raised her free arm and pantomimed a mouth with it. "She could've gone all 'This is your fault, you *****! I hate you and hope you die in a fire!' on ya."

Yuna blinked slowly. "That's... oddly specific."

Nikki pointed her free hand at Yuna, winking. "I specialize in oddly specific."

"Aha." Yuna's single laugh turned to a sigh.

"Something still on your mind?" Nikki wondered. She pushed herself off her side and scooched back so she sat against the wall.

"Just how much everything's changed," Yuna said. "It's kind of crazy when I think about it." She traced a claw around her griseous core. "Horizon and the Crowne Cup were, what, four months ago? Five?"

"Ya got me." Nikki shrugged. "Lost track of time here from, like, day one."

"Yet, with how much has happened, it feels like a lifetime ago."

Nikki coughed into her fist. Yuna blinked slowly, then the realization hit her.

"I wasn't trying to— n-never mind." The dragapult shook her head. "The point is that a lot of stuff has changed." She gestured to Nikki. "Like, at the start of this I got the sense you hated me and never wanted to see me. But now..."

"Ohhhhhh." Nikki's eyes slowly widened. "****. Yeah, I could've never imagined things shaking out this way. Not to mention Twiggy getting with the damn prince."

Yuna's ectoplasm rippled. "Th-They're not together!" She tucked her head, mumbling, "I think."

Nikki shot Yuna finger guns. "Maybe not officially, but my gaydar hasn't steered me wrong before. If it hasn't happened yet, it will soon."

"Uh-huh." Yuna's tail wriggled against the floor and the underside of her bedframe. "Shouldn't we, like, not gossip about them like this?"

"Pssssht." Nikki waved Yuna off. "I bet they do the same thing with us."

The thought made Yuna squeak. Nikki snorted with laughter.

"Maybe when this is over we'll end up double dating with them." The toxtricity slapped her knee. "That'd be a hell of a sight."

"Y-Yeah." Yuna nervously tapped her griseous core. She took a breath to steady herself. "Um, Nikki?"

"What?"

"Do you think we can win this time?"

"Hmm?" Nikki raised her brow. "What, against Zodiark?"

Yuna nodded once.

"It's gonna be different." Nikki punched her left hand with her right. "We're together this time. That asshole can talk about fate and suffering all he wants."

Her expression softened. "But so long as I have my person with me, I'm not backing down." She pointed at Yuna. "Even if that person is the stronger one who's gonna carry me."

Yuna's chest fluttered. Her griseous core pulsated with soft white light.

"You're right. We're not split apart." She got up and drifted across the room. "We've got each other. We've got a team. I... want to believe it'll be different. That we can make the future that we want."

"Then believe it." Nikki held her arm out. "Cuz I'm not giving up on you."

Yuna dropped to the floor, resting her triangular head on Nikki's lap. "And I won't give up on you."

No matter what Xeromus thought. Or Zodiark says. We'll make our own future.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 145: The Final Omen

​

Shimmer and Scarlett stayed by Igneous' side in the emptied-out arena throughout the grovlazzle's explanation of his circumstances to Leo. He only stole occasional glances at the spots where stands used to be. Apparently, Gene repurposed them into various appliances and equipment for all the newcomers to the outpost. However, at Igneous' insistence, the mega mewtwo left the arena platform itself intact for the group to use.

Gene hadn't shown up for the explanation, but Igneous had gotten Leo, Widget, and Yuna. And Nikki predictably tagged along. Igneous directed his explanation toward the cosmic arceus, leaving the others to sit there and absorb it on their own.

Leo never interrupted Igneous with a question. Shimmer wasn't sure if that meant Leo grasped everything right away.

"So, that's the long and short of it." Igneous rubbed his right shoulder. "What do you think?"

Leo was silent for a few seconds. He stretched out a hind leg and yawned despite his lack of a mouth.

"A'ight, lemme see if I got this straight."

Nikki whispered something to Yuna, then grunted when the dragapult elbowed her in the chest. Shimmer and Scarlett frowned at the toxtricity. She smirked back at them.

Why did that make blood rush to Shimmer's cheeks?

Focus. The ponytales returned his attention to Igneous and Leo.

"You've got creepy Zodiark powers inside of you?" Leo asked.

Igneous nodded.

Leo's wheel pulsated with soft gold light. "And you think those powers are gonna force you to come after me?"

Igneous nodded again.

"So, you want me to make you have a Xeromus style crash out?" Leo continued.

"Because this is a controlled environment." Igneous crossed his arms and tugged at his leaves. "You guys are here. There aren't any other distractions. So, you can respond appropriately."

"Suuuuuuuure." Leo tapped a hind hoof against the ground. "But how do you expect me to make this happen, exactly? I ain't primed to lift a hoof and... wham! Crash out!"

Shimmer bobbed his head. It was a good point. But one Igneous had already considered, judging by how his expression hadn't changed.

"Remember the vision at the Eternatus Core?" Igneous said. "It seemed like exposure to the Red Chain's energy is what warped Nova and Enamorus." He pointed a claw at Leo's chest. "And you have most of the Red Chain in your possession."

"We even used fragments of it to deal with Mo— with Enamorus," Shimmer said. Images of Enamorus waving that hexed sword around and going off about what a failure he was played out in his head. The ponytales suppressed a wince.

Leo glanced between Igneous and Shimmer. The seconds of silence stretched out painfully.

"And you're sure this is about making sure that power can't come after me?" Leo's gaze settled on Shimmer. "Cuz my vibe check is that you two want some smoochy-smoochy horizontal boogieing, but this is yucking up your yum."

While Scarlett giggled, Shimmer sucked in a breath that was too sharp and descended into a coughing fit. Igneous' tails caught fire. He turned around to try and put them out.

"See? See?" Nikki tugged Yunna's tail between snickers. "Squirt sees it, too!"

Widget got up, frowning. "Knock it off, you guys. Igneous wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think it was serious."

"Exactly." Regaining his composure, Igneous finished snuffing out his tail flames. "I don't want to hurt any of you. But Zodiark wants your power." He pointed at Leo and Yuna. "And I'm worried I'm a walking trap that he's waiting to spring on you."

"Okay, settle down." Leo slowly rolled his neck. "You really want a crash out now?"

Igneous nodded. A part of Shimmer wanted to jump in. Blurt out that surely there was another solution to this. But time wasn't on their side. They had no idea when Paradox or Zodiark would strike next. So, the ponytales kept his mouth shut.

"Then I'll give it a shot." Leo stretched his hind legs out, then arched his back. His spine popped in several places. Shimmer's tails involuntarily curled up. He never liked that stretch.

"But, uh, you two might want to give us some space." The cosmic arceus addressed Shimmer and Scarlett, jerking his head in the direction of the others. They got the memo, trotting and slithering over to join them. Shimmer sent silent prayers to the stars that Leo could pull something off without things getting messy.

Silence settled over the arena, save for Igneous and Leo's footsteps as they approached the far edge of the platform. They stood facing one another. Leo squared up his stance. His wheel shifted from golden alloy to red crystal. Red energy funneled out from the arceus' wheel, encasing his torso before leaping toward Igneous.

The grovlazzle hunched over, hissing. Embers danced along his back. His head leaf and tails caught fire.

Shimmer held his breath, focused on Leo's body language. He wasn't panicking. That was good, right? Everything was under control?

Leo suddenly stepped back. Red energy sparked around his wheel.

"No cap," he muttered. "Welp, he's getting his crash out after all."

Shimmer wasn't sure how to parse that, until he noticed Widget jump forward and assume a fighting stance. "W-Wait!" Shimmer's tails puffed out. "What does that mean? Did you help him or not?"

As if to answer, a pillar of flames overtook Igneous. He didn't shout or cry out in pain. Instead, when the flames vanished, Igneous hovered in the air, volcarona wings slowly flapping. A volcarona-esque helmet encased his head. Fiery armor coated his limbs.

He extended his right arm. Honedge appeared in a fiery blaze.

Then, with a sudden burst of speed, Igneous charged Leo down. Honedge clanged off a blue barrier, then a Rock Slide pelted him from above and knocked him to the ground. Leo's red wheel shifted to a crisp blue. A wave of water swept Igneous away from Leo.

"Found Zodiark's trap!" Leo sang. His blue wheel flashed. Water plumes rose up around Igneous, but he sliced through them with his sword and buzzed forward. Leo conjured another wave, but Igneous disappeared in plumes of fire.

"What the—" Shimmer whinnied in surprise. "Is he... teleporting?"

"What do you expect, Twinkie?" Nikki jumped to her feet, looking around. "He's clearly not in control anymore."

Before Shimmer could respond, a shadowy leg jutted out of the air behind Nikki, knocking Igneous into the air over the arena. Yuna flew in front of Nikki. Chaos energy swirled around her griseous core.

"Snap out of it!" she said. "You have to fight it! You know you don't want to do this!"

Igneous stayed airborne. He slashed the air in front of him, raining fiery crescents down on the arena.

"****! ****! ****!" Nikki zigzagged around in a panic, diving to the ground to dodge a particularly large crescent. Yuna fired Dragon Darts to blow apart a couple more crescents, while Starlene appeared from Scarlett's neck bauble and conjured a psychic shield to protect the dragonair.

"Th... this is crazy!" Shimmer hurled a Glacial Lance skyward, bursting through the fiery crescent heading for him. The ponytales could only watch as Leo and Miraivally Widget took to the sky, blasting Igneous with water and lightning. The electricity lingered on his body, but he shook it off.

Igneous spun around in midair, sending large fireballs in all directions. Leo and Widget gave the Fiery Dance a wide breadth. The cosmic arceus pointed a foreleg at Igneous. A Hydro Pump shot out, snuffing out the Fiery Dance and sending Igneous careening through the air.

"W-Wait!" Shimmer's tails ducked between his legs. He watched Leo and Widget fly after Igneous, readying strikes against him.

This was bad. Not in the sense that they were in trouble against Igneous. No, the opposite was the case. At the rate this was going, they would seriously hurt Igneous. Or kill him!

Leo's Liquidation blade clashed with Igneous' Honedge, leaving Widget an opening to zap Igneous between the shoulder blades with a Thunderbolt. The grovlazzle jolted in place, letting Leo connect with a follow up Liquidation swing. Igneous fell out of the sky, slamming into the floor on the edge of the arena. His left arm dangled off it.

Electricity crackled around Widget's crest. But before he could get a second Thunderbolt off, Igneous' back arched. He vanished in a puff of flames, only to reappear a couple of meters away from the edge of the arena.

The grovlazzle thrust Honedge into the ground. Large fiery tornadoes emerged all around. Leo and Widget backed off, remaining airborne for better maneuverability.

"What should we do?" Scarlett squeaked, having slithered over to Shimmer's side. "They don't, um, really look like they're struggling out there. But—"

"I know." Shimmer stiffened. "They're not making any progress with the corruption, are they?"

Leo cut his way through the fire tornadoes with a Liquidation blade. Igneous thrust Honedge upward. Ethereal purple flames peppered the cosmic arceus' hide. Leo held tough and brought a wave of water crashing down on Igneous.

"Light him up!" he barked to his left.

Nodding, Widget launched a Thunderbolt onto the ground. Igneous' damp body amplified the lightning strike, leaving him a twitching mess on the ground.

"C'mon, dude!" Leo swiped at Igneous with another Liquidation blade. It cracked Igneous' volcarona helmet. "Wake up!"

"C-Careful!" Shimmer blurted out. "We're not trying to kill him, remember!" The ponytales turned to the others. "C'mon, there's gotta be something we can do for him!" He looked at Yuna. "Maybe your Giratina powers can punch the curse out of him? Or... or..."

His gaze settled on Scarlett. "Dynamuse!"

The dragonair's head stuck um. "Hmm?"

"Try singing for him," Shimmer said, rapidly nodding his head.

"Wait a tic, Pillow Prince." Nikki leaned forward, arms crossed. "Starlene's songs power people up. You're suggesting she make Twiggy stronger!"

Flames fwooshed up behind a wincing Shimmer, only for sizzling to fill the air. He looked over his shoulder to see Igneous tumbling through the air over open space. He teleported back over the platform in puffs of soot and fire. Igneous tried to divebomb Leo from above with Honedge, but the cosmic arceus blasted him with a Judgment. The watery lances drove him into the ground, right next to where he lay a few seconds earlier.

"W-Well, maybe Starlene can try something different?" Shimmer pawed nervously at the metal floor. "Like, y'know, a calm, soothing song instead? To placate him?"

Try as he might, he couldn't get that nervous titter out of his voice. Judging from his teammates' befuddled expressions, they had to know he was flying by the seat of his nonexistent pants.

Nikki shrugged. "I'll leave it up to Scarlett."

The dragonair squeaked. "Me?" Her wings fluttered nervously.

Another intense fwoosh came from the edge of the arena. Shimmer saw Igneous conjuring large volcarona-shaped flames to fly around after Leo and Widget. The miraivally struggled snuffing his out with a Thunderbolt. One of the fiery volcarona exploded in his face, launching him through the air.

Leo, however, cut through the ones tailing him with a single horizontal Liquidation slash. He galloped through the air toward Igneous, who spun around in place to conjure a Fiery Dance. Leo stopped galloping and raised his head. Golden light shot upward, then rained Judgment's watery lances down on Igneous. The Fiery Dance fizzled out, while the remaining lances pounded Igneous into the ground.

More cracks spread through the volcarona mask. Blood and sap seeped out of gashes in his arms and torso.

Shimmer sucked in a sharp breath. "Do it now!" he squealed. "Quickly, before we lose him!"

Scarlett winced, then straightened herself out. She slithered forward a meter or so, then summoned Starlene from her neck bauble. The latias' electronic wings glowed soft pink. A calming piano melody came out from Starlene's wings. She hummed along with it.

Igneous, who'd staggered to his feet and crouched down to leap into the air, stopped. He looked over in Starlene's direction.

"Let my song heal you!" Starlene and Scarlett said in unison. "Shake off Zodiark's curse... and come back to us!"

She hummed louder. The piano swelled in volume to compensate.

Nobody moved. Leo and Widget stopped readying attacks, sending confused looks toward Shimmer and Scarlett. Igneous glared at Starlene, yet he didn't move to strike the latias.

After several seconds of nothing but Starlene's humming, Honedge dropped to the ground with a metallic clang. Igneous took a step forward. Then a second. He thrashed his head left, then right. The grovlazzle grabbed the dented volcarona helmet, but couldn't pull it off.

Leo and Widget drifted behind him. Water swirled around Leo's forelegs while electricity danced along the silvally's cheek bolts.

Scarlett glanced over her shoulder at Shimmer. Even without saying anything, Shimmer got the message. He cautiously approached the dragonair's side, keeping his gaze on Igneous.

"Please, Iggy," the ponytales said, trying to stop his frazzled tails from twitching nervously. "You have to come back to us. Because we— because I need you."

Igneous practically dug his claws into the helmet, thrashing his head left and right. He dropped to his knees.

"I won't lose you to Zodiark." Shimmer stepped forward again. And again. And again. "Because I can't push the thoughts aside any longer."

Throwing caution to the wind, Shimmer closed the gap with Igneous and practically draped his forelegs and upper half over the grovlazzle.

"I love you, Iggy."

An intense burst of heat buffeted Shimmer. He thought his fur was going to catch fire!

Even though it stung him, Shimmer refused to break off the embrace. And within seconds, the heat died down. The hot metal around Igneous head disappeared. So did the buzzing of his volcarona wings.

"Ahh! Look there!" Starlene cried, stopping her song.

That got Shimmer to break off the hug. He dropped to all fours and opened his eyes. The ponytales found a tiny butterfree made of flames floating in front of him. He thought it was looking right at him.

Both Leo and Widget tried to go for it, but it dissolved into ash that evaporated before their very eyes.

Shimmer blinked slowly. "That... that had to be the corruption, right?" He looked down. "Iggy, are you— aah!"

He hopped back, neighing in surprise. Gone were all the grovlazzle traits Shimmer had gotten so used to. Instead, a badly disfigured grovyle with a missing right arm lay at Shimmer's feet. His breath came in sharp, ragged gasps.

"Oh no!" Scarlett quickly slithered closer to Shimmer. "When he accepted those powers, he was lying in a hospital bed! Losing the corruption must've taken all the healing it did with it!"

Shimmer sucked in a sharp breath. Of all the rotten, lousy tricks. Shimmer turned his gaze skyward, toward Leo and Widget. "Don't just float there! Do something!" He pointed at Igneous with a couple of his tails.

Leo looked at Widget, who nodded back. They dropped from the air in unison. Leo's blue wheel turned a fiery red, while Widget turned back into his cosmic silvally form. They both reached their forelegs out toward Igneous. Silver energy trailed down Widget's foreleg, while flames spiraled toward Leo's golden hoof.

The energy coalesced in Igneous, bathing him in gold and silver light. When it faded, Igneous' grovlazzle form was back, repaired right arm and all.

Widget gasped. "It worked?" He lowered his foreleg, then stepped back, fish tail wagging. "It actually worked!"

"Fam is from the same original world as us." Leo bobbed his head. "So the vibes were right."

Groaning, Igneous rolled onto his back. "What..." He coughed out smoke and embers. "What happened?" Igneous rubbed his forehead with his arm. "Did... did it work? Is the corruption gone?"

Tears blurred Shimmer's version. He flopped down and nuzzled Igneous' belly. "It worked! You're back!"

"Gah! H-Hey!" Igneous squirmed in place. "Wh-what gives, Shim?" He nudged the ponytales' face. "Why the sudden affection?"

"Cuz Pillow Prince's anguished love declaration gave the corruption the boot," Nikki said, kicking the air with a big smirk on her face. "As sappy as you can freaking get!"

Shimmer lifted his head so Igneous could sit up. He stared at Shimmer in confusion. "Is... is that really true?"

Stars above, Shimmer's face was flushed. "Y-Yeah. I was worried that Leo and Widget were gonna kill you, so Starlene started singing to calm you down and then one thing led to another and I, um, might've said I love you?"

"He didn't just say it, he full-blown shouted it!" Nikki heckled, only to grunt and double over when Yuna jabbed her stomach.

Igneous returned his gaze to Shimmer. "Shim, I..."

A lump formed in Shimmer's throat. Had it been too much? It was good the corruption was gone, but Shimmer didn't want to replace that with awkwardness!

Then Igneous leaned forward and pressed his lips to Shimmer's snout. The ponytales jolted for a second before leaning into the kiss.

"Awwwww!" Starlene squeed, only for Scarlett to shush her.

"Ha!" Nikki smacked her knee. "What a pair of sappy twi— oww! All right! All right! I'll leave 'em alone!"

"So, we done here?" Leo asked, stretching out his hind legs. "That was a decent workout, but now I could use a break."

"Yeah." Widget shook himself out. "Turns out, uhh, using Voice powers is a bit... draining."

Shimmer looked up at them. "I think we're good. Right, Iggy?"

Nodding, Igneous turned around. "Thank you both," he said. "For helping us get through this."

Leo shrugged. "Hey. Sappy romance or not, one less tool for Zodiark is a win for everyone."

He started across the arena, only to stop and look back. "Just try not to get frisky in any thin-walled rooms unless you want everyone heckling you like they did to Seifer."

Winking, Leo galloped back toward the restaurant. Widget trotted after him, shaking his head.

Shimmer tilted his head in confusion, but the message became clearer when he saw Igneous desperately trying to snuff out his flaming head leaf.

"What now?" Scarlett wondered, slithering across the arena. "If you'd like us to leave you two alone, we can go." She glanced at Nikki and Yuna, who nodded.

"I could really go for some food." Igneous stretched his arms out. "I'm starved."

Shimmer's stomach gurgled in agreement. "Aha ha." He brushed one foreleg against the other. "Guess I worried myself up an appetite."

"Then lunch it is." Nikki rested her hands behind her head and headed for the restaurant. Scarlett and Yuna followed after her.

The ponytales was about to follow, when Igneous grabbed his right hind leg. Shimmer's tails shot up in alarm.

"Hey," Igneous whispered.

Shimmer turned around. Had Igneous suddenly changed his mind?

"Thanks for not giving up on me," the grovlazzle said, getting to his feet. He started walking after the others.

Shimmer trotted after him. He slowly extended a tail toward Igneous left arm. Igneous grabbed it with his claws. They continued forward side-by-side.

For something Igneous had improvised the night before, things had turned out better than Shimmer could've possibly imagined.

XxX​

"You looking for grumpy lucario?"

Grishi's voice caught Jade unaware. Her tail flaps curled. She looked over her shoulder to find Grishi hanging upside-down on a railing by his tail, suspending himself over the empty space that lay below the metal walkway. The zorotwo didn't flip back up to properly address her.

"You mean Bahamut?" The salugia shifted around uncomfortably. "Yeah. I hear he comes to spots like this to brood." She looked up. "And, before you ask, I checked the roofs already. No dice."

Grishi swayed back and forth. Back and forth. Then he launched himself forward and floated into the air. He pointed to his right.

"He right there." Grishi ran his claws through his mane. "Though now that Grishi give away his hiding spot, will probably teleport a—"

Bahamut appeared between Jade and Grishi in a flash of blue. He held a paw up at Grishi.

"Hmph. I do not need your color commentary," the cosmic lucario scoffed.

"True, true." Grishi nodded sagely. "But Grishi give it anyway. How else Grishi stay entertained when not fighting to stop world from exploding?"

Jade wondered if Bahamut would correct the zorotwo about anything, but fortunately he stayed quiet. Crossing his arms, he turned to Jade.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, um." Jade poked her wings together. "Well, it's kind of silly, but—"

Bahamut's aura feelers tensed. "Then why are you wasting my time with it?"

"Ah, no! Wait!" Jade held her wings up. "It's not silly! It's serious! Very, very, absolutely, one hundred percent serious!"

"Big bird not helping case," Grishi unhelpfully offered.

"Just spit it out already," Bahamut said, pinching his brow. At least he didn't look ready to throttle Jade anymore.

"Do you ever talk with the Sages you've absorbed?" Jade asked. She was surprised when Bahamut's aura feelers stuck up for a moment.

"Hmm?" His typical furrowed brow returned. "What does it matter?"

"Ah, ah." Grishi wagged a fuzzy finger at Bahamut. "Answer question first. Then you get follow up."

Bahamut glared at Grishi, but the zorotwo wasn't remotely phased. The cosmic lucario grumbled something under his breath before returning his attention to Jade.

"I do not." He tucked his head down. "Necrozma sometimes deluded himself into thinking he talked with the Sages, but they were merely hollow projections."

Jade looked down. "Necrozma was your empty husk, right? If he was pulling Needles, then shouldn't the Sages' spirits have... had some sort of reaction?"

Bahamut rubbed his right shoulder and looked away. Jade tensed up, tail flaps curling.

"What happened to them?" she whispered.

"I believe their power was all Necrozma took." Bahamut looked skyward. "But the spirits... were cast off. Which would mean they're with Eternatus." He sighed. "Vegna was different, of course. I can still feel those three spirits deep within me. Though I can't bring myself to conjure them. They have earned their rest."

Jade was half tempted to yell at Bahamut. Call him heartless. But the cosmic lucario kept talking.

"I've been... thinking." He turned around and leaned forward, resting his paws on the metal railing. "That, despite her own nasty behavior, Enamorus was onto something." Bahamut curled his paws around the railing. "About the way I treated you all. I had a hand to play in... all of this." He waved his left arm around.

"Dost thou not in pride and scorn fill with tempests all my morn," Bahamut whispered. "And with jealousies and fears fill my pleasant nights with tears?"

It had been a while since Jade had heard one of those old poems. Had Bahamut even done that since his recombination?

"Perhaps it doesn't hold much weight now," he continued curling his paws around the railing again. "But I am sorry that I tried to keep you and Reshiram apart."

That one stunned Jade. Almost enough to have her slump back onto her rear. The salugia stayed standing, though. These metal grate walkways couldn't be comfortable to sit on.

"That is part of why I wanted to ask you about this stuff," Jade mumbled, her tail tip poking at the grating. "Yuna told me... that Giratina tried to, like, subsume her into their collective or whatever. And in the process, Cece and the other Sages gave themselves up."

Bahamut's aura feelers tightened. "This is... the first I'm hearing of such an event."

"Cece's gone now." Jade's shoulders sagged. "Yuna can't conjure him. Or any of the others. She can only use their powers. Like you."

"Hmmm." Grishi tapped a claw on his chin. The zorotwo sat behind Jade on the right railing. "Perhaps Seerseers can untangle mess if ask nicely."

Jade turned toward him. "You mean the Overseers?"

Grishi nodded. "Grumpy lucario looks like he has idea."

"Hmph." Bahamut ran a paw through his starry chest fur. "I wouldn't call this an absolute, but Shane is the one who taught me how to split souls from bodies."

Jade's tail thumped the grating. "Meaning he could carve the Sages out of Yuna? And you, too?"

Bahamut winced from her shrill squawking. "It's a possibility." He crossed his arms. "But one we shouldn't entertain until we've dealt with the matters at hand. Don't you agree?"

"Yeah." Jade sighed. "Besides, it sounds like the Overseers are working on this whole Zodiark thing, too."

"Exactly." Bahamut bobbed his head. "Believe me, you're not the only one who wants them close on hand."

Jade tilted her head. Had Bahamut thought about this Sage business even longer than she had?

"If we're able to... settle this matter, then I intend to turn myself over to them," Bahamut said, leaning over so his chest spike touched the railing.

"Turn yourself over?" Jade parroted. "Like, what, to have them arrest you? I know you think you had a hand in all of this, but—"

Bahamut shook his head. "I would like a second shot at their... rehabilitation." He bowed his head. "Perhaps there will be more success if it's not on some temporary outpost they can flee at a moment's notice."

Jade didn't really know what Overseer rehabilitation entailed. But even if she did have a counterargument, she'd never dissuade Bahamut. This sounded like one of those subjects he'd never yield on.

Instead, the salugia offered him a smile. "Then I guess we both have new reasons to keep fighting. She raised her wings. "So, let's do our best to make sure we come out on top."

That got a smirk out of Bahamut. "It's been... quite some time since I've heard that kind of energy from you."

Polite clapping drew Jade's attention to her right. Grishi hovered up from the railing. "That good thinking from both of you." The zorotwo's tail swished in amusement. "Grishi glad he brought you together for chitchat."

Grishi saluted them and vanished in a blip of blue before Bahamut could chew him out. Instead, he sighed and shook his head.

"Yuna has... interesting tastes in allies," he mumbled.

"To be fair to her, I think this guy sorta... asserted himself to get here." Jade's tail flaps twitched. "And he's more attached to Leo than Yuna."

"Sure. Fine." Bahamut waved his right arm dismissively. He pushed himself off the railing. "Well, I think that's enough of this. I'm going to go train."

"Ah." Jade squished herself against the right railing to let Bahamut pass, only for him to teleport past her.

"Would you care to join me?"

Bahamut's request made Jade's head stick up in surprise. She turned around to find the cosmic lucario waiting on grated metal stairs, pointing his snout toward the arena.

"Uhh, sure!" Jade waddled after him. "Nothing wrong with a bit of training!"

When Bahamut blipped away, Jade flapped her wings and took to the air. This reminded her of happier times. And those happier times gave her something to fight for.

XxX

~Ultra Volcarona, the Final Omen~
This fluttery fiend eternally chases a Guiding Light across dimensions. When a world faces its reckoning, it materializes to subsume a powerful spirit in the hopes of satiating its endless thirst for battle. It passes judgment upon doomed souls in a rain of fire and brimstone.​

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 146: Beginning of the End

Shane flew through open Ginnungagap air as fast as his four wings could carry him. The necrozma had a Photon Geyser at the ready in his gold crystal beak.

Scalding water came in from both sides. Shane awkwardly twisted his body into an S shape to dodge the water without losing too much momentum.

Ahead of him lay a bright sphere pulsating with white light. It brimmed with divine energy, including some familiar traces.

Shane's ESP pinged him of another spirit to his right. An off-color Slither Wing lunged from an upside-down crystal island. Shane brought his golden tail around and smacked it before it could get its attack off. It shattered an upside-down tree as it careened into empty space.

A slight pang of guilt struck Shane. For the poor soul that got twisted into a Whisper. But he had to focus.

Shouts and explosions rose up behind him. Shane ignored them. He spat the Photon Geyser toward the white sphere. It erupted into a pillar of brilliant golden light.

But Shane didn't sense any changes in the divine energy ahead of him. He flapped his wings slowly to stay in place, gathering light for a larger strike.

"You're too late, Overseer."

Zodiark projected his voice. Though Shane could still tell it came from the same direction as the white sphere, which floated there completely unharmed.

Shane swore he saw specks of different colored light at the white sphere's periphery. His gut told him they were plates. Plates for POV-2020.

"But that was always going to be the case," Zodiark continued. Shane caught flashes of new auras on his left and right, but two Moonblasts sailed past him and the auras vanished.

"Yeah, sorry." Shane tapped his crystal legs together. "I think we're both on a tight schedule, so why don't you cut the monologue?"

"There's nothing more to say," Zodiark scoffed. "You've lost. My Eternaverse begins—"

A spark in the back of Shane's head told him his Prismatic Laser was ready. He fired the multicolored light beam straight at the white sphere.

When the blinding light faded, Shane frowned. He couldn't sense the divine energy anymore. Which wouldn't have been the case if the attack had connected. Had Zodiark warped away? That wasn't meant to be easy in Ginnungagap.

"Unless he's using rifts," Shane muttered. The pointed ends of his star-shaped head rapidly twitched. If he could just sense traces of that lingering rift, then...

Another new aura emerged in front of him. Then lightning filled the air over Shane. He conjured a golden shield, deflecting the electricity. Through the blue and yellow flashes, he located an off-color Raging Bolt on a floating crystal chunk. Rather than attacking it directly, Shane hurled a Photo Geyser at the ground it stood on.

Raging Bolt had nowhere to go. The crystal's destruction sent it tumbling down toward the blue-purple auroras and strange geometric symbols in the abyss below.

He turned around to find Angel floating there, gathering light in her golden antlers. It cleared the scuffs and burns off the xerneas' golden pelt.

"The anomaly got away, didn't he?" Angel said.

"Yeah." Shane bowed his head. "I think we're in trouble here."

"Yes, we're damn well in trouble!" growled a grayscale necrozma quickly flying toward them. Tama pulled up out of his flight and floated in place, gray light rippling along his head and torso. "POV-2020's destabilizing. Someone's opening rifts in there like a maniac!"

Shane's pointed head tips shriveled up. "Oh. That's, um... that's not good."

"The Top Overseer himself has shown up." Tama's eyes swirled around like grayscale lava lamps. "He's asking for you. Now."

"Xenny?" Shane shrugged his upper wings. "Ah. Well. That's... awkward timing!" Laughing nervously, he rubbed his lower wings together. "Can you tell him to put a pin in that request for now?"

Tama looked ready to blow Shane's head off. "Were you even listening to me? This isn't something you can 'put a pin in.' You ought to know that better than I do!"

"It's fiiiiiiiiiiiiine!" Shane waved his right upper wing. "He can wait a bit. Because all this means I've got some serious work to do."

"Of all the ridiculous things I've heard," Tama's tail lashed the air, "what could possibly be more important than the Top Overseer?!"

Shane traced an upper wing along his top chest spike. The light particles he rubbed off congealed into an Ultranecrozmium-Z. "Just some critical loose ends ready for tying up."

Tama's grayscale eyes spiraled into more humanoid ones that could properly glare at Shane. "That doesn't even remotely answer my question, you idiot!"

Shane nodded to Angel. "Help Tama deal with Xenny, please." He threw an Ultra Wormhole open over his head.

"O-Okay." The xerneas stared back in confusion. "But what will you be doing?"

He flapped his wings to ascend into the wormhole.

"If all goes well... giving that world's natives a fighting chance!"

XxX​

Yuna lay on a metal restaurant table, looking straight at the dartboard hanging on the wall about a meter away. Nikki stood opposite it, dart in hand. She slowly moved her hand back and forth.

"Just throw the damn thing already," Igneous growled from the table opposite Yuna's. The grovlazzle drummed his claws against the table impatiently. Beside him, Shimmer sipped strawberry smoothie through a straw while Scarlett finished off the last of a plate of chicken wings, sitting the drumstick down on her plate.

"Oi, don't rush me, Twiggy." Nikki shot Igneous the stink eye. "This is accuracy training. And I gotta concentrate to be accurate."

Shimmer spat his straw out of his snout. "I hardly see how a game of darts is going to translate to being more accurate with your attacks."

Nikki's mohawk oscillated faster. "Fine." She looked back at the dartboard, shut one eye, and moved her hand back and forth again. On the third cycle, she released the dart. It sailed through the air and hit the board in the ring surrounding the tauroseye.

Smirking, Nikki dusted her hands off. "Ha. Beat that, Twiggy."

Grabbing his own dart off the table, Igneous stepped in front of the dartboard while Nikki took her place next to Yuna.

"Y'know, not every game has to be a fierce competition," the dragapult said.

"P'shaw." Nikki nudged Yuna's shoulder. "Where's the fun in that? We're pokémon! Being competitive's in our souls." She stuck her arm out, keeping her index finger right in front of Yuna's griseous core. "No matter how many lifetimes we've lived."

"Will you two be quiet?" Igneous said, squinting intensely at the dartboard.

"Piss off, Twiggy." Nikki rested her left elbow on the table then propped up her head with her left hand. "I did well while you heckled me. So, you get the same treatment."

Igneous' squint turned to a scowl. He moved his hand back and forth once. Twice. Then he launched the dart... and hit the tauroseye dead center.

Nikki shot up and pointed at Igneous. "No freaking way! Twiggy totally cheated!"

"Oh really?" Smirking, Igneous crossed his arms and looked at Nikki. "Care to share how I cheated?"

The toxtricity stood there, opening and closing her mouth several times.

Sighing, Yuna put her hand on Nikki's shoulder. "Um, I think this is where you do that 'holding the L' thing Leo's mentioned."

Scowling, Nikki plopped back down in her chair, muttering stuff about cheating arceus powers. Yuna chuckled. "Competition's all well and good, but don't let it get you that heated."

"Maybe Iggy should take it as a compliment," Scarlett mused, tapping the tip of her tail against the base of the table. "Usually Nikki only gets this worked up playing games with her friends."

"Huh." Yuna rubbed the bridge of her triangular head with her claw. "Now that you mention it, you two got really into that one air hockey match at the mall in Herbrides."

Shimmer momentarily stopped sipping his smoothing to add, "Aaaand the half-dozen rematches they've had here." The ponytales then finished off his drink. "Admit it. Despite the teasing, you actually think of Igneous as a friend, don't you?"

Igneous raised a brow at Nikki. The toxtricity threw up her arms. "What do you want, a freaking neon sign? Yeah, sure. Twiggy's a friend. You too, Pillow Prince."

Some of Shimmer's tails wagged from the revelation. Yuna smirked at Nikki. "Well I, for one, am glad to have a bigger friend circle than I could've possibly imagined when I went to Horizon."

Before Nikki could make a smart remark, the group's X-transceivers all crackled to life simultaneously.

"We're turning on the EVs in the restaurant," Gene announced. "The emperor just interrupted daytime programming for a special broadcast."

The various screens mounted to the walls by the bar and the columns in the middle of the restaurant turned on, showing the Eterna Empire sigil and a "PLEASE STAND BY" written around it.

"Well ****." Nikki turned around so she was sitting backwards on her chair. The toxtricity rested her chin on its back. "Guess two days of rest were nice while they lasted."

Though the EV footage didn't change, Paradox's voice began to come through the restaurant speakers.

"Do you know what that sound is? Is it hope? Is it fear? Perhaps a dreadful, haunting realization?"

The various pirates and Aeon dragons eating their meals — some playing cards, others a board game or two — stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the EVs.

"Well, listen closely, dear viewers, and I'll tell you," Paradox said. The screen shifted from the PLEASE STAND BY placard to a close-up of the deoxys' face.

"It's the sound of me... WINNING!"

The shot pulled back to show Paradox standing on... a metal platform with a night sky backdrop. Yuna's chest ectoplasm momentarily tightened in fear, only to relax when she realized the night sky lacked the vivid auroras Gene conjured throughout their stable mystery dungeon.

"'Ah, but Illustrious Ultimate Supreme Grand Emperor Paradox, you're already a winner in our books!' is what I imagine many of you are saying," Paradox continued, pacing in front of the camera. He turned to face it. "And I appreciate your heartfelt words of encouragement. HOWEVER!"

Paradox spun around with a flourish and produced the Rift Ripper in his right tentacles. "You, dear viewers, are a part of only one dimension."

"Arr, turn this racket off!" A simisear pirate raised a mug of beer. "It be an ear and an eyesore!"

"Quiet!" Igneous' head leaf simmered. "Gene said to listen, so we're listening!"

"What about the rest of them?" Paradox asked himself, pacing once again. "Oh, the thought of those pitiful masses suffering without an emperor to subjugate them is so deeply dreadful." He coiled his left tentacles into an arm and rested his left hand on his forehead like he was about to faint.

"Which is exactly why I am thrilled to announce the beginning of the glorious expansion of my Eterna Empire!"

The camera shots shifted, pulling back. And back. And back. Every shift showcased dozens of giant flying battleships. Countless Eternatus Terraformers, like the ones that had gone after Yuna's home. And plenty of Eternatus Troopers and Paradox Pokémon flying around all the machines.

Scarlett squeaked. "No way." She coiled her tail tightly around the base of her table.

Igneous stepped toward the bar's EVs. "This has to be why it seemed like there was so little resistance to our prison break." The grovlazzle pointed at the screen. "Paradox was building toward this the entire time!"

The footage cut back to Paradox who had taken a glass of champagne from a tray held by the most pitiful looking sunflora Yuna thought she'd ever laid eyes on.

"But, in the interest of fairness, we're going to get this party started with home turf before expanding our horizons," Paradox said, downing the champagne despite no visible mouth. He tossed the glass straight into Sunflora's face, then pointed the Rift Ripper in front of him. Its chamber opened, unleashing one rift after another for his armada to fly into.

"Our first stop... the Kingdom of Radiance!" Paradox declared. "Or, as I prefer to call it, NEW Eterna City! Ahhh ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaa!"

The EVs abruptly shut off on footage of Paradox's battleships entering the rifts. Yuna was up in the air before her X-transceiver started buzzing again. Scarlett uncoiled her tail from the table's base, while the others got to their feet.

"Hangar on the double," Gene said. "We don't have a moment to lose."

XxX​

Yuna flew through a rift into Dazzels and immediately found battleships and Eternatus Terraformers littering the skies. It was a familiar sight. Identical to what happened when the emperor tried invading the Aeon Kingdom. But with so many more Terraformers firing on actual civilization instead of empty mountains, the dragapult wasn't prepared to see Dazzels' buildings shift into large obsidian towers and pillars, all displaying giant screens with Paradox's visage or the Eterna Empire's sigil.

Fire, ice, and lightning rained down upon the city. Windows shattered. Chunks of stone and concrete exploded from the corners of buildings. Panicked Pokémon from tiny floette to massive steelix fled in a panic. A gyarados flew through the air, carrying as many passengers as they could, only for a Thunderbolt to strike their horns and send them crashing into a broken building. The passengers' screams filled the air.

"This is crazy!" she shouted, immediately shooting Dragon Darts to her left and intercepting a couple of Eternatus Brawlers chasing after a pair of fleeing spritzee. "There's way too many of them!"

Beside her, Noctum twisted left to dodge a massive lightning bolt from above. The cosmic keldeo on his back flicked his head up. A Secret Sword blade struck the Eternatus Bombardier responsible, shattering its cockpit and ejecting the unown. Two more Bombardiers quickly showed up as reinforcements. Electricity crackled in their oversized blasters.

"I know!" the cosmic charizard said. He flew forward, spewing blue flames as he went. The fire washed across the street. Forcing a few Eternatus Brawlers back. Valkyrie lunged through the flames and destroyed the Brawlers with an Earthquake.

"Press forward!" Diamond pointed a foreleg over Noctum's shoulder. "They appear to be coming from the Parliament building to the north! Stick to Gene's plan!"

"What plan?" Yuna corkscrewed the air to dodge Ice Beams shot by Eternatus Gunners floating ahead of her. They scattered before she could counterattack. Then a giant purple beam struck the building directly to Yuna's left. A black skyscraper erupted out of the building, drowning out terrified screams from poor pokémon flung far into the distance.

"He just told us 'heavy hitters' to charge ahead and the backup would follow!" the dragapult continued. Shadows bubbled around her griseous core. Two giant Giratina wings emerged around Yuna, who twirled around in midair. Her wings clipped a half-dozen Eternatus Gunners.

"Halt, rebel scum!" cried a Bombardier flying above Yuna. "Fighting back against the emperor's invasion is against the la—aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!"

A glowing orange fist uppercut the Bombardier, hurtling it into several of its allies. Yuna shielded her eyes from the orange explosions that peppered the air.

"The vibes are truly rancid!" Leo's Fist Plate surrounded him with a faint orange glow as he galloped through the air. "We're barely gonna push forward at this rate!"

Gene's voice came through the X-transceiver line. "Then it's a good thing the backup is ready."

Loud bells sounded. Yuna looked over her shoulder and saw space pirate ships emerging from rifts littering the sky. As soon as they were out, they opened fire on the Eternatus Troopers flying all around Yuna and her teammates. Fire, ice, water, lightning, wind. Dark Pulses and psionics. Yuna even thought she saw some Energy Balls and Aura Spheres whizzing out from the pirate ships.

Then a bunch of battle cries came from the street. The dragapult looked down to see dozens and dozens of buff pokémon pouring out of another rift, some carrying clubs or metal pipes. They charged toward Eternatus Brawlers marching their way down the street.

A grapploct holding a megaphone stood at the back. "Do not worry, new friends!" he declared. "We are Team Dragons and Weird Edgy Cat Guy now!"

Frightened Brawlers ran in the other direction as a greedent rolled down the pavement at top speed. A nickit ran in place on top of him.

Even those two? Yuna thought, watching Rookie strike an Eternatus Brawler from behind, then pinball into another, and another.

"Da Medicis ain't about to live under dat lump of soggy pasta's ruuuuuule!" Carpaccio shouted, struggling to keep his balance as Rookie's Rollout continued. "To heck with dese weirdos! Bros before bots!"

"BROS BEFORE BOTS!" the various Medici cheered.

"C'mon, Mom!" Leo called, having gotten much farther ahead. "We've gotta keep moving!"

"Right!" Yuna flew after him. Noctum and Diamond continued taking potshots at whatever Eternatus Troopers they could.

Some of the Terraformers overhead shifted their fire toward the space pirate ships, but their massive purple beams bounced off blue shields.

Her earlier nerves fading slightly, Yuna pressed on, over the scorched and blasted building roofs. They were still outnumbered, but the extra firepower had given the dragapult more confidence they could pull through.

XxX​

"This is crazy!" Shimmer shouted, looking around in a panic as he galloped down an uneven road full of craters from earlier strikes. "What are we doing here?"

Igneous buzzed behind the ponytales, shooting the occasional fireball upwards to try and keep Eternatus Gunners from getting too close. "Trying to stop your home city from getting completely Eternafieid," he said.

"Protects up!" Nikki shouted behind them. Igneous crossed his arms and surrounded himself with a fiery orange shield. Large soundwaves rippled from several meters ahead of the grovlazzle. Explosions peppered the air, followed by metal shards and broken Gunner blasters dropping to the ground.

"Move!" The toxtricity waved them forward. They turned right and quietly headed down a narrow alley.

A large purple beam sailed overhead. Igneous reflexively winced. Those Terraformer beams looked problematic.

"We need to stick to covered areas like this," Shimmer said, frazzled tails flapping behind him as he galloped on. "Otherwise, what's stopping one of those awful machines from blasting us?"

"Nothing." Igneous scanned ahead. The alley continued north, toward their destination. While his group wasn't supposed to strike head on like Yuna's, they needed to search for anything vulnerable around the Parliament building related to Paradox's invasion.

"Cross," Nikki said, waving the group onward. They raced across the street, only to hear mechanical shouts on the left.

A robo-tyranitar. Iron Thorns, if Igneous remembered correctly. He conjured Honedge and chucked it down the street, but Iron Thorns deflected it with bursts of electricity from the metal spikes on its back.

[Rebels over here!] Iron Thorns waved its stubby little arms around. [Form up!]

Two Iron Moths quickly converged on Iron Thorns. Igneous opted to fly into the alley after the others.

[They're moving north! Converge!]

"Damn it! Why can't it ever be easy?" Nikki growled. Sparks crackled around her mohawk. She stopped at the end of the alley and peered out. She held her left arm out.

Then the toxtricity charged into the street. She pivoted right and smacked her ass. "Suck on this, bitches!"

"The rebel is taunting us in a provocative manner!" an unseen Eternatus Trooper shouted. "Get her!"

But Nikki spun around and smacked her gills. Boomburst shockwaves rippled through the air, avoiding the alleyway.

"Ahh!" Shimmer spun around. "They're still chasing us!" The ponytales fired an Ice Beam from his horn down the alleyway.

When Igneous turned, flames snuffed out the ice. The two Iron Moths were in hot pursuit, with one higher in the air. Poison globs gathered around its triangular wings.

[We should've known you'd show up to this,] it said. [That desperate to keep your kingdom, huh?]

Igneous spun around, filling the air with a Fiery Dance to counter the Sludge Bomb that the top Iron Moth launched.

"You two again?" Shimmer said. "Can't you see what you're doing is wrong here?"

"What do you mean again?" Igneous said.

"These two are classmates!" Shimmer shot another Ice Beam at the bottom Iron Moth, who countered it with a Flamethrower. "They attacked me in Tulpise, too, but managed to get away!"

Igneous frowned. He wasn't really sure what to say to Shimmer about that. Though it seemed like the ponytales was handling himself just fine.

"Oi, lover boys!" Nikki shouted from across the street. "Pick up the pace!"

They exchanged a look then ran off, dodging fire and poison from the Iron Moths.

[Oh no you don't!] the top one called. [You're not weaseling your way out of this, you sad, sorry excuse for a prince!]

Igneous glanced at Shimmer, who once again wasn't fazed by the insults. He galloped after Nikki, keeping his gaze ahead of him. Igneous followed, thrusting his arm back to fling Honedge at the Iron Moths.

[Gah!] Their buzzing slowed up. [Of all the lousy tricks! You can't stop us!]

"This is Igneous," the grovlazzle said into his X-transceiver. "We're making progress toward Parliament. Everything good?"

XxX​

"No! Everything is not good!" Yuna cried. "We're hitting a wall here!"

Despite her growing confidence and the steady progress her group made north through the city, they found themselves faced with a half dozen Eternatus Terraformers. Not to mention the battleships flying even higher in the air, raining Draco Meteors down from the sky.

The dragapult rolled left in midair. Then she twisted right. An Ice Beam grazed her shoulder. She fired Dragon Darts in the Ice Beam's general direction, but hit nothing.

Large clumps of earth and clay flew overhead as Leo tried to deal with the Terraformers. To Yuna's right, Noctum climbed higher in the air, slinging a Spacial Rend forward. It sailed toward one of the Terraformers, but a large barrier formed up and looked ready to deflect the blast completely.

Then a massive Hyper Beam — or was it actually multiple Hyper Beams coalescing together? — came from Yuna's right, shattering the shield and letting Noctum's Spacial Rend strike the Eternatus Terraformer on the group's far left. A bundle of blue tachyons then flew in as the Spacial Rend crescent exploded. It amplified the blast into a blue-purple vortex that struck the Eternatus Terraformer next to it. Both of them dropped from the sky, their bodies cracking and breaking apart like they were made of glass.

"Back!" Leo shouted seconds before another Hyper Beam cluster came in and downed the remaining Terraformers. The bursts of orange and metal shrapnel around the Terraformers suggested a bunch of Eternatus Gunners got swept up in the blast, too.

"Haaa ha ha ha ha!"

Haughty laughter drew closer to the group alongside a small space pirate ship with a large, chatot-shaped canon in the front. Gilbert stood on a perch behind the canon.

"Bonjour, mon frenemies!" He bowed to them. "I have come to help you win ze battle!" Gilbert pointed his right wing forward. "Onward to ze victory!"

Yuna blinked slowly. "Oh, uh, thanks?"

"By ze way." Gilbert looked around. "Did Mademoiselle Chomp catch any of my admirable heroics?"

"Auuuuuugh!"

An Eternatus Brawler pinwheeled through the air. Valkyrie jumped up Stone Edge slabs to get to the roof of the half-destroyed building on the group's right.

"Yeah, yeah." The mega garchomp turned and sniped an Eternatus Gunner trying to sneak up on her with a Dragon Pulse. "You were real heroic."

"Oui!" Chatot waved to the meganium and simisage pirates at the wheel of his ship. "Let us give zem ze cover so zey may press zeir attack!"

The small ship turned around, chatot cannon charging up again. Yuna turned to find Leo and Noctum already flying toward the Parliament building. She whipped her tail in circles to rapidly catch up with them.

"There!" Noctum shouted, pointing above the domed roof. A familiar deoxys floated there, two tentacles wrapped around the Rift Ripper.

"Ah, a cabal of rebels." Paradox's free tentacles clapped together. "I'll admit, it is impressive you were able to get here — and pull off your miraculous escape from Citadark — all without your vaunted leader."

"Don't take the bait," Gene cautioned through his X-transceiver. "Remember, we want him to keep thinking I'm in exile."

Yuna nearly nodded, but caught herself and channeled that energy into glaring at Paradox.

"Give it up!" the dragapult shouted. "All these rifts you're opening are going to destroy the universe! And that includes you!" She was about to bring up Leo, but realized Paradox was still completely unaware of the cosmic arceus' nature. Another thing to keep to herself.

"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?" Paradox flicked his free tentacles dismissively. "Who do you think you're talking to, girl? I'm Illustrious Ultimate Supreme Grand Emperor Paradox and I—"

He blipped several meters backwards, narrowly avoiding a dark-type Judgment raining black spears from above.

"Not ones for idle chitchat, I see." Paradox chuckled. "Well, two can play at that game, rebels!" He drifted back from them. "Since you've taken the opportunity to come meet me face-to-face, it's only fair that I... dress appropriately for the occasion!"

He opened a rift underneath himself and flew into it.

"No!" Leo swept a Dark Pulse toward where Paradox was, but the black beam only hit open air. He looked around rapidly. "Where'd he go? Don't tell me he seriously turned tail!"

The ground trembled. The air around them buzzed. A strange purple glow overtook everything.

Yuna's tail shot into her torso. "What's going on?" She touched her right hand to the side of her head. "Cyril? Cid? If you've got anything, now's the time to let us know!"

All she got as an answer was Cid shouting, "Get out of there!"

A massive rift tore itself open across the Parliament building. The glass dome and marble walls and pillars crumbled to the ground. Out from the rift emerged a positively massive robot... resembling Saint Zygarde's true form!

It got taller. Taller. Taller. It was at least thirty Leos high! A true behemoth!

Yuna didn't even have time to react before the Zygarde robot roared. A purple shockwave raced out around it. A screaming Yuna tumbled through the air, losing sight of her teammates. She flailed around uselessly until she passed through a rift and the battlefield disappeared completely.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 147: Imperial March

The ringing didn't leave Leo's ear frills for several seconds. It took even longer to get the stars out of his vision.

And why dirt brushing against his fur instead of gravel or concrete? Wasn't Leo supposed to be in Dazzels right now?

C'mon, think!

One moment, he and the others were staring down Paradox. And the next... the deoxys disappeared and a colossal zygarde rose up from the ruins of the Parliament building.

Now Leo was lying in the dirt. No doubt, he got flung through a rift. But to where?

"Uggggggggggggggh." Groaning, the cosmic arceus staggered to his feet. "Anyone get the number on that runaway charjabus?"

No response. In fact, Leo didn't sense any familiar auras near him.

Leo looked around. He was on a tiny dirt hill, far on the outskirts of the city. Fortunately he could see the zygarde robot, firing blue beams from four serpent-like ribbons protruding from its back.

Not good. Leo jumped into the air. He needed to get back into the city and help with—

His wheel flickered. Leo looked over shoulder. This feeling... were there Plates nearby? He'd already sensed the Mind Plate on Paradox, but now he sensed another.

... No. He sensed more than one.

"What the heck?" Leo turned around, only to gurgle in surprise when thick, metallic vines wrapped themselves around him. They got his legs. Latched onto his wheel. Even coiled their way up to his head.

Leo's heart rate spiked. Metal and grass meant fire. All he had to do was draw out the Flame Plate and this would be no problem.

"Have you enjoyed your return to form?"

Leo's eyes widened. That voice!

The vines tightened their grip. Pointed stones dug into Leo's hide. Their jagged edges threw off his concentration.

White light took a humanoid shape in front of him.

"Because your little adventure has run its course," Zodiark said. "I told you before... these plates are mine."

Leo thrashed about. But the more he moved, the tighter the vines gripped him. Why couldn't he call forth his Plates? Or the Red Chain fragments that he had?

Several playing cards drifted around Zodiark's silhouette. "All that's left to do is wait to grab the final piece. And then the Eternaverse shall take root."

Leo tried to yell. The vines blocked him. He had no telepathy to fall back on. And the Plates wouldn't respond. Were all of Zodiark's Paradigm fragments countering them? This was ridiculous!

The silhouette got closer. Leo's fur stood on end. His movements slowed. His mind grew fuzzy.

... No! That couldn't happen! He had to stop Paradox! He had to help his friends!

He had to... had to... had to serve his wielder.

A silvally with a gold-trimmed cape stood in front of him. "Don't forget," he whispered gently.

Leo squeezed his eyes shut. With the last of his strength, he shrank his aura as much as possible.

It didn't take long for the vines' suffocating grips to stop.

XxX​

"Get up, Iggy!" Shimmer pleaded. "We've gotta move!"

Chilly hooves shoved Igneous' side. The grovlazzle's eyes opened to a blurry cobblestone alley. Swathes of orange, purple, and blue flashed in front of him.

Eyes widening, Igneous pushed himself up. He put his claws on Shimmer's left shoulder, letting the ponytales help him back to his feet.

"What happened?" Igneous asked, rubbing the stars from his eyes. He nearly fell over again when the ground trembled beneath his feet.

"P-Paradox summoned a giant robot." Shimmer laughed nervously. "It roared so loud that it knocked us all off our feet."

Igneous finally settled enough for him to see Nikki running around ahead of him, swinging her lightning guitar wildly to deflect fireballs from the two Iron Moths hovering overhead. Igneous was about to ask how the toxtricity was holding her own like that, when he looked up to see a dragapult leading multiple dragonite and salamence in blasting the Iron Moths from above with Dragon Pulses.

"Remember the plan!" Yiazmat called. "We must press forward! Even with that infernal machine!" She turned around and blasted Dragon Darts behind her.

Igneous rubbed his eyes again. "Right." He looked at Shimmer. "You good?"

"A bit rattled." Shimmer shook himself out. "But I'll manage."

"Then let's move." Igneous' volcarona wings came to life. He conjured Honedge and flew forward, sticking close to the ground. "Heads up, Nikki!"

She glanced over her shoulder and nodded. "Yo, Bugbot! Catch!" Nikki shouted, hurling her lightning guitar up like a giant tomahawk. The Iron Moth directly above her was too busy contending with two salamence to react in time.

Seeing the lightning guitar get buried in Iron Moth's base, Igneous slashed the air with Honedge. Fiery crescents raced forward and struck the lightning guitar. It burst apart in a ball of white-hot plasma. Nikki dove onto her belly. Heat washed over her. Embers showered her leather jacket. The toxtricity rolled along the street to put them out.

Igneous saw a faint pink glow approaching the second Iron Moth. He pivoted right and tossed Honedge forward. "Shim!" he called.

"I got you!" the ponytales responded. His Psychic caught Honedge and propelled it forward. Honedge pierced through Iron Moth's metal torso and came out the other end. Iron Moth's electronic eyes went dark. It plummeted to the ground, landing beside its counterpart with a metallic THUD.

"Are they down?" Shimmer asked. He hesitantly approached the one with the hole in it and poked its base with an icy forehoof.

[Y... ou...] Static garbled Iron Moth's voice. [You won't... win.]

[You can't... defeat... Paradox,] the other Iron Moth added. Its voice was a static mess, too. [Just... give up.]

"Pfbt." Nikki ran her hands through her lightning mohawk. "Maybe that's what your dumb asses did when you got caught in Venish. But me? Not a chance."

She held her right arm out. Her lightning guitar appeared in swarms of purple and yellow sparks. "I— no, we have things we're fighting for. And we'll be damned if we let any of you get in the way."

Neither Iron Moth responded. Igneous walked past the toxtricity, scanning the air above them.

"Yiazmat and her forces are keeping the Eternatus Troopers off our tails," the grovlazzle said. "We've gotta keep moving." He pointed forward, where the head and shoulders of Paradox's giant zygarde robot peeked out from behind rows of tall buildings.

"T-Toward it?" Shimmer's tails frazzled.

"They really need us there, don't you think?" Igneous started forward, embers crackling along his back.

Sighing, Shimmer trotted after him. "I know! I just wish they didn't!"

From behind the two, Nikki said, "Yo, Boss Kitty! We've got a giant zygarde robot at the Parliament building! Just what's the situation?"

XxX​

Gene stood facing the monitor bank, gaze darting between the screens, the skorps furiously typing away at the keyboards, and Cid and Cyril hastily scribbling things down on strewn about sheets of paper.

"We're still trying to get a handle on that ourselves." The mega mewtwo glanced at Cid. "You getting anything?"

The orbeetle shook his head. "For once, I'm at a loss! Whatever this thing is, it must be so full of Malice— err, Eterna energy that it's completely blocking my Dynascan!"

Gene's tail twitched in irritation. It was now plain as day why the emperor hadn't put proper resources into protecting Citadark. He was putting everything behind this invasion force.

"They're afraid out there," Dark Matter growled. "They need direction. You're failing them."

If there was ever a time to butt out, it'd be now, Gene sneered. "Just how scattered about are people?"

Cyril turned around in his swivel chair. "Looks like Paradox jettisoned our heaviest hitters using rifts of his own. Leo got blown clear out of the city. Yuna's somewhere to the south. Noctum and Diamond are in the east with Valkyrie." He turned back to hunch over a laptop. "Igneous' team is about ten blocks south of the robot. They're hitting open roadways soon."

Claws tapped impatiently behind Gene. "How much longer are we going to stay in 'hiding,' Gene?" Widget asked. "If there was ever a time to spring into action, it'd be now."

"I'm aware." Gene turned to face the cosmic silvally. "But we only get one shot at catching Paradox off guard. If we charge out there without a hint of how to deal with that giant mech, then we're blowing our load early!"

Beside Widget, Bahamut crossed his arms. "And if we continue hesitating, our allies may wind up dead or captured. And just what sort of 'edge' will that give us, hmm?"

"I agree with them, for the record. This is a fool's errand."

Fool's errands have gotten us this far, Gene scoffed. But you can't trust me because 'trust is too painful' or whatever.

He turned back to the monitors. "Bird Team, head south and find Yuna!" Gene barked into the X-transceiver line. "Dog Team, go east! Get to Noctum! Heal Team, send some monk scouts to find Leo!"

"Aye," Zacian and Zamazenta said in unison.

"Grishi resent team name, but will follow."

"We're on it!" Jade said, followed shortly by a, "Ack! Hey, who said you could shoot at a lady while her back is turned?"

Gene silenced his line and turned to the Bahamut and Widget. "See? It's still under control."

Neither of them looked convinced. Rolling his eyes, Gene returned to the monitor bank.

This would work. It had to work.

XxX​

"Haaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Paradox's booming laughter roused Yuna from her stupor. The dragapult took to the air, flying along the street between several shuttered bank buildings. She waved her arms around to dispel dust and stray embers.

Medicis and pirates ran along side streets to keep Eternatus Brawlers off her back.

She stopped the moment a purple rift opened right in front of her. Yuna suddenly stared down one of the zygarde mech's serpentine ribbons. She rolled away from a large Dragon Pulse that swept through the air, destroying chunks of a First National Bank of Isola sign. Concrete and glass plinked and plunked on burning asphalt behind her.

"How do you like my special suit, you worthless rebels?" Paradox projected his voice through some sort of loudspeaker system. Yuna bet the whole city could hear him. "I call it the Iron Conqueror, in honor of the many planets that will be crushed beneath its heels!"

Iron Conqueror extended its ribbon through the rift and tracked Yuna. Meeping, Yuna dove to the ground. She phased through the street. The concrete around her trembled. Chunks of it were torn up. But she dodged whatever strike the ribbon tried. And she popped her triangular head out to see Reverse Time taking hold.

An idea sprang to mind. If Paradox was attacking through rifts, then why couldn't she use that for herself?

Before Reverse Time faded, she shot two Dragon Darts into the rift. They hit the serpent ribbon's tip, but it didn't react at all. And its chassis was too dark for Yuna to tell if she'd even done any damage!

The rift then shut. Paradox's laughter filled the air again.

"Was that supposed to be an attack? Oh, how adorable!" he crooned.

Another rift opened. Yuna immediately fired two Dragon Darts, but an Iron Hands emerged and swatted them away. Eternatus Gunners streamed out of the rift and opened fire with Ice Shards and Ice Beams. Yuna flew left along the surface of the road. Frosty air nicked her right hip.

"There's nothing you miserable rodents can do to even so much as scratch Iron Conqueror!" Paradox declared. "How about a little deal? Surrender now, and I'll offer all of you last meals before I turn you into batteries for my army!"

[I've really got to hand it to you, rebel!] Iron Hands slammed the ground. [You've really outdone yourself in the stupidity department!]

An electric shockwave raced out. Yuna flew up to dodge, only for an Ice Beam to strike her waist. Hissing, she drifted back, undulating her tail and ectoplasm to get the sleet off before it could settle in.

Her eyes widened when she saw three more Ice Beams heading right for her. She braced herself, only for orange lightning to vaporize the strikes. An orange blur slammed into one of the Gunners from below. It ricocheted into three more Gunners. All exploded into scrap metal.

[What?] Iron Hands threw its large yellow hands up in an attempt at shielding itself, but instead ended up getting yoinked into the air by a telekinetic force.

"Now, Quetzal!" Shiva said, wings spread wide as a pink glow surrounded her.

"Right!" The orange zapdos leaped into the air and delivered a Thunderous Kick to Iron Hands, sending it careening off into the distance.

Another rift opened in front of them, revealing one of Iron Conqueror's serpent ribbons. A Dragon Pulse raced toward Quetzal, who was completely defenseless.

"Oh no you don't!"

Ifrit swooped in from behind the other two birds. Black flames snuffed out the Dragon Pulse.

Yuna saw an orange glow from the corner of her eye. She flew against the side of a brick building and watched an Aeroblast sweep across the air. The orange beam shattered Eternatus Gunners and part of it got through the rift. Iron Conqueror yanked the ribbon away and shut the rift.

"That did something!" Yuna said, peeling herself off the brick building and waving at Jade.

"Really? Great!" the salugia chirped. She flapped in place while Ifrit and Shiva flew over to her side and Quetzal sprinted up a half-wrecked building to join them. "What'd I do?"

"Paradox is trying to have his machine snipe us from afar using the rifts," Yuna explained. She could see the massive zygarde robot firing large green rockets into the air. They burst into Thousand Waves that washed against a space pirate ship's shield.

"Then we shouldn't stay here," Ifrit said. The black moltres flapped his wings to carry him forward. "Onward!"

They only made about twenty meters before a rift opened, revealing a green missile that exploded into waves of glowing green hexagons.

"Get back!" Yuna shouted, thrusting her arms forward. Diamond shards filled the air to intercept the Thousand Waves. The Diamond Storm broke enough of the glowing hexagons apart for everyone to fly through.

"This is Bird Team," Shiva said, sweeping a pink beam through the sky to blow apart two Eternatus Gunners. Behind her, a space pirate ship opened fire with bursts of water and lightning, distracting half a dozen Iron Jugulis from giving chase. "We've got Yuna. We're pressing forward to the north!"

"Understood," Cyril said. "Dog Team, what's your status?"

XxX​

"Grishi still not like name," the zorotwo said, shooting dark pulses from his claws like a kid playing pretend with finger guns. They struck an Iron Thorns blocking the center of the road, toppling it over. "But team find friends."

From his vantage point in the air a few meters over the street, Noctum watched Zacian slice apart an Iron Valiant into ribbons. Zamazenta charged ahead of her, forming a large shield that blocked a Thousand Waves racing out from a nearby rift.

"Quite the monstrosity!" Zamazenta shouted, dispelling the shield and charging forward. "What'd'ya suppose the odds are he's using that Red Chain fragment of his to empower it?"

"High!" Diamond called, galloping after Zamazenta. The keldeo slashed at the air repeatedly with his glowing horn. Secret Swords raced out, striking Eternatus Gunners along with a few robot delibird — Iron Bundles, according to their earlier briefing — taking aim from afar.

"What do we do about them?" Noctum wondered, flying after them. Valkyrie tried to keep pace along the right sidewalk. "The rifts open and shut too fast for me to try anything!"

"Maybe that's where I come in," Diamond called. "I just need the right moment."

"Iron Treads, dead ahead!" Zamazenta shouted, gesturing to a large red ball zooming toward them. Dozens of Eternatus Brawlers ran after it, maces brimming with flames or dragonfire.

Zacian leaped in front of her brother. Her sword exploded in size, brimming with blue energy. She slashed at Iron Treads, halting its momentum and knocking it backwards.

"Scatter!" one of the Brawlers shouted, but it was too late. Iron Treads barreled through the Brawlers like they were glorified bowling pins.

Grishi blipped in over the two dogs and held up his right hand. His psychic grasp caught three Eternatus Bombardiers readying Focus Blasts and flung them higher into the air, where they got caught in an exchange of Hyper Beam fire and blown apart. Napalm and broken glass rained down on a destroyed building to their right.

"You're a tenacious bunch of insects," Paradox said. "But your world will be the first in my soon to be sprawling trophy case!"

Two rifts opened ahead of the group, at a Y-shaped intersection.

"There!" Diamond cried. He pointed his horn and unleashed a beam of tachyons. The Roar of Time struck the rifts and froze Iron Conqueror's serpentine ribbons in place.

"Now, Noctum!" The cosmic keldeo pointed his foreleg forward.

Noctum understood immediately. He beat his wings faster. Blue purple energy raced down his arms. Noctum swiped them both forward.

Two Spacial Rend crescents zoomed toward the rift. They broke through and struck the serpentine ribbons. Blue violent energy exploded out from the rifts, which forcibly shut.

Iron Conqueror's mechanical roar echoed across the city. Glass shattered in the distance. A startled Noctum nearly fell from the air.

"Grrr... insolent little worms!" Paradox shouted. "I tire of these foolish tricks of yours!"

Another rift opened, but Diamond couldn't get off another Roar of Time.

"Get rid of them!" Paradox ordered. "Do what you were built for and cut them all down to size!"

A purple and red blur shot out from the portal, which promptly shut. It slammed into a yelping Zamazenta, sending him skipping across the street like a stone. He came to a stop near Noctum, who looked up and saw a robotic Widget shooting strange purple energy blasts into Zacian and Grishi, pushing them back toward the street coming from the left.

"It's that thing!" Valkyrie charged forward. Concrete split apart and dust filled the air as her Earthquake tried to swallow the robotic silvally. But it jumped over the Earthquake, hovering in midair and unleashing a purple and red beam.

"Val!" Noctum shouted. He opened a rift of his own and pulled the garchomp through. The cosmic charizard dropped from the air because of Valkyrie's larger size.

[Targets acquired,] the robot silvally said, before speeding down the street toward Noctum and Valkyrie.

XxX​

Widget nearly tackled Gene when he jumped onto the mega mewtwo from behind. "Rift me over there now!" the cosmic silvally said, jostling Gene's shoulder crystals.

"Ow, get off!" Gene's tail shoved Widget off.

He dropped back to all fours. Widget's starcloud neck ruff puff out. "It's Iron Enforcer!" he said. "I can't stick around here!"

"We have a plan," Gene growled.

The two stared silently at one another. Widget wouldn't back down here. He'd been thinking about this moment for a while now.

He refused to believe Iron Enforcer was like the other silvally. There had to be something inside it. And maybe, with a better grasp on his Voice powers, Widget could get through!

Sighing, Gene's shoulders sagged. "You really think there's something there for you if you fight this thing?"

Widget nodded.

"Fine." Gene held his right arm out. "Don't screw it up, then."

A rift opened beside him. Widget dashed into it without another word, immediately soaking in nauseating aromas of motor oil and burning asphalt.

On the other side, Noctum struggled to fly away from purple energy blasts homing in on him. And Iron Enforcer stood in the middle of the street, dodging furious swipes from Valkyrie's Dragon Claws.

Widget shifted to miraivally and surged forward, slamming into Iron Enforcer and sending it tumbling away from the garchomp.

"What are you doing here?" Valkyrie said. "What about Gene's plan?"

"Plan changed." Widget shifted back to cosmic silvally. He crouched down, watching Iron Enforcer stagger back to its feet. "Go on ahead. I've got this."

Valkyrie frowned. "Don't be an idiot. We have numbers."

"And those numbers need to deal with the giant robot." Widget sprang forward, firing bursts of Psychic to snuff out the purple energy balls Iron Enforcer shot at him and Valkyrie.

"Go! Now!" he barked. Widget heard footsteps growing more distant.

Iron Enforcer stared Widget down, its face expressionless.

"We don't have to do this, you know," Widget said, claws curling as he failed to detect any spiritual signal directly ahead of him.

Iron Enforcer's red eyes glowed. [All threats to the emperor will be neutralized.]

Its entire body glowed, then it let loose a red and purple beam. Widget raced to his left. The beam instead vaporized a bank, leaving only stray bricks and glass shards.

His starcloud ruff tightened. That was some serious firepower!

[Your appearance does not compute,] Iron Enforcer said. It pivoted, body glowing again. [You are a threat. I will dispose of you.]

"I'm not a threat!" Widget said. He couldn't concentrate enough to focus his spiritual senses while under fire. "I want to help you!"

Iron Enforcer let loose another giant beam. It singed Widget's tail. Smoke trailed off it as he skidded to a halt.

[If you wish to assist, then allow me to neutralize you.]

"That's not how it works!" Widget squawked. He shifted into miraivally mode and took to the air. Lightning crackled around his crest. "I mean that you can be more than just a tool for the emperor!"

Iron Enforcer opened its beak and spat out purple and red energy balls. Widget blasted them all apart with a single Thunderbolt. He hovered to his right, not putting any extra distance between himself and his robot counterpart.

[My purpose is to destroy all threats to the emperor,] Iron Enforcer said. [Your words are meaningless attempts at subterfuge.]

Widget flinched. Was he wasting his time? Was Iron Enforcer really nothing more than a machine?

... No, he could still salvage this! He had to try! He was the Voice of Life!

Iron Enforcer fired another purple and red beam skyward. Widget zipped to his left. The attack caught a few Eternatus Gunners in the distance.

"There's no subterfuge!" Widget said. "Even as a machine, you can do better than this!"

A part of Widget wondered if he should try the same thing that Leo did to him. To offer a "blessing" to Iron Enforcer and see what would happen.

Except when Leo did that, it left Widget conflicted. And things were a lot more dire now. If he could just find a way to directly access Iron Enforcer's programming...

Widget shot a Thunderbolt from his crest toward the ground. Iron Enforcer easily dodged, then retaliated with two red bursts. Widget swooped down to avoid them, only to find they were homing on him. The miraivally spun around and arced electricity across them, blowing them apart in bright red flashes.

However, that left his back exposed. Sudden weight grabbed him. A sharp pain pierced his somewhat metallic hide.

Squawking in surprise, Widget thrashed around in midair. He shook Iron Enforcer loose. The robot silvally landed on the ground and immediately fired a large purple beam at Widget.

He barely got a Protect up in time. The beam raced around him. Widget tasted static and plasma.

[I am successfully outmaneuvering you,] Iron Enforcer taunted. [This counts as 'better.']

"This isn't about battling!" Widget dropped the Protect. He shifted back to cosmic silvally and dropped to the ground. "There's more out there in the world. Your programming can expand! Your knowledge can expand! Those are good things!"

[I am perfectly functional.] Iron Enforcer kept its beak open and shot more red bursts at Widget. This time he sent Psychic ripples out from his head crest. The blasts fizzled away.

"Widget!" Gene barked through the X-transceiver. "Look, A for effort, but you're clearly not going to get through to it!"

Widget's crest tightened. "But—"

[Your persistence is bothersome.] Iron Enforcer squared up its stance. Red and black energy crackled around. [Initializing overdrive.]

Within seconds, the robot silvally had closed the gap with Widget. It raked its talons across Widget's left flank. The cosmic silvally skidded across the road. Then Iron Enforcer closed the gap and struck Widget again. And a third time.

Widget crashed into a stoplight at the intersection. The metal bent around his head crest, then the light itself fell off the pole and shattered. Red, yellow, and green glass scattered around him.

[Neutralizing target.] Iron Enforcer charged its beam attack far faster now. Yelping, Widget shifted to miraivally and turned his thrusters on. He shot off the sidewalk and onto the street. A red and purple beam vaporized what was left of the light, then blew apart a post office behind it. Burnt paper and cardboard rained down behind Widget. Smoke filled his lungs.

"Troopers! Get back here and protect your emperor! Get these ingrates away from me!"

Shifting back to cosmic silvally, Widget got to his feet. But Iron Enforcer was right near him! Widget blasted pink energy from his crest. It managed to hit the robot silvally and knock him over.

Instinct took hold. Widget used another Psychic. The energy flung Iron Enforcer back. It struck the door of another bank, breaking the glass. There were dents in its metallic hide.

Widget tilted his head. He didn't think his Psychic was that good. "What just happened?" he said.

"It looks like going into overdrive shifted all its energy into attacking," Cid exclaimed. "It must not have much in the way of defenses like this."

"There's your opening," Gene said. "I know you don't want to to do this, but you've gotta seize this moment. I'm about to help the others. You asked for this, so it's on you."

The X-transceiver line clicked off.

"Nnnggggrrrr! I've had enough of your foolish games!"

Iron Enforcer was back on its feet, gathering red and purple energy. Widget didn't give it the opening, instead shooting another Psychic beneath Iron Enforcer's feet. The pink blast shot Iron Enforcer into the air, denting its underbelly.

Widget turned to reshivally mode, conjured a Fusion Flare, and hurled the large fireball forward. He flapped his fluffy wings to climb into the air and followed the attack as it exploded before Iron Enforcer could deflect it. The robot silvally crashed into the roof of the same bank whose door it had just broken.

Sparking crackles and pops filled the air. Widget winced as he approached.

Iron Enforcer struggled to get back to its feet. The Fusion Flare had blown its right foreleg off. And its crest was dented at a ninety-degree angle.

"Enough of this!" Widget shouted, desperately trying to probe the energy he sensed from the bank roof. "You're losing! Surrender! Don't you want to save yourself?"

In response, Iron Enforcer gathered up red and purple energy.

[Target... rebel. Priority one.]

It fired another giant laser, blowing off its other foreleg in the process. Widget rolled right in midair to dodge it.

"Damn it! It doesn't have to end like this!" he squawked. Widget probed again... and came up empty.

More red and purple energy crackled around Iron Enforcer's torso. [Target rebel. Priority one.]

Clamping his metal beak tightly shut, Widget conjured a Fusion Flare and hurled it toward the roof. The concrete somehow held tough, even as the giant fireball drove Iron Enforcer into it.

When the flames and smoke cleared, all of its forelegs were missing. Gaps in its belly exposed wires. Strange purple fluid leaked out of its cracked right eye. The scent of burnt alloys and plastics overpowered the ash and dust from all the surrounding fights.

"It's over." Widget flapped his wings to remain in place. "You can't beat me like that. But we can fix you. And get rid of the emperor's awful programming."

[Tar... get... reb... el...]

Widget tensed up. But then an idea struck him! Maybe if he shifted to eternavally mode he would finally get the results he wanted!

... Except Iron Enforcer tried gathering energy for an attack, only for its entire body to glow red and purple. Was it short-circuiting?

"Wait, stop!"

Widget dove down. But even with flames shooting from his tail turbine, the reshivally wasn't fast enough. Iron Enforcer exploded in a blaze of red and purple energy.

Widget conjured a Protect. Black and purple sludge struck the shield, forcing Widget to drop it and climb higher into the air.

Multiple Hyper Beams whizzed above him, filling the air with loud hums and whines. Widget looked back down and found a giant hole in the bank's roof. Concrete chunks fell into it when Widget landed. He reared up and slowly flapped his wings to clear the smoke and dust.

Peering inside the hole, Widget found nothing but scorch marks on a tile floor. Charred metal fragments and debris lay strew about.

Widget hung his head. Deep in his heart, he knew this was the most likely outcome. But it still hurt. He'd witnessed Paradox's intended ending for him. And it made his blood boil.

"You gonna be okay?" Cid asked.

"I will be once Paradox is done for," Widget said. "Where do you guys need me? If Gene wants to rift me back to the base, then I'll—"

"Boss Kitty went out in the field," Cyril said.

Widget's crest fanned out. "Wait, what? Where did he—"

A massive explosion swallowed up the giant zygarde robot in the distance. It was so intense that the tremors even reached the bank roof, knocking Widget over. He flailed his hind legs around.

Widget scrambled to his feet, then shifted to miraivally mode. His thrusters kicked in and he zoomed into the air.

Perhaps he'd have more time to chew on what happened with his robot counterpart later. For now, there was still a battle to be had.

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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[Ambyssin]

Chapter 148: Another Paradox to Unravel

Cell missiles filled the air over Dazzels' wrecked buildings. Yuna blasted Dragon Darts at some of them, while black flames and a pink laser came in from Ifrit and Shiva on her right. Green explosions littered the air.

Iron Conqueror lay directly ahead of them. Its mechanical roar filled the air.

"I will cut you down like the pathetic weeds you are!" Paradox said. Iron Conqueror's serpentine ribbons fired blue-purple beams behind it. They went directly through rifts that then opened in front of Yuna and the birds.

But Jade had an Aeroblast at the ready. She swept the orange beam through the air, snuffing out each of the Dragon Pulses.

Yuna kicked the air with her legs as she flew forward. Giant Giratina legs struck Iron Conqueror from behind. It took a stumbling step forward, destroying the Parliament building's front gates.

"Why you—" Paradox growled. Iron Conqueror swiped its right hand. Glowing green lances raced toward Yuna. But a Hyper Beam came in from Yuna's left. Then a second. And a third. They snuffed out the Thousand Waves.

Bells rang through the sky, followed by slightly slurred slinging.

"The dragons be ferocious! Against the emperor who's atrocious!"

A couple of space pirate ships sailed into view, blasters and cannons trained on Iron Conqueror. Miraidon hovered behind the wheel of one of them, donning a black hat with a cubone skull and crossbones.

"This is the end for you, Paradox!" Miraidon shouted. "Give up now! It'll save everyone a lot of trouble!"

"Ridiculous!"

Iron Conqueror fired larger purple beams into rifts. Two opened by the pirate ships, which buckled in midair as their shields could barely block the strikes.

But two others opened right in front of Yuna. The dragapult whipped her arms forward. Two Giratina legs struck Iron Conqueror from behind again, while the birds broke formation to dodge the beams.

Yuna skirted by one herself. Reverse Time kicked in, so Yuna punched the air a few more times. Four more Giratina legs hit Iron Conqueror in succession from behind.

Again, the giant zygarde mech staggered forward. What was left of the brick wall in front of the Parliament building crumbled. Bricks and asphalt struck the marble fountain, denting the zacian statue sitting atop it.

"I don't know where you're getting these stupid powers of yours from, but it doesn't matter!" Paradox exclaimed. "You can't do anything more than displace Iron Conqueror! You're nothing but bugs splattering against the windshield of my greatness!"

"He's got a point," Cyril said through the X-transceiver. "From what I'm looking at, it doesn't seem like the armor's taken much damage. And that's with all the numbers we have on him!"

"Well, I'm open to suggestions!" Yuna was trying to stay positive. But if Giratina couldn't slow this thing down, then what else was she supposed to do? "Leo, now would be a great time to use that Judgment thingy of yours!"

Some static came through the X-transceiver line in response. Yuna frowned. Just how far away had Paradox sent Leo compared to the others? He must've seen the footage from Citidark and prepared accordingly.

Yuna's chest ectoplasm tightened around her core. She had to trust Leo could handle himself. Focus on this guy first.

"Ah!" Noctum shouted. "I think I've got it!"

XxX​

The cosmic charizard rolled right, past an Ice Beam volley from a few Eternatus Gunners. From Noctum's right, Secret Sword beams whizzed past, destroying the bots and catapulting their unown pilots into the distance.

"Hurry up and say it!" Diamond galloped along an uneven concrete roof. The cosmic keldeo leaped onto the next building, slinging an Aura Sphere right and blowing off an Iron Jugulis' main head. The rest of the machine plummeted from the air, smokes and sparks trailing off its body.

"Calorimetry!" Noctum said, climbing higher into the air. Iron Conqueror wasn't too far now. Below him, Zacian, Zamazenta, and Valkyrie had stopped running ahead. They stood their ground, likely because they lacked effective attacks from this distance.

"We do the biggest calorimetry we can muster," Noctum continued. "Everyone sends Gene their best attacks! With all of us here, it's bound to pack an explosive punch!"

Zacian suddenly dashed forward, swinging her giant sword to cut down five Eternatus Brawlers.

"You won't hear any complaints from me!" she barked.

"Aye!" Zamazenta jumped onto her back, then leaped up and crashed into an Eternatus Bombardier. "What've we got to lose?" he added as he fell back to the ground.

"Well, Gene would need to agree to it." Cid tittered. "Is that— o-oh, he's gone already."

Noctum looked around for signs of a rift, only to nearly fall out of the air when a finger tapped his right shoulder. The cosmic charizard turned, tail flame sparking.

Gene pointed to Iron Conqueror. "We'll need to distract that thing."

Diamond skidded to a stop on a nearby building roof. "With what?"

Zacian and Zamazenta stepped forward.

"We can do it," Zacian said.

Zamazenta nodded. "This is the kind of thing we were made for."

Grishi blipped into the middle of them. "Grishi help close gap, then."

The zorotwo put a paw on each canine's shoulder and teleported them away. Noctum immediately spotted blurs slamming into Iron Conqueror's right knee.

"All right, then." Gene drifted away from Noctum and held his arms up. "Lend me your energy!"

"Duuuuude, you totally stole that one from Dragonite Ball!" Cyril scoffed.

Gene rolled his eyes. "Let me have this."

Noctum wasn't about to question it. He quickly gathered dragon energy along his arms then slung Spacial Rends toward Gene. Diamond followed with a Roar of Time right from his horn.

The mega mewtwo buckled in midair, but managed to catch the attacks in his psychic grip.

"A... all r... right! Now... the rest of you!"

XxX​

"Does he mean us?" Shimmer wondered, galloping across a road full of craters and scorch marks from all the fighting.

"Ha! I can't freaking hit that from down here!" Nikki said. "Let's just keep these assholes occupied!"

The toxtricity turned right and pinwheeled her right arm to strum her lightning guitar. An Overdrive zapped an Iron Jugulus swooping down to get the jump on them.

Igneous flew into the air, watching the ruins of Parliament to see if other robots would try to head toward them. But the coast was clear.

"Yeah, I can't hit it either," the grovlazzle conceded. "But you might, Shim. With that, uh, big ice spike attack."

"Glacial Lance?" Shimmer looked up. Gene was high in the air. "Worth a shot, I suppose."

The ponytales leveled his horn and unleashed the giant icicle. Igneous held his breath, only to exhale in relief when Gene's growing energy sphere sucked it up like some sort of black hole.

And then a Hyper Beam came in from a space pirate ship behind Gene. Followed by a second. And a third. The large energy cluster grew in size.

Igneous couldn't make out Gene's face at this distance, but he had to imagine maintaining it was a struggle.

XxX​

Yuna easily spotted a familiar mega mewtwo holding a giant, expanding ball of blue-purple energy off to her right. Which had to mean Iron Conqueror could spot it.

Yet there were blue and red blurs slamming into the giant zygarde robot. They didn't seem to be hurting it that much, but it was swinging its ribbons around wildly.

"Troopers! Get back here and protect your emperor! Get these ingrates away from me!"

Flashes of pink and orange came from Yuna's right. Shiva's Freezing Glare and Jade's Aeroblast joined with the other attacks. The ball of energy grew even larger. It trembled and shuddered in the air.

Yuna drew power out of her griseous core. Red and black energy swirled around her. It took the shape of a Giratina phantasm. Yuna thrust it forward, sending it toward the large energy bomb. She even spotted her mother and some Aeon troops adding blue-purple blasts to the mix. Even Vince contributed some dragon energy from a safe distance on a nearby building roof.

Dragon Pulses filled the air around Iron Conqueror. But the blue and red blurs kept blipping around Iron Conqueror, and the blasts sailed wide.

"Get... clear!" Gene shouted through the X-transceiver line.

Yuna took one look at the giant energy ball and heeded Gene's orders. She flew left, along with Ifrit, Jade, and Shiva. Quetzal zigzagged down a city street, orange sparks trailing behind him. She chose to focus on intercepting Eternatus Gunners and Bombardiers flying toward Iron Conqueror.

Dragon Darts filled the air, destroying several Gunners. Ifrit and Shiva added black flames and pink beams. Then an Aeroblast swept across the sky, downing a dozen Gunners.

The dragapult kept stealing glances at Gene. She really hoped this calorimetry bomb would work.

XxX​

Gene's arms trembled. His shoulder crystals rattled in place. He thought they might even dislodge.

The energy was overwhelming! Every muscle in Gene's body ached. The back of his head burned.

Dark Matter wasn't interjecting. Instead, it funneled every bit of energy it shared with Gene to keep the energy ball stable.

Fortunately, Zacian and Zamazenta remained a perfect distraction. Iron Conqueror hadn't tried attacking him. And no Eternatus Troopers interfered, either.

"Nnnggggrrrr! I've had enough of your foolish games!"

Iron Conqueror raised its arms up. Gene didn't know what it was preparing. Which meant now was the time.

Gritting his teeth, the mega mewtwo shoved the massive energy ball forward with a pulse of ESP. He floated in place, arms outstretched to keep pushing whatever psionics he could. Even though his arms wanted to pop out of his shoulders and wither away.

"What?! What is this! No... nooooooo!"

To Gene's delight and relief, the energy ball slammed into Iron Conqueror. A massive blue purple explosion erupted around the Parliament building. The shockwave created a torrent of dust and debris chunks that rippled in all directions. Its force catapulted Gene backwards. The dust storm raced to meet him.

Breathing heavily, Gene's face scrunched up. He barely managed to get a rift open, sending him crashing onto a bed in the middle of the arena platform. Startled cries and gasps came from all around him.

He was vaguely aware of auras scurrying about, with others lying in place. Gene lifted his head. Various monk healers tended to a handful of dragons and space pirates. Some lucario and mienshao here. A couple of gothitelle there. That gardevoir they'd taken from Citadark was even healing a dragonite a few beds over.

"Gene?" Artemis called. The cosmic milotic slithered over, starcloud ribbons curling up. "What happened? Are you hurt?" He looked over his shoulder. "Scarlett, get over here! Gene—"

"Elixirs," Gene rasped. "Not hurt. Just... spent. From a crazy big attack."

Artemis blinked slowly. Then he waved Scarlett over with a ribbon. The dragonair pushed over a basket with several elixirs in it. Gene grabbed two bottles. He quickly chugged the first one.

"Cyril, what's the situation?" Gene said.

"There's too much smoke to make anything out," Cyril said. "But I'm not seeing Paradox's robot attacking."

"Great." Gene chugged the other elixir, then dropped both empty bottles to the ground. "Then I'm heading back out."

"Are the others okay?" Scarlett fluttered her wings nervously. "Do we need to get Starlene in there?"

"Not yet." Gene sprang to his feet. He opened a rift and floated through, reappearing in the exact same midair spot overlooking the Parliament building.

... Or, rather, the crater that was left of it. A crater filled with broken remnants of Iron Conqueror. Giant chunks of black and green metal lay strewn about. Motor oil and strange purple fluids dribbled onto the ground.

"Don't get cocky," Dark Matter said. "Can you feel that nearby anger?"

The lingering smoke vanished in an intense psychic wind. Gene drifted back, throwing up his right arm.

Paradox floated above the wreckage of his machine. His right tentacles coiled tightly around the Rift Ripper. In fact, his tentacles melted into the device and wormed their way toward the Mind Plate powering it.

"Mewtwo," Paradox said. "You have... escaped your exile. Aha ha. Ha. Ha."

Red energy flickered in the deoxys' chest. Undoubtedly from his Red Chain fragment.

And it caused a reaction with the Rift Ripper! The device fused to Paradox's tentacles. Then Paradox began absorbing it. Bit by bit, the Rift Ripper dissolved into Paradox's body.

"The hell?" Gene conjured his giant spoon. He whispered into his X-transceiver, "Everyone get over to the Parliament building! Paradox isn't out of tricks yet. And where the hell is Leo?"

"Do you think you've won here?" Paradox said.

Smirking, Gene shrugged. "I mean... we're thinning your troops and we beat your big bad bot. So, we're making progress."

"You stupid, naive rebel." Paradox drifted back. A pink glow overtook his body. "You haven't won anything."

His right tentacles coiled into an arm that he held up. "I will send you to the darkest, most remote depths of reality and have you suffer in ways so unimaginable, I cannot even speak them!"

Gene responded by tossing his spoon forward like a tomahawk. Paradox whipped his left tentacles. Psychic blades effortlessly cleaved through the spoon.

Pink energy collected around Paradox's right hand. "Begone, Mewtwo!"

Just when it looked like a rift was going to open, a blue-purple laser twice Paradox's size fired from the ground, forcing him to dive down and land atop the tallest piece of rubble.

Gene looked down and spotted Widget in his original eternavally form skidding to a stop at the edge of the crater.

"You won't be doing anything like that!" he bellowed.

"What? What is this?"

Gene's starcloud tail twitched. He felt it too. It was like someone draped a warm towel over him.

"I've anchored my friends' souls!" Widget declared. "Your dirty tricks won't work this time!"

"You?" Paradox's eyes widened. "This is impossible! I destroyed you for your incompetence! How are you working with the rebels?!"

"Heh." Gene rubbed the bridge of his snout. "Guess you weren't as 'in control' of things as you thought."

"Enough!" Paradox shot into the air. Pink and purple energy gathered around his hands. "I will call in all of my Troopers! All of my Terraformers!" His eyes twitched. "You. Will. BOW BEFORE PARADOX!"

The deoxys surged into the air, opening rifts at a breakneck pace. First ten. Then twenty. Then fifty.

Eternatus Troopers poured out by the hundreds. A couple dozen more Eternatus Terraformers filled the sky. Cracks spread through the air. The ground trembled. Widget looked around in a panic.

Paradox was putting the world under even more strain!

All the machines took aim at Gene from a distance. Paradox pointed to him.

"Annihilate this filthy rebel!" he shouted.

Gene braced himself to flee into a rift, when suddenly beams of golden light filled the sky, blasting apart Eternatus Troopers by the dozens. Even one of the Terraformers taking aim blew up in an expanding blue-purple fireball, forcing others around it to break off.

"What?" Paradox looked up. "No! Impossible! What is the meaning of this?!"

Giant giratina limbs then appeared overhead, knocking away more troopers. A cosmic charizard weaved between them, sweeping blue flames through several Eternatus Gunners.

"Leo's back!" Yuna said.

"He seems a bit dazed," Noctum added. "And he's not saying anything. But I bet it's because he's trying to focus!"

"Ah, he's going off on his own." Yuna sighed. "I'm worried about him, but there are too many troops to stay together. Leave them to us!"

"Yeah, you focus on Paradox," Noctum exclaimed. "Let's end this!"

Gene looked back at Paradox, smirking. Despite the ground still shaking, Widget had firm footing.

"Game over, bud." The mega mewtwo pointed at him. "You could save everyone a lot of trouble if you give up and hand over your little toys."

Paradox's right eye twitched again. "Me? Surrender? Aha ha ha ha ha ha!" Pink energy swirled around him. "Never! This is my universe to rule!"

"Scarlett, gimme a beat," Gene whispered.

Triumphant orchestral music blared through his X-transceiver as Paradox flew into the air and unleashed a pink beam half the size of the crater. Widget ran right to dodge, while Gene Phantom Warped to the left.

But Paradox teleported right next to Gene and struck him with pink blades jutting out of his right tentacles. Gene fell from the air, barely stopping himself from crashing into what was left of the road.

"Aha ha! Aha ha ha ha!" Paradox flew back over Iron Conqueror's remains. "This... this is no defeat! This is a glorious welcoming committee!"

The air filled with pink psychic lances. Paradox hurled them at Gene. He floated forward, weaving through the lances as they slammed into the concrete.

"You love me!" Paradox blurted out between his unhinged laughter. "You all love me!"

Gene slung two Shadow Balls toward Paradox, but the deoxys teleported a few meters above them. He opened another rift over his head. The ruins grew tremendously hot.

"The hell?" Gene fanned himself with his hand. He noticed Widget scrambling back toward the remains of the complex's outer wall.

"I am the destined emperor of this dimension!" Paradox's tentacles glowed pink. "No, of every dimension!"

Gene's eyes widened. Fiery meteors surrounded by psionics cascaded from the rift.

"Knock it off!" Gene shouted, soaring higher in the air to avoid the meteors. They rained upon the ruins, leaving fiery explosions in their wake. Strong enough for Gene to completely lose sight of Widget.

"Don't you see what's happened?" he continued, gesturing around him. "Your rifts are collapsing the dimension you want to rule so badly! Hell, at this rate you could collapse countless dimensions!"

"Oh no!" Paradox rested his left hand against his forehead as if he was about to faint in dramatic fashion. "Countless boring dimensions collapsing upon each other?" He fired another augmented Psycho Boost at Gene. "GOOD! That will make them even easier to conquer!"

Gene Phantom Warped down. He rifled off a Shadow Ball that struck Paradox's left leg. Paradox buckled in midair.

A thin, blue-purple beam pierced through the smoke underneath Gene and Paradox. The deoxys plummeted from the air, screaming. He crashed into one of Iron Conqueror's flaming chunks of rubble.

"You're not conquering anything!" Widget shouted. The eternavally stood atop a fragment of brick wall that wasn't ablaze. He shifted to miraivally mode and took to the air to join Gene.

"Rrrrrrrrgggh." Paradox got up. His left leg and left tentacles were missing. But his core glowed red and the limbs regenerated in streams of pink light.

"Imbecile. Did you forget his regenerating abilities?" Dark Matter said.

No, Gene mentally scoffed. We just have to get at his core and make sure that won't work.

"How dare you talk down to me, W1-DG3T!" Paradox snarled. He unleashed another giant pink beam, focused on Widget. "I am your emperor! Your creator!"

Widget shifted to reshivally and met the pink beam with a stream of Blue Flare. It dulled the attack enough for Widget to fly above what was left.

"My name is Widget!" he barked. "And you are not my emperor!"

"Ridiculous!" Paradox blipped a few meters back. He opened another rift. A tidal wave rolled out from the rift, forcing Widget and Gene to break off in opposite directions.

"I am Illustrious Ultimate Supreme Grand Emperor Paradox... the Great!" the deoxys bellowed as the wave crashed over the Parliament building's ruins, snuffing out the flames and leaving a wall of steam behind. "Y-Yes! The Great! I am doing such a good job with you pathetic whelps that I've given myself another promotion!"

Gene channeled Dark Matter's power from his core. Black and red energy shrouded his body. He thrust his hands down.

From the opposite side of Paradox, Widget spewed a Fusion Flare. Paradox pivoted right to snuff the massive fireball out with an intense Psychic burst.

That gave Gene the opening he needed. He spread his hands apart. Dark spikes skewered Paradox from below. They sliced through his legs and tentacles. And some struck the deoxys' red core.

Paradox's screams filled the air. Widget capitalized on the opening and shot another Fusion Flare forward. The large fireball struck Paradox, knocking him out of the sky. Gene shot after the smoky trail Paradox left behind.

But by the time he got close to the far edge of the crater, Paradox had blipped to the opposite end.

"T-Troopers!" he cried, his body slowly regenerating. "Come! Protect your emperor!"

Gene desperately tossed two Shadow Balls across the crater, only for Paradox to blip away again. Somewhere behind a large chunk of rubble to the left of where he'd been.

Multiple Iron Moth and Iron Jugulis filled the sky. They took aim at Gene and Widget with toxins and fierce winds.

But a Glacial Lance came in from below, upending an Iron Jugulis. Then Fiery Dance fireballs struck another Jugulis, followed by a beam of tachyons blowing apart the remaining robots.

"Keep it up!" Shimmer called over the X-transceiver.

"With pleasure." Smirking, Gene held up his right arm. He levitated the piece of rubble Paradox was hiding behind and tried to squish him with it. But Paradox, now fully restored, countered with his own ESP.

The stalemate blew the rubble apart into dust and debris. Thankfully, Widget had closed the gap with Paradox and punished the deoxys with a Blue Flare from above.

Snarling, Paradox teleported high into the air. "How dare you attack me!" He opened another rift overhead. A large metal thorn jabbed Widget from below, knocking the reshivally from the air.

Gene seized the opening. He thrust his arms down again. More dark spikes skewered a screaming Paradox. This time, Gene held the spikes in place. Paradox gathered pink energy around what was left of his body. A psychic explosion spread out from where he was. Pink light chewed through the dark spikes. Gene raised his arms and wrung them out.

Another Fusion Flare came in from the right, blowing Paradox back and into a tangle of mental wires that was once some sort of fence. Widget climbed onto a chunk of Iron Conqueror debris and shifted back to eternavally.

"I think another big beam can get him down to his core!" he shouted. "Don't stop pressuring him!"

Saluting, Gene shot forward. But Paradox was already regenerating.

"Get away from me!" the deoxys cried, flinging pink energy balls around willy nilly. Gene Phantom Warped through several, then swatted two more aside with his giant spoon. Dark energy sheathed the spoon. Gene tried to slash Paradox with it, only to whiff when Paradox teleported several meters back.

"Finally showing your true colors, huh?" Gene taunted. "Deep down, you're nothing more than an illustrious ultimate supreme grand emperor of cowardice!"

"I am not!" Paradox snarled. Most of his body had regenerated. "Troopers! Troopers, get over here and help me show these brutes my real true colors!"

But the sky was full of golden and blue-purple explosions. Gene couldn't make out a single Eternatus Trooper or Terraformer nearby. The others clearly had a handle on this.

Paradox's eyes twitched. "You cannot defeat me!" he bellowed, opening two rifts on either side of him.

Big, ethereal tentacles appeared and swatted indiscriminately at the air. Eyes wide, Gene flew back. He pulled up, Phantom Warping to avoid one of the tentacles.

"I am the essence of evolution!" Paradox continued ranting. "The essence of life itself! I'm not some failed prototype! I'm the emperor! I conquered the entire Qliphoth! I subdued everyone! It was me! Me! ME!"

"Nobody cares!" Gene shouted. He Phantom Warped forward, then fired two black spears in the direction of Paradox's shouting. The deoxys blipped left of one, but the second struck him in the torso.

"Get away from me!" Paradox screeched as his rifts shut and the tentacles went away.

Gene refused to let him regenerate or retaliate. He thrashed his arms around, using the black thread attached to the spear to fling Paradox around. Gene slammed him into part of a mangled fence. Then the ground. Then a chunk of building rubble. Paradox grunted with every strike.

The mega mewtwo caught a blue-purple gleam to his right. Widget's giant beam was charged.

"I... nrrrrgggh... you can't stop me!" Paradox managed to wriggle free.

"Damn it," Gene muttered, watching black mist evaporate. Paradox glared at him, then surged up into the air. High enough to where Widget's beam wouldn't do much.

"Aha ha... aha ha ha ha!" Paradox's body glowed bright. "If... if I can't have this dimension, then nobody can! I will collapse it into nothingness! Then go on to conquer the rest of the universes on my own!"

The air warped around him. A strange buzz filled the air. Gene's eyes widened in alarm.

"Prepare yourself, Mewtwo!" Paradox said through his unhinged laughter. "This is the end for all of you! Ś̵̨̅̏Ả̶͉͈Ȳ̵̧̪͑ ̴̮͙͑͘Ğ̵̦͙̀O̴̟͂O̷̳̠̐̌D̶̝̤͛B̶̲̞̫̔̈́Y̷̫̜͉̐̇̅E̸̫͙͒̊̊!̵͉̤̊͑̈́"

Gene had to act. He surged higher into the air, conjuring his spoon. Gene funneled as much dark energy from his core into it as he could manage. He flew past Paradox. Gene wound up with the spoon.

The distorted energy buzzing around Paradox sliced into Gene's skin. Tore gashes along his arms and legs. But Gene held tough. With a strained growl, he swung the spoon with all his might. It broke through Paradox's psychic field, smushing the deoxys' face.

"Now, Widget!" Gene cried.

With one last push, Gene used his spoon to spike Paradox out of the air. He tumbled toward the crater. And toward Widget, who stood atop a chunk of Iron Conqueror's remains.

"The only end here is yours!" Widget declared.

An Eternabeam filled the air. Gene had forced Paradox into the perfect position. He held Paradox in place as the laser washed over him, muffling his screams. Bits of blue and orange drifted past Gene. He felt his black thread slacken and dispelled it.

As the beam died down, Gene quickly dove toward the ground. He couldn't give Paradox any opening to wriggle out of this. Gene stretched his right hand out and focused as much psychic energy as he could.

There!

Gene found a psychic aura to grab onto. Sure enough, he pulled Paradox's core up through the smoke left over from Widget's attack. The eternavally hopped across more pieces of rubble until he was over on Gene's left.

"̸͙̰͑N̵̪͔͔̆õ̶̬̞!̴͇̱̈́̓̃ ̷̦̘̳͐͝T̴̥̉̋̄h̵͙̪͈̏i̵̙͌̎̿s̶̡̲̭̽ ̷͕̘̈́î̵̥̥̫͋ŝ̷̨̤ ̷̨͓̱͆̒̀ì̵͙̓m̶͇̆͂p̵̡̠̌o̸̰̝͊̍̍s̴͚̻͛̓͒š̴̗i̵͕̳̞͋̄b̶̹̚͝ḽ̶́͒̄e̶͙͚͊̆̒!̴͈͔̇̋͑"̴͙̓ Paradox's core twitched in Gene's psychic grasp. "̷͈͛I̴̠̎͠ ̸̤̤̅c̴͖̘̯̓̿́a̴͖͙͍̒͘n̷͔̚n̷̰͍͗̏ô̶͔t̵̳̮̼͒̽ ̸̟̎l̴̢̻͚͂o̸̬͘ș̸̡̾e̴͔̬͂ͅ ̴̢͙͇̾͗t̷̮͕̓͊̂ŏ̸̥̑͠ ̶̣̺̑̾y̵̤͇͇̍́o̵̰̚ȕ̸͇̙̪̌͝!̵͓̗̏̈́͌ ̶̩̹͗Ȋ̷̹̬ ̷̰̪̜̉͌́ñ̷͉̮͖̎e̵̫͂̄v̶̙͎̖̒é̶̡̡̛̲r̵̨͙͓̄ ̵̛̣͉͜͠l̸̫̹̔̃͜o̸͚̻̯̔̚s̵͖̻̕͜e̵̩̣͍̽͌͘!̷̹̄̿ ̵̪͊͌̋Î̵̫͉ ̴̺͆ͅa̴͙͍̿m̵̧̗͚̀ ̵͖͘i̵̠͈̹͑̏̈́ṇ̴̳͓͆v̶̯̋i̸͔̒̀̕n̸̥͓̋̊̈c̷̥͚̰̾̈́i̶̐͌̌ͅb̵̫̰̼̏l̴̟̪̯̽̅̉e̶̞̭͆!̸̬͔͖̏̽̊ ̵͉̿͒Ī̵̮̘̀ ̴͉͎̌̇̉a̷̘̥͊ͅm̸͓͔̼̾͝ ̸̧̳̌á̴͍l̶̳̹͗͝l̷̝͉̺͂͐́-̴͖̉̈́̎p̷̹̾o̸̼͉̱̐̕̕w̵͎͗̚͠ę̶̧̜͒̃̚r̴̻͎̱̽f̷͚̬̬̊̿͠ũ̸̺̕l̸̘͓̓!̸̧̼́̕"̴̨̽͊̍

"You keep telling yourself that," Gene scoffed. "We'll just consider these your last words. Annoying as always."

"̶̳̌T̸̞̊h̵́͜i̴͈͌s̷̬̋ ̵̲̈́i̴̠͠s̷̼͗n̸̙̑'̶̨͂t̵̞͑ ̴͓̅t̴̛̘h̷̟̀e̵̻̊ ̷̨̾e̷̪̍n̶̜̽d̶͕̿!̴̭̆"̷̇͜ Paradox's core sparked with energy. "I̸̱̊t̸͇́'̸̠̚l̸̞̇ļ̵͂ never b̴̡̃ě̶̘ť̶̪ ̴͓̃t̴͖̚h̵̜͐e̵̮͋ ̷̗͑e̶̜̐n̶̬͝ḏ̸͐!̸̗͝ ̵̻͝M̵̢̾y̷̼͝ ̶͒͜E̴̖͌t̷͈̀e̸̝̓ř̵̝ṋ̸͘a̵̳͘ ̵̱̎E̷͉̎ḿ̴̝p̸̖̍ȉ̷͓r̶̦̂e̸͗͜ ̷͍̕w̸̫͘i̵̬̍l̴̰̊l̷̻̏ ̶͙̇p̵̝̈́e̵͓͠r̴̳̀s̵̥͝i̵͕͐ș̶͛t̵̛̗ ̷̩̀f̶͍͛o̴̺̍r̴̉ͅ ̷̪̔â̵͖l̴̤̔l̸̰͒ ̴͕͝ť̵͇i̵̯̎m̸̨̍ë̵̹́!̷͍̋ It will—"

Gene's starcloud tail twitched. He Phantom Warped backwards seconds before a steel blade cleaved Paradox's core in two, stopping the deoxys mid-sentence.

"What the hell?!" Gene looked around in confusion, only to watch the freed Mind Plate and Red Chain fragment rocket into the air.

"Hey!" he shouted. The mega mewtwo was about to fly after them, when he noticed a golden sheen overhead. Both the Mind Plane and Red Chain fragment disappeared into the sheen, which soon faded to reveal a cosmic arceus standing in midair.

"It's just Leo," Widget said, craning his neck. "Guess he really wanted those back?" Shifting back into his cosmic form, he waved a foreleg. "Heeeeeey, Leo! Nice work up there!"

But Leo didn't respond. In fact, when Gene looked closer, he noticed Leo's eyes were hollow. And there was a strange, static thrum around his wheel.

Yuna had said Leo seemed dazed. And he wasn't talking, either.

Gene's eyes widened. His core burned in his chest. "No way..."

"He kept fighting to ensure he got the plate and fragment," Dark Matter said. "But in truth, Zodiark already claimed him. We've failed."

Not yet!

Gritting his teeth, Gene shot into the air. However, he only got a few meters higher before smacking into a static barrier.

"Leo!" Gene conjured his spoon and swung wildly at the air. Each time, it bounced off static and an off-pitch hum filled the air. "Leo, knock it off!"

"What's going on?"

Noctum flew toward Gene, with Diamond on his back. Yuna caught up to them. Horror spread across the dragapult's face.

"LEO!" she shouted, punching and kicking furiously at the air. Giratina limbs did nothing but strike static. More off-key hums rang out.

That was when Gene spotted a familiar figure floating behind Leo. Zodiark gazed at them with an empty expression.

"Was I not clear before?" Zodiark raised his right arm. Eighteen plates appeared around him and Leo. "Your claim to these was only temporary."

Yuna snarled. Black tendrils emerged from her back and slashed furiously in Zodiark's direction, only to clang off the static barrier each time.

"Now begins the new age of prosperity," Zodiark declared. He held up both arms. Dreamweaver appeared behind him via a rift, alongside twenty different ethereal cards.

The cards stacked atop one another, then merged into a single card. Intense pressure knocked the wind out of Gene.

"Now begins the Eternaverse."

Zodiark absorbed the card. He thrust his arms down. Blue light funneled out from Dreamweaver, washing across Leo.

"Leo, no!" Yuna flew forward, only to run into the barrier. "Fight back! You have to fight back! Remember what you said before!" She slammed the barrier repeatedly to no avail. "C'mon Leo! Please!"

"Your words cannot reach him," Zodiark said as Dreamweaver completely absorbed the cosmic arceus. With that, crystals encased its head. A full crystal arceus stood before them.

"It is over, Yaldabaoth." Zodiark briefly smirked at her. "At long last, you have lost."

Then, over Yuna's roars, Zodiark and Dreamweaver vanished in a blinding flash of white light. When Gene's vision returned, he could only watch a Spacial Rend crescent sail through the empty air.

And it was empty. Gone were all the Eternatus Troopers and remaining Terraformers. There were still space pirate ships back over the city, but they remained stationary. Some pokémon on the decks pointed up, where a strange turquoise green spread across the sky, even blotting out Eternatus.

"What... what just happened?" Noctum looked around in a panic. "I don't understand. We were doing so great!" His tail flame sparked erratically. "How did Zodiark get here? How did he get to Leo?"

"The robot," Diamond muttered. His starry mane and tail had dimmed. "It scattered many of us. I bet that's when it happened."

They both looked at Yuna, who stared into space. Her arms trembled. Chaos energy sparked around her core.

"It can't be over," she whispered. "It can't." Yuna shot Gene a desperate look. "What do we do?"

Snout scrunching up, Diamond watched the turquoise spreading across the sky. "What can we do?"

The three looked at Gene. Because, like it or not, the mega mewtwo was still in charge.

"I, uh..." Gene's starcloud tail twitched up.

"There's nothing we can do," Dark Matter said. "Nothing except wait for our collective demise at Zodiark's hands. We got too complacent. Expected another mystery dungeon to appear to lead us to him. And now we're out of options. We—"

Gene squeezes his eyes shut. He sucked in a breath. The shadows receded into his core. He met the others' gazes.

"Let's gather everyone else by what's left of the fountain." Gene pointed toward the ruined courtyard. "We'll heal up, then try to make a plan."

The others stayed silent, until they slowly nodded one by one. Noctum and Yuna turned and flew away, focusing mostly on the sky.

Gene took another breath and looked up.

It can't be too late. There's gotta be something left.

XxX

~Il Paradigma, No. IV: Paradox, the Emperor~
A flawed prototype for a deoxys army that Matriarch designed to replace the type: fulls after N0-V4's disappearance. The prototype was placed into stasis after failing to display the proper form changes that Matriarch intended it to utilize. With Matriarch's destruction, the prototype escaped confinement and wrestled control of this Paradigm fragment from its previous holder. He proceeded to bring the entirety of Eternatus under his control, beginning a reign that would span generations.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
The Emperor is the fourth tarot card in the Major Arcana. In the upright position it represents leadership, responsibility, structure, stability, and protection. In the reverse position it represents tyranny, rigidity, abuse of power, authority struggles, or difficulties establishing order.

The chapter title is a direct callback to Guiding Light, which contained a sort of "rival" exploration team to the main group going by the name Team Paradox. When the main characters fought against them, the chapter title was "A Paradox to Unravel."

Spoiler: Chapter Art

Raph - C0mms 0pen (@lraphl.bsky.social)

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