"Aerín!" a young woman with lavender hair shouted, searching around the house. "Where is that child?" she wondered aloud as she peered into the seven-year-old's room. "Not there," she murmured to herself as she withdrew. She entered the living room, where an Espeon was resting on the couch. "Hey, Espeon," she asked, shaking the psychic feline awake. "Have you seen Aerín this morning?"
The cat groggily blinked her eyes. What do you think? she asked rather crankily. In case you didn't notice, I was sort of asleep. What, did you think that I slept with my eyes open?
"Sorry," the young lady said rather sheepishly. "Can you look for her, please?"
The cat gave a sigh and closed her eyes, searching for the spunky young girl's mischievous mindset. I believe she's in YOUR room at the moment, creeping slowly towards Wallace.
"My room?" the woman echoed, bewildered. "Why would she be there?"
The cat shrugged. Search me, but she's got a bottle of hair gel in one hand and a bottle of bleach in the other. She flopped back down. Judging by what that child is like, you might want to consider stopping her before something nasty happens.
"'Something nasty…?'"
Good night, Winona.
"Huh?"
Soft snores told Winona that Espeon was already asleep.
Winona stared at the cat for a moment. "Something nasty indeed…" she muttered, pondering. Hair gel, bleach…she thought, her chin cupped in her hand. Slowly the puzzle put itself together. "Oh, no," she groaned, rushing up the stairs.
"Five."
Axel Nightblazer, apparent age anywhere from 16 through 18 years old but real age almost one billion times that, waited patiently outside a large house seemingly grown out of the ground like the trees surrounding it.
"Four." The "young" man's midnight blue hair waved backwards in the wind, a tad longer than most males liked to keep their hair, but nonetheless passable as "short" hair.
"Three." A Pikachu tapped its foot on his shoulder, waiting almost as patiently as its companion.
"Two." A blue screen popped out from Axel's large headphones, showing the time. He blinked his sapphire blue eyes and privately wondered to himself if she could pull it off.
"One." Axel leaned back against the tree behind him and grinned in anticipation.
"Zero."
"ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"
Axel grinned, watching the chaos unfolding inside the house with the x-ray function in his eyepiece. "Now this is my idea of morning entertainment."
"Aerín!" Wallace shouted, his usually gentlemanly manner cast off in his annoyance at his rather rude awakening. "What did you do to my hair?"
"No-thing~!" Aerín sang out, bouncing straight over a shocked Winona and landing lightly at the bottom of the stairs. "Can't catch me~!" she called, racing forward only to bump into a pair of folded blue-sleeved arms. The girl slowly looked up to see Axel raise a midnight blue eyebrow at her in amusement.
"Bleached and spiked hair? Is that really the best you can do?" Axel asked.
"What do you think? Anything more would get me grounded!"
Axel chuckled and gave his surrogate niece a hug and a pat on the back. "I'll deal with your parents," he said, waving her away. "Go play while they cool down."
Aerín beamed and nodded, skipping away into the forest. Axel watched her go, lost in memory. "So it's been five years, hasn't it?" he asked, not turning around.
A young man with shadowed hair and silver eyes garbed in a long-sleeved black shirt and a dark gray vest with silver lining raised a dark eyebrow, turning his head toward Axel. "How long did it take you to realize I was here?"
Axel turned around, facing his companion. "About five seconds. Welcome back, Aeric."
Aeric straightened, dusting his jacket off and lifting himself away from the tree he was leaning against. "Glad I could make someone else's day. How are things around here?"
Axel shrugged. "They're typical. As typical as one can expect from a family like this, anyway."
"Any disasters as of late?"
"If you mean the kind that we should really be worried about, no. If you mean the mundane disasters that make up everyday life in this family, well, that should be self explanatory."
"That much like you, is she?" he heard a voice wonder aloud behind him, and turned to see a brown-haired "young" woman about their apparent age step out of the woods. "Though it's rather odd, considering the circumstances surrounding her birth."
Axel shrugged. "I got it from my mother, Eterna. And there was a bit of her in Aeron, remember."
"From mother to son, and from that son to a spiritual successor," Aeric noted. "Not so odd if thought of in that way, then."
Axel leaned on the fence, remembering a green-eyed teenager who looked so very much like himself, except for the eyes and his black hair. "It's been seven years, but it hasn't got any easier, missing him."
Eterna put a hand on Axel's shoulder. "We've all been together for so long. It's no wonder that we still mourn."
Axel put a hand over the crystalline heart that all Aetheraeans possessed in their chests. "It's like a piece of my own soul was cut out. We were part of each other, two parts of a whole."
"Twins are closer than most," Aeric pointed out. "Your souls were linked so closely that even Ashura couldn't bind two other people tighter."
Axel didn't answer for a few heartbeats. "Let's talk about it later," he said, glancing at an approaching Winona. "Right now, we have to deal with the wrath of the mother."
Aeric smiled wryly. "Oh, joy."
Winona stormed forward. "Have you three seen Aerín?"
Axel shook his head. "No, we haven't. Why? Did something happen?"
Winona's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't happen to be covering for her, would you?"
Axel put on an innocent expression. "Who, me? Come on, my poker face is horrible! You'd have to be worried about Aeric deceiving you!" Aeric's eyes narrowed at Axel just slightly, and Axel suddenly felt beads of cold sweat coalescing on the back of his neck. Staying casual, he turned to Winona. "Anyway, what did happen?"
Winona sighed. "One, it's time for breakfast. Two, she ruined Wallace's sleep and hairstyle."
Axel waved a hand. "I know the latter. What's for the former?"
Winona hit him in the chest. Axel staggered backwards a little; unlike Aerín, Winona was more than capable of giving him a roughhousing in a fight if he wasn't careful. "You ARE covering for her," she accused.
Axel held up his palms. "Alright, I surrender. You got me."
Winona sighed. "Which way did she go?"
"Into the forest somewhere," Axel said, gesturing vaguely in a direction Aerín did not go. "You probably won't catch her at this rate."
Winona stalked off in the indicated direction. "We'll see about that," she muttered.
Axel raised an eyebrow and grinned at Aeric. Aeric sighed and glanced in Winona's direction as the young woman breezed away in an almost casual flash-step. "You're going to pay for that later, I hope you know."
"Not if I can help it," Axel said, spinning on his heel. "Come on, let's have breakfast."
Aerín raced out into a clearing and plucked a special reed from the ground. "Here goes," she muttered. She lifted the reed to her lips and blew a long series of beautiful notes that echoed for miles.
A small whistling call was heard in response, and then a blue bird-like Pokemon with cloudy wings floated down, landing in Aerín's outstretched arms. "Hey, Swablu!" Aerín laughed as the flying-Pokemon happily chattered in her arms. "Ready to explore today?" Her small companion whistled a cheerful affirmative. "Great! Let's go!" Aerín exclaimed, skipping off and setting Swablu on her shoulder.
Fifteen minutes later, the two were making their way through the forest, chatting about various things.
"What? Your brother has a girlfriend?" Swablu nodded happily. "Is she pretty?" Again a series of nods, accompanied by whistles and trills. "Wow, you really look up to her, don't you?" Another wistful nod. "Don't worry, Swablu; you're a good enough friend as you are." Swablu smiled and let out an affectionate trill and nuzzled against her friend. Aerín laughed and gently rubbed the flying-type on the back.
They came upon a large rock formation. There were six seven-foot high rocks placed in a circle around a larger, twelve-foot high rock. Smaller stones surrounded the whole thing, forming a perfect circle around the spot. "What's this?"
Swablu whistled something. "What? What do you mean it's hiding something?" Swablu told her about the mystery surrounding this location.
Until seven years ago, there was a group who frequented this spot every so often. The story was that they would sing a special song to the rocks, and the largest one would reveal a pathway underground. Intrigued, Aerín listened as Swablu sang, lulling her into sleep.
A group of fourteen teenagers walked into the clearing. In groups of two, they walked up to each of the smaller rocks. The central one was taken by a young man with emerald robes and jet-black hair and a young woman with orange hair and azure robes. One by one, each group began to sing, which caused each rock to glow. The central one shone bright white, the others shone with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple light, respectively. First the white rock glowed, revealing a complex multi-layered barrier that was surrounding it, each part of the barrier glowing a different color and branching off to meet a rock whose glow was the same as its own. The red one was connected to the outermost layer; as the last notes sung by its group finished, it glowed brighter, absorbing the part of the barrier it maintained. In short sequence, the remainder of these barriers were summarily absorbed. The two in the center finished their song, causing the white rock to retract its part of the barrier.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a rumble reverberated through the air, and all the rocks glowed simultaneously. The six smaller rocks flashed, hitting the central stone with streams of brilliant energy, and raised it into the air, revealing a glowing pillar of light.
Each of the fourteen walked forward and jumped into the pillar, vanishing underground. The last one looked around behind them to make sure no one was watching.
Aerín gasped. That was Uncle Aeric!
Aeric leapt into the depths and sang out a single note as he fell. With that single note, the stones reversed their streams, lowering the central stone back into its resting place and reforming their barrier. Their glow faded, and the forest returned to being quiet.
Aerín woke up, rousing herself from the depths of the memory dream. She looked at the rock formation.
They were exactly as in the dream, and, with a start, she realized that she had recognized every single one of the people who had entered the hideout underneath. Ashura, Axel, Salvo, Hanna, Eterna, Rosie…every single one of them was a big part of her life.
Then she frowned. Except one. She thought about the green-eyed young man who had sung with Aunt Hanna.
Who is he?
And what were they all doing here?
