"Princess! Come back here this instant! You have yet to be excused from your duties!" A squeaky voice called out through the forest between winded breaths but it was a futile effort. His quarry had all ready taken off deep into the woods and his legs were too short and stubby giving him no hope in catching up to her anytime soon. She surely had to be out of earshot by now too. Great.
The round pink creature sighed and made use of the nearby unoccupied shade of a tall tree to rest under and regain some of the energy he had lost. Bright large eyes squinted up at the expansive sky as ominous gray clouds rolled in over the kingdom bringing with them the unspoken promise of a lightning storm.
"Well now I know why she was in such a hurry at least...Though it's still no excuse for running me ragged!" The fairy being complained to himself only to be answered by a loud clap of thunder.
"Ack! I mean she can stay gone however much she likes as long as she comes home safely. I just don't want to get in trouble because of her again! It's getting old!"
/ / / / /
Rustling through the bushes the run away beamed as her sensitive ears twitched with the sound of running water. She quickly brushed herself off and picked the few twigs and leaves out of her rusty orange and cream colored fur before continuing on over to the water's edge. The stream here was so gentle you could easily see your reflection like a mirror and bathe in the crystal clear waters without worry. Though that is not what she had wandered out all this way for. This stream was a special meeting place.
"Pearl! Hey Peaaaarl. Are you in there?" She greeted in a sing song voice as a chocolate tipped paw slapped the surface of the water insistently creating ripples. An excited smile broke across her face as the message was received in almost an instant. A shape began to materialize out of the depths into a form she was all too familiar with. Her expression was one of delight as her dear friend breached the surface with a kind smile.
"Hello again, Eclair. You ditched your tutor just now to come here, didn't you?" The water being's voice spoke softly as she walked out onto the river bank to meet with her companion face to face.
"Maaaybe. But hey, I have a valid excuse! Check out the weather! Wild, isn't it?" Eclair explained and gazed up into the heavens admiring the bright flash of lightning streaking across the sky.
Pearl fell silent in contemplation as she watched the brilliant display play out before them. Taking in the sights, sounds, and energies to read like a book. Lightning storms were a normal part of existence for the inhabitants of this world but this one in particular seemed different somehow. The charge in the air felt unusually negative causing a shudder to run down the dark blue ridge of her back all the way to the tip of her flukes. She opened her mouth to speak but the words were swallowed in a stunned yelp as lightning struck the ground between them creating a swirling vortex.
"What the hell is that?!" Eclair screamed in fear and scrambled instinctively for something to grab as the portal began to suck the pair in to the darkness.
"It appears we are being summoned. To where or whom I do not know." The water elemental calmly replied knowing full well how useless panic would be in this or any situation. "Keep calm, friend. I have a feeling we will be just fine."
"You're saying that to make me feel better no matter if it's the truth or not! Besides it's oh so easy to remain cool, calm, and collected when this is normal for you. Well it isn't for me and I'm freaking out!" Eclair retorted and curled into a ball as they continued to fall through the vortex. Looking down she could see a bright white light coming into view.
Pearl noticed this and offered an explanation. "The light at the end of the tunnel. That's our exit point. Keep close to me, there is no telling what may be waiting for us on the other side..."
Eclair nodded and took her partner's words into consideration as the light drew ever closer. She prepared herself to attack if need be her muscles twitching with building electrical charge.
"Here it comes!" A strangely accented male voice chimed from the other end of the interdimensional portal ecstatically as it dragged in the reluctant occupants with a cloud of smoke as the machine he was operating started to fail. He hovered in the air patiently as the two beings his device sucked in became visible. He adjusted his eyeglasses as he strove to get a better look. He had never seen anything like this before. One was a shapely orange and cream colored rodent creature with a curly tuft of hair and a long lightning bolt shaped tail. The other was even more peculiar! A mostly blue quadrupedal chimaera of various species of animals such as fish, canine and dolphin.
"P-Pearl? Where are we?" The orange one broke the silence first as she coughed out the smoke.
"You're in ze Netherworld and I am ze brilliant genius whose invention summoned you here." The same voice the pair had heard before coming into this dimension broke in again. Revealing the owner to be a light blue apparition and promped a terrified scream from Eclair as her sunny yellow cheeks crackled with electricity to let loose a powerful burst of energy directly onto her target.
"Eclair! Control yourself. We do not know this being's intentions yet so how can you attack so indiscriminately?"
"It was a ghost, Pearl. Ghost as in dead! All I did was buy us time to figure things out."
"Or you bought us a ticket straight into this universe's equivalent of a prison cell!"
"Did you have a better plan in mind?" Eclair shot back in annoyance.
"...No but it's not a good idea to shoot first and ask questions later."
"Ughh..." The ghost moaned in pain writhing on the obsidian stone floor. "Zat...hurt." He could only watch in his paralyzed state as the two creatures debated a moment before slipping away from his laboratory and into the unknown.
Outside the two female beings found that they were definitely not in their home world anymore. A dreary landscape unfolded before them as a place of heat and darkness. There were rivers of molten magma here instead of water and the charming kingdom the two knew so well had been replaced by a jagged foreboding castle not too far from where they were standing.
"I don't like this place, Pearl. It reminds me of the bad place my parents would tell me stories of to make me behave."
"It is quite unpleasant. Nothing I am unable to fix though." Pearl replied with a smile as she got to work on improving the quality of their environment starting with the temperature and quality of the air. Unleashing an intense beam of frost on the nearby rocks and lava streams only to alert a horde of furious spirits.
"So much for not getting into any fights, huh?" The Raichu taunted her friend and rushed into the fray head on setting up her defenses with a Double Team creating multiple decoys of herself for the opponents to target instead of her. It worked like a charm. The ghosts were too confused and angry to care whether they were fighting a copy or the real thing.
Pearl remained still and focused her mind blocking out all outside interruptions. In her mind's eye she started to visualize rain clouds and a heavy down pour even the sound and smell of falling rain drops was sent into their surroundings. Sea green eyes opened up wide as the three fins on her head vibrated with intention. The clouds she had imagined condensed out of the gases present in the atmosphere and created rain. Her job done for now the Vaporeon withdrew from the battle to melt into a puddle. She did not want to risk the chance of an accidental electric shock hitting her physical body.
"Thanks for the Rain Dance! Now to put these guys out of commission!" Eclair exclaimed and released even more energy in the form of a Discharge attack. The drenched ghosts making the chained lightning twice as powerful. The angered spirits dropped to the ground with howls of agony while the weaker ones retreated back into the shadows unwilling to face the same fate.
Unbeknownst to the new arrivals however their activities were far from unnoticed or over. High up on a close by rock wall a hidden camera in the form of a slug was recording everything to be sent into a live feed directly to its master's big screen.
In the throne room of the same castle the other worldly beings had noticed just moments ago sat a sinister white spirit who was so shocked by what he was seeing his jaw had almost literally dropped to the floor in disbelief. Even the food he had been greedily scarfing down was left untouched and grew cold. He had forgotten all about it until his servant returned to check back in on him.
"Um, sir? Is something the matter?" The inquiry from the violet ghost was not one of genuine concern but curiosity. It was unlike his master to just stare at the television like this.
"Don't be a fool! Nothing's the matter! But I do want someone to bring these two intruders to me immediately!" The white entity whined like a child about to have a temper tantrum and clenched his metal claws before barking orders at four young ghosts, colored pink, blue, red, and orange. "You four bring me these...these...things! Or ELSE!"
The young souls flinched as their master assigned them a task they were not exactly up to. "Yes, Lord Betrayus."